Installing & Configuring Oracle ASM on Linux – Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0

Dear Friends,

We have set up the ASM (Automatic Storage Management), a new feature of Oracle 10g, on Linux server. In this article, I would like to share the installation and configurations steps what I have followed.

System Details:

Operating System: Linux – Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0
Kernel Version: 2.6.9-42.ELsmp
Architecture: 32 bit x86
Database: Oracle 10g
Version: Release 2 (10.2.0.1)

Following are the steps I have followed.

1) Download the ASMLib software packages from the Oracle Technology Network, below is an URL for the same.

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/linux/asmlib/rhel4.html

2) You may see 4-6 packages for your Linux platform; the oracleasmlib package provides the actual ASM library. The oracleasm-support package provides the utilities used to get the ASM driver up and running. Both of these packages need to be installed.

oracleasm-support-2.0.3-1.i386.rpm
oracleasmlib-2.0.2-1.i386.rpm
oracleasm-2.6.9-42.ELsmp-2.0.3-1.i686.rpm

Note: Download as per your OS Kernel and Architecture
# uname -r
2.6.9-42.ELsmp
# uname -i
i386

3) Upload the above 3 packages using ftp in Linux server, and log on to the server as root , and install them as below.

$ su – root
Password:

Go to the rpms directory where rpms are downloaded.

# rpm –Uvh oracleasm-support-2.0.3-1.i386.rpm \
oracleasmlib-2.0.2-1.i386.rpm \
oracleasm-2.6.9-42.ELsmp-2.0.3-1.i686.rpm

Preparing...########################################## [100%]
1:oracleasm-support################################### [ 33%]
2:oracleasm-2.6.9-42.ELsm############################# [ 67%]
3:oracleasmlib######################################## [100%]

ASMLib software packages are now installed successfully.

4) Run the following command to configure ASMLib, outputs of the commands are the self explanatory.

To Configure

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm configure
Configuring the Oracle ASM library driver.

This will configure the on-boot properties of the Oracle ASM library driver. The following questions will determine whether the driver is loaded on boot and what permissions it will have. The current values will be shown in brackets ('[]'). Hitting without typing an answer will keep that current value. Ctrl-C will abort.

Default user to own the driver interface []: oracle
Default group to own the driver interface []: dba
Start Oracle ASM library driver on boot (y/n) [n]: y
Fix permissions of Oracle ASM disks on boot (y/n) [y]: y
Writing Oracle ASM library driver configuration: [ OK ]
Creating /dev/oracleasm mount point: [ OK ]
Loading module "oracleasm": [ OK ]
Mounting ASMlib driver filesystem: [ OK ]
Scanning system for ASM disks: [ OK ]

To Start and Stop ASM

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm disable
Writing Oracle ASM library driver configuration: [ OK ]
Unmounting ASMlib driver filesystem: [ OK ]
Unloading module "oracleasm": [ OK ]

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm enable
Writing Oracle ASM library driver configuration: [ OK ]
Loading module "oracleasm": [ OK ]
Mounting ASMlib driver filesystem: [ OK ]
Scanning system for ASM disks: [ OK ]

5) Making Disks Available to ASMLib

To create a Disk Group

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm createdisk VOL1 /dev/sda2
Marking disk "/dev/sda2" as an ASM disk: [ OK ]

To Delete a Disk Group

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm deletedisk VOL1
Deleting Oracle ASM disk "VOL1" [ OK ]

To query the disks

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm querydisk /dev/sda2
Disk "/dev/sda2" is marked an ASM disk with the label "VOL1"

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm querydisk /dev/sda1
Disk "/dev/sda1" is not marked an ASM disk

To list and query the existing disks

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm listdisks
VOL1

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm querydisk VOL1
Disk "VOL1" is a valid ASM disk on device [8, 2]

We are now done with installation and configuration of ASMLib on Linux platform.

Conclusion: This article is specific to one of our Linux boxes, I would request you to refer other documents in Oracle or Google for respective Operating Systems i.e. Windows and Unix.

Reference:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/linux/asmlib/install.html

With Best Regards,
Sabdar Syed,
http://sabdarsyed.blogspot.com