Re: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Mohammed Shakir]

I am not sure how you can copy a regular file which is operating system
dependent to a row file which is managed by Oracle using dd. To me,
your only option may be export/import. 

Regards,

Shakir

--- Gene Sais <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Another option is to shutdown db, backup the files to tape, remove
> filesystems, create symbolic links named the same as your datafile
> names linked to the raw devices, restore files to symbolic links
> (i.e. raw devices), startup db.  Just a thought.
> 
> Gene
> 
> >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/20/02 04:20PM >>>
> Denis,
> 
> Sorry I missed your main question last time. Each datafile in our
> database
> will represent a separate raw device.  so question of overwriting
> files will
> never come. If I have 30 datafiles in  5 files systems, I will be
> creating
> 30 raw devices with properly sized devices to match my datafile size.
> As of
> now I have created a spreadsheet which is mapping each of datafile to
> new
> raw device. I have taken current size of my datafile + added a buffer
> size +
> growth for next 2 months.  Hope this works without any problem. Let
> me know
> what you think about this.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 
> 
> - Original Message -
> To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 3:43 PM
> 
> 
> Nat - I think your process looks fine, bearing in mind that I haven't
> used
> raw devices in years. Others on the list use raw on a daily basis, so
> may
> offer some suggestions.
>My question was much simpler. Suppose I have a 80-gig. device, and
> a
> 20-gig. datafile. Okay, my recollection is that I can use dd to copy
> that
> datafile onto that device. But that leaves 60-gig. (give or take a
> few megs)
> unused. If I copy another datafile to that device, since this isn't a
> file
> system, it will simply overwrite the first file. So I have 60-gig of
> wasted
> space, unless I issue an Oracle command to expand the datafile to use
> the
> rest of the device. You are right, that copying datafiles is MUCH
> faster
> than moving data within Oracle, I'm just curious how you plan to deal
> with
> size mismatches.
>Am I missing something here?
> 
> 
> Dennis Williams
> DBA
> Lifetouch, Inc.
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> 
> 
> -Original Message-
> Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 2:09 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> 
> 
> Dennis,
> 
> We are thinking of doing following steps for our RAW conversions.
> Let me know whether it makes sense,
> 
> 1. Shutdown Database.
> 2. Take Full Backup
> 3. Setup all our raw devices ( properly corresponding to our original
> filesystem datafiles.)
> 4. Bring up the database in restricted mode.
> 4. Bring tablespace offline
> 5. Use the dd command to move the datafiles to the raw device.
> 6.  Rename the moved datafile
> 7. Bring the tablespace online
> 8. repeat this process till you move all you datafiles.
> 
> We feel creating table as select * or export /import is not feasible
> as our
> database is big
> (around 400 Gigs ) with very large tables.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> - Original Message -
> To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 12:18 PM
> 
> 
> Nat - I haven't worked with raw for a few years, but from my dim
> recollection, since you are managing what is on the device, first the
> system
> administrator had to tell me how many blocks I could write to. I also
> dimly
> recall the AIX issue, but certainly couldn't recall the answer.
> Anyway, this
> means that you have only a single file on the device. Based on that,
> my
> assumption was that you would want to use the entire disk and it
> would be
> unlikely that your file system file would coincidentally the same
> size as
> your raw device, so you would want to precreate a new tablespace with
> a
> datafile of just the right size. That means that you would need to
> move the
> data itself, not just the datafile. Am I missing something here, or
> just
> brain-dead on Friday?
> 
> 
> Dennis Williams
> DBA
> Lifetouch, Inc.
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> 
> 
> -Original Message-
> Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 9:33 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> 
> 
> Mark,
> Thanks for the reply. We are on AIX 4.3.
> We are not changing hardware when we move on to RAW devices. Our
> entire
> hardware is going to remain same.
> We feel dd is the fastest method of copying the files. But we need to
> figure
> out how many blocks
> we should skip in raw devices.(point  2 in NOTES below).
> We still do not know how to do that. Metalink says if we use RMAN we
> do not
> need to
> do any header calculation . Below is the article from metalink..
> Thanks again for your suggestions.
> 
> goal: How to convert datafile from raw device to file system
> 
> a.. fact: Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition
> 
> a.. fix:
> 
> Use RMAN to move datafiles from raw devices to file system.
> 
> 1. Connect to t

Re: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Tim Gorman]

Nat,

SQL-generating-UNIX commands works well...

select 'dd bs=1024k if='||name||' of=/dev/rX' from v$datafile
union all
select 'dd bs=1024k if='||member||' of=/dev/rX' from v$logfile
union all
select 'dd bs=1024k if='||name||' of=/dev/rX' from v$controlfile;

Spool this to one or more shell scripts and fill in the "X" with the
appropriate logical-volume device name for each datafile.  If you've created
multiple shell scripts, then you can achieve some degree of parallelism for
the copies...

You didn't mention the specific variant of UNIX, but each has
different-sized "logical volume control blocks" (LVCB) which you may have to
consciously avoid overwriting or not.  On AIX for example, the LVCB is
commonly 4Kb and you have to use the "skip=" parameter to skip past it while
writing.  It also means that you have to set the blocksize parameter for
"dd" (i.e. "bs=") to the LVCB blocksize to begin writing in the right place.
Check with your system administrator.

Once the files have been copied, then you can use SQL-generating-SQL to
rename the files within your database's control file.  For example:

select 'alter database rename file '''||name||''' to ''/dev/rX'';'
from v$datafile
union all
select 'alter database rename file '''||member||''' to ''/dev/rX'';'
from v$logfile
union all
select 'alter database rename file '''||name||''' to ''/dev/rX'';'
from v$controlfile;

Spool this out to a SQL*Plus script and run it...

Hope this helps...

Thanks!

-Tim

- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 12:38 PM


> We are planning to move to raw devices for all our existing file systems.
> Our database size is around 400 Gig. What is the recommended method that
you
> guys feel is best as far as time
> required to convert and ease of conversion.
>
> We feel we cannot use export - import as this may take more time for
> conversion..
> I checked many documents to find out  the best method, there are few
> suggestions to use RMAN to convert to raw.
> seems it is fastest. At this point we have not configured RMAN on our
> databases so this suggestion seems to be of no use for us.
>
> Please let me know, if any of you went through this exercise and any
> suggestions and tips will be more beneficial,
>
> Thanks in advance,
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
> --
> Author: Nat
>   INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Fat City Network Services-- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
> San Diego, California-- Mailing list and web hosting services
> -
> To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
> to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
> the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
> (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
> also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).

-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
-- 
Author: Tim Gorman
  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Fat City Network Services-- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California-- Mailing list and web hosting services
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To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
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the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).

RE: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[DENNIS WILLIAMS]

Nat - Thanks for taking the time to explain that. As I said, it has been
quite some time since I worked with raw, and at that time the system admin
just gave me a single mount point for the entire device. Best of luck with
your project, sounds like you've planned well, but don't skip that full
backup step.

 
Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  


-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 3:20 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Denis,

Sorry I missed your main question last time. Each datafile in our database
will represent a separate raw device.  so question of overwriting files will
never come. If I have 30 datafiles in  5 files systems, I will be creating
30 raw devices with properly sized devices to match my datafile size. As of
now I have created a spreadsheet which is mapping each of datafile to new
raw device. I have taken current size of my datafile + added a buffer size +
growth for next 2 months.  Hope this works without any problem. Let me know
what you think about this.

Thanks,



- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 3:43 PM


Nat - I think your process looks fine, bearing in mind that I haven't used
raw devices in years. Others on the list use raw on a daily basis, so may
offer some suggestions.
   My question was much simpler. Suppose I have a 80-gig. device, and a
20-gig. datafile. Okay, my recollection is that I can use dd to copy that
datafile onto that device. But that leaves 60-gig. (give or take a few megs)
unused. If I copy another datafile to that device, since this isn't a file
system, it will simply overwrite the first file. So I have 60-gig of wasted
space, unless I issue an Oracle command to expand the datafile to use the
rest of the device. You are right, that copying datafiles is MUCH faster
than moving data within Oracle, I'm just curious how you plan to deal with
size mismatches.
   Am I missing something here?


Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 


-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 2:09 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Dennis,

We are thinking of doing following steps for our RAW conversions.
Let me know whether it makes sense,

1. Shutdown Database.
2. Take Full Backup
3. Setup all our raw devices ( properly corresponding to our original
filesystem datafiles.)
4. Bring up the database in restricted mode.
4. Bring tablespace offline
5. Use the dd command to move the datafiles to the raw device.
6.  Rename the moved datafile
7. Bring the tablespace online
8. repeat this process till you move all you datafiles.

We feel creating table as select * or export /import is not feasible as our
database is big
(around 400 Gigs ) with very large tables.

Thanks,

- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 12:18 PM


Nat - I haven't worked with raw for a few years, but from my dim
recollection, since you are managing what is on the device, first the system
administrator had to tell me how many blocks I could write to. I also dimly
recall the AIX issue, but certainly couldn't recall the answer. Anyway, this
means that you have only a single file on the device. Based on that, my
assumption was that you would want to use the entire disk and it would be
unlikely that your file system file would coincidentally the same size as
your raw device, so you would want to precreate a new tablespace with a
datafile of just the right size. That means that you would need to move the
data itself, not just the datafile. Am I missing something here, or just
brain-dead on Friday?


Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 


-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 9:33 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Mark,
Thanks for the reply. We are on AIX 4.3.
We are not changing hardware when we move on to RAW devices. Our entire
hardware is going to remain same.
We feel dd is the fastest method of copying the files. But we need to figure
out how many blocks
we should skip in raw devices.(point  2 in NOTES below).
We still do not know how to do that. Metalink says if we use RMAN we do not
need to
do any header calculation . Below is the article from metalink..
Thanks again for your suggestions.

goal: How to convert datafile from raw device to file system

a.. fact: Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition

a.. fix:

Use RMAN to move datafiles from raw devices to file system.

1. Connect to the database:

 $ sqlplus system/manager@orcl

2. Put the tablespace with the datafile, which should be converted, offline:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts offline;

3. Start rman and connect it to the database:

 $ rman nocatalog target rman/rman@orcl

4. Move the datafile to file system:

 RMAN> run {
 2> allocate channel c1 type disk;
 3> c

Re: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Gene Sais]

Another option is to shutdown db, backup the files to tape, remove filesystems, create 
symbolic links named the same as your datafile names linked to the raw devices, 
restore files to symbolic links (i.e. raw devices), startup db.  Just a thought.

Gene

>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/20/02 04:20PM >>>
Denis,

Sorry I missed your main question last time. Each datafile in our database
will represent a separate raw device.  so question of overwriting files will
never come. If I have 30 datafiles in  5 files systems, I will be creating
30 raw devices with properly sized devices to match my datafile size. As of
now I have created a spreadsheet which is mapping each of datafile to new
raw device. I have taken current size of my datafile + added a buffer size +
growth for next 2 months.  Hope this works without any problem. Let me know
what you think about this.

Thanks,



- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 3:43 PM


Nat - I think your process looks fine, bearing in mind that I haven't used
raw devices in years. Others on the list use raw on a daily basis, so may
offer some suggestions.
   My question was much simpler. Suppose I have a 80-gig. device, and a
20-gig. datafile. Okay, my recollection is that I can use dd to copy that
datafile onto that device. But that leaves 60-gig. (give or take a few megs)
unused. If I copy another datafile to that device, since this isn't a file
system, it will simply overwrite the first file. So I have 60-gig of wasted
space, unless I issue an Oracle command to expand the datafile to use the
rest of the device. You are right, that copying datafiles is MUCH faster
than moving data within Oracle, I'm just curious how you plan to deal with
size mismatches.
   Am I missing something here?


Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 


-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 2:09 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Dennis,

We are thinking of doing following steps for our RAW conversions.
Let me know whether it makes sense,

1. Shutdown Database.
2. Take Full Backup
3. Setup all our raw devices ( properly corresponding to our original
filesystem datafiles.)
4. Bring up the database in restricted mode.
4. Bring tablespace offline
5. Use the dd command to move the datafiles to the raw device.
6.  Rename the moved datafile
7. Bring the tablespace online
8. repeat this process till you move all you datafiles.

We feel creating table as select * or export /import is not feasible as our
database is big
(around 400 Gigs ) with very large tables.

Thanks,

- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 12:18 PM


Nat - I haven't worked with raw for a few years, but from my dim
recollection, since you are managing what is on the device, first the system
administrator had to tell me how many blocks I could write to. I also dimly
recall the AIX issue, but certainly couldn't recall the answer. Anyway, this
means that you have only a single file on the device. Based on that, my
assumption was that you would want to use the entire disk and it would be
unlikely that your file system file would coincidentally the same size as
your raw device, so you would want to precreate a new tablespace with a
datafile of just the right size. That means that you would need to move the
data itself, not just the datafile. Am I missing something here, or just
brain-dead on Friday?


Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 


-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 9:33 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Mark,
Thanks for the reply. We are on AIX 4.3.
We are not changing hardware when we move on to RAW devices. Our entire
hardware is going to remain same.
We feel dd is the fastest method of copying the files. But we need to figure
out how many blocks
we should skip in raw devices.(point  2 in NOTES below).
We still do not know how to do that. Metalink says if we use RMAN we do not
need to
do any header calculation . Below is the article from metalink..
Thanks again for your suggestions.

goal: How to convert datafile from raw device to file system

a.. fact: Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition

a.. fix:

Use RMAN to move datafiles from raw devices to file system.

1. Connect to the database:

 $ sqlplus system/manager@orcl

2. Put the tablespace with the datafile, which should be converted, offline:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts offline;

3. Start rman and connect it to the database:

 $ rman nocatalog target rman/rman@orcl

4. Move the datafile to file system:

 RMAN> run {
 2> allocate channel c1 type disk;
 3> copy datafile '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.dbf';
 4> }

5. Rename the moved datafile:

 SQL> alter database rename file '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.
dbf';

6. Put the tablespace ba

Re: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Nat]

Denis,

Sorry I missed your main question last time. Each datafile in our database
will represent a separate raw device.  so question of overwriting files will
never come. If I have 30 datafiles in  5 files systems, I will be creating
30 raw devices with properly sized devices to match my datafile size. As of
now I have created a spreadsheet which is mapping each of datafile to new
raw device. I have taken current size of my datafile + added a buffer size +
growth for next 2 months.  Hope this works without any problem. Let me know
what you think about this.

Thanks,



- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 3:43 PM


Nat - I think your process looks fine, bearing in mind that I haven't used
raw devices in years. Others on the list use raw on a daily basis, so may
offer some suggestions.
   My question was much simpler. Suppose I have a 80-gig. device, and a
20-gig. datafile. Okay, my recollection is that I can use dd to copy that
datafile onto that device. But that leaves 60-gig. (give or take a few megs)
unused. If I copy another datafile to that device, since this isn't a file
system, it will simply overwrite the first file. So I have 60-gig of wasted
space, unless I issue an Oracle command to expand the datafile to use the
rest of the device. You are right, that copying datafiles is MUCH faster
than moving data within Oracle, I'm just curious how you plan to deal with
size mismatches.
   Am I missing something here?


Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 


-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 2:09 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Dennis,

We are thinking of doing following steps for our RAW conversions.
Let me know whether it makes sense,

1. Shutdown Database.
2. Take Full Backup
3. Setup all our raw devices ( properly corresponding to our original
filesystem datafiles.)
4. Bring up the database in restricted mode.
4. Bring tablespace offline
5. Use the dd command to move the datafiles to the raw device.
6.  Rename the moved datafile
7. Bring the tablespace online
8. repeat this process till you move all you datafiles.

We feel creating table as select * or export /import is not feasible as our
database is big
(around 400 Gigs ) with very large tables.

Thanks,

- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 12:18 PM


Nat - I haven't worked with raw for a few years, but from my dim
recollection, since you are managing what is on the device, first the system
administrator had to tell me how many blocks I could write to. I also dimly
recall the AIX issue, but certainly couldn't recall the answer. Anyway, this
means that you have only a single file on the device. Based on that, my
assumption was that you would want to use the entire disk and it would be
unlikely that your file system file would coincidentally the same size as
your raw device, so you would want to precreate a new tablespace with a
datafile of just the right size. That means that you would need to move the
data itself, not just the datafile. Am I missing something here, or just
brain-dead on Friday?


Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 


-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 9:33 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Mark,
Thanks for the reply. We are on AIX 4.3.
We are not changing hardware when we move on to RAW devices. Our entire
hardware is going to remain same.
We feel dd is the fastest method of copying the files. But we need to figure
out how many blocks
we should skip in raw devices.(point  2 in NOTES below).
We still do not know how to do that. Metalink says if we use RMAN we do not
need to
do any header calculation . Below is the article from metalink..
Thanks again for your suggestions.

goal: How to convert datafile from raw device to file system

a.. fact: Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition

a.. fix:

Use RMAN to move datafiles from raw devices to file system.

1. Connect to the database:

 $ sqlplus system/manager@orcl

2. Put the tablespace with the datafile, which should be converted, offline:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts offline;

3. Start rman and connect it to the database:

 $ rman nocatalog target rman/rman@orcl

4. Move the datafile to file system:

 RMAN> run {
 2> allocate channel c1 type disk;
 3> copy datafile '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.dbf';
 4> }

5. Rename the moved datafile:

 SQL> alter database rename file '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.
dbf';

6. Put the tablespace back online:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts online;


Notes:
==
1. If you are using RMAN as the backup tool then a backup after the
performed
steps is recommended, because otherwise RMAN treats the copied file as a
backup.

2. Usually Oracle datafiles are moved from filesystem to raw devices usin

RE: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Deshpande, Kirti]

Just keep in mind that you can not offline system tablespace ;) 

- Kirti

-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 2:44 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Nat - I think your process looks fine, bearing in mind that I haven't used
raw devices in years. Others on the list use raw on a daily basis, so may
offer some suggestions. 
   My question was much simpler. Suppose I have a 80-gig. device, and a
20-gig. datafile. Okay, my recollection is that I can use dd to copy that
datafile onto that device. But that leaves 60-gig. (give or take a few megs)
unused. If I copy another datafile to that device, since this isn't a file
system, it will simply overwrite the first file. So I have 60-gig of wasted
space, unless I issue an Oracle command to expand the datafile to use the
rest of the device. You are right, that copying datafiles is MUCH faster
than moving data within Oracle, I'm just curious how you plan to deal with
size mismatches.
   Am I missing something here? 

 
Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  


-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 2:09 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Dennis,

We are thinking of doing following steps for our RAW conversions.
Let me know whether it makes sense,

1. Shutdown Database.
2. Take Full Backup
3. Setup all our raw devices ( properly corresponding to our original
filesystem datafiles.)
4. Bring up the database in restricted mode.
4. Bring tablespace offline
5. Use the dd command to move the datafiles to the raw device.
6.  Rename the moved datafile
7. Bring the tablespace online
8. repeat this process till you move all you datafiles.

We feel creating table as select * or export /import is not feasible as our
database is big
(around 400 Gigs ) with very large tables.

Thanks,

- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 12:18 PM


Nat - I haven't worked with raw for a few years, but from my dim
recollection, since you are managing what is on the device, first the system
administrator had to tell me how many blocks I could write to. I also dimly
recall the AIX issue, but certainly couldn't recall the answer. Anyway, this
means that you have only a single file on the device. Based on that, my
assumption was that you would want to use the entire disk and it would be
unlikely that your file system file would coincidentally the same size as
your raw device, so you would want to precreate a new tablespace with a
datafile of just the right size. That means that you would need to move the
data itself, not just the datafile. Am I missing something here, or just
brain-dead on Friday?


Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 


-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 9:33 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Mark,
Thanks for the reply. We are on AIX 4.3.
We are not changing hardware when we move on to RAW devices. Our entire
hardware is going to remain same.
We feel dd is the fastest method of copying the files. But we need to figure
out how many blocks
we should skip in raw devices.(point  2 in NOTES below).
We still do not know how to do that. Metalink says if we use RMAN we do not
need to
do any header calculation . Below is the article from metalink..
Thanks again for your suggestions.

goal: How to convert datafile from raw device to file system

a.. fact: Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition

a.. fix:

Use RMAN to move datafiles from raw devices to file system.

1. Connect to the database:

 $ sqlplus system/manager@orcl

2. Put the tablespace with the datafile, which should be converted, offline:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts offline;

3. Start rman and connect it to the database:

 $ rman nocatalog target rman/rman@orcl

4. Move the datafile to file system:

 RMAN> run {
 2> allocate channel c1 type disk;
 3> copy datafile '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.dbf';
 4> }

5. Rename the moved datafile:

 SQL> alter database rename file '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.
dbf';

6. Put the tablespace back online:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts online;


Notes:
==
1. If you are using RMAN as the backup tool then a backup after the
performed
steps is recommended, because otherwise RMAN treats the copied file as a
backup.

2. Usually Oracle datafiles are moved from filesystem to raw devices using
the dd command. Using dd is the fastest method to accomplish it. However, it
is
necessary to know how many blocks to skip in the raw device (e.g. it is
necessary to skip 64K on Tru64 Unix), so that the information necessary for
the Operating System is not overwritten. The information on how many blocks
to
skip is different on the different platforms. Using RMAN there's no
necessity
to know such platform specific information.

.


- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTEC

RE: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[DENNIS WILLIAMS]

Nat - I think your process looks fine, bearing in mind that I haven't used
raw devices in years. Others on the list use raw on a daily basis, so may
offer some suggestions. 
   My question was much simpler. Suppose I have a 80-gig. device, and a
20-gig. datafile. Okay, my recollection is that I can use dd to copy that
datafile onto that device. But that leaves 60-gig. (give or take a few megs)
unused. If I copy another datafile to that device, since this isn't a file
system, it will simply overwrite the first file. So I have 60-gig of wasted
space, unless I issue an Oracle command to expand the datafile to use the
rest of the device. You are right, that copying datafiles is MUCH faster
than moving data within Oracle, I'm just curious how you plan to deal with
size mismatches.
   Am I missing something here? 

 
Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  


-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 2:09 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Dennis,

We are thinking of doing following steps for our RAW conversions.
Let me know whether it makes sense,

1. Shutdown Database.
2. Take Full Backup
3. Setup all our raw devices ( properly corresponding to our original
filesystem datafiles.)
4. Bring up the database in restricted mode.
4. Bring tablespace offline
5. Use the dd command to move the datafiles to the raw device.
6.  Rename the moved datafile
7. Bring the tablespace online
8. repeat this process till you move all you datafiles.

We feel creating table as select * or export /import is not feasible as our
database is big
(around 400 Gigs ) with very large tables.

Thanks,

- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 12:18 PM


Nat - I haven't worked with raw for a few years, but from my dim
recollection, since you are managing what is on the device, first the system
administrator had to tell me how many blocks I could write to. I also dimly
recall the AIX issue, but certainly couldn't recall the answer. Anyway, this
means that you have only a single file on the device. Based on that, my
assumption was that you would want to use the entire disk and it would be
unlikely that your file system file would coincidentally the same size as
your raw device, so you would want to precreate a new tablespace with a
datafile of just the right size. That means that you would need to move the
data itself, not just the datafile. Am I missing something here, or just
brain-dead on Friday?


Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 


-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 9:33 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Mark,
Thanks for the reply. We are on AIX 4.3.
We are not changing hardware when we move on to RAW devices. Our entire
hardware is going to remain same.
We feel dd is the fastest method of copying the files. But we need to figure
out how many blocks
we should skip in raw devices.(point  2 in NOTES below).
We still do not know how to do that. Metalink says if we use RMAN we do not
need to
do any header calculation . Below is the article from metalink..
Thanks again for your suggestions.

goal: How to convert datafile from raw device to file system

a.. fact: Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition

a.. fix:

Use RMAN to move datafiles from raw devices to file system.

1. Connect to the database:

 $ sqlplus system/manager@orcl

2. Put the tablespace with the datafile, which should be converted, offline:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts offline;

3. Start rman and connect it to the database:

 $ rman nocatalog target rman/rman@orcl

4. Move the datafile to file system:

 RMAN> run {
 2> allocate channel c1 type disk;
 3> copy datafile '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.dbf';
 4> }

5. Rename the moved datafile:

 SQL> alter database rename file '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.
dbf';

6. Put the tablespace back online:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts online;


Notes:
==
1. If you are using RMAN as the backup tool then a backup after the
performed
steps is recommended, because otherwise RMAN treats the copied file as a
backup.

2. Usually Oracle datafiles are moved from filesystem to raw devices using
the dd command. Using dd is the fastest method to accomplish it. However, it
is
necessary to know how many blocks to skip in the raw device (e.g. it is
necessary to skip 64K on Tru64 Unix), so that the information necessary for
the Operating System is not overwritten. The information on how many blocks
to
skip is different on the different platforms. Using RMAN there's no
necessity
to know such platform specific information.

.


- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 5:28 PM


> Hi Nat,
>
> As long as you are not changing hardware platforms, you can use dd.  (Of
> course, I assume you're on some flavor of unix

Re: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Gene Sais]

I would change to the following:

>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/20/02 03:09PM >>>
Dennis,

We are thinking of doing following steps for our RAW conversions.
Let me know whether it makes sense,

1. Shutdown Database.
2. Take Full Backup
3. Setup all our raw devices ( properly corresponding to our original
filesystem datafiles.)
4. Mount DB
5. Use the dd command to move the datafiles to the raw device.
6.  Rename the moved datafiles
7. Open DB

We feel creating table as select * or export /import is not feasible as our
database is big
(around 400 Gigs ) with very large tables.

Thanks,

- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 12:18 PM


Nat - I haven't worked with raw for a few years, but from my dim
recollection, since you are managing what is on the device, first the system
administrator had to tell me how many blocks I could write to. I also dimly
recall the AIX issue, but certainly couldn't recall the answer. Anyway, this
means that you have only a single file on the device. Based on that, my
assumption was that you would want to use the entire disk and it would be
unlikely that your file system file would coincidentally the same size as
your raw device, so you would want to precreate a new tablespace with a
datafile of just the right size. That means that you would need to move the
data itself, not just the datafile. Am I missing something here, or just
brain-dead on Friday?


Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 


-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 9:33 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Mark,
Thanks for the reply. We are on AIX 4.3.
We are not changing hardware when we move on to RAW devices. Our entire
hardware is going to remain same.
We feel dd is the fastest method of copying the files. But we need to figure
out how many blocks
we should skip in raw devices.(point  2 in NOTES below).
We still do not know how to do that. Metalink says if we use RMAN we do not
need to
do any header calculation . Below is the article from metalink..
Thanks again for your suggestions.

goal: How to convert datafile from raw device to file system

a.. fact: Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition

a.. fix:

Use RMAN to move datafiles from raw devices to file system.

1. Connect to the database:

 $ sqlplus system/manager@orcl

2. Put the tablespace with the datafile, which should be converted, offline:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts offline;

3. Start rman and connect it to the database:

 $ rman nocatalog target rman/rman@orcl

4. Move the datafile to file system:

 RMAN> run {
 2> allocate channel c1 type disk;
 3> copy datafile '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.dbf';
 4> }

5. Rename the moved datafile:

 SQL> alter database rename file '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.
dbf';

6. Put the tablespace back online:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts online;


Notes:
==
1. If you are using RMAN as the backup tool then a backup after the
performed
steps is recommended, because otherwise RMAN treats the copied file as a
backup.

2. Usually Oracle datafiles are moved from filesystem to raw devices using
the dd command. Using dd is the fastest method to accomplish it. However, it
is
necessary to know how many blocks to skip in the raw device (e.g. it is
necessary to skip 64K on Tru64 Unix), so that the information necessary for
the Operating System is not overwritten. The information on how many blocks
to
skip is different on the different platforms. Using RMAN there's no
necessity
to know such platform specific information.

.


- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 5:28 PM


> Hi Nat,
>
> As long as you are not changing hardware platforms, you can use dd.  (Of
> course, I assume you're on some flavor of unix, since you didn't mention
> OS.)
>
> You can just do 'dd if=/path/to/filsystem/datafile
> of=/path/to/raw/volume'.
>
> Of course, your database must be down.
>
> -Mark
>
> On Thu, 2002-09-19 at 14:38, Nat wrote:
> > We are planning to move to raw devices for all our existing file
systems.
> > Our database size is around 400 Gig. What is the recommended method that
you
> > guys feel is best as far as time
> > required to convert and ease of conversion.
> >
> > We feel we cannot use export - import as this may take more time for
> > conversion..
> > I checked many documents to find out  the best method, there are few
> > suggestions to use RMAN to convert to raw.
> > seems it is fastest. At this point we have not configured RMAN on our
> > databases so this suggestion seems to be of no use for us.
> >
> > Please let me know, if any of you went through this exercise and any
> > suggestions and tips will be more beneficial,
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> --
> --
> Mark J. Bobak
> Oracle DBA
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> "It is not enough to have a good mind.  The main thin

Re: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Nat]

Dennis,

We are thinking of doing following steps for our RAW conversions.
Let me know whether it makes sense,

1. Shutdown Database.
2. Take Full Backup
3. Setup all our raw devices ( properly corresponding to our original
filesystem datafiles.)
4. Bring up the database in restricted mode.
4. Bring tablespace offline
5. Use the dd command to move the datafiles to the raw device.
6.  Rename the moved datafile
7. Bring the tablespace online
8. repeat this process till you move all you datafiles.

We feel creating table as select * or export /import is not feasible as our
database is big
(around 400 Gigs ) with very large tables.

Thanks,

- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 12:18 PM


Nat - I haven't worked with raw for a few years, but from my dim
recollection, since you are managing what is on the device, first the system
administrator had to tell me how many blocks I could write to. I also dimly
recall the AIX issue, but certainly couldn't recall the answer. Anyway, this
means that you have only a single file on the device. Based on that, my
assumption was that you would want to use the entire disk and it would be
unlikely that your file system file would coincidentally the same size as
your raw device, so you would want to precreate a new tablespace with a
datafile of just the right size. That means that you would need to move the
data itself, not just the datafile. Am I missing something here, or just
brain-dead on Friday?


Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 


-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 9:33 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Mark,
Thanks for the reply. We are on AIX 4.3.
We are not changing hardware when we move on to RAW devices. Our entire
hardware is going to remain same.
We feel dd is the fastest method of copying the files. But we need to figure
out how many blocks
we should skip in raw devices.(point  2 in NOTES below).
We still do not know how to do that. Metalink says if we use RMAN we do not
need to
do any header calculation . Below is the article from metalink..
Thanks again for your suggestions.

goal: How to convert datafile from raw device to file system

a.. fact: Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition

a.. fix:

Use RMAN to move datafiles from raw devices to file system.

1. Connect to the database:

 $ sqlplus system/manager@orcl

2. Put the tablespace with the datafile, which should be converted, offline:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts offline;

3. Start rman and connect it to the database:

 $ rman nocatalog target rman/rman@orcl

4. Move the datafile to file system:

 RMAN> run {
 2> allocate channel c1 type disk;
 3> copy datafile '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.dbf';
 4> }

5. Rename the moved datafile:

 SQL> alter database rename file '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.
dbf';

6. Put the tablespace back online:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts online;


Notes:
==
1. If you are using RMAN as the backup tool then a backup after the
performed
steps is recommended, because otherwise RMAN treats the copied file as a
backup.

2. Usually Oracle datafiles are moved from filesystem to raw devices using
the dd command. Using dd is the fastest method to accomplish it. However, it
is
necessary to know how many blocks to skip in the raw device (e.g. it is
necessary to skip 64K on Tru64 Unix), so that the information necessary for
the Operating System is not overwritten. The information on how many blocks
to
skip is different on the different platforms. Using RMAN there's no
necessity
to know such platform specific information.

.


- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 5:28 PM


> Hi Nat,
>
> As long as you are not changing hardware platforms, you can use dd.  (Of
> course, I assume you're on some flavor of unix, since you didn't mention
> OS.)
>
> You can just do 'dd if=/path/to/filsystem/datafile
> of=/path/to/raw/volume'.
>
> Of course, your database must be down.
>
> -Mark
>
> On Thu, 2002-09-19 at 14:38, Nat wrote:
> > We are planning to move to raw devices for all our existing file
systems.
> > Our database size is around 400 Gig. What is the recommended method that
you
> > guys feel is best as far as time
> > required to convert and ease of conversion.
> >
> > We feel we cannot use export - import as this may take more time for
> > conversion..
> > I checked many documents to find out  the best method, there are few
> > suggestions to use RMAN to convert to raw.
> > seems it is fastest. At this point we have not configured RMAN on our
> > databases so this suggestion seems to be of no use for us.
> >
> > Please let me know, if any of you went through this exercise and any
> > suggestions and tips will be more beneficial,
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> --
> --
> Mark J. Bobak
> Oracle DBA
> [EMAIL PROTECTE

RE: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[DENNIS WILLIAMS]

Nat - I haven't worked with raw for a few years, but from my dim
recollection, since you are managing what is on the device, first the system
administrator had to tell me how many blocks I could write to. I also dimly
recall the AIX issue, but certainly couldn't recall the answer. Anyway, this
means that you have only a single file on the device. Based on that, my
assumption was that you would want to use the entire disk and it would be
unlikely that your file system file would coincidentally the same size as
your raw device, so you would want to precreate a new tablespace with a
datafile of just the right size. That means that you would need to move the
data itself, not just the datafile. Am I missing something here, or just
brain-dead on Friday?

 
Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  


-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 9:33 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Mark,
Thanks for the reply. We are on AIX 4.3.
We are not changing hardware when we move on to RAW devices. Our entire
hardware is going to remain same.
We feel dd is the fastest method of copying the files. But we need to figure
out how many blocks
we should skip in raw devices.(point  2 in NOTES below).
We still do not know how to do that. Metalink says if we use RMAN we do not
need to
do any header calculation . Below is the article from metalink..
Thanks again for your suggestions.

goal: How to convert datafile from raw device to file system

a.. fact: Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition

a.. fix:

Use RMAN to move datafiles from raw devices to file system.

1. Connect to the database:

 $ sqlplus system/manager@orcl

2. Put the tablespace with the datafile, which should be converted, offline:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts offline;

3. Start rman and connect it to the database:

 $ rman nocatalog target rman/rman@orcl

4. Move the datafile to file system:

 RMAN> run {
 2> allocate channel c1 type disk;
 3> copy datafile '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.dbf';
 4> }

5. Rename the moved datafile:

 SQL> alter database rename file '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.
dbf';

6. Put the tablespace back online:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts online;


Notes:
==
1. If you are using RMAN as the backup tool then a backup after the
performed
steps is recommended, because otherwise RMAN treats the copied file as a
backup.

2. Usually Oracle datafiles are moved from filesystem to raw devices using
the dd command. Using dd is the fastest method to accomplish it. However, it
is
necessary to know how many blocks to skip in the raw device (e.g. it is
necessary to skip 64K on Tru64 Unix), so that the information necessary for
the Operating System is not overwritten. The information on how many blocks
to
skip is different on the different platforms. Using RMAN there's no
necessity
to know such platform specific information.

.


- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 5:28 PM


> Hi Nat,
>
> As long as you are not changing hardware platforms, you can use dd.  (Of
> course, I assume you're on some flavor of unix, since you didn't mention
> OS.)
>
> You can just do 'dd if=/path/to/filsystem/datafile
> of=/path/to/raw/volume'.
>
> Of course, your database must be down.
>
> -Mark
>
> On Thu, 2002-09-19 at 14:38, Nat wrote:
> > We are planning to move to raw devices for all our existing file
systems.
> > Our database size is around 400 Gig. What is the recommended method that
you
> > guys feel is best as far as time
> > required to convert and ease of conversion.
> >
> > We feel we cannot use export - import as this may take more time for
> > conversion..
> > I checked many documents to find out  the best method, there are few
> > suggestions to use RMAN to convert to raw.
> > seems it is fastest. At this point we have not configured RMAN on our
> > databases so this suggestion seems to be of no use for us.
> >
> > Please let me know, if any of you went through this exercise and any
> > suggestions and tips will be more beneficial,
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> --
> --
> Mark J. Bobak
> Oracle DBA
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "It is not enough to have a good mind.  The main thing is to use it
> well."
>   -- Rene Descartes
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
> --
> Author: Mark J. Bobak
>   INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Fat City Network Services-- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
> San Diego, California-- Mailing list and web hosting services
> -
> To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
> to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
> the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
> (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
> also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing)

RE: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Loughmiller, Greg]

Nat-

You may want to check out a product from Veritas.. *Supposedly* their
clustered file system product is *approved* with 9i RAC on a SUN platform..
This is strictly from the rumor mill and I have no solid documentation to
confirm (CYA).

I am actually in the beginning phases of a project to build out a pair of
SUN 6800's for a RAC environment. And we want to explore all possibilities
for configuration options...

greg

-Original Message-
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 10:39 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Joe,

We are planning to move to RAC. Per Oracle RAW devices is must for RAC.
As you said, Yes  there is little performance gain just moving to RAC and
more work to  DBA's/SA's.
But this seems to be the main requirement for RAC.


- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 8:53 AM


> the first question is WHY go to raw devices?, OPS/RAC?  other than those
> 2 reasons(and i'm not sure RAC requires it like OPS did), there is very
> little performance gain with the advances in filesystem types.
>
> just curious.
>
> joe
>
>
> Nat wrote:
>
> >We are planning to move to raw devices for all our existing file systems.
> >Our database size is around 400 Gig. What is the recommended method that
you
> >guys feel is best as far as time
> >required to convert and ease of conversion.
> >
> >We feel we cannot use export - import as this may take more time for
> >conversion..
> >I checked many documents to find out  the best method, there are few
> >suggestions to use RMAN to convert to raw.
> >seems it is fastest. At this point we have not configured RMAN on our
> >databases so this suggestion seems to be of no use for us.
> >
> >Please let me know, if any of you went through this exercise and any
> >suggestions and tips will be more beneficial,
> >
> >Thanks in advance,
> >
>
>
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
> --
> Author: Joe Testa
>   INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Fat City Network Services-- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
> San Diego, California-- Mailing list and web hosting services
> -
> To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
> to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
> the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
> (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
> also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
>
-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
-- 
Author: Nat
  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Fat City Network Services-- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California-- Mailing list and web hosting services
-
To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
-- 
Author: Loughmiller, Greg
  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Fat City Network Services-- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California-- Mailing list and web hosting services
-
To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).

Re: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Joe Testa]

Nat, totally understand.

joe


Nat wrote:

>Joe,
>
>We are planning to move to RAC. Per Oracle RAW devices is must for RAC.
>As you said, Yes  there is little performance gain just moving to RAC and
>more work to  DBA's/SA's.
>But this seems to be the main requirement for RAC.
>
>
>- Original Message -
>To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 8:53 AM
>
>
>>the first question is WHY go to raw devices?, OPS/RAC?  other than those
>>2 reasons(and i'm not sure RAC requires it like OPS did), there is very
>>little performance gain with the advances in filesystem types.
>>
>>just curious.
>>
>>joe
>>
>>
>>Nat wrote:
>>
>>>We are planning to move to raw devices for all our existing file systems.
>>>Our database size is around 400 Gig. What is the recommended method that
>>>
>you
>
>>>guys feel is best as far as time
>>>required to convert and ease of conversion.
>>>
>>>We feel we cannot use export - import as this may take more time for
>>>conversion..
>>>I checked many documents to find out  the best method, there are few
>>>suggestions to use RMAN to convert to raw.
>>>seems it is fastest. At this point we have not configured RMAN on our
>>>databases so this suggestion seems to be of no use for us.
>>>
>>>Please let me know, if any of you went through this exercise and any
>>>suggestions and tips will be more beneficial,
>>>
>>>Thanks in advance,
>>>
>>
>>--
>>Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
>>--
>>Author: Joe Testa
>>  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>
>>Fat City Network Services-- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
>>San Diego, California-- Mailing list and web hosting services
>>-
>>To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
>>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
>>the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
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>>also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
>>


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Re: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Nat]

Joe,

We are planning to move to RAC. Per Oracle RAW devices is must for RAC.
As you said, Yes  there is little performance gain just moving to RAC and
more work to  DBA's/SA's.
But this seems to be the main requirement for RAC.


- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 8:53 AM


> the first question is WHY go to raw devices?, OPS/RAC?  other than those
> 2 reasons(and i'm not sure RAC requires it like OPS did), there is very
> little performance gain with the advances in filesystem types.
>
> just curious.
>
> joe
>
>
> Nat wrote:
>
> >We are planning to move to raw devices for all our existing file systems.
> >Our database size is around 400 Gig. What is the recommended method that
you
> >guys feel is best as far as time
> >required to convert and ease of conversion.
> >
> >We feel we cannot use export - import as this may take more time for
> >conversion..
> >I checked many documents to find out  the best method, there are few
> >suggestions to use RMAN to convert to raw.
> >seems it is fastest. At this point we have not configured RMAN on our
> >databases so this suggestion seems to be of no use for us.
> >
> >Please let me know, if any of you went through this exercise and any
> >suggestions and tips will be more beneficial,
> >
> >Thanks in advance,
> >
>
>
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
> --
> Author: Joe Testa
>   INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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> San Diego, California-- Mailing list and web hosting services
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> also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
>
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Re: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Nat]

Mark,
Thanks for the reply. We are on AIX 4.3.
We are not changing hardware when we move on to RAW devices. Our entire
hardware is going to remain same.
We feel dd is the fastest method of copying the files. But we need to figure
out how many blocks
we should skip in raw devices.(point  2 in NOTES below).
We still do not know how to do that. Metalink says if we use RMAN we do not
need to
do any header calculation . Below is the article from metalink..
Thanks again for your suggestions.

goal: How to convert datafile from raw device to file system

a.. fact: Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition

a.. fix:

Use RMAN to move datafiles from raw devices to file system.

1. Connect to the database:

 $ sqlplus system/manager@orcl

2. Put the tablespace with the datafile, which should be converted, offline:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts offline;

3. Start rman and connect it to the database:

 $ rman nocatalog target rman/rman@orcl

4. Move the datafile to file system:

 RMAN> run {
 2> allocate channel c1 type disk;
 3> copy datafile '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.dbf';
 4> }

5. Rename the moved datafile:

 SQL> alter database rename file '/dev/raw1' to '/u01/oradata/orcl/test_ts.
dbf';

6. Put the tablespace back online:

 SQL> alter tablespace test_ts online;


Notes:
==
1. If you are using RMAN as the backup tool then a backup after the
performed
steps is recommended, because otherwise RMAN treats the copied file as a
backup.

2. Usually Oracle datafiles are moved from filesystem to raw devices using
the dd command. Using dd is the fastest method to accomplish it. However, it
is
necessary to know how many blocks to skip in the raw device (e.g. it is
necessary to skip 64K on Tru64 Unix), so that the information necessary for
the Operating System is not overwritten. The information on how many blocks
to
skip is different on the different platforms. Using RMAN there's no
necessity
to know such platform specific information.

.


- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 5:28 PM


> Hi Nat,
>
> As long as you are not changing hardware platforms, you can use dd.  (Of
> course, I assume you're on some flavor of unix, since you didn't mention
> OS.)
>
> You can just do 'dd if=/path/to/filsystem/datafile
> of=/path/to/raw/volume'.
>
> Of course, your database must be down.
>
> -Mark
>
> On Thu, 2002-09-19 at 14:38, Nat wrote:
> > We are planning to move to raw devices for all our existing file
systems.
> > Our database size is around 400 Gig. What is the recommended method that
you
> > guys feel is best as far as time
> > required to convert and ease of conversion.
> >
> > We feel we cannot use export - import as this may take more time for
> > conversion..
> > I checked many documents to find out  the best method, there are few
> > suggestions to use RMAN to convert to raw.
> > seems it is fastest. At this point we have not configured RMAN on our
> > databases so this suggestion seems to be of no use for us.
> >
> > Please let me know, if any of you went through this exercise and any
> > suggestions and tips will be more beneficial,
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> --
> --
> Mark J. Bobak
> Oracle DBA
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "It is not enough to have a good mind.  The main thing is to use it
> well."
>   -- Rene Descartes
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
> --
> Author: Mark J. Bobak
>   INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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> San Diego, California-- Mailing list and web hosting services
> -
> To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
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> (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
> also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
>
-- 
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Re: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Nat]

Dennis,

Thanks for the reply. We have not done any benchmarks to find out if there
is any performance
gain. The main reason for moving to raw devices is to convert our existing
database to function on OPS
environment and then eventually to 9i RAC.

After  we move on to raw (without OPS), may be I will post to the list what
is the performance increase/decrease, problems encountered..
etc..etc..

Thanks,

- Original Message -
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 5:23 PM


Nat - I'm assuming you can connect raw devices to your existing system.
Myself, I would create new tablespaces and datafiles on the raw devices.
Preferably you will use LMT with uniform extents. Then I would use CREATE
TABLE AS SELECT NOLOGGING to move the data. Personally I prefer to first
rename the original table to something like table1_sav and then create
table1 as select * from table1. Eventually when you've checked everything
out (taken a backup, backed up the control files) you will drop the
table1_sav. But your applications can immediately use the new table with no
changes.
   Then you'll have to recreate indexes, but I don't know any way around
that.
   What performance increase is your benchmarks telling you that you will
experience? Oracle had an interesting white paper on their site. In effect
it discussed the question "why do all benchmarks show raw much faster than
cooked, but nobody sees that sort of performance in production?".

Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 


-Original Message-
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 1:39 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


We are planning to move to raw devices for all our existing file systems.
Our database size is around 400 Gig. What is the recommended method that you
guys feel is best as far as time
required to convert and ease of conversion.

We feel we cannot use export - import as this may take more time for
conversion..
I checked many documents to find out  the best method, there are few
suggestions to use RMAN to convert to raw.
seems it is fastest. At this point we have not configured RMAN on our
databases so this suggestion seems to be of no use for us.

Please let me know, if any of you went through this exercise and any
suggestions and tips will be more beneficial,

Thanks in advance,
--
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
--
Author: Nat
  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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--
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-- 
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Re: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Joe Testa]

the first question is WHY go to raw devices?, OPS/RAC?  other than those 
2 reasons(and i'm not sure RAC requires it like OPS did), there is very 
little performance gain with the advances in filesystem types.

just curious.

joe


Nat wrote:

>We are planning to move to raw devices for all our existing file systems.
>Our database size is around 400 Gig. What is the recommended method that you
>guys feel is best as far as time
>required to convert and ease of conversion.
>
>We feel we cannot use export - import as this may take more time for
>conversion..
>I checked many documents to find out  the best method, there are few
>suggestions to use RMAN to convert to raw.
>seems it is fastest. At this point we have not configured RMAN on our
>databases so this suggestion seems to be of no use for us.
>
>Please let me know, if any of you went through this exercise and any
>suggestions and tips will be more beneficial,
>
>Thanks in advance,
>


-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
-- 
Author: Joe Testa
  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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Re: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Mark J. Bobak]

Hi Nat,

As long as you are not changing hardware platforms, you can use dd.  (Of
course, I assume you're on some flavor of unix, since you didn't mention
OS.)

You can just do 'dd if=/path/to/filsystem/datafile
of=/path/to/raw/volume'.

Of course, your database must be down.

-Mark

On Thu, 2002-09-19 at 14:38, Nat wrote:
> We are planning to move to raw devices for all our existing file systems.
> Our database size is around 400 Gig. What is the recommended method that you
> guys feel is best as far as time
> required to convert and ease of conversion.
> 
> We feel we cannot use export - import as this may take more time for
> conversion..
> I checked many documents to find out  the best method, there are few
> suggestions to use RMAN to convert to raw.
> seems it is fastest. At this point we have not configured RMAN on our
> databases so this suggestion seems to be of no use for us.
> 
> Please let me know, if any of you went through this exercise and any
> suggestions and tips will be more beneficial,
> 
> Thanks in advance,
-- 
--
Mark J. Bobak
Oracle DBA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"It is not enough to have a good mind.  The main thing is to use it
well."
-- Rene Descartes
-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
-- 
Author: Mark J. Bobak
  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).

RE: Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[DENNIS WILLIAMS]

Nat - I'm assuming you can connect raw devices to your existing system.
Myself, I would create new tablespaces and datafiles on the raw devices.
Preferably you will use LMT with uniform extents. Then I would use CREATE
TABLE AS SELECT NOLOGGING to move the data. Personally I prefer to first
rename the original table to something like table1_sav and then create
table1 as select * from table1. Eventually when you've checked everything
out (taken a backup, backed up the control files) you will drop the
table1_sav. But your applications can immediately use the new table with no
changes.
   Then you'll have to recreate indexes, but I don't know any way around
that.
   What performance increase is your benchmarks telling you that you will
experience? Oracle had an interesting white paper on their site. In effect
it discussed the question "why do all benchmarks show raw much faster than
cooked, but nobody sees that sort of performance in production?".
 
Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  


-Original Message-
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 1:39 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


We are planning to move to raw devices for all our existing file systems.
Our database size is around 400 Gig. What is the recommended method that you
guys feel is best as far as time
required to convert and ease of conversion.

We feel we cannot use export - import as this may take more time for
conversion..
I checked many documents to find out  the best method, there are few
suggestions to use RMAN to convert to raw.
seems it is fastest. At this point we have not configured RMAN on our
databases so this suggestion seems to be of no use for us.

Please let me know, if any of you went through this exercise and any
suggestions and tips will be more beneficial,

Thanks in advance,
-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
-- 
Author: Nat
  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
--
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--
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  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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Best method to move Filesystems to RAW Devices.

[Nat]

We are planning to move to raw devices for all our existing file systems.
Our database size is around 400 Gig. What is the recommended method that you
guys feel is best as far as time
required to convert and ease of conversion.

We feel we cannot use export - import as this may take more time for
conversion..
I checked many documents to find out  the best method, there are few
suggestions to use RMAN to convert to raw.
seems it is fastest. At this point we have not configured RMAN on our
databases so this suggestion seems to be of no use for us.

Please let me know, if any of you went through this exercise and any
suggestions and tips will be more beneficial,

Thanks in advance,
-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
-- 
Author: Nat
  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Fat City Network Services-- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
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