Re: Unix File System vs. Raw Devices

Scott Cairns <sdcairns_at_mindspring.com> wrote in article <01bd7868$bdd3d3f0$d4000080_at_ccu09>...
> I'm a Sybase DBA by training but am preparing to transition our company
to
> Oracle under Sun/Solaris.
>
> In Sybase on Unix, you always did all of your device/database creation on
> raw devices because the Unix FS buffers its writes thereby eliminating
any
> guarantee that your log writes actually made it to disk. What's the
story
> with Oracle 8 in this context? From the training that I've gone through
> for Oracle, everything seems to be so file/pathname oriented, that it
> doesn't seem like raw devices are even an option although I'm told they
> are.
>
> Advice from the real world???
>

My advice from the real world is to go raw, the over heads are minimal from an administration point of view, you just need to understand your platforms volume manager. The benefits are that you avoid double buffering in the unix and oracle cache. I've seen it improve system performance by up to 20%.

Oracle corporation recommend file system files for database files because they are platform independent and makes life easier for their consultants ( they don't have to understand different suppliers volume managers.

Phil Received on Wed May 06 1998 - 01:58:01 CDT