Overview of Automatic Storage Management (ASM)

Automatic Storage Management (ASM) simplifies administration of Oracle related files by allowing the administrator to reference disk groups rather than individual disks and files, which are managed by ASM. The ASM functionality is an extention of the Oracle Managed Files (OMF) functionality that also includes striping and mirroring to provide balanced and secure storage. The new ASM functionality can be used in combination with existing raw and cooked file systems, along with OMF and manually managed files. The ASM functionality is controlled by an ASM instance. This is not a full database instance, just the memory structures and as such is very small and lightweight. The main components of ASM are disk groups, each of which comprise of several physical disks that are controlled as a single unit. The physical disks are known as ASM disks, while the files that reside on the disks are know as ASM files. The locations and names for the files are controlled by ASM, but user-friendly aliases and directory structures can be defined for ease of reference. The level of redundancy and the granularity of the striping can be controlled using templates. Default templates are provided for each file type stored by ASM, but additional templates can be defined as needed. Failure groups are defined within a disk group to support the required level of redundancy. For twoway mirroring you would expect a disk group to contain two failure groups so individual files are written to two locations. In summary ASM provides the following functionality:

Manages groups of disks, called disk groups. Manages disk redundancy within a disk group. Provides near-optimal I/O balancing without any manual tuning. Enables management of database objects without specifying mount points and filenames. Supports large files. It is worth taking a quick look at the following section of the documentation to familiarize yourself with the basic requirements recommendations for ASM. What are the file types that ASM support and keep in disk groups? Control files Flashback logs Data Pump dump sets

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Data files DB SPFILE Data Guard configuration Temporary data files RMAN backup sets Change tracking bitmaps Online redo logs RMAN data file copies OCR files Archive logs Transport data files ASM SPFILE Can my RDBMS and ASM instances run different versions? Yes. ASM can be at a higher version or at lower version than its client databases. Theres two components of compatiblity: Software compatibility Diskgroup compatibility attributes: compatible.asm compatible.rdbms

Initialization Parameters and ASM Instance Creation

The initialization parameters that are of specific interest for an ASM instance are:
INSTANCE_TYPE

- Set to ASM or RDBMS depending on the instance type. The default is

RDBMS.

- Specifies a globally unique name for the database. This defaults to +ASM but must be altered if you intend to run multiple ASM instances. ASM_POWER_LIMIT -The maximum power for a rebalancing operation on an ASM instance. The valid values range from 1 to 11, with 1 being the default. The higher the limit the more resources are allocated resulting in faster rebalancing operations. This value is also used as the default when the POWER clause is omitted from a rebalance operation. ASM_DISKGROUPS - The list of disk groups that should be mounted by an ASM instance during instance startup, or by the ALTER DISKGROUP ALL MOUNT statement. ASM configuration changes are automatically reflected in this parameter.
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DB_UNIQUE_NAME

- Specifies a value that can be used to limit the disks considered for discovery. Altering the default value may improve the speed of disk group mount time and the speed of adding a disk to a disk group. Changing the parameter to a value which prevents the discovery of already mounted disks results in an error. The default value is NULL allowing all suitable disks to be considered. Incorrect usage of parameters in ASM or RDBMS instances result in ORA-15021 errors. To create an ASM instance first create a file called "init+ASM.ora" in the "/tmp" directory containing the following information.
INSTANCE_TYPE=ASM

ASM_DISKSTRING

Next, using SQL*Plus connect to the ide instance.

export ORACLE_SID=+ASM sqlplus / as sysdba

Create an spfile using the contents of the "init+ASM.ora" file.

SQL> CREATE SPFILE FROM PFILE='/tmp/init+ASM.ora'; File created.

Finally, start the instance with the NOMOUNT option.

SQL> startup nomount ASM instance started Total System Global Area Fixed Size Variable Size Database Buffers Redo Buffers SQL> 125829120 1301456 124527664 0 0 bytes bytes bytes bytes bytes

The ASM instance is now ready to use for creating and mounting disk groups. To shutdown the ASM instance issue the following command.
SQL> shutdown ASM instance shutdown SQL>

Once an ASM instance is present disk groups can be used for the following parameters in database instances (INSTANCE_TYPE=RDBMS) to allow ASM file creation:
DB_CREATE_FILE_DEST DB_CREATE_ONLINE_LOG_DEST_n

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DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST CONTROL_FILES LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST STANDBY_ARCHIVE_DEST

Startup and Shutdown of ASM Instances

ASM instance are started and stopped in a similar way to normal database instances. The options for the STARTUP command are:
FORCE - Performs a SHUTDOWN ABORT before restarting the ASM instance. MOUNT - Starts the ASM instance and mounts the disk groups ASM_DISKGROUPS parameter. NOMOUNT - Starts the ASM instance without mounting any disk groups. OPEN - This is not a valid option for an ASM instance.

specified by the

The options for the SHUTDOWN command are:

NORMAL

- The ASM instance waits for all connected ASM instances and SQL sessions to exit

then shuts down.

IMMEDIATE - The ASM instance waits for any SQL transactions to complete then shuts down. It doesn't wait for sessions to exit. TRANSACTIONAL - Same as IMMEDIATE. ABORT - The ASM instance shuts down instantly.

ASM Stripping ASM stripes files across all the disks within the disk group thus increasing performance, each stripe is called an allocation unit. ASM offers two types of stripping which is dependent on the type of database file Coarse Stripping Fine Stripping ASM Mirroring Disk mirroring provides data redundancy, this means that if a disk were to fail Oracle will use the other mirrored disk and would continue as normal. Oracle mirrors at the extent level, so you have a primary extent and a mirrored extent. When a disk fails, ASM rebuilds the failed disk using mirrored extents from the other disks within the group, this may have a slight impact on performance as the rebuild takes place.
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used for datafile, archive logs (1MB stripes) used for online redo logs, controlfile, flashback files(128KB stripes)

All disks that share a common controller are in what is called a failure group, you can ensure redundancy by mirroring disks on separate failure groups which in turn are on different controllers, ASM will ensure that the primary extent and the mirrored extent are not in the same failure group. When mirroring you must define failure groups otherwise the mirroring will not take place.

Administering ASM Disk Groups

There are a few basic points to consider when planning to use ASM:

In most cases you will only need two disk groups (DATA and FRA), where DATA holds all database related files and FRA holds the fast recovery area, including multiplexed copies on online redo logs and controlfiles. Typically, the FRA disk group will be twice the size of the DATA disk group, since it must hold all backups. Oracle recommend a minimum of 4 LUNs per disk group, with LUNs using hardware RAID and external redundancy if possible. All LUNs within a disk group should be the same size and have the same performance characteristics. LUNs should be made up from disks dedicated to Oracle, not shared with other applications. Now let's look at basic administration of disk groups.

Disks
Disk groups are created using the CREATE DISKGROUP statement. This statement allows you to specify the level of redundancy:
NORMAL REDUNDANCY - Two-way mirroring, requiring two failure groups. HIGH REDUNDANCY - Three-way mirroring, requiring three failure groups. EXTERNAL REDUNDANCY - No mirroring for disks that are already protected

using hardware mirroring or RAID. If you have hardware RAID it should be used in preference to ASM redundancy, so this will be the standard option for most installations. In addition failure groups and preferred names for disks can be defined. If the NAME clause is omitted the disks are given a system generated name like "disk_group_1_0001". The FORCE option can be used to move a disk from another disk group into this one.
CREATE DISKGROUP disk_group_1 NORMAL REDUNDANCY FAILGROUP failure_group_1 DISK '/devices/diska1' NAME diska1, '/devices/diska2' NAME diska2 FAILGROUP failure_group_2 DISK '/devices/diskb1' NAME diskb1, '/devices/diskb2' NAME diskb2;

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Disk groups can be deleted using the DROP DISKGROUP statement.

DROP DISKGROUP disk_group_1 INCLUDING CONTENTS;

Disks can be added or removed from disk groups using the ALTER DISKGROUP statement. Remember that the wildcard "*" can be used to reference disks so long as the resulting string does not match a disk already used by an existing disk group.
-- Add disks. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 ADD DISK '/devices/disk*3', '/devices/disk*4'; -- Drop a disk. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 DROP DISK diska2;

Disks can be resized using the RESIZE clause of the ALTER DISKGROUP statement. The statement can be used to resize individual disks, all disks in a failure group or all disks in the disk group. If the SIZE clause is omitted the disks are resized to the size of the disk returned by the OS.
-- Resize a specific disk. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 RESIZE DISK diska1 SIZE 100G; -- Resize all disks in a failure group. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 RESIZE DISKS IN FAILGROUP failure_group_1 SIZE 100G; -- Resize all disks in a disk group. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 RESIZE ALL SIZE 100G;

The UNDROP DISKS clause of the ALTER DISKGROUP statement allows pending disk drops to be undone. It will not revert drops that have completed, or disk drops associated with the dropping of a disk group.
ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 UNDROP DISKS;

Disk groups can be rebalanced manually using the REBALANCE clause of the ALTER DISKGROUP statement. If the POWER clause is omitted the ASM_POWER_LIMIT parameter value is used. Rebalancing is only needed when the speed of the automatic rebalancing is not appropriate.
ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 REBALANCE POWER 5;

Disk groups are mounted at ASM instance startup and unmounted at ASM instance shutdown. Manual mounting and dismounting can be accomplished using the ALTER DISKGROUP statement as seen below.
ALTER DISKGROUP ALL DISMOUNT; ALTER DISKGROUP ALL MOUNT; ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 DISMOUNT;

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ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 MOUNT;

Templates
Templates are named groups of attributes that can be applied to the files within a disk group. The following example show how templates can be created, altered and dropped.
-- Create a new template. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 ADD TEMPLATE my_template ATTRIBUTES (MIRROR FINE); -- Modify template. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 ALTER TEMPLATE my_template ATTRIBUTES (COARSE); -- Drop template. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 DROP TEMPLATE my_template;

Available attributes include:

UNPROTECTED - No mirroring or striping regardless of the redundancy setting. MIRROR - Two-way mirroring for normal redundancy and three-way mirroring for high redundancy. This attribute cannot be set for external redundancy. COARSE - Specifies lower granuality for striping. This attribute cannot be set for external redundancy. FINE - Specifies higher granularity for striping. This attribute cannot be set for external redundancy.

Directories
A directory heirarchy can be defined using the ALTER DISKGROUP statement to support ASM file aliasing. The following examples show how ASM directories can be created, modified and deleted.
-- Create a directory. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 ADD DIRECTORY '+disk_group_1/my_dir'; -- Rename a directory. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 '+disk_group_1/my_dir_2'; RENAME DIRECTORY '+disk_group_1/my_dir' TO

-- Delete a directory and all its contents. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 DROP DIRECTORY '+disk_group_1/my_dir_2' FORCE;

Aliases
Aliases allow you to reference ASM files using user-friendly names, rather than the fully qualified ASM filenames.
-- Create an alias using the fully qualified filename. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 ADD ALIAS '+disk_group_1/my_dir/my_file.dbf' FOR '+disk_group_1/mydb/datafile/my_ts.342.3';

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-- Create an alias using the numeric form filename. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 ADD ALIAS '+disk_group_1/my_dir/my_file.dbf' FOR '+disk_group_1.342.3'; -- Rename an alias. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 RENAME ALIAS '+disk_group_1/my_dir/my_file.dbf' TO '+disk_group_1/my_dir/my_file2.dbf'; -- Delete an alias. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 DELETE ALIAS '+disk_group_1/my_dir/my_file.dbf';

Attempting to drop a system alias results in an error.

Files
Files are not deleted automatically if they are created using aliases, as they are not Oracle Managed Files (OMF), or if a recovery is done to a point-in-time before the file was created. For these circumstances it is necessary to manually delete the files, as shown below.
-- Drop file using an alias. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 DROP FILE '+disk_group_1/my_dir/my_file.dbf'; -- Drop file using a numeric form filename. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 DROP FILE '+disk_group_1.342.3'; -- Drop file using a fully qualified filename. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 DROP FILE '+disk_group_1/mydb/datafile/my_ts.342.3';

Checking Metadata
The internal consistency of disk group metadata can be checked in a number of ways using the CHECK clause of the ALTER DISKGROUP statement.
-- Check metadata for a specific file. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 CHECK FILE '+disk_group_1/my_dir/my_file.dbf' -- Check metadata for a specific failure group in the disk group. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 CHECK FAILGROUP failure_group_1; -- Check metadata for a specific disk in the disk group. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 CHECK DISK diska1; -- Check metadata for all disks in the disk group. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 CHECK ALL;

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ASM Views
The ASM configuration can be viewed using the V$ASM_% views, which often contain different information depending on whether they are queried from the ASM instance, or a dependant db instance. View ASM Instance DB Instance Displays a row for each alias present in every V$ASM_ALIAS Returns no rows disk group mounted by the ASM instance. Displays a row for each database instance Displays a row for the ASM instance if the database has V$ASM_CLIENT using a disk group managed by the ASM open ASM files. instance. Displays a row for each disk discovered by Displays a row for each disk in disk groups in use by V$ASM_DISK the ASM instance, including disks which are the database instance. not part of any disk group. Displays a row for each disk group Displays a row for each disk group mounted by the V$ASM_DISKGROUP discovered by the ASM instance. local ASM instance. Displays a row for each file for each disk V$ASM_FILE Displays no rows. group mounted by the ASM instance. Displays a row for each file for each long V$ASM_OPERATION running operation executing in the Displays ASM no rows. instance. Displays a row for each template present Displays in a row for each template present in each disk V$ASM_TEMPLATE each disk group mounted by the group ASM mounted by the ASM instance with which the instance. database instance communicates.

ASM Filenames
There are several ways to reference ASM file. Some forms are used during creation and some for referencing ASM files. The forms for file creation are incomplete, relying on ASM to create the fully qualified name, which can be retrieved from the supporting views. The forms of the ASM filenames are summarised below. Filename Type Format Fully Qualified ASM Filename +dgroup/dbname/file_type/file_type_tag.file.incarnation Numeric ASM Filename +dgroup.file.incarnation Alias ASM Filenames +dgroup/directory/filename Alias ASM Filename with Template +dgroup(template)/alias Incomplete ASM Filename +dgroup Incomplete ASM Filename with Template +dgroup(template)
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SQL and ASM

ASM filenames can be used in place of conventional filenames for most Oracle file types, including controlfiles, datafiles, logfiles etc. For example, the following command creates a new tablespace with a datafile in the disk_group_1 disk group.
CREATE TABLESPACE my_ts DATAFILE '+disk_group_1' SIZE 100M AUTOEXTEND ON;

New Disk Group Compatibility Attributes

Oracle 11g ASM includes two new compatibility attributes that determine the version of the ASM and database software that can use specific disk groups:

- The minimum version of the ASM software that can access the disk group. In 11g, the default setting is 10.1. COMPATIBLE.RDBMS - The minimum COMPATIBLE database initialization parameter setting for any database instance that uses the disk group. In 11g, the default setting is 10.1. The compatibility versions of a disk group can only be increased, not decreased. If you have increased the version by mistake, you will need to create a new disk group. The disk group compatibility attributes can be set during disk group creation by adding the ATTRIBUTE clause to the CREATE DISKGROUP command.
CREATE DISKGROUP data DISK '/dev/raw/*' ATTRIBUTE 'compatible.asm' = '11.1'; CREATE DISKGROUP data DISK '/dev/raw/*' ATTRIBUTE 'compatible.rdbms' = '11.1', 'compatible.asm' = '11.1';

COMPATIBLE.ASM

The disk group compatibility attributes for existing disk groups can be altered using the SET ATTRIBUTE clause to the ALTER DISKGROUP command.
ALTER DISKGROUP data SET ATTRIBUTE 'compatible.asm' = '11.1'; ALTER DISKGROUP data SET ATTRIBUTE 'compatible.rdbms' = '11.1';

The current compatibility settings are available from the V$ASM_DISKGROUP and V$ASM_ATTRIBUTE views.
COLUMN name FORMAT A10 COLUMN compatibility FORMAT A20 COLUMN database_compatibility FORMAT A20 SELECT group_number, name, compatibility, database_compatibility FROM v$asm_diskgroup; GROUP_NUMBER NAME COMPATIBILITY DATABASE_COMPATIBILI

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------------ ---------- -------------------- -------------------1 DATA 11.1.0.0.0 11.1.0.0.0 1 row selected. SQL> COLUMN name FORMAT A20 COLUMN value FORMAT A20 SELECT group_number, name, value FROM v$asm_attribute ORDER BY group_number, name; GROUP_NUMBER -----------1 1 1 1 NAME -------------------au_size compatible.asm compatible.rdbms disk_repair_time VALUE -------------------1048576 11.1.0.0.0 11.1 3.6h

4 rows selected. SQL>

Fast Mirror Resync

During transient disk failures within a failure group, ASM keeps track of the changed extents that need to be applied to the offline disk. Once the disk is available, only the changed extents are written to resynchronize the disk, rather than overwriting the contents of the entire disk. This can speed up the resynchronization process considerably. Fast mirror resync is only available when the disk groups compatibility attributes are set to 11.1 or higher.
ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 SET ATTRIBUTE 'compatible.asm' = '11.1'; ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 SET ATTRIBUTE 'compatible.rdbms' = '11.1;

ASM drops disks if they remain offline for more than 3.6 hours. The disk groups default time limit is altered by changing the DISK_REPAIR_TIME parameter with a unit of minutes (M or m) or hours (H or h).
-- Set using the hours unit of time. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 SET ATTRIBUTE 'disk_repair_time' = '4.5h'; -- Set using the minutes unit of time. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 SET ATTRIBUTE 'disk_repair_time' = '300m';

The DROP AFTER clause of the ALTER DISKGROUP command is used to override the disk group default DISK_REPAIR_TIME.
-- Use the default DISK_REPAIR_TIME for the diskgroup.

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ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 OFFLINE DISK D1_0001; -- Override the default DISK_REPAIR_TIME. ALTER DISKGROUP disk_group_1 OFFLINE DISK D1_0001 DROP AFTER 30m;

If a disk goes offline during a rolling upgrade, the timer is not started until after the rolling upgrade is complete.

Rolling Upgrade
Clustered ASM instances for 11g onwards can be upgraded using a rolling upgrade. The ASM cluster is placed in rolling upgrade mode by issuing the following command from one of the nodes.
ALTER SYSTEM START ROLLING MIGRATION TO 11.2.0.0.0;

Once the cluster is in rolling upgrade mode each node in turn can be shutdown, upgraded and started. The cluster runs in a mixed version environment until the upgrade is complete. In this state, the cluster is limited to the following operations:

Mount and dismount of the disk groups. Open, close, resize, and delete of database files. Access to local fixed views and fixed packages. The current status of the ASM cluster can be determined using the following query.
SELECT SYS_CONTEXT('sys_cluster_properties', 'cluster_state') FROM dual;

Once the last node is upgraded, the rolling upgrade is stopped by issuing the following command, which checks all ASM instances are at the appropriate version, turns off rolling upgrade mode and restarts any pending rebalance operations.
ALTER SYSTEM STOP ROLLING MIGRATION;

Restrictions and miscellaneous points about the rolling upgrade process include:

The Oracle clusterware must be fully patched before an ASM rolling upgrade is started. Rolling upgrades are only available from 11g onwards, so this method is not suitable for 10g to 11g upgrades. This method can be used to rollback to the previous version if the rolling upgrade fails before completion. If the upgrade fails, any rebalancing operations must complete before a new upgrade can be attempted. New instances joining the cluster during a rolling upgrade are automatically placed in rolling upgrade mode. If all instances in a cluster are stopped during a rolling upgrade, once the instances restart they will no longer be in rolling upgrade mode. The upgrade must be initiated as if it were a new process.
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SYSASM Privilege and OSASM OS Group

The introduction of ASM moved the management of storage away from system adminstrators and into the DBA territory. Unfortunately this isn't how every company operates. As a result, some system administrators were required to have access to privileged users to handle disk storage. Oracle addresses this issue with the introduction of the SYSASM privilege and the OSASM operating system group, which provide two mechanisms to enable the separation of storage and database administration duties. Users can be created in the ASM instance in a similar manner to database users. Granting these users the SYSASM privilege allows them to connect to the ASM instance and perform administration tasks. First, connect to the ASM instance.
$ export ORACLE_SID=+ASM $ sqlplus / as sysasm

Next, create a new user in the ASM instance and grant it the SYSASM privilege. The user is now able to connect using SYSASM.
SQL> CREATE USER asm_user_1 IDENTIFIED by asm_password; User created. SQL> GRANT SYSASM TO asm_user_1; Grant succeeded. SQL> CONN asm_user_1/asm_password AS SYSASM Connected. SQL>

Alternatively, assigning an operating system user to the OSASM group (asmadmin) allows then to connect as SYSASM using OS authentication. The following example creates a new OS user assigned to the OSASM group (asmadmin), which is immediately able to connect using SYSASM.
# # $ $ $ useradd tim_hall -G asmadmin su - tim_hall export ORACLE_SID=+ASM export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1 $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus / as sysasm

SQL*Plus: Release 11.1.0.6.0 - Production on Fri Aug 8 16:48:37 2008 Copyright (c) 1982, 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Connected to: Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.1.0.6.0 - Production With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options SQL>

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Scalability and Performance Enhancements

ASM files are stored in a disk group as a collection of extents. In Oracle 10g each extent mapped directly to one allocation unit (AU), but in Oracle 11g an extent can be made up of one or more allocation units. As files get larger, the extent size can grow to reduce the size of the extent map describing the file, thus saving memory. When the disk group compatibility attributes are set to 11.1 or higher, the extent size will automatically grow as the file grows. In 11.1, the first 20,000 extents match the allocation unit size (1*AU). The next 20,000 extents are made up of 8 allocation units (8*AU). Beyond that point, the extent size becomes 64 allocation units (64*AU). In 11.2 this behavior has changed from 1, 8, 64 to 1, 4, 16. In addition to the automatic expansion of the extent sizes, Oracle 11g also allows control over the allocation unit size using the ATTRIBUTE clause in the CREATE DISKGROUP statement, with values ranging from 1M to 64M.
CREATE DISKGROUP disk_group_2 EXTERNAL REDUNDANCY DISK '/dev/sde1' ATRRIBUTE 'au_size' = '32M';

The combination of expanding extent sizes and larger allocation units should result in increased I/O performance for very large databases.

New ASMCMD Commands and Options

The ASM command line utility includes several new commands. The following example output assumes you have already started the utility using the "-p" option.
$ asmcmd -p ASMCMD [+] >

The usage notes for each command is available by issuing the "help <command>" command from within the asmcmd utility, so I will avoid displaying all this information here. The lsdsk command lists information about ASM disks from the V$ASM_DISK_STAT and V$ASM_DISK views. The summary usage is shown below.
lsdsk [-ksptcgHI] [-d <diskgroup_name>] [pattern]

An example of the output from the basic command and the "-k" option are shown below.
ASMCMD [+] > lsdsk Path /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1

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/dev/sde1 ASMCMD [+] > lsdsk -d data -k Total_MB Free_MB OS_MB Name Redund Path 8189 6961 8189 DATA_0000 UNKNOWN /dev/sdc1 8189 6961 8189 DATA_0001 UNKNOWN /dev/sdd1 8189 6950 8189 DATA_0002 UNKNOWN /dev/sde1 ASMCMD [+] >

Failgroup DATA_0000 DATA_0001 DATA_0002

Library System System System

Label

UDID

Product

The cp command allows files to be copied between ASM and local or remote destinations. The summary usage is shown below.
cp [-ifr] <[@connect_identifier:]src> <[@connect_identifier:]tgt>

The following example copies the current USERS datafile from ASM to the local file system.
ASMCMD [+] > cp +DATA/db11g/datafile/users.273.661514191 /tmp/users.dbf source +DATA/db11g/datafile/users.273.661514191 target /tmp/users.dbf copying file(s)... file, /tmp/users.dbf, copy committed. ASMCMD [+] >

There seems to be some concern that the cp command doesn't work for control files (here). The md_backup command makes a copy of the metadata for one or more disk groups. The summary usage is shown below.
md_backup [-b location_of_backup] [-g dgname [-g dgname ]]

An example of the command is shown below. The resulting file contains all the metadata needed to recreate the ASM setup.
ASMCMD [+] > md_backup -b /tmp/backup.txt -g data Disk group to be backed up: DATA ASMCMD [+] >

The md_restore command allows you to restore a disk group from the metadata created by the md_backup command. It also allows a certain amount of manipulation of the final disk groups during the restore. The summary usage is shown below.
md_restore -b <backup_file> [-li] [-t (full)|nodg|newdg] [-f <sql_script_file>] [-g '<diskgroup_name>,<diskgroup_name>,...'] [-o '<old_diskgroup_name>:<new_diskgroup_name>,...']

A straight restore of the backup shown previously is shown below.

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ASMCMD [+] > md_restore -b /tmp/backup.txt -t full -g data

The remap command repairs a range of physical blocks on disk. The contents of each block is not validated, so only blocks exhibiting read errors are repaired. The summary usage is shown below.
remap <disk group name> <disk name> <block range>

An example of the command is show below.

ASMCMD [+] > remap data data_0001 5000-5999

For detailed usage information see the ASMCDM Command Reference.

Preferred Read Failure Groups

In Oracle 10g, ASM always reads the primary copy of the mirrored extent set. This isn't a problem when both nodes and both failure groups are all located in the same site, but it can be inefficient for extended clusters, causing needless network traffic. Oracle 11g allows each node to define a preferred failure group, allowing nodes in extended clusters to access local failure groups in preference to remote ones. To configure preferred read failure groups the disk group compatibility attributes must be set to 11.1 or higher. Once the compatibility options are correct, the ASM_PREFERRED_READ_FAILURE_GROUPS parameter is set to the preferred failure groups for each node.
SELECT name, failgroup FROM v$asm_disk; NAME -----------------------------DATA_0000 DATA_0001 DATA_0002 3 rows selected. SQL> ALTER SYSTEM SET ASM_PREFERRED_READ_FAILURE_GROUPS = 'data.data_0000', 'data.data_0001', 'data.data_0002'; FAILGROUP -----------------------------DATA_0000 DATA_0001 DATA_0002

Fast Rebalance
The "ALTER DISKGROUP ... MOUNT" statement allows disk groups to be mounted in restricted mode.
SQL> SELECT name FROM v$asm_diskgroup; NAME ------------------------------

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DATA SQL> ALTER DISKGROUP data DISMOUNT; Diskgroup altered. SQL> ALTER DISKGROUP data MOUNT RESTRICTED; Diskgroup altered. SQL> ALTER DISKGROUP data DISMOUNT; Diskgroup altered. SQL> ALTER DISKGROUP data MOUNT; Diskgroup altered. SQL>

In a RAC environment, a disk group mounted in RESTRICTED mode can only be accessed by a single instance. The restricted disk group is not available to any ASM clients, even on the node where it is mounted. Using RESTRICTED mode improves the performance of rebalance operations in a RAC environment as it elimitates the need for lock and unlock extent map messaging that occurs between ASM instances. Once the rebalance operation is complete, the disk group should be dismounted then mounted in NORMAL mode (the default).

Miscellaneous Disk Group Maintenance Enhancements

The CREATE DISKGROUP and ALTER DISKGROUP commands include a new ATTRIBUTE clause (compatible, disk_repair_time, au_size). The CHECK clause of the ALTER DISKGROUP command has been simplified so there are only two options, NOREPAIR and REPAIR, available, with NOREPAIR as the default. Summarized errors are displayed, with full error messages writen to the alert log.
ALTER DISKGROUP data CHECK; -- Like NOREPAIR ALTER DISKGROUP data CHECK NOREPAIR; ALTER DISKGROUP data CHECK REPAIR;

Disk groups can now be mounted in restricted mode, which can improve performance of some maintenance tasks. The ALTER DISKGOUP command now includes ONLINE and OFFLINE clauses so disks can be taken offline for repair before being brought back online.
-- Individual disks. ALTER DISKGROUP data OFFLINE DISK 'disk_0000', 'disk_0001'; ALTER DISKGROUP data ONLINE DISK 'disk_0000', 'disk_0001'; -- Failure groups.

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ALTER DISKGROUP data OFFLINE DISKS IN FAILGROUP 'fg_0000'; ALTER DISKGROUP data ONLINE DISKS IN FAILGROUP 'fg_0000'; -- Bring online all disks in disk group. ALTER DISKGROUP data ONLINE ALL;

Disk groups that can't be mounted by ASM can now be dropped using the FORCE keyword of the DROP DISKGROUP command.
DROP DISKGROUP data FORCE;

How to check how much disk space is allocated/ in-use by an ASM instance?
Login to your +ASM instance (SYS AS SYSDBA) and execute the following query:
SQL> COL % FORMAT 99.0 SQL> SELECT name, free_mb, total_mb, free_mb/total_mb*100 "%" FROM v$asm_diskgroup; NAME FREE_MB TOTAL_MB % ------------------------------ ---------- ---------- ----DATA 917104 1482145 61.9 RECOVER 17387 17437 99.7

From Oracle 10g Release 2, one can also use the asmcmd command line utility:
ASMCMD> du Used_MB Mirror_used_MB 1523 1523 ASMCMD> lsdg State Type Rebal Unbal Sector Block AU Req_mir_free_MB Usable_file_MB Offline_disks Name MOUNTED EXTERN N N 512 4096 1048576 0 9885 0 DISKGROUP1/ MOUNTED EXTERN N N 512 4096 1048576 0 9906 0 FLASH/

Total_MB 11264 10240

Free_MB 9885 9906

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Starting ASMCMD
To start ASMCMD, set your ORACLE_SID to +ASM and then type ASMCMD from the command line as seen here:
C:\>Set ORACLE_SID=+ASM C:\>ASMCMD

Or from UNIX:
/opt/oracle>export ORACLE_SID=+ASM /opt/oracle>ASMCMD

Note: You will need to make sure that perl.exe is in the path before you run ASMCMD. If you have installed more than one ORACLE_HOME, it may take some setup to get the pathing set correctly. Make sure the following is set to the correct ORACLE_HOME:

ORACLE_HOME PATH PERL5LIB PERLBIN

When ASMCMD starts, you will see the ASMCMD prompt as seen here:
ASMCMD>

You can start ASMCMD with the p option and it will display the directory level that you are at as seen in this example:
C:\oracle\product\10.2.0\DB01\BIN>ASMCMD -p ASMCMD [+] >

ASMCMD Commands
ASMCMD has a basic set of 16 commands. You can see these commands from the ASMCMD prompt if you type in help as seen in this output:
ASMCMD> help ASMCMD [-p] [command] The environment variables ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID determine the instance to which the program connects, and ASMCMD establishes a

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bequeath connection to it, in the same manner as a SQLPLUS / AS SYSDBA. The user must be a member of the SYSDBA group. Specifying the -p option allows the current directory to be displayed in the command prompt, like so: ASMCMD [+DATAFILE/ORCL/CONTROLFILE] > [command] specifies one of the following commands, along with its parameters. Type "help [command]" to get help on a specific ASMCMD command. commands: -------cd du find help ls lsct lsdg lsdsk md_backup md_restore mkalias mkdir pwd remap rm rmalias

cd Change directory The cd command will move you in and out of ASM directory structures. This command works just like it's UNIX equivelent, and the special designators for previous directory ".." are available for use and use "+" to indicate the root (instead of a forward or backwards slash ( / or \)). Here are some examples:
ASMCMD ASMCMD ASMCMD ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1] > cd .. [+] > cd cooked_dgroup1 [+cooked_dgroup1] > cd +cooked_dgroup2 [+cooked_dgroup2] > cd rob10gr2

du Disk Used The du command indicates how much disk has been used on the disk group. Here is an example:
ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2] > du Used_MB Mirror_used_MB 44 88

find Find a directory or file

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The find command can help you find a directory or file within the ASM system as seen here:
ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1] > find + rob10gr2 +COOKED_DGROUP1/ROB10GR2/ +COOKED_DGROUP2/ROB10GR2/

help The help command provides you with help for all the ASMCMD commands. You can enter help, followed by the command name, for more detailed information on the command you are interested in. ls The ls command is the list file command. This will list the directories and/or files contained within the ASM disk structure. Here are some examples of using the ls command:
ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/datafile] > ls -l Type Redund Striped Time Sys Name DATAFILE MIRROR COARSE JAN 29 20:00:00 Y ALIAS_TBS.260.613168611 DATAFILE MIRROR COARSE JAN 29 20:00:00 Y PART_ASM_TBS.256.613066047 DATAFILE MIRROR COARSE JAN 29 20:00:00 Y PART_ASM_TBS.257.613083267

The ls command has new functionality in Oracle 11g adding two new parameters, -c and -g. When used, the -c parameter will use the V$ASM_DISKGROUP view for the source of its output. Additionally the -g parameter is used, then GV$ASM_DISKGROUP will be used as the source of the output of the command. Thus, the ls command becomes "RAC" aware for a clustered ASM instance. lsct The lsct command lists all clients that are using ASM. You can specify a disk group to restrict the output or you can just allow the command to display all the clients. The output of the command displays the databases connected to the ASM instance, the version of the database connected. Also included is the compatible version of the database (set via the COMPATIBLE parameter setting) and the instance name of the instance connected to the ASM instance. Here is an example of the output from the lsct command:
ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > lsct DB_Name Status Software_Version Compatible_version rob10gr2 CONNECTED 10.2.0.1.0 10.2.0.1.0 Instance_Name rob10gr2

In Oracle 11g, the lsct command includes the -g parameter, which will cause it to select from the GV$ASM_CLIENT view rather than the V$ASM_CLIENT view. lsdg The lsdg command provides information on the disk groups that have been created in an ASM instance. This command returns a great deal of information about the disk group. Of particular interest is the
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free_MB column, which indicates how much space is available on the disk group. Here is an example of the output of the lsdg command:
ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > lsdg State Type Rebal Unbal Sector Block AU Req_mir_free_MB Usable_file_MB Offline_disks Name MOUNTED NORMAL N N 512 4096 1048576 0 11 0 COOKED_DGROUP1/ MOUNTED NORMAL N N 512 4096 1048576 0 29 0 COOKED_DGROUP2/ Total_MB 198 198 Free_MB 22 58

The lsdg command has new functionality in Oracle 11g adding two new parameters, -c and -g. The -c and -g parameters provide a view into the configuration of a clustered ASM instance. The -c parameter uses the V$ASM_DISKGROUP view for the source of its output. If the -g parameter is used, then GV$ASM_DISKGROUP will be used as the source of the output of the command. lsdsk (Oracle 11g) The lsdsk command lists the disks that are visible to ASM. Here is an example:
[oracle@localhost ~]$ asmcmd lsdsk Path /oracle/asmdata/asm_dgroup1_01.asm /oracle/asmdata/asm_dgroup1_02.asm

md_restore and md_backup (Oracle 11g) Commands that allow you to back up and restore the metadata associated with your ASM disk groups. See below for more information. mkalias Use the mkalias command to create ASM aliases for a given ASM file name. This command is equivalent to the alter diskgroup add alias command from the SQL prompt when connected to an ASM instance. Here is an example of using the mkalias to create an alias for an ASM file:
ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > mkalias +cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile/Current.258.613087119 +cooked_dgroup1/control01.ctl

One thing to note is that the alias must reside in the same disk group as the ASM file. So the following command would not be legal:
ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > mkalias +cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile/Current.258.613087119 +cooked_dgroup2/control01.ctl

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mkdir Mkdir allows you to create ASM directories. You can not create a directory in the root directory (+), and you can create multiple directories at one time by simply listing them one at a time on the mkdir command line separated by spaces. This command is roughly equivalent to the alter diskgroup add directory command. Here are a couple of examples of using the mkdir command:
ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > mkdir old ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > mkdir older oldest ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > ls Current.258.613087119 Current.259.613088323 old/ older/ oldest/

pwd Use the pwd command to determine where in the ASM directory tree you are. Here is an example:
ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > pwd +cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile

remap (Oracle 11g) If you find that you have physical blocks corrupted on your ASM disks the new remap command can be used to repair those blocks. Pass the command the required parameters including the disk group name, the disk name, and a range of blocks to start the remapping/repaid process. This command does not repair the data in the blocks, but rather just reconstructs the blocks in an attempt to make them usable again. As a result, media recovery will still be required after remapping of the block has been completed. In the following example we are remapping blocks 1000 to 3000 on disk disk_00A assigned to disk group dgroupA:
[oracle@boots ~]$ asmcmd remap dgroupA disk_00A 1000-3000

rm The rm command is used to remove ASM directories or files. The rm command will only remove a directory if that directory is empty. This is equivalent to the alter diskgroup drop directory command. Here is an example of removing a directory with the rm command:
ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > ls Current.258.613087119 Current.259.613088323 old/

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older/ oldest/ ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > rm old ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > ls Current.258.613087119 Current.259.613088323 older/ oldest/

The rm command is also used to remove ASM files and associated aliases. This is equivalent to the alter diskgroup drop file command. Here is an example of the use of the rm command to remove an ASM control file:
ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > ls Current.258.613087119 Current.259.613088323 older/ oldest/ ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > rm Current.258.613087119 ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > ls Current.259.613088323 older/ oldest/

You can use the "*" wildcard character with the rm command too. If you use the wildcard character, Oracle will warn you to make sure that you truly want to remove the file. Here is an example:
ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > ls Current.259.613088323 older/ oldest/ ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > rm current* You may delete multiple files and/or directories. Are you sure? (y/n) y ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > ls older/ oldest/ ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] >

The rm command also comes with an r parameter that allows you to recurse child directories. Use the r parameter and some file, directory or alias specification. As with the use of the wildcard character, ASMCMD will query you to make sure you really want to complete the operation as seen in this example:
ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > ls older/ oldest/ ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > rm -r *

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You may delete multiple files and/or directories. Are you sure? (y/n) y ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] > ls ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/controlfile] >

rmalias The rmalias command is used to remove ASM aliases as seen in this example:
ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/datafile] > ls ALIAS_TBS.260.613168611 PART_ASM_TBS.256.613066047 PART_ASM_TBS.257.613083267 ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/datafile] > mkalias +cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/datafile/part_asm_tbs.256.613066047 +cooked_dgroup1/ro b10gr2/datafile/alias_tbs_01.dbf ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/datafile] > ls +cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/datafile ALIAS_TBS.260.613168611 PART_ASM_TBS.256.613066047 PART_ASM_TBS.257.613083267 alias_tbs_01.dbf ASMCMD [+cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/datafile] > rmalias +cooked_dgroup1/rob10gr2/datafile/alias_tbs_01.dbf

ASM Diskgroup Metadata Backup and Recover

As of Oracle 11g, asmcmd provides commands that allow you to back up and restore the metadata associated with your ASM disk groups. You can use the md_backup command to create a backup of all the ASM metadata, or a subset of ASM metadata, depending on the parameters that you use. Here is an example of using the md_backup command to back up the entire ASM metadata repository:
[oracle@localhost ~]$ asmcmd ASMCMD> md_backup

This command will create the metadata backup file in the current working directory by default. On a Linux system this file was called ambr_backup_intermediate_file. The backup file is pretty much textbased, so you can read through it. More advanced use of the md_backup command allows you to control where the backup file will be created, specify the disk groups that you want to back up, and to override various options. The md_backup command will not overwrite a previous backup file. So you will need to move the file somewhere after the backup so the next backup will be successful. You can restore the ASM metadata with the md_restore command. You can restore from the backup without any changes, or the md_backup command gives you numerous options to override settings too. In this example we are performing a metadata restore with the md_restore command:
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[oracle@localhost ~]$ asmcmd ASMCMD> md_restore b ambr_backup_intermediate_file

Both commands can be run as a parameter from the command line as in this example:
[oracle@localhost ~]$ asmcmd md_backup

So, why would you use md_restore and md_backup? As with Oracle databases there is a possibility that the ASM metadata stored in the ASM disk groups could become corrupt (perhaps because of some inmemory OS corruption) or perhaps someone accidently used the dd command and overwrote the contents of the disk header. While this is probably a rare problem, it is in cases like these that your ASM metadata backups could come in handy. If you are using ASM, a metadata backup should become one of your new daily backup operations. The md_restore command can also reinstate dropped disks, in some cases. Another use of that is developing an automatic change control process whenever you add, change, or drop disks.

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