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Setting up hosts

Database FlashSnap requires sufficient Veritas Volume Manager disk space, and can be used on the same host that the database resides on (the primary host) or on a secondary host. Setting up a storage configuration for Database FlashSnap operations is a system administrator's responsibility and requires superuser (root) privileges. Database FlashSnap utilities do not address setting up an appropriate storage configuration.

Single-host configuration

Example of a Database FlashSnap solution on a primary hostshows the suggested arrangement for implementing Database FlashSnap solutions on the primary host to avoid disk contention.

Example of a Database FlashSnap solution on a primary host

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Two-host configuration

As shown in Example of an off-host Database FlashSnap solution, a Database FlashSnap configuration with two hosts allows CPU- and I/O-intensive operations to be performed for online backup and decision support without degrading the performance of the primary host running the production database. A two-host configuration also allows the snapshot database to avoid contending for I/O resources on the primary host.

For off-host processing applications, both the primary and secondary hosts need to share the storage in which the snapshot database is created. Both the primary and secondary hosts must be able to access the disks containing the snapshot volumes.

Example of an off-host Database FlashSnap solution

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Host and storage requirements

Before using Database FlashSnap, ensure that:

• All files are on VxFS file systems over VxVM volumes. Raw devices are not supported.
• Symbolic links to datafiles are not supported.
• ORACLE_HOME is on a separate file system.
• Archive logs are on a separate VxFS file system and are separate from the VxFS file system containing Oracle data files or ORACLE_HOME.
• The database does not contain BFILES and external tables.
• Oracle datafiles, archive logs, redo logs, and control files are in a single disk group.

In addition, before attempting to use Database FlashSnap with two hosts, ensure that:

• The versions of Veritas Storage Foundation on the primary and secondary hosts are the same.
• The same version of Oracle is installed on both hosts the Oracle binaries and datafiles are on different volumes and disks.
• The UNIX login for the database user and group must be the same on both hosts.
• You have a Veritas Storage Foundation Enterprise Edition license on both hosts.