The document discusses Oracle Cloud File System (ACFS), which provides a general-purpose file system built on Automatic Storage Management (ASM) disk groups. ACFS introduces features like snapshots, replication across sites, security controls, and encryption. It is integrated with Oracle databases and middleware but has some limitations around licensing and platform support. The presentation includes demos and tips for deploying, managing, and using ACFS.

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Oracle Cloud
Storage and File
system
Andrejs Karpovs
Oracle Apps DBA
Tieto,
andrejs.karpovs@tieto.com

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Few notes about me
•I
• Am a Oracle Apps DBA
• Have 4 years exprerience working with Oracle products
• Am 10g/11g OCP certified
• Sometimes blog at: adbaday.wordpress.com
• More often tweet as @akarpov_

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Agenda
• Cloud Storage
• Cloud file system (focus)
o Background
o Features
o Use cases
o Demos
o Tips

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Some Questions
• Who has heard of Oracle Cloud Storage?
• Who has heard of ACFS?
• Who uses ACFS?
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ACFS
• = ASM Cluster file system or Automatic Storage
Management Cluster file system
• ASM appeared with 10g
• ACFS extension introduced in 11gR2
• In January 2011 ACFS has been rebranded to Oracle Cloud
file system
• Oracle Cloud Storage = ASM + ADVM + ACFS
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Cloud Storage - architecture
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ASM Cluster File System (AFCS)
• Introduced in Grid Infrastructure 11gR2
• Built from the traditional ASM disk groups
• General purpose file system
• Uses standard file related system calls like others file
systems in the market
• Disk creation for ACFS is performed with a typical workflow
process
• Requires ASM Dynamic volume
• Supported on RH/EL 5.x ACFS Supported On OS Platforms.
[ID 1369107.1]
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ASM Dynamic Volumes and ADVM
• Used for creating dynamic volumes
• Similar as other logical volumes
• Designed for cluster and single host volumes
• Loadable kernel driver
• ASM features
• Dynamic storage provisioning
• Cross platform (Windows, Unix)
• Easy to manage using asmcmd, asmca, EM and SQL
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Overview
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Demo
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ACFS deployment
• Two types of ACFS file systems:
• CRS Managed ACFS (for example, ORACLE_HOME)
• Clusterwide by default
• Automatically creates a dependency with placed resource (DB)
• General Purpose ACFS
• No structural differences
• Does not support Oracle Database files (controlfiles,
datafiles, online redo logs, etc.)
• Does not support grid home installation
• From 11.2.0.3 supports RMAN backups (backupsets),
archivelogs and Data Pump dumpsets
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Demo
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ACFS Mount registry
• Persistent entry for each GP ACFS file system after reboot
• Similar to /etc/fstab on Linux
• Not needed for CRS Managed ACFS file systems
• Need for mounting GP FS during node startup
• /sbin/acfsutil registry -a -f -n ol58-1123-rac1 /dev/asm/u02-361 /u02
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Manage ACFS
• Online resize - be careful!
• There is a limit of 5 extents for the file system's internal storage
bitmap. This causes any attempts to increase the file system to fail
after it has been increased four or more times.
• Solution - /sbin/fsck -a -v -y -t acfs /dev/asm/acfs-368
• Decrease FS and increase again with increase size > decrease size
• Mount / umount (also via NFS protocol)
• Register
• Delete
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ACFS Disk Space Usage
• Preallocates large user files to improve performance when
writing data
• Keeps local bitmaps available to reduce contention on the
global storage bitmap when searching for free space
• This disk space is reported as in use by tools such as the
UNIX df command even though some of it may not actually be
allocated as of yet
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ACFS Snapshots
• Read / write snapshots from 11.2.0.3
• First Copy-on-Write (FCOW) methodology
• Available under .ACFS
• Point-in-time view of a file
• ACFS snapshots can be very useful for file-based recovery or for file
system backups
• Dynamic and space efficient
• Recovery using copy and replace
• Use case – ORACLE_HOME patching
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Demo
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ACFS Replication
• 11.2.0.3 feature
• Enabled replication of ACFS file systems across the network
to a remote site
• Replication logs are used to replicate from primary to
standby asynchronously
• Supports ACFS Tagging, needs specific configuration
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ACFS Tagging
• Assigns a common naming attribute to a group of files
• Selects files with tag for replication
• /sbin/acfsutil tag set logfiles -r /u02/logfiles/*.log
• /sbin/acfsutil repl init primary -s standby/standby@standby_site
tagname logfiles ...
• Avoids entire file system replication
• Requires some additional rpms and configuration
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ACFS Security
• Uses Realms, Rules, RuleSets, and Command Rules to
enforce security
• Modeled after Data Vault
• Realm is a virtual container for
• Users
• Files and dirs, access defined by security filters
• Rules and rule sets defining access
• Command rules to allow/disallow operations
• Fine grained access control
• Example: Grant functional consultant John read only access to
logfiles or outfiles between 9-11 pm for reporting purposes
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ACFS Encryption
• Enable users to encrypt data stored on disk
• Prevents unauthorized use of data in case of data loss or
theft
• Secure encryption keys to decode data
• File encryption key (FEK) – to encrypt file data
• Volume Encryption key (VEK) – to encrypt FEK
• As of now, security cannot be used with replication
• COMPATIBLE.ASM and COMPATIBLE.ADVM should be
set to 11.2.0.3
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Limits
• 63 snapshots
• Up to 64 mounts on 32 bit systems, and 256 mounts on 64
bit systems
• Do not use ACFS to store database files
• Do not use ADVM volume devices for bootstrap or root file
system
• Do not partition (fdisk) ADVM volume devices
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Benefits
• A better (faster and more reliable) alternative to traditional
NFS
• Dynamic management
• No need to separate storage administrators and ASM
administrators
• Mount it anywhere with NFS
• Features
• Performance
• Do not use ACFS on 32 bits!
• http://adbaday.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/grid-infrastructure-on-
rhel5-x86-story-oom-explained/
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Oracle Apps considerations
• Middleware
• eBusiness Suite application stack on ACFS
• Not specially certified
• Not Unsupported
• Ideal for placing shared log files, output files, etc
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Licencing
• Comes free out-of-the box with Grid Infrastructure
installation
• Free to use for Oracle DB, middleware, applications...
• Unless you want to store your personal files on ACFS
• No limitations in feature usage
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Documentation
• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/products/cloud-
storage/index.html Oracle Cloud File System overview
• http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/products/cloud-
storage/acfs-technical-overview-514457.pdf ACFS technical
overview
• http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e18951/as
mfilesystem.htm#CBBFJCED Introduction to Oracle ACFS
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Q & A
•?
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