Setting Up a New Database

VERITAS Storage Foundation for Oracle contains a combination of performance, management, and high availability features. This section provides an overview of the steps to follow if you are using VERITAS Storage Foundation for Oracle to set up a new database.

  To set up a new database using VERITAS Storage Foundation for Oracle

1. Determine the number and sizes of file systems you need for the database you want to create. For detailed information, see the VERITAS File System Administrator's Guide.
2. Create volumes to meet your file system needs. You can use disk mirroring as a safeguard against disk failures and striping for better performance. For more information see the Selecting a Volume Layout and Creating a Volume. For information about performance tuning to improve database performance, see Tuning for Performance.

   If you plan to create volume snapshots for the database and use them on either the same host or a secondary one, ensure that your volume layout is consistent with Database FlashSnap requirements. For information about these requirements, see Using Database FlashSnap for Backup and Off-Host Processing.

3. Create the VxFS file systems you need on the volumes. See File System Creation Guidelines and Creating a VxFS File System.
4. Install and configure your database. For best OLTP performance, use Quick I/O for Oracle8i and Oracle Disk Manager (ODM) for Oracle9i and later. You must create Quick I/O files before creating the tablespaces. For information on creating and using Quick I/O files, and converting existing files to Quick I/O, see Using VERITAS Quick I/O.

   If you would like the ability to view detailed storage stack topology information to ensure your storage stack configuration is optimized for the database, configure and use Storage Mapping. For more information, see Understanding Storage Mapping.

   If you are already running your database on VxVM and VxFS but are not using Quick I/O or ODM, you will need to follow these steps to convert you existing files to use Quick I/O and ODM:

   1. If you want to use Database FlashSnap for off-host processing after converting your database files to use Quick I/O and ODM and your volume layout is inconsistent with Database FlashSnap requirements, you will need to "relayout" your volume manager configuration after your database files have been converted. See the VERITAS Volume Manager's Administrator's Guide for detailed information about VxVM's online relayout feature.
   2. If you are using Oracle8i, convert all database files to Quick I/O files. See Converting Oracle Files to Quick I/O Files. For Oracle9i, you simply need to link the ODM library. See Setting Up VERITAS Extension for Oracle Disk Manager.

   If you are not currently running on VxVM and VxFS, see the VERITAS Storage Foundation for Oracle Installation Guide and Converting Existing Database Configurations to VxFS for information about how to convert your existing database storage configuration to VERITAS Storage Foundation for Oracle.

5. For backup and recovery on the same host, you can use the Storage Checkpoint facility to create file system snapshots of the database. A Storage Checkpoint creates an exact image of a database instantly and provides a consistent image of the database from the point in time the Storage Checkpoint was created. For more information about creating and managing Storage Checkpoints, see Using Storage Checkpoints and Storage Rollback.

   For off-host processing or backup, you can use the Database FlashSnap feature to create a volume snapshot for the database. Database FlashSnap lets you capture an online image of an actively changing database at a given instant, known as a snapshot. You can perform backups and off-host processing tasks on snapshots while providing continuous availability of your critical data.