Architecture considerations and best practices for architecting an Oracle RAC solution with Serviceguard and SGeRAC

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The CFS also simplifies backup and recovery in an RAC environment. Without CFS, the archive logs
of each instance are stored in a local file system on the node where the instance is running.
• Performing a backup of the database requires access to archive logs of all instances. The common
method would be to use Network File System (NFS). The node running a backup job would use
NFS to mount all instances’ archive log file systems.
• When a node crashes or an instance is down and its logs are needed for recovery, a manual
mount of the downed instance’s archive logs is required.
By storing all instances’ archive logs on a CFS, all nodes have instant access to each other’s archived
logs. This eliminates the need to do NFS mounts or manual intervention for backup and recovery,
simplifying management of both.
Some other advantages of using Serviceguard SMS CFS for RAC include:
• Addition/deletion of files.
• Easy growth of Oracle data files.
• Use of standard file system backup utilities.
• Consistent storage management for:
– Oracle RAC
– Application(s)
– Other shared files
• Provides support for installation of Oracle Clusterware binaries, and RAC binaries. Oracle RAC is
compatible with the cluster file system with all configuration file names being node/instance
specific. Installing CRS software and RAC software on the CFS reduces the amount of storage space
needed in comparison to installing on the local file system of each node in the cluster.
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In addition to the above advantages, the following key features are included in the Serviceguard
Storage Management Suite (SMS) for RAC to further enhance the performance and manageability of
the Oracle RAC environment:
• Oracle Disk Manager (ODM)
• Storage checkpoints
• Storage mapping
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Customers who need to perform rolling upgrades of Oracle software should install Oracle Clusterware binaries and RAC binaries on separate
file systems on each node.