SAN Migration - Oracle RAC

Question

We're migrating data from our old CX4 to a new VMAX10k.  The SQL Server databases, VMware guests, and various unstructured data all are moved.  PowerPath Migration Enabler and Storage vMotion made this easy.  The last thing on my list to move are the LUNs attached to an Oracle RAC running on Windows.  I understand PPME won't work with the ASM disks, so I'd like to use Oracle ASM tools to complete this migration.  Trouble is, we do not have any Oracle expertise on our team. I've got extensive experience with volume managers like LVM and others from various UNIX platforms, so I understand the fundamental concepts.  I just don't know how to do it with Oracle ASM specifically. 1. Attach new storage devices to the servers. 2. Initialize the devices to prepare them for adding to the volume manager. 3. Create stripe-aligned partitions. 4. Add these partitions to the volume group(s)/disk group(s)/whatever the terminology is. 5. Remove the old devices from those volumes groups. 6. Win. Is there a straightforward way to accomplish these tasks.  Do I have to be an Oracle expert to do this?  Can someone please refer me to some documentation that can help me through this process.  Everything I am finding is for RAC on Linux.  Are there any differences in the process for RAC on Windows? Thanks!

dba_hba · Answer

Vinn

You do not say which versions of Oracle and Windows are you using? This can be important eg with Win2008 you cannot use the diskmgmt gui to create the partitions.

Also as you are migrating Oracle RAC where are your OCR and voting disks held? Also Oracle version dependent.

You do not have to be an Oracle expert but it helps. Do you have a DBA available to you?

Vinn2 · Answer

The Oracle version is 11g.  Not sure about the minor revision.  It runs on Windows Server 2008.  All of our database guys are SQL Server focused, with no experience with Oracle.  I'm not sure about the OCR and voting disks.  I am pretty sure the Oracle home is on local storage.  One of our DBAs is in training this week to get up to speed on Oracle.

dynamox · Answer

i did not think you can use PPEM with clusters, at least all nodes but one have to be offline.

zhaos2 · Answer

We had similar discussion before in this community, please refer to the below thread:

https://community.emc.com/thread/144031?tstart=30

Also the below link described steps of:

- SAN migration of the ASM diskgroups

- SAN migration of the OCR files

- SAN migration of the voting disks

http://oraexplorer.com/2009/10/online-san-storage-migration-for-oracle-11g-rac-database-with-asm/

Oracle

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