1) What is ASM?

Automatic storage Management (ASM) is a new type of filesystem which was introduced
with Oracle 10g. ASM is recommended filesystem for RAC and Single instance ASM for
storing database files. This provides direct I/O to the file and performance is
comparable with that provided by RAW Devices. Oracle creates a separate instance
for this purpose.
2) How do we identify if we are connected to Normal Instance or ASM instance?
Issue following command to identify this
SQL> show parameter instance_type
NAME TYPE VALUE
------------------------------------ ----------- ------------------------------
instance_type string asm
In case you are connected to ASM instance, it will display value as asm, otherwise
it will display value as RDBMS.
3) What are Diskgroup�s and Failuregroups?
Diskgroup is a terminology used for logical structure which holds the database
files. Each Diskgroup consists of Disks/Raw devices where the files are actually
stored. Any ASM file is completely contained within a single disk group. However, a
disk group might contain files belonging to several databases and a single database
can use files from multiple disk groups.
Failuregroups are used when using Normal/High Redundancy. They contain the mirrored
ASM extents and must be containing different disks and preferably on separate disk
controller.
4) Can ASM be used as replacement for RAID?
ASM is supposed to stripe the data and also mirror the data (if Using Normal, High
Redundancy). So this can be used as an alternative for RAID 0+1 solutions
5) How does ASM provides Redundancy?
When you create a disk group, you specify an ASM disk group type based on one of
the following three redundancy levels:
* Normal for 2-way mirroring � When ASM allocates an extent for a normal
redundancy file; ASM allocates a primary copy and a secondary copy. ASM chooses the
disk on which to store the secondary copy in a different failure group other than
the primary copy.
* High for 3-way mirroring. In this case the extent is mirrored across 3 disks.
* External to not use ASM mirroring. This is used if you are using Third party
Redundancy mechanism like RAID, Storage arrays.
6) Can we change the Redundancy for Diskgroup after its creation?
No, we cannot modify the redundancy for Diskgroup once it has been created. To
alter it we will be required to create a new Diskgroup and move the files to it.
This can also be done by restoring full backup on the new Diskgroup. Following
metalink note describes the steps
Note.438580.1 � How To Move The Database To Different Diskgroup (Change Diskgroup
Redundancy)
7) I am unable to open the ASM instance. What is the reason?
ASM instance does not have open stage. It has got only two options
* Nomount- This starts the ASM instance
* Mount- At this stage, Diskgroup defined in ASM_DISKGROUPS parameter are
mounted
When you try to open the ASM instance , you get following error
SQL> alter database open;
alter database open
*