Oracle Automatic Storage Management Overview
Automatic Storage Management (ASM), a feature of Oracle Database, provides the database administrator with a simple storage management interface that is consistent across all server and storage platforms. As a vertically integrated file system and volume manager, purpose-built for Oracle database files, ASM provides the performance of direct async I/O with the easy management of a file system. ASM provides features that saves DBAs time and provides flexibility to manage a dynamic database environment with increased efficiency. ASM key benefits are:
- Simplifies and automates storage management
- Increases storage utilization and agility
- Delivers predictable performance, availability and scalability
The Oracle Cloud File System (CloudFS) provides unprecedented simplicity in storage management, automation in provisioning and storage consolidation for general purpose files. CloudFS is a storage cloud infrastructure with resource pooling, network accessibility, rapid elasticity and rapid provisioning that are key requirements for cloud computing environments. The product includes:
- Oracle ASM Dynamic Volume Manager (ADVM)
ADVM provides a common volume management service and a standard device driver interface for system administrators to manage across different platforms. ACFS and 3rd party file systems can use ASM Dynamic Volumes to create and manage file systems leveraging all the power and functionality of ASM features. Therefore, an ADVM volume may be easily resized to adapt to the storage need of a file system without any downtime.
- Oracle ASM Cluster File System (ACFS)
A general-purpose POSIX, X/OPEN and Windows compliant file system designed for single node and cluster configurations. ACFS is managed using native operating system commands, ASM asmcmd and the Oracle Enterprise Manager. ACFS supports advanced data services such as point-in-time copy snapshots, file system replication and tagging as well as file system security and encryption.
