F
Optimal Flexible Architecture

This appendix contains information on the Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) standard. The OFA standard is a set of configuration guidelines created to ensure fast, reliable Oracle databases that require little maintenance. This appendix contains the following sections:

• Optimal Flexible Architecture

• Optimal Flexible Architecture Implemented on UNIX

Optimal Flexible Architecture

Oracle Corporation recommends that you implement the OFA standard when you install and configure Oracle9i.

OFA is designed to:

• Organize large amounts of complicated software and data on disk, to avoid device bottlenecks and poor performance

• Facilitate routine administrative tasks such as software and data backup, which are often vulnerable to data corruption

• Facilitate switching between multiple Oracle databases

• Adequately manage and administer database growth

• Help eliminate fragmentation of free space in the data dictionary, isolate other fragmentation, and minimize resource contention

Characteristics of an OFA-Compliant Database

This section describes characteristics of a database that complies with the OFA standard.

File System Organization

The file system is organized to enable easy administration for issues such as:

• Adding data into existing databases

• Adding users

• Creating databases

• Adding hardware

Distributed I/O Loads

I/O loads are distributed across enough disk drives to prevent performance bottlenecks.

Hardware Support

In most cases, investment in new hardware is not required to take advantage of the OFA standard.

Safeguards Against Drive Failures

By distributing applications across more than one drive, drive failures affect as few applications as possible.

Distribution of Home Directories

The following items can be distributed across more than one disk drive:

• The collection of home directories

• The contents of an individual home directory

Integrity of Login Home Directories

You can add, move, or delete login home directories without having to revise programs that refer to them.

Independence of UNIX Directory Subtrees

Categories of files are separated into independent UNIX directory subtrees so that files in one category are minimally affected by operations on files in other categories.

Supports Concurrent Execution of Application Software

You can execute multiple versions of application software simultaneously, enabling you to test and use a new release of an application before abandoning the previous version. Transferring to a new version after an upgrade is simple for the administrator and transparent for the user.

Separates Administrative Information for Each Database

The ability to separate administrative information on one database from that of another ensures a reasonable structure for the organization and storage of administrative data.

Uses Consistent Database File Naming

Database files are named so that:

• Database files are easily distinguishable from all other files

• Files of one database are easily distinguishable from files of another database

• Control files, redo log files, and datafiles are identifiable as such

• The association of datafile to tablespace is clearly indicated

Separation of Tablespace Contents

Tablespace contents are separated to:

• Minimize tablespace free space fragmentation

• Minimize I/O request contention

• Maximize administrative flexibility

I/O Loads Tuned Across All Drives

I/O loads are tuned across all drives, including drives storing Oracle data in raw devices.

Additional Benefits of OFA for Oracle9i Real Application Clusters

For Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Installations:

• Administrative data is stored in a central place, accessible to all database administrators

• Administrative data for a particular instance can be identified by filename

Optimal Flexible Architecture Implemented on UNIX

This section describes the naming strategy recommended by the OFA standard.

Mount Points

This section describes the naming conventions for mount points.

Create Mount Points

An installation of Oracle9i requires at least two mount points: one for the software and at least one for the database files. To implement the OFA recommendations fully, Oracle9i requires at least four mount points: one for the software and at least three for database files.

Mount Point Syntax

Name all mount points using the syntax /pm, where p is a string constant and m is a unique fixed-length key (typically a two-digit number) used to distinguish each mount point. For example: /u01 and /u02, or /disk01 and /disk02.

Naming Mount Points for Very Large Databases (VLDBs)

If each disk drive contains database files from one application and there are enough drives for each database to prevent I/O bottlenecks, use the syntax /pm/q/dm for naming mount points. Table F-1 describes the variables used in this syntax.

Table F-1 Syntax for Naming Mount Points  

Variable	Description
pm	A mount point name
q	A string denoting that Oracle data is stored in this directory
dm	The value of the initialization parameter DB_NAME (synonymous with the instance sid for single-instance databases)

For example, mount points named /u01/oradata/test and /u02/oradata/test allocate two drives for the Oracle test database.

Naming Directories

This section describes the naming conventions for OFA compliant directories.

Home Directory Syntax

Name home directories using the syntax /pm/h/u. Table F-2 describes the variables used in this syntax.

Table F-2 Syntax for Naming Home Directories  

Variable	Description
pm	A mount point name
h	A standard directory name
u	The name of the owner of the directory

For example, /u01/app/oracle is the Oracle software owner home directory (also referred to as the Oracle base directory, the default directory used by the installer) and /u01/app/applmgr is an Oracle applications software owner home directory.

Placing home directories at the same level in the UNIX file system is advantageous because it allows the collection of applications owner login home directories on different mount points to be referred to using the single pattern matching string, /*/app/*.

Referring to Pathnames

Refer to explicit pathnames only in files designed specifically to store them, such as the password file, /etc/passwd, and the Oracle oratab file. Refer to group memberships only in the /etc/group file.

Software Directories

To help fulfill the OFA feature of simultaneously executing multiple versions of application software, store each version of the Oracle9i Server software in a directory matching the pattern /pm/h/u/product/v.

Table F-3 describes the variables used in this syntax.

Table F-3 Syntax for Naming Oracle9i Server Software Directories  

Variable	Description
pm	A mount point name
h	A standard directory name
u	The name of the owner of the directory
v	The version of the software

For example, /u01/app/oracle/product/9.0.1 indicates the Oracle9i parent directory. Set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable to this directory.

Naming Subdirectories

To facilitate the organization of administrative data, Oracle Corporation recommends that you store database-specific administration files in subdirectories matching the pattern /h/admin/d/a/, where h is the Oracle software owner's home directory, d is the database name (DB_NAME), and a is a subdirectory for each of the database administration files. Table F-4 describes the database administration file subdirectories.

Table F-4 Subdirectories for Database Administration Files  

Subdirectory	Description
adhoc	Ad hoc SQL scripts for a particular database
arch	Archived redo log files
adump	Audit files (Set the AUDIT_FILE_DEST initialization parameter to the adump directory. Clean out this subdirectory periodically.)
bdump	Background process trace files
cdump	Core dump files
create	Programs used to create the database
exp	Database export files
logbook	Files recording the status and history of the database
pfile	Instance parameter files
udump	User SQL trace files

For example, the adhoc subdirectory has the pathname /u01/app/oracle/admin/sab/adhoc/ if the adhoc subdirectory is part of the database named sab.

Naming Database Files

The following naming convention for database files ensures that they are easily identifiable:

File Type	File Naming Convention
Control files	/pm/q/d/control.ctl
Redo log files	/pm/q/d/redon.log
Datafiles	/pm/q/d/tn.dbf

The following table describes this syntax:

Variable	Description
pm	A mount point name described previously in this chapter
q	A string distinguishing Oracle data from all other files (usually named ORACLE or oradata)
d	The value of the initialization parameter DB_NAME (synonymous with the instance sid for single-instance databases)
t	An Oracle tablespace name
n	A two-digit string

Note: Do not store files other than control files, redo log files, or datafiles associated with database d in the path /pm/q/d.

Following this convention, you could produce, for example, a datafile with the name /u03/oradata/sab/system01.dbf, making it easy to see the database to which the file belongs.

Separate Segments With Different Requirements

Separate groups of segments with different lifespans, I/O request demands, and backup frequencies across different tablespaces.

Table F-5 describes the special tablespaces that the Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) creates for each Oracle database. If you manually create a database, you must create the required tablespaces. These tablespaces are in addition to those required for application segments.

See Also: For Information on creating tablespaces manually, see the Oracle9i Database Administrator's Guide.

Table F-5 Special Tablespaces  

Tablespace	Required	Description
SYSTEM	Yes	Data dictionary segments
TEMP	Yes	Temporary segments
RBS	Yes	Rollback segments
USERS	Yes	Miscellaneous user segments
INDX	No	Index associated with data in the USERS tablespace
OEM_REPOSITORY	No	Repository for Oracle Enterprise Manager
DRSYS	No	Oracle interMedia segment

Creating these special tablespaces is effective because data dictionary segments are never dropped, and no other segments that can be dropped are allowed in the SYSTEM tablespace. Doing this ensures that the SYSTEM tablespace does not require a rebuild due to tablespace free-space fragmentation.

Because rollback segments are not stored in tablespaces holding applications data, the administrator is not blocked from taking an application's tablespace offline for maintenance. The segments are partitioned physically by type, and the administrator can record and predict data growth rates without using complicated tools.

Naming Tablespaces

Name tablespaces descriptively using a maximum of eight characters. Although Oracle9i tablespace names can be 30 characters long, portable UNIX filenames are restricted to 14 characters. The recommended standard for a datafile basename is tn.dbf, where t is a descriptive tablespace name and n is a two-digit string. Because the extension plus the two-digit string occupy a total of six characters, only eight characters remain for the tablespace name.

Descriptive names enable the datafile to be associated with the tablespace that uses it. For example, the names GLD and GLX might be used for the tablespaces storing General Ledger data and indices, respectively.

Note: Do not embed reminders of the word "tablespace" in your tablespace names. Tablespaces are distinguishable by context, and names do not need to convey information on type.

Exploiting the OFA Structure for Oracle Files

Table F-6 describes the syntax used for identifying classes of files.

Table F-6 Directory Structure Syntax for Identifying Classes of Files  

Directory Structure Syntax	Description
/u[0-9][0-9]	User data directories
/*/home/*	User home directories
/*/app/*	User application software directories
/*/app/applmgr	Oracle applications software subtrees
/*/app/oracle/product	Oracle software subtrees
/*/app/oracle/product/9.0.1	Oracle Server release 9.0.1 distribution files
/*/app/oracle/admin/sab	sab database administrative subtrees
/*/app/oracle/admin/sab/arch/*	sab database archived log files
/*/oradata	Oracle data directories
/*/oradata/sab/*	sab database files
/*/oradata/sab/*.log	sab database redo log files

OFA File Mapping

Table F-7 shows a hierarchical file mapping of a sample OFA-compliant database, including each file mount point, application, database, and tablespace. The filenames indicate the file type (control, log, or data).

Table F-7 Hierarchical File Mapping for OFA Installation  

Directory	Description
/	Root mount point
/u01/	User data mount point 1
/u01/app/	Subtree for application software
/u01/app/oracle/	Home for oracle software user
/u01/app/oracle/admin/	Subtree for database administration files
/u01/app/oracle/admin/TAR	Subtree for support log files
/u01/app/oracle/admin/db_name1/	admin subtree for db_name1 database
/u01/app/oracle/admin/db_name2/	admin subtree for db_name2 database
/u01/app/oracle/doc/	Online documentation
/u01/app/oracle/product/	Distribution files
/u01/app/oracle/product/8.1.6/	Oracle home directory for release 8.1.6 instances
/u01/app/oracle/product/8.1.7/	Oracle home directory for release 8.1.7 instances
/u01/app/oracle/product/9.0.1/	Oracle home directory for release 9.0.1 instances
/u01/app/ltb/	Home directory for a user
/u01/app/sbm/	Home directory for a user
/u01/oradata/	Subtree for Oracle data
/u01/oradata/db_name1/	Subtree for db_name1 database files
/u01/oradata/db_name2/	Subtree for db_name2 database files
/u02/	User data mount point 2
/u02/home/	Subtree for login home directories
/u02/home/cvm/	Home directory for a user
/u02/home/vrm/	Home directory for a user
/u02/oradata/	Subtree for Oracle data
/u02/oradata/db_name1/	Subtree for db_name1 database files
/u02/oradata/db_name2/	Subtree for db_name2 database files
/u03/	User data mount point 3
/u03/oradata/	Subtree for Oracle data
/u03/oradata/db_name1/	Subtree for db_name1 database files
/u03/oradata/db_name2/	Subtree for db_name2 database files

File Mapping for a Multiple-Instance OFA Database

When using the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters, select one node to act as the Oracle administrative home for the cluster. The administrative home contains the administrative subtree. Create subdirectories for each instance accessing the database within the bdump, cdump, logbook, pfile, and udump directories of the ~/admin/d/ directory. Mount the admin directory for the administrative home as the admin directory for every instance. Table F-10 shows a sample directory structure.

Table F-8 Administrative Directory Structure for Dual-Instance Oracle9i Real Application Clusters  

Directory Path	Description
/u01/app/oracle/admin/sab/	Administrative directory for sab database
/u01/adhoc/	Directory for miscellaneous scripts
/u01/arch/	Log archive destination for all instances
/u01/arch/redo001.arc	Archived redo log file
/u01/bdump/	Directory for background dump files
/u01/bdump/inst1/	Background dump destination for inst1 instance
/u01/bdump/inst2/	Background dump destination for inst2 instance
/u01/cdump/	Directory for core dump files
/u01/cdump/inst1/	Core dump destination for inst1 instance
/u01/cdump/inst2/	Core dump destination for inst2 instance
/u01/create/	Directory for creation scripts
/u01/create/1-rdbms.sql	SQL script to create inst database
/u01/exp/	Directory for exports
/u01/exp/20000120full.dmp	January 20, 2000 full export dump file
/u01/exp/export/	Directory for export parfiles
/u01/exp/import/	Directory for import parfiles
/u01/logbook/	Directory for logbook entries
/u01/logbook/inst1/	Directory for inst1 instance reports
/u01/logbook/inst1/params.1st	V$PARAMETER report for inst1 instances
/u01/logbook/inst2/	Directory for inst2 instances reports
/u01/logbook/inst2/params.1st	V$PARAMETER report for inst2 instances
/u01/logbook/user.1st	DBA_USERS report
/u01/pfile/	Directory for instance parameter files
/u01/pfile/inst1/	Directory for inst1 instance parameters
/u01/pfile/inst1/initinst1.ora	Instance parameters for inst1 instance
/u01/pfile/inst2/	Directory for inst2 instance parameters
/u01/pfile/inst2/initinst2.ora	Instance parameters for inst2 instance
/u01/udump/	Directory for user dump files
/u01/udump/inst1/	User dump destination for inst1 instance
/u01/udump/inst2/	User dump destination for inst2 instance

Directory Structure

The following sections describe the directory structure for OFA compliant installations.

ORACLE Base Directory

The Oracle base directory is the root of the Oracle directory structure. When installing an OFA-compliant database using the Oracle Universal Installer, the default Oracle base directory is set to /pm/app/oracle. Table F-9 describes an Oracle base directory structure and content.

Table F-9 Oracle Base Directory Structure and Content  

Directory	Description
admin	Administrative files
doc	Online documentation
local	Subtree for local Oracle software
product	Oracle software

Oracle Home Directory

If you install an OFA-compliant Oracle Server, the Oracle home directory is /pm/app/oracle/product/release_number. Table F-10 describes the Oracle home directory structure and content. Under UNIX, the Oracle home directory contains the subdirectories described in Table F-10, as well as a subdirectory for each Oracle product installed.

Table F-10 Oracle Home Directory Structure and Content  

Directory	Description
assistants	Configuration Assistants
bin	Binaries for all products
ctx	interMedia Text options
dbs	Initialization files
install	Installation-related files
lib	Oracle product libraries
jlib	Java classes
md	Spatial options
mlx	Xerox Stemmer (for interMedia Text options)
network	Oracle Net Services files
ocommon	Common files for all products
odg	Data gatherer files
oracore	Core libraries
ord	Data options
otrace	Oracle TRACE files
plsql	PL/SQL files
precomp	Precompiler files
rdbms	Server files and libraries required for the database
slax	SLAX parser files
sqlplus	SQL*Plus files

Examples of Product Subdirectories

Table F-11 shows examples of product subdirectories and their contents.

Table F-11 Examples of Product Subdirectories  

Directory	Description
rdbms	admin, doc, install, lib, log, mesg
sqlplus	admin, demo, doc, install, lib, mesg

Contents of Product Subdirectories

Table F-12 describes the subdirectories contained in the rdbms and sqlplus product subdirectories.

Table F-12 Contents of Product Subdirectories  

Directory	Description
admin	Administrative SQL and shell scripts (for example, catalog.sql, catexp.sql, and demo.sql)
admin/*	Special directories for other products
admin/resource	Resource files
admin/terminal	Runtime terminal files
demo	Demonstration scripts and datafiles
doc	README files (for example, readmeunix.doc)
install	Product installation scripts
jlib	Product Java classes
lib	Product libraries and distributed make files
log	Trace files and log files (for example, orasrv.log and *.trc files)
mesg	U.S. message files and Multilingual Option (formerly National Language Support) message text and binary files (for example, oraus.msg and oraus.msb)

File Naming Conventions in the admin Directory

Table F-13 shows the SQL scripts located in the rdbms/admin directory.

Table F-13 admin Directory, File Naming Conventions  

File	Description
cat*.sql	Creates catalog and data dictionary tables and views. The following files are run automatically during installation: catalog.sql (for all installations) catproc.sql (for all installations) catclust.sql (for Oracle9i Real Application Clusters option installations) catrep.sql (for all installations) The catproc.sql file in turn runs the scripts for creating the standard PL/SQL packages, such as DBMS_SQL and DBMS_OUTPUT.
d*.sql	Downgrade scripts
dbms*.sql	Additional database packages
u*.sql	Upgrade scripts
utl*.sql	Creates tables and views for database utilities

Filename Extensions

Table F-14 describes filename extensions.

Table F-14 Filename Extensions  

Extension	Description
.a	Object file libraries; Ada runtime libraries
.aud	Oracle audit file
.bdf	X11 font description file
.bmp	X11 bitmap file
.c	C source file
.ctl	SQL*Loader control file; Oracle Server control file
.dat	SQL*Loader datafile
.dbf	Oracle Server tablespace file
.dmp	Export file
.doc	ASCII text file
.env	Shell script file for setting environment
.h	C header file; also, sr.h is a SQL*Report Writer help file
.jar	Java class archive
.l	UNIX manual page
.lis	Output of SQL*Plus scrip
.log	Installation log files; Oracle Server redo log file
.mk	Make file
.msb	Multilingual Option message file (binary)
.msg	Multilingual Option message file (text)
.o	Object module
.ora	Oracle configuration file
.orc	Installation prototype file
.pc	Pro*C source file
.pco	Pro*COBOL source file
.ppd	Printer driver file
.sh	Bourne shell script file
.sql	SQL script file
.sys	Bourne shell script file
.tab	SQL script file
.trc	Trace file
.tut	Bourne shell script file
.utd	Uniform Terminal Definition file
.zip	Zip file