Kevin Closson's Blog: Platforms, Databases and Storage

Last summer I posted a blog entry about the Oracle Database 11g feature known as Database File System (DBFS). The blog entry I made on the topic was about how suitable DBFS is as a staging file system for ELT/ETL operations. Since then I’ve also offered a webcast covering some DBFS related topics. With all that, one would naturally presume DBFS is an Exadata-only feature. It is not. I do, however,  get frequent requests for Exadata-specific tuning tips for DBFS. There are none.

Deploying DBFS in an Exadata environment is exactly the same as with non-Exadata storage–just faster.

I do feel that DBFS is much more than just a curiosity. Indeed, a file system stored in a database? Really? Yes! What a twist though given the fact that it has always been the other way around!

I aim to make a few blog entries soon to offer some compelling reasons why Oracle shops might do well to look into the future for areas in which DBFS can help solve problems. Indeed, others in the blogosphere have caught on to the fact that DBFS is not an Exadata-only feature as demonstrated by Ronny Egner’s excellent blog post on DBFS.

I’d also like to draw attention to this excellent Power Point presentation on DBFS as well.

So, I’m going to conclude with this as Part I in a series where I’ll cover some setup, diagnostic and performance information about DBFS.