In Part I of my series on Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Direct NFS Clonedb, I offered short videos with a presentation and a demonstration of the feature. I received a significant amount of email which essentially asked the same few questions. So, instead of answering a bunch of email individually, I’ll address the questions here:
Q. Why is your demonstration modeled around cloning an RMAN backup stored in a file system? All Oracle customers use ASM!
A. I’ve put out Part I as an introduction to the technology. I’ll have more on ASM later. I’m certain that not all customers use ASM. Some might even comment on this post accordingly.
Q. What are the NFS server requirements for the CLONE_FILE_CREATE_DEST?
A. Any NFS mount that supports Oracle Database 11g Direct NFS. Now, this is a bit tricky. Since we are talking about test and development instances I’m not convinced it has to be a commercial-grade filer. After all, the only data that will be stored on NFS with this model is the changed block files (COW) and any new datafiles the test/development instance creates. I have tested on a simple HP Proliant storage server running Linux and exporting NFS shares, but that shouldn’t be misconstrued as a support statement.
Q. What is the My Oracle Support note number mentioned in the Part I?
A. The MOS note is 1210656.1. Keep an eye out for it.
Q. Where can I get the clonedb.pl script?
A. Once the MOS note is online the perl script will be available there. It is just a script that automates a few important tasks and generates SQL (very helpful by the way). I’ll offer a copy at the following link: clonedb.pl
Note, this copy of the script is suitable for clonedb usage with production 11.2.0.2 Oracle. After the performance patch (10403302) is applied this rendition of the script will not work. With that performance patch, the clonedb instance needs to boot with the new init.ora parameter clonedb set to true. The new script will generate the requisite text into the auto-generated clone init.ora.
Q. Does the RMAN backup need to be stored in an NFS mount?
A. No. The copy-on-write/thin-provisioning aspect of the feature is implemented in libodm.so. For this reason the CLONE_FILE_CREATE_DEST assignment needs to be to an NFS mount. That RMAN backup can be elsewhere. More on that later.
Q. What about hot RMAN backups and incremental backups?
A. As I mentioned in Part I, I’ll be going into more detail about such topics as how the snapshot features of commercial NFS filers can augment the Oracle Database 11g Direct NFS clonedb feature. I’ll go over hot backups in that post.
Summary
Folks, thus far the intent was to get introductory materials out so we can all end 2010 thinking about a new way to do something old. I’ve left questions unanswered because, after all, we are only at Part I (and a half) in the series.
Kevin Closson's Blog: Platforms, Databases and Storage 
Kevin,
Your post is great. ASM is very, very interesting issue, please touch it also.
Thank you
In your post you refer to performance patch 10403302.
Any more info on this? MOS and google did not find anything useful on this (only references to this article…)
ummm, I guess I’m not an Oracle customer, because I don’t use ASM?
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Thanks for the post. Using a standard linux server to host the nfs share was able to clone a database.
Hi Scott,
Glad to hear it.
11.2.0.1 does not have this package.. Is there anyway i can create using 11.2.0.2 code tree file and use it in 11.2.0.1?
Hello Kiran,
11.2.0.2 only.
I didn’t find the patch 10403302 from metalink, Kevin, is that patch not published yet?
Thanks for the informaton Kevin. I checked with Oracle support, they shared a note with me which is still under review, basically using rman to create backups and renaming the cloned datafiles using the dbms_dnfs.clonedb_renamefile(backup_file_name, new_data_filename). I also am testing NetApp SMO (Snap Manager for Oracle) product for use in cloning Oracle databases for test/dev.
Sounds like a great approach (SMO that is).
“After the performance patch (10403302) is applied…”
Checking MOS and logging an SR found no such patch. Was this ever released?
MOS doc 1210656.1 suggest that it applies to Version 11.1.0.6 to 11.2.0.1 [Release 11.1 to 11.2]. The example in document is based on 11.2.0.2. Does Direct NFS Clonedb feature work with 11.2.0.1 version?
Hi kevinclosson,
Can we use Direct NFS on ASM, i mean my target system is RAC using ASM, so is there a possibility to point CLONE_FILE_CREATE_DEST onto ASM disk ?