Automatic Storage Management (ASM) can be configured from the DBCA in all versions starting from Oracle 10gR1. The 11gR2 has separated the ASM configuration into another tool named ASMCA. ASM is a convenient storage method for Oracle Databases starting with Oracle 10gR1.
ASM is a high performance storage method for Oracle Databases. This allows striping and mirroring, and a regular database can be completely or partially stored in ASM. ASM uses raw disks to store the data, and provides an Oracle-owned file-system structure (metadata) to identify where the data is stored. This provides a balance between Raw storage (high performance) and File systems (manageability) while addressing the unique concerns of a database. In RAC environments ASM is the preferred storage method used in case there is no cluster file system available.
ASM stripes files across the configured physical disks, it allows online disk reconfiguration and rebalancing, and it...