Oracle is offering a comprehensive file management solution with ASM 11g Release 2 to further simplify storage management. ASM is enhanced and optimized to manage structured (database files) as well as non-structured (general purpose files) data within the same framework. The ASM general purpose file system (ACFS) will initially support Linux and Windows with a roadmap to support all OS platforms that the database supports. ASM management is streamlined through one management interface, one install and configuration tool, one cluster framework, and one vendor for support. ASM is a scalable solution designed to reduce the total cost of ownership, simplify management, provide high performance without the need for tuning, increase storage utilization through consolidation, and increase database and filesystem availability. In this chapter we looked at how to handle ASM features and how to use ASM for RAC installations.
In the next chapter, we will look at Oracle 11g R2's new features...