Oracle ASM and Thin Provisioning – How To Reclaim Space

Thin provisioning lets storage arrays report more capacity than they physically have – but Oracle ASM doesn't automatically return space when data is deleted. Here's how to reclaim it.

Oracle’s ASM Filter Driver Revisited

A full re-test of Oracle's ASM Filter Driver a year on – correcting earlier mistakes and giving a definitive verdict on AFD behaviour with 4k Advanced Format devices.

ASM Rebalance Too Slow? 3 Tips To Improve Rebalance Times

Slow ASM rebalance operations usually come down to a handful of overlooked settings. Here are three practical fixes that have dramatically cut rebalance times in real customer environments.

Viewing ASM trace files in VIM: Which Way Do You Use?

A couple of people have asked me recently about a classic problem that most DBAs know: how to view ASM trace files in the VIM editor when the filenames start with a + character. To my surprise, there are actually quite a few different ways of doing it. Since it's come up, I thought I'd … Continue reading Viewing ASM trace files in VIM: Which Way Do You Use? →

Oracle 12.1.0.2 ASM Filter Driver: Advanced Format Fail

The ASM Filter Driver introduced in Oracle 12.1.0.2 as a replacement for ASMLib has a critical flaw: it fails entirely with 4k native Advanced Format devices.

Oracle 12.1.0.2 ASM Filter Driver: First Impressions

Oracle's new ASM Filter Driver in 12.1.0.2 promises cleaner I/O filtering than ASMLib – here are the initial installation findings and what to watch out for with 4k devices.

New My Oracle Support note on Advanced Format (4k) storage

A new official Oracle support note on Advanced Format 4k storage – co-authored with Oracle ASM Development to replace the confusing and inconsistent guidance that existed before.

The Ultimate Guide To Oracle with Advanced Format 4k

Everything you need to know about running Oracle on Advanced Format 4k storage – a high-level overview and a full Oracle deep dive, in one place.

Oracle ASMLib: Physical and Logical Blocksize

The ORACLEASM_USE_LOGICAL_BLOCK_SIZE parameter controls how ASMLib handles 4k Advanced Format devices – here's what it does and when you need to change it.

Oracle Fixes The 4k SPFILE Problem…But It’s Still Broken

Oracle patched the SPFILE failure on 4k devices in 11.2.0.4 – but the underlying support for Advanced Format storage remains incomplete and unreliable.