Oracle Database 11g Direct NFS Clonedb Feature – Part I.

Database Clones Without Storage Snapshot/Clone Technology? Yes, Of Course! You Knew That, Didn’t you?

Oracle Database 11g Release 2 has a bit of a “stealth feature” that few are aware of. The feature is called clonedb which is functionality built into Oracle Database 11g Direct NFS (DNFS). The best way to explain this feature is to pose a short list of questions:

1. Do you have NFS mounts?
2. Do you have DNFS enabled?
3. Do you have an RMAN backup?
4. Do you want to quickly and simply provision fully read/write database clones for development/test purposes?
5. Do you generally provision development/test instances using your vendor NFS snapshot/clone technology?
6. Do you find it too cumbersome to set up development/test clones using your vendor snapshot/clone technology?

If you say yes to most of these then you’ll appreciate the clonedb feature.

Database Clones Without Storage Snapshot/Clone Technology?
This is Part I in the series so at this stage I’ll clearly point out that with Oracle Database 11g Direct NFS clonedb functionality you can create a fully read/write clone database without storage snapshots or clones. Moreover, the clonedb feature is a thin-provisioning approach.

I could type a lot more words about this new feature, but this is a Part I blog entry and since I have a video presentation and a video demonstration of creating and using a direct NFS clone I think I’ll just offer the following links. At only 9 and 3 minutes for the presentation and demonstration videos respectively I hope you’ll find the time for a viewing.

• Video Power Point Presentation. A Short Introduction to Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Direct NFS Clonedb Feature.

• A Video Demonstration of Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Direct NFS Clonedb Feature. Creating and Using a Read/Writable Database Clone Without Storage Snapshot/Clone Technology.

Summary
I’m excited about this feature. In terms of administrative effort, it is by far the easiest way to provision clones for development/test instances that I am aware of. In my assessment it is simple, stable and it performs. I don’t get to say that as often as I’d like to about technology.

Next In This Series
In Part II I’ll cover how adding storage snapshot functionality adds value to Oracle Database 11g Direct NFS clonedb. I’ll also blog about large-scale provisioning using this feature based on a recent test I performed of 64 clones running OLTP in a 8-socket Nehalem EX system running Linux. Future installments on this blog thread will include upcoming patches that improve performance and reference to a MOS note so you don’t fear this is some sort of unsupported feature.

Filed under: oracle