Oracle7 Administrator's Reference for UNIX
OFA Requirements
OFA is specified as a set of 13 requirements, or goals, listed here. The configuration and naming rules you should follow to ensure your database meets those requirements are detailed in Chapter 2 , "Oracle7 Architecture on UNIX".
1. The file system must be organized to allow easy administration of growth: adding data into existing databases, adding users, creating databases, and adding hardware must all be supported with minimal effort.
2. I/O load must be able to be distributed across sufficiently many disk drives to prevent performance bottlenecks.
3. Hardware costs should be minimized where doing so does not conflict unacceptably with operational considerations.
4. Drive failures should impact as few applications as possible.
5. The following items must be able to be distributed across multiple disk drives:
- the collection of home directories
- the contents of an individual home directory
6. Login home directories must be able to be added, moved, or deleted without having to revise programs that refer to them.
7. Categories of files must be separated into independent UNIX directory subtrees, so that files in one category are minimally affected by operations upon files in other categories.
8. Multiple versions of applications software must be able to be executed simultaneously. Cutover after upgrade must be as simple for the administrator and as transparent for the user as possible.
9. Administrative information about one database must be separated from that of others; there must be a reasonable structure for the organization and storage of administrative data.
10. Database files should be named so that:
- database files are easily distinguishable from all other files
- files of one database are easily distinguishable from files of another database
- control files, redo log files, and data files are identifiable as such
- the association of data file to tablespace is clearly indicated
11. Tablespace contents must be separated to:
- minimize tablespace free space fragmentation
- minimize I/O request contention
- maximize administrative flexibility
12. I/O load must be able to be tuned across all drives, including drives storing Oracle data in raw devices.
13. For Oracle Parallel Server Installations:
- administrative data must be stored in a central place, accessible to all database administrators
- instance-specific administrative data must be associated with a given instance by file name