rsync for migrating oracle datafiles

[Mark Edwards]

Hi - a question for all ye rsync guru's out there...

I have a need to migrate some fairly large Oracle datafiles from a UFS filesystem to VxFS (VERITAS), however I am not being allowed nearly enough outage time to perform a standard file copy migration. The datafiles (of which there are about 4 are about 50GB each in size and on separate UFS filesystems.

I am considering instigating a local rsync copy between the two filesystems (From UFS to VxFS) while the database is active and then ...

1. shutting the database down 
2. letting the rsync migration complete
3. unmounting the UFS filesystems
4. remounting the VxFS filesystems in place of the old UFS filesystems.

this - I am hoping - will allow me to migrate these oracle datafiles mostly while the database is still online, and would then require only a small outage to finish off the synchronisation and to remount the new filesystems and restart the database.

Both these filesystems would be on the same box.

I am yet to commence experimentation with this technique, but would appreciate some input from anyone who has performed this before, or a similar kind of operation. Is the concensus that this will work, or are there some issues that perhaps I have missed.

Cheers,

Mark