rsync for migrating oracle datafiles

[jw schultz]

On Wed, Jun 04, 2003 at 11:45:15PM +1200, Mark Edwards wrote:
> 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.

Won't work.  Local rsync of a file is slower than just
copying it.

There are some architectural things you can do to reduce the
time taken to copy or to reduce DB downtime but they are off
topic for this list.


-- 
________________________________________________________________
	J.W. Schultz            Pegasystems Technologies
	email address:		jw at pegasys.ws

		Remember Cernan and Schmitt