Oracle ASM

DSI has a complete understanding of the ASM architecture and can advise on advantages and usability specific to their application and utility. Automatic Storage Management (ASM) simplifies administration of Oracle related files by allowing the administrator to reference disk groups rather than individual disks and files, which are managed by ASM. The ASM functionality is an extension of the Oracle Managed Files (OMF) functionality that also includes striping and mirroring to provide balanced and secure storage. The new ASM functionality can be used in combination with existing raw and cooked file systems, along with OMF and manually managed files.

The ASM functionality is controlled by an ASM instance. This is not a full database instance but just the memory structures and, as such, ASM is very small and lightweight.

DSI supports ASM implementations in RAC type environments and non RAC environment though we do not find many non RAC environments implemented on ASM. There are many advantages of using ASM but some organizations have not elected to implement ASM. We provide administration support for ASM Disk Group and other ASM instance related functions. DSI supports migration of regular Oracle Instance environments to ASM and vice versa.