4
Managing Raw Devices

This chapter describes additional command line utilities that allow you to manage raw devices. Specific topics discussed are:

• Raw Devices Management Utilities

• Reformat an Entire Disk

• Remove All Drive Letters

• Initialize All Space on a Logical Partition

• Create Logical Drives

• Review Disk Layout

• Troubleshooting

Raw Devices Management Utilities

The raw devices management utilities work only with raw devices set up for Oracle8i applications. The raw devices and their partitions have the following characteristics:

• Must contain only one extended partition

• Must not contain a valid NTFS or FAT partition

• Must not contain a primary partition

Before you run these utilities, it is assumed you have created logical partitions. If you need to create a logical partition to add a symbolic link name, use the CRLOGDR utility or Windows NT Disk Administrator. For the steps to create logical partitions, see.

Reformat an Entire Disk

The DELETEDISK utility reformats an entire disk and deletes the contents. It uses the following command line parameters:

/ddrive_number	Required.You must specify this parameter where drive_number is the number of the disk.
/q	Optional. Quiet mode. You are not prompted for format confirmation.
/fsd	Optional. Use this parameter to format a hard disk even if it contains a valid File System partition.

For example, if you want to delete all the logical partitions on disk 2, use the following command:

C:> DELETEDISK /d2 

After you run the DELETEDISK utility, you must run Disk Administrator on all nodes to reinitialize the disk signatures.

To run Disk Administrator:

1. Choose Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Disk Administrator on all the nodes.

   On all nodes a dialog box appears, informing you the disk configuration has been detected. If the dialog box does not appear, the disk configuration may still have changed.

2. Click OK.

Remove All Drive Letters

The LETTERDELETE utility removes all drive letters from partitions and updates the disk key registry to disable reboot mappings. Use this utility when drive letters are reassigned after partitions are created, and for troubleshooting. You do not need to specify any command line parameters.

For example:

C:> LETTERDELETE

Initialize All Space on a Logical Partition

The LOGPARTFORMAT utility initializes all space in a logical partition to zero and removes the symbolic link name. Use this utility if you have old information in the control files. The only parameter you need to specify is the name of the logical partition that you want to use. For example if you want to initialize all space on the \\.\ops_db12 partition to zero, use the following command:

  C:> LOGPARTFORMAT \\.\OPS_DB12 

Create Logical Drives

The CRLOGDR utility enables you to create and delete logical drives and their associated symbolic names on a disk that does not have a primary partition and has only one extended partition.

The utility supports eight parameters, as follows:

/d	Zero indexed drive number (required parameter)
/s	Logical drive size
/n	Logical drive number
/o	Free space offset from beginning of extended partition
/l	Symbolic name
/r	Removes logical drive or symbolic name
/p	Print disk layout
/b	Suppress banner

Usage Notes

To avoid re-sequencing problems when the server reboots, Oracle Corporation recommends that you use the CRLOGDR utility only to:

• Remove logical drives from the end of the extended partition

• Add logical drives to the end of the partition by specifying the offset of the last free space

Examples

The following examples show how to use CRLOGDR.

Example 1

To create a logical drive of 300 MB on disk 3 with no symbolic name:

CRLOGDR /d3 /s 300

Example 2

To create a logical drive of 100 MB on disk 3 with the symbolic name 'CONTROL1':

CRLOGDR /d3 /s 100 /l CONTROL1

Example 3

To assign the symbolic name 'SYSTEM1' to the previously created second logical drive (2):

CRLOGDR /d3 /n 2 /l SYSTEM1

Example 4

To create a logical drive of 300 MB on disk 3 at offset 100 MB with no symbolic name:

Note: The offset /o parameter must be the starting offset of the free space.

CRLOGDR /d3 /s 300 /o 100

Example 5

To remove the second logical drive on disk 3:

Note: This command also removes the symbolic name associated with the drive.

CRLOGDR /d3 /r /n 2

Example 6

To remove the symbolic name 'CONTROL1' (there is no need to supply disk number):

CRLOGDR /r /l CONTROL1

Review Disk Layout

You can review the disk layout by using the CRLOGDR utility's print parameter (/p). To print the layout of disk 4, for example:

CRLOGDR /d4 /p
Oracle Corporation. Copyright (c) 1998. All rights reserved. 
crlogdr - Version 1.0

  NUM        SIZE(MB)       SYMBOLIC NAME  TYPE      OFFSET(MB)    
    1             300          DSS_TABLES     6               0      
    2             300         OLTP_TABLES     6             300     
    3             300           PD_TPCB01     6             600     
    4             300           OLTP_INDX     6             900    
    5             300            OLTP_RBS     6            1200   
    6             300           PD_TPCB04     6            1500    
    7             200           OPS_RBS01     6            1800
*Free               5                  --    --            2000

Total Free Space: 5MB

The columns have the following significance:

Column	Description
NUM	Logical drive number or free space.
SIZE	Size of logical drive or free space.
SYMBOLIC NAME	Symbolic name associated with the drive, if any. Two hyphens (--) mean no symbolic name has been assigned to the drive.
TYPE	Type of partition, where 6 indicates a large MS-DOS partition and 7 indicates an NTFS partition. Note: Raw disk partitions have no file system.
OFFSET	Offset of the partition from the beginning of the extended partition.

Troubleshooting

Mappings Do Not Appear

If mappings do not appear in the Oracle Object Link Manager, make sure the ORACLEOBJSERVICE is started on all nodes in the cluster.

To start the service:

1. Double-click the Services icon in the Control Panel window. The Services dialog box appears.

2. Select ORACLEOBJSERVICE.

3. Click Start.

4. Click Close to dismiss Services dialog box.

General Troubleshooting

Some troubleshooting items are related to improper installation of the clusterware. Consult your hardware vendor documentation.

Unable to Start a Dedicated Server Process

Make sure ORACLESERVICESID and TNS LISTENER run under the same Windows NT account with the same user ID.

Windows NT Disk Administrator Cannot Create Partitions

Most likely, an extended partition was not created. Follow the steps, Create Logical Partitions in an Extended Partition, to first create the extended partition and the multiple logical partitions within the extended partition.

Symbolic Link Names in .TBL File Are Not Exported

Only symbolic link names mapped to a valid shared disk and partition are exported. If you are exporting a .TBL file with current mappings (the default name is SYMMAP.TBL), check the file carefully.

The following table describes the problems you may encounter, and their solutions.

Problem	Solution
Duplicate symbolic link names	Edit the .TBL file by deleting the second occurrence of the symbolic link name. The IMPORTSYMLINKS utility removes duplicate names for any devices.
Symbolic link names point to logical partitions which are not part of a valid file system	The raw devices and their partitions must not contain a valid NTFS or FAT partition. Use the Windows NT Disk Administrator to assign a drive letter. Verify that you do not want to use the partition. Most likely, the logical partition does not contain any valid data. Use the LOGPARTFORMAT utility to delete the partition and file system.
Symbolic link names point to partitions which are not logical partitions	The raw devices and their partitions must contain only one extended partition, and not a primary partition. Use OCOPY to copy the partition data for every partition. Verify that you do not want to use any logical partitions. Use the DELETEDISK utility to reformat the entire disk. Run Disk Administrator to reinitialize the disk signatures. Follow the steps, Creating Raw Devices for Manual Database Creation with a Current Configuration. (You will need to create logical partitions within an extended partition.) See: Backup Raw Partitions on on how to use OCOPY.
Symbolic link names are missing in the .TBL file.	Add symbolic link names to the .TBL file before exporting.