Robert,

We will no longer release ASMLib kernel drivers for RHEL 6 kernels. See this note on support.oracle.com
     
Oracle ASMLib Software Update Policy for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Supported by Red Hat (Doc ID 1089399.1)

Sergio

asmlib is just for ease of management as it discovers the right devices for you. You can also use raw/block devices just point asm_diskstring to the corret devices.

Regards,

- wiZ

Looks like this is going to make it difficult to use asmlib for evaluation and Oracle studying. When comparing previous releases the oracleasm driver seems also no longer build into the public Oracle UEK kernel. I guess that will leave free users with udev or multipath to address device ownership and naming issues.

Edited by: Dude on Mar 1, 2011 9:58 AM

Please note: Oracleasm kernel driver is included in OL 6 UEK, but requires an inital 'modprobe oracleasm'. See below for more info:

Dude,

When comparing previous releases the oracleasm driver seems also no longer build into the public Oracle UEK kernel.

What makes you say that?

Sergio

Perhaps I should have better said "unlike previous releases...' ?! Would it be correct then?

Sorry in case this information is incorrect. I concluded that OL 6 UEK does not ship with oracleasm driver based on the following:

{code}
OL 5.6
[root@ol1 ~]# uname -a
Linux ol1.example.com 2.6.18-238.el5 #1 SMP Tue Jan 4 15:41:11 EST 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@ol1 ~]# lsmod | grep asm
oracleasm 83752 1

OL 6
[root@ol6 ~]# uname -a
Linux ol6.example.com 2.6.32-100.28.5.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Feb 2 18:40:23 EST 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@ol6 ~]# lsmod | grep asm

{code}

Edited by: Dude on Mar 1, 2011 9:28 AM

Did you try:

# modprobe oracleasm

[root@localhost ~]# uname -r

2.6.32-100.28.5.el6.x86_64

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/oracle-release

Oracle Linux Server release 6.0

[root@localhost ~]# lsmod | grep oracleasm

oracleasm              48306  0 

[root@localhost ~]# 

Ok, modprob oracleasm did it. After that and installing oracleasm-support

Writing Oracle ASM library driver configuration: done
Initializing the Oracle ASMLib driver:                     [  OK  ]
Scanning the system for Oracle ASMLib disks:               [  OK  ]
[root@ol6 init.d]# /etc/init.d/oracleasm status
Checking if ASM is loaded: yes
Checking if /dev/oracleasm is mounted: yes

The driver also stays after reboot:

[root@ol6 ~]# lsmod | grep asm
oracleasm              48306  1 

Thanks, I will update previous post...

Taking the above into consideration, ULN subscription is required to install oracleasm on RHEL 6. Or, install Oracle Linux 6 instead of RHEL 6, which ships with UEK kernel that comes with oracleasm driver. Using Oracle Linux instead of RHEL could actually make sense from a budget and support perspective - one vendor for OS and database. Alternatively use udev or multipath instead of oracleasm.

Ok, so we're going to have a new file "/etc/oracle-release". Is this a replacement for, or is it an addition to, the existing "/etc/redhat-release"? I have Perl code that validates the running kernel version by checking "rpm -qf /etc/redhat-release", as per http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/027626.pdf. Will this code break in the future because there may not be a "/etc/redhat-release"?

thanks & regards,

Tony

Tony,

Both are there. On my Oracle Linux 6 installation:

[root@localhost ~]# uname -a

Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.32-100.28.5.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Feb 2 18:40:23 EST 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.0 (Santiago)

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/oracle-release

Oracle Linux Server release 6.0

[root@localhost ~]# 

Sergio

The problem is - Starting with RH5 - Rawdevices are depricated - so you can not ( or should not ) use RAWDEVICES starting with RH5 on up

using "/etc/redhat-release" to determine a given version of a system is far from a best practice. The redhat-release RPM (and it follows that the cloned oracle-release RPM would be the same) is not dependent on a particular kernel version. It is simply updated on a given release date and includes the needed eula information, etc.

So you could easily end up with a redhat-release version indication 5.1 (or anything really) while you're actually running a kernel and code from the 5.8 release tree.

So you could easily end up with a redhat-release version indication 5.1 (or anything really) while you're actually running a kernel and code from the 5.8 release tree.

Knowing the base release for a server does not help all that much. A fully-updated 5.0GA server is indistinguishable from a fully-updated 5.8 server, except for the *-release scripts.

What I recommend is to do this:

$ rpm -qf --qf="%{NAME}.%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE} by '%{VENDOR}'\n" /etc/*-release

In other words, ask the RPM subsystem about the setup.

Some features are dependent on the kernel version, so put this command into the DNA at the top of your spinal column:

$ /bin/uname -r