InfoScale™ 9.0 Storage and Availability Management for DB2 Databases - AIX, Linux

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (9.0)
Platform: AIX,Linux
  1. Section I. Storage Foundation High Availability (SFHA) management solutions for DB2 databases
    1. Overview of Storage Foundation for Databases
      1.  
        Introducing Storage Foundation High Availability (SFHA) Solutions for DB2
      2. About the File System component
        1.  
          About the File System intent log
        2.  
          About extents
        3.  
          About file system disk layouts
      3.  
        About the Volume Manager component
      4.  
        About Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP)
      5.  
        About Cluster Server
      6.  
        About Cluster Server agents
      7.  
        About InfoScale Operations Manager
      8.  
        Feature support for DB2 across InfoScale products
      9.  
        Use cases for InfoScale products
  2. Section II. Deploying DB2 with InfoScale products
    1. Deployment options for DB2 in a Storage Foundation environment
      1.  
        DB2 deployment options in an InfoScale environment
      2.  
        DB2 on a single system with Storage Foundation
      3.  
        DB2 on a single system with off-host in a Storage Foundation environment
      4.  
        DB2 in a highly available cluster with Storage Foundation High Availability
      5.  
        DB2 in a parallel cluster with SF Cluster File System HA
      6.  
        Deploying DB2 and Storage Foundation in a virtualization environment
      7.  
        Deploying DB2 with Storage Foundation SmartMove and Thin Provisioning
    2. Deploying DB2 with Storage Foundation
      1.  
        Tasks for deploying DB2 databases
      2.  
        About selecting a volume layout for deploying DB2
      3. Setting up disk group for deploying DB2
        1.  
          Disk group configuration guidelines for deploying DB2
      4. Creating volumes for deploying DB2
        1.  
          Volume configuration guidelines for deploying DB2
      5. Creating VxFS file system for deploying DB2
        1.  
          File system creation guidelines for deploying DB2
      6.  
        Mounting the file system for deploying DB2
      7.  
        Installing DB2 and creating database
    3. Deploying DB2 in an off-host configuration with Storage Foundation
      1.  
        Requirements for an off-host database configuration
    4. Deploying DB2 with High Availability
      1.  
        Tasks for deploying DB2 in an HA configuration
      2.  
        Configuring VCS to make the database highly available
  3. Section III. Configuring Storage Foundation for Database (SFDB) tools
    1. Configuring and managing the Storage Foundation for Databases repository database
      1.  
        About the Storage Foundation for Databases (SFDB) repository
      2.  
        Requirements for Storage Foundation for Databases (SFDB) tools
      3.  
        Storage Foundation for Databases (SFDB) tools availability
      4. Configuring the Storage Foundation for Databases (SFDB) tools repository
        1.  
          Locations for the SFDB repository
      5.  
        Updating the Storage Foundation for Databases (SFDB) repository after adding a node
      6.  
        Updating the Storage Foundation for Databases (SFDB) repository after removing a node
      7.  
        Removing the Storage Foundation for Databases (SFDB) repository
    2. Configuring authentication for Storage Foundation for Databases (SFDB) tools
      1.  
        Configuring vxdbd for SFDB tools authentication
      2.  
        Adding nodes to a cluster that is using authentication for SFDB tools
      3.  
        Authorizing users to run SFDB commands
  4. Section IV. Improving DB2 database performance
    1. About database accelerators
      1.  
        About InfoScale product components database accelerators
    2. Improving database performance with Quick I/O
      1.  
        About Quick I/O
      2.  
        How Quick I/O improves database performance
      3.  
        Tasks for setting up Quick I/O in a database environment
      4.  
        Preallocating space for Quick I/O files using the setext command
      5.  
        Accessing regular VxFS files as Quick I/O files
      6.  
        Converting DB2 containers to Quick I/O files
      7.  
        About sparse files
      8.  
        Displaying Quick I/O status and file attributes
      9.  
        Extending a Quick I/O file
      10.  
        Monitoring tablespace free space with DB2 and extending tablespace containers
      11.  
        Recreating Quick I/O files after restoring a database
      12.  
        Disabling Quick I/O
    3. Improving DB2 database performance with VxFS Concurrent I/O
      1. About Concurrent I/O
        1.  
          How Concurrent I/O works
      2. Tasks for enabling and disabling Concurrent I/O
        1.  
          Enabling Concurrent I/O for DB2
        2.  
          Disabling Concurrent I/O for DB2
  5. Section V. Using point-in-time copies
    1. Understanding point-in-time copy methods
      1.  
        About point-in-time copies
      2.  
        When to use point-in-time copies
      3.  
        About Storage Foundation point-in-time copy technologies
      4.  
        Point-in-time copy solutions supported by SFDB tools
      5.  
        About snapshot modes supported by Storage Foundation for Databases (SFDB) tools
      6. Volume-level snapshots
        1.  
          Persistent FastResync of volume snapshots
        2.  
          Data integrity in volume snapshots
        3.  
          Third-mirror break-off snapshots
      7. Storage Checkpoints
        1.  
          How Storage Checkpoints differ from snapshots
        2. How a Storage Checkpoint works
          1.  
            Copy-on-write
          2. Storage Checkpoint visibility
            1.  
              Storage Checkpoints and 64-bit inode numbers
        3.  
          About Database Rollbacks using Storage Checkpoints
        4.  
          Storage Checkpoints and Rollback process
        5.  
          Storage Checkpoint space management considerations
    2. Considerations for DB2 point-in-time copies
      1.  
        Considerations for DB2 database layouts
      2.  
        Supported DB2 configurations
    3. Administering third-mirror break-off snapshots
      1. Database FlashSnap for cloning
        1.  
          Database FlashSnap advantages
      2. Preparing hosts and storage for Database FlashSnap
        1. Setting up hosts
          1.  
            Database FlashSnap off-host configuration
        2.  
          Creating a snapshot mirror of a volume or volume set used by the database
      3.  
        Creating a clone of a database by using Database FlashSnap
      4.  
        Resynchronizing mirror volumes with primary volumes
      5.  
        Cloning a database on the secondary host
    4. Administering Storage Checkpoints
      1.  
        About Storage Checkpoints
      2. Database Storage Checkpoints for recovery
        1.  
          Advantages and limitations of Database Storage Checkpoints
      3.  
        Creating a Database Storage Checkpoint
      4.  
        Deleting a Database Storage Checkpoint
      5.  
        Mounting a Database Storage Checkpoint
      6.  
        Unmounting a Database Storage Checkpoint
      7.  
        Creating a database clone using a Database Storage Checkpoint
      8.  
        Restoring database from a Database Storage Checkpoint
      9.  
        Gathering data for offline-mode Database Storage Checkpoints
    5. Backing up and restoring with Netbackup in an SFHA environment
      1.  
        About NetBackup
      2.  
        About using NetBackup for backup and restore for DB2
      3. Using NetBackup in an InfoScale product environment
        1.  
          Clustering a NetBackup Master Server
        2.  
          Backing up and recovering a VxVM volume using NetBackup
        3.  
          Recovering a VxVM volume using NetBackup
  6. Section VI. Optimizing storage costs for DB2
    1. Understanding storage tiering with SmartTier
      1. About SmartTier
        1.  
          About VxFS multi-volume file systems
        2.  
          About VxVM volume sets
        3.  
          About volume tags
        4.  
          SmartTier file management
        5.  
          SmartTier sub-file object management
      2.  
        SmartTier in a High Availability (HA) environment
    2. SmartTier use cases for DB2
      1.  
        SmartTier use cases for DB2
      2.  
        Relocating old archive logs to tier two storage using SmartTier
      3.  
        Relocating inactive tablespaces or segments to tier two storage
      4.  
        Relocating active indexes to premium storage
      5.  
        Relocating all indexes to premium storage
  7. Section VII. Storage Foundation for Databases administrative reference
    1. Storage Foundation for Databases command reference
      1.  
        vxsfadm command reference
      2. FlashSnap reference
        1.  
          FlashSnap configuration parameters
        2.  
          FlashSnap supported operations
      3. Database Storage Checkpoints reference
        1.  
          Database Storage Checkpoints configuration parameters
        2.  
          Database Storage Checkpoints supported operations
    2. Tuning for Storage Foundation for Databases
      1.  
        Additional documentation
      2. About tuning Volume Manager (VxVM)
        1.  
          About obtaining volume I/O statistics
      3. About tuning File System (VxFS)
        1. How monitoring free space works
          1.  
            About monitoring fragmentation
        2.  
          How tuning VxFS I/O parameters works
        3.  
          About tunable VxFS I/O parameters
        4.  
          About obtaining file I/O statistics using the Quick I/O interface
        5.  
          About I/O statistics data
        6.  
          About I/O statistics
      4. About tuning DB2 databases
        1.  
          DB2_USE_PAGE_CONTAINER_TAG
        2.  
          DB2_PARALLEL_IO
        3.  
          PREFETCHSIZE and EXTENTSIZE
        4.  
          INTRA_PARALLEL
        5.  
          NUM_IOCLEANERS
        6.  
          NUM_IOSERVERS
        7.  
          CHNGPGS_THRESH
        8.  
          Table scans
        9.  
          Asynchronous I/O
        10.  
          Buffer pools
        11.  
          Memory allocation
        12.  
          TEMPORARY tablespaces
        13.  
          DMS containers
        14.  
          Data, indexes, and logs
        15.  
          Database statistics
      5.  
        About tuning AIX Virtual Memory Manager
    3. Troubleshooting SFDB tools
      1. About troubleshooting Storage Foundation for Databases (SFDB) tools
        1.  
          Running scripts for engineering support analysis for SFDB tools
        2.  
          Storage Foundation for Databases (SFDB) tools log files
      2. About the vxdbd daemon
        1.  
          Starting and stopping vxdbd
        2.  
          Configuring listening port for the vxdbd daemon
        3.  
          Limiting vxdbd resource usage
        4.  
          Configuring encryption ciphers for vxdbd
      3.  
        Troubleshooting vxdbd
      4. Resources for troubleshooting SFDB tools
        1.  
          SFDB logs
        2.  
          SFDB error messages
        3.  
          SFDB repository and repository files
      5.  
        Upgrading Storage Foundation for Databases (SFDB) tools from 5.0.x to 9.0 (2184482)

How Quick I/O improves database performance

The benefits of using Quick I/O are:

  • Improved performance and processing throughput by having Quick I/O files act as raw devices.

  • Ability to manage Quick I/O files as regular files, which simplifies administrative tasks such as allocating, moving, copying, resizing, and backing up DB2 containers.

Note:

Quick I/O is not supported on Linux.

Quick I/O's ability to access regular files as raw devices improves database performance by:

Table:

Quick I/O feature

Advantage

Supporting direct I/O

I/O on files using read() and write() system calls typically results in data being copied twice: once between user and kernel space, and later between kernel space and disk. In contrast, I/O on raw devices is direct. That is, data is copied directly between user space and disk, saving one level of copying. As with I/O on raw devices, Quick I/O avoids extra copying.

Avoiding kernel write locks on database files

When database I/O is performed using the write() system call, each system call acquires and releases a write lock inside the kernel. This lock prevents multiple simultaneous write operations on the same file. Because database systems usually implement their own locking to manage concurrent access to files, per file writer locks unnecessarily serialize I/O operations. Quick I/O bypasses file system per file locking and lets the database server control data access.

Avoiding double buffering

Most database servers maintain their own buffer cache and do not need the file system buffer cache. Database data cached in the file system buffer is therefore redundant and results in wasted memory and extra system CPU utilization to manage the buffer. By supporting direct I/O, Quick I/O eliminates double buffering. Data is copied directly between the relational database management system (RDBMS) cache and disk, which lowers CPU utilization and frees up memory that can then be used by the database server buffer cache to further improve transaction processing throughput.

For AIX:

Supporting AIX Fastpath asynchronous I/O

AIX Fastpath asynchronous I/O is a form of I/O that performs non-blocking system level reads and writes, allowing the system to handle multiple I/O requests simultaneously. Operating systems such as AIX provide support for asynchronous I/O on raw devices, but not on regular files. As a result, even if the database server is capable of using asynchronous I/O, it cannot issue asynchronous I/O requests when the database runs on file systems. Lack of asynchronous I/O significantly degrades performance. Quick I/O lets the database server take advantage of kernel-supported asynchronous I/O on file system files accessed using the Quick I/O interface.