In this blog post I will share how the Oracle UTL_HTTP package can been used to enable full stack automation by calling external application and infrastructure REST APIs from within an Oracle 19c or 21c database. I have previously shared how to perform File System snapshots on a Pure Storage FlashBlade using the UTL_HTTP package, in this... Continue Reading →
How to change an Oracle ASM Diskgroups section size
Traditional disk based storage systems use a sector size of 512 bytes, some all-flash-arrays use 4K sectors sizes, but it's not something we generally consider, do you know what you are using ? If you're not sure you may want to check-out now of my recent posts on how to check disk sector sizes from... Continue Reading →
Oracle 19c RAC database online migration to ActiveCluster for extended / stretched RAC clusters
In this post I will share how to perform an online move of an Oracle 19c RAC database to a Pure Storage ActiveCluster Pod to provide Active-Active synchronous replicated storage for an extended / stretched Oracle RAC cluster. Step 1 - ActiveCluster Pod The first step is to create a Pod, in the example below... Continue Reading →
How to Query, Sort and Filter FlashArray REST API results using Ansible
Introduction In a recent post I shared how to create an educational environment to help develop Ansible skills, and provide way of gaining hands-on experience with Pure Storage FlashArray and FlashBlade Ansible modules. In this post I am going to show how to use the the Ansible URI module to use some of the advanced... Continue Reading →
How to get started automating Pure Storage FlashArray and FlashBlade tasks with Ansible
Introduction If you have been following my blog for a few years you may have already read some of my blogs on Ansible, or used seen some demos or even pulled some Ansible code from my GitHub repo I was recently asked How can I learn more about Ansible, and the how can I start... Continue Reading →
Online Oracle database storage migration with Oracle ASM
Background So, the time has come to migrate your Oracle database to another storage array. There are a number of different options available to us, including the Oracle online datafile move, Oracle Recover Manager (RMAN) backup/restore, Oracle DataGuard failover, Data Pump, GoldenGate, host base mirroring, storage replication to name just a few. The method selected... Continue Reading →
Oracle database recovery using Storage Snapshot Optimization
Oracle Storage Snapshot Optimization enables you to use third-party storage snapshots to recover a databases to the current time or a specific point-in-time without having the database placed in backup mode. To use Storage Snapshot Optimization, the snapshot technology must conform to the following requirements. The database is crash consistent during the snapshot.The snapshot preserves... Continue Reading →
How to refresh your Oracle Database on Windows in seconds with PowerShell
Introduction In this short post I will share how we can automate the refresh of an Oracle database on Windows in few seconds with a simple PowerShell script and the Pure Storage PowerShell SDK. Database Volumes In my lab I have an 2 Oracle database each using 2 volumes for the database, which are presented... Continue Reading →
How to use Ansible to map a Linux device to a vVOL FlashArray Volume
Background In my previous post I walked through how you can determine a vVOL FlashArray volume from a Linux device. In this post I will show how we can automate that process with Ansible using the same /dev/sdd Linux device and some code examples. Ansible Linux Facts Let's start by using the ansible_facts.devices to identify... Continue Reading →
How to map a Linux device to a vVOL FlashArray Volume
Background I have recently seen an increase in the adoption of VMware Virtual Volumes (vVOLS), and a question which is frequently asked is: How I can identify the FlashArray volume from my Linux server ? Identify Linux Device In this example my Oracle database is using a Pure Storage FlashArray and has been migrated to... Continue Reading →