Having read the excellent post “Demystifying ASM REQUIRED_MIRROR_FREE_MB and USABLE_FILE_MB” again by Harald von Breederode I wanted to see what happens if you create a setup where your usable_file_mb is negative and you actually have to rebalance after a fatal failgroup error. I am using 12.1.0.2.0 on Oracle Linux 6.6/UEK3 in a KVM in case anyone is interested. I/O times aren’t stellar on that environment. It’s Oracle Restart, not clustered ASM.
Note: this post is only applicable if you are using ASM for data protection, e.g. normal or high redundancy. External redundancy is a different thing: if you lose a failgroup in a disk group with external redundancy defined then you are toast. The disk group will dismount on all ASM instances. No disk group = nothing to write to = crash of dependent databases.
Setup
Here is my setup. I created the VM with 2 volume groups, one for the operating system, and another one for Oracle. After the installation of the database and Grid Infrastructure I have a disk group named DATA comprised of 4 disks, each in their own failgroup (which is both the default and intentional):
ASMCMD> lsdsk -k
Total_MB Free_MB OS_MB Name Failgroup Failgroup_Type Library Label UDID Product Redund Path
5119 4131 5119 DATA_0000 DATA_0000 REGULAR System UNKNOWN /dev/vdc1
5119 4127 5119 DATA_0001 DATA_0001 REGULAR System UNKNOWN /dev/vdd1
5119 4128 5119 DATA_0002 DATA_0002 REGULAR System UNKNOWN /dev/vde1
5119 4139 5119 DATA_0003 DATA_0003 REGULAR System UNKNOWN /dev/vdf1
ASMCMD> lsdg
State Type Rebal Sector Block AU Total_MB Free_MB Req_mir_free_MB Usable_file_MB Offline_disks Voting_files Name
MOUNTED NORMAL N 512 4096 1048576 20476 16525 5119 5703 0 N DATA/
ASMCMD>
My database uses the datafiles as shown here:
SQL> select name, bytes from v$datafile; NAME BYTES ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------- +DATA/NCDB/DATAFILE/system.258.871538097 817889280 +DATA/NCDB/DATAFILE/sysaux.257.871538033 629145600 +DATA/NCDB/DATAFILE/undotbs1.260.871538187 62914560 +DATA/NCDB/DATAFILE/users.259.871538183 5242880
ASMCMD must take the file information from v$asm_file-the “space” column seems to take the normal redundancy into account:
SQL> select block_size, blocks, bytes, space, redundancy from v$asm_file where file_number = 259 and incarnation = 871538183;
BLOCK_SIZE BLOCKS BYTES SPACE REDUND
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ------
8192 641 5251072 12582912 MIRROR
As others have explained already the “space” column also takes into account ASM metadata that is of course mirrored too. So to me those numbers make sense. If you look up to the asmcmd output you will notice that the useable_file_mb is 5703MB.
This is where it goes wrong
Let’s cause trouble for the sake of this blog post and to trigger failure. The following is STRONGLY discouraged in your environment! I have put this here so you can see the effect of “negative free space” without having to endure this yourself.
I am deliberately oversubscribing space in the data disk group, which is definitely Not A Good Thing(tm). Please monitor usable_file_mb for each disk group carefully and add storage when needed (you might be unpleasantly surprised how long it can take to add storage so request it early). You will see why it shouldn’t be negative-ever-shortly:
SQL> create tablespace iamtoolargetofit datafile size 6g; Tablespace created. [oracle@server1 ~]$ asmcmd lsdg State Type Rebal Sector Block AU Total_MB Free_MB Req_mir_free_MB Usable_file_MB Offline_disks Voting_files Name MOUNTED NORMAL N 512 4096 1048576 20476 4212 5119 -453 0 N DATA/
The new tablespace is bigger than usable_file_mb and turned that number into the negative. Now if I were to lose a failgroup (the term “disk” is a bit misleading here) I’d be in Big Trouble. Since this is my controlled lab environment and I wanted to see what happens I carried on.
On the host I use virsh detach-disk to remove an arbitrary of my ASM disks. Note from further up the repair timer was 0 for all disks. In other words, there won’t be a grace period to allow for transient failures, the disk will be dropped straight away.
# virsh detach-disk --domain server_12c_asm --target /var/lib/.../server1_asm_data02.qcow2 --current Disk detached successfully
This removed disk /dev/vdd on the guest. This has not gone unnoticed. From the ASM alert.log:
NOTE: Standard client NCDB:NCDB:ASM registered, osid 7732, mbr 0x1, asmb 7728 (reg:3524888596) 2015-02-15 06:01:56.858000 -05:00 NOTE: client NCDB:NCDB:ASM mounted group 1 (DATA) 2015-02-15 08:23:29.188000 -05:00 NOTE: process _user9772_+asm (9772) initiating offline of disk 1.3916023153 (DATA_0001) with mask 0x7e in group 1 (DATA) with client assisting NOTE: checking PST: grp = 1 GMON checking disk modes for group 1 at 10 for pid 23, osid 9772 NOTE: checking PST for grp 1 done. NOTE: initiating PST update: grp 1 (DATA), dsk = 1/0xe969c571, mask = 0x6a, op = clear GMON updating disk modes for group 1 at 11 for pid 23, osid 9772 WARNING: Write Failed. group:1 disk:1 AU:1 offset:1044480 size:4096 path:/dev/vdd1 incarnation:0xe969c571 synchronous result:'I/O error' subsys:System krq:0x7fb991c5e9e8 bufp:0x7fb991c5f000 osderr1:0x0 osderr2:0x0 IO elapsed time: 0 usec Time waited on I/O: 0 usec WARNING: found another non-responsive disk 1.3916023153 (DATA_0001) that will be offlined NOTE: group DATA: updated PST location: disk 0000 (PST copy 0) NOTE: group DATA: updated PST location: disk 0002 (PST copy 1) NOTE: group DATA: updated PST location: disk 0003 (PST copy 2) NOTE: PST update grp = 1 completed successfully ... NOTE: process _b000_+asm (11355) initiating offline of disk 1.3916023153 (DATA_0001) with mask 0x7e in group 1 (DATA) without client assisting NOTE: sending set offline flag message (1976690176) to 1 disk(s) in group 1 Errors in file /u01/app/oracle/diag/asm/+asm/+ASM/trace/+ASM_gmon_5836.trc: ORA-27072: File I/O error Linux-x86_64 Error: 5: Input/output error Additional information: 4 Additional information: 4088 Additional information: 4294967295 Errors in file /u01/app/oracle/diag/asm/+asm/+ASM/trace/+ASM_gmon_5836.trc: ORA-27072: File I/O error Linux-x86_64 Error: 5: Input/output error Additional information: 4 Additional information: 4088 Additional information: 4294967295 Errors in file /u01/app/oracle/diag/asm/+asm/+ASM/trace/+ASM_gmon_5836.trc: ORA-27072: File I/O error Linux-x86_64 Error: 5: Input/output error Additional information: 4 Additional information: 4088 Additional information: 4294967295 Errors in file /u01/app/oracle/diag/asm/+asm/+ASM/trace/+ASM_gmon_5836.trc: ... WARNING: Disk 1 (DATA_0001) in group 1 mode 0x15 is now being offlined NOTE: initiating PST update: grp 1 (DATA), dsk = 1/0xe969c571, mask = 0x6a, op = clear GMON updating disk modes for group 1 at 12 for pid 25, osid 11355 ... SUCCESS: PST-initiated drop disk in group 1(3645453725)) 2015-02-15 08:24:04.910000 -05:00 NOTE: Attempting voting file refresh on diskgroup DATA NOTE: starting rebalance of group 1/0xd949359d (DATA) at power 1 Starting background process ARB0 ARB0 started with pid=26, OS id=11364 NOTE: assigning ARB0 to group 1/0xd949359d (DATA) with 1 parallel I/O NOTE: F1X0 on disk 3 (fmt 2) relocated at fcn 0.26087: AU 0 -> AU 4059 NOTE: 02/15/15 08:24:04 DATA.F1X0 copy 2 relocating from 1:10 to 2:10 at FCN 0.26087 NOTE: 02/15/15 08:24:04 DATA.F1X0 copy 3 relocating from 2:10 to 3:4059 at FCN 0.26087 NOTE: F1B1 fcn on disk 0 synced at fcn 0.26087 NOTE: F1B1 fcn on disk 2 synced at fcn 0.26087 2015-02-15 08:24:28.853000 -05:00 NOTE: restored redundancy of control and online logs in DATA 2015-02-15 08:24:33.219000 -05:00 ...
And that went on for a little while. As with any rebalance you can see the progress in v$asm_operation:
SQL> r
1* select * from v$asm_operation
GROUP_NUMBER OPERA PASS STAT POWER ACTUAL SOFAR EST_WORK EST_RATE EST_MINUTES ERROR_CODE CON_ID
------------ ----- --------- ---- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------- -------------------------------------------- ----------
1 REBAL RESYNC DONE 11 11 0 0 0 0 0
1 REBAL REBALANCE RUN 11 11 559 4529 12417 0 0
1 REBAL COMPACT WAIT 11 11 0 0 0 0 0
You can see detailed information about the disk dropping in asmcmd too:
ASMCMD> lsdsk -kpt
Total_MB Free_MB OS_MB Name Failgroup Failgroup_Type Library Label UDID Product Redund Group_Num Disk_Num Incarn Mount_Stat Header_Stat Mode_Stat State Create_Date Mount_Date Repair_Timer Path
5119 3237 0 _DROPPED_0001_DATA DATA_0001 REGULAR System UNKNOWN 1 1 3916023153 MISSING UNKNOWN OFFLINE FORCING 15-FEB-15 15-FEB-15 0
5119 323 5119 DATA_0000 DATA_0000 REGULAR System UNKNOWN 1 0 3916023154 CACHED MEMBER ONLINE NORMAL 15-FEB-15 15-FEB-15 0 /dev/vdc1
5119 324 5119 DATA_0002 DATA_0002 REGULAR System UNKNOWN 1 2 3916023152 CACHED MEMBER ONLINE NORMAL 15-FEB-15 15-FEB-15 0 /dev/vde1
5119 328 5119 DATA_0003 DATA_0003 REGULAR System UNKNOWN 1 3 3916023156 CACHED MEMBER ONLINE NORMAL 15-FEB-15 15-FEB-15 0 /dev/vdf1
ASMCMD>
Missing, forcing, offline all don’t sound too good… What is worse was this:
ASMCMD> lsdg State Type Rebal Sector Block AU Total_MB Free_MB Req_mir_free_MB Usable_file_MB Offline_disks Voting_files Name MOUNTED NORMAL Y 512 4096 1048576 15357 0 5119 -2559 1 N DATA/
And then the inevitable happened:
2015-02-15 08:31:55.491000 -05:00 ERROR: ORA-15041 thrown in ARB0 for group number 1 Errors in file /u01/app/oracle/diag/asm/+asm/+ASM/trace/+ASM_arb0_11547.trc: ORA-15041: diskgroup "DATA" space exhausted WARNING: Resync encountered ORA-15041; continuing rebalance NOTE: stopping process ARB0 NOTE: requesting all-instance membership refresh for group=1 WARNING: rebalance not completed for group 1/0xd949359d (DATA) GMON updating for reconfiguration, group 1 at 20 for pid 25, osid 11773 NOTE: cache closing disk 1 of grp 1: (not open) _DROPPED_0001_DATA
ORA-15041 is the dreaded error: space exhausted. This was to be expected, but I had to see it with my own eyes.
The ASM rebalance is not complete:
SQL> r
1* select * from v$asm_operation
GROUP_NUMBER OPERA PASS STAT POWER ACTUAL SOFAR EST_WORK EST_RATE EST_MINUTES ERROR_CODE CON_ID
------------ ----- --------- ---- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------- -------------------------------------------- ----------
1 REBAL RESYNC DONE 11 0
1 REBAL REBALANCE ERRS 11 ORA-15041 0
1 REBAL COMPACT WAIT 11 0
Interestingly the database remained up-but I can’t do anything with it as these examples demonstrate:
SQL> alter tablespace IAMTOOLARGETOFIT add datafile size 100m; alter tablespace IAMTOOLARGETOFIT add datafile size 100m * ERROR at line 1: ORA-01119: error in creating database file '+DATA' ORA-17502: ksfdcre:4 Failed to create file +DATA ORA-15041: diskgroup "DATA" space exhausted SQL> create table t as select * from dba_objects; create table t as select * from dba_objects * ERROR at line 1: ORA-01652: unable to extend temp segment by 128 in tablespace USERS Errors in file /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/ncdb/NCDB/trace/NCDB_arc3_12194.trc: ORA-19504: failed to create file "+DATA" ORA-17502: ksfdcre:4 Failed to create file +DATA ORA-15041: diskgroup "DATA" space exhausted ARC3: Error 19504 Creating archive log file to '+DATA' 2015-02-15 08:47:31.410000 -05:00 Unable to create archive log file '+DATA'
You are now in a bit of a situation … So be careful when you are on negative values for usable_file_mb-a loss of only one failgroup does not cause the disk group to be dismounted in ASM normal redundancy, but you are likewise ending up in a very undesirable place.
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