RHEL Oracle ASMLib Availability and Support

Issue

  • Oracle ASM (Automated Storage Management) is a data volume manager for Oracle databases. ASMLib is an optional utility that can be used on Linux systems to manage Oracle ASM devices. ASM assists users in disk management by keeping track of storage devices dedicated to Oracle databases and allocating space on those devices according to the requests from Oracle database instances.
  • I have tried installing Oracle ASM using the RPMs downloaded from the Oracle site. However, when attempting to install them, I get this error:
[root@host tmp]# rpm -ivh oracleasmlib-2.0.4-1.el6.x86_64.rpm
warning: oracleasmlib-2.0.4-1.el6.x86_64.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID ec551f03: NOKEY
error: Failed dependencies:
        oracleasm >= 1.0.4 is needed by oracleasmlib-2.0.4-1.el6.x86_64

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Resolution

Overview

ASMLib consists of the following components:

  • An open source (GPL) kernel module package: kmod-oracleasm
  • An open source (GPL) utilities package: oracleasm-support
  • A closed source (proprietary) library package: oracleasmlib

ASM features and functionality are available without ASMLib. The use of ASMLib does not affect database performance.

The ASMLib kernel module package is provided as a convenience to Red Hat customers via the Red Hat Network Customer Portal. Red Hat Global Support Services will field ASMLib related issues and use commercially reasonable effort to support the ASMLib kernel module, until such an effort requires knowledge of or modifications to Oracle’s proprietary dependent component(s).

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 customers who use ASMLib can obtain the other two components (the ASMLib utilities package and the proprietary library package) at the locations (subject to change) described in the steps below.

Installing and Configuring ASMLib:

To obtain, install, and configure ASMLib:

  1. Enable the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server repository on Red Hat Network Customer Portal
  2. Download the ASMLib utilities package (oracleasm-support) and ASMLib library package (oracleasmlib) from the following location:
    http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/linux/asmlib/rhel6-1940776.html
  3. Install the ASMLib kernel module package as root using the following command: 
    # yum install kmod-oracleasm
  4. Install the ASMLib library package obtained from step 2 as root using the following command, with the downloaded package: 
    # yum localinstall oracleasmlib-<version>.x86_64.rpm    # Where <version> is the revision downloaded in the previous step
  5. Install the ASMLib utilities package obtained from step 2 as root using the following command, with the downloaded package: 
    # yum localinstall oracleasm-support-<version>.x86_64.rpm

    All three required ASMLib components should now be installed on your system.

  6. Configure ASMLib using the following command: 
    oracleasm init

Support for ASMLib

The ASMLib kernel module package is provided as a convenience to Red Hat customers via the Red Hat Network Customer Portal. Red Hat Global Support Services will respond to ASMLib related issues and use commercially reasonable efforts to support the ASMLib kernel module until such an effort requires knowledge of or modifications to Oracle’s proprietary dependent component(s).

Since the ASMLib kernel module package is now updated with each kernel release, please update the relevant kmod-oracleasm package with each kernel update.

Additionally, updates may be provided for the kmod-oracleasm package independent of a kernel update. You may find the latestkmod-oracleasm packages in the base RHEL channel.

Oracle will provide support for the other two required ASMLib components (oracleasm-support and oracleasmlib) on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Customers can obtain these two ASMLib components at the location (subject to change) described in the steps above.

Note that the ASMLib kernel module package ABIs are not guaranteed per Red Hat’s Supplementary software package support terms as stated at https://access.redhat.com/support/offerings/production/scope_moredetail.html.

Alternatives to ASMLib

Please note that Red Hat is continuing to develop fully open source alternatives to ASMLib. Red Hat has provided a reference architecture for Oracle RAC clusters using upstream-accepted technologies such as dm-multipath and udev. This reference architecture is available at: https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/216093.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

The ASMLib kernel module (kmod-oracleasm) is available with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 customers who use ASMLib can obtain the other two components (the ASMLib utilities package and the proprietary library package) at the locations (subject to change) described in the steps below.

Installing and Configuring ASMLib:

To obtain, install, and configure ASMLib:

Enable the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server repository on Red Hat Network Customer Portal

Download the ASMLib utilities package (oracleasm-support) and ASMLib library package (oracleasmlib) from the following location:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/linux/asmlib/ol7-2352094.html

Install the ASMLib kernel module package as root using the following command:

# yum install kmod-oracleasm

Install the ASMLib library package obtained from step 2 as root using the following command, with the downloaded package:

# yum localinstall oracleasmlib-<version>.x86_64.rpm    # Where <version> is the revision downloaded in the previous step

Install the ASMLib utilities package obtained from step 2 as root using the following command, with the downloaded package:

# yum localinstall oracleasm-support-<version>.x86_64.rpm

All three required ASMLib components should now be installed on your system.

Configure ASMLib using the following command:

oracleasm init

For more detailed steps on configuring ASMLib, refer to the ASMLib documentation:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/indexes/documentation/index.html

Support for ASMLib

The ASMLib kernel module (kmod-oracleasm) is available with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat Global Support Services will respond to ASMLib related issues and use commercially reasonable efforts to support the ASMLib kernel module until such an effort requires knowledge of or modifications to Oracle’s proprietary dependent component(s).

Since the ASMLib kernel module package is now updated with each kernel release, please update the relevant kmod-oracleasm package with each kernel update.

Oracle will provide support for the other two required ASMLib components (oracleasm-support and oracleasmlib) on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.
Customers can obtain these two ASMLib components at the location (subject to change) described in the steps above.

Note that the ASMLib kernel module package ABIs are not guaranteed per Red Hat’s Supplementary software package support terms as stated at https://access.redhat.com/support/offerings/production/scope_moredetail.html.

Additional Information:

  1. Guide the oracledata official documentation to configure the oracleasm.
    especially for the “Disk Scan Ordering” item. Please see the following reference
    for more detailed configuration instruction:
    http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/install.112/e41961/storage.htm#CWLIN301
  2. SELinux may prevent oracleasm.service (systemd) from starting during the system boot. Please see section#2.10 Oracle ASM Fails to Initialize with SELinux in Enforcing Mode in the following link for more detailed instructions on how to workaround the issue:

    Click to access E53499.pdf

    Hint: The oracleasm script fails if SELinux is in Enforcing mode.

    The suggested workaround is to disable the SELInux policy module for Oracle
    ASM before running oracleasm:

    # semodule -d oracleasm
# semodule -l | grep oracleasm
    oracleasm
    1.0.0 
   Disabled
  3. Secureboot

With UEFI secure boot enabled system, oracleasm kernel module can not be loaded,
there are two workarounds for this problem:
* disable secure boot in the BIOS and reboot, and then load the kmod-oracleasm module in.
* sign oracleasm kernel module after install kmod-oracleasm with the vendor’s own secureboot keys.

Please refer to the Red Hat Enterprise 7 System Administration Guide below for how to sign a third party module for second workaround method above:

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/System_Administrators_Guide/sect-signing-kernel-modules-for-secure-boot.html

Important Note:
When using the ‘oracleasm deletedisk’ command, please be sure that using this command is the intention and that the correct device is used.
In RHEL 7, using this command will delete the data in the device without warning, even when the device is active.

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