Create the following partitions on only one node in the cluster!

The next step is to create the required partitions on the FireWire (shared) drive. As I mentioned previously, you will use OCFS2 to store the two files to be shared for Oracle's Clusterware software. You will then create three ASM volumes; two for all physical database files (data/index files, online redo log files, control files, SPFILE, and archived redo log files) and one for the Flash Recovery Area.

The following table lists the individual partitions that will be created on the FireWire (shared) drive and what files will be contained on them.

Create All Partitions on FireWire Shared Storage

As shown in the table above, my FireWire drive shows up as the SCSI device /dev/sda. The fdisk command is used for creating (and removing) partitions. For this configuration, we will be creating four partitions: one for Oracle's Clusterware shared files and the other three for ASM (to store all Oracle database files and the Flash Recovery Area). Before creating the new partitions, it is important to remove any existing partitions (if they exist) on the FireWire drive:

# fdisk /dev/sda
Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 300.0 GB, 300090728448 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36483 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1       36483   293049666    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)


Command (m for help): d
Selected partition 1

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 300.0 GB, 300090728448 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36483 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System


Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-36483, default 1): 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-36483, default 36483): +1G


Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 2
First cylinder (124-36483, default 124): 124
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (124-36483, default 36483): +50G

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 3
First cylinder (6204-36483, default 6204): 6204
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (6204-36483, default 36483): +50G

Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Selected partition 4
First cylinder (12284-36483, default 12284): 12284
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (12284-36483, default 36483): +100G

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 300.0 GB, 300090728448 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36483 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1         123      987966   83  Linux
/dev/sda2             124        6203    48837600   83  Linux
/dev/sda3            6204       12283    48837600   83  Linux
/dev/sda4           12284       24442    97667167+  83  Linux

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

After creating all required partitions, you should now inform the kernel of the partition changes using the following syntax as the root user account:

# partprobe

# fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 300.0 GB, 300090728448 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36483 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1         123      987966   83  Linux
/dev/sda2             124        6203    48837600   83  Linux
/dev/sda3            6204       12283    48837600   83  Linux
/dev/sda4           12284       24442    97667167+  83  Linux