On an otherwise slow news day, SearchStorage reported on Oracle's new (free) DirectNFS (DNFS) client for Oracle 11g. The DNFS client bypasses the operating system's NFS client, avoiding the manual testing/tuning/reconfiguration steps normally required. DNFS relies on information generated by the Oracle processes to determine parameters such as read/write buffer size, retransmit times and so forth. The current version includes rudimentary support for multipathing via global namespace (GNS), with expectations to enhance this capability in future releases. This client should be a boon for installations that use NAS gateways, such as NetApp filers, for providing Oracle storage, so it's no wonder the client was developed in conjunction with Network Appliance.
Coupled with NetApp's GNS, Oracle customers can now do high-performance replication and seamless failover across disparate NetApp clusters. A GNS that hosts filers on two different subnets (presumable on opposite ends of the country) can allow Oracle servers in one location to failover to filers in a different location. With this failover occurring at the DNFS layer, there's better synchronization with Oracle's management and instrumentation, giving DBAs better awareness of the cluster state. Better still, the Oracle cluster is able to employ automated recovery techniques (automated log playback) to quickly recover from a failure - even to the point of knowing when to start caching transactions during a failover. We'll see if this news is enough to get Oracle and NetApp to renew interest in both products.
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