Updating ASMLIB Driver Using "update-driver"

It is a controversial question whether to use ASMLIB for managing disks for an ASM instance, but I don't want to start a new discussion about it in this post. I want to talk about updating ASMLIB after or before updating the kernel version.

Managing ASMLIB During Kernel Upgrades

We know that the ASMLIB driver is kernel-dependent and has to be updated to match the kernel version. Traditionally, we have to go to the Oracle site, find the proper version for the ASMLIB driver, download it, and install it manually.

The Challenge of Kernel Dependencies

However, beginning with oracleasm-support version 2.1.0 and higher, we can use the embedded function "update-driver", which can help us save time and simplify the process of updating the ASMLIB driver.

Identifying the Driver Mismatch

How does it work? As an example, we have installed Linux with kernel version 2.6.18-194.8.1.0.1.el5 x86_64, but the ASMLIB driver is for the old kernel version 2.6.18-194.3.1. As a result, we get an error trying to start ASMLIB:

[root@db1 ~]# /usr/sbin/oracleasm init Creating /dev/oracleasm mount point: /dev/oracleasm Loading module "oracleasm": failed Unable to load module "oracleasm" 

Streamlining Updates with update-driver

Instead of searching, downloading, and installing the new driver, you can just run oracleasm update-driver and automatically get the updated version for the driver.

[root@db1 ~]# /usr/sbin/oracleasm update-driver Kernel: 2.6.18-194.8.1.0.1.el5 x86_64 Driver name: oracleasm-2.6.18-194.8.1.0.1.el5 Fetching Obsoletes list for channel: el5_x86_64_latest... ######################################## Fetching rpm headers... ######################################## Name Version Rel ---------------------------------------------------------- oracleasm-2.6.18-194.8.1.0.1.el5 2.0.5 1.el5 x86_64 Testing package set / solving RPM inter-dependencies... ######################################## oracleasm-2.6.18-194.8.1.0. ########################## Done. Preparing ########################################### [100%] Installing... 1:oracleasm-2.6.18-194.8.########################################### [100%] 

Initialization and Verification

Voila! We have an updated working driver. Now we can proceed with initialization and verify the disk scanning:

[root@db1 ~]# /usr/sbin/oracleasm init Loading module "oracleasm": oracleasm Mounting ASMlib driver filesystem: /dev/oracleasm  [root@db1 var]# /etc/init.d/oracleasm start Initializing the Oracle ASMLib driver: [ OK ] Scanning the system for Oracle ASMLib disks: [ OK ]  [root@db1 var]# /etc/init.d/oracleasm listdisks DATADISK1 

Advanced Command Options

We also have some useful options for this feature:

• -d: Allows us to only download the driver without installing.
• -n: Allows us to determine what driver would be updated without taking any action.

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