How to rename ASM disk groups in Exadata

Deployment of Exadata requires you to generate configuration using Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant (OEDA). Within the same the default ASM disk groups names are DBFS_DG, RECOC1 and DATAC1. I usually change those to RECO01 and DATA01 as others doesn't make sense to me and the only place where I find the default ones is on Exadata.

I had an incident last year where the Exadata deployed half way through and names were left by default so I had to delete the configuration and start from scratch.

For my big surprise I got request recently where customer wanted to change RECO01 and DATA01 to RECOC1 and DATAC1! This was a pre-prod system, already deployed and having few databases running. The Exadata was X5-2 running ESS 12.1.2.1.2 and GI 12.1.0.2.

If this ever happens to you, here is what you need to do:

1. Rename grid disks.
2. Rename ASM disk groups and ASM disk names.
3. Modify all databases to point to the new disk groups.

Rename grid disks

Since grid disks names consists of the disk group name they need to be changed too. Although this is not mandatory I strongly recommend it to avoid any confusion in the future.

The grid disks can be renamed very easily using cellcli but they should NOT be in use by GI at that time. Thus Grid Infrastructure has to be stopped on all servers, stop GI as root:

[root@exa01db01 ~]# /u01/app/12.1.0.2/grid/bin/crsctl stop cluster -all

Then run the following magic command to get the list of all grid disks and replace the disk group names with the new ones:

[root@exa01db01 ~]# for i in `dcli -g cell_group -l root cellcli -e list griddisk | awk -F":" '{print $2'} | awk '{print $1}'`; do echo "cellcli -e alter griddisk $i name=$i"; done | grep -v DBFS |sed -e "s/RECO01/RECOC1/2" -e "s/DATA01/DATAC1/2"

You'll get a long list of cellcli commands - 12 for each cell which you need to run on the cell locally.

Once it's done start the GI again and make sure all disk groups are mounted successfully:

[root@exa01db01 ~]# /u01/app/12.1.0.2/grid/bin/crsctl start cluster

Rename ASM disk groups and ASM disk names

Next is to rename the disk groups. To do so they must be dismounted on ALL cluster nodes before running renamedg on a disk group. Connect to each ASM instance and dismount the disk groups:

SQL> alter diskgroup datac1 dismount;

Diskgroup altered.

SQL> alter diskgroup recoc1 dismount;

Diskgroup altered.

At this point you can run renamеdg to rename the disk groups, here is an example for the DATAC1 disk group:

[oracle@exa01db01 ~]$ renamedg -dgname DATA01 -newdgname DATAC1

Parsing parameters..
renamedg operation: -dgname DATA01 -newdgname DATAC1
Executing phase 1
Discovering the group
Checking for hearbeat...
Re-discovering the group
Generating configuration file..
Completed phase 1
Executing phase 2
Completed phase 2

Do the same for RECO01 and after that make sure that both disk groups can be mounted on all database nodes successfully, then dismount them again so you rename the ASM disk names. In general there is a command to rename all the disks (ALTER DISKGROUP XX RENAME DISKS ALL) but it will rename the disks to a name of the form diskgroupname_####, where #### is the disk number. However ASM disk names have different names on Exadata (RECO01_CD_01_EXA01CEL01) and that's why we need to rename them manually.

To rename the disks the disk group has to be mounted in restricted mode (so only one node in the cluster can mount the disk group). Then run the below two statement to generate the new ASM disk names:

SQL> alter diskgroup datac1 mount restricted;

Diskgroup altered.

SQL> select 'alter diskgroup datac1 rename disk ''' || name || ''' to ''' || REPLACE(name,'DATA01','DATAC1') || ''';'  from v$asm_disk where name like 'DATA%';

SQL> select 'alter diskgroup recoc1 rename disk ''' || name || ''' to ''' || REPLACE(name,'RECO01','RECOC1') || ''';'  from v$asm_disk where name like 'RECO%';

Execute the alter statement generated by the above two statements and mount both disk groups on all database nodes again.

There is no command to add the disk group back to Oracle Restart. They will be automatically added first time they are mounted. However you need to remove the old disk group resources:

[oracle@exa01db01 ~]$ srvctl remove diskgroup -g DATA01
[oracle@exa01db01 ~]$ srvctl remove diskgroup -g RECO01

Modify all databases to point to the new disk groups

The last step is to change datafile/tempfile/redolog files on all databases to point to the new disk groups. Make sure you disable block change tracking and flashback as database might not open since the location of BCT has changed:

SQL> alter database disable block change tracking;
SQL> alter database flashback off;

Next create pfile from spfile and substitute all the occurences of RECO01 and DATA01 OR you can modify the spfile just before you shut the database. Let's assume you have created pfile, make sure all the parameters refer to the new disk group names, here are the default ones that you need to check:

*.control_files
*.db_create_file_dest
*.db_create_online_log_dest_1
*.db_create_online_log_dest_2
*.db_recovery_file_dest

Start the database in mount state and generate all the alter statements for datafiles/tempfiles and redologs:

[oracle@exa01db01 ~]$ sqlplus -s / as sysdba
set heading off
set echo off
set pagesize 140
set linesize 140
spool /tmp/rename.sql

select 'alter database rename file ''' || name || ''' to ''' || REPLACE(name,'DATA01','DATAC1') || ''';' from v$datafile;
select 'alter database rename file ''' || name || ''' to ''' || REPLACE(name,'DATA01','DATAC1') || ''';' from v$tempfile;
select 'alter database rename file ''' || member || ''' to ''' || REPLACE(member,'DATA01','DATAC1')|| ''';' from v$logfile where member like '%DATA%';
select 'alter database rename file ''' || member || ''' to ''' || REPLACE(member,'RECO01','RECOC1')|| ''';' from v$logfile where member like '%RECO%';
exit

Start another sqlplus and run the spool file from the above operation (rename.sql). At this point you can open the database (alter database open;). Once the database is open make sure you enable block change tracking and flashback:

SQL> alter database enable block change tracking;
SQL> alter database flashback on;

Finally change the database dependencies and spfile location:

For 12c databases:

[oracle@exa01db01 dbs]$ srvctl modify database -d dbm01 -nodiskgroup
[oracle@exa01db01 dbs]$ srvctl modify database -d dbm01 -diskgroup "DATAC1,RECOC1"
[oracle@exa01db01 dbs]$ srvctl modify database -d dbm01 -spfile +DATAC1/DBM01/spfiledbm01.ora

For 11g databases:

[oracle@exa01db01 dbs]$ srvctl modify database -d dbm01 -z
[oracle@exa01db01 dbs]$ srvctl modify database -d dbm01 -x "DATAC1,RECOC1"
[oracle@exa01db01 dbs]$ srvctl modify database -d dbm01 -p +DATAC1/DBM01/spfiledbm01.ora