Bulk ASM disks’ creation with Linux

Maybe sometime, you’ll have the need to add a quantity of disks to the Automatic Storage Management (ASM) to be used in the disk groups and so, have enough space for the tablespaces’ data files. Here you’ll find how to do this in a  dynamic and fast way with the help of Linux tools.

Probably this procedure can work in Unix, however, this test is not made it yet.

Then lets begin with the main subject, you require the root user to make the tasks, or the user used for the installation and configuration of the ASM tools; in /dev, you have some disks (sdb, sdc, …) and its partitions (sdb1, sdc1, …):

# ls /dev/sd*
/dev/sda /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sde1 /dev/sdf1 /dev/sdg1 /dev/sdh1 /dev/sdi1 /dev/sdj1 /dev/sdk1 /dev/sdl1 /dev/sdm1 /dev/sdn1
/dev/sda1 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde /dev/sdf /dev/sdg /dev/sdh /dev/sdi /dev/sdj /dev/sdk /dev/sdl /dev/sdm /dev/sdn

The sda* does not count because it is the main disk of the server or computer where you have te operating system installation, or at least, its partitions.

So we’ll work just with the disks from sdb through sdm and in fact, with its partitions, I mean that ones with a 1 at the end:

# ls -1 /dev/sd[b-m]1
/dev/sdb1
/dev/sdc1
/dev/sdd1
/dev/sde1
/dev/sdf1
/dev/sdg1
/dev/sdh1
/dev/sdi1
/dev/sdj1
/dev/sdk1
/dev/sdl1
/dev/sdm1

Now, to create the sequence disk01, disk02, … for each one of the partitions when we’ll use the oracleasm command, we need to use an autoincrement based on the Linux awk command.

One initial and simple command to print something from 1 through the partitions number would be like:

# ls -1 /dev/sd[b-m]1 | awk '{ i++ } { print i }'
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

As you can see, I’m already using the partitions that will be part of the exercise, I mean, 12. Based on these, it generates the same quantity of consecutive numbers.

With this, now and easily with a printf the same sequence of numbers but using the %02d modifier to print two digits with leading zeroes (0):

# ls /dev/sd[b-m]1 | awk '{ i++ } { printf ("%02d\n", i) }'
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12

And then with all of this pre-tasks, you just have to add the complete command text of the oracleasm:

# ls -1 /dev/sd[b-m]1 | awk '{ i++ } { printf ("oracleasm createdisk disk%02d %s\n", i, $1)}'
oracleasm createdisk disk01 /dev/sdb1
oracleasm createdisk disk02 /dev/sdc1
oracleasm createdisk disk03 /dev/sdd1
oracleasm createdisk disk04 /dev/sde1
oracleasm createdisk disk05 /dev/sdf1
oracleasm createdisk disk06 /dev/sdg1
oracleasm createdisk disk07 /dev/sdh1
oracleasm createdisk disk08 /dev/sdi1
oracleasm createdisk disk09 /dev/sdj1
oracleasm createdisk disk10 /dev/sdk1
oracleasm createdisk disk11 /dev/sdl1
oracleasm createdisk disk12 /dev/sdm1

With this you just have to add the sh at the end in order to execute the commands:

# ls -1 /dev/sd[b-m]1 | awk '{ i++ } { printf ("oracleasm createdisk disk%02d %s\n", i, $1)}' | sh
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done

After that, you can list the disks from with the oracleasm tool:

# oracleasm scandisks
Reloading disk partitions: done
Cleaning any stale ASM disks...
Scanning system for ASM disks...

# oracleasm listdisks
DISK01
DISK02
DISK03
DISK04
DISK05
DISK06
DISK07
DISK08
DISK09
DISK10
DISK11
DISK12

Please, leave a comment if this post was useful for you or if you have any doubt about the contents, I will OrAnswer you as soon as possible.