Creating an Oracle ASM Disk Group for Guarding

Creating a new ASM Disk Group

Note

This document is for Oracle 19c on AIX 7.

List the available cluster shared disks, type:

# xiv_devlist

Response

IBM storage devices
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device       Size (GB)  Paths  Vol Name                               Vol ID  Storage ID  Storage Type  Hyper-Scale Mobility
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/hdisk2  51.6       2/2    sjaix81lpar069_sjaix81lpar079_vol_001  1053    7825664     XIV           Idle
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/hdisk3  154.9      2/2    sjaix81lpar069_sjaix81lpar079_vol_002  1054    7825664     XIV           Idle
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/hdisk4  154.9      2/2    sjaix81lpar069_sjaix81lpar079_vol_003  1055    7825664     XIV           Idle
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/hdisk5  154.9      2/2    sjaix81lpar069_sjaix81lpar079_vol_004  1056    7825664     XIV           Idle
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/dev/hdisk6  51.6       2/2    sjaix81lpar069_sjaix81lpar079_vol_005  1075    7825664     XIV           Idle
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ensure that the disks are available, type:

# /usr/sbin/lsdev -Cc disk

Response

hdisk0 Available          Virtual SCSI Disk Drive
hdisk1 Available          Virtual SCSI Disk Drive
hdisk2 Available C5-T1-01 MPIO 2810 XIV Disk
hdisk3 Available C5-T1-01 MPIO 2810 XIV Disk
hdisk4 Available C5-T1-01 MPIO 2810 XIV Disk
hdisk5 Available C5-T1-01 MPIO 2810 XIV Disk
hdisk6 Available C5-T1-01 MPIO 2810 XIV Disk

To identify the device names for the physical disks that you want to use, type the following on any node:

# /usr/sbin/lspv | grep -i none

Response

hdisk1          00fa0087e313f5c9                    None
hdisk2          none                                None
hdisk3          none                                None
hdisk4          none                                None
hdisk6          none                                None

Select available candidate disks for a new ASM disk group. On the Oracle system, type:

SYS@+ASM2> COLUMN path format a20

SYS@+ASM2> SELECT name, header_status, path FROM V$ASM_DISK;

Response

NAME                           HEADER_STATUS PATH
------------------------------ ------------ --------------------
                               FORMER       /dev/rhdisk1
                               FORMER       /dev/rhdisk2
                               CANDIDATE    /dev/rhdisk3
TDE1_0000                      MEMBER       /dev/rhdisk4
GRID_0000                      MEMBER       /dev/rhdisk6

Prepare the Targeted Disk for CTE and ASM Diskgroup creation:

# chown grid:dba /dev/rhdisk3
# chmod 660 /dev/rhdisk3
# dd if=/dev/rhdisk3 of=zzz bs=4k count=1

Response

1+0 records in.
1+0 records out.

In CipherTrust Manager, create a key with the following characteristics:
- Encryption mode: CBC
- Algorithm: AES
- Size: 128 or 256
Create a CipherTrust Transparent Encryption policy for Oracle on AIX.

a. Create a CBC key with CBC-AES128 or CBC-AES256.

b. Create a Security Rule:
- Action: all_ops
- Effect: Audit, Permit, Apply Key
c. Create a Key Selection Rule:
- Key: cte_cbc_aes256_key
d. Guard your targeted RAC raw devices so that you can use the secvm disk to create a guarded Oracle RAC ASM or ASMLib disk group.
```
/dev/rhdisk3
```
- Type = Raw or Block Device (Auto or Manual Guard)
Once you guard your target, CipherTrust Transparent Encryption creates the following:
```
/dev/secvm/dev/rhdisk3
```

Install the same version of CipherTrust Transparent Encryption on all nodes in the cluster. To check the version, type:

# vmd -v

Response

Version 7, Service Pack 3
7.3.0.35
2022-09-23 02:08:46 (PDT)
Copyright (c) 2009-2022, Thales Inc.  All rights reserved.

Guard targeted disk on all cluster nodes.

a. Check the guard status of the disk on all cluster nodes, type:

#  secfsd -status guard

Response

GuardPoint    Policy                  Type       ConfigState  Status   Reason
----------    ------                  ----       -----------  ------   ------
/dev/rhdisk3  encrypt_cbc_aes256_all  rawdevice  guarded      guarded  N/A

b. List the devices, type:

# ls -l /dev/secvm/dev/rhdisk3

crw-rw----    1 grid     dba          43,  1 Sep 28 15:21 /dev/secvm/dev/rhdisk3

Add the following client settings for both RAC nodes that are set in the $GRID_HOME & $ORACLE_HOME variables.
```
$ echo $GRID_HOME
```
Response
```
/u01/app/19.0.0/grid

$ echo $ORACLE_HOME
```
Response
```
/u01/app/oracle/product/19.0.0/db_1
```
For each node in the cluster, in the client settings, type:
```
|authenticator_euid|/u01/app/19.0.0/grid/bin/grid
|authenticator_euid|/u01/app/19.0.0/grid/bin/orarootagent.bin
|authenticator_euid|/u01/app/oracle/product/19.0.0/db_1/oracle
|authenticator_euid|/u01/app/oracle/product/19.0.0/db_1/bin/oracle
```
Note
This step is optional because it does not effect Oracle behavior. However, without these setting, CipherTrust Transparent Encryption can generate authentication error messages in the CTE log in /var/log/vormetric. These errors do not interfere with Oracle functions.
Launch the GUI for the GRID (./asmca) to create the new CipherTrust Transparent Encryption guarded ASM disk group:
Update the discovery path to the following in order for both the baseline and guarded disks to be found:
```
/dev/rhdisk*,/dev/secvm/dev/rhdisk*
```
Select targeted rhdisk3 disk with the guarded path of secvm.
The end result should show your new CTE guarded ASM disk group called CTE1.
When creating your RAC database, choose DB files to reside in the CTE guarded ASM disk group that you just created:

You can now use the secvm disk that you created to create a guarded Oracle RAC ASM or ASMLib disk group.

Creating an Oracle ASM Disk Group for Guarding

Creating a new ASM Disk Group

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