Configuring and Tuning Databases on the Solaris™ Platform

Chapter 17. Data Layout

The need for adequate disk capacity is so obvious it often overshadows the equally important need for adequate disk I/O throughput and an effective data layout strategy.

A simple analogy might help clarify the issues. When shopping at a supermarket, you expect to find everything you need in stock and carefully laid out on the shelves. But you also expect to get out of the store without waiting in line too long. The supermarket needs efficient checkout operators and enough checkouts to cope with peak shopping periods. And if your shopping cart is full, you don’t want to find half the checkouts are empty express lanes while the lines for the regular lanes stretch halfway around the store.

In the same way, it isn’t good ...