Anyone have steps to configure ASM Filter Driver on a new server? Preferably 64-bit Linux. The Oracle docs do not cover this case, and MOS has nothing either. All docs assume the server has GI installed with ASM running and at least 1 disk group not already managed by ASM FD prior to configuring ASM FD.
ASM Filter Driver is installed as part of Grid Infrastructure 12.1.0.2 and higher. Since it's only available this way, it can only be configured AFTER the ASM instance has been created and the first disk group has been created, which means the first disk group cannot use devices managed by ASM Filter Driver. Of course later we can replace these devices with different ones managed by ASM Filter Driver, but that process is not what I would call production ready or enterprise class. ASMLib could be configured before the ASM disk groups were created, a lesson learned that was apparently lost in the move to ASMFD.
By the way, a MOS note explains ASMFD could crash your server unless you apply PSU 1 or later (today 12.1.0.2.3 is the latest).
I tried to do a software only installation of Grid Infrastructure for Standalone on Linux, and then use the steps listed in the Oracle docs to configure ASMFD. Configuring ASMFD failed because there was no ASM instance through which to process the commands. So, my next test was to run ASMCA to create an ASM instance with no disk group (again, I don't want to create a disk group until the disks are stamped by ASMFD). Well, ASMCA won't allow you to create an ASM instance without a disk group. Finally, I tried to create an ASM instance manually but the ASMFD configuration still failed.
There's an on-line article in which the author claims to have performed a software only installation of Grid Infrastructure and then configured ASMFD prior to creating disk groups, but no steps provided. I have tested this as noted above, and it fails because ASMFD requires an ASM instance to process the commands.