To do Async IO on Linux, you'll need to bump up the aio-max-size kernel parameter and set the disk_asynch_io and filesystemio_option parameters. As for performance. I haven't done any performance testing comparing ASM vs. file systems, but there are several whitepapers floating around that show better performance with ASM+ASMlib vs. file systems. Yes, with the current Linux releases you'll be using udev. Which is not all that complicated once you figure it out. I don't know why you would want to use VXFS or VCS on Linux, when there is comparable open source functions already available. Unless, maybe, your organization has standardized on the Veritas Suite. DD -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l