DBA Tips Archive for Oracle

  

Building an Inexpensive Oracle RAC 11g R2 on Linux - (RHEL 5)

by Jeff Hunter, Sr. Database Administrator

Contents

Introduction

Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 allows DBA's to configure a cluster database solution with superior fault tolerance, load balancing, and scalability. However, DBA's who want to become more familiar with the features and benefits of database clustering, will find the costs of configuring even a small RAC cluster costing in the range of US$10,000 to US$20,000. This cost would not even include the heart of a production RAC configuration, the shared storage. In most cases, this would be a Storage Area Network (SAN), which generally start at US$10,000.

Unfortunately, for many shops, the price of the hardware required for a typical RAC configuration exceeds most training budgets. For those who want to become familiar with Oracle RAC 11g without a major cash outlay, this guide provides a low-cost alternative to configuring an Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 system using commercial off-the-shelf components and downloadable software at an estimated cost of US$2,800.

The system will consist of a two node cluster, both running Linux (CentOS 5.5 for x86_64), Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 for Linux x86_64, and ASMLib 2.0. All shared disk storage for Oracle RAC will be based on iSCSI using Openfiler release 2.3 x86_64 running on a third node (known in this article as the Network Storage Server).

This guide is provided for educational purposes only, so the setup is kept simple to demonstrate ideas and concepts. For example, the shared Oracle Clusterware files (OCR and voting files) and all physical database files in this article will be set up on only one physical disk, while in practice that should be stored on multiple physical drives configured for increased performance and redundancy (i.e. RAID). In addition, each Linux node will only be configured with two network interfaces — one for the public network (eth0) and one that will be used for both the Oracle RAC private interconnect "and" the network storage server for shared iSCSI access (eth1). For a production RAC implementation, the private interconnect should be at least Gigabit (or more) with redundant paths and "only" be used by Oracle to transfer Cluster Manager and Cache Fusion related data. A third dedicated network interface (eth2, for example) should be configured on another redundant Gigabit network for access to the network storage server (Openfiler).

In addition to this guide, please see the following extensions to this article that describe how to add and remove nodes from the Oracle RAC.

Oracle Documentation

While this guide provides detailed instructions for successfully installing a complete Oracle RAC 11g system, it is by no means a substitute for the official Oracle documentation (see list below). In addition to this guide, users should also consult the following Oracle documents to gain a full understanding of alternative configuration options, installation, and administration with Oracle RAC 11g. Oracle's official documentation site is docs.oracle.com.

Network Storage Server

Powered by rPath Linux, Openfiler is a free browser-based network storage management utility that delivers file-based Network Attached Storage (NAS) and block-based Storage Area Networking (SAN) in a single framework. The entire software stack interfaces with open source applications such as Apache, Samba, LVM2, ext3, Linux NFS and iSCSI Enterprise Target. Openfiler combines these ubiquitous technologies into a small, easy to manage solution fronted by a powerful web-based management interface.

Openfiler supports CIFS, NFS, HTTP/DAV, FTP, however, we will only be making use of its iSCSI capabilities to implement an inexpensive SAN for the shared storage components required by Oracle RAC 11g. The operating system (rPath Linux) and the Openfiler application will be installed on one internal SATA disk. A second internal 73GB 15K SCSI hard disk will be configured as a single volume group that will be used for all shared disk storage requirements. The Openfiler server will be configured to use this volume group for iSCSI based storage and will be used in our Oracle RAC 11g configuration to store the shared files required by Oracle Grid Infrastructure and the Oracle RAC database.

Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g Release 2 (11.2)

With Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g Release 2 (11.2), the Automatic Storage Management (ASM) and Oracle Clusterware software is packaged together in a single binary distribution and installed into a single home directory, which is referred to as the Grid Infrastructure home. You must install the Grid Infrastructure in order to use Oracle RAC 11g Release 2. Configuration assistants start after the installer interview process that will be responsible for configuring ASM and Oracle Clusterware. While the installation of the combined products is called Oracle Grid Infrastructure, Oracle Clusterware and Automatic Storage Manager remain separate products.

After Oracle Grid Infrastructure is installed and configured on both nodes in the cluster, the next step will be to install the Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) software on both Oracle RAC nodes.

In this article, the Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle RAC software will be installed on both nodes using the optional Job Role Separation configuration. One OS user will be created to own each Oracle software product — "grid" for the Oracle Grid Infrastructure owner and "oracle" for the Oracle RAC software. Throughout this article, a user created to own the Oracle Grid Infrastructure binaries is called the grid user. This user will own both the Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Automatic Storage Management binaries. The user created to own the Oracle database binaries (Oracle RAC) will be called the oracle user. Both Oracle software owners must have the Oracle Inventory group (oinstall) as their primary group, so that each Oracle software installation owner can write to the central inventory (oraInventory), and so that OCR and Oracle Clusterware resource permissions are set correctly. The Oracle RAC software owner must also have the OSDBA group and the optional OSOPER group as secondary groups.

Assigning IP Address

Prior to Oracle Clusterware 11g Release 2, the only method available for assigning IP addresses to each of the Oracle RAC nodes was to have the network administrator manually assign static IP addresses in DNS — never to use DHCP. This would include the public IP address for the node, the RAC interconnect, virtual IP address (VIP), and new to 11g Release 2, the Single Client Access Name (SCAN) virtual IP address(s).

Oracle Clusterware 11g Release 2 now provides two methods for assigning IP addresses to all Oracle RAC nodes:

  1. Assigning IP addresses dynamically using Grid Naming Service (GNS) which makes use of DHCP

  2. The traditional method of manually assigning static IP addresses in Domain Name Service (DNS)

Assigning IP Addresses Dynamically using Grid Naming Service (GNS)

A new method for assigning IP addresses was introduced in Oracle Clusterware 11g Release 2 named Grid Naming Service (GNS) which allows all private interconnect addresses, as well as most of the VIP addresses to be dynamically assigned using DHCP. GNS and DHCP are key elements to Oracle's new Grid Plug and Play (GPnP) feature that, as Oracle states, eliminates per-node configuration data and the need for explicit add and delete nodes steps. GNS enables a dynamic Grid Infrastructure through the self-management of the network requirements for the cluster.

All name resolution requests for the cluster within a sub-domain delegated by the DNS are handed off to GNS using multicast Domain Name Service (mDNS) included within the Oracle Clusterware. Using GNS eliminates the need for managing IP addresses and name resolution and is especially advantageous in a dynamic cluster environment where nodes are often added or removed.

While assigning IP addresses using GNS certainly has its benefits and offers more flexibility over manually defining static IP addresses, it does come at the cost of complexity and requires components not defined in this guide. For example, activating GNS in a cluster requires a DHCP server on the public network which falls outside the scope of building an inexpensive Oracle RAC.

The example Oracle RAC configuration described in this guide will use the traditional method of manually assigning static IP addresses in DNS.

To learn more about the benefits and how to configure GNS, please see Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2) for Linux.

Assigning IP Addresses Manually using Static IP Address - (The DNS Method)

If you choose not to use GNS, manually defining static IP addresses is still available with Oracle Clusterware 11g Release 2 and will be the method used in this article to assign all required Oracle Clusterware networking components (public IP address for the node, RAC interconnect, virtual IP address, and SCAN virtual IP).

It should be pointed out that previous to Oracle 11g Release 2, the need for DNS in order to successfully configure Oracle RAC was not a strict requirement. It was technically possible (although not recommended for a production system) to define all IP addresses only in the hosts file on all nodes in the cluster (i.e. /etc/hosts). This actually worked to my advantage with any of my previous articles on building an inexpensive RAC because it was one less component to document and configure.

So, why is the use of DNS now a requirement when manually assigning static IP addresses? The answer is SCAN. Oracle Clusterware 11g Release 2 requires the use of DNS in order to store the SCAN virtual IP address(s). In addition to the requirement of configuring the SCAN virtual IP address in DNS, we will also configure the public and virtual IP address for all Oracle RAC nodes in DNS for name resolution. If you do not have access to a DNS, instructions will be included later in this guide on how to install a minimal DNS server on the Openfiler network storage server.

 

When using the DNS method for assigning IP addresses, Oracle recommends that all static IP addresses be manually configured in DNS before starting the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.

Single Client Access Name (SCAN) for the Cluster

If you have ever been tasked with extending an Oracle RAC cluster by adding a new node (or shrinking a RAC cluster by removing a node), then you know the pain of going through a list of all clients and updating their SQL*Net or JDBC configuration to reflect the new or deleted node. To address this problem, Oracle 11g Release 2 introduced a new feature known as Single Client Access Name or SCAN for short. SCAN is a new feature that provides a single host name for clients to access an Oracle Database running in a cluster. Clients using SCAN do not need to change their TNS configuration if you add or remove nodes in the cluster. The SCAN resource and its associated IP address(s) provide a stable name for clients to use for connections, independent of the nodes that make up the cluster. You will be asked to provide the host name (also called the SCAN name in this document) and up to three IP addresses to be used for the SCAN resource during the interview phase of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation. For high availability and scalability, Oracle recommends that you configure the SCAN name for round-robin resolution to three IP addresses. At a minimum, the SCAN must resolve to at least one address.

The SCAN virtual IP name is similar to the names used for a node's virtual IP address, such as racnode1-vip. However, unlike a virtual IP, the SCAN is associated with the entire cluster, rather than an individual node, and can be associated with multiple IP addresses, not just one address.

During installation of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure, a listener is created for each of the SCAN addresses. Clients that access the Oracle RAC database should use the SCAN or SCAN address, not the VIP name or address. If an application uses a SCAN to connect to the cluster database, the network configuration files on the client computer do not need to be modified when nodes are added to or removed from the cluster. Note that SCAN addresses, virtual IP addresses, and public IP addresses must all be on the same subnet.

The SCAN should be configured so that it is resolvable either by using Grid Naming Service (GNS) within the cluster or by using the traditional method of assigning static IP addresses using Domain Name Service (DNS) resolution.

In this article, I will configure SCAN for round-robin resolution to three, manually configured static IP address using the DNS method. 


racnode-cluster-scan        IN A    192.168.1.187
racnode-cluster-scan        IN A    192.168.1.188
racnode-cluster-scan        IN A    192.168.1.189

Further details regarding the configuration of SCAN will be provided in the section "Verify SCAN Configuration" during the network configuration phase of this guide..

Automatic Storage Management and Oracle Clusterware Files

Automatic Storage Management (ASM) is now fully integrated with Oracle Clusterware in the Oracle Grid Infrastructure. Oracle ASM and Oracle Database 11g Release 2 provide a more enhanced storage solution from previous releases. Part of this solution is the ability to store the Oracle Clusterware files; namely the Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) and the Voting Files (VF, also known as the Voting Disks) on ASM. This feature enables ASM to provide a unified storage solution, storing all the data for the clusterware and the database without the need for third-party volume managers or cluster file systems.

Just like database files, Oracle Clusterware files are stored in an ASM disk group and therefore utilize the ASM disk group configuration with respect to redundancy. For example, a Normal Redundancy ASM disk group will hold a two-way-mirrored OCR. A failure of one disk in the disk group will not prevent access to the OCR. With a High Redundancy ASM disk group (three-way-mirrored), two independent disks can fail without impacting access to the OCR. With External Redundancy, no protection is provided by Oracle.

Oracle only allows one OCR per disk group in order to protect against physical disk failures. When configuring Oracle Clusterware files on a production system, Oracle recommends using either normal or high redundancy ASM disk groups. If disk mirroring is already occurring at either the OS or hardware level, you can use external redundancy.

The Voting Files are managed in a similar way to the OCR. They follow the ASM disk group configuration with respect to redundancy, but are not managed as normal ASM files in the disk group. Instead, each voting disk is placed on a specific disk in the disk group. The disk and the location of the Voting Files on the disks are stored internally within Oracle Clusterware.

The following example describes how the Oracle Clusterware files are stored in ASM after installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure using this guide. To view the OCR, use ASMCMD. 


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ asmcmd
ASMCMD> ls -l +CRS/racnode-cluster/OCRFILE
Type     Redund  Striped  Time             Sys  Name
OCRFILE  UNPROT  COARSE   NOV 22 12:00:00  Y    REGISTRY.255.703024853

From the example above, you can see that after listing all of the ASM files in the +CRS/racnode-cluster/OCRFILE directory, it only shows the OCR (REGISTRY.255.703024853). The listing does not show the Voting File(s) because they are not managed as normal ASM files. To find the location of all Voting Files within Oracle Clusterware, use the crsctl query css votedisk command as follows. 


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ crsctl query css votedisk
##  STATE    File Universal Id                File Name Disk group
--  -----    -----------------                --------- ---------
 1. ONLINE   4cbbd0de4c694f50bfd3857ebd8ad8c4 (ORCL:CRSVOL1) [CRS]
Located 1 voting disk(s).

If you decide against using ASM for the OCR and voting disk files, Oracle Clusterware still allows these files to be stored on a cluster file system like Oracle Cluster File System Release 2 (OCFS2) or a NFS system. Please note that installing Oracle Clusterware files on raw or block devices is no longer supported, unless an existing system is being upgraded.

Previous versions of this guide used OCFS2 for storing the OCR and voting disk files. This guide will store the OCR and voting disk files on ASM in an ASM disk group named +CRS using external redundancy which is one OCR location and one voting disk location. The ASM disk group should be be created on shared storage and be at least 2GB in size.

The Oracle physical database files (data, online redo logs, control files, archived redo logs) will be installed on ASM in an ASM disk group named +RACDB_DATA while the Fast Recovery Area will be created in a separate ASM disk group named +FRA.

The two Oracle RAC nodes and the network storage server will be configured as follows.

Oracle RAC / Openfiler Nodes
Node Name Instance Name Database Name Processor RAM Operating System
racnode1 racdb1 racdb.idevelopment.info 1 x Dual Core Intel Xeon, 3.00 GHz 4GB CentOS 5.5 - (x86_64)
racnode2 racdb2 1 x Dual Core Intel Xeon, 3.00 GHz 4GB CentOS 5.5 - (x86_64)
openfiler1     2 x Intel Xeon, 3.00 GHz 6GB Openfiler 2.3 - (x86_64)

Network Configuration
Node Name Public IP Private IP Virtual IP SCAN Name SCAN IP
racnode1 192.168.1.151 192.168.2.151 192.168.1.251 racnode-cluster-scan 192.168.1.187
192.168.1.188
192.168.1.189
racnode2 192.168.1.152 192.168.2.152 192.168.1.252
openfiler1 192.168.1.195 192.168.2.195  

Oracle Software Components
Software Component OS User Primary Group Supplementary Groups Home Directory Oracle Base / Oracle Home
Grid Infrastructure grid oinstall asmadmin, asmdba, asmoper /home/grid /u01/app/grid
/u01/app/11.2.0/grid
Oracle RAC oracle oinstall dba, oper, asmdba /home/oracle /u01/app/oracle
/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1

Storage Components
Storage Component File System Volume Size ASM Volume Group Name ASM Redundancy Openfiler Volume Name
OCR/Voting Disk ASM 2GB +CRS External racdb-crs1
Database Files ASM 32GB +RACDB_DATA External racdb-data1
Fast Recovery Area ASM 32GB +FRA External racdb-fra1

This article is only designed to work as documented with absolutely no substitutions. The only exception here is the choice of vendor hardware (i.e. machines, networking equipment, and internal / external hard drives). Ensure that the hardware you purchase from the vendor is supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and Openfiler 2.3 (Final Release).

If you are looking for an example that takes advantage of Oracle RAC 10g Release 2 with RHEL 5.3 using iSCSI, click here.

If you are looking for an example that takes advantage of Oracle RAC 11g release 1 with RHEL 5.1 using iSCSI, click here.

Oracle RAC 11g Overview

Before introducing the details for building a RAC cluster, it might be helpful to first clarify what a cluster is. A cluster is a group of two or more interconnected computers or servers that appear as if they are one server to end users and applications and generally share the same set of physical disks. The key benefit of clustering is to provide a highly available framework where the failure of one node (for example a database server running an instance of Oracle) does not bring down an entire application. In the case of failure with one of the servers, the other surviving server (or servers) can take over the workload from the failed server and the application continues to function normally as if nothing has happened.

The concept of clustering computers actually started several decades ago. The first successful cluster product was developed by DataPoint in 1977 named ARCnet. The ARCnet product enjoyed much success by academia types in research labs, but didn't really take off in the commercial market. It wasn't until the 1980's when Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) released its VAX cluster product for the VAX/VMS operating system.

With the release of Oracle 6 for the Digital VAX cluster product, Oracle was the first commercial database to support clustering at the database level. It wasn't long, however, before Oracle realized the need for a more efficient and scalable distributed lock manager (DLM) as the one included with the VAX/VMS cluster product was not well suited for database applications. Oracle decided to design and write their own DLM for the VAX/VMS cluster product which provided the fine-grain block level locking required by the database. Oracle's own DLM was included in Oracle 6.2 which gave birth to Oracle Parallel Server (OPS) - the first database to run the parallel server.

By Oracle 7, OPS was extended to included support for not only the VAX/VMS cluster product but also with most flavors of UNIX. This framework required vendor-supplied clusterware which worked well, but made for a complex environment to setup and manage given the multiple layers involved. By Oracle8, Oracle introduced a generic lock manager that was integrated into the Oracle kernel. In later releases of Oracle, this became known as the Integrated Distributed Lock Manager (IDLM) and relied on an additional layer known as the Operating System Dependant (OSD) layer. This new model paved the way for Oracle to not only have their own DLM, but to also create their own clusterware product in future releases.

Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC), introduced with Oracle9i, is the successor to Oracle Parallel Server. Using the same IDLM, Oracle9i could still rely on external clusterware but was the first release to include their own clusterware product named Cluster Ready Services (CRS). With Oracle9i, CRS was only available for Windows and Linux. By Oracle 10g release 1, Oracle's clusterware product was available for all operating systems and was the required cluster technology for Oracle RAC. With the release of Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2), Cluster Ready Services was renamed to Oracle Clusterware. When using Oracle 10g or higher, Oracle Clusterware is the only clusterware that you need for most platforms on which Oracle RAC operates (except for Tru cluster, in which case you need vendor clusterware). You can still use clusterware from other vendors if the clusterware is certified, but keep in mind that Oracle RAC still requires Oracle Clusterware as it is fully integrated with the database software. This guide uses Oracle Clusterware which as of 11g Release 2 (11.2), is now a component of Oracle Grid Infrastructure.

Like OPS, Oracle RAC allows multiple instances to access the same database (storage) simultaneously. RAC provides fault tolerance, load balancing, and performance benefits by allowing the system to scale out, and at the same time since all instances access the same database, the failure of one node will not cause the loss of access to the database.

At the heart of Oracle RAC is a shared disk subsystem. Each instance in the cluster must be able to access all of the data, redo log files, control files and parameter file for all other instances in the cluster. The data disks must be globally available in order to allow all instances to access the database. Each instance has its own redo log files and UNDO tablespace that are locally read/writable. The other instances in the cluster must be able to access them (read-only) in order to recover that instance in the event of a system failure. The redo log files for an instance are only writable by that instance and will only be read from another instance during system failure. The UNDO, on the other hand, is read all the time during normal database operation (e.g. for CR fabrication).

A big difference between Oracle RAC and OPS is the addition of Cache Fusion. With OPS a request for data from one instance to another required the data to be written to disk first, then the requesting instance can read that data (after acquiring the required locks). This process was called disk pinging. With cache fusion, data is passed along a high-speed interconnect using a sophisticated locking algorithm.

Not all database clustering solutions use shared storage. Some vendors use an approach known as a Federated Cluster, in which data is spread across several machines rather than shared by all. With Oracle RAC, however, multiple instances use the same set of disks for storing data. Oracle's approach to clustering leverages the collective processing power of all the nodes in the cluster and at the same time provides failover security.

Pre-configured Oracle RAC solutions are available from vendors such as Dell, IBM and HP for production environments. This article, however, focuses on putting together your own Oracle RAC 11g environment for development and testing by using Linux servers and a low cost shared disk solution; iSCSI.

For more background about Oracle RAC, visit the Oracle RAC Product Center on OTN.

Shared-Storage Overview

Today, fibre channel is one of the most popular solutions for shared storage. As mentioned earlier, fibre channel is a high-speed serial-transfer interface that is used to connect systems and storage devices in either point-to-point (FC-P2P), arbitrated loop (FC-AL), or switched topologies (FC-SW). Protocols supported by Fibre Channel include SCSI and IP. Fibre channel configurations can support as many as 127 nodes and have a throughput of up to 2.12 Gigabits per second in each direction, and 4.25 Gbps is expected.

Fibre channel, however, is very expensive. Just the fibre channel switch alone can start at around US$1,000. This does not even include the fibre channel storage array and high-end drives, which can reach prices of about US$300 for a single 36GB drive. A typical fibre channel setup which includes fibre channel cards for the servers is roughly US$10,000, which does not include the cost of the servers that make up the Oracle database cluster.

A less expensive alternative to fibre channel is SCSI. SCSI technology provides acceptable performance for shared storage, but for administrators and developers who are used to GPL-based Linux prices, even SCSI can come in over budget, at around US$2,000 to US$5,000 for a two-node cluster.

Another popular solution is the Sun NFS (Network File System) found on a NAS. It can be used for shared storage but only if you are using a network appliance or something similar. Specifically, you need servers that guarantee direct I/O over NFS, TCP as the transport protocol, and read/write block sizes of 32K. See the Certify page on Oracle Metalink for supported Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices that can be used with Oracle RAC. One of the key drawbacks that has limited the benefits of using NFS and NAS for database storage has been performance degradation and complex configuration requirements. Standard NFS client software (client systems that use the operating system provided NFS driver) is not optimized for Oracle database file I/O access patterns. With the introduction of Oracle 11g, a new feature known as Direct NFS Client integrates the NFS client functionality directly in the Oracle software. Through this integration, Oracle is able to optimize the I/O path between the Oracle software and the NFS server resulting in significant performance gains. Direct NFS Client can simplify, and in many cases automate, the performance optimization of the NFS client configuration for database workloads. To learn more about Direct NFS Client, see the Oracle White Paper entitled "Oracle Database 11g Direct NFS Client".

The shared storage that will be used for this article is based on iSCSI technology using a network storage server installed with Openfiler. This solution offers a low-cost alternative to fibre channel for testing and educational purposes, but given the low-end hardware being used, it is not often used in a production environment.

iSCSI Technology

For many years, the only technology that existed for building a network based storage solution was a Fibre Channel Storage Area Network (FC SAN). Based on an earlier set of ANSI protocols called Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Fibre Channel was developed to move SCSI commands over a storage network.

Several of the advantages to FC SAN include greater performance, increased disk utilization, improved availability, better scalability, and most important to us — support for server clustering! Still today, however, FC SANs suffer from three major disadvantages. The first is price. While the costs involved in building a FC SAN have come down in recent years, the cost of entry still remains prohibitive for small companies with limited IT budgets. The second is incompatible hardware components. Since its adoption, many product manufacturers have interpreted the Fibre Channel specifications differently from each other which has resulted in scores of interconnect problems. When purchasing Fibre Channel components from a common manufacturer, this is usually not a problem. The third disadvantage is the fact that a Fibre Channel network is not Ethernet! It requires a separate network technology along with a second set of skill sets that need to exist with the data center staff.

With the popularity of Gigabit Ethernet and the demand for lower cost, Fibre Channel has recently been given a run for its money by iSCSI-based storage systems. Today, iSCSI SANs remain the leading competitor to FC SANs.

Ratified on February 11, 2003 by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Small Computer System Interface, better known as iSCSI, is an Internet Protocol (IP)-based storage networking standard for establishing and managing connections between IP-based storage devices, hosts, and clients. iSCSI is a data transport protocol defined in the SCSI-3 specifications framework and is similar to Fibre Channel in that it is responsible for carrying block-level data over a storage network. Block-level communication means that data is transferred between the host and the client in chunks called blocks. Database servers depend on this type of communication (as opposed to the file level communication used by most NAS systems) in order to work properly. Like a FC SAN, an iSCSI SAN should be a separate physical network devoted entirely to storage, however, its components can be much the same as in a typical IP network (LAN).

While iSCSI has a promising future, many of its early critics were quick to point out some of its inherent shortcomings with regards to performance. The beauty of iSCSI is its ability to utilize an already familiar IP network as its transport mechanism. The TCP/IP protocol, however, is very complex and CPU intensive. With iSCSI, most of the processing of the data (both TCP and iSCSI) is handled in software and is much slower than Fibre Channel which is handled completely in hardware. The overhead incurred in mapping every SCSI command onto an equivalent iSCSI transaction is excessive. For many the solution is to do away with iSCSI software initiators and invest in specialized cards that can offload TCP/IP and iSCSI processing from a server's CPU. These specialized cards are sometimes referred to as an iSCSI Host Bus Adaptor (HBA) or a TCP Offload Engine (TOE) card. Also consider that 10-Gigabit Ethernet is a reality today!

So with all of this talk about iSCSI, does this mean the death of Fibre Channel anytime soon? Probably not. Fibre Channel has clearly demonstrated its capabilities over the years with its capacity for extremely high speeds, flexibility, and robust reliability. Customers who have strict requirements for high performance storage, large complex connectivity, and mission critical reliability will undoubtedly continue to choose Fibre Channel.

As with any new technology, iSCSI comes with its own set of acronyms and terminology. For the purpose of this article, it is only important to understand the difference between an iSCSI initiator and an iSCSI target.

iSCSI Initiator

Basically, an iSCSI initiator is a client device that connects and initiates requests to some service offered by a server (in this case an iSCSI target). The iSCSI initiator software will need to exist on each of the Oracle RAC nodes (racnode1 and racnode2).

An iSCSI initiator can be implemented using either software or hardware. Software iSCSI initiators are available for most major operating system platforms. For this article, we will be using the free Linux Open-iSCSI software driver found in the iscsi-initiator-utils RPM. The iSCSI software initiator is generally used with a standard network interface card (NIC) — a Gigabit Ethernet card in most cases. A hardware initiator is an iSCSI HBA (or a TCP Offload Engine (TOE) card), which is basically just a specialized Ethernet card with a SCSI ASIC on-board to offload all the work (TCP and SCSI commands) from the system CPU. iSCSI HBAs are available from a number of vendors, including Adaptec, Alacritech, Intel, and QLogic.

iSCSI Target

An iSCSI target is the "server" component of an iSCSI network. This is typically the storage device that contains the information you want and answers requests from the initiator(s). For the purpose of this article, the node openfiler1 will be the iSCSI target.

Hardware and Costs

The hardware used to build our example Oracle RAC 11g environment consists of three Linux servers (two Oracle RAC nodes and one Network Storage Server) and components that can be purchased at many local computer stores or over the Internet.

Oracle RAC Node 1 - (racnode1)
Dell PowerEdge T100

Dual Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) E3110, 3.0 GHz, 6MB Cache, 1333MHz
4GB, DDR2, 800MHz
160GB 7.2K RPM SATA 3Gbps Hard Drive
Integrated Graphics - (ATI ES1000)
Integrated Gigabit Ethernet - (Broadcom(R) NetXtreme IITM 5722)
16x DVD Drive
No Keyboard, Monitor, or Mouse - (Connected to KVM Switch)

US$500
1 x Ethernet LAN Card

Used for RAC interconnect to racnode2 and Openfiler networked storage.

Each Linux server for Oracle RAC should contain at least two NIC adapters. The Dell PowerEdge T100 includes an embedded Broadcom(R) NetXtreme IITM 5722 Gigabit Ethernet NIC that will be used to connect to the public network. A second NIC adapter will be used for the private network (RAC interconnect and Openfiler networked storage). Select the appropriate NIC adapter that is compatible with the maximum data transmission speed of the network switch to be used for the private network. For the purpose of this article, I used a Gigabit Ethernet switch (and a 1Gb Ethernet card) for the private network.

Intel(R) PRO/1000 PT Server Adapter - (EXPI9400PT)

US$90
Oracle RAC Node 2 - (racnode2)
Dell PowerEdge T100

Dual Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) E3110, 3.0 GHz, 6MB Cache, 1333MHz
4GB, DDR2, 800MHz
160GB 7.2K RPM SATA 3Gbps Hard Drive
Integrated Graphics - (ATI ES1000)
Integrated Gigabit Ethernet - (Broadcom(R) NetXtreme IITM 5722)
16x DVD Drive
No Keyboard, Monitor, or Mouse - (Connected to KVM Switch)

US$500
1 x Ethernet LAN Card

Used for RAC interconnect to racnode1 and Openfiler networked storage.

Each Linux server for Oracle RAC should contain at least two NIC adapters. The Dell PowerEdge T100 includes an embedded Broadcom(R) NetXtreme IITM 5722 Gigabit Ethernet NIC that will be used to connect to the public network. A second NIC adapter will be used for the private network (RAC interconnect and Openfiler networked storage). Select the appropriate NIC adapter that is compatible with the maximum data transmission speed of the network switch to be used for the private network. For the purpose of this article, I used a Gigabit Ethernet switch (and a 1Gb Ethernet card) for the private network.

Intel(R) PRO/1000 PT Server Adapter - (EXPI9400PT)

US$90
Network Storage Server - (openfiler1)
Dell PowerEdge 1800

Dual 3.0GHz Xeon / 1MB Cache / 800FSB (SL7PE)
6GB of ECC Memory
500GB SATA Internal Hard Disk
73GB 15K SCSI Internal Hard Disk
Integrated Graphics
Single embedded Intel 10/100/1000 Gigabit NIC
16x DVD Drive
No Keyboard, Monitor, or Mouse - (Connected to KVM Switch)

Note: The rPath Linux operating system and Openfiler application will be installed on the 500GB internal SATA disk. A second internal 73GB 15K SCSI hard disk will be configured for the shared database storage. The Openfiler server will be configured to use this second hard disk for iSCSI based storage and will be used in our Oracle RAC 11g configuration to store the shared files required by Oracle Clusterware as well as the cluster database files.

Please be aware that any type of hard disk (internal or external) should work for the shared disk storage as long as it can be recognized by the network storage server (Openfiler) and has adequate space. For example, I could have made an extra partition on the 500GB internal SATA disk for the iSCSI target, but decided to make use of the faster SCSI disk for this example.

Finally, although the Openfiler server used in this example configuration contains 6GB of memory, this is by no means a requirement. The Openfiler server could be configured with as little as 2GB for a small test / evaluation network storage server.

US$800
1 x Ethernet LAN Card

Used for networked storage on the private network.

The Network Storage Server (Openfiler server) should contain two NIC adapters. The Dell PowerEdge 1800 machine included an integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet adapter that will be used to connect to the public network. The second NIC adapter will be used for the private network (Openfiler networked storage). Select the appropriate NIC adapter that is compatible with the maximum data transmission speed of the network switch to be used for the private network. For the purpose of this article, I used a Gigabit Ethernet switch (and 1Gb Ethernet card) for the private network.

Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Server Adapter - (PWLA8490MT)

US$125
Miscellaneous Components
1 x Ethernet Switch

Used for the interconnect between racnode1-priv and racnode2-priv which will be on the 192.168.2.0 network. This switch will also be used for network storage traffic for Openfiler. For the purpose of this article, I used a Gigabit Ethernet switch (and 1Gb Ethernet cards) for the private network.

Note: This article assumes you already have a switch or VLAN in place what will be used for the public network.

D-Link 8-port 10/100/1000 Desktop Switch - (DGS-2208)

US$50
6 x Network Cables

Category 6 patch cable - (Connect racnode1 to public network)
Category 6 patch cable - (Connect racnode2 to public network)
Category 6 patch cable - (Connect openfiler1 to public network)
Category 6 patch cable - (Connect racnode1 to interconnect Ethernet switch)
Category 6 patch cable - (Connect racnode2 to interconnect Ethernet switch)
Category 6 patch cable - (Connect openfiler1 to interconnect Ethernet switch)

 US$10
US$10
US$10
US$10
US$10
US$10
Optional Components
KVM Switch

This guide requires access to the console of all machines in order to install the operating system and perform several of the configuration tasks. When managing a very small number of servers, it might make sense to connect each server with its own monitor, keyboard, and mouse in order to access its console. However, as the number of servers to manage increases, this solution becomes unfeasible. A more practical solution would be to configure a dedicated device which would include a single monitor, keyboard, and mouse that would have direct access to the console of each server. This solution is made possible using a Keyboard, Video, Mouse Switch —better known as a KVM Switch. A KVM switch is a hardware device that allows a user to control multiple computers from a single keyboard, video monitor and mouse. Avocent provides a high quality and economical 4-port switch which includes four 6' cables.

AutoView(R) Analog KVM Switch

For a detailed explanation and guide on the use and KVM switches, please see the article "KVM Switches For the Home and the Enterprise".

US$350
Total US$2,565

We are about to start the installation process. Now that we have talked about the hardware that will be used in this example, let's take a conceptual look at what the environment would look like after connecting all of the hardware components (click on the graphic below to view larger image).

    

Figure 1: Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 Test Configuration

As we start to go into the details of the installation, note that most of the tasks within this document will need to be performed on both Oracle RAC nodes (racnode1 and racnode2). I will indicate at the beginning of each section whether or not the task(s) should be performed on both Oracle RAC nodes or on the network storage server (openfiler1).

Install the Linux Operating System

Perform the following installation on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster.

This section provides a summary of the screens used to install the Linux operating system. This guide is designed to work with CentOS release 5.5 for x86_64 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 for x86_64 and follows Oracle's suggestion of performing a "default RPMs" installation type to ensure all expected Linux O/S packages are present for a successful Oracle RDBMS installation.

Although I have used Red Hat Fedora in the past, I wanted to switch to a Linux environment that would guarantee all of the functionality contained with Oracle. This is where CentOS comes in. The CentOS project takes the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 source RPMs and compiles them into a free clone of the Red Hat Enterprise Server 5 product. This provides a free and stable version of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (AS/ES) operating environment that I can use for Oracle testing and development. I have moved away from Fedora as I need a stable environment that is not only free, but as close to the actual Oracle supported operating system as possible. While CentOS is not the only project performing the same functionality, I tend to stick with it as it is stable and reacts fast with regards to updates by Red Hat.

Download CentOS

Use the links below to download CentOS 5.5 for either x86 or x86_64 depending on your hardware architecture.

32-bit (x86) Installations

Note: If the Linux RAC nodes have a DVD installed, you may find it more convenient to make use of the single DVD image (requires BitTorrent).

64-bit (x86_64) Installations

Note: If the Linux RAC nodes have a DVD installed, you may find it more convenient to make use of the two DVD images (requires BitTorrent).

Burn Binary Image to CD/DVD

If you are downloading the above ISO files to a MS Windows machine, there are many options for burning these images (ISO files) to a CD. You may already be familiar with and have the proper software to burn images to CD. If you are not familiar with this process and do not have the required software to burn images to CD, here are just three of the many software packages that can be used.

Install CentOS

After downloading and burning the CentOS images (ISO files) to CD/DVD, insert CentOS Disk #1 into the first server (racnode1 in this example), power it on, and answer the installation screen prompts as noted below. After completing the Linux installation on the first node, perform the same Linux installation on the second node while substituting the node name racnode1 for racnode2 and the different IP addresses were appropriate.

 

Before installing the Linux operating system on both nodes, you should have the two NIC interfaces (cards) installed.

Boot Screen

The first screen is the CentOS boot screen. At the boot: prompt, hit [Enter] to start the installation process.

Media Test

When asked to test the CD media, tab over to [Skip] and hit [Enter]. If there were any errors, the media burning software would have warned us. After several seconds, the installer should then detect the video card, monitor, and mouse. The installer then goes into GUI mode.

Welcome to CentOS

At the welcome screen, click [Next] to continue.

Language / Keyboard Selection

The next two screens prompt you for the Language and Keyboard settings. Make the appropriate selection for your configuration and click [Next] to continue.

Detect Previous Installation

If the installer detects a previous version of RHEL / CentOS, it will ask if you would like to "Install CentOS" or "Upgrade an existing Installation". Always select to Install CentOS.

Disk Partitioning Setup

Select "Remove all partitions on selected drives and create default layout" and check the option to "Review and modify partitioning layout". Click "[Next]" to continue.

You will then be prompted with a dialog window asking if you really want to remove all Linux partitions. Click [Yes] to acknowledge this warning.

Partitioning

The installer will then allow you to view (and modify if needed) the disk partitions it automatically selected. For most automatic layouts, the installer will choose 100MB for /boot, double the amount of RAM (systems with <= 2,048MB RAM) or an amount equal to RAM (systems with > 2,048MB RAM) for swap, and the rest going to the root (/) partition. Starting with RHEL 4, the installer will create the same disk configuration as just noted but will create them using the Logical Volume Manager (LVM). For example, it will partition the first hard drive (/dev/sda for my configuration) into two partitions — one for the /boot partition (/dev/sda1) and the remainder of the disk dedicate to a LVM named VolGroup00 (/dev/sda2). The LVM Volume Group (VolGroup00) is then partitioned into two LVM partitions - one for the root file system (/) and another for swap.

The main concern during the partitioning phase is to ensure enough swap space is allocated as required by Oracle (which is a multiple of the available RAM). The following is Oracle's minimum requirement for swap space.

Available RAM Swap Space Required
Between 1,024MB and 2,048MB 1.5 times the size of RAM
Between 2,049MB and 8,192MB Equal to the size of RAM
More than 8,192MB 0.75 times the size of RAM

For the purpose of this install, I will accept all automatically preferred sizes. (Including 5,952MB for swap since I have 4GB of RAM installed.)

If for any reason, the automatic layout does not configure an adequate amount of swap space, you can easily change that from this screen. To increase the size of the swap partition, [Edit] the volume group VolGroup00. This will bring up the "Edit LVM Volume Group: VolGroup00" dialog. First, [Edit] and decrease the size of the root file system (/) by the amount you want to add to the swap partition. For example, to add another 512MB to swap, you would decrease the size of the root file system by 512MB (i.e. 36,032MB - 512MB = 35,520MB). Now add the space you decreased from the root file system (512MB) to the swap partition. When completed, click [OK] on the "Edit LVM Volume Group: VolGroup00" dialog.

Once you are satisfied with the disk layout, click [Next] to continue.

Boot Loader Configuration

The installer will use the GRUB boot loader by default. To use the "GRUB boot loader", accept all default values and click [Next] to continue.

Network Configuration

I made sure to install both NIC interfaces (cards) in each of the Linux machines before starting the operating system installation. The installer should have successfully detected each of the network devices. Since this guide will use the traditional method of assigning static IP addresses for each of the Oracle RAC nodes, there will be several changes that need to be made to the network configuration. The settings you make here will, of course, depend on your network configuration. The most important modification that will be required for this guide is to not configure the Oracle RAC nodes with DHCP since we will be assigning static IP addresses. Additionally, you will need to configure the server with a real host name.

First, make sure that each of the network devices are checked to "Active on boot". The installer may choose to not activate eth1 by default.

Second, [Edit] both eth0 and eth1 as follows. You may choose to use different IP addresses for both eth0 and eth1 that I have documented in this guide and that is OK. Make certain to put eth1 (the interconnect) on a different subnet than eth0 (the public network).

Oracle RAC Node Network Configuration

(racnode1)
eth0
Enable IPv4 support ON
Dynamic IP configuration (DHCP) - (select Manual configuration) OFF
IPv4 Address 192.168.1.151
Prefix (Netmask) 255.255.255.0
Enable IPv6 support OFF
eth1
Enable IPv4 support ON
Dynamic IP configuration (DHCP) - (select Manual configuration) OFF
IPv4 Address 192.168.2.151
Prefix (Netmask) 255.255.255.0
Enable IPv6 support OFF

Continue by manually setting your hostname. I used racnode1 for the first node and racnode2 for the second. Finish this dialog off by supplying your gateway and DNS servers.

 

Additional DNS configuration information for both of the Oracle RAC nodes will be discussed later in this guide.

Time Zone Selection

Select the appropriate time zone for your environment and click [Next] to continue.

Set Root Password

Select a root password and click [Next] to continue.

Package Installation Defaults

By default, CentOS installs most of the software required for a typical server. There are several other packages (RPMs), however, that are required to successfully install the Oracle software. The installer includes a "Customize software" selection that allows the addition of RPM groupings such as "Development Libraries" or "Legacy Library Support". The addition of such RPM groupings is not an issue. De-selecting any "default RPM" groupings or individual RPMs, however, can result in failed Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle RAC installation attempts.

For the purpose of this article, select the radio button "Customize now" and click [Next] to continue.

This is where you pick the packages to install. Most of the packages required for the Oracle software are grouped into "Package Groups" (i.e. Application -> Editors). Since these nodes will be hosting the Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle RAC software, verify that at least the following package groups are selected for install. For many of the Linux package groups, not all of the packages associated with that group get selected for installation. (Note the "Optional packages" button after selecting a package group.) So although the package group gets selected for install, some of the packages required by Oracle do not get installed. In fact, there are some packages that are required by Oracle that do not belong to any of the available package groups (i.e. libaio-devel). Not to worry. A complete list of required packages for Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g Release 2 and Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 for Linux will be provided in the next section. These packages will need to be manually installed from the CentOS CDs after the operating system install. For now, install the following package groups.

In addition to the above packages, select any additional packages you wish to install for this node keeping in mind to NOT de-select any of the "default" RPM packages. After selecting the packages to install click [Next] to continue.

About to Install

This screen is basically a confirmation screen. Click [Next] to start the installation. If you are installing CentOS using CDs, you will be asked to switch CDs during the installation process depending on which packages you selected.

Congratulations

And that's it. You have successfully installed Linux on the first node (racnode1). The installer will eject the CD/DVD from the CD-ROM drive. Take out the CD/DVD and click [Reboot] to reboot the system.

Post Installation Wizard Welcome Screen

When the system boots into CentOS Linux for the first time, it will prompt you with another welcome screen for the "Post Installation Wizard". The post installation wizard allows you to make final O/S configuration settings. On the "Welcome screen", click [Forward] to continue.

Firewall

On this screen, make sure to select the "Disabled" option and click [Forward] to continue.

You will be prompted with a warning dialog about not setting the firewall. When this occurs, click [Yes] to continue.

SELinux

On the SELinux screen, choose the "Disabled" option and click [Forward] to continue.

You will be prompted with a warning dialog warning that changing the SELinux setting will require rebooting the system so the entire file system can be relabeled. When this occurs, click [Yes] to acknowledge a reboot of the system will occur after firstboot (Post Installation Wizard) is completed.

Kdump

Accept the default setting on the Kdump screen (disabled) and click [Forward] to continue.

Date and Time Settings

Adjust the date and time settings if necessary and click [Forward] to continue.

Create User

Create any additional (non-oracle) operating system user accounts if desired and click [Forward] to continue. For the purpose of this article, I will not be creating any additional operating system accounts. I will be creating the "grid" and "oracle" user accounts later in this guide.

If you chose not to define any additional operating system user accounts, click [Continue] to acknowledge the warning dialog.

Sound Card

This screen will only appear if the wizard detects a sound card. On the sound card screen click [Forward] to continue.

Additional CDs

On the "Additional CDs" screen click [Finish] to continue.

Reboot System

Given we changed the SELinux option to "Disabled", we are prompted to reboot the system. Click [OK] to reboot the system for normal use.

Login Screen

After rebooting the machine, you are presented with the login screen. Log in using the "root" user account and the password you provided during the installation.

Perform the same installation on the second node

After completing the Linux installation on the first node, repeat the above steps for the second node (racnode2). When configuring the machine name and networking, ensure to configure the proper values. For my installation, this is what I configured for racnode2.

First, make sure that each of the network devices are checked to "Active on boot". The installer may choose to not activate eth1 by default.

Second, [Edit] both eth0 and eth1 as follows. You may choose to use different IP addresses for both eth0 and eth1 that I have documented in this guide and that is OK. Make certain to put eth1 (the interconnect) on a different subnet than eth0 (the public network).

Oracle RAC Node Network Configuration

(racnode2)
eth0
Enable IPv4 support ON
Dynamic IP configuration (DHCP) - (select Manual configuration) OFF
IPv4 Address 192.168.1.152
Prefix (Netmask) 255.255.255.0
Enable IPv6 support OFF
eth1
Enable IPv4 support ON
Dynamic IP configuration (DHCP) - (select Manual configuration) OFF
IPv4 Address 192.168.2.152
Prefix (Netmask) 255.255.255.0
Enable IPv6 support OFF

Continue by manually setting your hostname. I used racnode2 for the second node. Finish this dialog off by supplying your gateway and DNS servers.

Perform the same Linux installation on racnode2

Install Required Linux Packages for Oracle RAC

Install the following required Linux packages on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster.

After installing the Linux O/S, the next step is to verify and install all packages (RPMs) required by both Oracle Clusterware and Oracle RAC. The Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) performs checks on your machine during installation to verify that it meets the appropriate operating system package requirements. To ensure that these checks complete successfully, verify the software requirements documented in this section before starting the Oracle installs.

Although many of the required packages for Oracle were installed during the Linux installation, several will be missing either because they were considered optional within the package group or simply didn't exist in any package group.

The packages listed in this section (or later versions) are required for Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g Release 2 and Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 running on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 or CentOS 5 platform.

32-bit (x86) Installations

Each of the packages listed above can be found on CD #1, CD #2, CD #3, and CD #4 on the CentOS 5.5 for x86 CDs. While it is possible to query each individual package to determine which ones are missing and need to be installed, an easier method is to run the rpm -Uvh PackageName command from the four CDs as follows. For packages that already exist and are up to date, the RPM command will simply ignore the install and print a warning message to the console that the package is already installed. 


# From CentOS 5.5 (x86)- [CD #1]
mkdir -p /media/cdrom
mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom/CentOS
rpm -Uvh binutils-2.*
rpm -Uvh elfutils-libelf-0.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-2.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-common-2.*
rpm -Uvh kernel-headers-2.*
rpm -Uvh ksh-2*
rpm -Uvh libaio-0.*
rpm -Uvh libgcc-4.*
rpm -Uvh libstdc++-4.*
rpm -Uvh make-3.*
cd /
eject


# From CentOS 5.5 (x86) - [CD #2]
mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom/CentOS
rpm -Uvh libgomp-4.*
rpm -Uvh unixODBC-2.*
cd /
eject


# From CentOS 5.5 (x86) - [CD #3]
mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom/CentOS
rpm -Uvh compat-libstdc++-33*
rpm -Uvh elfutils-libelf-devel-*
rpm -Uvh gcc-4.*
rpm -Uvh gcc-c++-4.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-devel-2.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-headers-2.*
rpm -Uvh libaio-devel-0.*
rpm -Uvh libstdc++-devel-4.*
rpm -Uvh pdksh-5.*
rpm -Uvh unixODBC-devel-2.*
cd /
eject


# From CentOS 5.5 (x86) - [CD #4]
mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom/CentOS
rpm -Uvh sysstat-7.*
cd /
eject

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# From CentOS 5.5 (x86)- [DVD #1]
mkdir -p /media/cdrom
mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom/CentOS
rpm -Uvh binutils-2.*
rpm -Uvh elfutils-libelf-0.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-2.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-common-2.*
rpm -Uvh kernel-headers-2.*
rpm -Uvh ksh-2*
rpm -Uvh libaio-0.*
rpm -Uvh libgcc-4.*
rpm -Uvh libstdc++-4.*
rpm -Uvh make-3.*
rpm -Uvh libgomp-4.*
rpm -Uvh unixODBC-2.*
rpm -Uvh compat-libstdc++-33*
rpm -Uvh elfutils-libelf-devel-*
rpm -Uvh gcc-4.*
rpm -Uvh gcc-c++-4.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-devel-2.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-headers-2.*
rpm -Uvh libaio-devel-0.*
rpm -Uvh libstdc++-devel-4.*
rpm -Uvh pdksh-5.*
rpm -Uvh unixODBC-devel-2.*
rpm -Uvh sysstat-7.*
cd /
eject

64-bit (x86_64) Installations

Each of the packages listed above can be found on CD #1, CD #3, CD #4, and CD #5 on the CentOS 5.5 for x86_64 CDs. While it is possible to query each individual package to determine which ones are missing and need to be installed, an easier method is to run the rpm -Uvh PackageName command from the four CDs as follows. For packages that already exist and are up to date, the RPM command will simply ignore the install and print a warning message to the console that the package is already installed. 


# From CentOS 5.5 (x86_64)- [CD #1]
mkdir -p /media/cdrom
mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom/CentOS
rpm -Uvh binutils-2.*
rpm -Uvh elfutils-libelf-0.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-2.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-common-2.*
rpm -Uvh ksh-2*
rpm -Uvh libaio-0.*
rpm -Uvh libgcc-4.*
rpm -Uvh libstdc++-4.*
rpm -Uvh make-3.*
cd /
eject


# From CentOS 5.5 (x86_64) - [CD #3]
mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom/CentOS
rpm -Uvh elfutils-libelf-devel-*
rpm -Uvh gcc-4.*
rpm -Uvh gcc-c++-4.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-devel-2.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-headers-2.*
rpm -Uvh libstdc++-devel-4.*
rpm -Uvh unixODBC-2.*
cd /
eject


# From CentOS 5.5 (x86_64) - [CD #4]
mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom/CentOS
rpm -Uvh compat-libstdc++-33*
rpm -Uvh libaio-devel-0.*
rpm -Uvh pdksh-5.*
rpm -Uvh unixODBC-devel-2.*
cd /
eject


# From CentOS 5.5 (x86_64) - [CD #5]
mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom/CentOS
rpm -Uvh sysstat-7.*
cd /
eject

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# From CentOS 5.5 (x86_64)- [DVD #1]
mkdir -p /media/cdrom
mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom/CentOS
rpm -Uvh binutils-2.*
rpm -Uvh elfutils-libelf-0.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-2.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-common-2.*
rpm -Uvh ksh-2*
rpm -Uvh libaio-0.*
rpm -Uvh libgcc-4.*
rpm -Uvh libstdc++-4.*
rpm -Uvh make-3.*
rpm -Uvh elfutils-libelf-devel-*
rpm -Uvh gcc-4.*
rpm -Uvh gcc-c++-4.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-devel-2.*
rpm -Uvh glibc-headers-2.*
rpm -Uvh libstdc++-devel-4.*
rpm -Uvh unixODBC-2.*
rpm -Uvh compat-libstdc++-33*
rpm -Uvh libaio-devel-0.*
rpm -Uvh pdksh-5.*
rpm -Uvh unixODBC-devel-2.*
rpm -Uvh sysstat-7.*
cd /
eject

Install Openfiler

Perform the following installation on the network storage server (openfiler1).

With Linux installed on both Oracle RAC nodes, the next step is to install the Openfiler software to the network storage server (openfiler1). Later in this guide, the network storage server will be configured as an iSCSI storage device for all Oracle Clusterware and Oracle RAC shared storage requirements.

Powered by rPath Linux, Openfiler is a free browser-based network storage management utility that delivers file-based Network Attached Storage (NAS) and block-based Storage Area Networking (SAN) in a single framework. The entire software stack interfaces with open source applications such as Apache, Samba, LVM2, ext3, Linux NFS and iSCSI Enterprise Target. Openfiler combines these ubiquitous technologies into a small, easy to manage solution fronted by a powerful web-based management interface.

Openfiler supports CIFS, NFS, HTTP/DAV, FTP, however, we will only be making use of its iSCSI capabilities to implement an inexpensive SAN for the shared storage components required by Oracle RAC 11g. The rPath Linux operating system and Openfiler application will be installed on one internal SATA disk. A second internal 73GB 15K SCSI hard disk will be configured as a single volume group that will be used for all shared disk storage requirements. The Openfiler server will be configured to use this volume group for iSCSI based storage and will be used in our Oracle RAC 11g configuration to store the shared files required by Oracle Clusterware and the Oracle RAC database.

Please be aware that any type of hard disk (internal or external) should work for the shared database storage as long as it can be recognized by the network storage server (Openfiler) and has adequate space. For example, I could have made an extra partition on the 500GB internal SATA disk for the iSCSI target, but decided to make use of the faster SCSI disk for this example.

 

To learn more about Openfiler, please visit their website at http://www.openfiler.com/.

Download Openfiler

Use the links below to download Openfiler NAS/SAN Appliance, version 2.3 (Final Release) for either x86 or x86_64 depending on your hardware architecture. This guide uses x86_64. After downloading Openfiler, you will then need to burn the ISO image to CD.

32-bit (x86) Installations

64-bit (x86_64) Installations

If you are downloading the above ISO file to a MS Windows machine, there are many options for burning these images (ISO files) to a CD. You may already be familiar with and have the proper software to burn images to CD. If you are not familiar with this process and do not have the required software to burn images to CD, here are just three of the many software packages that can be used.

Install Openfiler

This section provides a summary of the screens used to install the Openfiler software. For the purpose of this article, I opted to install Openfiler with all default options. The only manual change required was for configuring the local network settings.

Once the install has completed, the server will reboot to make sure all required components, services and drivers are started and recognized. After the reboot, any external hard drives (if connected) will be discovered by the Openfiler server.

For more detailed installation instructions, please visit http://www.openfiler.com/learn/. I would suggest, however, that the instructions I have provided below be used for this Oracle RAC 11g configuration.

Before installing the Openfiler software to the network storage server, you should have both NIC interfaces (cards) installed and any external hard drives connected and turned on (if you will be using external hard drives).

After downloading and burning the Openfiler ISO image file to CD, insert the CD into the network storage server (openfiler1 in this example), power it on, and answer the installation screen prompts as noted below.

Boot Screen

The first screen is the Openfiler boot screen. At the boot: prompt, hit [Enter] to start the installation process.

Media Test

When asked to test the CD media, tab over to [Skip] and hit [Enter]. If there were any errors, the media burning software would have warned us. After several seconds, the installer should then detect the video card, monitor, and mouse. The installer then goes into GUI mode.

Welcome to Openfiler NSA

At the welcome screen, click [Next] to continue.

Keyboard Configuration

The next screen prompts you for the Keyboard settings. Make the appropriate selection for your configuration.

Disk Partitioning Setup

The next screen asks whether to perform disk partitioning using "Automatic Partitioning" or "Manual Partitioning with Disk Druid". Although the official Openfiler documentation suggests to use Manual Partitioning, I opted to use "Automatic Partitioning" given the simplicity of my example configuration.

Select [Automatically partition] and click [Next] continue.

Automatic Partitioning

If there were a previous installation of Linux on this machine, the next screen will ask if you want to "remove" or "keep" old partitions. Select the option to [Remove all partitions on this system]. For my example configuration, I selected ONLY the 500GB SATA internal hard drive [sda] for the operating system and Openfiler application installation. I de-selected the 73GB SCSI internal hard drive since this disk will be used exclusively later in this guide to create a single "Volume Group" (racdbvg) that will be used for all iSCSI based shared disk storage requirements for Oracle Clusterware and Oracle RAC.

I also keep the check-box [Review (and modify if needed) the partitions created] selected. Click [Next] to continue.

You will then be prompted with a dialog window asking if you really want to remove all partitions. Click [Yes] to acknowledge this warning.

Partitioning

The installer will then allow you to view (and modify if needed) the disk partitions it automatically chose for hard disks selected in the previous screen. In almost all cases, the installer will choose 100MB for /boot, an adequate amount of swap, and the rest going to the root (/) partition for that disk (or disks). In this example, I am satisfied with the installers recommended partitioning for /dev/sda.

The installer will also show any other internal hard disks it discovered. For my example configuration, the installer found the 73GB SCSI internal hard drive as /dev/sdb. For now, I will "Delete" any and all partitions on this drive (there was only one, /dev/sdb1). Later in this guide, I will create the required partition for this particular hard disk.

Network Configuration

I made sure to install both NIC interfaces (cards) in the network storage server before starting the Openfiler installation. The installer should have successfully detected each of the network devices.

First, make sure that each of the network devices are checked to [Active on boot]. The installer may choose to not activate eth1 by default.

Second, [Edit] both eth0 and eth1 as follows. You may choose to use different IP addresses for both eth0 and eth1 and that is OK. You must, however, configure eth1 (the storage network) to be on the same subnet you configured for eth1 on racnode1 and racnode2.

eth0
Configure using DHCP OFF
Activate on boot ON
IP Address 192.168.1.195
Netmask 255.255.255.0
eth1
Configure using DHCP OFF
Activate on boot ON
IP Address 192.168.2.195
Netmask 255.255.255.0

Continue by setting your hostname manually. I used a hostname of "openfiler1". Finish this dialog off by supplying your gateway and DNS servers.

Time Zone Selection

The next screen allows you to configure your time zone information. Make the appropriate selection for your location.

Set Root Password

Select a root password and click [Next] to continue.

About to Install

This screen is basically a confirmation screen. Click [Next] to start the installation.

Congratulations

And that's it. You have successfully installed Openfiler on the network storage server. The installer will eject the CD from the CD-ROM drive. Take out the CD and click [Reboot] to reboot the system.

If everything was successful after the reboot, you should now be presented with a text login screen and the URL to use for administering the Openfiler server.

 

After installing Openfiler, verify you can log in to the machine using the root user account and the password you supplied during installation. Do not attempt to log in to the console or SSH using the built-in openfiler user account. Attempting to do so will result in the following error message. 

openfiler1 login: openfiler
Password: password
This interface has not been implemented yet.

Only attempt to log in to the console or SSH using the root user account.

Network Configuration

Perform the following network configuration tasks on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster.

Although we configured several of the network settings during the Linux installation, it is important to not skip this section as it contains critical steps which include configuring DNS and verifying you have the networking hardware and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses required for an Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster installation.

Network Hardware Requirements

The following is a list of hardware requirements for network configuration.

Oracle RAC Network Configuration

For this guide, I opted not to use Grid Naming Service (GNS) for assigning IP addresses to each Oracle RAC node but instead will manually assign them in DNS and hosts files. I often refer to this traditional method of manually assigning IP addresses as the "DNS method" given the fact that all IP addresses should be resolved using DNS.

When using the DNS method for assigning IP addresses, Oracle recommends that all static IP addresses be manually configured in DNS before starting the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation. This would include the public IP address for the node, the RAC interconnect, virtual IP address (VIP), and new to 11g Release 2, the Single Client Access Name (SCAN) virtual IP.

 

Note that Oracle requires you to define the SCAN domain address (racnode-cluster-scan in this example) to resolve on your DNS to one of three possible IP addresses in order to successfully install Oracle Grid Infrastructure! Defining the SCAN domain address only in the hosts files for each Oracle RAC node, and not in DNS, will cause the "Oracle Cluster Verification Utility" to fail with an [INS-20802] error during the Oracle Grid Infrastructure install.

The following table displays the network configuration that will be used to build the example two-node Oracle RAC described in this guide. Note that every IP address will be registered in DNS and the hosts file for each Oracle RAC node with the exception of the SCAN virtual IP. The SCAN virtual IP will only be registered in DNS.

Example Two-Node Oracle RAC Network Configuration
Identity Name Type IP Address Resolved By
Node 1 Public racnode1 Public 192.168.1.151 DNS and hosts file
Node 1 Private racnode1-priv Private 192.168.2.151 DNS and hosts file
Node 1 VIP racnode1-vip Virtual 192.168.1.251 DNS and hosts file
Node 2 Public racnode2 Public 192.168.1.152 DNS and hosts file
Node 2 Private racnode2-priv Private 192.168.2.152 DNS and hosts file
Node 2 VIP racnode2-vip Virtual 192.168.1.252 DNS and hosts file
SCAN VIP 1 racnode-cluster-scan Virtual 192.168.1.187 DNS
SCAN VIP 2 racnode-cluster-scan Virtual 192.168.1.188 DNS
SCAN VIP 3 racnode-cluster-scan Virtual 192.168.1.189 DNS

DNS Configuration

The example Oracle RAC configuration described in this guide will use the traditional method of manually assigning static IP addresses and therefore requires a DNS server. If you do not have access to a DNS server, this section includes detailed instructions for installing a minimal DNS server on the Openfiler network storage server.

Use and Existing DNS

If you already have access to a DNS server, simply add the appropriate A and PTR records for Oracle RAC to your DNS and skip ahead to the next section "Update /etc/resolv.conf File". Note that in the example below, I am using the domain name idevelopment.info. Please feel free to substitute your own domain name if needed. 


; Forward Lookup Zone
racnode1                IN A        192.168.1.151
racnode2                IN A        192.168.1.152
racnode1-priv           IN A        192.168.2.151
racnode2-priv           IN A        192.168.2.152
racnode1-vip            IN A        192.168.1.251
racnode2-vip            IN A        192.168.1.252
openfiler1              IN A        192.168.1.195
openfiler1-priv         IN A        192.168.2.195
racnode-cluster-scan    IN A        192.168.1.187
racnode-cluster-scan    IN A        192.168.1.188
racnode-cluster-scan    IN A        192.168.1.189

; Reverse Lookup Zone
151                     IN PTR      racnode1.idevelopment.info.
152                     IN PTR      racnode2.idevelopment.info.
251                     IN PTR      racnode1-vip.idevelopment.info.
252                     IN PTR      racnode2-vip.idevelopment.info.
187                     IN PTR      racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info.
188                     IN PTR      racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info.
189                     IN PTR      racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info.

Install DNS on Openfiler

Installing DNS on the Openfiler network storage server is a trivial task. To install or update packages on Openfiler, use the command-line tool conary, developed by rPath.

To learn more about the different options and parameters that can be used with the conary utility, review the Conary QuickReference guide.

 

To install packages on Openfiler you need access to the Internet!

To install DNS on the Openfiler server, run the following command as the root user account. 


[root@openfiler1 ~]# conary update bind:runtime
Including extra troves to resolve dependencies:
    bind:lib=9.4.3_P5-1.1-1 info-named:user=1-1-0.1
Applying update job 1 of 2:
    Install info-named(:user)=1-1-0.1
Applying update job 2 of 2:
    Update  bind(:lib) (9.3.4_P1-0.5-1[ipv6,~!pie,ssl] -> 9.4.3_P5-1.1-1)
    Update  bind-utils(:doc :runtime) (9.3.4_P1-0.5-1[ipv6,~!pie,ssl] -> 9.4.3_P5-1.1-1)
    Install bind:runtime=9.4.3_P5-1.1-1

Verify the files installed by the DNS bind package. 


[root@openfiler1 ~]# conary q bind --lsl
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           16 2009-07-29 17:03:02 UTC /usr/lib/libbind.so.4 -> libbind.so.4.1.2
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root       294260 2010-03-11 00:48:52 UTC /usr/lib/libbind.so.4.1.2
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           18 2009-07-29 17:03:00 UTC /usr/lib/libbind9.so.30 -> libbind9.so.30.1.1
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        37404 2010-03-11 00:48:52 UTC /usr/lib/libbind9.so.30.1.1
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           16 2010-03-11 00:14:00 UTC /usr/lib/libdns.so.38 -> libdns.so.38.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root      1421820 2010-03-11 00:48:52 UTC /usr/lib/libdns.so.38.0.0
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           16 2009-07-29 17:02:58 UTC /usr/lib/libisc.so.36 -> libisc.so.36.0.2
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root       308260 2010-03-11 00:48:52 UTC /usr/lib/libisc.so.36.0.2
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           18 2007-03-09 17:26:37 UTC /usr/lib/libisccc.so.30 -> libisccc.so.30.0.1
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        28112 2010-03-11 00:48:51 UTC /usr/lib/libisccc.so.30.0.1
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           19 2009-07-29 17:03:00 UTC /usr/lib/libisccfg.so.30 -> libisccfg.so.30.0.5
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        71428 2010-03-11 00:48:52 UTC /usr/lib/libisccfg.so.30.0.5
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           18 2009-07-29 17:03:01 UTC /usr/lib/liblwres.so.30 -> liblwres.so.30.0.6
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        64360 2010-03-11 00:48:51 UTC /usr/lib/liblwres.so.30.0.6
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         2643 2008-02-22 21:44:05 UTC /etc/init.d/named
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          163 2004-07-07 19:20:10 UTC /etc/logrotate.d/named
-rw-r-----    1 root     root         1435 2004-06-18 04:39:39 UTC /etc/rndc.conf
-rw-r-----    1 root     named          65 2005-09-24 20:40:23 UTC /etc/rndc.key
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         1561 2006-07-20 18:40:14 UTC /etc/sysconfig/named
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     named           0 2007-12-16 01:01:35 UTC /srv/named
drwxr-xr-x    1 named    named           0 2007-12-16 01:01:35 UTC /srv/named/data
drwxr-xr-x    1 named    named           0 2007-12-16 01:01:35 UTC /srv/named/slaves
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         2927 2010-03-11 00:14:02 UTC /usr/bin/isc-config.sh
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         3168 2010-03-11 00:48:51 UTC /usr/sbin/dns-keygen
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        21416 2010-03-11 00:48:51 UTC /usr/sbin/dnssec-keygen
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        53412 2010-03-11 00:48:51 UTC /usr/sbin/dnssec-signzone
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root       379912 2010-03-12 14:07:50 UTC /usr/sbin/lwresd
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root       379912 2010-03-12 14:07:50 UTC /usr/sbin/named
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         7378 2006-10-11 02:33:29 UTC /usr/sbin/named-bootconf
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        20496 2010-03-11 00:48:51 UTC /usr/sbin/named-checkconf
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        19088 2010-03-11 00:48:51 UTC /usr/sbin/named-checkzone
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           15 2007-03-09 17:26:40 UTC /usr/sbin/named-compilezone -> named-checkzone
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        24032 2010-03-11 00:48:51 UTC /usr/sbin/rndc
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        11708 2010-03-11 00:48:51 UTC /usr/sbin/rndc-confgen
drwxr-xr-x    1 named    named           0 2007-12-16 01:01:35 UTC /var/run/named

Configure DNS

Configuration of the DNS server involves creating and modifying the following files.

/etc/named.conf

The first step will be to create the DNS configuration file "/etc/named.conf". The /etc/named.conf configuration file used in this example will be kept fairly simple and only contain the necessary customizations required to run a minimal DNS.

For the purpose of this guide, I will be using the domain name idevelopment.info and the IP range "192.168.1.*" for the public network. Please feel free to substitute your own domain name if so desired. If you do decide to use a different domain name, make certain to modify it in all of the files that are part of the network configuration described in this section.

The DNS configuration file described below is configured to resolve the names of the servers described in this guide. This includes the two Oracle RAC nodes, the Openfiler network storage server (which is now also a DNS server!), and several other miscellaneous nodes. In order to make sure that servers on external networks, like those on the Internet, are resolved properly, I needed to add DNS Forwarding by defining the forwarders directive. This directive tells the DNS, anything it can't resolve should be passed to the DNS(s) listed. For the purpose of this example, I am using my D-Link router which is configured as my gateway to the Internet. I could just as well have used the DNS entries provided by my ISP.

The next directive defined in the options section is directory. This directive specifies where named will look for zone definition files. For example, if you skip forward in the DNS configuration file to the "idevelopment.info" forward lookup zone, you will notice it's zone definition file is "idevelopment.info.zone". The fully qualified name for this file is derived by concatenating the directory directive and the "file" specified for that zone. For example, the fully qualified name for the forward lookup zone definition file described below is "/srv/named/data/idevelopment.info.zone". The same rules apply for the reverse lookup zone which in this example would be "/srv/named/data/1.168.192.in-addr.arpa.zone".

Create the file /etc/named.conf with at least the following content. 


#  +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
#  | /etc/named.conf                                                   |
#  |                                                                   |
#  | DNS configuration file for Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 example       |
#  +-------------------------------------------------------------------+

options {

    // FORWARDERS:  Forward any name this DNS can't resolve to my router.
    forwarders { 192.168.1.1; };

    // DIRECTORY:   Directory where named will look for zone files.
    directory "/srv/named/data";

};


# ----------------------------------
# Forward Zone
# ----------------------------------

zone "idevelopment.info" IN {
    type master;
    file "idevelopment.info.zone";
    allow-update { none; };
};

# ----------------------------------
# Reverse Zone
# ----------------------------------

zone "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa" IN {
    type master;
    file "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa.zone";
    allow-update { none; };
};

/srv/named/data/idevelopment.info.zone

In the DNS configuration file above, we defined the forward and reverse zone definition files. These files will be located in the "/srv/named/data" directory.

Create and edit the file associated with your forward lookup zone, (which in my case is "/srv/named/data/idevelopment.info.zone"), to look like the one described below. Take note of the three entries used to configure the SCAN name for round-robin resolution to three IP addresses. 


; +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
; | /srv/named/data/idevelopment.info.zone                            |
; |                                                                   |
; | Forward zone definition file for idevelopment.info                |
; +-------------------------------------------------------------------+

$ORIGIN idevelopment.info.

$TTL 86400          ; time-to-live   - (1 day)

@  IN SOA  openfiler1.idevelopment.info. jhunter.idevelopment.info. (
        201011021   ; serial number  - (yyyymmdd+s)
        7200        ; refresh        - (2 hours)
        300         ; retry          - (5 minutes)
        604800      ; expire         - (1 week)
        60          ; minimum        - (1 minute)
)
                        IN NS       openfiler1.idevelopment.info.
localhost               IN A        127.0.0.1

; Oracle RAC Nodes
racnode1                IN A        192.168.1.151
racnode2                IN A        192.168.1.152
racnode1-priv           IN A        192.168.2.151
racnode2-priv           IN A        192.168.2.152
racnode1-vip            IN A        192.168.1.251
racnode2-vip            IN A        192.168.1.252

; Network Storage Server
openfiler1              IN A        192.168.1.195
openfiler1-priv         IN A        192.168.2.195

; Single Client Access Name (SCAN) virtual IP
racnode-cluster-scan    IN A        192.168.1.187
racnode-cluster-scan    IN A        192.168.1.188
racnode-cluster-scan    IN A        192.168.1.189

; Miscellaneous Nodes
router                  IN A        192.168.1.1
packmule                IN A        192.168.1.105
domo                    IN A        192.168.1.121
switch1                 IN A        192.168.1.122
oemprod                 IN A        192.168.1.125
accesspoint             IN A        192.168.1.245

/srv/named/data/1.168.192.in-addr.arpa.zone

Next, we need to create the "/srv/named/data/1.168.192.in-addr.arpa.zone" zone definition file for public network reverse lookups. 


; +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
; | /srv/named/data/1.168.192.in-addr.arpa.zone                       |
; |                                                                   |
; | Reverse zone definition file for idevelopment.info                |
; +-------------------------------------------------------------------+

$ORIGIN 1.168.192.in-addr.arpa.

$TTL 86400          ; time-to-live   - (1 day)

@  IN SOA  openfiler1.idevelopment.info. jhunter.idevelopment.info. (
        201011021   ; serial number  - (yyyymmdd+s)
        7200        ; refresh        - (2 hours)
        300         ; retry          - (5 minutes)
        604800      ; expire         - (1 week)
        60          ; minimum        - (1 minute)
)
                        IN NS       openfiler1.idevelopment.info.

; Oracle RAC Nodes
151                     IN PTR      racnode1.idevelopment.info.
152                     IN PTR      racnode2.idevelopment.info.
251                     IN PTR      racnode1-vip.idevelopment.info.
252                     IN PTR      racnode2-vip.idevelopment.info.

; Network Storage Server
195                     IN PTR      openfiler1.idevelopment.info.

; Single Client Access Name (SCAN) virtual IP
187                     IN PTR      racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info.
188                     IN PTR      racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info.
189                     IN PTR      racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info.

; Miscellaneous Nodes
1                       IN PTR      router.idevelopment.info.
105                     IN PTR      packmule.idevelopment.info.
121                     IN PTR      domo.idevelopment.info.
122                     IN PTR      switch1.idevelopment.info.
125                     IN PTR      oemprod.idevelopment.info.
245                     IN PTR      accesspoint.idevelopment.info.

Start the DNS Service

When the DNS configuration file and zone definition files are in place, start the DNS server by starting the "named" service. 


[root@openfiler1 ~]# service named start
Starting named:                                            [  OK  ]

If named finds any problems with the DNS configuration file or zone definition files, the service will fail to start and errors will be displayed on the screen. To troubleshoot problems with starting the named service, check the /var/log/messages file.

If named starts successfully, the entries in the /var/log/messages file should resemble the following. 


...
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: starting BIND 9.4.3-P5 -u named
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: adjusted limit on open files from 1024 to 1048576
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: found 1 CPU, using 1 worker thread
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: using up to 4096 sockets
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: loading configuration from '/etc/named.conf'
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: using default UDP/IPv4 port range: [1024, 65535]
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: using default UDP/IPv6 port range: [1024, 65535]
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: listening on IPv4 interface lo, 127.0.0.1#53
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: listening on IPv4 interface eth0, 192.168.1.195#53
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: listening on IPv4 interface eth1, 192.168.2.195#53
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: automatic empty zone: 0.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: automatic empty zone: 127.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: automatic empty zone: 254.169.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: automatic empty zone: 2.0.192.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: automatic empty zone: 255.255.255.255.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: automatic empty zone: 0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.IP6.ARPA
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: automatic empty zone: 1.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.IP6.ARPA
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: automatic empty zone: D.F.IP6.ARPA
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: automatic empty zone: 8.E.F.IP6.ARPA
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: automatic empty zone: 9.E.F.IP6.ARPA
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: automatic empty zone: A.E.F.IP6.ARPA
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: automatic empty zone: B.E.F.IP6.ARPA
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: command channel listening on 127.0.0.1#953
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: command channel listening on ::1#953
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: no source of entropy found
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: zone 1.168.192.in-addr.arpa/IN: loaded serial 201011021
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: zone idevelopment.info/IN: loaded serial 201011021
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named: named startup succeeded
Nov  2 21:35:49 openfiler1 named[7995]: running
...

Configure DNS to Start Automatically

Now that the named service is running, issue the following commands to make sure this service starts automatically at boot time. 


[root@openfiler1 ~]# chkconfig named on

[root@openfiler1 ~]# chkconfig named --list
named           0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

Update "/etc/resolv.conf" File

With DNS now setup and running, the next step is to configure each server to use it for name resolution. This is accomplished by editing the "/etc/resolv.conf" file on each server including the two Oracle RAC nodes and the Openfiler network storage server.

Make certain the /etc/resolv.conf file contains the following entries where the IP address of the name server and domain match those of your DNS server and the domain you have configured. 


nameserver 192.168.1.195
search idevelopment.info

The second line allows you to resolve a name on this network without having to specify the fully qualified host name.

Verify that the /etc/resolv.conf file was successfully updated on all servers in our mini-network. 


[root@openfiler1 ~]# cat /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 192.168.1.195
search idevelopment.info

[root@racnode1 ~]# cat /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 192.168.1.195
search idevelopment.info

[root@racnode2 ~]# cat /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 192.168.1.195
search idevelopment.info

After modifying the /etc/resolv.conf file on every server in the cluster, verify that DNS is functioning correctly by testing forward and reverse lookups using the nslookup command-line utility. Perform tests similar to the following from each node to all other nodes in your cluster. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# nslookup racnode2.idevelopment.info
Server:         192.168.1.195
Address:        192.168.1.195#53

Name:   racnode2.idevelopment.info
Address: 192.168.1.152


[root@racnode1 ~]# nslookup racnode2
Server:         192.168.1.195
Address:        192.168.1.195#53

Name:   racnode2.idevelopment.info
Address: 192.168.1.152


[root@racnode1 ~]# nslookup 192.168.1.152
Server:         192.168.1.195
Address:        192.168.1.195#53

152.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa      name = racnode2.idevelopment.info.


[root@racnode1 ~]# nslookup racnode-cluster-scan
Server:         192.168.1.195
Address:        192.168.1.195#53

Name:   racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info
Address: 192.168.1.187
Name:   racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info
Address: 192.168.1.188
Name:   racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info
Address: 192.168.1.189


[root@racnode1 ~]# nslookup 192.168.1.187
Server:         192.168.1.195
Address:        192.168.1.195#53

187.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa      name = racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info.

Configuring Public and Private Network

In our two node example, we need to configure the network on both Oracle RAC nodes for access to the public network as well as their private interconnect.

The easiest way to configure network settings in RHEL / CentOS is with the program "Network Configuration". Network Configuration is a GUI application that can be started from the command-line as the root user account as follows. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# /usr/bin/system-config-network &

Using the Network Configuration application, you need to configure both NIC devices as well as the /etc/hosts file and verifying the DNS configuration. All of these tasks can be completed using the Network Configuration GUI.

It should be noted that the /etc/hosts entries are the same for both Oracle RAC nodes and that I removed any entry that has to do with IPv6. For example: 


# ::1             localhost6.localdomain6 localhost6

Our example Oracle RAC configuration will use the following network settings.

Oracle RAC Node 1 - (racnode1)
Device IP Address Subnet Gateway Purpose
eth0 192.168.1.151 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1 Connects racnode1 to the public network
eth1 192.168.2.151 255.255.255.0   Connects racnode1 (interconnect) to racnode2 (racnode2-priv)
/etc/resolv.conf 
nameserver 192.168.1.195
search idevelopment.info
/etc/hosts 
# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain                 localhost

# Public Network - (eth0)
192.168.1.151    racnode1.idevelopment.info           racnode1
192.168.1.152    racnode2.idevelopment.info           racnode2

# Private Interconnect - (eth1)
192.168.2.151    racnode1-priv.idevelopment.info      racnode1-priv
192.168.2.152    racnode2-priv.idevelopment.info      racnode2-priv

# Public Virtual IP (VIP) addresses - (eth0:1)
192.168.1.251    racnode1-vip.idevelopment.info       racnode1-vip
192.168.1.252    racnode2-vip.idevelopment.info       racnode2-vip

# Private Storage Network for Openfiler - (eth1)
192.168.1.195    openfiler1.idevelopment.info         openfiler1
192.168.2.195    openfiler1-priv.idevelopment.info    openfiler1-priv

Oracle RAC Node 2 - (racnode2)
Device IP Address Subnet Gateway Purpose
eth0 192.168.1.152 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1 Connects racnode2 to the public network
eth1 192.168.2.152 255.255.255.0   Connects racnode2 (interconnect) to racnode1 (racnode1-priv)
/etc/resolv.conf 
nameserver 192.168.1.195
search idevelopment.info
/etc/hosts 
# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain                 localhost

# Public Network - (eth0)
192.168.1.151    racnode1.idevelopment.info           racnode1
192.168.1.152    racnode2.idevelopment.info           racnode2

# Private Interconnect - (eth1)
192.168.2.151    racnode1-priv.idevelopment.info      racnode1-priv
192.168.2.152    racnode2-priv.idevelopment.info      racnode2-priv

# Public Virtual IP (VIP) addresses - (eth0:1)
192.168.1.251    racnode1-vip.idevelopment.info       racnode1-vip
192.168.1.252    racnode2-vip.idevelopment.info       racnode2-vip

# Private Storage Network for Openfiler - (eth1)
192.168.1.195    openfiler1.idevelopment.info         openfiler1
192.168.2.195    openfiler1-priv.idevelopment.info    openfiler1-priv

Openfiler Network Storage Server - (openfiler1)
Device IP Address Subnet Gateway Purpose
eth0 192.168.1.195 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1 Connects openfiler1 to the public network
eth1 192.168.2.195 255.255.255.0   Connects openfiler1 to the private network
/etc/resolv.conf 
nameserver 192.168.1.195
search idevelopment.info
/etc/hosts 
# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain              localhost
192.168.1.195   openfiler1.idevelopment.info       openfiler1

In the screen shots below, only Oracle RAC Node 1 (racnode1) is shown. Be sure to make all the proper network settings to both Oracle RAC nodes.

Figure 2: Network Configuration Screen, Node 1 (racnode1)

Figure 3: Ethernet Device Screen, eth0 (racnode1)

Figure 4: Ethernet Device Screen, eth1 (racnode1)

Figure 5: Network Configuration Screen, DNS (racnode1)

Figure 6: Network Configuration Screen, /etc/hosts (racnode1)

Once the network is configured, you can use the ifconfig command to verify everything is working. The following example is from racnode1. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# /sbin/ifconfig -a

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:26:9E:02:D3:AC
          inet addr:192.168.1.151  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::226:9eff:fe02:d3ac/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:236549 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:264953 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:28686645 (27.3 MiB)  TX bytes:159319080 (151.9 MiB)
          Interrupt:177 Memory:dfef0000-dff00000

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0E:0C:64:D1:E5
          inet addr:192.168.2.151  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20e:cff:fe64:d1e5/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:120 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:48 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:24544 (23.9 KiB)  TX bytes:8634 (8.4 KiB)
          Base address:0xddc0 Memory:fe9c0000-fe9e0000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:3191 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:3191 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:4296868 (4.0 MiB)  TX bytes:4296868 (4.0 MiB)

sit0      Link encap:IPv6-in-IPv4
          NOARP  MTU:1480  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

Verify Network Configuration

As the root user account, verify the network configuration by using the ping command to test the connection from each node in the cluster to all the other nodes. For example, as the root user account, run the following commands on each node. 


# ping -c 3 racnode1.idevelopment.info
# ping -c 3 racnode2.idevelopment.info
# ping -c 3 racnode1-priv.idevelopment.info
# ping -c 3 racnode2-priv.idevelopment.info
# ping -c 3 openfiler1.idevelopment.info
# ping -c 3 openfiler1-priv.idevelopment.info

# ping -c 3 racnode1
# ping -c 3 racnode2
# ping -c 3 racnode1-priv
# ping -c 3 racnode2-priv
# ping -c 3 openfiler1
# ping -c 3 openfiler1-priv

You should not get a response from the nodes using the ping command for the virtual IPs (racnode1-vip, racnode2-vip) or the SCAN IP addresses (racnode-cluster-scan) until after Oracle Clusterware is installed and running. If the ping commands for the public addresses fail, resolve the issue before you proceed.

Verify SCAN Configuration

In this article, I will configure SCAN for round-robin resolution to three, manually configured static IP addresses in DNS. 


racnode-cluster-scan        IN A    192.168.1.187
racnode-cluster-scan        IN A    192.168.1.188
racnode-cluster-scan        IN A    192.168.1.189

Oracle Corporation strongly recommends configuring three IP addresses considering load balancing and high availability requirements, regardless of the number of servers in the cluster. These virtual IP addresses must all be on the same subnet as the public network in the cluster. The SCAN name must be 15 characters or less in length, not including the domain, and must be resolvable without the domain suffix. For example, "racnode-cluster-scan" must be resolvable as opposed to only "racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info". The virtual IP addresses for SCAN (and the virtual IP address for the node) should not be manually assigned to a network interface on the cluster since Oracle Clusterware is responsible for enabling them after the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation. In other words, the SCAN addresses and virtual IP addresses (VIPs) should not respond to ping commands before installation.

Verify the SCAN configuration in DNS using the nslookup command-line utility. Since our DNS is set up to provide round-robin access to the IP addresses resolved by the SCAN entry, run the nslookup command several times to make certain that the round-robin algorithm is functioning properly. The result should be that each time the nslookup is run, it will return the set of three IP addresses in a different order. For example: 


[root@racnode1 ~]# nslookup racnode-cluster-scan
Server:         192.168.1.195
Address:        192.168.1.195#53

Name:   racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info
Address: 192.168.1.187
Name:   racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info
Address: 192.168.1.188
Name:   racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info
Address: 192.168.1.189


[root@racnode1 ~]# nslookup racnode-cluster-scan
Server:         192.168.1.195
Address:        192.168.1.195#53

Name:   racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info
Address: 192.168.1.189
Name:   racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info
Address: 192.168.1.187
Name:   racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info
Address: 192.168.1.188


[root@racnode1 ~]# nslookup racnode-cluster-scan
Server:         192.168.1.195
Address:        192.168.1.195#53

Name:   racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info
Address: 192.168.1.188
Name:   racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info
Address: 192.168.1.189
Name:   racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info
Address: 192.168.1.187

Confirm the RAC Node Name is Not Listed in Loopback Address

Ensure that the node name (racnode1 or racnode2) is not included for the loopback address in the /etc/hosts file. If the machine name is listed in the loopback address entry: 


127.0.0.1 racnode1 localhost.localdomain localhost

it will need to be removed as shown below: 


127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

If the RAC node name is listed for the loopback address, you will receive the following error during the RAC installation. 


ORA-00603: ORACLE server session terminated by fatal error

or

ORA-29702: error occurred in Cluster Group Service operation

Check and turn off UDP ICMP rejections

During the Linux installation process, I indicated to not configure the firewall option. By default the option to configure a firewall is selected by the installer. This has burned me several times so I like to do a double-check that the firewall option is not configured and to ensure udp ICMP filtering is turned off.

If UDP ICMP is blocked or rejected by the firewall, the Oracle Clusterware software will crash after several minutes of running. When the Oracle Clusterware process fails, you will have something similar to the following in the <machine_name>_evmocr.log file. 


08/29/2005 22:17:19
oac_init:2: Could not connect to server, clsc retcode = 9
08/29/2005 22:17:19
a_init:12!: Client init unsuccessful : [32]
ibctx:1:ERROR: INVALID FORMAT
proprinit:problem reading the bootblock or superbloc 22

When experiencing this type of error, the solution is to remove the UDP ICMP (iptables) rejection rule - or to simply have the firewall option turned off. The Oracle Clusterware software will then start to operate normally and not crash. The following commands should be executed as the root user account on both Oracle RAC nodes.

  1. Check to ensure that the firewall option is turned off. If the firewall option is stopped (like it is in my example below) you do not have to proceed with the following steps. 


    [root@racnode1 ~]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/iptables status
Firewall is stopped.


[root@racnode2 ~]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/iptables status
Firewall is stopped.

  2. If the firewall option is operating, you will need to first manually disable UDP ICMP rejections. 


    [root@racnode1 ~]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/iptables stop
Flushing firewall rules: [ OK ]
Setting chains to policy ACCEPT: filter [ OK ]
Unloading iptables modules: [ OK ]

  3. Then, turn UDP ICMP rejections off for all subsequent server reboots (which should always be turned off). 


    [root@racnode1 ~]# chkconfig iptables off

Cluster Time Synchronization Service

Perform the following Cluster Time Synchronization Service configuration on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster.

Oracle Clusterware 11g Release 2 and later requires time synchronization across all nodes within a cluster where Oracle RAC is deployed. Oracle provides two options for time synchronization: an operating system configured network time protocol (NTP) or the new Oracle Cluster Time Synchronization Service (CTSS). Oracle Cluster Time Synchronization Service (ctssd) is designed for organizations whose Oracle RAC databases are unable to access NTP services.

Configuring NTP is outside the scope of this article and will therefore rely on the Oracle Cluster Time Synchronization Service as the network time protocol.

Configure Cluster Time Synchronization Service - (CTSS)

If you want to use Cluster Time Synchronization Service to provide synchronization service in the cluster, then de-configure and de-install the Network Time Protocol (NTP) service.

To deactivate the NTP service, you must stop the existing ntpd service, disable it from the initialization sequences and remove the ntp.conf file. To complete these steps on Red Hat Enterprise Linux or CentOS, run the following commands as the root user account on both Oracle RAC nodes. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# /sbin/service ntpd stop
[root@racnode1 ~]# chkconfig ntpd off
[root@racnode1 ~]# mv /etc/ntp.conf /etc/ntp.conf.original

Also remove the following file: 


[root@racnode1 ~]# rm /var/run/ntpd.pid

This file maintains the pid for the NTP daemon.

When the installer finds that the NTP protocol is not active, the Cluster Time Synchronization Service is automatically installed in active mode and synchronizes the time across the nodes. If NTP is found configured, then the Cluster Time Synchronization Service is started in observer mode, and no active time synchronization is performed by Oracle Clusterware within the cluster.

To confirm that ctssd is active after installation, enter the following command as the Grid installation owner (grid). 


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ crsctl check ctss
CRS-4701: The Cluster Time Synchronization Service is in Active mode.
CRS-4702: Offset (in msec): 0

Configure Network Time Protocol - (only if not using CTSS as documented above)

 

Please note that this guide will use Cluster Time Synchronization Service for time synchronization (described above) across both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster. This section is provided for documentation purposes only and can be used by organizations already setup to use NTP within their domain.

If you are using NTP and you prefer to continue using it instead of Cluster Time Synchronization Service, then you need to modify the NTP initialization file to set the -x flag, which prevents time from being adjusted backward. Restart the network time protocol daemon after you complete this task.

To do this on Oracle Linux, Red Hat Linux, and Asianux systems, edit the /etc/sysconfig/ntpd file to add the -x flag, as in the following example. 


# Drop root to id 'ntp:ntp' by default.
OPTIONS="-x -u ntp:ntp -p /var/run/ntpd.pid"
# Set to 'yes' to sync hw clock after successful ntpdate
SYNC_HWCLOCK=no
# Additional options for ntpdate
NTPDATE_OPTIONS=""

Then, restart the NTP service. 


# /sbin/service ntp restart

On SUSE systems, modify the configuration file /etc/sysconfig/ntp with the following settings. 


NTPD_OPTIONS="-x -u ntp"

Restart the daemon using the following command. 


# service ntp restart

Configure iSCSI Volumes using Openfiler

Perform the following configuration tasks on the network storage server (openfiler1).

Openfiler administration is performed using the Openfiler Storage Control Center — a browser based tool over an https connection on port 446. For example: 

https://openfiler1.idevelopment.info:446/

From the Openfiler Storage Control Center home page, log in as an administrator. The default administration login credentials for Openfiler are:

Username: openfiler
Password: password

The first page the administrator sees is the [Status] / [System Overview] screen.

To use Openfiler as an iSCSI storage server, we have to perform six major tasks — set up iSCSI services, configure network access, identify and partition the physical storage, create a new volume group, create all logical volumes, and finally, create new iSCSI targets for each of the logical volumes.

Services

To control services, we use the Openfiler Storage Control Center and navigate to [Services] / [Manage Services].

Figure 7: Enable iSCSI Openfiler Service

To enable the iSCSI service, click on the 'Enable' link under the 'iSCSI target server' service name. After that, the 'iSCSI target server' status should change to 'Enabled'.

The ietd program implements the user level part of iSCSI Enterprise Target software for building an iSCSI storage system on Linux. With the iSCSI target enabled, we should be able to SSH into the Openfiler server and see the iscsi-target service running. 


[root@openfiler1 ~]# service iscsi-target status
ietd (pid 14243) is running...

Network Access Configuration

The next step is to configure network access in Openfiler to identify both Oracle RAC nodes (racnode1 and racnode2) that will need to access the iSCSI volumes through the storage (private) network. Note that iSCSI logical volumes will be created later on in this section. Also note that this step does not actually grant the appropriate permissions to the iSCSI volumes required by both Oracle RAC nodes. That will be accomplished later in this section by updating the ACL for each new logical volume.

As in the previous section, configuring network access is accomplished using the Openfiler Storage Control Center by navigating to [System] / [Network Setup]. The "Network Access Configuration" section (at the bottom of the page) allows an administrator to setup networks and/or hosts that will be allowed to access resources exported by the Openfiler appliance. For the purpose of this article, we will want to add both Oracle RAC nodes individually rather than allowing the entire 192.168.2.0 network have access to Openfiler resources.

When entering each of the Oracle RAC nodes, note that the 'Name' field is just a logical name used for reference only. As a convention when entering nodes, I simply use the node name defined for that IP address. Next, when entering the actual node in the 'Network/Host' field, always use its IP address even though its host name may already be defined in your /etc/hosts file or DNS. Lastly, when entering actual hosts in our Class C network, use a subnet mask of 255.255.255.255.

It is important to remember that you will be entering the IP address of the private network (eth1) for each of the RAC nodes in the cluster.

The following image shows the results of adding both Oracle RAC nodes.

Figure 8: Configure Openfiler Network Access for Oracle RAC Nodes

Physical Storage

In this section, we will be creating the three iSCSI volumes to be used as shared storage by both of the Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster. This involves multiple steps that will be performed on the internal 73GB 15K SCSI hard disk connected to the Openfiler server.

Storage devices like internal IDE/SATA/SCSI/SAS disks, storage arrays, external USB drives, external FireWire drives, or ANY other storage can be connected to the Openfiler server and served to the clients. Once these devices are discovered at the OS level, Openfiler Storage Control Center can be used to set up and manage all of that storage.

In our case, we have a 73GB internal SCSI hard drive for our shared storage needs. On the Openfiler server this drive is seen as /dev/sdb (MAXTOR ATLAS15K2_73SCA). To see this and to start the process of creating our iSCSI volumes, navigate to [Volumes] / [Block Devices] from the Openfiler Storage Control Center.

Figure 9: Openfiler Physical Storage - Block Device Management

Partitioning the Physical Disk

The first step we will perform is to create a single primary partition on the /dev/sdb internal hard disk. By clicking on the /dev/sdb link, we are presented with the options to 'Edit' or 'Create' a partition. Since we will be creating a single primary partition that spans the entire disk, most of the options can be left to their default setting where the only modification would be to change the 'Partition Type' from 'Extended partition' to 'Physical volume'. Here are the values I specified to create the primary partition on /dev/sdb.

Physical Disk Primary Partition
Mode Primary
Partition Type Physical volume
Starting Cylinder 1
Ending Cylinder 8924

The size now shows 68.36 GB. To accept that we click on the [Create] button. This results in a new partition (/dev/sdb1) on our internal hard disk.

Figure 10: Partition the Physical Volume

Volume Group Management

The next step is to create a Volume Group. We will be creating a single volume group named racdbvg that contains the newly created primary partition.

From the Openfiler Storage Control Center, navigate to [Volumes] / [Volume Groups]. There we would see any existing volume groups, or none as in our case. Using the Volume Group Management screen, enter the name of the new volume group (racdbvg), click on the check-box in front of /dev/sdb1 to select that partition, and finally click on the [Add volume group] button. After that we are presented with the list that now shows our newly created volume group named "racdbvg".

Figure 11: New Volume Group Created

Logical Volumes

We can now create the three logical volumes in the newly created volume group (racdbvg).

From the Openfiler Storage Control Center, navigate to [Volumes] / [Add Volume]. There we will see the newly created volume group (racdbvg) along with its block storage statistics. Also available at the bottom of this screen is the option to create a new volume in the selected volume group - (Create a volume in "racdbvg"). Use this screen to create the following three iSCSI logical volumes. After creating each logical volume, the application will point you to the "Manage Volumes" screen. You will then need to click back to the "Add Volume" tab to create the next logical volume until all three iSCSI volumes are created.

iSCSI / Logical Volumes
Volume Name Volume Description Required Space (MB) Filesystem Type
racdb-crs1 racdb - ASM CRS Volume 1 2,208 iSCSI
racdb-data1 racdb - ASM Data Volume 1 33,888 iSCSI
racdb-fra1 racdb - ASM FRA Volume 1 33,888 iSCSI

In effect we have created three iSCSI disks that can now be presented to iSCSI clients (racnode1 and racnode2) on the network. The "Manage Volumes" screen should look as follows:

Figure 12: New Logical (iSCSI) Volumes

iSCSI Targets

At this point, we have three iSCSI logical volumes. Before an iSCSI client can have access to them, however, an iSCSI target will need to be created for each of these three volumes. Each iSCSI logical volume will be mapped to a specific iSCSI target and the appropriate network access permissions to that target will be granted to both Oracle RAC nodes. For the purpose of this article, there will be a one-to-one mapping between an iSCSI logical volume and an iSCSI target.

There are three steps involved in creating and configuring an iSCSI target — create a unique Target IQN (basically, the universal name for the new iSCSI target), map one of the iSCSI logical volumes created in the previous section to the newly created iSCSI target, and finally, grant both of the Oracle RAC nodes access to the new iSCSI target. Please note that this process will need to be performed for each of the three iSCSI logical volumes created in the previous section.

For the purpose of this article, the following table lists the new iSCSI target names (the Target IQN) and which iSCSI logical volume it will be mapped to.

iSCSI Target / Logical Volume Mappings
Target IQN iSCSI Volume Name Volume Description
iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1 racdb-crs1 racdb - ASM CRS Volume 1
iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1 racdb-data1 racdb - ASM Data Volume 1
iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1 racdb-fra1 racdb - ASM FRA Volume 1

We are now ready to create the three new iSCSI targets — one for each of the iSCSI logical volumes. The example below illustrates the three steps required to create a new iSCSI target by creating the Oracle Clusterware / racdb-crs1 target (iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1). This three step process will need to be repeated for each of the three new iSCSI targets listed in the table above.

Create New Target IQN

From the Openfiler Storage Control Center, navigate to [Volumes] / [iSCSI Targets]. Verify the grey sub-tab "Target Configuration" is selected. This page allows you to create a new iSCSI target. A default value is automatically generated for the name of the new iSCSI target (better known as the "Target IQN"). An example Target IQN is "iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:tsn.ae4683b67fd3":

Figure 13: Create New iSCSI Target : Default Target IQN

I prefer to replace the last segment of the default Target IQN with something more meaningful. For the first iSCSI target (racdb-crs1), I will modify the default Target IQN by replacing the string "tsn.ae4683b67fd3" with "racdb.crs1" as shown in Figure 14 below.

Figure 14: Create New iSCSI Target : Replace Default Target IQN

Once you are satisfied with the new Target IQN, click the [Add] button. This will create a new iSCSI target and then bring up a page that allows you to modify a number of settings for the new iSCSI target. For the purpose of this article, none of settings for the new iSCSI target need to be changed.

LUN Mapping

After creating the new iSCSI target, the next step is to map the appropriate iSCSI logical volume to it. Under the "Target Configuration" sub-tab, verify the correct iSCSI target is selected in the section "Select iSCSI Target". If not, use the pull-down menu to select the correct iSCSI target and click the [Change] button.

Next, click on the grey sub-tab named "LUN Mapping" (next to "Target Configuration" sub-tab). Locate the appropriate iSCSI logical volume (/dev/racdbvg/racdb-crs1 in this first example) and click the [Map] button. You do not need to change any settings on this page. Your screen should look similar to Figure 15 after clicking the "Map" button for volume /dev/racdbvg/racdb-crs1.

Figure 15: Create New iSCSI Target : Map LUN

Network ACL

Before an iSCSI client can have access to the newly created iSCSI target, it needs to be granted the appropriate permissions. Awhile back, we configured network access in Openfiler for two hosts (the Oracle RAC nodes). These are the two nodes that will need to access the new iSCSI targets through the storage (private) network. We now need to grant both of the Oracle RAC nodes access to the new iSCSI target.

Click on the grey sub-tab named "Network ACL" (next to "LUN Mapping" sub-tab). For the current iSCSI target, change the "Access" for both hosts from 'Deny' to 'Allow' and click the [Update] button.

Figure 16: Create New iSCSI Target : Update Network ACL

Go back to the Create New Target IQN section and perform these same three tasks for the remaining two iSCSI logical volumes while substituting the values found in the "iSCSI Target / Logical Volume Mappings" table (namely, the value in the 'Target IQN' column).

Configure iSCSI Volumes on Oracle RAC Nodes

Configure the iSCSI initiator on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster. Creating partitions, however, should only be executed on one of nodes in the RAC cluster.

An iSCSI client can be any system (Linux, Unix, MS Windows, Apple Mac, etc.) for which iSCSI support (a driver) is available. In our case, the clients are two Linux servers, racnode1 and racnode2, running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 or CentOS 5.5.

In this section we will be configuring the iSCSI software initiator on both of the Oracle RAC nodes. RHEL / CentOS 5.5 includes the Open-iSCSI iSCSI software initiator which can be found in the iscsi-initiator-utils RPM. This is a change from previous versions of RHEL / CentOS (4.x) which included the Linux iscsi-sfnet software driver developed as part of the Linux-iSCSI Project. All iSCSI management tasks like discovery and logins will use the command-line interface iscsiadm which is included with Open-iSCSI.

The iSCSI software initiator will be configured to automatically log in to the network storage server (openfiler1) and discover the iSCSI volumes created in the previous section. We will then go through the steps of creating persistent local SCSI device names (i.e. /dev/iscsi/crs1) for each of the iSCSI target names discovered using udev. Having a consistent local SCSI device name and which iSCSI target it maps to, helps to differentiate between the three volumes when configuring ASM. Before we can do any of this, however, we must first install the iSCSI initiator software.

 

This guide makes use of ASMLib 2.0 which is a support library for the Automatic Storage Management (ASM) feature of the Oracle Database. ASMLib will be used to label all iSCSI volumes used in this guide. By default, ASMLib already provides persistent paths and permissions for storage devices used with ASM. This feature eliminates the need for updating udev or devlabel files with storage device paths and permissions. For the purpose of this article and in practice, I still opt to create persistent local SCSI device names for each of the iSCSI target names discovered using udev. This provides a means of self-documentation which helps to quickly identify the name and location of each volume.

Installing the iSCSI (initiator) service

With Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 or CentOS 5.5, the Open-iSCSI iSCSI software initiator does not get installed by default. The software is included in the iscsi-initiator-utils package which can be found on CD/DVD #1. To determine if this package is installed (which in most cases, it will not be), perform the following on both Oracle RAC nodes. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# rpm -qa --queryformat "%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE} (%{ARCH})\n"| grep iscsi-initiator-utils

If the iscsi-initiator-utils package is not installed, load CD/DVD #1 into each of the Oracle RAC nodes and perform the following. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
[root@racnode1 ~]# cd /media/cdrom/CentOS
[root@racnode1 ~]# rpm -Uvh iscsi-initiator-utils-*
[root@racnode1 ~]# cd /
[root@racnode1 ~]# eject

Verify the iscsi-initiator-utils package is now installed on both Oracle RAC nodes. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# rpm -qa --queryformat "%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE} (%{ARCH})\n"| grep iscsi-initiator-utils
iscsi-initiator-utils-6.2.0.871-0.16.el5 (x86_64)

[root@racnode2 ~]# rpm -qa --queryformat "%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE} (%{ARCH})\n"| grep iscsi-initiator-utils
iscsi-initiator-utils-6.2.0.871-0.16.el5 (x86_64)

Configure the iSCSI (initiator) service

After verifying that the iscsi-initiator-utils package is installed, start the iscsid service on both Oracle RAC nodes and enable it to automatically start when the system boots. We will also configure the iscsi service to automatically start which logs into iSCSI targets needed at system startup. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# service iscsid start
Turning off network shutdown. Starting iSCSI daemon:       [  OK  ]
                                                           [  OK  ]

[root@racnode1 ~]# chkconfig iscsid on
[root@racnode1 ~]# chkconfig iscsi on

Now that the iSCSI service is started, use the iscsiadm command-line interface to discover all available targets on the network storage server. This should be performed on both Oracle RAC nodes to verify the configuration is functioning properly. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# iscsiadm -m discovery -t sendtargets -p openfiler1-priv
192.168.2.195:3260,1 iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1
192.168.2.195:3260,1 iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1
192.168.2.195:3260,1 iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1

Manually Log In to iSCSI Targets

At this point, the iSCSI initiator service has been started and each of the Oracle RAC nodes were able to discover the available targets from the Openfiler network storage server. The next step is to manually log in to each of the available iSCSI targets which can be done using the iscsiadm command-line interface. This needs to be run on both Oracle RAC nodes. Note that I had to specify the IP address and not the host name of the network storage server (openfiler1-priv) — I believe this is required given the discovery (above) shows the targets using the IP address. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1 -p 192.168.2.195 -l
[root@racnode1 ~]# iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1 -p 192.168.2.195 -l
[root@racnode1 ~]# iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1 -p 192.168.2.195 -l

Configure Automatic Log In

The next step is to ensure the client will automatically log in to each of the targets listed above when the machine is booted (or the iSCSI initiator service is started/restarted). As with the manual log in process described above, perform the following on both Oracle RAC nodes. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1 -p 192.168.2.195 --op update -n node.startup -v automatic
[root@racnode1 ~]# iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1 -p 192.168.2.195 --op update -n node.startup -v automatic
[root@racnode1 ~]# iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1 -p 192.168.2.195 --op update -n node.startup -v automatic

Create Persistent Local SCSI Device Names

In this section, we will go through the steps to create persistent local SCSI device names for each of the iSCSI target names. This will be done using udev. Having a consistent local SCSI device name and which iSCSI target it maps to, helps to differentiate between the three volumes when configuring ASM. Although this is not a strict requirement since we will be using ASMLib 2.0 for all volumes, it provides a means of self-documentation to quickly identify the name and location of each iSCSI volume.

By default, when either of the Oracle RAC nodes boot and the iSCSI initiator service is started, it will automatically log in to each of the iSCSI targets configured in a random fashion and map them to the next available local SCSI device name. For example, the target iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1 may get mapped to /dev/sdb. I can actually determine the current mappings for all targets by looking at the /dev/disk/by-path directory. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# (cd /dev/disk/by-path; ls -l *openfiler* | awk '{FS=" "; print $9 " " $10 " " $11}')
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1-lun-0 -> ../../sdb
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1-lun-0 -> ../../sdd
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1-lun-0 -> ../../sdc

Using the output from the above listing, we can establish the following current mappings.

Current iSCSI Target Name to Local SCSI Device Name Mappings
iSCSI Target Name Local SCSI Device Name
iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1 /dev/sdb
iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1 /dev/sdd
iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1 /dev/sdc

This mapping, however, may change every time the Oracle RAC node is rebooted. For example, after a reboot it may be determined that the iSCSI target iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1 gets mapped to the local SCSI device /dev/sdc. It is therefore impractical to rely on using the local SCSI device name given there is no way to predict the iSCSI target mappings after a reboot.

What we need is a consistent device name we can reference (i.e. /dev/iscsi/crs1) that will always point to the appropriate iSCSI target through reboots. This is where the Dynamic Device Management tool named udev comes in. udev provides a dynamic device directory using symbolic links that point to the actual device using a configurable set of rules. When udev receives a device event (for example, the client logging in to an iSCSI target), it matches its configured rules against the available device attributes provided in sysfs to identify the device. Rules that match may provide additional device information or specify a device node name and multiple symlink names and instruct udev to run additional programs (a SHELL script for example) as part of the device event handling process.

The first step is to create a new rules file. The file will be named /etc/udev/rules.d/55-openiscsi.rules and contain only a single line of name=value pairs used to receive events we are interested in. It will also define a call-out SHELL script (/etc/udev/scripts/iscsidev.sh) to handle the event.

Create the following rules file /etc/udev/rules.d/55-openiscsi.rules on both Oracle RAC nodes. 


# /etc/udev/rules.d/55-openiscsi.rules
KERNEL=="sd*", BUS=="scsi", PROGRAM="/etc/udev/scripts/iscsidev.sh %b",SYMLINK+="iscsi/%c/part%n"

We now need to create the UNIX SHELL script that will be called when this event is received. Let's first create a separate directory on both Oracle RAC nodes where udev scripts can be stored. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# mkdir -p /etc/udev/scripts

[root@racnode2 ~]# mkdir -p /etc/udev/scripts

Next, create the UNIX shell script /etc/udev/scripts/iscsidev.sh on both Oracle RAC nodes. 


#!/bin/sh

# FILE: /etc/udev/scripts/iscsidev.sh

BUS=${1}
HOST=${BUS%%:*}

[ -e /sys/class/iscsi_host ] || exit 1

file="/sys/class/iscsi_host/host${HOST}/device/session*/iscsi_session*/targetname"

target_name=$(cat ${file})

# This is not an open-scsi drive
if [ -z "${target_name}" ]; then
   exit 1
fi

# Check if QNAP drive
check_qnap_target_name=${target_name%%:*}
if [ $check_qnap_target_name = "iqn.2004-04.com.qnap" ]; then
    target_name=`echo "${target_name%.*}"`
fi

echo "${target_name##*.}"

After creating the UNIX SHELL script, change it to executable. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# chmod 755 /etc/udev/scripts/iscsidev.sh

[root@racnode2 ~]# chmod 755 /etc/udev/scripts/iscsidev.sh

Now that udev is configured, restart the iSCSI service on both Oracle RAC nodes. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# service iscsi stop
Logging out of session [sid: 1, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]
Logging out of session [sid: 2, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]
Logging out of session [sid: 3, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]
Logout of [sid: 1, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]: successful
Logout of [sid: 2, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]: successful
Logout of [sid: 3, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]: successful
Stopping iSCSI daemon:                                     [  OK  ]

[root@racnode1 ~]# service iscsi start
iscsid dead but pid file exists
Turning off network shutdown. Starting iSCSI daemon:       [  OK  ]
                                                           [  OK  ]
Setting up iSCSI targets: Logging in to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]
Logging in to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]
Logging in to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]
Login to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]: successful
Login to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]: successful
Login to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]: successful
                                                           [  OK  ]



[root@racnode2 ~]# service iscsi stop
Logging out of session [sid: 1, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]
Logging out of session [sid: 2, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]
Logging out of session [sid: 3, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]
Logout of [sid: 1, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]: successful
Logout of [sid: 2, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]: successful
Logout of [sid: 3, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]: successful
Stopping iSCSI daemon:                                     [  OK  ]

[root@racnode2 ~]# service iscsi start
iscsid dead but pid file exists
Starting iSCSI daemon:                                     [  OK  ]
                                                           [  OK  ]
Setting up iSCSI targets: Logging in to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]
Logging in to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]
Logging in to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]
Login to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]: successful
Login to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]: successful
Login to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1, portal: 192.168.2.195,3260]: successful
                                                           [  OK  ]

Let's see if our hard work paid off. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# ls -l /dev/iscsi/*
/dev/iscsi/crs1:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Nov  6 17:32 part -> ../../sdc

/dev/iscsi/data1:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Nov  6 17:32 part -> ../../sdd

/dev/iscsi/fra1:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Nov  6 17:32 part -> ../../sde



[root@racnode2 ~]# ls -l /dev/iscsi/*
/dev/iscsi/crs1:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Nov  6 17:36 part -> ../../sdd

/dev/iscsi/data1:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Nov  6 17:36 part -> ../../sdc

/dev/iscsi/fra1:
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Nov  6 17:36 part -> ../../sde

The listing above shows that udev did the job it was suppose to do! We now have a consistent set of local device names that can be used to reference the iSCSI targets. For example, we can safely assume that the device name /dev/iscsi/crs1/part will always reference the iSCSI target iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1. We now have a consistent iSCSI target name to local device name mapping which is described in the following table.

iSCSI Target Name to Local Device Name Mappings
iSCSI Target Name Local Device Name
iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1 /dev/iscsi/crs1/part
iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1 /dev/iscsi/data1/part
iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1 /dev/iscsi/fra1/part

Create Partitions on iSCSI Volumes

We now need to create a single primary partition on each of the iSCSI volumes that spans the entire size of the volume. As mentioned earlier in this article, I will be using Automatic Storage Management (ASM) to store the shared files required for Oracle Clusterware, the physical database files (data/index files, online redo log files, and control files), and the Fast Recovery Area (FRA) for the cluster database.

The Oracle Clusterware shared files (OCR and voting disk) will be stored in an ASM disk group named +CRS which will be configured for external redundancy. The physical database files for the cluster database will be stored in an ASM disk group named +RACDB_DATA which will also be configured for external redundancy. Finally, the Fast Recovery Area (RMAN backups and archived redo log files) will be stored in a third ASM disk group named +FRA which too will be configured for external redundancy.

The following table lists the three ASM disk groups that will be created and which iSCSI volume they will contain.

Oracle Shared Drive Configuration
File Types ASM Diskgroup Name iSCSI Target (short) Name ASM Redundancy Size ASMLib Volume Name
OCR and Voting Disk +CRS crs1 External 2GB ORCL:CRSVOL1
Oracle Database Files +RACDB_DATA data1 External 32GB ORCL:DATAVOL1
Oracle Fast Recovery Area +FRA fra1 External 32GB ORCL:FRAVOL1

As shown in the table above, we will need to create a single Linux primary partition on each of the three iSCSI volumes. The fdisk command is used in Linux for creating (and removing) partitions. For each of the three iSCSI volumes, you can use the default values when creating the primary partition as the default action is to use the entire disk. You can safely ignore any warnings that may indicate the device does not contain a valid DOS partition (or Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel).

In this example, I will be running the fdisk command from racnode1 to create a single primary partition on each iSCSI target using the local device names created by udev in the previous section.

 

Creating the single partition on each of the iSCSI volumes must only be run from one of the nodes in the Oracle RAC cluster! (i.e. racnode1) 


# ---------------------------------------

[root@racnode1 ~]# fdisk /dev/iscsi/crs1/part
Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-1012, default 1): 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-1012, default 1012): 1012

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/iscsi/crs1/part: 2315 MB, 2315255808 bytes
72 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1012 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 4464 * 512 = 2285568 bytes

               Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/iscsi/crs1/part1               1        1012     2258753   83  Linux

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

# ---------------------------------------

[root@racnode1 ~]# fdisk /dev/iscsi/data1/part
Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-33888, default 1): 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-33888, default 33888): 33888

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/iscsi/data1/part: 35.5 GB, 35534143488 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 33888 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

                Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/iscsi/data1/part1               1       33888    34701296   83  Linux

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

# ---------------------------------------

[root@racnode1 ~]# fdisk /dev/iscsi/fra1/part
Command (m for help): n
Command action
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-33888, default 1): 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-33888, default 33888): 33888

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/iscsi/fra1/part: 35.5 GB, 35534143488 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 33888 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

               Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/iscsi/fra1/part1               1       33888    34701296   83  Linux

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

Verify New Partitions

After creating all required partitions from racnode1, you should now inform the kernel of the partition changes using the following command as the root user account from all remaining nodes in the Oracle RAC cluster (racnode2). Note that the mapping of iSCSI target names discovered from Openfiler and the local SCSI device name will be different on both Oracle RAC nodes. This is not a concern and will not cause any problems since we will not be using the local SCSI device names but rather the local device names created by udev in the previous section.

From racnode2, run the following commands: 


[root@racnode2 ~]# partprobe

[root@racnode2 ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/sda2              14       19452   156143767+  8e  Linux LVM

Disk /dev/sdb: 35.5 GB, 35534143488 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 33888 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       33888    34701296   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 35.5 GB, 35534143488 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 33888 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1       33888    34701296   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdd: 2315 MB, 2315255808 bytes
72 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1012 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 4464 * 512 = 2285568 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1               1        1012     2258753   83  Linux

As a final step you should run the following command on both Oracle RAC nodes to verify that udev created the new symbolic links for each new partition. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# (cd /dev/disk/by-path; ls -l *openfiler* | awk '{FS=" "; print $9 " " $10 " " $11}')
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1-lun-0 -> ../../sdc
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1-lun-0-part1 -> ../../sdc1
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1-lun-0 -> ../../sdd
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1-lun-0-part1 -> ../../sdd1
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1-lun-0 -> ../../sde
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1-lun-0-part1 -> ../../sde1


[root@racnode2 ~]# (cd /dev/disk/by-path; ls -l *openfiler* | awk '{FS=" "; print $9 " " $10 " " $11}')
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1-lun-0 -> ../../sdd
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.crs1-lun-0-part1 -> ../../sdd1
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1-lun-0 -> ../../sdc
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.data1-lun-0-part1 -> ../../sdc1
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1-lun-0 -> ../../sde
ip-192.168.2.195:3260-iscsi-iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:racdb.fra1-lun-0-part1 -> ../../sde1

The listing above shows that udev did indeed create new device names for each of the new partitions. We will be using these new device names when configuring the volumes for ASMlib later in this guide.

Create Job Role Separation Operating System Privileges Groups, Users, and Directories

Perform the following user, group, directory configuration, and setting shell limit tasks for the grid and oracle users on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster.

This section provides the instructions on how to create the operating system users and groups to install all Oracle software using a Job Role Separation configuration. The commands in this section should be performed on both Oracle RAC nodes as root to create these groups, users, and directories. Note that the group and user IDs must be identical on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster. Check to make sure that the group and user IDs you want to use are available on each cluster member node, and confirm that the primary group for each Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster installation owner has the same name and group ID which for the purpose of this guide is oinstall (GID 1000).

A Job Role Separation privileges configuration of Oracle is a configuration with operating system groups and users that divide administrative access privileges to the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation from other administrative privileges users and groups associated with other Oracle installations (e.g. the Oracle database software). Administrative privileges access is granted by membership in separate operating system groups, and installation privileges are granted by using different installation owners for each Oracle installation.

One OS user will be created to own each Oracle software product — "grid" for the Oracle Grid Infrastructure owner and "oracle" for the Oracle RAC software. Throughout this article, a user created to own the Oracle Grid Infrastructure binaries is called the grid user. This user will own both the Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Automatic Storage Management binaries. The user created to own the Oracle database binaries (Oracle RAC) will be called the oracle user. Both Oracle software owners must have the Oracle Inventory group (oinstall) as their primary group, so that each Oracle software installation owner can write to the central inventory (oraInventory), and so that OCR and Oracle Clusterware resource permissions are set correctly. The Oracle RAC software owner must also have the OSDBA group and the optional OSOPER group as secondary groups.

This type of configuration is optional but highly recommend by Oracle for organizations that need to restrict user access to Oracle software by responsibility areas for different administrator users. For example, a small organization could simply allocate operating system user privileges so that you can use one administrative user and one group for operating system authentication for all system privileges on the storage and database tiers. With this type of configuration, you can designate the oracle user to be the sole installation owner for all Oracle software (Grid infrastructure and the Oracle database software), and designate oinstall to be the single group whose members are granted all system privileges for Oracle Clusterware, Automatic Storage Management, and all Oracle Databases on the servers, and all privileges as installation owners. Other organizations, however, have specialized system roles who will be responsible for installing the Oracle software such as system administrators, network administrators, or storage administrators. These different administrative users can configure a system in preparation for an Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster installation, and complete all configuration tasks that require operating system root privileges. When Grid Infrastructure installation and configuration is completed successfully, a system administrator should only need to provide configuration information and to grant access to the database administrator to run scripts as root during an Oracle RAC installation.

The following O/S groups will be created to support job role separation.

Description OS Group Name OS Users Assigned to this Group Oracle Privilege Oracle Group Name
Oracle Inventory and Software Owner oinstall grid, oracle    
Oracle Automatic Storage Management Group asmadmin grid SYSASM OSASM
ASM Database Administrator Group asmdba grid, oracle SYSDBA for ASM OSDBA for ASM
ASM Operator Group asmoper grid SYSOPER for ASM OSOPER for ASM
Database Administrator dba oracle SYSDBA OSDBA
Database Operator oper oracle SYSOPER OSOPER

O/S Group Descriptions

Create Groups and User for Grid Infrastructure

Lets start this section by creating the recommended OS groups and user for Grid Infrastructure on both Oracle RAC nodes. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# groupadd -g 1000 oinstall
[root@racnode1 ~]# groupadd -g 1200 asmadmin
[root@racnode1 ~]# groupadd -g 1201 asmdba
[root@racnode1 ~]# groupadd -g 1202 asmoper
[root@racnode1 ~]# useradd -m -u 1100 -g oinstall -G asmadmin,asmdba,asmoper -d /home/grid -s /bin/bash -c "Grid Infrastructure Owner" grid

[root@racnode1 ~]# id grid
uid=1100(grid) gid=1000(oinstall) groups=1000(oinstall),1200(asmadmin),1201(asmdba),1202(asmoper)

-------------------------------------------------

[root@racnode2 ~]# groupadd -g 1000 oinstall
[root@racnode2 ~]# groupadd -g 1200 asmadmin
[root@racnode2 ~]# groupadd -g 1201 asmdba
[root@racnode2 ~]# groupadd -g 1202 asmoper
[root@racnode2 ~]# useradd -m -u 1100 -g oinstall -G asmadmin,asmdba,asmoper -d /home/grid -s /bin/bash -c "Grid Infrastructure Owner" grid

[root@racnode2 ~]# id grid
uid=1100(grid) gid=1000(oinstall) groups=1000(oinstall),1200(asmadmin),1201(asmdba),1202(asmoper)

Set the password for the grid account on both Oracle RAC nodes. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# passwd grid
Changing password for user grid.
New UNIX password: xxxxxxxxxxx
Retype new UNIX password: xxxxxxxxxxx
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.


[root@racnode2 ~]# passwd grid
Changing password for user grid.
New UNIX password: xxxxxxxxxxx
Retype new UNIX password: xxxxxxxxxxx
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

Create Login Script for the grid User Account

Log in to both Oracle RAC nodes as the grid user account and create the following login script (.bash_profile).

 

When setting the Oracle environment variables in the login script for each Oracle RAC node, make certain to assign each RAC node with a unique Oracle SID for ASM.

  • racnode1: ORACLE_SID=+ASM1
  • racnode2: ORACLE_SID=+ASM2

 


[root@racnode1 ~]# su - grid


# ---------------------------------------------------
# .bash_profile
# ---------------------------------------------------
# OS User:      grid
# Application:  Oracle Grid Infrastructure
# Version:      Oracle 11g Release 2
# ---------------------------------------------------

# Get the aliases and functions
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
      . ~/.bashrc
fi

alias ls="ls -FA"

# ---------------------------------------------------
# ORACLE_SID
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the Oracle system identifier (SID)
# for the Automatic Storage Management (ASM)instance
# running on this node.
# Each RAC node must have a unique ORACLE_SID.
# (i.e. +ASM1, +ASM2,...)
# ---------------------------------------------------
ORACLE_SID=+ASM1; export ORACLE_SID

# ---------------------------------------------------
# JAVA_HOME
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the directory of the Java SDK and Runtime
# Environment.
# ---------------------------------------------------
JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/java; export JAVA_HOME

# ---------------------------------------------------
# GRID_BASE
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the base of the Oracle directory structure
# for Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) compliant
# installations. The Oracle base directory for the
# grid installation owner is the location where
# diagnostic and administrative logs, and other logs
# associated with Oracle ASM and Oracle Clusterware
# are stored.
# ---------------------------------------------------
GRID_BASE=/u01/app/grid; export GRID_BASE

ORACLE_BASE=$GRID_BASE; export ORACLE_BASE

# ---------------------------------------------------
# GRID_HOME
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the directory containing the Oracle
# Grid Infrastructure software. For grid
# infrastructure for a cluster installations, the Grid
# home must not be placed under one of the Oracle base
# directories, or under Oracle home directories of
# Oracle Database installation owners, or in the home
# directory of an installation owner. During 
# installation, ownership of the path to the Grid 
# home is changed to root. This change causes 
# permission errors for other installations.
# ---------------------------------------------------
GRID_HOME=/u01/app/11.2.0/grid; export GRID_HOME

ORACLE_HOME=$GRID_HOME; export ORACLE_HOME

# ---------------------------------------------------
# ORACLE_PATH
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the search path for files used by Oracle
# applications such as SQL*Plus. If the full path to
# the file is not specified, or if the file is not
# in the current directory, the Oracle application
# uses ORACLE_PATH to locate the file.
# This variable is used by SQL*Plus, Forms and Menu.
# ---------------------------------------------------
ORACLE_PATH=/u01/app/oracle/dba_scripts/sql; export ORACLE_PATH

# ---------------------------------------------------
# SQLPATH
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the directory or list of directories that
# SQL*Plus searches for a login.sql file.
# ---------------------------------------------------
# SQLPATH=/u01/app/oracle/dba_scripts/sql; export SQLPATH

# ---------------------------------------------------
# ORACLE_TERM
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Defines a terminal definition. If not set, it
# defaults to the value of your TERM environment
# variable. Used by all character mode products. 
# ---------------------------------------------------
ORACLE_TERM=xterm; export ORACLE_TERM

# ---------------------------------------------------
# NLS_DATE_FORMAT
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the default date format to use with the
# TO_CHAR and TO_DATE functions. The default value of
# this parameter is determined by NLS_TERRITORY. The
# value of this parameter can be any valid date
# format mask, and the value must be surrounded by 
# double quotation marks. For example:
#
#         NLS_DATE_FORMAT = "MM/DD/YYYY"
#
# ---------------------------------------------------
NLS_DATE_FORMAT="DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS"; export NLS_DATE_FORMAT

# ---------------------------------------------------
# TNS_ADMIN
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the directory containing the Oracle Net
# Services configuration files like listener.ora, 
# tnsnames.ora, and sqlnet.ora.
# ---------------------------------------------------
TNS_ADMIN=$GRID_HOME/network/admin; export TNS_ADMIN

# ---------------------------------------------------
# ORA_NLS11
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the directory where the language,
# territory, character set, and linguistic definition
# files are stored.
# ---------------------------------------------------
ORA_NLS11=$GRID_HOME/nls/data; export ORA_NLS11

# ---------------------------------------------------
# PATH
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Used by the shell to locate executable programs;
# must include the $GRID_HOME/bin directory.
# ---------------------------------------------------
PATH=.:${JAVA_HOME}/bin:$JAVA_HOME/db/bin:${PATH}:$HOME/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/OPatch
PATH=${PATH}:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/local/bin
PATH=${PATH}:/u01/app/oracle/dba_scripts/bin
export PATH

# ---------------------------------------------------
# LD_LIBRARY_PATH
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the list of directories that the shared
# library loader searches to locate shared object
# libraries at runtime.
# ---------------------------------------------------
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$GRID_HOME/lib
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:$GRID_HOME/oracm/lib
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:/lib:/usr/lib:/usr/local/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

# ---------------------------------------------------
# CLASSPATH
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the directory or list of directories that
# contain compiled Java classes.
# ---------------------------------------------------
CLASSPATH=$GRID_HOME/JRE
CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$GRID_HOME/jdbc/lib/ojdbc6.jar
CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$GRID_HOME/jlib
CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$GRID_HOME/rdbms/jlib
CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$ORACLE_HOME/oc4j/ant/lib/ant.jar
CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$ORACLE_HOME/oc4j/ant/lib/ant-launcher.jar
CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$JAVA_HOME/db/lib/derby.jar
CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$GRID_HOME/network/jlib
export CLASSPATH

# ---------------------------------------------------
# THREADS_FLAG
# ---------------------------------------------------
# All the tools in the JDK use green threads as a
# default. To specify that native threads should be
# used, set the THREADS_FLAG environment variable to
# "native". You can revert to the use of green
# threads by setting THREADS_FLAG to the value
# "green".
# ---------------------------------------------------
THREADS_FLAG=native; export THREADS_FLAG

# ---------------------------------------------------
# TEMP, TMP, and TMPDIR
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specify the default directories for temporary
# files; if set, tools that create temporary files
# create them in one of these directories.
# ---------------------------------------------------
export TEMP=/tmp
export TMPDIR=/tmp

# ---------------------------------------------------
# UMASK
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Set the default file mode creation mask
# (umask) to 022 to ensure that the user performing
# the Oracle software installation creates files
# with 644 permissions.
# ---------------------------------------------------
umask 022

Create Groups and User for Oracle Database Software

Next, create the recommended OS groups and user for the Oracle database software on both Oracle RAC nodes. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# groupadd -g 1300 dba
[root@racnode1 ~]# groupadd -g 1301 oper
[root@racnode1 ~]# useradd -m -u 1101 -g oinstall -G dba,oper,asmdba -d /home/oracle -s /bin/bash -c "Oracle Software Owner" oracle

[root@racnode1 ~]# id oracle
uid=1101(oracle) gid=1000(oinstall) groups=1000(oinstall),1201(asmdba),1300(dba),1301(oper)

-------------------------------------------------

[root@racnode2 ~]# groupadd -g 1300 dba
[root@racnode2 ~]# groupadd -g 1301 oper
[root@racnode2 ~]# useradd -m -u 1101 -g oinstall -G dba,oper,asmdba -d /home/oracle -s /bin/bash -c "Oracle Software Owner" oracle

[root@racnode2 ~]# id oracle
uid=1101(oracle) gid=1000(oinstall) groups=1000(oinstall),1201(asmdba),1300(dba),1301(oper)

Set the password for the oracle account. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# passwd oracle
Changing password for user oracle.
New UNIX password: xxxxxxxxxxx
Retype new UNIX password: xxxxxxxxxxx
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.


[root@racnode2 ~]# passwd oracle
Changing password for user oracle.
New UNIX password: xxxxxxxxxxx
Retype new UNIX password: xxxxxxxxxxx
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

Create Login Script for the oracle User Account

Log in to both Oracle RAC nodes as the oracle user account and create the following login script (.bash_profile).

 

When setting the Oracle environment variables in the login script for each Oracle RAC node, make certain to assign each RAC node with a unique Oracle SID.

  • racnode1: ORACLE_SID=racdb1
  • racnode2: ORACLE_SID=racdb2

 


[root@racnode1 ~]# su - oracle


# ---------------------------------------------------
# .bash_profile
# ---------------------------------------------------
# OS User:      oracle
# Application:  Oracle Database Software Owner
# Version:      Oracle 11g Release 2
# ---------------------------------------------------

# Get the aliases and functions
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
      . ~/.bashrc
fi

alias ls="ls -FA"

# ---------------------------------------------------
# ORACLE_SID
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the Oracle system identifier (SID) for
# the Oracle instance running on this node.
# Each RAC node must have a unique ORACLE_SID.
# (i.e. racdb1, racdb2,...)
# ---------------------------------------------------
ORACLE_SID=racdb1; export ORACLE_SID

# ---------------------------------------------------
# ORACLE_UNQNAME
# ---------------------------------------------------
# In previous releases of Oracle Database, you were 
# required to set environment variables for
# ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID to start, stop, and
# check the status of Enterprise Manager. With
# Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2) and later, you
# need to set the environment variables ORACLE_HOME 
# and ORACLE_UNQNAME to use Enterprise Manager. 
# Set ORACLE_UNQNAME equal to the database unique
# name.
# ---------------------------------------------------
ORACLE_UNQNAME=racdb; export ORACLE_UNQNAME

# ---------------------------------------------------
# JAVA_HOME
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the directory of the Java SDK and Runtime
# Environment.
# ---------------------------------------------------
JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/java; export JAVA_HOME

# ---------------------------------------------------
# ORACLE_BASE
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the base of the Oracle directory structure
# for Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) compliant
# database software installations.
# ---------------------------------------------------
ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle; export ORACLE_BASE

# ---------------------------------------------------
# ORACLE_HOME
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the directory containing the Oracle
# Database software.
# ---------------------------------------------------
ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1; export ORACLE_HOME

# ---------------------------------------------------
# ORACLE_PATH
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the search path for files used by Oracle
# applications such as SQL*Plus. If the full path to
# the file is not specified, or if the file is not
# in the current directory, the Oracle application
# uses ORACLE_PATH to locate the file.
# This variable is used by SQL*Plus, Forms and Menu.
# ---------------------------------------------------
ORACLE_PATH=/u01/app/oracle/dba_scripts/sql:$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin; export ORACLE_PATH

# ---------------------------------------------------
# SQLPATH
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the directory or list of directories that
# SQL*Plus searches for a login.sql file.
# ---------------------------------------------------
# SQLPATH=/u01/app/oracle/dba_scripts/sql; export SQLPATH

# ---------------------------------------------------
# ORACLE_TERM
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Defines a terminal definition. If not set, it
# defaults to the value of your TERM environment
# variable. Used by all character mode products. 
# ---------------------------------------------------
ORACLE_TERM=xterm; export ORACLE_TERM

# ---------------------------------------------------
# NLS_DATE_FORMAT
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the default date format to use with the
# TO_CHAR and TO_DATE functions. The default value of
# this parameter is determined by NLS_TERRITORY. The
# value of this parameter can be any valid date
# format mask, and the value must be surrounded by 
# double quotation marks. For example:
#
#         NLS_DATE_FORMAT = "MM/DD/YYYY"
#
# ---------------------------------------------------
NLS_DATE_FORMAT="DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS"; export NLS_DATE_FORMAT

# ---------------------------------------------------
# TNS_ADMIN
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the directory containing the Oracle Net
# Services configuration files like listener.ora, 
# tnsnames.ora, and sqlnet.ora.
# ---------------------------------------------------
TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin; export TNS_ADMIN

# ---------------------------------------------------
# ORA_NLS11
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the directory where the language,
# territory, character set, and linguistic definition
# files are stored.
# ---------------------------------------------------
ORA_NLS11=$ORACLE_HOME/nls/data; export ORA_NLS11

# ---------------------------------------------------
# PATH
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Used by the shell to locate executable programs;
# must include the $ORACLE_HOME/bin directory.
# ---------------------------------------------------
PATH=.:${JAVA_HOME}/bin:$JAVA_HOME/db/bin:${PATH}:$HOME/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/OPatch
PATH=${PATH}:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/local/bin
PATH=${PATH}:/u01/app/oracle/dba_scripts/bin
export PATH

# ---------------------------------------------------
# LD_LIBRARY_PATH
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the list of directories that the shared
# library loader searches to locate shared object
# libraries at runtime.
# ---------------------------------------------------
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:$ORACLE_HOME/oracm/lib
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:/lib:/usr/lib:/usr/local/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

# ---------------------------------------------------
# CLASSPATH
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specifies the directory or list of directories that
# contain compiled Java classes.
# ---------------------------------------------------
CLASSPATH=$ORACLE_HOME/jdbc/lib/ojdbc6.jar
CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$ORACLE_HOME/jlib
CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/jlib
CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$ORACLE_HOME/oc4j/ant/lib/ant.jar
CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$ORACLE_HOME/oc4j/ant/lib/ant-launcher.jar
CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$JAVA_HOME/db/lib/derby.jar
CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$ORACLE_HOME/network/jlib
export CLASSPATH

# ---------------------------------------------------
# THREADS_FLAG
# ---------------------------------------------------
# All the tools in the JDK use green threads as a
# default. To specify that native threads should be
# used, set the THREADS_FLAG environment variable to
# "native". You can revert to the use of green
# threads by setting THREADS_FLAG to the value
# "green".
# ---------------------------------------------------
THREADS_FLAG=native; export THREADS_FLAG

# ---------------------------------------------------
# TEMP, TMP, and TMPDIR
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Specify the default directories for temporary
# files; if set, tools that create temporary files
# create them in one of these directories.
# ---------------------------------------------------
export TEMP=/tmp
export TMPDIR=/tmp

# ---------------------------------------------------
# UMASK
# ---------------------------------------------------
# Set the default file mode creation mask
# (umask) to 022 to ensure that the user performing
# the Oracle software installation creates files
# with 644 permissions.
# ---------------------------------------------------
umask 022

Verify That the User nobody Exists

Before installing the software, complete the following procedure to verify that the user nobody exists on both Oracle RAC nodes.

  1. To determine if the user exists, enter the following command: 


    [root@racnode1 ~]# id nobody
uid=99(nobody) gid=99(nobody) groups=99(nobody)

[root@racnode2 ~]# id nobody
uid=99(nobody) gid=99(nobody) groups=99(nobody)

    If this command displays information about the nobody user, then you do not have to create that user.

  2. If the user nobody does not exist, then enter the following command to create it: 


    [root@racnode1 ~]# /usr/sbin/useradd nobody

[root@racnode2 ~]# /usr/sbin/useradd nobody

Create the Oracle Base Directory Path

The final step is to configure an Oracle base path compliant with an Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) structure and correct permissions. This will need to be performed on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster as root.

This guide assumes that the /u01 directory is being created in the root file system. Please note that this is being done for the sake of brevity and is not recommended as a general practice. Normally, the /u01 directory would be provisioned as a separate file system with either hardware or software mirroring configured. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# mkdir -p /u01/app/grid
[root@racnode1 ~]# mkdir -p /u01/app/11.2.0/grid
[root@racnode1 ~]# chown -R grid:oinstall /u01
[root@racnode1 ~]# mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle
[root@racnode1 ~]# chown oracle:oinstall /u01/app/oracle
[root@racnode1 ~]# chmod -R 775 /u01

-------------------------------------------------------------

[root@racnode2 ~]# mkdir -p /u01/app/grid
[root@racnode2 ~]# mkdir -p /u01/app/11.2.0/grid
[root@racnode2 ~]# chown -R grid:oinstall /u01
[root@racnode2 ~]# mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle
[root@racnode2 ~]# chown oracle:oinstall /u01/app/oracle
[root@racnode2 ~]# chmod -R 775 /u01

At the end of this section, you should have the following on both Oracle RAC nodes:

Set Resource Limits for the Oracle Software Installation Users

To improve the performance of the software on Linux systems, you must increase the following resource limits for the Oracle software owner users (grid, oracle).

Shell Limit Item in limits.conf Hard Limit
Maximum number of open file descriptors nofile 65536
Maximum number of processes available to a single user nproc 16384
Maximum size of the stack segment of the process stack 10240

To make these changes, run the following as root:

  1. On each Oracle RAC node, add the following lines to the /etc/security/limits.conf file (the following example shows the software account owners oracle and grid). 


    [root@racnode1 ~]# cat >> /etc/security/limits.conf <<EOF
grid soft nproc 2047
grid hard nproc 16384
grid soft nofile 1024
grid hard nofile 65536
oracle soft nproc 2047
oracle hard nproc 16384
oracle soft nofile 1024
oracle hard nofile 65536
EOF


[root@racnode2 ~]# cat >> /etc/security/limits.conf <<EOF
grid soft nproc 2047
grid hard nproc 16384
grid soft nofile 1024
grid hard nofile 65536
oracle soft nproc 2047
oracle hard nproc 16384
oracle soft nofile 1024
oracle hard nofile 65536
EOF

  2. On each Oracle RAC node, add or edit the following line in the /etc/pam.d/login file, if it does not already exist. 


    [root@racnode1 ~]# cat >> /etc/pam.d/login <<EOF
session    required     pam_limits.so
EOF


[root@racnode2 ~]# cat >> /etc/pam.d/login <<EOF
session    required     pam_limits.so
EOF

  3. Depending on your shell environment, make the following changes to the default shell startup file in order to change ulimit settings for all Oracle installation owners (note that these examples show the users oracle and grid).

    For the Bourne, Bash, or Korn shell, add the following lines to the /etc/profile file by running the following: 


    [root@racnode1 ~]# cat >> /etc/profile <<EOF
if [ \$USER = "oracle" ] || [ \$USER = "grid" ]; then 
    if [ \$SHELL = "/bin/ksh" ]; then
        ulimit -p 16384
        ulimit -n 65536
    else
        ulimit -u 16384 -n 65536
    fi
    umask 022
fi
EOF


[root@racnode2 ~]# cat >> /etc/profile <<EOF
if [ \$USER = "oracle" ] || [ \$USER = "grid" ]; then 
    if [ \$SHELL = "/bin/ksh" ]; then
        ulimit -p 16384
        ulimit -n 65536
    else
        ulimit -u 16384 -n 65536
    fi
    umask 022
fi
EOF

    For the C shell (csh or tcsh), add the following lines to the /etc/csh.login file by running the following: 


    [root@racnode1 ~]# cat >> /etc/csh.login <<EOF
if ( \$USER == "oracle" || \$USER == "grid" ) then 
    limit maxproc 16384
    limit descriptors 65536
endif
EOF


[root@racnode2 ~]# cat >> /etc/csh.login <<EOF
if ( \$USER == "oracle" || \$USER == "grid" ) then 
    limit maxproc 16384
    limit descriptors 65536
endif
EOF

Logging In to a Remote System Using X Terminal

This guide requires access to the console of all machines (Oracle RAC nodes and Openfiler) in order to install the operating system and perform several of the configuration tasks. When managing a very small number of servers, it might make sense to connect each server with its own monitor, keyboard, and mouse in order to access its console. However, as the number of servers to manage increases, this solution becomes unfeasible. A more practical solution would be to configure a dedicated device which would include a single monitor, keyboard, and mouse that would have direct access to the console of each machine. This solution is made possible using a Keyboard, Video, Mouse Switch —better known as a KVM Switch.

After installing the Linux operating system, there are several applications which are needed to install and configure Oracle RAC that use a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and require the use of an X11 display server. The most notable of these GUI applications (or better known as an X application) is the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) although others like the Virtual IP Configuration Assistant (VIPCA) also require the use of an X11 display server.

Given the fact that I created this article on a system that makes use of a KVM Switch, I am able to toggle to each node and rely on the native X11 display server for Linux in order to display X applications.

If you are not logged directly on to the graphical console of a node but rather you are using a remote client like SSH, PuTTY, or Telnet to connect to the node, any X application will require an X11 display server installed on the client. For example, if you are making a terminal remote connection to racnode1 from a Windows workstation, you would need to install an X11 display server on that Windows client (Xming for example). If you intend to install the Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle RAC software from a Windows workstation or other system with an X11 display server installed, then perform the following actions.

  1. Start the X11 display server software on the client workstation.

  2. Configure the security settings of the X server software to permit remote hosts to display X applications on the local system.

  3. From the client workstation, SSH or Telnet to the server where you want to install the software as the Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster software owner (grid) or the Oracle RAC software (oracle).

  4. As the software owner (grid, oracle), set the DISPLAY environment. 


    [root@racnode1 ~]# su - grid
  
[grid@racnode1 ~]$ DISPLAY=<your local workstation>:0.0
[grid@racnode1 ~]$ export DISPLAY
  
[grid@racnode1 ~]$ # TEST X CONFIGURATION BY RUNNING xterm
[grid@racnode1 ~]$ xterm &

    Figure 17: Test X11 Display Server on Windows; Run xterm from Node 1 (racnode1)

Configure the Linux Servers for Oracle

Perform the following configuration procedures on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster.

This section provides information about setting all OS kernel parameters required for Oracle. The kernel parameters discussed in this section will need to be set on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster every time the machine is booted. Instructions for setting all OS kernel parameters required by Oracle in a startup script (/etc/sysctl.conf) will be discussed later in this section.

Overview

This section focuses on configuring both Oracle RAC Linux servers — getting each one prepared for the Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g Release 2 and Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 installations on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 or CentOS 5 platform. This includes verifying enough memory and swap space, setting shared memory and semaphores, setting the maximum number of file handles, setting the IP local port range, and finally, how to activate all kernel parameters for the system.

There are several different ways to set these parameters. For the purpose of this article, I will be making all changes permanent through reboots by placing all values in the /etc/sysctl.conf file.

Memory and Swap Space Considerations

The minimum required RAM on RHEL/CentOS is 1.5 GB for Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster, or 2.5 GB for Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster and Oracle RAC. In this guide, each Oracle RAC node will be hosting Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle RAC and will therefore require at least 2.5 GB in each server. Each of the Oracle RAC nodes used in this example are equipped with 4 GB of physical RAM.

The minimum required swap space is 1.5 GB. Oracle recommends that you set swap space to 1.5 times the amount of RAM for systems with 2 GB of RAM or less. For systems with 2 GB to 16 GB RAM, use swap space equal to RAM. For systems with more than 16 GB RAM, use 16 GB of RAM for swap space.

Configure Kernel Parameters

The kernel parameters presented in this section are recommended values only as documented by Oracle. For production database systems, Oracle recommends that you tune these values to optimize the performance of the system.

On both Oracle RAC nodes, verify that the kernel parameters described in this section are set to values greater than or equal to the recommended values. Also note that when setting the four semaphore values that all four values need to be entered on one line.

Oracle Database 11g Release 2 on RHEL/CentOS 5 requires the kernel parameter settings shown below. The values given are minimums, so if your system uses a larger value, do not change it. 


kernel.shmmax = 4294967295
kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
fs.file-max = 6815744
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500
net.core.rmem_default=262144
net.core.rmem_max=4194304
net.core.wmem_default=262144
net.core.wmem_max=1048576
fs.aio-max-nr=1048576

RHEL/CentOS 5 already comes configured with default values defined for the following kernel parameters. The default values for these two kernel parameters is adequate for Oracle Database 11g Release 2 and therefore do not need to be modified. 


kernel.shmall
kernel.shmmax

Use the default values if they are the same or larger than the required values.

This article assumes a fresh new install of RHEL/CentOS 5 and as such, many of the required kernel parameters are already set (see above). This being the case, you can simply copy / paste the following to both Oracle RAC nodes while logged in as root. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# cat >> /etc/sysctl.conf <<EOF

# Controls the maximum number of shared memory segments system wide
kernel.shmmni = 4096

# Sets the following semaphore values:
# SEMMSL_value  SEMMNS_value  SEMOPM_value  SEMMNI_value
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128

# Sets the maximum number of file-handles that the Linux kernel will allocate
fs.file-max = 6815744

# Defines the local port range that is used by TCP and UDP
# traffic to choose the local port
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500

# Default setting in bytes of the socket "receive" buffer which
# may be set by using the SO_RCVBUF socket option
net.core.rmem_default=262144

# Maximum setting in bytes of the socket "receive" buffer which
# may be set by using the SO_RCVBUF socket option
net.core.rmem_max=4194304

# Default setting in bytes of the socket "send" buffer which
# may be set by using the SO_SNDBUF socket option
net.core.wmem_default=262144

# Maximum setting in bytes of the socket "send" buffer which 
# may be set by using the SO_SNDBUF socket option
net.core.wmem_max=1048576

# Maximum number of allowable concurrent asynchronous I/O requests
fs.aio-max-nr=1048576
EOF



[root@racnode2 ~]# cat >> /etc/sysctl.conf <<EOF

# Controls the maximum number of shared memory segments system wide
kernel.shmmni = 4096

# Sets the following semaphore values:
# SEMMSL_value  SEMMNS_value  SEMOPM_value  SEMMNI_value
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128

# Sets the maximum number of file-handles that the Linux kernel will allocate
fs.file-max = 6815744

# Defines the local port range that is used by TCP and UDP
# traffic to choose the local port
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500

# Default setting in bytes of the socket "receive" buffer which
# may be set by using the SO_RCVBUF socket option
net.core.rmem_default=262144

# Maximum setting in bytes of the socket "receive" buffer which
# may be set by using the SO_RCVBUF socket option
net.core.rmem_max=4194304

# Default setting in bytes of the socket "send" buffer which
# may be set by using the SO_SNDBUF socket option
net.core.wmem_default=262144

# Maximum setting in bytes of the socket "send" buffer which 
# may be set by using the SO_SNDBUF socket option
net.core.wmem_max=1048576

# Maximum number of allowable concurrent asynchronous I/O requests
fs.aio-max-nr=1048576
EOF

Activate All Kernel Parameters for the System

The above command persisted the required kernel parameters through reboots by inserting them in the /etc/sysctl.conf startup file. Linux allows modification of these kernel parameters to the current system while it is up and running, so there's no need to reboot the system after making kernel parameter changes. To activate the new kernel parameter values for the currently running system, run the following as root on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# sysctl -p
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1
net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0
kernel.sysrq = 0
kernel.core_uses_pid = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1
kernel.msgmnb = 65536
kernel.msgmax = 65536
kernel.shmmax = 68719476736
kernel.shmall = 4294967296
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
fs.file-max = 6815744
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500
net.core.rmem_default = 262144
net.core.rmem_max = 4194304
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 1048576
fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576



[root@racnode2 ~]# sysctl -p
net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0
net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1
net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_source_route = 0
kernel.sysrq = 0
kernel.core_uses_pid = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies = 1
kernel.msgmnb = 65536
kernel.msgmax = 65536
kernel.shmmax = 68719476736
kernel.shmall = 4294967296
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
fs.file-max = 6815744
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000 65500
net.core.rmem_default = 262144
net.core.rmem_max = 4194304
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 1048576
fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576

Verify the new kernel parameter values by running the following on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# /sbin/sysctl -a | grep shm
vm.hugetlb_shm_group = 0
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.shmall = 4294967296
kernel.shmmax = 68719476736

[root@racnode1 ~]# /sbin/sysctl -a | grep sem
kernel.sem = 250        32000   100     128

[root@racnode1 ~]# /sbin/sysctl -a | grep file-max
fs.file-max = 6815744

[root@racnode1 ~]# /sbin/sysctl -a | grep ip_local_port_range
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 9000     65500

[root@racnode1 ~]# /sbin/sysctl -a | grep 'core\.[rw]mem'
net.core.rmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.rmem_max = 4194304
net.core.wmem_max = 1048576

Configure RAC Nodes for Remote Access using SSH - (Optional)

Perform the following optional procedures on both Oracle RAC nodes to manually configure passwordless SSH connectivity between the two cluster member nodes as the "grid" and "oracle" user.

One of the best parts about this section of the document is that it is completely optional. That's not to say configuring Secure Shell (SSH) connectivity between the Oracle RAC nodes is not necessary. To the contrary, the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) uses the secure shell tools ssh and scp commands during installation to run remote commands on and copy files to the other cluster nodes. During the Oracle software installations, SSH must be configured so that these commands do not prompt for a password. The ability to run SSH commands without being prompted for a password is sometimes referred to as user equivalence.

The reason this section of the document is optional is that the OUI interface in 11g Release 2 includes a new feature that can automatically configure SSH during the install phase of the Oracle software for the user account running the installation. The automatic configuration performed by OUI creates passwordless SSH connectivity between all cluster member nodes. Oracle recommends that you use the automatic procedure provided by the OUI whenever possible.

In addition to installing the Oracle software, SSH is used after installation by configuration assistants, Oracle Enterprise Manager, OPatch, and other features that perform configuration operations from local to remote nodes.

 

Configuring SSH with a passphrase is no longer supported for Oracle Clusterware 11g Release 2 and later releases. Passwordless SSH is required for Oracle 11g Release 2 and higher.

Since this guide uses grid as the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software owner and oracle as the owner of the Oracle RAC software, passwordless SSH must be configured for both user accounts.

 

When SSH is not available, the installer attempts to use the rsh and rcp commands instead of ssh and scp. These services, however, are disabled by default on most Linux systems. The use of RSH will not be discussed in this guide.

Verify SSH Software is Installed

The supported version of SSH for Linux distributions is OpenSSH. OpenSSH should be included in the Linux distribution minimal installation. To confirm that SSH packages are installed, run the following command on both Oracle RAC nodes. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# rpm -qa --queryformat "%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE} (%{ARCH})\n"| grep ssh
openssh-askpass-4.3p2-41.el5 (x86_64)
openssh-clients-4.3p2-41.el5 (x86_64)
openssh-server-4.3p2-41.el5 (x86_64)
openssh-4.3p2-41.el5 (x86_64)

If you do not see a list of SSH packages, then install those packages for your Linux distribution. For example, load CD #1 into each of the Oracle RAC nodes and perform the following to install the OpenSSH packages. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom
[root@racnode1 ~]# cd /media/cdrom/Server
[root@racnode1 ~]# rpm -Uvh openssh-*
[root@racnode1 ~]# cd /
[root@racnode1 ~]# eject

Why Configure SSH User Equivalence Using the Manual Method Option?

So, if the OUI already includes a feature that automates the SSH configuration between the Oracle RAC nodes, then why provide a section on how to manually configure passwordless SSH connectivity? In fact, for the purpose of this article, I decided to forgo manually configuring SSH connectivity in favor of Oracle's automatic methods included in the installer.

One reason to include this section on manually configuring SSH is to make mention of the fact that you must remove stty commands from the profiles of any Oracle software installation owners, and remove other security measures that are triggered during a login and that generate messages to the terminal. These messages, mail checks, and other displays prevent Oracle software installation owners from using the SSH configuration script that is built into the Oracle Universal Installer. If they are not disabled, then SSH must be configured manually before an installation can be run. Further documentation on preventing installation errors caused by stty commands can be found later in this section.

Another reason you may decide to manually configure SSH for user equivalence is to have the ability to run the Cluster Verification Utility (CVU) prior to installing the Oracle software. The CVU (runcluvfy.sh) is a valuable tool located in the Oracle Clusterware root directory that not only verifies all prerequisites have been met before software installation, it also has the ability to generate shell script programs, called fixup scripts, to resolve many incomplete system configuration requirements. The CVU does, however, have a prerequisite of its own and that is that SSH user equivalency is configured correctly for the user account running the installation. If you intend to configure SSH connectivity using the OUI, know that the CVU utility will fail before having the opportunity to perform any of its critical checks. 


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ /media/cdrom/grid/runcluvfy.sh stage -pre crsinst -fixup -n racnode1,racnode2 -verbose
Performing pre-checks for cluster services setup 

Checking node reachability...

Check: Node reachability from node "racnode1"
  Destination Node                      Reachable?              
  ------------------------------------  ------------------------
  racnode1                              yes                     
  racnode2                              yes                     
Result: Node reachability check passed from node "racnode1"


Checking user equivalence...

Check: User equivalence for user "grid"
  Node Name                             Comment                 
  ------------------------------------  ------------------------
  racnode2                              failed
  racnode1                              failed
Result: PRVF-4007 : User equivalence check failed for user "grid"

ERROR: 
User equivalence unavailable on all the specified nodes
Verification cannot proceed


Pre-check for cluster services setup was unsuccessful on all the nodes.

Please note that it is not required to run the CVU utility before installing the Oracle software. Starting with Oracle 11g Release 2, the installer detects when minimum requirements for installation are not completed and performs the same tasks done by the CVU to generate fixup scripts to resolve incomplete system configuration requirements.

Configure SSH Connectivity Manually on All Cluster Nodes

To reiterate, it is not required to manually configure SSH connectivity before running the OUI. The OUI in 11g Release 2 provides an interface during the install for the user account running the installation to automatically create passwordless SSH connectivity between all cluster member nodes. This is the recommend approach by Oracle and the method used in this article. The tasks below to manually configure SSH connectivity between all cluster member nodes is included for documentation purposes only. Keep in mind that this guide uses grid as the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software owner and oracle as the owner of the Oracle RAC software. If you decide to manually configure SSH connectivity, it should be performed for both user accounts.

The goal in this section is to setup user equivalence for the grid and oracle OS user accounts. User equivalence enables the grid and oracle user accounts to access all other nodes in the cluster (running commands and copying files) without the need for a password. Oracle added support in 10g release 1 for using the SSH tool suite for setting up user equivalence. Before Oracle Database 10g, user equivalence had to be configured using remote shell (RSH).

In the example that follows, the Oracle software owner grid will be configured for passwordless SSH.

Checking Existing SSH Configuration on the System

To determine if SSH is installed and running, enter the following command. 


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ pgrep sshd
2535
19852

If SSH is running, then the response to this command is a list of process ID number(s). Run this check on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster to verify the SSH daemons are installed and running.

You need either an RSA or a DSA key for the SSH protocol. RSA is used with the SSH 1.5 protocol, while DSA is the default for the SSH 2.0 protocol. With OpenSSH, you can use either RSA or DSA. The instructions that follow are for SSH1. If you have an SSH2 installation, and you cannot use SSH1, then refer to your SSH distribution documentation to configure SSH1 compatibility or to configure SSH2 with DSA.

 

Automatic passwordless SSH configuration using the OUI creates RSA encryption keys on all nodes of the cluster.

Configuring Passwordless SSH on Cluster Nodes

To configure passwordless SSH, you must first create RSA or DSA keys on each cluster node, and then copy all the keys generated on all cluster node members into an authorized keys file that is identical on each node. Note that the SSH files must be readable only by root and by the software installation user (grid, oracle), as SSH ignores a private key file if it is accessible by others. In the examples that follow, the DSA key is used.

You must configure passwordless SSH separately for each Oracle software installation owner that you intend to use for installation (grid, oracle).

To configure passwordless SSH, complete the following on both Oracle RAC nodes.

Create SSH Directory and SSH Keys

Complete the following steps on each Oracle RAC node.

  1. Log in to both Oracle RAC nodes as the software owner (in this example, the grid user). 


    [root@racnode1 ~]# su - grid

  2. To ensure that you are logged in as grid and to verify that the user ID matches the expected user ID you have assigned to the grid user, enter the commands id and id grid. Verify that the Oracle user group and user and the user terminal window process you are using have group and user IDs that are identical. For example: 


    [grid@racnode1 ~]$ id
uid=1100(grid) gid=1000(oinstall) groups=1000(oinstall),1200(asmadmin),1201(asmdba),1202(asmoper)

[grid@racnode1 ~]$ id grid
uid=1100(grid) gid=1000(oinstall) groups=1000(oinstall),1200(asmadmin),1201(asmdba),1202(asmoper)

  3. If necessary, create the .ssh directory in the grid user's home directory and set permissions on it to ensure that only the grid user has read and write permissions. 


    [grid@racnode1 ~]$ mkdir ~/.ssh
[grid@racnode1 ~]$ chmod 700 ~/.ssh

     

    SSH configuration will fail if the permissions are not set to 700.

  4. Enter the following command to generate a DSA key pair (public and private key) for the SSH protocol. At the prompts, accept the default key file location and no passphrase (simply press [Enter] three times). 


    [grid@racnode1 ~]$ /usr/bin/ssh-keygen -t dsa
Generating public/private dsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/grid/.ssh/id_dsa): [Enter]
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): [Enter]
Enter same passphrase again: [Enter]
Your identification has been saved in /home/grid/.ssh/id_dsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/grid/.ssh/id_dsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
57:21:d7:d5:54:29:4c:12:40:23:36:e9:6e:2f:e6:40 grid@racnode1

     

    SSH with passphrase is not supported for Oracle Clusterware 11g Release 2 and later releases. Passwordless SSH is required for Oracle 11g Release 2 and higher.

    This command writes the DSA public key to the ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub file and the private key to the ~/.ssh/id_dsa file.

    Never distribute the private key to anyone not authorized to perform Oracle software installations.

  5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for all remaining nodes that you intend to make a member of the cluster using the DSA key (racnode2).

Add All Keys to a Common authorized_keys File

Now that both Oracle RAC nodes contain a public and private key for DSA, you will need to create an authorized key file (authorized_keys) on one of the nodes. An authorized key file is nothing more than a single file that contains a copy of everyone's (every node's) DSA public key. Once the authorized key file contains all of the public keys for each node, it is then distributed to all of the nodes in the cluster.

 

The grid user's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on every node must contain the contents from all of the ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub files that you generated on all cluster nodes.

Complete the following steps on one of the nodes in the cluster to create and then distribute the authorized key file. For the purpose of this example, I am using the primary node in the cluster, racnode1.

  1. From racnode1, determine if the authorized key file ~/.ssh/authorized_keys already exists in the .ssh directory of the owner's home directory. In most cases this will not exist since this article assumes you are working with a new install. If the file doesn't exist, create it now. 


    [grid@racnode1 ~]$ touch ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
[grid@racnode1 ~]$ ls -l ~/.ssh
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 grid oinstall   0 Nov  7 17:25 authorized_keys
-rw------- 1 grid oinstall 672 Nov  7 16:56 id_dsa
-rw-r--r-- 1 grid oinstall 603 Nov  7 16:56 id_dsa.pub

    In the .ssh directory, you should see the id_dsa.pub public key that was created and the blank file authorized_keys.

  2. From racnode1, use SCP (Secure Copy) or SFTP (Secure FTP) to copy the public key (~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub) from both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster to the authorized key file just created (~/.ssh/authorized_keys). Again, this will be done from racnode1. You will be prompted for the grid OS user account password for both Oracle RAC nodes accessed.

    The following example is being run from racnode1 and assumes a two-node cluster, with nodes racnode1 and racnode2. 


    [grid@racnode1 ~]$ ssh racnode1 cat ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
The authenticity of host 'racnode1 (192.168.1.151)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 66:65:a6:99:5f:cb:6e:60:6a:06:18:b7:fc:c2:cc:3e.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'racnode1,192.168.1.151' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
grid@racnode1's password: xxxxx


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ ssh racnode2 cat ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
The authenticity of host 'racnode2 (192.168.1.152)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 30:cd:90:ad:18:00:24:c5:42:49:21:b0:1d:59:2d:7b.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'racnode2,192.168.1.152' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
grid@racnode2's password: xxxxx

    The first time you use SSH to connect to a node from a particular system, you will see a message similar to the following. 


    The authenticity of host 'racnode1 (192.168.1.151)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 66:65:a6:99:5f:cb:6e:60:6a:06:18:b7:fc:c2:cc:3e.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

    Enter yes at the prompt to continue. The public hostname will then be added to the known_hosts file in the ~/.ssh directory and you will not see this message again when you connect from this system to the same node.

  3. At this point, we have the DSA public key from every node in the cluster contained in the authorized key file (~/.ssh/authorized_keys) on racnode1. 


    [grid@racnode1 ~]$ ls -l ~/.ssh
total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 grid oinstall 1206 Nov  7 17:31 authorized_keys
-rw------- 1 grid oinstall  672 Nov  7 16:56 id_dsa
-rw-r--r-- 1 grid oinstall  603 Nov  7 16:56 id_dsa.pub
-rw-r--r-- 1 grid oinstall  808 Nov  7 17:31 known_hosts

    We now need to copy the authorized key file to the remaining nodes in the cluster. In our two-node cluster example, the only remaining node is racnode2. Use the scp command to copy the authorized key file to all remaining nodes in the cluster. 


    [grid@racnode1 ~]$ scp ~/.ssh/authorized_keys racnode2:.ssh/authorized_keys
grid@racnode2's password: xxxxx
authorized_keys                                   100% 1206     1.2KB/s   00:00

  4. Change the permission of the authorized key file for both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster by logging into the node and running the following: 


    [grid@racnode1 ~]$ chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

[grid@racnode2 ~]$ chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Enable SSH User Equivalency on Cluster Nodes

After you have copied the authorized_keys file that contains all public keys to each node in the cluster, complete the steps in this section to ensure passwordless SSH connectivity between all cluster member nodes is configured correctly. In this example, the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software owner will be used which is named grid.

When running the test SSH commands in this section, if you see any other messages or text, apart from the date and host name, then the Oracle installation will fail. If any of the nodes prompt for a password or pass phrase then verify that the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on that node contains the correct public keys and that you have created an Oracle software owner with identical group membership and IDs. Make any changes required to ensure that only the date and host name is displayed when you enter these commands. You should ensure that any part of a login script that generates any output, or asks any questions, is modified so it acts only when the shell is an interactive shell.

  1. On the system where you want to run OUI from (racnode1), log in as the grid user. 


    [root@racnode1 ~]# su - grid

  2. If SSH is configured correctly, you will be able to use the ssh and scp commands without being prompted for a password or pass phrase from the terminal session. 


    [grid@racnode1 ~]$ ssh racnode1 "date;hostname"
Sun Nov  7 18:06:17 EST 2010
racnode1
  
[grid@racnode1 ~]$ ssh racnode2 "date;hostname"
Sun Nov  7 18:07:55 EST 2010
racnode2

  3. Perform the same actions above from the remaining nodes in the Oracle RAC cluster (racnode2) to ensure they too can access all other nodes without being prompted for a password or pass phrase and get added to the known_hosts file. 


    [root@racnode2 ~]# su - grid

[grid@racnode2 ~]$ ssh racnode1 "date;hostname"
The authenticity of host 'racnode1 (192.168.1.151)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 66:65:a6:99:5f:cb:6e:60:6a:06:18:b7:fc:c2:cc:3e.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'racnode1,192.168.1.151' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
Sun Nov  7 18:08:46 EST 2010
racnode1

[grid@racnode2 ~]$ ssh racnode1 "date;hostname"
Sun Nov  7 18:08:53 EST 2010
racnode1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

[grid@racnode2 ~]$ ssh racnode2 "date;hostname"
The authenticity of host 'racnode2 (192.168.1.152)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 30:cd:90:ad:18:00:24:c5:42:49:21:b0:1d:59:2d:7b.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'racnode2,192.168.1.152' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
Sun Nov  7 18:11:51 EST 2010
racnode2

[grid@racnode2 ~]$ ssh racnode2 "date;hostname"
Sun Nov  7 18:11:54 EST 2010
racnode2

  4. The Oracle Universal Installer is a GUI interface and requires the use of an X Server. From the terminal session enabled for user equivalence (the node you will be performing the Oracle installations from), set the environment variable DISPLAY to a valid X Windows display.

    Bourne, Korn, and Bash shells: 


    [grid@racnode1 ~]$ DISPLAY=<Any X-Windows Host>:0
[grid@racnode1 ~]$ export DISPLAY

    C shell: 


    [grid@racnode1 ~]$ setenv DISPLAY <Any X-Windows Host>:0

    After setting the DISPLAY variable to a valid X Windows display, you should perform another test of the current terminal session to ensure that X11 forwarding is not enabled. 


    [grid@racnode1 ~]$ ssh racnode1 hostname
racnode1

[grid@racnode1 ~]$ ssh racnode2 hostname
racnode2

     

    If you are using a remote client to connect to the node performing the installation, and you see a message similar to: "Warning: No xauth data; using fake authentication data for X11 forwarding." then this means that your authorized keys file is configured correctly, however, your SSH configuration has X11 forwarding enabled. For example: 


    [grid@racnode1 ~]$ export DISPLAY=melody:0
[grid@racnode1 ~]$ ssh racnode2 hostname
Warning: No xauth data; using fake authentication data for X11 forwarding.
racnode2

    Note that having X11 Forwarding enabled will cause the Oracle installation to fail. To correct this problem, create a user-level SSH client configuration file for the grid and oracle OS user account that disables X11 Forwarding.

    1. Using a text editor, edit or create the file ~/.ssh/config

    2. Make sure that the ForwardX11 attribute is set to no. For example, insert the following into the ~/.ssh/config file: 


      Host *
            ForwardX11 no

Preventing Installation Errors Caused by stty Commands

During an Oracle Grid Infrastructure or Oracle RAC software installation, OUI uses SSH to run commands and copy files to the other nodes. During the installation, hidden files on the system (for example, .bashrc or .cshrc) will cause makefile and other installation errors if they contain stty commands.

To avoid this problem, you must modify these files in each Oracle installation owner user home directory to suppress all output on STDERR, as in the following examples:

 

If there are hidden files that contain stty commands that are loaded by the remote shell, then OUI indicates an error and stops the installation.

Install and Configure ASMLib 2.0

The installation and configuration procedures in this section should be performed on both of the Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster. Creating the ASM disks, however, will only need to be performed on a single node within the cluster (racnode1).

In this section, we will install and configure ASMLib 2.0 which is an optional support library for the Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM) feature of the Oracle Database. In this guide, Oracle ASM will be used as the shared file system and volume manager for Oracle Clusterware files (OCR and voting disk), Oracle Database files (data, online redo logs, control files, archived redo logs), and the Fast Recovery Area.

Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) simplifies database administration by eliminating the need for the DBA to directly manage potentially thousands of Oracle database files requiring only the management of groups of disks allocated to the Oracle Database. ASM is built into the Oracle kernel and can be used for both single and clustered instances of Oracle. All of the files and directories to be used for Oracle will be contained in a disk group — (or for the purpose of this article, three disk groups). ASM automatically performs load balancing in parallel across all available disk drives to prevent hot spots and maximize performance, even with rapidly changing data usage patterns. ASMLib is a Linux specific implementation support library that allows an Oracle Database using ASM more efficient and capable access to the disk groups it is using.

Keep in mind that ASMLib is only a support library for the Oracle ASM software. The Oracle ASM software will be installed as part of Oracle Grid Infrastructure later in this guide.

Starting with Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g Release 2 (11.2), the Automatic Storage Management and Oracle Clusterware software is packaged together in a single binary distribution and installed into a single home directory, which is referred to as the Grid Infrastructure home. The Oracle Grid Infrastructure software will be owned by the user grid.

So, is ASMLib required for ASM? Not at all. In fact, there are two different methods to configure ASM on Linux.

In this article, I will be using the "ASM with ASMLib I/O" method. Oracle states in Metalink Note 275315.1 that "ASMLib was provided to enable ASM I/O to Linux disks without the limitations of the standard UNIX I/O API". I plan on performing several tests in the future to identify the performance gains in using ASMLib. Those performance metrics and testing details are out of scope of this article and therefore will not be discussed.

If you would like to learn more about Oracle ASMLib 2.0, visit http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/linux/asmlib/index-101839.html.

Download ASMLib 2.0 Packages

We start this section by downloading the latest ASMLib 2.0 libraries and the kernel driver from OTN.

  Oracle ASMLib Downloads for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5

At the time of this writing, the latest release of the ASMLib kernel driver is 2.0.5-1. We need to download the appropriate version of the ASMLib driver for the Linux kernel which in my case is kernel 2.6.18-194.el5 running on the x86_64 architecture. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# uname -a
Linux racnode1 2.6.18-194.el5 #1 SMP Fri Apr 2 14:58:14 EDT 2010 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

32-bit (x86) Installations

Next, download the ASMLib tools.

64-bit (x86_64) Installations

Next, download the ASMLib tools.

Install ASMLib 2.0 Packages

The installation of ASMLib 2.0 needs to be performed on both nodes in the Oracle RAC cluster as the root user account. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# rpm -Uvh oracleasm-2.6.18-194.el5-2.0.5-1.el5.x86_64.rpm \
>                           oracleasmlib-2.0.4-1.el5.x86_64.rpm \
>                           oracleasm-support-2.1.7-1.el5.x86_64.rpm
warning: oracleasm-2.6.18-194.el5-2.0.5-1.el5.x86_64.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 1e5e0159
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:oracleasm-support      ########################################### [ 33%]
   2:oracleasm-2.6.18-194.el########################################### [ 67%]
   3:oracleasmlib           ########################################### [100%]



[root@racnode2 ~]# rpm -Uvh oracleasm-2.6.18-194.el5-2.0.5-1.el5.x86_64.rpm \
>                           oracleasmlib-2.0.4-1.el5.x86_64.rpm \
>                           oracleasm-support-2.1.7-1.el5.x86_64.rpm
warning: oracleasm-2.6.18-194.el5-2.0.5-1.el5.x86_64.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 1e5e0159
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:oracleasm-support      ########################################### [ 33%]
   2:oracleasm-2.6.18-194.el########################################### [ 67%]
   3:oracleasmlib           ########################################### [100%]

After installing the ASMLib packages, verify from both Oracle RAC nodes that the software is installed. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# rpm -qa --queryformat "%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE} (%{ARCH})\n"| grep oracleasm | sort
oracleasm-2.6.18-194.el5-2.0.5-1.el5 (x86_64)
oracleasmlib-2.0.4-1.el5 (x86_64)
oracleasm-support-2.1.7-1.el5 (x86_64)


[root@racnode2 ~]# rpm -qa --queryformat "%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE} (%{ARCH})\n"| grep oracleasm | sort
oracleasm-2.6.18-194.el5-2.0.5-1.el5 (x86_64)
oracleasmlib-2.0.4-1.el5 (x86_64)
oracleasm-support-2.1.7-1.el5 (x86_64)

Configure ASMLib

Now that you have installed the ASMLib packages for Linux, you need to configure and load the ASM kernel module. This task needs to be run on both Oracle RAC nodes as the root user account.

The oracleasm command by default is in the path /usr/sbin. The /etc/init.d path, which was used in previous releases, is not deprecated but the oracleasm binary in that path is now used typically for internal commands. If you enter the command oracleasm configure without the -i flag, then you are shown the current configuration. For example: 


[root@racnode1 ~]# /usr/sbin/oracleasm configure
ORACLEASM_ENABLED=false
ORACLEASM_UID=
ORACLEASM_GID=
ORACLEASM_SCANBOOT=true
ORACLEASM_SCANORDER=""
ORACLEASM_SCANEXCLUDE=""

  1. Enter the following command to run the oracleasm initialization script with the configure option. 


    [root@racnode1 ~]# /usr/sbin/oracleasm configure -i
Configuring the Oracle ASM library driver.

This will configure the on-boot properties of the Oracle ASM library
driver.  The following questions will determine whether the driver is
loaded on boot and what permissions it will have.  The current values
will be shown in brackets ('[]').  Hitting <ENTER> without typing an
answer will keep that current value.  Ctrl-C will abort.

Default user to own the driver interface []: grid
Default group to own the driver interface []: asmadmin
Start Oracle ASM library driver on boot (y/n) [n]: y
Scan for Oracle ASM disks on boot (y/n) [y]: y
Writing Oracle ASM library driver configuration: done

    The script completes the following tasks:

     

    The ASMLib driver file system is not a regular file system. It is used only by the Automatic Storage Management library to communicate with the Automatic Storage Management driver.

  2. Enter the following command to load the oracleasm kernel module. 


    [root@racnode1 ~]# /usr/sbin/oracleasm init
Creating /dev/oracleasm mount point: /dev/oracleasm
Loading module "oracleasm": oracleasm
Mounting ASMlib driver filesystem: /dev/oracleasm

  3. Repeat this procedure on all nodes in the cluster (racnode2) where you want to install Oracle RAC.

Create ASM Disks for Oracle

Creating the ASM disks only needs to be performed from one node in the RAC cluster as the root user account. I will be running these commands on racnode1. On the other Oracle RAC node(s), you will need to perform a scandisk to recognize the new volumes. When that is complete, you should then run the oracleasm listdisks command on both Oracle RAC nodes to verify that all ASM disks were created and available.

In the section "Create Partitions on iSCSI Volumes", we configured (partitioned) three iSCSI volumes to be used by ASM. ASM will be used for storing Oracle Clusterware files, Oracle database files like online redo logs, database files, control files, archived redo log files, and the Fast Recovery Area. Use the local device names that were created by udev when configuring the three ASM volumes.

To create the ASM disks using the iSCSI target names to local device name mappings, type the following: 


[root@racnode1 ~]# /usr/sbin/oracleasm createdisk CRSVOL1 /dev/iscsi/crs1/part1
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done

[root@racnode1 ~]# /usr/sbin/oracleasm createdisk DATAVOL1 /dev/iscsi/data1/part1
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done

[root@racnode1 ~]# /usr/sbin/oracleasm createdisk FRAVOL1 /dev/iscsi/fra1/part1
Writing disk header: done
Instantiating disk: done

To make the volumes available on the other nodes in the cluster (racnode2), enter the following command as root on each node. 


[root@racnode2 ~]# /usr/sbin/oracleasm scandisks
Reloading disk partitions: done
Cleaning any stale ASM disks...
Scanning system for ASM disks...
Instantiating disk "DATAVOL1"
Instantiating disk "CRSVOL1"
Instantiating disk "FRAVOL1"

We can now test that the ASM disks were successfully created by using the following command on both nodes in the RAC cluster as the root user account. This command identifies shared disks attached to the node that are marked as Automatic Storage Management disks. 


[root@racnode1 ~]# /usr/sbin/oracleasm listdisks
CRSVOL1
DATAVOL1
FRAVOL1

[root@racnode2 ~]# /usr/sbin/oracleasm listdisks
CRSVOL1
DATAVOL1
FRAVOL1

Download Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 Software

The following download procedures only need to be performed on one node in the cluster (racnode1).

The next step is to download and extract the required Oracle software packages from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

 

If you do not currently have an account with Oracle OTN, you will need to create one. This is a FREE account!

Oracle offers a development and testing license free of charge. No support, however, is provided and the license does not permit production use. A full description of the license agreement is available on OTN.

32-bit (x86) Installations

64-bit (x86_64) Installations

You will be downloading and extracting the required software from Oracle to only one of the Linux nodes in the cluster — namely, racnode1. You will perform all Oracle software installs from this machine. The Oracle installer will copy the required software packages to all other nodes in the RAC configuration using remote access (scp).

Log in to the node that you will be performing all of the Oracle installations from (racnode1) as the appropriate software owner. For example, login and download the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software to the directory /home/grid/software/oracle as the grid user. Next, log in and download the Oracle Database and Oracle Examples (optional) software to the /home/oracle/software/oracle directory as the oracle user.

Download and Extract the Oracle Software

Download the following software packages:

All downloads are available from the same page.

Extract the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software as the grid user: 


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ mkdir -p /home/grid/software/oracle
[grid@racnode1 ~]$ mv linux.x64_11gR2_grid.zip /home/grid/software/oracle
[grid@racnode1 ~]$ cd /home/grid/software/oracle
[grid@racnode1 oracle]$ unzip linux.x64_11gR2_grid.zip

Extract the Oracle Database and Oracle Examples software as the oracle user: 


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ mkdir -p /home/oracle/software/oracle
[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ mv linux.x64_11gR2_database_1of2.zip /home/oracle/software/oracle
[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ mv linux.x64_11gR2_database_2of2.zip /home/oracle/software/oracle
[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ mv linux.x64_11gR2_examples.zip /home/oracle/software/oracle
[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ cd /home/oracle/software/oracle
[oracle@racnode1 oracle]$ unzip linux.x64_11gR2_database_1of2.zip
[oracle@racnode1 oracle]$ unzip linux.x64_11gR2_database_2of2.zip
[oracle@racnode1 oracle]$ unzip linux.x64_11gR2_examples.zip

Pre-installation Tasks for Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster

Perform the following checks on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster.

This section contains any remaining pre-installation tasks for Oracle Grid Infrastructure that has not already been discussed. Please note that manually running the Cluster Verification Utility (CVU) before running the Oracle installer is not required. The CVU is run automatically at the end of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation as part of the Configuration Assistants process.

Install the cvuqdisk Package for Linux

Install the operating system package cvuqdisk to both Oracle RAC nodes. Without cvuqdisk, Cluster Verification Utility cannot discover shared disks and you will receive the error message "Package cvuqdisk not installed" when the Cluster Verification Utility is run (either manually or at the end of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation). Use the cvuqdisk RPM for your hardware architecture (for example, x86_64 or i386).

The cvuqdisk RPM can be found on the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation media in the rpm directory. For the purpose of this article, the Oracle Grid Infrastructure media was extracted to the /home/grid/software/oracle/grid directory on racnode1 as the grid user.

To install the cvuqdisk RPM, complete the following procedures:

  1. Locate the cvuqdisk RPM package, which is in the directory rpm on the installation media from racnode1. 


    [racnode1]:  /home/grid/software/oracle/grid/rpm/cvuqdisk-1.0.7-1.rpm

  2. Copy the cvuqdisk package from racnode1 to racnode2 as the grid user account. 


    [racnode2]:  /home/grid/software/oracle/grid/rpm/cvuqdisk-1.0.7-1.rpm

  3. Log in as root on both Oracle RAC nodes. 


    [grid@racnode1 rpm]$ su

[grid@racnode2 rpm]$ su

  4. Set the environment variable CVUQDISK_GRP to point to the group that will own cvuqdisk, which for this article is oinstall. 


    [root@racnode1 rpm]# CVUQDISK_GRP=oinstall; export CVUQDISK_GRP

[root@racnode2 rpm]# CVUQDISK_GRP=oinstall; export CVUQDISK_GRP

  5. In the directory where you have saved the cvuqdisk RPM, use the following command to install the cvuqdisk package on both Oracle RAC nodes. 


    [root@racnode1 rpm]# rpm -iv cvuqdisk-1.0.7-1.rpm
Preparing packages for installation...
cvuqdisk-1.0.7-1

[root@racnode2 rpm]# rpm -iv cvuqdisk-1.0.7-1.rpm
Preparing packages for installation...
cvuqdisk-1.0.7-1

  6. Verify the cvuqdisk utility was successfully installed. 


    [root@racnode1 rpm]# ls -l /usr/sbin/cvuqdisk
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root oinstall 9832 May 28  2009 /usr/sbin/cvuqdisk

[root@racnode2 rpm]# ls -l /usr/sbin/cvuqdisk
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root oinstall 9832 May 28  2009 /usr/sbin/cvuqdisk

Verify Oracle Clusterware Requirements with CVU - (optional)

As stated earlier in this section, running the Cluster Verification Utility before running the Oracle installer is not required. Starting with Oracle Clusterware 11g Release 2, Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) detects when the minimum requirements for an installation are not met and creates shell scripts called fixup scripts to finish incomplete system configuration steps. If OUI detects an incomplete task, it then generates fixup scripts (runfixup.sh). You can run the fixup script after you click the [Fix and Check Again Button] during the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.

You also can have CVU generate fixup scripts before installation.

If you decide that you want to run the CVU, please keep in mind that it should be run as the grid user from the node you will be performing the Oracle installation from (racnode1). In addition, SSH connectivity with user equivalence must be configured for the grid user. If you intend to configure SSH connectivity using the OUI, the CVU utility will fail before having the opportunity to perform any of its critical checks and generate the fixup scripts: 


Checking user equivalence...

Check: User equivalence for user "grid"
  Node Name                             Comment                 
  ------------------------------------  ------------------------
  racnode2                              failed
  racnode1                              failed
Result: PRVF-4007 : User equivalence check failed for user "grid"

ERROR: 
User equivalence unavailable on all the specified nodes
Verification cannot proceed


Pre-check for cluster services setup was unsuccessful on all the nodes.

Once all prerequisites for running the CVU utility have been met, you can now manually check your cluster configuration before installation and generate a fixup script to make operating system changes before starting the installation. 


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ cd /home/grid/software/oracle/grid
[grid@racnode1 grid]$ ./runcluvfy.sh stage -pre crsinst -n racnode1,racnode2 -fixup -verbose

Review the CVU report.

The only failure that should be found given the configuration described in this guide is: 


Check: Membership of user "grid" in group "dba"
  Node Name         User Exists   Group Exists  User in Group  Comment
  ----------------  ------------  ------------  ------------  ----------------
  racnode2          yes           yes           no            failed
  racnode1          yes           yes           no            failed
Result: Membership check for user "grid" in group "dba" failed

The check fails because this guide creates role-allocated groups and users by using a Job Role Separation configuration which is not accurately recognized by the CVU. Creating a Job Role Separation configuration was described in the section Create Job Role Separation Operating System Privileges Groups, Users, and Directories. The CVU fails to recognize this type of configuration and assumes the grid user should always be part of the dba group. This failed check can be safely ignored. All other checks performed by CVU should be reported as "passed" before continuing with the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.

Verify Hardware and Operating System Setup with CVU

The next CVU check to run will verify the hardware and operating system setup. Again, run the following as the grid user account from racnode1 with user equivalence configured: 


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ cd /home/grid/software/oracle/grid
[grid@racnode1 grid]$ ./runcluvfy.sh stage -post hwos -n racnode1,racnode2 -verbose

Review the CVU report. All checks performed by CVU should be reported as "passed" before continuing with the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.

Install Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster

Perform the following installation procedures from only one of the Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster (racnode1). The Oracle Grid Infrastructure software (Oracle Clusterware and Automatic Storage Management) will be installed to both of the Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster by the Oracle Universal Installer.

You are now ready to install the "grid" part of the environment — Oracle Clusterware and Automatic Storage Management. Complete the following steps to install Oracle Grid Infrastructure on your cluster.

At any time during installation, if you have a question about what you are being asked to do, click the Help button on the OUI page.

Typical and Advanced Installation

Starting with 11g Release 2, Oracle now provides two options for installing the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software:

Given the fact that this guide makes use of role-based administrative privileges and high granularity in specifying Automatic Storage Management roles, we will be using the "Advanced Installation" option.

Verify Terminal Shell Environment

Before starting the Oracle Universal Installer, log in to racnode1 as the owner of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software which for this article is grid. Next, if you are using a remote client to connect to the Oracle RAC node performing the installation (SSH or Telnet to racnode1 from a workstation configured with an X Server), verify your X11 display server settings which were described in the section Logging In to a Remote System Using X Terminal.

Install Oracle Grid Infrastructure

Perform the following tasks as the grid user to install Oracle Grid Infrastructure: 


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ id
uid=1100(grid) gid=1000(oinstall) groups=1000(oinstall),1200(asmadmin),1201(asmdba),1202(asmoper)

[grid@racnode1 ~]$ DISPLAY=<your local workstation>:0.0
[grid@racnode1 ~]$ export DISPLAY

[grid@racnode1 ~]$ cd /home/grid/software/oracle/grid
[grid@racnode1 grid]$ ./runInstaller

Screen Name Response Screen Shot
Select Installation Option Select "Install and Configure Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster"
Select Installation Type Select "Advanced Installation"
Select Product Languages Make the appropriate selection(s) for your environment.
Grid Plug and Play Information Instructions on how to configure Grid Naming Service (GNS) is beyond the scope of this article. Un-check the option to "Configure GNS".

Cluster Name SCAN Name SCAN Port
racnode-cluster racnode-cluster-scan 1521

After clicking [Next], the OUI will attempt to validate the SCAN information:

Cluster Node Information Use this screen to add the node racnode2 to the cluster and to configure SSH connectivity.

Click the [Add] button to add "racnode2.idevelopment.info" and its virtual IP address "racnode2-vip.idevelopment.info" according to the table below:

Public Node Name Virtual Host Name
racnode1.idevelopment.info racnode1-vip.idevelopment.info
racnode2.idevelopment.info racnode2-vip.idevelopment.info

Next, click the [SSH Connectivity] button. Enter the "OS Password" for the grid user and click the [Setup] button. This will start the "SSH Connectivity" configuration process:

After the SSH configuration process successfully completes, acknowledge the dialog box.

Finish off this screen by clicking the [Test] button to verify passwordless SSH connectivity.
Specify Network Interface Usage Identify the network interface to be used for the "Public" and "Private" network. Make any changes necessary to match the values in the table below:

Interface Name Subnet Interface Type
eth0 192.168.1.0 Public
eth1 192.168.2.0 Private
Storage Option Information Select "Automatic Storage Management (ASM)".
Create ASM Disk Group Create an ASM Disk Group that will be used to store the Oracle Clusterware files according to the values in the table below:

Disk Group Name Redundancy Disk Path
CRS External ORCL:CRSVOL1
Specify ASM Password For the purpose of this article, I choose to "Use same passwords for these accounts".
Failure Isolation Support Configuring Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is beyond the scope of this article. Select "Do not use Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)".
Privileged Operating System Groups This article makes use of role-based administrative privileges and high granularity in specifying Automatic Storage Management roles using a Job Role Separation configuration.

Make any changes necessary to match the values in the table below:

OSDBA for ASM OSOPER for ASM OSASM
asmdba asmoper asmadmin
Specify Installation Location Set the "Oracle Base" ($GRID_BASE) and "Software Location" ($GRID_HOME) for the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation:

   Oracle Base: /u01/app/grid
   Software Location: /u01/app/11.2.0/grid
Create Inventory Since this is the first install on the host, you will need to create the Oracle Inventory. Use the default values provided by the OUI:

   Inventory Directory: /u01/app/oraInventory
   oraInventory Group Name: oinstall
Prerequisite Checks The installer will run through a series of checks to determine if both Oracle RAC nodes meet the minimum requirements for installing and configuring the Oracle Clusterware and Automatic Storage Management software.

Starting with Oracle Clusterware 11g Release 2 (11.2), if any check fails, the installer (OUI) will create shell script programs called fixup scripts to resolve many incomplete system configuration requirements. If OUI detects an incomplete task that is marked "fixable", then you can easily fix the issue by generating the fixup script by clicking the [Fix & Check Again] button.

The fixup script is generated during installation. You will be prompted to run the script as root in a separate terminal session. When you run the script, it raises kernel values to required minimums, if necessary, and completes other operating system configuration tasks.

If all prerequisite checks pass (as was the case for my install), the OUI continues to the Summary screen.
Summary Click [Finish] to start the installation.
Setup The installer performs the Oracle Grid Infrastructure setup process on both Oracle RAC nodes.
Execute Configuration scripts After the installation completes, you will be prompted to run the /u01/app/oraInventory/orainstRoot.sh and /u01/app/11.2.0/grid/root.sh scripts. Open a new console window on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster, (starting with the node you are performing the install from), as the root user account.

Run the orainstRoot.sh script on both nodes in the RAC cluster: 
[root@racnode1 ~]# /u01/app/oraInventory/orainstRoot.sh
    
[root@racnode2 ~]# /u01/app/oraInventory/orainstRoot.sh

Within the same new console window on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster, (starting with the node you are performing the install from), stay logged in as the root user account. Run the root.sh script on both nodes in the RAC cluster one at a time starting with the node you are performing the install from: 
[root@racnode1 ~]# /u01/app/11.2.0/grid/root.sh
    
[root@racnode2 ~]# /u01/app/11.2.0/grid/root.sh

The root.sh script can take several minutes to run. When running root.sh on the last node, you will receive output similar to the following which signifies a successful install: 
...
The inventory pointer is located at /etc/oraInst.loc
The inventory is located at /u01/app/oraInventory
'UpdateNodeList' was successful.

Go back to OUI and acknowledge the "Execute Configuration scripts" dialog window.
Configure Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster The installer will run configuration assistants for Oracle Net Services (NETCA), Automatic Storage Management (ASMCA), and Oracle Private Interconnect (VIPCA). The final step performed by OUI is to run the Cluster Verification Utility (CVU).  
Finish At the end of the installation, click the [Close] button to exit the OUI.

 

After installation is complete, do not manually remove or run cron jobs that remove /tmp/.oracle or /var/tmp/.oracle or its files while Oracle Clusterware is up. If you remove these files, then Oracle Clusterware could encounter intermittent hangs and you will encounter error:

CRS-0184: Cannot communicate with the CRS daemon

Post-installation Tasks for Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster

Perform the following post installation procedures on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster.

Verify Oracle Clusterware Installation

After the installation of Oracle Grid Infrastructure, you should run through several tests to verify the install was successful. Run the following commands on both nodes in the RAC cluster as the grid user.

Check CRS Status


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ crsctl check crs
CRS-4638: Oracle High Availability Services is online
CRS-4537: Cluster Ready Services is online
CRS-4529: Cluster Synchronization Services is online
CRS-4533: Event Manager is online

Check Clusterware Resources


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ crs_stat -t -v
Name           Type           R/RA   F/FT   Target    State     Host
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ora.CRS.dg     ora....up.type 0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....ER.lsnr ora....er.type 0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....N1.lsnr ora....er.type 0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora....N2.lsnr ora....er.type 0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....N3.lsnr ora....er.type 0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.asm        ora.asm.type   0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.eons       ora.eons.type  0/3    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.gsd        ora.gsd.type   0/5    0/     OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora....network ora....rk.type 0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.oc4j       ora.oc4j.type  0/5    0/0    OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora.ons        ora.ons.type   0/3    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....SM1.asm application    0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....E1.lsnr application    0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....de1.gsd application    0/5    0/0    OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora....de1.ons application    0/3    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....de1.vip ora....t1.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....SM2.asm application    0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora....E2.lsnr application    0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora....de2.gsd application    0/5    0/0    OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora....de2.ons application    0/3    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora....de2.vip ora....t1.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora.scan1.vip  ora....ip.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora.scan2.vip  ora....ip.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.scan3.vip  ora....ip.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1

 

The crs_stat command is deprecated in Oracle Clusterware 11g Release 2 (11.2).

Check Cluster Nodes


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ olsnodes -n
racnode1        1
racnode2        2

Check Oracle TNS Listener Process on Both Nodes


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ ps -ef | grep lsnr | grep -v 'grep' | grep -v 'ocfs' | awk '{print $9}'
LISTENER_SCAN2
LISTENER_SCAN3
LISTENER

[grid@racnode2 ~]$ ps -ef | grep lsnr | grep -v 'grep' | grep -v 'ocfs' | awk '{print $9}'
LISTENER_SCAN1
LISTENER

Confirming Oracle ASM Function for Oracle Clusterware Files

If you installed the OCR and voting disk files on Oracle ASM, then use the following command syntax as the Grid Infrastructure installation owner to confirm that your Oracle ASM installation is running. 


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl status asm -a
ASM is running on racnode1,racnode2
ASM is enabled.

Check Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR)


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ ocrcheck
Status of Oracle Cluster Registry is as follows :
         Version                  :          3
         Total space (kbytes)     :     262120
         Used space (kbytes)      :       2332
         Available space (kbytes) :     259788
         ID                       : 1559468462
         Device/File Name         :       +CRS
                                    Device/File integrity check succeeded

                                    Device/File not configured

                                    Device/File not configured

                                    Device/File not configured

                                    Device/File not configured

         Cluster registry integrity check succeeded

         Logical corruption check bypassed due to non-privileged user

Check Voting Disk


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ crsctl query css votedisk
##  STATE    File Universal Id                File Name Disk group
--  -----    -----------------                --------- ---------
 1. ONLINE   05592be032644f19bf2b50a929efe843 (ORCL:CRSVOL1) [CRS]
Located 1 voting disk(s).

 

To manage Oracle ASM or Oracle Net 11g Release 2 (11.2) or later installations, use the srvctl binary in the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home for a cluster (Grid home). When we install Oracle Real Application Clusters (the Oracle database software), you cannot use the srvctl binary in the database home to manage Oracle ASM or Oracle Net which reside in the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home.

Check SCAN Resolution

After installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure, verify the SCAN virtual IP. As shown in the output below, the scan address is resolved to 3 different IP addresses: 


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ dig racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info

; <<>> DiG 9.3.6-P1-RedHat-9.3.6-4.P1.el5_4.2 <<>> racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 37366
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info.        IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info. 86400 IN A 192.168.1.187
racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info. 86400 IN A 192.168.1.188
racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info. 86400 IN A 192.168.1.189

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
idevelopment.info.      86400   IN      NS      openfiler1.idevelopment.info.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
openfiler1.idevelopment.info. 86400 IN  A       192.168.1.195

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.195#53(192.168.1.195)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov  8 16:54:02 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 145

Voting Disk Management

In prior releases, it was highly recommended to back up the voting disk using the dd command after installing the Oracle Clusterware software. With Oracle Clusterware release 11.2 and later, backing up and restoring a voting disk using the dd is not supported and may result in the loss of the voting disk.

Backing up the voting disks in Oracle Clusterware 11g Release 2 is no longer required. The voting disk data is automatically backed up in OCR as part of any configuration change and is automatically restored to any voting disk added.

To learn more about managing the voting disks, Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR), and Oracle Local Registry (OLR), please refer to the Oracle Clusterware Administration and Deployment Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2).

Back Up the root.sh Script

Oracle recommends that you back up the root.sh script after you complete an installation. If you install other products in the same Oracle home directory, then the installer updates the contents of the existing root.sh script during the installation. If you require information contained in the original root.sh script, then you can recover it from the root.sh file copy.

Back up the root.sh file on both Oracle RAC nodes as root: 


[root@racnode1 ~]# cd /u01/app/11.2.0/grid
[root@racnode1 grid]# cp root.sh ~/root.sh.racnode1.AFTER_INSTALL_NOV-08-2010
  
  
[root@racnode2 ~]# cd /u01/app/11.2.0/grid
[root@racnode2 grid]# cp root.sh ~/root.sh.racnode2.AFTER_INSTALL_NOV-08-2010

Install Cluster Health Management Software - (Optional)

To address troubleshooting issues, Oracle recommends that you install Instantaneous Problem Detection OS Tool (IPD/OS) if you are using Linux kernel 2.6.9 or higher. This article was written using RHEL/CentOS 5.5 which uses the 2.6.18 kernel: 


[root@racnode1 ~]# uname -a
Linux racnode1 2.6.18-194.el5 #1 SMP Fri Apr 2 14:58:14 EDT 2010 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

If you are using a Linux kernel earlier than 2.6.9, then you would use OS Watcher and RACDDT which is available through the My Oracle Support website (formerly Metalink).

The IPD/OS tool is designed to detect and analyze operating system and cluster resource-related degradation and failures. The tool can provide better explanations for many issues that occur in clusters where Oracle Clusterware, Oracle ASM and Oracle RAC are running, such as node evictions. It tracks the operating system resource consumption at each node, process, and device level continuously. It collects and analyzes cluster-wide data. In real time mode, when thresholds are reached, an alert is shown to the operator. For root cause analysis, historical data can be replayed to understand what was happening at the time of failure.

Instructions for installing and configuring the IPD/OS tool is beyond the scope of this article and will not be discussed. You can download the IPD/OS tool along with a detailed installation and configuration guide at the following URL:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/clustering/ipd_download_homepage.html

Create ASM Disk Groups for Data and Fast Recovery Area

Run the ASM Configuration Assistant (asmca) as the grid user from only one node in the cluster (racnode1) to create the additional ASM disk groups which will be used to create the cluster database.

During the installation of Oracle Grid Infrastructure, we configured one ASM disk group named +CRS which was used to store the Oracle clusterware files (OCR and voting disk).

In this section, we will create two additional ASM disk groups using the ASM Configuration Assistant (asmca). These new ASM disk groups will be used later in this guide when creating the cluster database.

The first ASM disk group will be named +RACDB_DATA and will be used to store all Oracle physical database files (data, online redo logs, control files, archived redo logs). A second ASM disk group will be created for the Fast Recovery Area named +FRA.

Verify Terminal Shell Environment

Before starting the ASM Configuration Assistant, log in to racnode1 as the owner of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software which for this article is grid. Next, if you are using a remote client to connect to the Oracle RAC node performing the installation (SSH or Telnet to racnode1 from a workstation configured with an X Server), verify your X11 display server settings which were described in the section Logging In to a Remote System Using X Terminal.

Create Additional ASM Disk Groups using ASMCA

Perform the following tasks as the grid user to create two additional ASM disk groups: 


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ asmca &

Screen Name Response Screen Shot
Disk Groups From the "Disk Groups" tab, click the [Create] button.
Create Disk Group The "Create Disk Group" dialog should show two of the ASMLib volumes we created earlier in this guide.

If the ASMLib volumes we created earlier in this article do not show up in the "Select Member Disks" window as eligible (ORCL:DATAVOL1 and ORCL:FRAVOL1) then click on the [Change Disk Discovery Path] button and input "ORCL:*".

When creating the "Data" ASM disk group, use "RACDB_DATA" for the "Disk Group Name". In the "Redundancy" section, choose "External (None)". Finally, check the ASMLib volume "ORCL:DATAVOL1" in the "Select Member Disks" section.

After verifying all values in this dialog are correct, click the [OK] button.
Disk Groups After creating the first ASM disk group, you will be returned to the initial dialog. Click the [Create] button again to create the second ASM disk group.
Create Disk Group The "Create Disk Group" dialog should now show the final remaining ASMLib volume.

When creating the "Fast Recovery Area" disk group, use "FRA" for the "Disk Group Name". In the "Redundancy" section, choose "External (None)". Finally, check the ASMLib volume "ORCL:FRAVOL1" in the "Select Member Disks" section.

After verifying all values in this dialog are correct, click the [OK] button.
Disk Groups Exit the ASM Configuration Assistant by clicking the [Exit] button.

Install Oracle Database 11g with Oracle Real Application Clusters

Perform the Oracle Database software installation from only one of the Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster (racnode1). The Oracle Database software will be installed to both of the Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster by the Oracle Universal Installer using SSH.

Now that the Grid Infrastructure software is functional, you can install the Oracle Database software on the one node in your cluster (racnode1) as the oracle user. OUI copies the binary files from this node to all the other node in the cluster during the installation process.

For the purpose of this guide, we will forgo the "Create Database" option when installing the Oracle Database software. The cluster database will be created later in this guide using the Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) after all installs have been completed.

Verify Terminal Shell Environment

Before starting the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI), log in to racnode1 as the owner of the Oracle Database software which for this article is oracle. Next, if you are using a remote client to connect to the Oracle RAC node performing the installation (SSH or Telnet to racnode1 from a workstation configured with an X Server), verify your X11 display server settings which were described in the section Logging In to a Remote System Using X Terminal.

Install Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Software

Perform the following tasks as the oracle user to install the Oracle Database software: 


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ id
uid=1101(oracle) gid=1000(oinstall) groups=1000(oinstall),1201(asmdba),1300(dba),1301(oper)

[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ DISPLAY=<your local workstation>:0.0
[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ export DISPLAY

[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ cd /home/oracle/software/oracle/database
[oracle@racnode1 database]$ ./runInstaller

Screen Name Response Screen Shot
Configure Security Updates For the purpose of this example, un-check the security updates check-box and click the [Next] button to continue. Acknowledge the warning dialog indicating you have not provided an email address by clicking the [Yes] button.
Installation Option Select "Install database software only".
Grid Options Select the "Real Application Clusters database installation" radio button (default) and verify that both Oracle RAC nodes are checked in the "Node Name" window.

Next, click the [SSH Connectivity] button. Enter the "OS Password" for the oracle user and click the [Setup] button. This will start the "SSH Connectivity" configuration process:

After the SSH configuration process successfully completes, acknowledge the dialog box.

Finish off this screen by clicking the [Test] button to verify passwordless SSH connectivity.
Product Languages Make the appropriate selection(s) for your environment.
Database Edition Select "Enterprise Edition".
Installation Location Specify the Oracle base and Software location (Oracle home) as follows:

   Oracle Base: /u01/app/oracle
   Software Location: /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1
Operating System Groups Select the OS groups to be used for the SYSDBA and SYSOPER privileges:

   Database Administrator (OSDBA) Group: dba
   Database Operator (OSOPER) Group: oper
Prerequisite Checks The installer will run through a series of checks to determine if both Oracle RAC nodes meet the minimum requirements for installing and configuring the Oracle Database software.

Starting with 11g Release 2 (11.2), if any checks fail, the installer (OUI) will create shell script programs called fixup scripts to resolve many incomplete system configuration requirements. If OUI detects an incomplete task that is marked "fixable", then you can easily fix the issue by generating the fixup script by clicking the [Fix & Check Again] button.

The fixup script is generated during installation. You will be prompted to run the script as root in a separate terminal session. When you run the script, it raises kernel values to required minimums, if necessary, and completes other operating system configuration tasks.

If all prerequisite checks pass (as was the case for my install), the OUI continues to the Summary screen.
Summary Click [Finish] to start the installation.
Install Product The installer performs the Oracle Database software installation process on both Oracle RAC nodes.
Execute Configuration scripts After the installation completes, you will be prompted to run the /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/root.sh script on both Oracle RAC nodes. Open a new console window on both Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster, (starting with the node you are performing the install from), as the root user account.

Run the root.sh script on all nodes in the RAC cluster: 
[root@racnode1 ~]# /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/root.sh
    
[root@racnode2 ~]# /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/root.sh

Go back to OUI and acknowledge the "Execute Configuration scripts" dialog window.
Finish At the end of the installation, click the [Close] button to exit the OUI.

Install Oracle Database 11g Examples (formerly Companion)

Perform the Oracle Database 11g Examples software installation from only one of the Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster (racnode1). The Oracle Database Examples software will be installed to both of Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster by the Oracle Universal Installer using SSH.

Now that the Oracle Database 11g software is installed, you have the option to install the Oracle Database 11g Examples. Like the Oracle Database software install, the Examples software is only installed from one node in your cluster (racnode1) as the oracle user. OUI copies the binary files from this node to all the other node in the cluster during the installation process.

Verify Terminal Shell Environment

Before starting the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI), log in to racnode1 as the owner of the Oracle Database software which for this article is oracle. Next, if you are using a remote client to connect to the Oracle RAC node performing the installation (SSH or Telnet to racnode1 from a workstation configured with an X Server), verify your X11 display server settings which were described in the section Logging In to a Remote System Using X Terminal.

Install Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Examples

Perform the following tasks as the oracle user to install the Oracle Database Examples: 


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ cd /home/oracle/software/oracle/examples
[oracle@racnode1 examples]$ ./runInstaller

Screen Name Response Screen Shot
Installation Location Specify the Oracle base and Software location (Oracle home) as follows:

   Oracle Base: /u01/app/oracle
   Software Location: /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1
Prerequisite Checks The installer will run through a series of checks to determine if both Oracle RAC nodes meet the minimum requirements for installing and configuring the Oracle Database Examples software.

Starting with 11g Release 2 (11.2), if any checks fail, the installer (OUI) will create shell script programs called fixup scripts to resolve many incomplete system configuration requirements. If OUI detects an incomplete task that is marked "fixable", then you can easily fix the issue by generating the fixup script by clicking the [Fix & Check Again] button.

The fixup script is generated during installation. You will be prompted to run the script as root in a separate terminal session. When you run the script, it raises kernel values to required minimums, if necessary, and completes other operating system configuration tasks.

If all prerequisite checks pass (as was the case for my install), the OUI continues to the Summary screen.
Summary Click [Finish] to start the installation.
Install Product The installer performs the Oracle Database Examples software installation process on both Oracle RAC nodes.
Finish At the end of the installation, click the [Close] button to exit the OUI.

Create the Oracle Cluster Database

The database creation process should only be performed from one of the Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster (racnode1).

Use the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) to create the cluster database.

Before executing the DBCA, make certain that the $ORACLE_HOME and $PATH are set appropriately for the $ORACLE_BASE/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1 environment. Setting environment variables in the login script for the oracle user account was covered in the section "Create Login Script for the oracle User Account".

You should also verify that all services we have installed up to this point (Oracle TNS listener, Oracle Clusterware processes, etc.) are running on both Oracle RAC nodes before attempting to start the cluster database creation process: 


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ su - grid -c "crs_stat -t -v"
Password: *********
Name           Type           R/RA   F/FT   Target    State     Host
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ora.CRS.dg     ora....up.type 0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.FRA.dg     ora....up.type 0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....ER.lsnr ora....er.type 0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....N1.lsnr ora....er.type 0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora....N2.lsnr ora....er.type 0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....N3.lsnr ora....er.type 0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....DATA.dg ora....up.type 0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.asm        ora.asm.type   0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.eons       ora.eons.type  0/3    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.gsd        ora.gsd.type   0/5    0/     OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora....network ora....rk.type 0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.oc4j       ora.oc4j.type  0/5    0/0    OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora.ons        ora.ons.type   0/3    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....SM1.asm application    0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....E1.lsnr application    0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....de1.gsd application    0/5    0/0    OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora....de1.ons application    0/3    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....de1.vip ora....t1.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....SM2.asm application    0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora....E2.lsnr application    0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora....de2.gsd application    0/5    0/0    OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora....de2.ons application    0/3    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora....de2.vip ora....t1.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora.scan1.vip  ora....ip.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora.scan2.vip  ora....ip.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.scan3.vip  ora....ip.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1


[oracle@racnode2 ~]$ su - grid -c "crs_stat -t -v"
Password: *********
Name           Type           R/RA   F/FT   Target    State     Host
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ora.CRS.dg     ora....up.type 0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.FRA.dg     ora....up.type 0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....ER.lsnr ora....er.type 0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....N1.lsnr ora....er.type 0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora....N2.lsnr ora....er.type 0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....N3.lsnr ora....er.type 0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....DATA.dg ora....up.type 0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.asm        ora.asm.type   0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.eons       ora.eons.type  0/3    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.gsd        ora.gsd.type   0/5    0/     OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora....network ora....rk.type 0/5    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.oc4j       ora.oc4j.type  0/5    0/0    OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora.ons        ora.ons.type   0/3    0/     ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....SM1.asm application    0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....E1.lsnr application    0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....de1.gsd application    0/5    0/0    OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora....de1.ons application    0/3    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....de1.vip ora....t1.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora....SM2.asm application    0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora....E2.lsnr application    0/5    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora....de2.gsd application    0/5    0/0    OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora....de2.ons application    0/3    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora....de2.vip ora....t1.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora.scan1.vip  ora....ip.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2
ora.scan2.vip  ora....ip.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1
ora.scan3.vip  ora....ip.type 0/0    0/0    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1

Verify Terminal Shell Environment

Before starting the Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA), log in to racnode1 as the owner of the Oracle Database software which for this article is oracle. Next, if you are using a remote client to connect to the Oracle RAC node performing the installation (SSH or Telnet to racnode1 from a workstation configured with an X Server), verify your X11 display server settings which were described in the section Logging In to a Remote System Using X Terminal.

Create the cluster database

To start the database creation process, run the following as the oracle user: 


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ dbca &

Screen Name Response Screen Shot
Welcome Screen Select Oracle Real Application Clusters database.
Operations Select Create a Database.
Database Templates Select Custom Database.
Database Identification Cluster database configuration.
   Configuration Type: Admin-Managed

Database naming.

   Global Database Name: racdb.idevelopment.info
   SID Prefix: racdb

Note: I used idevelopment.info for the database domain. You may use any database domain. Keep in mind that this domain does not have to be a valid DNS domain.

Node Selection.
Click the [Select All] button to select all servers: racnode1 and racnode2.
Management Options Leave the default options here, which is to Configure Enterprise Manager / Configure Database Control for local management.
Database Credentials I selected to Use the Same Administrative Password for All Accounts. Enter the password (twice) and make sure the password does not start with a digit number.
Database File Locations Specify storage type and locations for database files.

   Storage Type: Automatic Storage Management (ASM)
   Storage Locations: Use Oracle-Managed Files
     Database Area: +RACDB_DATA
Specify ASMSNMP Password Specify the ASMSNMP password for the ASM instance.
Recovery Configuration Check the option for Specify Fast Recovery Area.

For the Fast Recovery Area, click the [Browse] button and select the disk group name +FRA.

My disk group has a size of about 33GB. When defining the Fast Recovery Area size, use the entire volume minus 10% for overhead — (33-10%=30 GB). I used a Fast Recovery Area Size of 30 GB (30413 MB).
Database Content I left all of the Database Components (and destination tablespaces) set to their default value although it is perfectly OK to select the Sample Schemas. This option is available since we installed the Oracle Database 11g Examples.
Initialization Parameters Change any parameters for your environment. I left them all at their default settings.
Database Storage Change any parameters for your environment. I left them all at their default settings.
Creation Options Keep the default option Create Database selected. I also always select to Generate Database Creation Scripts. Click Finish to start the database creation process. After acknowledging the database creation report and script generation dialog, the database creation will start.

Click OK on the "Summary" screen.
End of Database Creation At the end of the database creation, exit from the DBCA.

When the DBCA has completed, you will have a fully functional Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 cluster running!

Create New Services - (Optional)

Optionally, add any services to the new cluster database and assign them to instance(s). 


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl add service -d racdb -s racdbsvc.idevelopment.info -r racdb1,racdb2

[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl start service -d racdb

[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl status database -d racdb -v
Instance racdb1 is running on node racnode1 with online services racdbsvc.idevelopment.info. Instance status: Open.
Instance racdb2 is running on node racnode2 with online services racdbsvc.idevelopment.info. Instance status: Open.

Verify cluster database is Open


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ su - grid -c "crsctl status resource -w \"TYPE co 'ora'\" -t"
Password: *********
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME           TARGET  STATE        SERVER                   STATE_DETAILS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local Resources
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ora.CRS.dg
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode2
ora.DOCS.dg
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode2
ora.FRA.dg
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode2
ora.LISTENER.lsnr
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode2
ora.RACDB_DATA.dg
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode2
ora.asm
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1                 Started
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode2                 Started
ora.gsd
               OFFLINE OFFLINE      racnode1
               OFFLINE OFFLINE      racnode2
ora.net1.network
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode2
ora.ons
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode2
ora.registry.acfs
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
               ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cluster Resources
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ora.LISTENER_SCAN1.lsnr
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode2
ora.LISTENER_SCAN2.lsnr
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
ora.LISTENER_SCAN3.lsnr
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
ora.cvu
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
ora.oc4j
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
ora.racdb.db
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1                 Open
      2        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode2                 Open
ora.racdb.racdbsvc.idevelopment.info.svc
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
      2        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode2
ora.racnode1.vip
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
ora.racnode2.vip
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode2
ora.scan1.vip
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode2
ora.scan2.vip
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1
ora.scan3.vip
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       racnode1

Oracle Enterprise Manager

If you configured Oracle Enterprise Manager (Database Control), it can be used to view the database configuration and current status of the database.

The URL for this example is: https://racnode1.idevelopment.info:1158/em 


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ emctl status dbconsole
Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Database Control Release 11.2.0.1.0
Copyright (c) 1996, 2009 Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.
https://racnode1.idevelopment.info:1158/em/console/aboutApplication
Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g is running.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Logs are generated in directory /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/racnode1_racdb/sysman/log

    

Figure 18: Oracle Enterprise Manager - (Database Console)

Post Database Creation Tasks - (Optional)

This section offers several optional tasks that can be performed on your new Oracle 11g environment in order to enhance availability as well as database management.

Re-compile Invalid Objects

Run the utlrp.sql script to recompile all invalid PL/SQL packages now instead of when the packages are accessed for the first time. This step is optional but recommended. 


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL> @?/rdbms/admin/utlrp.sql

Enabling Archive Logs in a RAC Environment

Whether a single instance or cluster database, Oracle tracks and logs all changes to database blocks in online redolog files. In an Oracle RAC environment, each instance will have its own set of online redolog files known as a thread. Each Oracle instance will use its group of online redologs in a circular manner. Once an online redolog fills, Oracle moves to the next one. If the database is in "Archive Log Mode", Oracle will make a copy of the online redo log before it gets reused. A thread must contain at least two online redologs (or online redolog groups). The same holds true for a single instance configuration. The single instance must contain at least two online redologs (or online redolog groups).

The size of an online redolog file is completely independent of another instance's' redolog size. Although in most configurations the size is the same, it may be different depending on the workload and backup / recovery considerations for each node. It is also worth mentioning that each instance has exclusive write access to its own online redolog files. In a correctly configured RAC environment, however, each instance can read another instance's current online redolog file to perform instance recovery if that instance was terminated abnormally. It is therefore a requirement that online redo logs be located on a shared storage device (just like the database files).

As already mentioned, Oracle writes to its online redolog files in a circular manner. When the current online redolog fills, Oracle will switch to the next one. To facilitate media recovery, Oracle allows the DBA to put the database into "Archive Log Mode" which makes a copy of the online redolog after it fills (and before it gets reused). This is a process known as archiving.

The Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) allows users to configure a new database to be in archive log mode within the Recovery Configuration section; however most DBA's opt to bypass this option during initial database creation. In cases like this where the database is in no archive log mode, it is a simple task to put the database into archive log mode. Note however that this will require a short database outage. From one of the nodes in the Oracle RAC configuration, use the following tasks to put a RAC enabled database into archive log mode. For the purpose of this article, I will use the node racnode1 which runs the racdb1 instance:

  1. Log in to one of the nodes (i.e. racnode1) as oracle and disable the cluster instance parameter by setting cluster_database to FALSE from the current instance: 


    [oracle@racnode1 ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL> alter system set cluster_database=false scope=spfile sid='racdb1';

System altered.

  2. Shutdown all instances accessing the cluster database as the oracle user: 


    [oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl stop database -d racdb

  3. Using the local instance, mount the database: 


    [oracle@racnode1 ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.1.0 Production on Sat Nov 21 19:26:47 2009

Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connected to an idle instance.

SQL> startup mount
ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area 1653518336 bytes
Fixed Size                  2213896 bytes
Variable Size            1073743864 bytes
Database Buffers          570425344 bytes
Redo Buffers                7135232 bytes

  4. Enable archiving: 


    SQL> alter database archivelog;

Database altered.

  5. Re-enable support for clustering by modifying the instance parameter cluster_database to TRUE from the current instance: 


    SQL> alter system set cluster_database=true scope=spfile sid='racdb1';

System altered.

  6. Shutdown the local instance: 


    SQL> shutdown immediate

ORA-01109: database not open


Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.

  7. Bring all instances back up as the oracle account using srvctl: 


    [oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl start database -d racdb

  8. Log in to the local instance and verify Archive Log Mode is enabled: 


    [oracle@racnode1 ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.1.0 Production on Mon Nov 8 20:07:48 2010

Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle.  All rights reserved.


Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, Real Application Clusters, Automatic Storage Management, OLAP,
Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL> archive log list
Database log mode              Archive Mode
Automatic archival             Enabled
Archive destination            USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST
Oldest online log sequence     68
Next log sequence to archive   69
Current log sequence           69

After enabling Archive Log Mode, each instance in the RAC configuration can automatically archive redologs!

Download and Install Custom Oracle Database Scripts

DBA's rely on Oracle's data dictionary views and dynamic performance views in order to support and better manage their databases. Although these views provide a simple and easy mechanism to query critical information regarding the database, it helps to have a collection of accurate and readily available SQL scripts to query these views.

In this section you will download and install a collection of Oracle DBA scripts that can be used to manage many aspects of your database including space management, performance, backups, security, and session management. The DBA Scripts Archive for Oracle can be downloaded using the following link http://www.idevelopment.info/data/Oracle/DBA_scripts/dba_scripts_archive_Oracle.zip. As the oracle user account, download the dba_scripts_archive_Oracle.zip archive to the $ORACLE_BASE directory of each node in the cluster. For the purpose of this example, the dba_scripts_archive_Oracle.zip archive will be copied to /u01/app/oracle. Next, unzip the archive file to the $ORACLE_BASE directory.

For example, perform the following on both nodes in the Oracle RAC cluster as the oracle user account: 


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ mv dba_scripts_archive_Oracle.zip /u01/app/oracle
[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ cd /u01/app/oracle
[oracle@racnode1 oracle]$ unzip dba_scripts_archive_Oracle.zip

The final step is to verify (or set) the appropriate environment variable for the current UNIX shell to ensure the Oracle SQL scripts can be run from within SQL*Plus while in any directory. For UNIX, verify the following environment variable is set and included in your login shell script: 


ORACLE_PATH=$ORACLE_BASE/dba_scripts/sql:.:$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin
export ORACLE_PATH

 

The ORACLE_PATH environment variable should already be set in the .bash_profile login script that was created in the section Create Login Script for the oracle User Account.

Now that the DBA Scripts Archive for Oracle has been unzipped and the UNIX environment variable ($ORACLE_PATH) has been set to the appropriate directory, you should now be able to run any of the SQL scripts in the $ORACLE_BASE/dba_scripts/sql while logged into SQL*Plus from any directory. For example, to query tablespace information while logged into the Oracle database as a DBA user: 


SQL> @dba_tablespaces

Status  Tablespace Name   TS Type      Ext. Mgt.  Seg. Mgt.  Tablespace Size  Used (in bytes) Pct. Used
------- ----------------- ------------ ---------- --------- ---------------- ---------------- ---------
ONLINE  SYSAUX            PERMANENT    LOCAL      AUTO           629,145,600      511,967,232        81
ONLINE  UNDOTBS1          UNDO         LOCAL      MANUAL       1,059,061,760      948,043,776        90
ONLINE  USERS             PERMANENT    LOCAL      AUTO             5,242,880        1,048,576        20
ONLINE  SYSTEM            PERMANENT    LOCAL      MANUAL         734,003,200      703,135,744        96
ONLINE  EXAMPLE           PERMANENT    LOCAL      AUTO           157,286,400       85,131,264        54
ONLINE  UNDOTBS2          UNDO         LOCAL      MANUAL         209,715,200       20,840,448        10
ONLINE  TEMP              TEMPORARY    LOCAL      MANUAL          75,497,472       66,060,288        88
                                                            ---------------- ---------------- ---------
avg                                                                                                  63
sum                                                            2,869,952,512    2,336,227,328

7 rows selected.

To obtain a list of all available Oracle DBA scripts while logged into SQL*Plus, run the help.sql script. 


SQL> @help.sql

========================================
Automatic Shared Memory Management
========================================
asmm_components.sql

========================================
Automatic Storage Management
========================================
asm_alias.sql
asm_clients.sql
asm_diskgroups.sql
asm_disks.sql
asm_disks_perf.sql
asm_drop_files.sql
asm_files.sql
asm_files2.sql
asm_templates.sql

< --- SNIP --- >
 
perf_top_sql_by_buffer_gets.sql
perf_top_sql_by_disk_reads.sql

========================================
Workspace Manager
========================================
wm_create_workspace.sql
wm_disable_versioning.sql
wm_enable_versioning.sql
wm_freeze_workspace.sql
wm_get_workspace.sql
wm_goto_workspace.sql
wm_merge_workspace.sql
wm_refresh_workspace.sql
wm_remove_workspace.sql
wm_unfreeze_workspace.sql
wm_workspaces.sql

Create / Alter Tablespaces

When creating the cluster database, we left all tablespaces set to their default size. If you are using a large drive for the shared storage, you may want to make a sizable testing database.

Below are several optional SQL commands for modifying and creating all tablespaces for the test database. Please keep in mind that the database file names (OMF files) used in this example may differ from what the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) creates for your environment. When working through this section, substitute the data file names that were created in your environment where appropriate. The following query can be used to determine the file names for your environment: 


SQL> select tablespace_name, file_name
  2  from dba_data_files
  3  union
  4  select tablespace_name, file_name
  5  from dba_temp_files;

TABLESPACE_NAME     FILE_NAME
--------------- --------------------------------------------------
EXAMPLE         +RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/example.263.703530435
SYSAUX          +RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/sysaux.260.703530411
SYSTEM          +RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/system.259.703530397
TEMP            +RACDB_DATA/racdb/tempfile/temp.262.703530429
UNDOTBS1        +RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/undotbs1.261.703530423
UNDOTBS2        +RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/undotbs2.264.703530441
USERS           +RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/users.265.703530447

7 rows selected.


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ sqlplus "/ as sysdba"

SQL> create user scott identified by tiger default tablespace users;

User created.

SQL> grant dba, resource, connect to scott;

Grant succeeded.

SQL> alter database datafile '+RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/users.265.703530447' resize 1024m;

Database altered.

SQL> alter tablespace users add datafile '+RACDB_DATA' size 1024m autoextend off;

Tablespace altered.

SQL> create tablespace indx datafile '+RACDB_DATA' size 1024m
  2  autoextend on next 100m maxsize unlimited
  3  extent management local autoallocate
  4  segment space management auto;

Tablespace created.

SQL> alter database datafile '+RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/system.259.703530397' resize 1024m;

Database altered.

SQL> alter database datafile '+RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/sysaux.260.703530411' resize 1024m;

Database altered.

SQL> alter database datafile '+RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/undotbs1.261.703530423' resize 1024m;

Database altered.

SQL> alter database datafile '+RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/undotbs2.264.703530441' resize 1024m;

Database altered.

SQL> alter database tempfile '+RACDB_DATA/racdb/tempfile/temp.262.703530429' resize 1024m;

Database altered.

Here is a snapshot of the tablespaces I have defined for my test database environment: 


Status  Tablespace Name   TS Type      Ext. Mgt.  Seg. Mgt.  Tablespace Size  Used (in bytes) Pct. Used
------- ----------------- ------------ ---------- --------- ---------------- ---------------- ---------
ONLINE  SYSAUX            PERMANENT    LOCAL      AUTO         1,073,741,824      512,098,304        48
ONLINE  UNDOTBS1          UNDO         LOCAL      MANUAL       1,073,741,824      948,043,776        88
ONLINE  USERS             PERMANENT    LOCAL      AUTO         2,147,483,648        2,097,152         0
ONLINE  SYSTEM            PERMANENT    LOCAL      MANUAL       1,073,741,824      703,201,280        65
ONLINE  EXAMPLE           PERMANENT    LOCAL      AUTO           157,286,400       85,131,264        54
ONLINE  INDX              PERMANENT    LOCAL      AUTO         1,073,741,824        1,048,576         0
ONLINE  UNDOTBS2          UNDO         LOCAL      MANUAL       1,073,741,824       20,840,448         2
ONLINE  TEMP              TEMPORARY    LOCAL      MANUAL       1,073,741,824       66,060,288         6
                                                            ---------------- ---------------- ---------
avg                                                                                                  33
sum                                                            8,747,220,992    2,338,521,088

8 rows selected.

Verify Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Database Configuration

The following Oracle Clusterware and Oracle RAC verification checks can be performed on any of the Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster. For the purpose of this article, I will only be performing checks from racnode1 as the oracle OS user.

Most of the checks described in this section use the Server Control Utility (SRVCTL) and can be run as either the oracle or grid OS user. There are five node-level tasks defined for SRVCTL:

Oracle also provides the Oracle Clusterware Control (CRSCTL) utility. CRSCTL is an interface between you and Oracle Clusterware, parsing and calling Oracle Clusterware APIs for Oracle Clusterware objects.

Oracle Clusterware 11g Release 2 (11.2) introduces cluster-aware commands with which you can perform check, start, and stop operations on the cluster. You can run these commands from any node in the cluster on another node in the cluster, or on all nodes in the cluster, depending on the operation.

You can use CRSCTL commands to perform several operations on Oracle Clusterware, such as:

For the purpose of this article (and this section), we will only make use of the "Checking the health of the cluster" operation which uses the Clusterized (Cluster Aware) Command: 


crsctl check cluster

Many subprograms and commands were deprecated in Oracle Clusterware 11g Release 2 (11.2):

Check the Health of the Cluster - (Clusterized Command)

Run as the grid user. 


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ crsctl check cluster
CRS-4537: Cluster Ready Services is online
CRS-4529: Cluster Synchronization Services is online
CRS-4533: Event Manager is online

All Oracle Instances - (Database Status)


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl status database -d racdb
Instance racdb1 is running on node racnode1
Instance racdb2 is running on node racnode2

Single Oracle Instance - (Status of Specific Instance)


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl status instance -d racdb -i racdb1
Instance racdb1 is running on node racnode1

Node Applications - (Status)


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl status nodeapps
VIP racnode1-vip is enabled
VIP racnode1-vip is running on node: racnode1
VIP racnode2-vip is enabled
VIP racnode2-vip is running on node: racnode2
Network is enabled
Network is running on node: racnode1
Network is running on node: racnode2
GSD is disabled
GSD is not running on node: racnode1
GSD is not running on node: racnode2
ONS is enabled
ONS daemon is running on node: racnode1
ONS daemon is running on node: racnode2
eONS is enabled
eONS daemon is running on node: racnode1
eONS daemon is running on node: racnode2

Node Applications - (Configuration)


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl config nodeapps
VIP exists.:racnode1
VIP exists.: /racnode1-vip/192.168.1.251/255.255.255.0/eth0
VIP exists.:racnode2
VIP exists.: /racnode2-vip/192.168.1.252/255.255.255.0/eth0
GSD exists.
ONS daemon exists. Local port 6100, remote port 6200
eONS daemon exists. Multicast port 24057, multicast IP address 234.194.43.168, listening port 2016

List all Configured Databases


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl config database
racdb

Database - (Configuration)


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl config database -d racdb -a
Database unique name: racdb
Database name: racdb
Oracle home: /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1
Oracle user: oracle
Spfile: +RACDB_DATA/racdb/spfileracdb.ora
Domain: idevelopment.info
Start options: open
Stop options: immediate
Database role: PRIMARY
Management policy: AUTOMATIC
Server pools: racdb
Database instances: racdb1,racdb2
Disk Groups: RACDB_DATA,FRA
Mount point paths:
Services: racdbsvc.idevelopment.info
Type: RAC
Database is enabled
Database is administrator managed

ASM - (Status)


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl status asm
ASM is running on racnode1,racnode2

ASM - (Configuration)


$ srvctl config asm -a
ASM home: /u01/app/11.2.0/grid
ASM listener: LISTENER
ASM is enabled.

TNS listener - (Status)


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl status listener
Listener LISTENER is enabled
Listener LISTENER is running on node(s): racnode1,racnode2

TNS listener - (Configuration)


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl config listener -a
Name: LISTENER
Network: 1, Owner: grid
Home: <CRS home>
  /u01/app/11.2.0/grid on node(s) racnode2,racnode1
End points: TCP:1521

SCAN - (Status)


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl status scan
SCAN VIP scan1 is enabled
SCAN VIP scan1 is running on node racnode2
SCAN VIP scan2 is enabled
SCAN VIP scan2 is running on node racnode1
SCAN VIP scan3 is enabled
SCAN VIP scan3 is running on node racnode1

SCAN - (Configuration)


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl config scan
SCAN name: racnode-cluster-scan, Network: 1/192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0/eth0
SCAN VIP name: scan1, IP: /racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info/192.168.1.188
SCAN VIP name: scan2, IP: /racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info/192.168.1.189
SCAN VIP name: scan3, IP: /racnode-cluster-scan.idevelopment.info/192.168.1.187

VIP - (Status of Specific Node)


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl status vip -n racnode1
VIP racnode1-vip is enabled
VIP racnode1-vip is running on node: racnode1
  
[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl status vip -n racnode2
VIP racnode2-vip is enabled
VIP racnode2-vip is running on node: racnode2

VIP - (Configuration of Specific Node)


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl config vip -n racnode1
VIP exists.:racnode1
VIP exists.: /racnode1-vip/192.168.1.251/255.255.255.0/eth0
  
[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl config vip -n racnode2
VIP exists.:racnode2
VIP exists.: /racnode2-vip/192.168.1.252/255.255.255.0/eth0

Configuration for Node Applications - (VIP, GSD, ONS, Listener)


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl config nodeapps -a -g -s -l
-l option has been deprecated and will be ignored.
VIP exists.:racnode1
VIP exists.: /racnode1-vip/192.168.1.251/255.255.255.0/eth0
VIP exists.:racnode2
VIP exists.: /racnode2-vip/192.168.1.252/255.255.255.0/eth0
GSD exists.
ONS daemon exists. Local port 6100, remote port 6200
Name: LISTENER
Network: 1, Owner: grid
Home: <CRS home>
  /u01/app/11.2.0/grid on node(s) racnode2,racnode1
End points: TCP:1521

Verifying Clock Synchronization across the Cluster Nodes


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ cluvfy comp clocksync -verbose
  
Verifying Clock Synchronization across the cluster nodes 

Checking if Clusterware is installed on all nodes...
Check of Clusterware install passed

Checking if CTSS Resource is running on all nodes...
Check: CTSS Resource running on all nodes
  Node Name                             Status                  
  ------------------------------------  ------------------------
  racnode1                              passed
Result: CTSS resource check passed


Querying CTSS for time offset on all nodes...
Result: Query of CTSS for time offset passed

Check CTSS state started...
Check: CTSS state
  Node Name                             State                   
  ------------------------------------  ------------------------
  racnode1                              Active                  
CTSS is in Active state. Proceeding with check of clock time offsets on all nodes...
Reference Time Offset Limit: 1000.0 msecs
Check: Reference Time Offset
  Node Name     Time Offset               Status                  
  ------------  ------------------------  ------------------------
  racnode1      0.0                       passed

Time offset is within the specified limits on the following set of nodes: 
"[racnode1]" 
Result: Check of clock time offsets passed


Oracle Cluster Time Synchronization Services check passed

Verification of Clock Synchronization across the cluster nodes was successful.

All running instances in the cluster - (SQL)


SELECT
    inst_id
  , instance_number inst_no
  , instance_name inst_name
  , parallel
  , status
  , database_status db_status
  , active_state state
  , host_name host
FROM gv$instance
ORDER BY inst_id;

 INST_ID  INST_NO INST_NAME  PAR STATUS  DB_STATUS    STATE     HOST
-------- -------- ---------- --- ------- ------------ --------- -------
       1        1 racdb1     YES OPEN    ACTIVE       NORMAL    racnode1
       2        2 racdb2     YES OPEN    ACTIVE       NORMAL    racnode2

All database files and the ASM disk group they reside in - (SQL)


select name from v$datafile
union
select member from v$logfile
union
select name from v$controlfile
union
select name from v$tempfile;

NAME
-------------------------------------------
+FRA/racdb/controlfile/current.256.703530389
+FRA/racdb/onlinelog/group_1.257.703530391
+FRA/racdb/onlinelog/group_2.258.703530393
+FRA/racdb/onlinelog/group_3.259.703533497
+FRA/racdb/onlinelog/group_4.260.703533499
+RACDB_DATA/racdb/controlfile/current.256.703530389
+RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/example.263.703530435
+RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/indx.270.703542993
+RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/sysaux.260.703530411
+RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/system.259.703530397
+RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/undotbs1.261.703530423
+RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/undotbs2.264.703530441
+RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/users.265.703530447
+RACDB_DATA/racdb/datafile/users.269.703542943
+RACDB_DATA/racdb/onlinelog/group_1.257.703530391
+RACDB_DATA/racdb/onlinelog/group_2.258.703530393
+RACDB_DATA/racdb/onlinelog/group_3.266.703533497
+RACDB_DATA/racdb/onlinelog/group_4.267.703533499
+RACDB_DATA/racdb/tempfile/temp.262.703530429

19 rows selected.

ASM Disk Volumes - (SQL)


SELECT path
FROM   v$asm_disk;

PATH
----------------------------------
ORCL:CRSVOL1
ORCL:DATAVOL1
ORCL:FRAVOL1

Starting / Stopping the Cluster

At this point, everything has been installed and configured for Oracle RAC 11g Release 2. Oracle Grid Infrastructure was installed by the grid user while the Oracle RAC software was installed by oracle. We also have a fully functional cluster database running named racdb.

After all of that hard work, you may ask, "OK, so how do I start and stop services?". If you have followed the instructions in this guide, all services, including Oracle Clusterware, ASM, network, SCAN, VIP, the Oracle Database, and so on should start automatically on each reboot of the Linux nodes.

There are times, however, when you might want to take down the Oracle services on a node for maintenance purposes and restart the Oracle Clusterware stack at a later time. Or you may find that Enterprise Manager is not running and need to start it. This section provides the commands necessary to stop and start the Oracle Clusterware stack on a local server (racnode1).

The following stop/start actions need to be performed as root.

Stopping the Oracle Clusterware Stack on the Local Server

Use the "crsctl stop cluster" command on racnode1 to stop the Oracle Clusterware stack: 


[root@racnode1 ~]# /u01/app/11.2.0/grid/bin/crsctl stop cluster
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.crsd' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2790: Starting shutdown of Cluster Ready Services-managed resources on 'racnode1'
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.CRS.dg' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.racdb.db' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.LISTENER.lsnr' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.LISTENER_SCAN3.lsnr' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.LISTENER_SCAN2.lsnr' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.LISTENER.lsnr' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.racnode1.vip' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.racnode1.vip' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.racnode1.vip' on 'racnode2'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.LISTENER_SCAN3.lsnr' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.scan3.vip' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.LISTENER_SCAN2.lsnr' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.scan2.vip' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.scan3.vip' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.scan3.vip' on 'racnode2'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.scan2.vip' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.scan2.vip' on 'racnode2'
CRS-2676: Start of 'ora.racnode1.vip' on 'racnode2' succeeded          <-- Notice racnode1 VIP moved to racnode2
CRS-2676: Start of 'ora.scan3.vip' on 'racnode2' succeeded             <-- Notice SCAN3 VIP moved to racnode2
CRS-2676: Start of 'ora.scan2.vip' on 'racnode2' succeeded             <-- Notice SCAN2 VIP moved to racnode2
CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.LISTENER_SCAN3.lsnr' on 'racnode2'
CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.LISTENER_SCAN2.lsnr' on 'racnode2'
CRS-2676: Start of 'ora.LISTENER_SCAN3.lsnr' on 'racnode2' succeeded   <-- Notice LISTENER_SCAN3 moved to racnode2
CRS-2676: Start of 'ora.LISTENER_SCAN2.lsnr' on 'racnode2' succeeded   <-- Notice LISTENER_SCAN2 moved to racnode2
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.CRS.dg' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.racdb.db' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.FRA.dg' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.RACDB_DATA.dg' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.FRA.dg' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.RACDB_DATA.dg' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.asm' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.asm' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.eons' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.ons' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.ons' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.net1.network' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.net1.network' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.eons' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2792: Shutdown of Cluster Ready Services-managed resources on 'racnode1' has completed
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.crsd' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.cssdmonitor' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.ctssd' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.evmd' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.asm' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.cssdmonitor' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.evmd' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.ctssd' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.asm' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.cssd' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.cssd' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.diskmon' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.diskmon' on 'racnode1' succeeded

 

If any resources that Oracle Clusterware manages are still running after you run the "crsctl stop cluster" command, then the entire command fails. Use the -f option to unconditionally stop all resources and stop the Oracle Clusterware stack.

Also note that you can stop the Oracle Clusterware stack on all servers in the cluster by specifying -all. The following will bring down the Oracle Clusterware stack on both racnode1 and racnode2: 


[root@racnode1 ~]# /u01/app/11.2.0/grid/bin/crsctl stop cluster -all

Starting the Oracle Clusterware Stack on the Local Server

Use the "crsctl start cluster" command on racnode1 to start the Oracle Clusterware stack: 


[root@racnode1 ~]# /u01/app/11.2.0/grid/bin/crsctl start cluster
CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.cssdmonitor' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2676: Start of 'ora.cssdmonitor' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.cssd' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.diskmon' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2676: Start of 'ora.diskmon' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2676: Start of 'ora.cssd' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.ctssd' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2676: Start of 'ora.ctssd' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.asm' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.evmd' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2676: Start of 'ora.evmd' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2676: Start of 'ora.asm' on 'racnode1' succeeded
CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.crsd' on 'racnode1'
CRS-2676: Start of 'ora.crsd' on 'racnode1' succeeded

You can choose to start the Oracle Clusterware stack on all servers in the cluster by specifying -all: 


[root@racnode1 ~]# /u01/app/11.2.0/grid/bin/crsctl start cluster -all

You can also start the Oracle Clusterware stack on one or more named servers in the cluster by listing the servers separated by a space: 


[root@racnode1 ~]# /u01/app/11.2.0/grid/bin/crsctl start cluster -n racnode1 racnode2

Start/Stop All Instances with SRVCTL

Finally, you can start/stop all instances and associated services using the following: 


[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl stop database -d racdb
  
[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ srvctl start database -d racdb

Troubleshooting

This section contains a short list of common errors (and solutions) that can be encountered during the Oracle RAC installation described in this article.

Configuring SCAN without DNS

Defining the SCAN in only the hosts file (/etc/hosts) and not in either Grid Naming Service (GNS) or DNS is an invalid configuration and will cause the Cluster Verification Utility to fail during the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation:



Figure 19: Oracle Grid Infrastructure / CVU Error - (Configuring SCAN without DNS) 


INFO: Checking Single Client Access Name (SCAN)...
INFO: Checking name resolution setup for "racnode-cluster-scan"...
INFO: ERROR:
INFO: PRVF-4657 : Name resolution setup check for "racnode-cluster-scan" (IP address: 216.24.138.153) failed
INFO: ERROR:
INFO: PRVF-4657 : Name resolution setup check for "racnode-cluster-scan" (IP address: 192.168.1.187) failed
INFO: ERROR:
INFO: PRVF-4664 : Found inconsistent name resolution entries for SCAN name "racnode-cluster-scan"
INFO: Verification of SCAN VIP and Listener setup failed

Provided this is the only error reported by the CVU, it is OK to ignore this check and continue by clicking the [Next] button in OUI and move forward with the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation. This is documented in Doc ID: 887471.1 on the My Oracle Support web site.

If on the other hand you want the CVU to complete successfully while still only defining the SCAN in the hosts file, simply modify the nslookup utility as root on both Oracle RAC nodes as follows.

 

Although Oracle strongly discourages this practice and highly recommends the use of GNS or DNS resolution, some readers may not have access to a DNS. The instructions below include a workaround (Ok, a total hack) to the nslookup binary that allows the Cluster Verification Utility to finish successfully during the Oracle Grid Infrastructure install. Please note that the workaround documented in this section is only for the sake of brevity and should not be considered for a production implementation.

First, rename the original nslookup binary to nslookup.original on both Oracle RAC nodes: 


[root@racnode1 ~]# mv /usr/bin/nslookup /usr/bin/nslookup.original

[root@racnode2 ~]# mv /usr/bin/nslookup /usr/bin/nslookup.original

Next, create a new shell script on both Oracle RAC nodes named /usr/bin/nslookup as shown below while replacing 24.154.1.34 with your primary DNS, racnode-cluster-scan with your SCAN host name, and 192.168.1.187 with your SCAN IP address: 


#!/bin/bash

HOSTNAME=${1}

if [[ $HOSTNAME = "racnode-cluster-scan" ]]; then
    echo "Server:         24.154.1.34"
    echo "Address:        24.154.1.34#53"
    echo "Non-authoritative answer:"
    echo "Name:   racnode-cluster-scan"
    echo "Address: 192.168.1.187"
else
    /usr/bin/nslookup.original $HOSTNAME
fi

Finally, change the new nslookup shell script to executable: 


[root@racnode1 ~]# chmod 755 /usr/bin/nslookup

[root@racnode2 ~]# chmod 755 /usr/bin/nslookup

Remember to perform these actions on both Oracle RAC nodes.

The new nslookup shell script simply echo's back your SCAN IP address whenever the CVU calls nslookup with your SCAN host name; otherwise, it calls the original nslookup binary.

The CVU will now pass during the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation when it attempts to verify your SCAN: 


[grid@racnode1 ~]$ cluvfy comp scan -verbose

Verifying scan 

Checking Single Client Access Name (SCAN)...
  SCAN VIP name     Node          Running?      ListenerName  Port          Running?    
  ----------------  ------------  ------------  ------------  ------------  ------------
  racnode-cluster-scan  racnode1      true          LISTENER      1521          true        

Checking name resolution setup for "racnode-cluster-scan"...
  SCAN Name     IP Address                Status                    Comment   
  ------------  ------------------------  ------------------------  ----------
  racnode-cluster-scan  192.168.1.187             passed

Verification of SCAN VIP and Listener setup passed

Verification of scan was successful. 

===============================================================================

[grid@racnode2 ~]$ cluvfy comp scan -verbose

Verifying scan 

Checking Single Client Access Name (SCAN)...
  SCAN VIP name     Node          Running?      ListenerName  Port          Running?    
  ----------------  ------------  ------------  ------------  ------------  ------------
  racnode-cluster-scan  racnode1      true          LISTENER      1521          true        

Checking name resolution setup for "racnode-cluster-scan"...
  SCAN Name     IP Address                Status                    Comment   
  ------------  ------------------------  ------------------------  ----------
  racnode-cluster-scan  192.168.1.187             passed

Verification of SCAN VIP and Listener setup passed

Verification of scan was successful.

Confirm the RAC Node Name is Not Listed in Loopback Address

Ensure that the node name (racnode1 or racnode2) is not included for the loopback address in the /etc/hosts file. If the machine name is listed in the in the loopback address entry as below: 


127.0.0.1 racnode1 localhost.localdomain localhost

it will need to be removed as shown below: 


127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

If the RAC node name is listed for the loopback address, you will receive the following error during the RAC installation: 


ORA-00603: ORACLE server session terminated by fatal error

or

ORA-29702: error occurred in Cluster Group Service operation

Openfiler - Logical Volumes Not Active on Boot

One issue that I have run into several times occurs when using a USB drive connected to the Openfiler server. When the Openfiler server is rebooted, the system is able to recognize the USB drive however, it is not able to load the logical volumes and writes the following message to /var/log/messages - (also available through dmesg): 


iSCSI Enterprise Target Software - version 0.4.14
iotype_init(91) register fileio
iotype_init(91) register blockio
iotype_init(91) register nullio
open_path(120) Can't open /dev/rac1/crs -2
fileio_attach(268) -2
open_path(120) Can't open /dev/rac1/asm1 -2
fileio_attach(268) -2
open_path(120) Can't open /dev/rac1/asm2 -2
fileio_attach(268) -2
open_path(120) Can't open /dev/rac1/asm3 -2
fileio_attach(268) -2
open_path(120) Can't open /dev/rac1/asm4 -2
fileio_attach(268) -2

Please note that I am not suggesting that this only occurs with USB drives connected to the Openfiler server. It may occur with other types of drives, however I have only seen it with USB drives!

If you do receive this error, you should first check the status of all logical volumes using the lvscan command from the Openfiler server: 


# lvscan
inactive          '/dev/rac1/crs' [2.00 GB] inherit
inactive          '/dev/rac1/asm1' [115.94 GB] inherit
inactive          '/dev/rac1/asm2' [115.94 GB] inherit
inactive          '/dev/rac1/asm3' [115.94 GB] inherit
inactive          '/dev/rac1/asm4' [115.94 GB] inherit

Notice that the status for each of the logical volumes is set to inactive - (the status for each logical volume on a working system would be set to ACTIVE).

I currently know of two methods to get Openfiler to automatically load the logical volumes on reboot, both of which are described below.

Method 1

One of the first steps is to shutdown both of the Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster - (racnode1 and racnode2). Then, from the Openfiler server, manually set each of the logical volumes to ACTIVE for each consecutive reboot: 


# lvchange -a y /dev/rac1/crs
# lvchange -a y /dev/rac1/asm1
# lvchange -a y /dev/rac1/asm2
# lvchange -a y /dev/rac1/asm3
# lvchange -a y /dev/rac1/asm4

Another method to set the status to active for all logical volumes is to use the Volume Group change command as follows: 


# vgscan
  Reading all physical volumes.  This may take a while...
  Found volume group "rac1" using metadata type lvm2

# vgchange -ay
  5 logical volume(s) in volume group "rac1" now active

After setting each of the logical volumes to active, use the lvscan command again to verify the status:

# lvscan
  ACTIVE           '/dev/rac1/crs' [2.00 GB] inherit
  ACTIVE           '/dev/rac1/asm1' [115.94 GB] inherit
  ACTIVE           '/dev/rac1/asm2' [115.94 GB] inherit
  ACTIVE           '/dev/rac1/asm3' [115.94 GB] inherit
  ACTIVE           '/dev/rac1/asm4' [115.94 GB] inherit

As a final test, reboot the Openfiler server to ensure each of the logical volumes will be set to ACTIVE after the boot process. After you have verified that each of the logical volumes will be active on boot, check that the iSCSI target service is running: 


# service iscsi-target status
ietd (pid 2668) is running...

Finally, restart each of the Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster - (racnode1 and racnode2).

Method 2

This method was kindly provided by Martin Jones. His workaround includes amending the /etc/rc.sysinit script to basically wait for the USB disk (/dev/sda in my example) to be detected. After making the changes to the /etc/rc.sysinit script (described below), verify the external drives are powered on and then reboot the Openfiler server.

The following is a small portion of the /etc/rc.sysinit script on the Openfiler server with the changes (highlighted in blue) proposed by Martin: 


..............................................................
# LVM2 initialization, take 2
        if [ -c /dev/mapper/control ]; then
                if [ -x /sbin/multipath.static ]; then
                        modprobe dm-multipath >/dev/null 2>&1
                        /sbin/multipath.static -v 0
                        if [ -x /sbin/kpartx ]; then
                                /sbin/dmsetup ls --target multipath --exec "/sbin/kpartx -a"
                        fi
                fi
 

                if [ -x /sbin/dmraid ]; then
                        modprobe dm-mirror > /dev/null 2>&1
                        /sbin/dmraid -i -a y
                fi

#-----
#-----  MJONES - Customisation Start
#-----

       # Check if /dev/sda is ready
         while [ ! -e /dev/sda ]
         do
             echo "Device /dev/sda for first USB Drive is not yet ready."
             echo "Waiting..."
             sleep 5
         done
         echo "INFO - Device /dev/sda for first USB Drive is ready."

#-----
#-----  MJONES - Customisation END
#-----
                if [ -x /sbin/lvm.static ]; then
                        if /sbin/lvm.static vgscan > /dev/null 2>&1 ; then
                                action $"Setting up Logical Volume
Management:" /sbin/lvm.static vgscan --mknodes --ignorelockingfailure &&
/sbin/lvm.static vgchange -a y --ignorelockingfailure
                        fi
                fi
        fi
 

# Clean up SELinux labels
if [ -n "$SELINUX" ]; then
   for file in /etc/mtab /etc/ld.so.cache ; do
      [ -r $file ] && restorecon $file  >/dev/null 2>&1
   done
fi
..............................................................

Finally, restart each of the Oracle RAC nodes in the cluster - (racnode1 and racnode2).

Conclusion

Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 allows the DBA to configure a cluster database solution with superior fault tolerance and load balancing. However, for those DBA's that want to become more familiar with the features and benefits of database clustering will find the costs of configuring even a small RAC cluster costing in the range of US$15,000 to US$20,000.

This article has hopefully given you an economical solution to setting up and configuring an inexpensive Oracle 11g Release 2 RAC Cluster using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (or CentOS) and iSCSI technology. The RAC solution presented in this article can be put together for around US$2,700 and will provide the DBA with a fully functional Oracle 11g Release 2 RAC cluster. While the hardware used for this guide is stable enough for educational purposes, it should never be considered for a production environment.

Acknowledgements

An article of this magnitude and complexity is generally not the work of one person alone. Although I was able to author and successfully demonstrate the validity of the components that make up this configuration, there are several other individuals that deserve credit in making this article a success.

First, I would like to thank Bane Radulovic from the Server BDE Team at Oracle. Bane not only introduced me to Openfiler, but shared with me his experience and knowledge of the product and how to best utilize it for Oracle RAC. His research and hard work made the task of configuring Openfiler seamless. Bane was also involved with hardware recommendations and testing.

A special thanks to K Gopalakrishnan for his assistance in delivering the Oracle RAC 11g Overview section of this article. In this section, much of the content regarding the history of Oracle RAC can be found in his very popular book Oracle Database 10g Real Application Clusters Handbook. This book comes highly recommended for both DBA's and Developers wanting to successfully implement Oracle RAC and fully understand how many of the advanced services like Cache Fusion and Global Resource Directory operate.

Lastly, I would like to express my appreciation to the following vendors for generously supplying the hardware for this article; Seagate, Avocent Corporation, and Intel.

About the Author

Jeffrey Hunter is an Oracle Certified Professional, Java Development Certified Professional, Author, and an Oracle ACE. Jeff currently works as a Senior Database Administrator for The DBA Zone, Inc. located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His work includes advanced performance tuning, Java and PL/SQL programming, developing high availability solutions, capacity planning, database security, and physical / logical database design in a UNIX, Linux, and Windows server environment. Jeff's other interests include mathematical encryption theory, programming language processors (compilers and interpreters) in Java and C, LDAP, writing web-based database administration tools, and of course Linux. He has been a Sr. Database Administrator and Software Engineer for over 18 years and maintains his own website site at: http://www.iDevelopment.info. Jeff graduated from Stanislaus State University in Turlock, California, with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science.


Copyright (c) 1998-2013 Jeffrey M. Hunter. All rights reserved.

All articles, scripts and material located at the Internet address of http://www.idevelopment.info is the copyright of Jeffrey M. Hunter and is protected under copyright laws of the United States. This document may not be hosted on any other site without my express, prior, written permission. Application to host any of the material elsewhere can be made by contacting me at jhunter@idevelopment.info.

I have made every effort and taken great care in making sure that the material included on my web site is technically accurate, but I disclaim any and all responsibility for any loss, damage or destruction of data or any other property which may arise from relying on it. I will in no case be liable for any monetary damages arising from such loss, damage or destruction.

Last modified on
Saturday, 23-Mar-2013 12:38:15 EDT
Page Count: 64023