Installing Oracle Database 10g Real Application Cluster (RAC) on Red Hat Linux Advanced Server (RedHat, Oracle10g RAC)

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Installing Oracle Database 10g with Real Application Cluster (RAC) on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server 3

Written by Werner Puschitz

www.puschitz.com

The following procedure is a step-by-step guide (Cookbook) with tips and information for installing Oracle Database 10g with Real Application Cluster (RAC) on Red Hat Enterprise

Linux Advanced Server 3. The primary objective of th is article is to demonstrate a quick installation of Oracle 10g with RAC on RH AS 3. This article covers Oracle Cluster File System

(OCFS), Oracle's Automatic Storage Management (ASM), and FireWire-based Shared Storage.Note that OCFS is not r equired for 10g RAC. In fact, I never use OCFS for RAC systems.

However, this article covers OCFS since some people want to know how to configure and use OCFS.

If you have never installed Oracle10g on Linux before, then I'd recommend that you first try to install an Oracle Database 10g on Linux by following my other guide Installing Oracle

Database 10g on Red Hat Linux.

I welcome emails from any readers with comments, suggestions, or corrections. You can find my email address at the bottom of this website.

This article covers the following subjects and steps:

Introduction

* General* Important Notes* Oracle 10g RAC Setup

* Shared Disks Storage General

FireWire-based Shared Storage for Linux

Pre-Installation Steps for All Clustered RAC Nodes

* Downloading Oracle 10g Software and Burning Oracle 10g CDs* Installing Red Hat Advanced Server Installing Software Packages (RPMs)

* Upgrading the Linux Kernel General

Upgrading the Linux Kernel for FireWire Shared Disks Only

* Configuring the Network General

Setting Up the /etc/hosts File

Configuring the Network Interfaces (NICs)

* Configuring Shared Storage Devices General

Configuring FireWire-based Shared Storage* Creating Oracle User Accounts* Setting Oracle Environments* Sizing Oracle Disk Space for Database Software

* Creating Oracle Directories* Creating Partitions on Shared Storage Devices General

Creating Partitions for OCFS

Creating Partitions for Raw Devices

* Installing and Configuring Oracle Cluster File Systems (OCFS) Installing OCFS

Configuring and Loading OCFS

Creating OCFS File Systems

Mounting OCFS File Systems

Configuring the OCFS File Systems to Mount Automatically at Startup

Installing and Configuring Automatic Storage Management (ASM) and Disks

* Installing and Configuring Automatic Storage Management (ASM) and Disks General

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Installing ASM

Configuring and Loading ASM

Creating ASM Disks

* Configuring the "hangcheck-timer" Kernel Module* Setting up RAC Nodes for Remote Access* Checking Packages (RPMs)* Adjusting Network Settings

* Sizing Swap Space* Setting Shared Memory

* Checking /tmp Space* Setting Semaphores* Setting File Handles

Installing Cluster Ready Services (CRS)

* General* Automating Authentication for oraclessh Logins

* Checking OCFS and Oracle Environment Variables Checking OCFSs

Checking Oracle Environment Variables

* Installing Oracle 10g Cluster Ready Services (CRS) R1 (10.1.0.2)

Installing Oracle Database 10g Software with Real Application Clusters (RAC)

* General* Automating Authentication for oraclessh Logins

* Checking Oracle Environment Variables* Installing Oracle Database 10g Software R1 (10.1.0.2) with Real Application Clusters (RAC)

Installing Oracle Database 10g with Real Application Cluster (RAC)

* General

* Automating Authentication for oraclessh Logins* Setting Oracle Environment Variables* Installing Oracle Database 10g with Real Application Cluster (RAC)

Post-Installation Steps

* Transparent Application Failover (TAF) Introduction

Setup

Example of a Transparent Application Failover (TAF)

* Checking Automatic Storage Management (ASM)* Oracle 10g RAC Issues, Problems and Errors* References

Introduction

GeneralOracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) is a cluster system at the application level. It uses shared disk architecture that provides scalability for all kind of applications. Applications

without any modifications can use the RAC database.

Since the requests in a RAC cluster are spread evenly across the RAC instances, and since all instances access the same shared storage, addition of server(s) require no architecture

changes etc. And a failure of a single RAC node results only in the loss of scalability and not in the loss of data since a single database image is utilized.

Important Notes

There are a few important notes that might be useful to know before installing Oracle 10g RAC:

(*) If you want to install Oracle 10g with RAC using FireWire-base shared storage, make sure to read first FireWire-based Shared Storage for Linux!

(*) See also Oracle 10g RAC Issues, Problems and Errors

Oracle 10g RAC SetupThis article covers the installation of Oracle 10g with RAC on three RHELAS 3 servers (including the use of FireWire-based shared storage):

RAC node Database Name Oracle SID $ORACLE_BASE Oracle Datafile Directory

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

rac1pub/rac1prv orcl orcl1 /u01/app/oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM)



For this documentation I used Oracle Cluster File System (OCFS) for Oracle's Cluster Ready Services (CRS) since some people want to know how to configure and use OCFS. However,

OCFS is not required for 10g RAC. In fact , I never use OCFS for RAC systems. CRS requires two files, the "Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR)" file and the "CRS Voting Disk" file, which

must be shared accross all RAC nodes. You can also use raw devices for these files. Note, however, that you cannot use ASM for the CRS files. These CRS files need to be available for

any RAC instance to run. And for ASM to become available, the ASM instance needs to run first.

For Oracle's data files, control files, etc. I used Oracle's Automatic Storage Management (ASM).


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Shared Disks Storage

General

A requirement for Oracle Database 10g RAC cluster is a set of servers with shared disk access and interconnect connectivity. Since each instance in a RAC system must have access to

the same database files, a shared storage is required that can be accessed from all RAC nodes concurrently.

The shared storage space can be used as raw devices, or by using a cluster file system or ASM. This article will address Oracle's Cluster File System OCFS and ASM. Note that Oracle 10g

RAC provides it's own locking mechanisms and therefore it does not rely on other cluster software or on the operating system for handling locks.

FireWire-based Shared Storage for Linux

Shared Storage can be expensive. If you just want to check out the features of Oracle10g RAC without spending too much on cost, I'd recommend to buy an external FireWire-based

shared Storage for Oracle10g RAC.NOTE: You can download a kernel from Oracle f or FireWire-based shared storage for Oracle10g RAC, but Oracle does not provide support if you have problems. It is intended for

testing and demonstration only! See Setting Up Linux with FireWire-based Shared Storage for Oracle Database 10g RAC for more information.

NOTE: It is very important to get an external FireWir e drive that allows concurrent access for more than one server! Otherwise the disk(s) and partitions can only be seen by one

server at a time. Therefore, make sure the FireWire drive(s) have a chipset that supports concurrent access for at least two servers or more. If you have already a FireWire drive, you can

check the maximum supported logins (concurrent access) by following the steps at Configuring FireWire-based Shared Storage.

For test purposes I used external 250 GB and 200 GB Maxtor hard drives which support a maximum of 3 concurrent logins. The technical specifications for these FireWire drives are:

- Vendor: Maxtor

- Model: OneTouch

- Mfg. Part No. or KIT No.: A01A200 or A01A250

- Capacity: 200 GB or 250 GB

- Cache Buffer: 8 MB

- Spin Rate: 7200 RPM

- "Combo" Interface: IEEE 1394 and SPB-2 compliant (100 to 400 Mbits/sec) plus USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 compatible

Here are links where these Maxtor drives can be bought:

Maxtor 200GB One Touch Personal Storage External USB 2.0/FireWire Hard Drive

Maxtor 250GB One Touch Personal Storage External USB 2.0/FireWire Hard Drive

The FireWire adapters I'm using are StarTech 4 Port IEEE-1394 PCI Firewire Cards. Don't forget that you will also need a FireWire hub if you want to connect more than 2 RAC nodes

to the FireWire drive(s).

Pre-Installation Steps for All Clustered RAC Nodes

The following steps need to be performed on all nodes of the RAC cluster unless it says otherwise!

Downloading Oracle 10g Software and Burning Oracle 10g CDs

To install Oracle 10g with RAC, you will need the images "ship.crs.cpio.gz" (Cluster Ready Services 10.1.0.2) and "ship.db.cpio.gz" (Oracle Database 10g 10.1.0.2).

For more information on downloading the images and burning CDs, see Downloading Oracle10g Software and Burning Oracle10g CDs.

Installing Red Hat Advanced Server

You can find the installation guide for installing Red Hat Linux Advanced Server a t Red Hat Enterprise Linux Manuals.

You cannot download Red Hat Linux Advanced Server, you can only download the source code. If you want to get the binary CDs, you can buy licenses at http://www.redhat.com

/software/rhel/.

Installing Software Packages (RPMs)

You don't have to install all RPMs when you want to run an Oracle Database 10g with RAC on Red Hat Linux Advanced Server. You are fine when you select the Installation Type

"Advanced Server" and when you don't select the Package Group "Software Development". There are only a few other RPMs that are required for installing Oracle 10g RAC, which are

covered in this article.

Upgrading the Linux Kernel

General

It is recommended to use newer Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernels since newer kernels might fix known database performance problems and other issues. Unless you are using

FireWire-based shared drives (see below), I recommend to download the latest RHELAS3 kernel from Red Hat Networkand to use Upgrading the Linux Kernel as a guide for upgrading

the kernel.However, you also need to make sure that the OCFS and ASM drivers are compatible with the kernel version!

Upgrading the Linux Kernel for FireWire Shared Disks ONLY

You can download a kernel f rom Oracle forFireWire-Based Shared Storage for Oracle Database 10g RAC, but Oracle does not support it. It is intended for testing and demonstration

only! See Setting Up Linux with FireWire-based Shared Storage for Oracle10g RAC for more information.

Download the experimental kernel for FireWire shared drives from http://oss.oracle.com/projects/firewire/files.

There are two experimental kernels for FireWire shared drives, one for UP machines and one for SMP machines. To install the kernel for a single CPU machine, run the following

command:


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su - root

rpm -ivh kernel-2.4.21-15.ELorafw1.i686.rpm

Note that the above command does not upgrade your existing kernel. This is the preferred method since you always want the option to go back to the old kernel if the new kernel causes

problems or doesn't come up.

To make sure that the right kernel is booted, check the /etc/grub.conf file if you use GRUB, and change the "default" attribute if necessary. Here is an example:

default=0

timeout=10

splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (2.4.21-15.ELorafw1)

root (hd0,0)

kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-15.ELorafw1 ro root=LABEL=/

initrd /initrd-2.4.21-15.ELorafw1.img

title Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (2.4.21-4.EL)

root (hd0,0)kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21-4.EL ro root=LABEL=/

initrd /initrd-2.4.21-4.EL.img

In this example, the "default" attribute is set to "0" which means that the the experimental FireWire kernel 2.4.21-9.0.1.ELorafw1 will be booted. If the "default" attribute would

be set to "1", the 2.4.21-9.EL kernel would be booted.

After you installed the new kernel, reboot the server:

su - root

reboot

Once you are sure that you don't need the old kernel anymore, you can remove the old kernel by running:

su - root

rpm -e

When you remove the old kernel you shouldn't have to update default parameter in the /etc/grub.conf file. However, I have seen cases where this didn't work. So I recommend to

check the default setting after you removed the old kernel.

Configuring the Network

General

Each RAC node should have at least one static IP address for the public network and one static IP address for the private cluster interconnect.

The private networks are critical components of a RAC cluster. The private networks should only be used by Oracle to carry Cluster Manager and Cache Fusion inter-node connection. A

RAC database does not require a separate private network, but using a public network can degrade database performance (high latency, low bandwidth). Therefore the private network

should have high-speed NICs (preferably one gigabit or more) and it should only be used by Oracle.

You might want to manage the network addresses using the /etc/hosts file. This avoids the problem of making DNS, NIS, etc. a single point of failure for the database c luster.

Make sure that no fir ewall is running or that it doesn't int erfere with RAC, respe ctively.

Setting Up the /etc/hosts File

Here is an example how the /etc/hosts file could look like:

# Public hostnames for e.g. eth0 interfaces (public network)

192.168.1.1 rac1pub.puschitz.com rac1pub # RAC node 1



# Private hostnames, private network for e.g. eth1 interfaces (Interconnect)

192.168.2.1 rac1prv.puschitz.com rac1prv # RAC node 1



# Public virtual IP address for e.g. eth0 interfaces (public Virtual Internet Protocol (VIP))

192.168.1.51 rac1vip.puschitz.com rac1vip # RAC node 1

192.168.1.52 rac2vip.puschitz.com rac2vip # RAC node 2

192.168.1.53 rac3vip.puschitz.com rac3viv # RAC node 3

The public virtual IP addressess are configured automatically by Oracle when you run OUI, which starts Oracle's Virtual Internet Protocol Configuration Assistant (VIPCA), see Installing

Oracle Database 10g Software R1 (10.1.0.2) with Real Application Clusters (RAC)

NOTE:

Make sure that the name of the RAC node is not listed for the loopback address in the /etc/hosts file similar to this example:

127.0.0.1 rac1pub localhost.localdomain localhost

The entry should look like this:

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

If the RAC node is listed for the loopback address, you might later get the following errors:

ORA-00603: ORACLE server session terminated by fatal error

or

ORA-29702: error occurred in Cluster Group Service operation

For more information, see Oracle 10g RAC Issues, Problems and Errors.

Configuring the Network Interfaces (NICs)


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To configure the network interfaces (in this example eth0 and eth1), run the following command on each node.

su - root

redhat-config-network

NOTE: You do not have to configure the network alias names for the public VIP. This will be done by Oracle's Virtual Internet Protocol Configuration Assistant (VIPCA).

NOTE: When the network configuration is done, it is important to make sure that the name of the public RAC nodes is displayed when you execute the following command:

$ hostname

rac1pub

You can verify the new configured NICs by running the command:

/sbin/ifconfig

Configuring Shared Storage Devices

General

For instructions on how to setup a shared storage device on Red Hat Advanced Server, see the installation instructions of the manufacturer.

Configuring FireWire-based Shared Storage

First make sure that the experimental kernel for FireWire drives was installed and that the server was rebooted (see Upgrading the Linux Kernel for FireWire Shared Disks Only):

# uname -r

2.4.21-15.ELorafw1

To load the kernel modules/drivers for the FireWire drive(s), add the following entry to the /etc/modules.conf file:

alias ieee1394-controller ohci1394

post-install ohci1394 modprobe sd_mod

The alias directive ieee1394-controller is used by Red Hat during the boot process. When you check the /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit file, which is invoked by /etc/inittab during the

boot process, you will find the following code that searches for the ieee1394-controller stanza in /etc/modules.conf :

if ! strstr "$cmdline" nofirewire ; then

aliases=`/sbin/modprobe -c | awk '/^alias ieee1394-controller/ { print $3 }'`

if [ -n "$aliases" -a "$aliases" != "off" ]; then

for alias in $aliases ; do

[ "$alias" = "off" ] && continue

action $"Initializing firewire controller ($alias): "modprobe $alias

done

LC_ALL=C grep -q "SBP2" /proc/bus/ieee1394/devices 2>/dev/null && \

modprobe sbp2 >/dev/null 2>&1

fi

fi

This means that all the kernel modules for the FireWire drive(s) will be loaded automatically during the next reboot and your drive(s) should be ready for use.

To load the modules or the firewire stack right away without rebooting the server, execute the following commands:

su - root

modprobe ieee1394-controller; modprobe sd_mod

If everything worked fine, the following modules should be loaded:

su - root

# lsmod |egrep "ohci1394|sbp2|ieee1394|sd_mod|scsi_mod"

sbp2 19724 0

ohci1394 28008 0 (unused)

ieee1394 62884 0 [sbp2 ohci1394]

sd_mod 13424 0

scsi_mod 104616 5 [sbp2 sd_mod sg sr_mod ide-scsi]

#

And when you run dmesg, you should see entries similar to this example:

# dmesg

...

ohci1394_0: OHCI-1394 1.0 (PCI): IRQ=[11] MMIO=[f2000000-f20007ff] Max Packet=[2048]

ieee1394: Device added: Node[00:1023] GUID[0010b9f70089de1c] [Maxtor]

scsi1 : SCSI emulation for IEEE-1394 SBP-2 Devices

blk: queue cf172e14, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)

ieee1394: ConfigROM quadlet transaction error for node 01:1023ieee1394: Host added: Node[02:1023] GUID[00110600000032a0] [Linux OHCI-1394]

ieee1394: sbp2: Query logins to SBP-2 device successful

ieee1394: sbp2: Maximum concurrent logins supported: 3

ieee1394: sbp2: Number of active logins: 0

ieee1394: sbp2: Logged into SBP-2 device

ieee1394: sbp2: Node[00:1023]: Max speed [S400] - Max payload [2048]

Vendor: Maxtor Model: OneTouch Rev: 0200

Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 06

blk: queue cd0fb014, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)

Attached scsi disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0

SCSI device sda: 398295040 512-byte hdwr sectors (203927 MB)

sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 < sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 sda9 sda10 sda11 sda12 sda13 >

In this example, the kernel reported that the FireWire drive can be shared concurrently by 3 servers (see "Maximum concurrent logins supported:"). It is very important that you have a

drive with a chipset and firmware that supports concurrent access for the nodes. The "Number of ac tive logins:" shows how many servers are already sharing/using the drive before this

server added the drive to its system.


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If everything worked fine, you should be able to see now your FireWire drive(s):

su - root

# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 30515 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sda1 1 6375 51207156 83 Linux

/dev/sda2 6376 12750 51207187+ 83 Linux

...

And if you power off or power on your FireWire drive(s), respectively, the drives should be removed and added to the system automatically, which can take about 5-10 seconds.

If everything worked fine without any errors or problems, I would recommend to reboot all RAC nodes to verify that all FireWire drive(s) are automatically added to the system during

the next boot process:su - root

reboot

And after the reboot, execute the fdisk command again to verify that the FireWire drive(s) were added to the system:

su - root

# fdisk -l

PROBLEMS:

Note that if you have a USB device attached, the system might not be able to recognice your FireWire drive!

If the ieee1394 module was not loaded, then your FireWire adapter might not be supported. I'm using the StarTech 4 Port IEEE-1394 PCI Firewire Card which works fine:

# lspci

...

00:14.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 46)

...

Creating Oracle User Accounts

If you use OCFS, it is important that the UID of "oracle" and GID of "oinstall" are the same across all RAC nodes. Otherwise the Oracle files on the OCFS filesystems on some nodes

could either be "unowned", or they could even be owned by another user account. In my setup the UID and GID of oracle:dba is 700:700.

su - root

groupadd -g 700 dba # group of users to be granted with SYSDBA system privilege

groupadd -g 701 oinstall # group owner of Oracle files

useradd -c "Oracle software owner" -u 700 -g oinstall -G dba oracle

passwd oracle

To verify the oracle account, enter the following command:

# id oracle

uid=700(oracle) gid=701(oinstall) groups=701(oinstall),700(dba)

For more information on the "oinstall" group account, see When to use "OINSTALL" group during install of oracle.

Setting Oracle Environments

Since the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) "runInstaller" is executed from the oracle account, some environment variables must be configured for the oracle account before OUI is

started.

Note: When you set the Oracle environment variables for the RAC nodes, make sure to assign each RAC node a unique Oracle SID! In my test setup, the database name is "orcl" and

the Oracle SIDs are "orcl1" for RAC node one, "orcl2" for RAC node two, and so on.

If you use bash which is the default shell on Red Hat Linux (to verify your shell run: echo $SHELL), execute the following commands:

# Oracle Environment

export ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle

export ORACLE_SID=orcl1 # Each RAC node must have a unique Oracle SID! E.g. orcl1, orcl2,...

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib

NOTE: IfORACLE_BASE is used, then Oracle recommends that you don't set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable but that you choose the default path suggested by the OUI. You can

set and use ORACLE_HOME after you finished installing the Oracle Database 10g Software with RAC, see Installing Oracle Database 10g Software R1 (10.1.0.2) with Real Application

Clusters (RAC).

The environment variables ORACLE_HOME and TNS_ADMIN should not be set. If you already set these environment variables, you can unset them by executing the following commands:

unset ORACLE_HOME

unset TNS_ADMIN

To have these environment variables set automatically each time you login as oracle, you can add these environment variables to the ~oracle/.bash_profile file for the Bash shell on

Red Hat Linux. To do this you could simply copy/paste the following commands to make these settings permanent for the oracle Bash shell:

su - oracle

cat >> ~oracle/.bash_profile


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You will need about 2.5 GB for the Oracle 10g RAC database software.

At the time of this writing, OCFS only supports Oracle Datafiles and a few other files. Therefore OCFS should not be used for Shared Oracle Home installs. See Installing and Configuring

Oracle Cluster File Systems (OCFS) for more information.

Creating Oracle Directories

At the time of this writing, OCFS only supports Oracle Datafiles and a few other files. Therefore OCFS should not be used for Shared Oracle Home installs. See Installing and Configuring

Oracle Cluster File Systems (OCFS) for more information.

For Oracle10g you only need to create the directory for $ORACLE_BASE:

su - rootmkdir -p /u01/app/oracle

chown -R oracle.oinstall /u01

But if you want to comply with Oracle's Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA), then you don't want to place the da tabase files in the /u01 directory but in another directory like /u02. This

is not a requirement but if you want to comply with OFA, then you might want to create the following directories as well:

su - root

mkdir -p /u02/oradata/orcl

chown -R oracle.oinstall /u02

Here I would recommend to take a quick look at Oracle's new Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA).

NOTE: In my example I will not place the database files into the OCFS directory /u02/oradata/orcl since I will use Automatic Storage Management (ASM). However, I will use

/u02/oradata/orcl for the cluster manager files, see Installing Cluster Ready Services (CRS).

Creating Partitions on Shared Storage Devices

The partitioning of a shared disk needs to be performed on only one RAC node!

General

Note that it is important for the Redo Log files to be on the shared disks as well.

To partition the disks, you can use the fdisk utility:

su - root

fdisk

For SCSI disks (including FireWire disks), stands for device names like /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, dev/sdd , etc. Be careful to use the right device name!

Here is an example how to create a new 50 GB partition on drive /dev/sda:

su - root

# fdisk /dev/sda

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 30515.

There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,

and could in certain setups cause problems with:

1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)

2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs

(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): p




/dev/sda1 1 6375 51207156 83 Linux

Command (m for help): n

Command action

e extended

p primary partition (1-4)

p

Partition number (1-4): 2

First cylinder (6376-30515, default 6376):

Using default value 6376

Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (6376-30515, default 30515): +50GB

Command (m for help): p




/dev/sda1 1 6375 51207156 83 Linux

/dev/sda2 6376 12750 51207187+ 83 Linux

Command (m for help): w

The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

WARNING: If you have created or modified any DOS 6.x

partitions, please see the fdisk manual page for additional

information.

Syncing disks.

#

For more information on fdisk, see the fdisk(8) man page.

After you finished creating the partit ions, inform the kernel of the partition table changes:

su - root

partprobe

Creating Partitions for OCFS

If you use OCFS for database files and other Oracle files, you can create several partitions on your shared storage for the OCFS filesystems. If you use a FireWire disk, you could create

one large partition on the disk which should make things easier.


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For more information on how to install OCFS and how to mount OCFS filesystems on partitions, see Installing and Configuring Oracle Cluster File Systems (OCFS).

Creating Partitions for Raw Devices

If you want to use raw devices, see Creating Partitions for Raw Devices for more information. This article does not cover raw devices.

Installing and Configuring Oracle Cluster File Systems (OCFS)

Note that OCFS is not required for 10g RAC. In fact, I never use OCFS for RAC systems. However, this article covers OCFS since some people want to know how to configure and use

OCFS.

The Oracle Cluster File System (OCFS) was developed by Oracle to overcome the limits of Raw Devices and Partitions. It also eases administration of database files because it looks and

feels just like a regular file system.

At the time of this writing, OCFS only supports Oracle Datafiles and a few other files:

- Redo Log files

- Archive log files

- Control files

- Database datafiles

- Shared quorum disk file for the cluster manager

- Shared init file (srv)

Oracle says that they will support Shared Oracle Home installs in the future. So don't install the Oracle software on OCFS yet. See Oracle Cluster File System for more information. In

this article I'm creating a separate, individual ORACLE_HOME directory on local server storage for each and every RAC node.

NOTE:If files on the OCFS file system need to be moved, copied, tar'd, etc., or if directories need to be created on OCFS, then the standard file system commands mv, cp, tar,... that come

with the OS should not be used. These OS commands can have a major OS performance impact if they are being used on the OCFS file system. Therefore, Oracle's patched file system

commands should be used instead.It is also important to note that some 3rd vendor backup tools make use of standard OS commands like tar.

Installing OCFS

NOTE: In my example I will use OCFS only for the cluster manager files since I will use ASM for datafiles.

Download the OCFS RPMs (drivers, tools) for RHEL3 from http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs/files/RedHat/RHEL3/i386/. (you can use the same RPMs for FireWire shared disks).

To find out which OCFS driver you need for your server, run:

$ uname -a

Linux rac1pub 2.4.21-9.ELsmp #1 Thu Jan 8 17:24:12 EST 2004 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

To install the OCFS RPMs for SMP kerne ls (includingFireWire SMP kernels), execute:

su - root

rpm -Uvh ocfs-2.4.21-EL-smp-1.0.12-1.i686.rpm \

ocfs-tools-1.0.10-1.i386.rpm \

ocfs-support-1.0.10-1.i386.rpm

To install the OCFS RPMs for uniprocessor kernels (including FireWire UP kernels), execute:

su - root

rpm -Uvh ocfs-2.4.21-EL-1.0.12-1.i686.rpm \

ocfs-tools-1.0.10-1.i386.rpm \

ocfs-support-1.0.10-1.i386.rpm

Configuring and Loading OCFS

To generate the /etc/ocfs.conf file, you can run the ocfstool tool:

su - root

ocfstool

- Select "Task" - Select "Generate Config"

- Select the interconnect interface (private network interface)

In my example for rac1pub I selected: eth1, rac1prv

- Confirm the values displayed and exit

The generated /etc/ocfs.conf file will appear similar to the following example:

$ cat /etc/ocfs.conf

#

# ocfs config

# Ensure this file exists in /etc

#

node_name = rac1prv

ip_address = 192.168.2.1

ip_port = 7000

comm_voting = 1

guid = 84D43BC8FB7A2C1B88C3000D8821CC2C

The guid entry is the unique group user ID. This ID has to be unique for each node. You can create the above file without the ocfstool tool by editing the /etc/ocfs.conf file

manually and by running ocfs_uid_gen -c to assign/update the guid value in this file.

To load the ocfs.o kernel module, execute:

su - root


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# /sbin/load_ocfs

/sbin/insmod ocfs node_name=rac1prv ip_address=192.168.2.1 cs=1795 guid=84D43BC8FB7A2C1B88C3000D8821CC2C comm_voting=1 ip_port=7000

Using /lib/modules/2.4.21-EL-ABI/ocfs/ocfs.o

#

To verify if the ofcs module was loaded, execute:

# /sbin/lsmod |grep ocfs

ocfs 305920 0 (unused)

Note that the load_ocfs command doest not have to be exec uted again once everything has been setup for the OCFS filesystems, see Configuring the OCFS File Systems to Mount

Automatically at Star tup.

If you run load_ocfs on a system with the experimental FireWire kernel, you might get the following error message:

su - root

# load_ocfs

/sbin/insmod ocfs node_name=rac1prv ip_address=192.168.2.1 cs=1843 guid=AA12637FAABFB354371C000D8821CC2C comm_voting=1 ip_port=7000

insmod: ocfs: no module by that name found

load_ocfs: insmod failed

#

The ocfs.o module for the "FireWire kernel" can be found here:

su - root

# rpm -ql ocfs-2.4.21-EL-1.0.12-1

/lib/modules/2.4.21-EL-ABI/ocfs

/lib/modules/2.4.21-EL-ABI/ocfs/ocfs.o

#

So for the experimental kernel for FireWire drives, I manually created a link for the ocfs.o module file:

su - root

mkdir /lib/modules/ùname -r`/kernel/drivers/addon/ocfs

ln -s `rpm -qa | grep ocfs-2 | xargs rpm -ql | grep "/ocfs.o$"` \

/lib/modules/ùname -r`/kernel/drivers/addon/ocfs/ocfs.o

Now you should be able to load the OCFS module using the "FireWire kernel", and the output should look similar to this example:

su - root

# /sbin/load_ocfs

load_ocfs /sbin/insmod ocfs node_name=rac1prv ip_address=192.168.2.1 cs=1843 guid=AA12637FAABFB354371C000D8821CC2C comm_voting=1 ip_port=7000


Warning: kernel-module version mismatch

/lib/modules/2.4.21-EL-ABI/ocfs/ocfs.o was compiled for kernel version 2.4.21-4.EL

while this kernel is version 2.4.21-15.ELorafw1

Warning: loading /lib/modules/2.4.21-EL-ABI/ocfs/ocfs.o will taint the kernel: forced load

See http://www.tux.org/lkml/#export-tainted for information about tainted modules

Module ocfs loaded, with warnings

#

I would not worry about the above warning.

However, if you get the following error, then you have to upgrade the modutils RPM:

su - root

# /sbin/load_ocfs

/sbin/insmod ocfs node_name=rac2prv ip_address=192.168.2.2 cs=1761 guid=1815F1C57530339EA00E000D8825B058 comm_voting=1 ip_port=7000


/lib/modules/2.4.21-EL-ABI/ocfs/ocfs.o: kernel-module version mismatch/lib/modules/2.4.21-EL-ABI/ocfs/ocfs.o was compiled for kernel version 2.4.21-4.EL

while this kernel is version 2.4.21-15.ELorafw1.

#

To remedy the "loading" problem, download the latest modutils RPM and enter e.g.:

rpm -Uvh modutils-2.4.25-11.EL.i386.rpm

To verify that the ofcs module was loaded, enter:

# /sbin/lsmod |grep ocfs

ocfs 305920 0 (unused)

Note that the load_ocfs command doest not have to be exec uted again once everything has been setup for the OCFS filesystems, see Configuring the OCFS File Systems to Mount

Automatically at Star tup.

Creating OCFS File Systems

Before you continue with the next steps, make sure you've created all needed partitions on your shared storage.

Under Creating Oracle Directories I created the /u02/oradata/orcl mount directory for the cluster manager files. In the following example I will create one OCFS filesystem and mount

it on /u02/oradata/orcl .

The following steps for creating the OCFS filesystem(s) should only be executed on one RAC node!

To create the OCFS filesystems, you can use the ocfstool:

su - root

ocfstool

- Select "Task" - Select "Format"

Alternatively, you can execute the "mkfs.ocfs" command to crea te the OCFS filesystems:

su - root

mkfs.ocfs -F -b 128 -L /u02/oradata/orcl -m /u02/oradata/orcl \

-u ìd -u oracle` -g ìd -g oracle` -p 0775


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Cleared volume header sectors

Cleared node config sectors

Cleared publish sectors

Cleared vote sectors

Cleared bitmap sectors

Cleared data block

Wrote volume header

#

For SCSI disks (including FireWire disks), stands for devices like /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, dev/sdd, etc. Be careful to use the right device name! For this article

I created an OCFS filesystem on /dev/sda1.

mkfs.ocfs options:

-F Forces to format existing OCFS volume

-b Block size in kB. The block size must be a multiple of the Oracle block size. Oracle recommends to set the block size for OCFS to 128.

-L Volume label

-m Mount point for the device (in this article "/var/opt/oracle/oradata/orcl ")

-u UID for the root directory (in this article "oracle")

-g GID for the root directory (in this article "oinstall")

-p Permissions for the root directory

Mounting OCFS File Systems

As I mentioned previously, for this article I created one large OCFS fileystem on /dev/sda1. To mount the OCFS filesystem, I executed:

su - root

# mount -t ocfs /dev/sda1 /u02/oradata/orcl

or

# mount -t ocfs -L /u02/oradata/orcl /u02/oradata/orcl

Now run the ls command on all RAC nodes to check the ownership:

# ls -ld /u02/oradata/orcl

drwxrwxr-x 1 oracle oinstall 131072 Jul 4 23:25 /u02/oradata/orcl

#

NOTE: If the above ls command does not display the same ownership on all RAC nodes (oracle:oinstall), then the "oracle" UID and the "oinstall" GID are not the same accross the

RAC nodes, see Creating Oracle User Accounts for more information.

Configuring the OCFS File Systems to Mount Automatically at Startup

To ensure the OCFS filesystems are mounted automat ically during reboots, the OCFS mount points need to be added to the /etc/fstab file.

Add lines to the /etc/fstab file similar to the following example:

/dev/sda1 /u02/oradata/orcl ocfs _netdev 0 0

The "_netdev" option prevents the OCFS filesystem from being mounted until the network has first been enabled on the system, which provides access to the storage device (see

mount(8)).

To make sure the ocfs.o kernel module is loaded and the OCFS file systems are mounted during the boot process, enter:

su - root

# chkconfig --list ocfs

ocfs 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

If the flags are not set to "on" as marked in bold, run the following command:

su - root

# chkconfig ocfs on

You can also start the "ocfs" service manually by running:

su - root

# service ocfs start

When you run this command it will not only load the ocfs.o kernel module but it will also mount the OCFS filesystems as configured in /etc/fstab.

At this point you might want to reboot all RAC nodes to ensure that the OCFS filesystems are mounted automatically after reboots:

su - root

reboot


General

For information about what Automatic Storage Management is, see Configuring and Using Automatic Storage Management.

See also Installing Oracle ASMLib for Linux.

Installing ASM

Download the latest Oracle ASM RPMs from http://otn.oracle.com/tech/linux/asmlib/index.html.

Make sure that you download the right ASM driver for your kernel (UP or SMP).

To install the ASM RPMs on a UP server, run:

su - root

rpm -Uvh oracleasm-2.4.21-EL-1.0.0-1.i686.rpm \

oracleasm-support-1.0.2-1.i386.rpm \

oracleasmlib-1.0.0-1.i386.rpm


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To install the ASM RPMs on a SMP server, run:

su - root

rpm -Uvh oracleasm-2.4.21-EL-smp-1.0.0-1.i686.rpm \

oracleasm-support-1.0.2-1.i386.rpm \

oracleasmlib-1.0.0-1.i386.rpm

Configuring and Loading ASM

To load the ASM driver oracleams.o and to mount the ASM driver filesystem, enter:

su - root

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm configure

Configuring the Oracle ASM library driver.

This will configure the on-boot properties of the Oracle ASM librarydriver. 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 without typing an

answer will keep that current value. Ctrl-C will abort.

Default user to own the driver interface []: oracle

Default group to own the driver interface []: oinstall

Start Oracle ASM library driver on boot (y/n) [n]: y

Fix permissions of Oracle ASM disks on boot (y/n) [y]: y

Writing Oracle ASM library driver configuration [ OK ]

Creating /dev/oracleasm mount point [ OK ]

Loading module "oracleasm" [ OK ]

Mounting ASMlib driver filesystem [ OK ]

Scanning system for ASM disks [ OK ]

#

Creating ASM Disks

NOTE: Creating ASM disks is done on one RAC node! The following commands should only be executed on one RAC node!

I executed the following commands to create my ASM disks: (make sure to change the device names!)

(In this example I used partitions (/dev/sda2, /dev/sda3, /dev/sda5) instead of whole disks (/dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc,...))

su - root

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm createdisk VOL1 /dev/

Marking disk "/dev/sda2" as an ASM disk [ OK ]





#

# # Replace "sd??" with the name of your device. I used /dev/sda2, /dev/sda3, and /dev/sda5

To list all ASM disks, enter:

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm listdisks

VOL1

VOL2

VOL3

#

On all other RAC nodes, you just need to notify the system about the new ASM disks:

su - root

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm scandisks

Scanning system for ASM disks [ OK ]

#

Configuring the "hangcheck-timer" Kernel Module

Oracle uses the Linux kernel module hangcheck-timer to monitor the system health of the cluster and to reset a RAC node in case of failures. The hangcheck-timer module uses a

kernel-based timer to periodically check the system task scheduler. This timer resets the node when the system hangs or pauses. This module uses the Time Stamp Counter (TSC) CPU

register which is a counter that is incremented at each clock signal.

The hangcheck-timer module comes now with the kernel:

find /lib/modules -name "hangcheck-timer.o"

The hangcheck-timer module has the following two parameters:

hangcheck_tick

This parameter defines the period of time between checks of system health.

The default value is 60 seconds. Oracle recommends to set it to 30 seconds.

hangcheck_margin

This parameter defines the maximum hang delay that should be tolerated before

hangcheck-timer resets the RAC node. It defines the margin of error in seconds.

The default value is 180 seconds. Oracle recommends to set it to 180 seconds.

These two parameters indicate how long a RAC node must hang before the hangcheck-timer module will reset the system. A node reset will occur when the following is true:

system hang time > (hangcheck_tick + hangcheck_margin)

To load the module with the right parameter settings, make entries to the /etc/modules.conf file. To do that, add the following line to the /etc/modules.conf file:

# su - root

# echo "options hangcheck-timer hangcheck_tick=30 hangcheck_margin=180" >> /etc/modules.conf


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Now you can run modprobe to load the module with the configured parameters in /etc/modules.conf :

# su - root

# modprobe hangcheck-timer

# grep Hangcheck /var/log/messages |tail -2

Jul 5 00:46:09 rac1pub kernel: Hangcheck: starting hangcheck timer 0.8.0 (tick is 180 seconds, margin is 60 seconds).

Jul 5 00:46:09 rac1pub kernel: Hangcheck: Using TSC.

#

Note: To ensure the hangcheck-timer module is loaded after each reboot, add the modprobe command to the /etc/rc.local file.

Setting up RAC Nodes for Remote Access

When you run the Oracle Installer on a RAC node, it will use ssh to copy Oracle software and data to other RAC nodes. Therefore, the oracle user on the RAC node where Oracle

Installer is launched must be able to login to other RAC nodes without having to provide a password or passphrase.

The following procedure shows how ssh can be configured that no password is requested for oraclessh logins.

To create an authentication key for oracle, enter the following command on a ll RAC node:

(the ~/.ssh directory will be created automatically if it doesn't exist yet)

su - oracle

$ ssh-keygen -t dsa -b 1024

Generating public/private dsa key pair.

Enter file in which to save the key (/home/oracle/.ssh/id_dsa): Press ENTER

Created directory '/home/oracle/.ssh'.

Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): Enter a passphrase

Enter same passphrase again: Etner a passphrase

Your identification has been saved in /home/oracle/.ssh/id_dsa.

Your public key has been saved in /home/oracle/.ssh/id_dsa.pub.

The key fingerprint is:

e0:71:b1:5b:31:b8:46:d3:a9:ae:df:6a:70:98:26:82 oracle@rac1pub

Copy the pulic key for oracle from each RAC node to all other RAC nodes.

For example, run the following commands on all RAC nodes:su - oracle

ssh rac1pub cat ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys



Now verify that oracle on each RAC node can login to all other RAC nodes without a password. Make sure that ssh only asks for the passphrase. Note, however, that the first time you

ssh to another server you will get a message stating that the authenticity of the host cannot be established. Enter "yes" at the prompt to continue the connection.

For example, run the following commands on all RAC nodes to verify that no password is asked:

su - oracle

ssh rac1pub hostname


ssh rac1prv hostname





And later, before runInstaller is launched, I will show how ssh can be configured that no passphrase has to be entered for oraclessh logins.

Checking Packages (RPMs)

Some packages will be missing when you selected the Installation Type "Advanced Server" during the Red Hat Advanced Server installation.

The following additional RPMs are required:

rpm -q gcc glibc-devel glibc-headers glibc-kernheaders cpp compat-libstdc++

To install these RPMS, run:

su - root

rpm -ivh gcc-3.2.3-24.i386.rpm \

glibc-devel-2.3.2-95.6.i386.rpm \

glibc-headers-2.3.2-95.6.i386.rpm \

glibc-kernheaders-2.4-8.34.i386.rpm \

cpp-3.2.3-24.i386.rpm \

compat-libstdc++-7.3-2.96.123.i386.rpm

Theopemotif

RPM is also required, otherwise you won't pass Oracle's recommended operating system packages test. If it's not installed on your system, runsu - root

rpm -ivh openmotif-2.2.2-16.i386.rpm

I recommend using the latest RPM version.

Adjusting Network Settings

Oracle now uses UDP as the default protocol on Linux for interprocess communication, such as cache fusion buffer transfers between the instances.

It is strongly suggested to adjust the default and maximum send buffer size (SO_SNDBUF socket option) to 256 KB, and the default and maximum receive buffer size (SO_RCVBUF socket

option) to 256 KB. The receive buffers are used by TCP and UDP to hold received data until is is read by the application. The receive buffer cannot overflow because the peer is not

allowed to send data beyond the buffer size window. This means that datagrams will be discarded if they don't fit in the socket receive buffer. This could cause the sender to overwhelm

the receiver.

The default and maximum window size can be changed in the proc file system without reboot:

su - root


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sysctl -w net.core.rmem_default=262144 # Default setting in bytes of the socket receive buffer

sysctl -w net.core.wmem_default=262144 # Default setting in bytes of the socket send buffer

sysctl -w net.core.rmem_max=262144 # Maximum socket receive buffer size which may be set by using the SO_RCVBUF socket option

sysctl -w net.core.wmem_max=262144 # Maximum socket send buffer size which may be set by using the SO_SNDBUF socket option

To make the change permanent, add the following lines to the /etc/sysctl.conf file, which is used during the boot process:

net.core.rmem_default=262144

net.core.wmem_default=262144

net.core.rmem_max=262144

net.core.wmem_max=262144

Sizing Swap Space

It is important to follow the steps as outlined in Sizing Swap Space.

Setting Shared Memory

It is important to follow the steps as outlined in Setting Shared Memory.

Checking /tmp Space

It is important to follow the steps as outlined in Checking /tmp Space.

Setting Semaphores

It is recommended to follow the steps as outlined in Setting Semaphores.

Setting File Handles

It is recommended to follow the steps as outlined in Setting File Handles.

Installing Cluster Ready Services (CRS)

General

Cluster Ready Services (CRS) contains cluster and database configuration information for RAC, and it provides many system management features. CRS accepts registration of Oracle

instances to the cluster and it sends ping messages to other RAC nodes. If the heartbeat fails, CRS will use shared disk to distinguish between a node failure and a network failure.

Once CRS is running on all RAC nodes, OUI will automatically recognice all nodes on the cluster. This means that you can run OUI on one RAC node to install the Oracle software on allother RAC nodes.

Note that Automatic Storage Management (ASM) cannot be used for the "Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR)" file or for the "CRS Voting Disk" file. These files must be accessible before any

Oracle instances are started. And for ASM to become available, the ASM instance needs to run first.

In the following example I will use OCFS for the "Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR)" file and for the "CRS Voting disk" file. The Oracle Cluster Registry file has a size of about 100 MB, and

the CRS Voting Disk file has a size of about 20 MB. Tese files must reside on OCFS or on a shared raw device, or on any other clustered filesystem.

Automating Authentication for oraclessh Logins

Make sure that the oracle user can ssh to all RAC nodes without ssh asking for a passphrase. This is very important because otherwise OUI won't be able to install the Oracle software

on other RAC nodes. The following example shows how ssh-agent can do the authentication for you when the oracle account logs in to other RAC nodes using ssh.

Open a new terminal for the RAC node where you will execute runInstaller and use this terminal to login from your desktop using the following command:

$ ssh -X oracle@rac?pub

The "X11 forward" feature (-X option) of ssh will relink X to your local desktop. For more information, see Installing Oracle10g on a Remote Linux Server.

Now configure ssh-agent to handle the authentication for the oracle account:

oracle$ ssh-agent $SHELL

oracle$ ssh-add

Enter passphrase for /home/oracle/.ssh/id_dsa: Enter your passphrase

Identity added: /home/oracle/.ssh/id_dsa (/home/oracle/.ssh/id_dsa)

oracle$

Now make sure the oracle user can ssh into each RAC node. It is very important that NO text is displayed and that you are not asked for a passphrase. Only the server name of the

remote RAC node should be displayed:

oracle$ ssh rac1pub hostname

rac1pub

oracle$ ssh rac1prv hostname

rac1pub


rac2pub



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rac2pub


rac3pub


rac3pub

NOTE: Keep this terminal open since this is the terminal that will be used f or running runInstaller!

Checking OCFS and Oracle Environment Variables

Checking OCFSs

Make sure the OCFS filesystem(s) are mounted on all RAC nodes:

oracle$ ssh rac1pub df |grep oradata

/dev/sda1 51205216 33888 51171328 1% /u02/oradata/orcl






Run the following command on all RAC nodes:

su - oracle

$ set | grep ORA

ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle

ORACLE_SID=orcl1

$

It is important that $ORACLE_SID is different on each RAC node!

It is also recommended that $ORACLE_HOME is not set but that OUI selects the home directory.

Installing Oracle 10g Cluster Ready Services (CRS) R1 (10.1.0.2)

In order to install the Cluster Ready Services (CRS) R1 (10.1.0.2) on all RAC nodes, OUI has to be launched on only one RAC node. In my example I will run OUI always on rac1pub.

To install CRS, insert the "Cluster Ready Services (CRS) R1 (10.1.0.2)" CD (downloadedd image name: "ship.crs.cpio.gz"), and mount it on e.g. rac1pub:

su - root

mount /mnt/cdrom

Use the oracle terminal that you prepared for ssh at Automating Authentication for oracle ssh Logins and execute runInstaller:

oracle$ /mnt/cdrom/runInstaller

- Welcome Screen: Click Next

- Inventory directory and credentials:

Click Next

- Unix Group Name: Use "oinstall".

- Root Script Window: Open another window, login as root, and run /tmp/orainstRoot.sh

on the node where you launched runInstaller.After you've run the script, click Continue.

- File Locations: I used the recommended default values:

Destination Name: OraCr10g_home1

Destination Path: /u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/crs_1

Click Next

- Language Selection: Click Next

- Cluster Configuration:

Cluster Name: crs

Cluster Nodes: Public Node Name: rac1pub Private Node Name: rac1prv

Public Node Name: rac2pub Private Node Name: rac2prv

Public Node Name: rac3pub Private Node Name: rac3prv

Click Next

- Private Interconnect Enforcement:

Interface Name: eth0 Subnet: 192.168.1.0 Interface Type: Public

Interface Name: eth1 Subnet: 192.168.2.0 Interface Type: Private

Click Next

- Oracle Cluster Registry:

OCR Location: /u02/oradata/orcl/OCRFile

Click Next

- Voting Disk: Voting disk file name: /u02/oradata/orcl/CSSFile

Click Next

- Root Script Window:

Open another window, login as root, and execute

/u01/app/oracle/oraInventory/orainstRoot.sh on ALL RAC Nodes!

NOTE: For any reason Oracle does not create the log directory

"/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/crs_1/log". If there are problems with

CRS, it will create log files in this directory, but only if it exists.

Therefore make sure to create this directory as oracle:

oracle$ mkdir /u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/crs_1/log

After you've run the script, click Continue.

- Setup Privileges Script Window:


/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/crs_1/root.sh on ALL RAC Nodes one by one!

Note that his can take a while. On the last RAC node, the output of the

script was as follows:

...

CSS is active on these nodes.

rac1pub

rac2pub

rac3pub

CSS is active on all nodes.

Oracle CRS stack installed and running under init(1M)

Click OK


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- Summary: Click Install

- When installation is completed, click Exit.

One way to verify the CRS installation is to display all the nodes where CRS was installed:

oracle$ /u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/crs_1/bin/olsnodes -n

rac1pub 1

rac2pub 2

rac3pub 3

Installing Oracle Database 10g Software with Real Application Clusters (RAC)

General

The following procedure shows the installation of the software for Oracle Database 10g Software R1 (10.1.0.2) with Real Application Clusters (RAC).

Note that Oracle Database 10g R1 (10.1) OUI will not be able to discover disks that are marked as Linux ASMLib. Therefore it is recommended to complete the software installation and

then to use dbca to create the database, see http://otn.oracle.com/tech/linux/asmlib/install.html#10gr1for more information.


Before you install the Oracle Database 10g Software with Real Application Clusters (RAC) R1 (10.1.0.2), it is important that you followed the steps as out lined in Automating

Authentication for oracle ssh Logins.


Run the following command on all RAC nodes:

su - oracle

$ set | grep ORA

ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle

ORACLE_SID=orcl1

$

It is important that $ORACLE_SID is different on each RAC node!

It is also recommended that $ORACLE_HOME is not set but that OUI selects the home directory.

Installing Oracle Database 10g Software R1 (10.1.0.2) with Real Application Clusters (RAC)

In order to install the Oracle Database 10g R1 (10.1.0.2) Software with Real Application Clusters (RAC) on all RAC nodes, OUI has to be launched on only one RAC node. In my

example I will run OUI on rac1pub.

To install the RAC Database software, insert the Oracle Database 10g R1 (10.1.0.2) CD (downloaded image name: "ship.db.cpio.gz"), and mount it on e.g. rac1pub:

su - root

mount /mnt/cdrom

Use the oracle terminal that you prepared for ssh at Automating Authentication for oracle ssh Logins, and execute runInstaller:

oracle$ /mnt/cdrom/runInstaller

- Welcome Screen: Click Next

- File Locations: I used the default values:

Destination Name: raDb10g_home1

Destination Path: /u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/db_1

Click Next.

- Hardware Cluster Installation Mode:

Select "Cluster Installation"

Click "Select All" to select all servers: rac1pub, rac2pub, rac3pub

Click Next

NOTE: If it stops here and the status of a RAC node is "Node not reachable",

then perform the following checks:

- Check if the node where you launched OUI is able to do ssh without a

passphrase to the RAC node where the status is set to "Node not reachable".

- Check if the CRS is running this RAC node.

- Installation Type:

I selected "Enterprise Edition". Click Next.

- Product-specific Prerequisite Checks:

Make sure that the status of each Check is set to "Succeeded".

Click Next

- Database Configuration:

I selected "Do not create a starter database" since we have to create the

database with dbca.Oracle Database 10g R1 (10.1) OUI will not be able to

discover disks that are marked as Linux ASMLib. For more information, see

http://otn.oracle.com/tech/linux/asmlib/install.html#10gr1

Click Next

- Summary: Click Install

- Setup Privileges Window:


/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/db_1/root.sh on ALL RAC Nodes one by one!

NOTE: Make also sure that X is relinked to your local desktop since this

script will launch the "VIP Configuration Assistant" tool which is a

GUI based utility!

VIP Configuration Assistant Tool:

(This Assistant tool will come up only once when root.sh is executed the

first time in your RAC cluster)


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- Welcome Click Next

- Network Interfaces: I selected both interfaces, eth0 and eth1.

Click Next

- Virtual IPs for cluster nodes:

(for the alias names and IP address, see Setting Up the /etc/hosts File)

Node Name: rac1pub

IP Alias Name: rac1vip

IP address: 192.168.1.51

Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Node Name: rac2pub


IP address: 192.168.1.52

Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Node Name: rac3pub


IP address: 192.168.1.53Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Click Next

- Summary: Click Finish

- Configuration Assistant Progress Dialog:

Click OK after configuration is complete.

- Configuration Results:

Click Exit

Click OK to close the Setup Privilege Window.

- End of Installation:

Click Exit

If OUI terminates abnormally (happend to me several times), or if anything else goes wrong, remove the following files/directories and start over again:

su - oracle

rm -rf /u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/db_1

Installing Oracle Database 10g with Real Application Cluster (RAC)

General

The following steps show how to use dbca to create the database and its instances. Oracle recommends to use dbca to create the RAC database since the preconfigured databases are

optimized for ASM, server parameter file, and automatic undo management. dbca also makes it much more easier to create new ASM disk groups etc.


Before you install a RAC database, it is important that you followed the steps as outlined in Automating Authentication for oracle ssh Logins.

Setting Oracle Environment Variables

Since the Oracle RAC software is already installed, $ORACLE_HOME can now be set to the home directory that was choosen by OUI.

The following steps should now be performed on all RAC nodes! It is very important that these environment variables are set permanently for oracle on all RAC nodes!

To make sure $ORACLE and $PATH are set automatically each time oracle logs in, add the se environment variables to the ~oracle/.bash_profile file which is the user startup file for

the Bash shell on Red Hat Linux. To do this you could simply copy/paste the following commands to make these settings permanent for your oracle's Bash shell (the path might differ on

your system!):

su - oracle

cat >> ~oracle/.bash_profile


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Click Next

- Management Option: I selected "Use Database Control for Database Management".

Click Next

- Database Credentials:

I selected "Use the Same Password for All Accounts". Enter the password and

make sure the password does not start with a digit number.

Click Next

- Storage Options: I selected "Automatic Storage Management (ASM)", see


Click Next

- Create ASM Instance:

Enter the SYS password for the ASM instance.

I selected the default parameter file (IFILE):

"{ORACLE_BASE}/admin/+ASM/pfile/init.ora"

Click Next

At this point DBCA will create and start the ASM instance on all RAC nodes.

Click OK to create and start the ASM instance.

An error will come up that oratab can't be copied to /tmp. I ignored this error.

If you get "ORACLE server session terminated by fatal error", then you probably

didn't follow the steps at Setting Up the /etc/hosts File

- ASM Disk Groups: - Click "Create New"

Create Disk Group Window:

- Click "Change Disk Discovery Path".

- Enter "ORCL:VOL*" for Disk Discovery Path.

The discovery string for finding ASM disks must be prefixed with "ORCL:",

and in my example I called the ASM disks VOL1, VOL2, VOL3.

- I entered an arbitraty Disk Group Name: ORCL_DATA1

- I checked the candidate: "ORCL:VOL1" and "ORCL:VOL2" which have

together about 60 GB space in my configuration.

- Click OK.

- Check the new created disk group "ORCL_DATA1".

- Click Next

- Database File Locations:

Select "Use Oracle-Managed Files"

Database Area: +ORCL_DATA1

Click Next

- Recovery Configuration:

Using recovery options like Flash Recovery Area is out of scope for this article.

So I did not select any recovery options.

Click Next

- Database Content: I did not select Sample Schemas or Custom Scripts.

Click Next

- Database Services: Click "Add" and enter a Service Name: I entered "orcltest".

I selected TAF Policy "Basic".

Click Next

- Initialization Parameters:

Change settings as needed.

Click Next

- Database Storage: Change settings as needed.

Click Next

- Creation Options: Check "Create Database"

Click Finish

- Summary: Click OK

Now the database is being created.

The following error message came up:

"Unable to copy the file "rac2pub:/etc/oratab" to "/tmp/oratab.rac2pub".

I clicked "Ignore". I have to investigate this.

Your RAC cluster should now be up and running. To verify, try to connect to each instance from one of the RAC nodes:

$ sqlplus system@orcl1



After you connected to an instance, enter the following SQL command to verify your connection:

SQL> select instance_name from v$instance;

Post-Installation Steps

Transparent Application Failover (TAF)

Introduction

Processes external to the Oracle 10g RAC cluster control the Transparent Application Failover (TAF). This means that the failover types and methods can be unique for each Oracle Net

client. The re-connection happens automatically within the OCI library which means that you do not need to change the client application to use TAF.

Setup

To test TAF on the new installed RAC cluster, configure the tnsnames.ora file for TAF on a non-RAC server where you have either the Oracle database software or the Oracle client

software installed.

Here is an example how my /opt/oracle/product/9.2.0/network/admin/tnsnames.ora : looks like:

ORCLTEST =


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(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = rac1vip)(PORT = 1521))



(LOAD_BALANCE = yes)

(CONNECT_DATA =

(SERVER = DEDICATED)

(SERVICE_NAME = orcl)

(FAILOVER_MODE =

(TYPE = SELECT)

(METHOD = BASIC)

(RETRIES = 180)

(DELAY = 5)

)

)

)

The following SQL statement can be used to check the sessions's failover type, failover method, and if a failover has occured:

select instance_name, host_name,

NULL AS failover_type,

NULL AS failover_method,

NULL AS failed_over

FROM v$instance

UNION

SELECT NULL, NULL, failover_type, failover_method, failed_over

FROM v$session

WHERE username = 'SYSTEM';

Example of a Transparent Application Failover (TAF)

Here is an example of a Transparent Application Failover:

su - oracle

$ sqlplus system@orcltest

SQL> select instance_name, host_name,

2 NULL AS failover_type,

3 NULL AS failover_method,4 NULL AS failed_over

5 FROM v$instance

6 UNION

7 SELECT NULL, NULL, failover_type, failover_method, failed_over

8 FROM v$session

9 WHERE username = 'SYSTEM';

INSTANCE_NAME HOST_NAME FAILOVER_TYPE FAILOVER_M FAI

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

orcl1 rac1pub

SELECT BASIC NO

SQL>

The above SQL statement shows that I'm connected to " rac1pub" for instance "orcl1".

In this case, execute shutdown abort on "rac1pub" for instance "orcl1":

SQL> shutdown abort

ORACLE instance shut down.

SQL>

Now rerun the SQL statement:

SQL> select instance_name, host_name,

2 NULL AS failover_type,

3 NULL AS failover_method,

4 NULL AS failed_over

5 FROM v$instance

6 UNION

7 SELECT NULL, NULL, failover_type, failover_method, failed_over

8 FROM v$session

9 WHERE username = 'SYSTEM';

INSTANCE_NAME HOST_NAME FAILOVER_TYPE FAILOVER_M FAI

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

orcl2 rac2pub

SELECT BASIC YES

SQL>

The SQL statement shows that the sessions has failed over to instance "orcl2". Note that this can take a few seconds.

Checking Automatic Storage Management (ASM)

Here are a couple SQL statements to verify ASM.

Run the following command to see which data files are in which disk group:

SQL> select name from v$datafile

2 union

3 select name from v$controlfile

4 union

5 select member from v$logfile;

NAME

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

+ORCL_DATA1/orcl/controlfile/current.260.3


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+ORCL_DATA1/orcl/datafile/sysaux.257.1

+ORCL_DATA1/orcl/datafile/system.256.1

+ORCL_DATA1/orcl/datafile/undotbs1.258.1

+ORCL_DATA1/orcl/datafile/undotbs2.264.1

+ORCL_DATA1/orcl/datafile/users.259.1

+ORCL_DATA1/orcl/onlinelog/group_1.261.1




10 rows selected.

SQL>

Run the following command to see which ASM disk(s) belong to the disk group 'ORCL_DATA1':

(ORCL_DATA1 was specified in Installing Oracle Database 10g with Real Application Cluster)

SQL> select path from v$asm_disk where group_number in

2 (select group_number from v$asm_diskgroup where name = 'ORCL_DATA1');

PATH

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

ORCL:VOL1

ORCL:VOL2

SQL>

Oracle 10g RAC Issues, Problems and Errors

This section describes other issues, problems and errors pertaining to installing Oracle 10g with RAC which has not been covered so far.

Gtk-WARNING **: libgdk_pixbuf.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

This error can come up when you run ocfstool. To fix this error, install the gdk-pixbuf RPM:

rpm -ivh gdk-pixbuf-0.18.0-8.1.i386.rpm

/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/crs_1/bin/crs_stat.bin: error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3: cannot open shared object

/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/crs_1/bin/crs_stat.bin: error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3: cannot open shared object

PRKR-1061 : Failed to run remote command to get node configuration for node rac1pup

PRKR-1061 : Failed to run remote command to get node configuration for node rac1pup

This error can come up when you run root.sh. To fix this error, install the compat-libstdc++ RPM and rerun root.sh:

rpm -ivh compat-libstdc++-7.3-2.96.122.i386.rpm

mount: fs type ocfs not supported by kernel

The OCFS kernel module was not loaded. See Configuring and Loading OCFS for more information.


or

SQL> startup nomount

ORA-29702: error occurred in Cluster Group Service operation

If the trace file looks like this:

/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/db_1/rdbms/log/orcl1_ora_7424.trc

...

kgefec: fatal error 0

*** 2004-03-13 20:50:28.201

ksedmp: internal or fatal error


ORA-27504: IPC error creating OSD context

ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:gethostbyname failed with status: 0

ORA-27301: OS failure message: Error 0

ORA-27302: failure occurred at: sskgxpmyip4

Current SQL information unavailable - no session.

----- Call Stack Trace -----

calling call entry argument values in hex

location type point (? means dubious value)

-------------------- -------- -------------------- ----------------------------ksedmp()+493 call ksedst()+0 0 ? 0 ? 0 ? 1 ? 0 ? 0 ?

ksfdmp()+14 call ksedmp()+0 3 ? BFFF783C ? A483593 ?

BF305C0 ? 3 ? BFFF8310 ?

Make sure that the name of the RAC node is not listed for the loopback address in the /etc/hosts file similar to this example:

127.0.0.1 rac1pub localhost.localdomain localhost

The entry should rather look like this:

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

References

Oracle's Linux Center

Oracle Database 10g Documentation


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Installing Oracle9i Real Application Cluster (RAC) on Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1

Project Documentation: OCFS

Installing Oracle ASMLib

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Installing Oracle Database 10g Real Application Cluster (RAC) on Red Hat Linux Advanced Server (RedHat, Oracle10g RAC)