masterschema » 11gR2

Oracle RAC 11g R2 Install How-To in VMWare and iSCSI

eric — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:22:26 +0000

I’m working on a series of videos to demonstrate all the steps required to create a RAC 11g R2 using VMWare and iSCSI from scratch. These videos will be reasonably free from clips, to show the full process and what to expect. I find there are a lot of “How-tos” out there that are written, with screenshots, but that do not provide the newer DBA with the confidence that the procedure will work. I feel a video first, procedure second, provides confidence that the steps documented do lead to something usable in the end.

These videos will be published in a seemingly random order, partly related to how I decide to edit/cut them. Also there will be some differences in video/audio quality as I improve my processes over time. The videos were not necessarily shot in the order of execution, but I will sequence them in a “Playlist” on youtube so it’s easy to figure out the order in which they should be watched.

Please keep in mind there will be gaps. At present, I have put four new videos up; my intention is the following set of videos:

Working with VMWare: Understanding guests, multiple virtual NICs, vmnet, vmdks, and the cloning process
Install Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL, RHEL, CentOS) 5.4 or 5.3 using a kickstart file to build a generic “base brick machine” (BBM)
Understanding runlevels and booting into single user mode with GRUB and Linux
Create an iSCSI target host using a BBM (not bloated openfiler)
Create a router using a BBM to serve as a gateway and DHCP server for the public network of a RAC
Create a DNS server using a BBM, and create zones for Oracle Grid Infrastructure GNS
Install Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control 10.2.0.x and patch to 10.2.0.5 (10gR5) on a BBM
Understanding ssh user equivalency and using the basics of authorized_keys
Prepare a BBM for Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g R2
Install Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g R2 in VMWare on 2 nodes
Run root scripts for Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g R2
Install Oracle Database Real Application Clusters (RAC) 11g R2 on 2 nodes
Creating a RAC 11g R2 database using DBCA

Arguably steps 4 and 9 are probably the most difficult for configuring a RAC; #4, creating the shared storage “device” (in this case, a server running OEL with iSCSI target software) and #9, attaching the nodes to this device.

The 4 videos I’ve prepared and uploaded so far:

4. Create an iSCSI target host using a BBM
9. Prepare a BBM for Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g R2
10. Install Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g R2 in VMWare on 2 nodes
11. Run root scripts for Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g R2

The playlist that I will maintain with this full list of videos is at this link.
http://www.youtube.com/user/masterschema#grid/user/8DBBE5E49A28EA6A

Removing an inaccessible or destroyed node from Oracle RAC 11gR2

eric — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:46:48 +0000

What do you do if you lose a node in a RAC as a result of destruction, theft, or other unrecoverable error? How do we clean up the existing cluster so the inaccessible node is removed permanently from Oracle Clusterware and Oracle RAC Databases?

I demonstrate the current process with 11gR2, which now has many new crsctl commands that can help with this administrative task.

Obviously when this type of thing does happen in production, I’m sure it’ll be impossible to remain calm and collected, but I hope this video helps to demonstrate just how easy it is to deal with this type of disaster.

Please enjoy!

Extending RAC 11gR2 to 4th node

eric — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:58:23 +0000

I put together a follow-up video to the 3-node install where I add a 4th node of RAC 11gR2 in VMWare successfully, including extending the database to a total 4 instances.

In less than 10 minutes of video, you will see the cloning of the Grid Infrastructure 11gR2 home, cloning of the Database 11gR2 home, and creation of a 4th instance all running in VMWare.

addNode.sh has changed slightly; it no longer seems to allow an interactive Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) run.

I hope you enjoy this video!

Install Oracle RAC 11g R2 in VMWare – 3 nodes

eric — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:40:55 +0000

I have just put together some videos to demonstrate installing Oracle RAC 11g R2 successfully in VMWare, simulating 3 separate nodes. I will be adding a 4th node in VMWare to demonstrate how to add (and later remove) nodes and RAC instances in open databases.

These videos show how viable it can be to use VMWare to build a test RAC enviroment, even with the latest version, 11g R2, despite the system requirements espoused by Oracle. I take great pains to build the VMs and prep them for installation success, and I will later document all these processes and possibly create videos of the process too.

Please enjoy and let me know what you think!

Video 1 shows Grid Infrastructure installing on 3 VMWare nodes
Video 2 was destroyed when Camtasia decided to crash and leave no temp files behind; it was the installation of 11g R2 Database in RAC
Video 3 shows DBCA starting up
Video 4 shows 3 instances of the RAC database up and kicking

Flashing and blinking bug in Oracle Universal Installer Database 11gR2

eric — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:33:16 +0000

The latest release of Oracle Database came with an overhaul of the Oracle Universal Installer GUI. There is a strange interaction between gnome and the OUI (runInstaller) that causes the screen to flash uncontrollably and not resize properly when the screen resolution is 800×600 and gnome is configured as per defaults of RedHat Enterprise Linux and Oracle Enterprise Linux, which consumes a few pixels on top and bottom reducing overall screen space to under 600 pixels tall.

This video was produced while sitting on a flight from YVR (Vancouver) to YOW (Ottawa), in seat 1A in J (Exec/First) class. I had food over my MacBook Pro, and it’s a wonder the built-in microphone picked up anything. I demonstrate this via a VNC connection in response to a question posted on Oracle forums regarding using VNC to install. It is not VNC that is at fault; it is the lack of screen realestate that causes Oracle to blink and flash, and ultimately fail to visibly draw the “Next” button (although the ALT-N key combo still works)

Note that Oracle specifies a minimum of 1024×768 resolution for 11gR2 installation. See documentation here.

Oracle 11gR2 11.2.0.1 Real Application Cluster (RAC) installation on VMWare Fusion and OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

eric — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:25:17 +0000

I put together a video on a recent flight (September 11, 2009) from Toronto to Vancouver while killing time. I just happened to have all the 11.2.0.1 distribution downloaded and ready to install, so I whipped up a few Virtual Machines, iSCSI based shared storage (No, I don’t use openfiler; rolled my own iSCSI Enterprise Target (iet) based VM), and Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL 5.2).

I messed up the NTP configuration, so the root.sh during the Grid Infrastructure install failed. My intention is to build up a demo environment to show off all the features of 11gR2 as best as possible, all in Virtual Machines so that you can simulate the same educational environment on your own poor-man’s-garage-cluster. =)

I’ll whip up some documentation and procedures some time next week if there’s any interest from the community. If no interest is expressed, I shall just keep my own notes for personal purposes and publish tidbits that might mean very little to others, so let me know (via comments or otherwise) what you think, and what you’d like to see.

Host machine: MacBook Pro (my portable lab) with 4GB of ram and built-in HD for all VM storage; VMWare Fusion 2.0.5; 2 Nodes attempted with Grid Infrastructure (ASM and Oracle Clusterware components).