Category Archives: RAC

Oracle 11gR2 11.2.0.3 2-node RAC on Windows 2008 on VMware Workstation 9 – Part II

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Time Required: 30 minutes

Class Materials:

  • None

Next we need to add additional networking components to allow our RAC nodes to communicate.

Oracle RAC requires two separate networks, one for public traffic and one for private cluster traffic. Both adapters must use static IP addresses.

VMware Workstation already installed a Bridged Adapter as part of the install process, and this adapter will provde internet access to our VM. But in most cases, the IP address of this adapter will change as DHCP leases expire, or in the case of a laptop, the machine moves from network to network.

Therefore, we need to add two additional NICs on virtual networks between the RAC nodes, one to be our public network and the other to be our private network.

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Oracle 11gR2 11.2.0.3 2-node RAC on Windows 2008 on VMware Workstation 9 – Part I

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Time Required: 30 minutes

Class Materials:

  • 50GB of free disk
  • An operational VMware Workstation 9 or later install
  • Windows Server 2008R2 64-bit install media

To create our Oracle RAC database on Windows on VMware Workstation 9, we first need to create a Windows VM.

I am using an ISO image of Windows Server 2008R2 that I downloaded from MSDN. An MSDN subscription offers developers the opportunity to test out different technologies from Micorosft for development purposes.

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Oracle 11gR2 2-node RAC on VMware Workstation 9

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Last week I was in Dallas, Texas meeting with some customers and reminding myself what sunny weather looks like.

I took the opportunity to hook up with my friend and colleague Lester Wells, an awesome EMC guy based out of Dallas, and who is also an expert in all things Oracle.

Sitting in the Champps bar near to DFW, we decided, as geeks are often want to do, to see if the 11gR2 RAC on VMware Workstation 8, the process for which is shown in this blog, would also work under Lester’s VMware Workstation 9.

Two guys, two laptops, a table close to wall sockets and more than just a few beers later, happily it turns out that everything worked exactly the same under Workstation 9, as it did under Workstation 8.

If you’re running under Workstation 8 you can go ahead and upgrade, it won’t break anything.

If you are wishing to create a RAC under your Workstation 9, the ten part process will work just the same.

Oracle 11gR2 2-node RAC on VMware Workstation 8 – Part X

Posted on by • Posted in Linux, Oracle, RAC, VMware • Tagged , , , , • 21 Comments

Time Required: 60 minutes

Class Materials:

  • Oracle 11gR2 Database software

Next we are going to install the Oracle Database 11gR2 software.

This is the last part of our ten-part process of installing a two node RAC on VMware Workstation 8.

To begin, download the zip file from the Oracle software download website and unzip on Orpheus. Make sure you are logged into Orpheus as the oracle user so that oracle owns the unzipped files.

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Oracle 11gR2 2-node RAC on VMware Workstation 8 – Part IX

Posted on by • Posted in ASM, Linux, Oracle, RAC, VMware • Tagged , , , , , , , , • 27 Comments

Time Required: 60 minutes

Class Materials:

  • Oracle 11gR2 Grid Infrastructure software

Next we are going to install the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software.

The Grid Infrastructure will provide the Cluster software that allows the RAC nodes to communicate, as well as the ASM software to manage the shared disks.

To begin, download the zip file from the Oracle software download website and unzip on Orpheus. Make sure you are logged into Orpheus as the oracle user so that oracle owns the unzipped files.

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Oracle 11gR2 RAC – sshUserSetup.sh script to swap ssh keys between hosts

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Oracle 11gR2 RAC Grid install includes a useful script to establish and exchange ssh keys between hosts of the cluster.

The process to set up and exchange ssh keys between hosts to facilitate unchallenged logins between trusted users has been well documented already. Oracle simply provides a handy wrapper script over the whole process.

Although the main Grid install process will set up ssh keys, this is a useful verification step to ensure all nodes are reachable, as well as a prerequisite to having the cluvfy script succeed.

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Oracle 11gR2 RAC install – installer hangs at 65%

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During the install of Oracle 11gR2 RAC Grid, the installer hangs at 65%, with no errors on screen or in the log file.

The problem is the Linux firewall interfering with the install.

Before running the runInstaller script, make sure the firewall is disabled on ALL nodes. Connect as root and disable it as follows:

[root@tbird1 ~]# service iptables stop
Flushing firewall rules: [  OK  ]
Setting chains to policy ACCEPT: filter [  OK  ]
Unloading iptables modules: [  OK  ]

 

To make sure it stays permanently disabled use the following:

[root@tbird1 init.d]# chkconfig iptables off

Oracle 11gR2 RAC Install – cleaning up a failed install on Linux

Posted on by • Posted in Hacking, Linux, Oracle, RAC • Tagged , , , , • 2 Comments

Despite all the updates to the Oracle RAC installer, it is still an extremely brittle install process that frequently goes pear shaped.

A common problem is pilot-error, and a regular mistake is running the root.sh script on secondary nodes before it has fully completed on the primary node.

Oracle now provides the rootcrs.pl script in the Grid home crs/install directory.

To execute the script, connect to your first node and execute as follows:

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Oracle 11gR2 2-node RAC on VMware Workstation 8 – Part VIII

Posted on by • Posted in Hacking, Linux, RAC, VMware • Tagged , , , , , , • 20 Comments

Time Required: 60 minutes

Class Materials:

  • 5GB of disk space
  • an ASCII text editor

Next we are going to add some shared disk to our new freshly minted VMs

VMware Workstation makes the allocation of shared disk to VMs very simple. Shared disk has been the biggest obstacle to create Oracle RAC clusters at home, but now VMware gives us a reliable and portable solution that does not require fire-wire hacks, your own NFS server or a SCSI disk array.

Best of all this whole solution can exist on a single laptop, so you can take your RAC on the road.

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