Tag Archives: redhat

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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

Posted on by • Posted in Linux, Oracle, RAC, VMware • Tagged , , , , , • 6 Comments

Time Required: 60 minutes

Class Materials:

  • none

Next we are going to give our two new VMs identities.

As discussed in the previous section, I have decided to name my VMs Orpheus and Eurydice. In this section we will give each machine a hostname plus static IP address on the VMnet2 and VMnet3 networks we created earlier.

This will allow our two operatic lovers to communicate both publicly and privately.

Continue reading →

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

Posted on by • Posted in Linux, Oracle, RAC, VMware • Tagged , , , , , • 3 Comments

Time Required: 60 minutes

Class Materials:

  • none

Next we are going to create two networks for our RAC system to talk on.

The Oracle RAC system requires at least two network connections between cluster nodes. One network will be the public IP and the second will be a private IP reserved for inter-cluster traffic.

Continue reading →

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

Posted on by • Posted in ASM, Linux, Oracle, RAC, VMware • Tagged , , , , , , , • Leave a comment

Time Required: 20 minutes

Class Materials:

  • oracleasm-support-2.1.7-1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • oracleasm-2.6.18-194.el5-2.0.5-1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • oracleasmlib-2.0.4-1.el5.x86_64.rpm

Next we will install the ASMLib drivers that simplify management of ASM on Linux.

ASMLib is an interface between block devices presented to Linux, and the Oracle ASM software that executes as the Oracle user.

Continue reading →

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

Posted on by • Posted in Linux, Oracle, RAC, VMware • Tagged , , , , , • Leave a comment

Time Required: 20 minutes

Class Materials:

  • none

Next we need to create the Oracle user account, OS groups and mount point.

The Oracle software will be installed and owned by the oracle user account. In additional several OS groups are created that allow other non oracle OS users privileged access to the database and grid resources.

Continue reading →

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

Posted on by • Posted in ASM, Linux, Oracle, RAC, VMware • Tagged , , , , , • Leave a comment

Time Required: 20 minutes

Class Materials:

  • none

Next we need to configure the Linux kernel to support Oracle 11gR2.

Before we can install Oracle 11gR2 on our new VM, we need configure the Linux kernel. The following steps modify key settings to allow Oracle to execute. These steps are taken from the Oracle install guide located at the following URL:

Linux Kernel Parameters for Oracle 11gR2 on RHEL 5

Continue reading →

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

Posted on by • Posted in Linux, Oracle, RAC, VMware • Tagged , , , , , • Leave a comment

Time Required: 20 minutes

Class Materials:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 64-bit install media

Next we need to add additional RPMs to support the Oracle database and grid installs.

Before we can install Oracle 11gR2 on our new VM, we need to load additional RPM packages that are required by the Oracle database and grid. Oracle publishes a list of the required VMs broken down by the supported Linux distributions at the following URL:

RPMs Required for Oracle 11gR2 on RHEL 5

Continue reading →

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

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

Time Required: 60 minutes

Class Materials:

  • 10GB of free disk
  • An operational VMware Workstation 8 or later install
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 64-bit install media

To create our Oracle RAC database on VMware Workstation 8, we first need to create a Linux VM.

In this example I have the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 64-bit install software as an ISO image of the DVD install media. Having a single ISO image allows VMware to use its Easy Install feature that pretty much automates the OS install entire process.

Continue reading →

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

Posted on by • Posted in ASM, Linux, Oracle, RAC, VMware • Tagged , , , , , • 8 Comments

It has long been an ambition of mine to have my very own RAC cluster database.

My former TUSC colleague and good friend John Smiley over at Amazon.com created a white paper some years back where he showed how to create a two node RAC cluster out of a couple of spare x86 Linux boxes and as I recall, some scotch tape, glue and pixie dust. It really was very cool and definitely worth a Blue Peter badge.

Continue reading →