Preparing the Nodes and Disks

This section contains the procedures that you need to prepare the nodes and disks.

• How to Prepare the Nodes

• How to Configure the Oracle Database Access Using Solaris Volume Manager

• How to Configure the Oracle Database Access Using Oracle ASM

• How to Configure an Oracle Grid Infrastructure for Clusters SCAN Listener

How to Prepare the Nodes

Use this procedure to prepare for the installation and configuration of Oracle software.

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Caution - Perform all of the steps in this section on all the nodes. If you do not perform all of the steps on all of the nodes, the Oracle installation is incomplete. An incomplete Oracle installation causes HA for Oracle to fail during startup.

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The following steps prepare your nodes and install the Oracle software.

1. Become superuser on all of the cluster members.
2. Configure the cluster file system for HA for Oracle.

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   Caution - Raw devices from Oracle Solaris Cluster device groups are not supported in non-global zones.

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   • If raw devices contain the databases, configure the global devices for raw device access. See the Oracle Solaris Cluster Software Installation Guide for information about how to configure global devices.

   • If you use the Solaris Volume Manager software, configure the Oracle software to use UNIX file system (UFS) logging on mirrored metadevices or raw-mirrored metadevices. See the Solaris Volume Manager documentation for more information about how to configure raw-mirrored metadevices.

   • If you use Oracle Solaris ZFS for Oracle files, configure a highly available local ZFS file system. For more information, see How to Set Up the HAStoragePlus Resource Type to Make a Local Solaris ZFS File System Highly Available in Oracle Solaris Cluster Data Services Planning and Administration Guide.

3. Prepare the $ORACLE_HOME directory on a local or multihost disk.

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   Note - If you install the Oracle binaries on a local disk, use a separate disk if possible. Installing the Oracle binaries on a separate disk prevents the binaries from overwrites during operating environment reinstallation. When you use Oracle ASM, create two $ORACLE_HOME directories, one $ORACLE_HOME directory for the Oracle database and the additional $ORACLE_HOME directory for Oracle ASM.

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4. On each node, create an entry for the database administrator (DBA) group in the /etc/group file, and add potential users to the group.

   You typically name the DBA group dba. Verify that the oracle users are members of the dba group, and add entries as necessary for other DBA users. Ensure that the group IDs are the same on all of the nodes that run HA for Oracle, as the following example illustrates.

   dba:*:520:root,oracle

   If you use Oracle ASM, you should add an additional entry for the DBA group in the /etc/group file for Oracle ASM.

   dba:*:520:root,oracle,oraasm

5. On each node, create an entry for the Oracle user ID (oracle).

   You typically name the Oracle user ID oracle. The following command updates the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files with an entry for the Oracle user ID.

   # useradd -u 120 -g dba -d /Oracle_home oracle

   Ensure that the oracle user entry is the same on all the nodes that run HA for Oracle.

   If you use Oracle ASM, you should create an additional Oracle user ID for Oracle ASM.

   # useradd -u 121 -g dba -d /asm-home oraasm

6. Configure kernel parameters in the global cluster and, if used, the zone cluster that runs HA for Oracle.

   You might need to reboot the cluster to initiate certain parameter changes. For information about tuning Oracle Solaris kernel parameters, see Tuning the Oracle Solaris Kernel in Oracle Solaris Tunable Parameters Reference Manual.

   For information about shared memory requirements, see Configuring Kernel Parameters in Oracle Solaris 10 in Oracle Database Installation Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2) for Oracle Solaris. This information is valid for Oracle Solaris Cluster 4.0 software on the Oracle Solaris 11 OS.

7. If running HA for Oracle in a zone cluster, configure the limitpriv property.

   The limitpriv property is required.

   #clzonecluster configure zcname
   clzonecluster:zcname> set limitpriv="default,proc_priocntl,proc_clock_highres,sys_time"
   clzonecluster:zcname> commit
   clzonecluster:zcname> exit

How to Configure the Oracle Database Access Using Solaris Volume Manager

Use this procedure to configure the Oracle database using Solaris Volume Manager.

1. Configure the disk devices for the Solaris Volume Manager software to use.

   See Oracle Solaris Cluster Software Installation Guide for information about how to configure the Solaris Volume Manager software.

2. If you use raw devices to contain the databases, run the following commands to change each raw-mirrored metadevice's owner, group, and mode.

   If you do not use raw devices, do not perform this step.

   1. If you create raw devices, run the following commands for each device on each node that can master the Oracle resource group.

      # chown oracle /dev/md/metaset/rdsk/dn
      # chgrp dba /dev/md/metaset/rdsk/dn
      # chmod 600 /dev/md/metaset/rdsk/dn

      metaset

      Specifies the name of the disk set

      /rdsk/dn

      Specifies the name of the raw disk device within the metaset disk set

   2. Verify that the changes are effective.

      # ls -lL /dev/md/metaset/rdsk/dn

How to Configure the Oracle Database Access Using Oracle ASM

Use this procedure to configure the Oracle database access using Oracle ASM. You can use Oracle ASM on Solaris Volume Manager.

1. Configure the disk devices for the Oracle ASM software to use.

   See Using Oracle ASM in Oracle Solaris Cluster Data Service for Oracle Real Application Clusters Guide for information about how to configure Oracle ASM.

2. Set up the permissions for the Oracle ASM disks to be used by Oracle ASM disk groups.
   1. Run the following commands for each device on each node that can master the Oracle resource group.

      # chown oraasm:dba /dev/did/rdisk/dn
      # chmod 660 /dev/did/rdisk/dn

   2. Verify that the changes are effective.

      # ls -lhL /dev/did/rdisk/dn

How to Configure an Oracle Grid Infrastructure for Clusters SCAN Listener

When the HA for Oracle data service is deployed using Grid Infrastructure for Clusters, the preferred listener for a single-instance database is an Oracle Grid Infrastructure for Clusters Single Client Access Name (SCAN) listener. To leverage a SCAN in the HA for Oracle configuration, you must modify the single-instance database remote_listener parameter to reflect the SCAN name and port number.

If you configure a SCAN listener, you can ignore subsequent instructions in this manual about creating an Oracle listener resource with the SUNW.oracle_listener resource type. An Oracle listener resource is unnecessary when the SCAN listener is configured.

For more information about the SCAN, see Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2) for Solaris Operating System.

The following example procedure shows the commands and sample output to configure the SCAN name and port. Perform this procedure on each node of the cluster.

1. Become superuser on the node.
2. Configure a SCAN listener.

   # srvctl config scan
   SCAN name: scanname, Network: 1/ipaddress/netmask/adaptername
   SCAN VIP name: scanvip, IP: /ipalias/vipaddress
   
   # srvctl config scan_listener
   SCAN Listener LISTENER_SCAN1 exists. Port: TCP:portnumber
   #
   
   SQL> show parameters listener
   
   NAME                TYPE     VALUE
   ------------------- -------- ------------------------------
   listener_networks   string
   local_listener      string   (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=nodename)
                                (PORT=portnumber))))
   remote_listener     string
   
   
   SQL>
   SQL> alter system set remote_listener = 'scanname:portnumber' scope=both;
   
   System altered.
   SQL> show parameters listener
   
   NAME                TYPE     VALUE
   ------------------- -------- ------------------------------
   listener_networks   string
   local_listener      string   (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=nodename)
                                (PORT=portnumber))))
   remote_listener     string   scanname:portnumber
   SQL>