Virtualization using Oracle VM VirtualBox for building two node Oracle RAC 11gR2 (11.2.0.2) cluster where Oracle 11.2.0.2 RDBMS coexists with 10gR2 (10.2.0.5) RDBMS based on Linux (OEL 5.4)

Virtualization using Oracle VM VirtualBox for building two node Oracle RAC 11gR2 (11.2.0.2) cluster where Oracle 11.2.0.2 RDBMS coexists with 10gR2 (10.2.0.5) RDBMS based on Linux (OEL 5.4)

In the article you will have a look at how to use some Oracle VirtualBox features to build two node Oracle 11gR2 (11.2.0.2) RAC system on Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL 5). The setup will implement a role separation with different users for Oracle RDBMS and Oracle GI that is, user oracle and grid respectively in order to split the responsibilities between DBAs and storage administrators. Article will emphasize on the additional CRS reconfiguration necessary for Oracle 10gR2 and 11.2 databases to coexist on the same cluster running GI 11.2.0.2.

An overview to Oracle Virtualization solutions can be seen here. You can see how to use Oracle VM VirtualBox to build a two node Solaris cluster here.

You will configure Linux in an Oracle VM VirtualBox Virtual machines, install Oracle GI, Oracle RDBMS and will create a database.

The following software will be used:

1. Oracle 11gR2 (11.2.0.2) for Linux (x86-64). Patch 10098816. Download from MOS here.
   
2. Oracle Enterprise Linux (x86-64). Download from here.
   
3. Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.1.0. Download from here.
   

Two virtual machines, raclinux1 and raclinux2, will be configured each with:

• 4GB RAM
  
• 400GB bootable disk (Disk space will be dynamically allocated not a fixed size pre-allocation)
  
• NIC – NAT: for access to Internet
  
• NIC – bridged for public interface in RAC with address 192.168.20.21/22 (first IP 192.168.20.21 on raclinux1 and second IP 192.168.20.22 on node raclinux2). These are public interface in RAC.
  
• NIC – bridged for private interface in RAC with address 10.10.20.21/22 (first IP 10.10.20.21 on raclinux1 and second IP 10.10.20.22 on node raclinux2). These are private interface in RAC.
  
• NIC – Host Only : for FTP/SSH/telnet/SCP access from the host OS to the guest OS. (first IP 192.168.56.101 on raclinux1 and second IP 192.168.56.102on node raclinux2).
  
• 15 10GB attached shared disks for the ASM storage. (High Redundancy ASM disk groups will be deployed)
  

Upgrade Guest Additions in Oracle VM VirtualBox (Solaris and Linux guests)

Upgrade Guest Additions in Oracle VM VirtualBox (Solaris and Linux guests)

Upgrading VirtualBox requires respective upgrade of the guest additions to ensure that users benefit from new feature or bug fixes. In this article you will have a look at how to upgrade Guest Additions in Solaris and OEL environment.

 

Oracle Virtathon presentations download.

Oracle Virtathon presentations download.

 

You can download the Oracle Virtathon 2011 presentations

 

• Oracle Data Guard 11g Release 2 with Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Grid Control
  
• Oracle Clusterware and Private Network Considerations- Practical Performance Management for Oracle RAC
  
• Oracle ACFS in Oracle 11.2
  

Patching Oracle 11.2.0.2 GI and RDBMS with patch 12311357

Patching Oracle 11.2.0.2 GI and RDBMS with patch 12311357

In the article you will look at patching Oracle Grid Infrastructure and RDBMS homes in a two node RAC OEL cluster. The methodology applies on any 11.2.0.2 cluster based on OEL.

Download the following patches.

• 12311357 – 11.2.0.2
  
• 6880880 – OPatch 11.2
  

Oracle ACFS in Oracle 11.2

Oracle ACFS in Oracle 11.2

In the article you will have a look at the concepts, architecture and utilities to manage and monitor ACFS and ACFS features such as snapshots and replication. ACFS is a general purpose portable cluster file system that can run on many OS, installed as part of Grid Infrastructure installation in Oracle 11.2 or later. ACFS is initially available on Linux and Windows starting with Oracle 11.2.0.1 and on Solaris, AIX with Oracle 11.2.0.2. ACFS is POSIX and X/OPEN compliant on Linux/Unix and can be accessed remotely through NAS protocols such as NFS and CIFS.

Oracle VirtaThon 2011

Oracle VirtaThon 2011

 

Do not miss Oracle VirtaThon 2011. You can attend for free virtual sessions from the convenience of your office or home from 16^th July to 21^st July. Featured speakers are

• Mike Ault – Oracle ACE, Speaker, Blogger, Guru, Author of 25 Oracle Books
• Dr. Bert Scalzo – Oracle ACE, Guru, Speaker, Author of 11 Oracle Books
• Steven Feuerstein – Oracle ACE Director, Speaker, Blogger, Guru, Author of multiple Oracle Books
• Arup Nanda – Oracle ACE Director, Oracle Magazine’s DBA of the Year, Author of 4 Oracle Books
• Brian “Bex” Huff – Oracle ACE Director, Speaker, Blogger, Guru, Author of multiple Oracle Books
• Vinod Haval – Oracle Magazine’s DBA of the Year, Speaker & Community Leader
• David Koelle – Triple Java Rockstar, Duke’s Choice Award Winner, Author, JUG Community Leader
• Lewis Cunningham – Oracle ACE Director, Blogger, Guru, Author of multiple Oracle Books
• Riyaj Shamsudeen – Oracle ACE, Performance Tuning Expert Guru, Author of multiple Oracle Books
• Syed Jaffar Hussain – Oracle ACE, 10g Certified Master, RAC Expert, Author of 11g RAC Handbook
• Guy Harrison – Oracle ACE & MySQL Star, Speaker, Blogger, Guru, Author of multiple Oracle Books
• Matt Warman – Author, Blogger, Speaker & JUG Community Leader
• Dan Hotka – Oracle ACE Director, Guru, Instructor, Author of 7 Oracle Books
• Dario Laverde – Speaker, Blogger, Author & JUG Community Leader
• Colin Charles – MySQL Evangelist, Blogger, Author & Community Leader
• Eddie Awad – Oracle ACE Director, Award-winning Evangelist, Author, Blogger & Speaker
• Tariq Farooq – Oracle ACE, Virtualization & RAC Expert, Author, Blogger & Community Organizer

   

You could find the whole list of sessions here.

I will be presenting:

• Oracle Data Guard 11g Release 2 with Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Grid Control
  
• Oracle Clusterware and Private Network Considerations- Practical Performance Management for Oracle RAC
  
• Oracle ACFS in Oracle 11.2
  

 

RMAN configuration for backup & recovery with Oracle RAC ( 10gR2, 11gR1, 11gR2)

RMAN configuration for backup & recovery with Oracle RAC ( 10gR2, 11gR1, 11gR2)

Oracle RAC database like a single database needs a backup & recovery strategy to protect against media failure. Oracle RAC architecture has shared control files, data files, redo logs and spfile (recommended). Archive logs that are generated by each RAC instance thread are either in a local file system on each node or on a shared storage (ASM, CFS, NFS). The existence of archive logs generated by instances’ threads and their type of location (shared or non-shared among all instances) determines the specifics for Oracle RAC backup and recovery.

In a single instance database an instance can access all data files and the backup and archive log destination. While performing backup the backup location is accessible. While performing a restore or recovery the backup location and the archive location are also available.

There are two most common Oracle RAC configurations

1. Shared Oracle ASM, CFS or NFS for data files and archive logs and backups in FRA. All components are shared by all instances. Each instance can perform backup and restore/recovery.
2. Local archive NFS mounted to all other cluster nodes. The accessibility of the backup location from the RAC instance determines how backup and restore take place. That is what determines which instance can perform backup and restore.

For Oracle RAC and FRA setup make sure that both DB_RECOVERY_DEST and DB_RECOVERY_DEST_SIZE have same values across all cluster instances.

Managing OEM Database Control with emca for RAC 11gR2

Managing OEM Database Control with emca for RAC 11gR2

In the article you will have a look at using emca with Oracle RAC for managing OEM DC. OEM Database control can be configured either with dbca or with emca.

Starting with Oracle 10gR1 RAC upon configuring OEM DC one DC console and agent was running on each node of the cluster. After Oracle 10gR2 the behavior changed so that by default a console is started only on the node where dbca or emca was started to configure OEM DC. However, OEM DC is configured to run on each of the cluster nodes where RAC database has configured instances ( 11gR2 administrator-managed). Starting OEM DC starts OEM DC console and the agent on the default node, whereas on the all other nodes only OEM agent is started. Oracle RAC also supports running OEM DC consoles on more than one node, though it makes sense on multi-nodes clusters.

Upgrade to Oracle 11.2.0.2 from Oracle 11.2.0.1 – Part II (Solaris 10 x86-64)

Upgrade to Oracle 11.2.0.2 from Oracle 11.2.0.1 – Part II (Solaris 10 x86-64)

In this article you will have a look at the guidelines and steps to upgrade Oracle GI and RDBMS to 11.2.0.2 from 11.2.0.1. The database will be upgraded using dbua. The configuration is a two node Solaris 10 x86-64 cluster described here. For Linux based upgrade to Oracle 11.2.0.2 from Oracle 11.2.0.1click here.

For smooth upgrade to 11.2.0.2 it is worth to look at MOS for patches that need to be applied to an existing GI home prior to the upgrade. At the time of the writing patch 9706490 was necessary to be applied to the existing 11.2.0.1 Oracle GI home.

In brief, 11.2.0.2 comes as a patch 10098816 downloadable from MOS. Starting with 11.2.0.2 onward all patch sets will be a full installation. Oracle supports GI upgrade as an out of place upgrade only. RDBMS upgrade is recommended to be out of place upgrade. In the article both GI and RDBMS will be upgraded in a new GI and RDBMS Oracle homes.

Useful MOS notes.

1. Pre-requsite for 11.2.0.1 to 11.2.0.2 ASM Rolling Upgrade [ID 1274629.1]
   
2. How to Proceed from Failed Upgrade to 11gR2 Grid Infrastructure on Linux/Unix [ID 969254.1]
   

Download and unzip the following patches in a stage area:

• 10098816 – Oracle 11.2.0.2
• 6880880 – OPatch.
• 9706490 – prerequisite for successful 11.2.0.2 upgrade
• 12311357 – Latest patch to 11.2.0.2.2 as of the time of the article.

Failure to patch the 11.2.0.1 GI home with patch 9706490 will produce some errors during the course of OUI.