Pre-installation

Oracle Pre-installation

Overview

To install Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard, perform the following tasks:

Check the prerequisites: Ensure that the local system meets the hardware, software, memory, and disk space requirements for Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard.

Set up the UNIX environment: Ensure that the UNIX environment is set up correctly for Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard.

Set up the Oracle environment: Ensure that a two node Oracle9i Real Application Clusters cluster has been created and configured.

Configure Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard: Use the provided Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard Installer to install Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard.

Perform post-installation tasks: Start Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard and ensure that it is correctly installed and configured.

Operating System Dependent Components

The Operating System Dependent layer provides the services required for proper operation of Oracle9i Real Application Clusters. Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard also requires these components, but might require different versions from the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters software.
For AIX-Based Systems, Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard is only supported on RS6000 clusters and is not supported on SP2 systems.

Operating System Software Components

Software Platform Requirements
Operating System AIX
HP
Solaris
Tru64
AIX Version 4.3.3 or higher
HP-UX 11.0
Solaris 8
Tru64 UNIX, Version 5.1
Operating System Patches All
Cluster AIX
HP

Solaris

Tru64
HACMP/ES Version 4.4, or higher
ServiceGuard OPS Edition Bundle
Service Guard patch PHSS_22876 or later
Sun Cluster Release 2.2 Version 0700 or later
Cluster Volume Manager Version 3.0.4 or later
Compaq TruCluster Software 5.1, which requires patches GB_G01313 and GB_G01314.

Table 1-2 lists the commands to determine the operating system patches for each platform.

Commands to Determine Operating System Patches
Platform Command
AIX $ instfix -a
To determine if a specific patch has been installed, use the following command:
$ instefix -ivk APAR_number
To determine which operating system filesets are installed, use the following command:
$ lslpp -l
To determine if a specific operating system fileset is installed, use the following command:
$ lslpp -l [fileset_name]
HP
To determine which operating system patches are installed, enter the following command:
$ swlist -l product | grep PH 
To determine which operating system bundles are installed, enter the following command:
swlist -l bundle
Solaris $ showrev -p
Tru64 $ dupatch
or
$ setld -i |More
Oracle Product Requirements

The Oracle products listed in Table 1-3 must be installed and running before you install Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard:

Oracle Product Requirements for Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard

Product Description
Oracle9i Enterprise Edition, Release 9.0.0.1 Provides the applications and files to manage a database. All other Oracle9i Real Application Clusters components are installed on top of Oracle9i Enterprise Edition.
Oracle Real Application Clusters Option Provides the necessary Oracle Real Application Clusters services, scripts, initialization file, and data files.
Oracle Net, Release 9.0.1 Provides the networking software for communicating between Oracle Servers. This must be installed on both nodes.
SQL*Plus, Release 9.0.1 Oracle software for accessing a database.

The Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard files are installed as part of the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters installation. To install the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard files, choose the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters option.

Network Requirements for Sun SPARC Solaris

Two public IP addresses (one for each Real Application Clusters Guard Pack) must be pre-allocated to be used for a primary and secondary network client connection. These IP addresses will be used as logical hosts, and are enabled and disabled on the appropriate host as needed by the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard Packs. For information on setting up logical IP addresses, refer to the system documentation.

With this release of Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard, Real Application Clusters Guard Packs and IP addresses float to minimize TCP/IP timeouts. For more information, see Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Concepts.
Specify the IP addresses in the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard installation configuration file using the following parameters:

PFS_IP_PACK_HOSTA

PFS_IP_PACK_HOSTB

These IP addresses are added to the LAN interface card, which is moved with the pack if the pack is moved to another node.

On Sun SPARC Solaris, each Real Application Clusters Guard Pack is implemented as a logical host. For information on logical hosts, refer to the Sun Cluster 2.2 documentation.

Network Requirements for HP 9000 Series HP-UX

Two public IP addresses (one for each Real Application Clusters Guard pack) must be pre-allocated to be used for a primary and secondary network client connection. These logical IP addresses will be used as floating IPs, and are enabled and disabled on the appropriate host as needed by the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard Packs. For information on setting up logical IP addresses, refer to the Configuring OPS Clusters with ServiceGuard OPS Edition documentation.

With this release of Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard, OPFS Packs including IP addresses float to minimize TCP/IP timeouts. For more information, see Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Concepts.
Specify the IP addresses listed in the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard Installation Configuration file using the following parameters:

PFS_IP_PACK_HOSTA

PFS_IP_PACK_HOSTB

These IP addresses are added to the LAN interface card, which is moved with the pack if the pack is moved to another node.

Network Requirements for AIX-Based Systems and Compaq Tru64 UNIX

Two public IP addresses (one for each Real Application Clusters Guard Pack) must be pre-allocated to be used for a primary and secondary network client connection. These IP addresses will be used as logical hosts, and are enabled and disabled on the appropriate host as needed by the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard Packs. For information on setting up logical IP addresses, refer to the system documentation.

With this release of Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard, Real Application Clusters Guard Packs and IP addresses float to minimize TCP/IP timeouts. For more information, see Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Concepts.
Specify the IP addresses in the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard installation configuration file using the following parameters:

PFS_IP_PACK_HOSTA

PFS_IP_PACK_HOSTB

These IP addresses are added to the LAN interface card, which is moved with the pack if the pack is moved to another node.

Set-Up Tasks to Perform as the root User

Log in as the root user and configure the system for Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard as described in Table 1-4.

UNIX Environment
Environment Requirement
SHELL ksh
The Korn shell must be the default shell for the account that runs Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard. Only the Korn shell is supported with this release of Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard.
UNIX Group for Oracle Roles A UNIX group is required for the OSDBA role. Ensure that you have an OSDBA group defined in the /etc/group file on all nodes of the cluster.
UNIX Accounts A UNIX account that is dedicated to installing and upgrading Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard. The account must be a member of the group used by the OSDBA. Create the UNIX account on all nodes of the cluster.
User Equivalence
The UNIX account installing and running Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard must have remote shell (REMSH/RSH) access to all nodes in the cluster. As the root user, set up user equivalence by adding entries for the other nodes in the cluster to the .rhosts file of the appropriate UNIX account, or the /etc/hosts.equiv file.
For example, create a .rhosts file in the oracle user's home directory on all nodes in the cluster with the following format:
# <hostname> <username>
host oracle
host oracle
Permissions for File Creation Set the File Creation mask to 022 for the oracle account, as follows:
$ umask 022
Set-Up Tasks to Perform as the oracle User

Log in to the oracle account and perform the following tasks, if required:

Set environment variables. Table 1-5 lists common environment variables. For Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard, set the DB_NAME and ORACLE_SERVICE environment variables.

Environment Variables

Environment Variable Requirement Description
DB_NAME Required Specifies the value of the initialization parameter DB_NAME entered during the Oracle installation process or during database creation.
ORACLE_BASE Optional Specifies the directory at the top of the Oracle software and administrative file structure. Not required, but recommended as part of an OFA-compliant installation.
ORACLE_HOME Required Specifies the directory containing the Oracle software for a particular release.
Ensure that the ORACLE_HOME environment variable points to a directory that does not already contain any Oracle software.
ORACLE_SID Required Specifies the Oracle system identifier, or SID, which is the same as the Oracle Server instance. Because the SID is incorporated into many filenames, Oracle Corporation recommends restricting it to no more than four characters, to avoid filename problems on different systems. The SID for each instance in a Real Application Cluster should be unique and should incorporate the name of the database it uses.
ORACLE_SERVICE Required Specifies the unique identifier for the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard environment. This value is used to identify each Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard database environment. It has a four character limitation. You can set this variable to the same values as
DB_NAME.
Use the ORACLE_SERVICE environment variable to distinguish between Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard environments.
ORA_NLS33 Optional Required if you are creating a database with a storage character set other than US7ASCII.
Set this environment variable to
$ORACLE_HOME/ocommon/nls/admin/data.
NLS_LANG Optional Required if creating a database that uses a character set other than US7ASCII.
PATH Required Include the directory that contains the C compiler executable.

Check the user equivalence settings by performing a remote login to each node in the cluster, including the current node, using rlogin. If you are prompted for a password, the oracle account is not set up correctly on one of the nodes. The oracle account must have the same attributes on each node of the cluster.

Make sure that you have a two node Oracle9i Real Application Clusters database running and tuned with the Oracle products as listed in Table 1-3. The alert log contains entries showing whether the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters software is running.

Platform	Command
AIX	$ instfix -a To determine if a specific patch has been installed, use the following command: $ instefix -ivk APAR_number To determine which operating system filesets are installed, use the following command: $ lslpp -l To determine if a specific operating system fileset is installed, use the following command: $ lslpp -l [fileset_name]
HP	To determine which operating system patches are installed, enter the following command: $ swlist -l product \| grep PH To determine which operating system bundles are installed, enter the following command: swlist -l bundle
Solaris	$ showrev -p
Tru64	$ dupatch or $ setld -i \|More

Product	Description
Oracle9i Enterprise Edition, Release 9.0.0.1	Provides the applications and files to manage a database. All other Oracle9i Real Application Clusters components are installed on top of Oracle9i Enterprise Edition.
Oracle Real Application Clusters Option	Provides the necessary Oracle Real Application Clusters services, scripts, initialization file, and data files.
Oracle Net, Release 9.0.1	Provides the networking software for communicating between Oracle Servers. This must be installed on both nodes.
SQL*Plus, Release 9.0.1	Oracle software for accessing a database.

Environment	Requirement
SHELL	ksh The Korn shell must be the default shell for the account that runs Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard. Only the Korn shell is supported with this release of Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard.
UNIX Group for Oracle Roles	A UNIX group is required for the OSDBA role. Ensure that you have an OSDBA group defined in the /etc/group file on all nodes of the cluster.
UNIX Accounts	A UNIX account that is dedicated to installing and upgrading Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard. The account must be a member of the group used by the OSDBA. Create the UNIX account on all nodes of the cluster.
User Equivalence	The UNIX account installing and running Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard must have remote shell (REMSH/RSH) access to all nodes in the cluster. As the root user, set up user equivalence by adding entries for the other nodes in the cluster to the .rhosts file of the appropriate UNIX account, or the /etc/hosts.equiv file. For example, create a .rhosts file in the oracle user's home directory on all nodes in the cluster with the following format: # <hostname> <username> host oracle host oracle
Permissions for File Creation	Set the File Creation mask to 022 for the oracle account, as follows: $ umask 022

Environment Variable	Requirement	Description
DB_NAME	Required	Specifies the value of the initialization parameter DB_NAME entered during the Oracle installation process or during database creation.
ORACLE_BASE	Optional	Specifies the directory at the top of the Oracle software and administrative file structure. Not required, but recommended as part of an OFA-compliant installation.
ORACLE_HOME	Required	Specifies the directory containing the Oracle software for a particular release. Ensure that the ORACLE_HOME environment variable points to a directory that does not already contain any Oracle software.
ORACLE_SID	Required	Specifies the Oracle system identifier, or SID, which is the same as the Oracle Server instance. Because the SID is incorporated into many filenames, Oracle Corporation recommends restricting it to no more than four characters, to avoid filename problems on different systems. The SID for each instance in a Real Application Cluster should be unique and should incorporate the name of the database it uses.
ORACLE_SERVICE	Required	Specifies the unique identifier for the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard environment. This value is used to identify each Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard database environment. It has a four character limitation. You can set this variable to the same values as DB_NAME. Use the ORACLE_SERVICE environment variable to distinguish between Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard environments.
ORA_NLS33	Optional	Required if you are creating a database with a storage character set other than US7ASCII. Set this environment variable to $ORACLE_HOME/ocommon/nls/admin/data.
NLS_LANG	Optional	Required if creating a database that uses a character set other than US7ASCII.
PATH	Required	Include the directory that contains the C compiler executable.