4 Installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster

4.1 Preparing to Install Oracle Grid Infrastructure with OUI

Before you install Oracle Grid Infrastructure with Oracle Universal Installer (OUI), use the following checklist to ensure that you have all the information you will need during installation, and to ensure that you have completed all tasks that must be done before starting your installation. Mark the box for each task as you complete it, and record the information needed, so that you can provide it during installation.

• Verify Cluster Privileges

  Before running Oracle Universal Installer, from the node where you intend to run the Installer, verify that you are logged in using a member of the Administrators group, and that this user is an Administrator user on the other nodes in the cluster. To do this, enter the following command for each node that is a part of the cluster:

  net use \\nodename\C$
  

  where nodename is the node name. Repeat for each node in the cluster.

• Shut Down Running Oracle Processes

  You may need to shut down running Oracle processes:

  Installing on a node with a standalone database not using Oracle ASM: You do not need to shut down the database while you install Oracle Grid Infrastructure software.

  Installing on an Oracle RAC database node: This installation requires an upgrade of Oracle Clusterware, because Oracle Clusterware is required to run Oracle RAC. As part of the upgrade, you must shut down the database one node at a time as the rolling upgrade proceeds from node to node.

  If a Global Services Daemon (GSD) from Oracle9i Release 9.2 or earlier is running, then stop it before installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure by running the following command, where Oracle_home is the Oracle Database home that is running the GSD:

  Oracle_home\bin\gsdctl stop
  

  Caution:

  If you have an existing Oracle9i release 2 (9.2) Oracle Cluster Manager (Oracle CM) installation, then do not shut down the Oracle CM service. Shutting down the Oracle CM service prevents the Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g release 2 (11.2) software from detecting the Oracle9i release 2 node list, and causes failure of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.

  Note:

  If you receive a warning to stop all Oracle services after starting OUI, then run the command, where Oracle_home is the home that is running CSS:

  Oracle_home\bin\localconfig delete
  

• Prepare for Oracle Automatic Storage Management and Oracle Clusterware Upgrade If You Have Existing Installations

  During installation, you can upgrade existing Oracle Clusterware and clustered Oracle ASM installations to Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g release 2.

  When all member nodes of the cluster are running Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g release 2 (11.2), then the new clusterware becomes the active version.

  If you intend to install Oracle RAC, then you must first complete the upgrade to Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g release 2 (11.2) on all cluster nodes before you install the Oracle Database 11g release 2 (11.2) version of Oracle RAC.

  Note:

  All Oracle Grid Infrastructure upgrades (upgrades of existing Oracle Clusterware and clustered Oracle ASM installations) are out-of-place upgrades.

• Obtain LOCAL_SYSTEM administrator access

  Oracle Grid Infrastructure must be installed using an Administrator user, one with LOCAL_SYSTEM privileges, or a member of the local Administrators group. If you do not have Administrator access to each node in the cluster, then ask your system administrator to create and configure the user account on each node.

• Decide if you want to install other languages

  During an Advanced installation session, you are asked if you want translation of user interface text into languages other than the default, which is English.

  Note:

  If the language set for the operating system is not supported by the installer, then by default the installer runs in English.

  See Also:

  Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide for detailed information on character sets and language configuration

• Determine your cluster name, public node names, SCAN names, virtual node names, and planned interface use for each node in the cluster

  During installation, you are prompted to provide the public and virtual hostname, unless you use a third party cluster software. In that case, the public hostname information will be filled in. You are also prompted to identify which interfaces are public, private, or interfaces in use for another purpose, such as a network file system.

  If you use Grid Naming Service (GNS), then OUI displays the public and virtual hostname addresses labeled as "AUTO" because they are configured automatically by GNS.

  Note:

  If you configure IP addresses manually, then avoid changing host names after you complete the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation, including adding or deleting domain qualifications. A node with a new hostname is considered a new host, and must be added to the cluster. A node under the old name will appear to be down until it is removed from the cluster.

  When you enter the public node name, use the primary host name of each node. In other words, use the name displayed by the hostname command. This node name can be either the permanent or the virtual host name. The node name should contain only single-byte alphanumeric characters (a to z, A to Z, and 0 to 9). Do not use underscores (_) or any other characters in the hostname.

  In addition:

  • Provide a cluster name with the following characteristics:

    • It must be globally unique throughout your host domain.

    • It must be at least one character long and fewer than 15 characters long.

    • It must consist of the same character set used for host names, in accordance with RFC 1123: Hyphens (-), and single-byte alphanumeric characters (a to z, A to Z, and 0 to 9).

      Note:

      Windows operating systems allow underscores to be used with hostnames, but underscored names are not legal hostnames for a DNS, and they should be avoided.

  • If you are not using Grid Naming Service (GNS), then determine a virtual host name for each node. A virtual host name is a public node name that is used to reroute client requests sent to the node if the node is down. Oracle Database uses VIPs for client-to-database connections, so the VIP address must be publicly accessible. Oracle recommends that you provide a name in the format hostname-vip. For example: myclstr2-vip.

  • Provide SCAN addresses for client access to the cluster. These addresses should be configured as round robin addresses on the domain name service (DNS). Oracle recommends that you supply three SCAN addresses.

    Note:

    The following is a list of additional information about node IP addresses:

    • For the local node only, OUI automatically fills in public and VIP fields. If your system uses vendor clusterware, then OUI may fill additional fields.

    • Node names are not domain-qualified. If you provide a domain in the host name field during installation, then OUI removes the domain from the name.

    • Interfaces identified as private for private IP addresses should not be accessible as public interfaces. Using public interfaces for Cache Fusion can cause performance problems.

  • Identify public and private interfaces. OUI configures public interfaces for use by public and virtual IP addresses, and configures private IP addresses on private interfaces.

    The private subnet that the private interfaces use must connect all the nodes you intend to have as cluster members.

• Identify shared storage for Oracle Clusterware files and prepare storage if necessary

  During installation, you are asked to provide paths for the following Oracle Clusterware files. These files must be shared across all nodes of the cluster, either on Oracle Automatic Storage Management, or on a supported third party cluster file system:

  • Voting disks are files that Oracle Clusterware uses to verify cluster node membership and status.

  • Oracle Cluster Registry files (OCR) contain cluster and database configuration information for Oracle Clusterware.

  If you intend to use Oracle Cluster File System (OCFS) for Windows, then you are prompted to indicate which of the available disks you want to format with OCFS for Windows, what format type you want to use, and to what drive letter the formatted OCFS for Windows disk is mounted.

  If your file system does not have external storage redundancy, then Oracle recommends that you provide two additional locations for the OCR disk and the voting disk, for a total of at least three partitions. Creating redundant storage locations protects the OCR and voting disk in the event of a failure. To completely protect your cluster, the storage locations given for the copies of the OCR and voting disks should have completely separate paths, controllers, and disks, so that no single point of failure is shared by storage locations.

  See Also:

  Chapter 3, "Configuring Storage for Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster and Oracle RAC"

• Disconnect all non-persistent drives

  Before starting the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation on Windows, please make sure that you disconnect all nonpersistent drives that are temporarily mounted on all the nodes. Alternatively, if you want to access the shared drive, then make the shared drive persistent using the following command:

  net use * \\servername\sharename /persistent: YES
  

• Have IPMI Configuration completed and have IPMI administrator account information

  If you intend to use IPMI, then ensure BMC interfaces are configured, and have an administration account username and password to provide when prompted during installation.

  For nonstandard installations, if you must change the configuration on one or more nodes after installation (for example, if you have different administrator usernames and passwords for BMC interfaces on cluster nodes), then decide if you want to reconfigure the BMC interface, or modify IPMI administrator account information after installation as described in Chapter 5, "Oracle Grid Infrastructure Postinstallation Procedures".

• Ensure the Oracle home path you select for the grid infrastructure home uses only ASCII characters

  At the time of this release, the use of non-ASCII characters for a grid infrastructure home or Oracle Database home is not supported.

4.2 Installing Grid Infrastructure with OUI

This section provides information about how to use Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) to install Oracle Grid Infrastructure. It contains the following sections:

• Running OUI to Install Grid Infrastructure

• Installing Grid Infrastructure Using a Cluster Configuration File

• Silent Installation of Oracle Clusterware

node     vip
node     vip
...

RACnode1  RACnode1-vip
RACnode2  RACnode2-vip
RACnode3  RACnode3-vip

4.3 Installing Grid Infrastructure Using a Software-Only Installation

A software-only installation only copies the Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster binaries to the specified node. Configuring Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster and Oracle ASM on all the nodes and then adding the nodes to the cluster must be done manually after the installation has finished.

When you perform a software-only installation of Oracle Grid Infrastructure software, you need to complete several manual configuration steps to enable Oracle Clusterware after you install the software on each node you intend to be a member of the cluster.

If you select a software-only installation, then ensure that the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home path is identical on each cluster member node.

Performing a software-only installation involves the following steps:

1. Installing the Software Binaries

2. Configuring the Software Binaries

4.4 Confirming Oracle Clusterware Function

After installation, log in using a member of the Administrators group, and run the following command from the bin directory in the Grid home to confirm that your Oracle Clusterware installation is installed and running correctly:

crsctl check cluster -all

For example:

C:\..\bin\> crsctl check cluster -all
 
*************************************************************************
node1:
CRS-4537: Cluster Ready Services is online
CRS-4529: Cluster Synchronization Services is online
CRS-4533: Event Manager is online
*************************************************************************
node2:
CRS-4537: Cluster Ready Services is online
CRS-4529: Cluster Synchronization Services is online
CRS-4533: Event Manager is online
*************************************************************************

4.5 Confirming Oracle ASM Function for Oracle Clusterware Files

If you installed the OCR and voting disk files on Oracle ASM, then run the following command from the Grid_home\bin directory to confirm that your Oracle ASM installation is running:

srvctl status asm

For example:

C:\app\11.2.0\grid\BIN> srvctl status asm
ASM is running on node node1
ASM is running on node node2

Oracle ASM is running only if it is needed for Oracle Clusterware files. If you did not configure Oracle Clusterware storage on Oracle ASM during installation, then the Oracle ASM instance should be down.