2 Installing Oracle Database 11g with Oracle Real Application Clusters

2.1 Reviewing Oracle Application Express Requirements

With the Oracle Database 11g release, Oracle Application Express is provided as an Oracle Database option, rather than as an Oracle Application option. If you intend to install Oracle Database after installing Oracle Clusterware, and you have an existing Oracle Database installation that you are upgrading, then review the Oracle Application Express requirements in Oracle Application Express Installation Guide.

2.2 Selecting an Installation Type

When you run OUI, you can select the Typical or the Advanced Install type.

The Typical install type installs a default configuration of Oracle Database, with basic configuration choices. Oracle recommends that most users select Typical as their installation type.

The Advanced installation type is for customized installations, and should be used only when you have a specific requirement for it, such as adding specific components to your installation, requiring different passwords for the SYS, SYSMAN, SYSTEM and DBSNMP accounts, using a different database character set than is in use on your servers, changing product languages, or other nonstandard configurations.

2.3 Selecting an Installation Option

This section describes Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) features that you should understand before beginning the Oracle RAC installation process.

On the Select Installation Option page, you are given the following options:

• Create and Configure a Database: Provides you with the option to create a database using a preconfigured database template designed for particular system load demands, such as an online transaction processing (OLTP) database, or a decision support or data warehouse database.

  If you select the Oracle Automatic Storage Management option for storage, then you must have installed Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) as part of the Grid Infrastructure installation. If you did not select Oracle ASM as the storage option for the Oracle Clusterware files, then you must first use Oracle ASM Configuration Assistant (ASMCA) from the Grid home to configure Oracle ASM, create an Oracle ASM instance, and create a disk group to use for your Oracle Database storage.

• Install database software only: Installs Oracle Database software; you must complete database configuration later.

• Upgrade an existing database: Upgrades an existing database to Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2).

If you are installing Oracle Database software, then Oracle recommends that you use one of the preconfigured database options, or select the Advanced option on the Select Configuration page, and configure a customized starter database. See "Oracle Database Configuration Type Descriptions" for more information about the different preconfigured database options.

2.4 Oracle Database Configuration Type Descriptions

When you run OUI, you can select the General Purpose/Transaction Processing, Data Warehouse, or Advanced database configuration type.

For the first three configuration types, you can complete additional procedures that are described later in this chapter. If you select Advanced configuration, then you can use Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) to create the database as described in Chapter 3, "Creating Oracle Real Application Clusters Databases with Database Configuration Assistant". Oracle recommends that you use DBCA to create your database.

2.5 Oracle Database Vault Option

Oracle Database Vault requires the following:

• An Oracle Database Enterprise Edition installation (cannot be used with Oracle Standard Edition)

• Setting the initialization parameter db_block_size for the database to 4096 or higher. You can specify the initial value for this parameter during installation.

• Oracle Enterprise Manager Console

• Oracle Clusterware

• The password file authentication parameter, REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE, must have been set to EXCLUSIVE or SHARED for the database. You can specify the initial value for this parameter during installation, or in the Oracle Database initialization file.

  To create and manage password files, use the orapwd utility.

  See Also:

  Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for more information on creating and maintaining a password file

You can install Oracle Database Vault more than once on the same system, in different Oracle homes.

2.6 Oracle Configuration Manager Option

During installation, you are prompted to provide information needed to enable Oracle Configuration Manager. This option enables you to associate information about your Oracle RAC configuration with your My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetalink) account. In the event that you need to place a service request with Oracle Support, that configuration information can help to provide a more rapid resolution to the service issue.

You can enable Oracle Configuration Manager during or after installation, or choose not to enable it. To enable it during installation, you must have the following information available from your Oracle Support service agreement:

• Customer Support Identification Number (CSI) that identifies your organization

• My Oracle Support e-mail address/username

• Password

• Name of the country associated with your company

In addition, you are prompted for server proxy information, if the host system does not have a direct connection to the Internet.

Refer to My Oracle Support (https://support.oracle.com) if you encounter registration failures and are uncertain that the correct country code has been specified. You can find the country associated with your My Oracle Support account by selecting the menu option More, then selecting Settings. In the Settings menu, select Accounts & Privileges.

2.7 Selecting a Database Name

The global database name can be up to 30 characters in length, and must begin with an alphabetic character. The domain portion of the global database name can be no more than 128 characters and can contain only the characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9, the dash or minus sign (-), or a period (.). Domain names using underscores (_) are not allowed.

The system identifier (SID) for each database must begin with an alphabetic character, and is limited by the installer to 12 alphanumeric characters in length. For Oracle RAC databases, the SID prefix, which is the first 8 characters of the SID, must be unique for each database. The SID and SID prefix can only contain alphanumeric characters and cannot contain underscore (_), dollar ($), and pound (#) characters.

2.8 Selecting Database Passwords

Apply the following guidelines when specifying passwords:

• Passwords must be between 8 and 30 characters long.

• Passwords must be from the ASCII character set.

• Passwords must not start with a numeral.

• Passwords must not be the same as the user name.

• Passwords must not be Oracle reserved words.

• The SYS account password must not be change_on_install.

• The SYSTEM account password must not be manager.

• The SYSMAN account password must not be sysman.

• The DBSNMP account password must not be dbsnmp.

• If you choose to use the same password for all the accounts, then that password must not be change_on_install, manager, sysman, or dbsnmp.

• Passwords should have at least 1 alphabetic, 1 numeric, and 1 punctuation mark character

• Passwords should not be simple or obvious words, such as welcome, account, database, oracle, or user.

2.9 Database Security Options

During installation, you are prompted to select a database security configuration.The Secure Configuration option configures the database with database auditing options, and password policy and expiration settings.

For new database installations, the default configuration for Oracle Database 11g release 2 (11.2) includes the Secure Configuration option. If you want to disable these enhanced security controls, then you can check the Disable security settings box. Oracle Database is then installed with default security options for Oracle Database 10g release 2. After installation, you can change security settings by starting DBCA and modifying the security settings. You can enable or disable auditing or password security settings, or revert to a previous security setting.

For database upgrades, the upgraded database retains your existing database security configuration to ensure compatibility with existing applications. After installation, you can use DBCA to enable or disable the Secure Configuration auditing or password security settings for testing.

2.10 Actions of OUI and DBCA During Installation

After installing the Oracle Database software, OUI runs DBCA to create your database, in accordance with Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) guidelines. An installation created following OFA guidelines means that DBCA creates your database files, including the default server parameter file (SPFILE), using standard file naming and file placement practices.

The primary phases of DBCA processing are the following:

• Create the database.

• Configure the Oracle network services, if necessary.

• Start the listeners and database instances.

You can also use DBCA in standalone mode to create or delete a database, or to switch database management from Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control to Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control.

setup.exe oracle.rsf.nlsrtl_rsf:b_cr9idata=true

2.11 Installing Oracle Database Vault

To install Oracle Database Vault, you must select the Advanced installation option for Oracle Database Enterprise Edition. After the Oracle Database Vault software has been installed, you configure Oracle Database Vault using DBCA. Oracle Database Vault is not configured by default.

To install Oracle Database Vault while installing Oracle RAC:

1. Start Oracle Universal Installer, and select Advanced installation.

2. Select Enterprise Edition, and then select Options.

3. In addition to the default installation components, select Oracle Label Security (OLS) and Oracle Database Vault.

4. Continue the rest of the installation process as you normally would.

After you have installed Oracle RAC with the Oracle Database Vault option you must complete the configuration of Oracle Database Vault, as described in the Oracle Database Vault Administrator's Guide.

2.12 Using Oracle Universal Installer to Install Oracle RAC

Perform the following procedures to install the Oracle Database 11g release 2 (11.2) software with Oracle RAC using Oracle Universal Installer (OUI):

1. Login to Windows as a user with Administrative privileges.

2. Verify that you have administrative privileges on the other nodes. To do this, enter the following command for each node that is a part of the cluster where node_name is the name of the remote node:

   net use \\node_name\C$
   

3. Start the setup.exe command from the base directory of the Oracle Database 11g release 2 (11.2) installation media, and select the database type that you want to install.

4. Provide information when prompted by OUI. If you need assistance during installation, then click Help. If you encounter problems during installation, then click Details to see the log file. The log file can also be found in the Oracle Inventory directory with a name that includes the timestamp (date_time) of the install process, as shown in this example:

   C:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory\logs\installActionsdate_time.log 
   

   In the preceding syntax example, the variables date and time represents the date and the time of the log file.

   Caution:

   The Oracle home name and path that you provide during database installation must be different from the home that you used during Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation. Do not install Oracle Database 11g with Oracle RAC software into the same home in which you installed Oracle Grid Infrastructure software.

   If you are upgrading a database, then you must use the same type of Oracle home. For example, you should not change from local Oracle homes to a shared Oracle home.

   Note that because Oracle ASM is part of the Grid Infrastructure home, it cannot be upgraded during an Oracle RAC installation.

When you have completed the second and final phase of the installation, proceed to Chapter 4, "Oracle Real Application Clusters Postinstallation Procedures" to perform the postinstallation tasks.

The following is a list of additional information to note about installation:

• On the Select Database Management Option page, if you have already completed the Grid Control Management Agent installation, then you can select either Grid or Local Database control. Otherwise, only Local Database control for database management is supported for Oracle RAC. When you use the local Database Control, you can choose the e-mail option for alerts and enter the outgoing SMTP server name and e-mail address.

  If you perform an installation that does not include Oracle Enterprise Manager (for example, a customized software install without Oracle Enterprise Manager, an installation with no Oracle Enterprise Manager configuration, or a database creation with your own scripts), then you can configure Oracle Enterprise Manager later using OUI, DBCA, or the Oracle Enterprise Manager Configuration Assistant (EMCA) utility.