All posts by Larry Catt

11g, installer, linux, Oracle

Problem with RHEL 5.4 and Oracle RAC

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I Ran into an issue while working with Oracle Corporation on 11gR2 RAC and RHEL 5.4 using OS layer files and OCFS2 for storage.  Now Oracle is currently saying that no known problem exists, but I thought I would drop a note here, just in case anyone comes across the same situation.   It appears that when you upgrade your RHEL kernel from version 2.6.18-194.26.1.el5 to 2.6.18-238.1.1.el5 and of course upgrade your OCFS2 drivers to the same version.   Access to the shared files of RAC becomes an issue for Oracle upon installation and execution of root.sh.  

We struggled with this for two weeks, and from the start said the only thing we did was upgrade the kernel.  However, Oracle repeatedly said all Kernels above 2.16.18 have no issues.    Finally, we downgraded the system back to the original kernel 2.6.18-194.26.1.el5 and re-applied the OCFS2 RPMs for that kernel and everything began to work. 

So if you are have problems with Oracle 11g RAC install on RHEL 5.4 with kernel 2.6.18-238.1.1.el5 and can find no reasonable solution.  You may want to downgrade your kernel and try again.   It actually only took 45 minutes to downgrade, update the Oracle RPMs and provided a solution to a two week old problem. 

 

Larry J. Catt, OCP 9i, 10g
oracle@allcompute.com
www.allcompute.com

11g, hp-ux, installer, linux, RAC, unix

SSH, PING, and RSH – Permissions causing failure on Oracle RAC Installation

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Oracle RAC requires permissions to networking components which are typically restricted on most systems. Most notable are permissions to utilities SSH, PING, and RSH. If you are attempting to install Oracle RAC software and you are receiving failures in communications; check the permissions of these utilities for a possible cause.

1. Logon to your Linux server as root.

2. Change the permissions on the following files to u+s.

chmod u+s /bin/ping
chmod u+s /usr/bin/ssh
chmod u+s /usr/bin/rsh

This completes allowing Oracle permissions to SSH, PING, and RSH for RAC configurations.
Larry J. Catt, OCP 9i, 10g
oracle@allcompute.com
www.allcompute.com

11g, hp-ux, installer, linux, unix

Required packages for Oracle 11g RDBMS install on LINUX

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The installation of Oracle RDBMS software requires supporting OS level functionality to successfully complete and operate. This article outlines the RPM checks which should be completed before the installation of Oracle 11g RDBMS is begun.

1. Logon to your Linux Server as the root user.

2. Below is a listing of the RPM Oracle gives as required for a successful 11g RDBMS install. However, RPMs are continuously updated so the version on your system may be newer than what was given by the manufacturer

binutils-2.17.50.0.6
compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3
elfutils-libelf-0.125
elfutils-libelf-devel-0.125
elfutils-libelf-devel-static-0.125
gcc-4.1.2
gcc-c++-4.1.2
glibc-2.5-24
glibc-common-2.5
glibc-devel-2.5
glibc-headers-2.5
kernel-headers-2.6.18
ksh-20060214
libaio-0.3.106
libaio-devel-0.3.106
libgcc-4.1.2
libgomp-4.1.2
libstdc++-4.1.2
libstdc++-devel-4.1.2
make-3.81
numactl-devel-0.9.8.i386
sysstat-7.0.2
unixODBC-2.2.11
unixODBC-devel-2.2.11

3. Thus, when investigating if the RPM exists on your system, you should not include the version number. In this example we will check for the existence of RPM binutils-2.17.50.0.6. Use the rpm –qa command to gather all installed packages, then lookup for the specific one with grep.


[root@mylinux1 ~]# rpm -qa|grep binutils
binutils-2.17.50.0.6-14.el5
[root@mylinux1 ~]#

4. As seen above the actual version of the rpm binutils-2.17.50.0.6 is an exact match, but it does not have to be. As long as the installed package has a version greater than the required version of 2.17.50.0.6, it meets our needs for 11g RDBMS install.

5. Repeat these steps for each required package.
This completes checking for required Oracle 11g RDBMS packages.

Larry J. Catt, OCP 9i, 10g
oracle@allcompute.com
www.allcompute.com

hp-ux, installer, itanium, linux, Oracle, unix

Required packages for Oracle 10g RDBMS install on LINUX

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The installation of Oracle RDBMS software requires supporting OS level functionality to successfully complete and operate. This article outlines the check which should be done before the installation of Oracle 10g RDBMS is begun.

1. Logon to your Linux Server as the root user.

2. Below is a listing of the RPMs Oracle gives as required for a successful 10g RDBMS install. However, RPMs are continuously updated so the version on your system may be newer than shown below.

libgomp-4.1.2-42.el5.x86_64.rpm
kernel-headers-2.6.18-92.el5.x86_64.rpm
glibc-headers-2.5-24.x86_64.rpm
libstdc++-devel-4.1.2-42.el5.x86_64.rpm
sysstat-7.0.2-1.el5.x86_64.rpm
glibc-devel-2.5-24.x86_64.rpm
libaio-devel-0.3.106-3.2.x86_64.rpm
gcc-4.1.2-42.el5.x86_64.rpm
gcc-c++-4.1.2-42.el5.x86_64.rpm
elfutils-libelf-devel-static-0.125-3.el5.x86_64.rpm
elfutils-libelf-devel-0.125-3.el5.x86_64.rpm
compat-db-4.2.52-5.1.x86_64.rpm
compat-gcc-34-3.4.6-4.x86_64.rpm
compat-gcc-34-c++-3.4.6-4.x86_64.rpm
gdb-6.5-37.el5.x86_64.rpm
libtermcap-devel-2.0.8-46.1.x86_64.rpm
readline-devel-5.1-1.1.x86_64.rpm
unixODBC-2.2.11-7.1.x86_64.rpm
unixODBC-devel-2.2.11-7.1.x86_64.rpm
glibc-devel-2.5-24.i386.rpm
libXp-1.0.0-8.1.el5.i386.rpm
libstdc++-devel-4.1.2-42.el5.i386.rpm
unixODBC-2.2.11-7.1.i386.rpm
unixODBC-devel-2.2.11-7.1.i386.rpm
libaio-devel-0.3.106-3.2.i386.rpm

3. When investigating if the RPM exists on your system, you should not include the version number. In this example we will check for the existence of RPM libgomp-4.1.2-42.el5.x86_64.rpm. Use the rpm –qa command to gather all installed packages, then lookup the specific one with grep.

[root@mylinux1 ~]# rpm -qa|grep libgomp
libgomp-4.4.4-13.el5
[root@mylinux1 ~]#

4. As seen above the actual version of the rpm libgomp is 4.4.4 which is greater than the required version of 4.1.2 and meets our needs for 10g RDBMS install.

5. Repeat these steps for each required package.

This completes checking for required Oracle 10g RDBMS packages.

Larry J. Catt, OCP 9i, 10g
oracle@allcompute.com
www.allcompute.com

installer, Oracle, Oracle 10g, RAC

Removing Oracle 10g RAC components from LINUX server

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The following procedure is used to remove all RAC components created during the clusterware and RDBMS installation of 10g from a Linux server. NOTE: Once executed, Clusterware will not be usable.

1. Logon to the server as root.

2. Run the following command from any location on your server to remove all Oracle 10g RAC components from your OS layer. Note: RAC will not be useable on the system once executed.

rm -rf /etc/oracle
rm -rf /etc/oraInst.loc
rm -rf /etc/oratab
rm -rf /etc/init.d/*crs*
rm -rf /etc/init.d/init.cssd
rm -rf /etc/init.d/init.evmd
rm -rf /etc/rc*/*crs*
rm -rf /etc/*crs*
rm -rf /tmp/Ora*
rm -rf /tmp/.oracle


Larry J. Catt
oracle@allcompute.com
www.allcompute.com

11g, Oracle

Default 11gR2 accounts

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The standard oracle 11gR2 installation will create the following Oracle accounts:

USERNAME

Definition

SYS

The SYS user is created with the database as the highest level user and owns all oracle base objects within the Oracle RDBMS.   By default the SYS is the only user in the RDBMS which has the SYSDBA privilege and can perform any task within the database.

SYSTEM

The SYSTEM user is created with the database but does not have sysdba privileges by default.   This account is meant for administrative use that does not require total RDBMS control.

OUTLN

The account that supports plan stability. Plan stability prevents certain database environment changes from affecting the performance characteristics of applications by preserving execution plans in stored outlines. OUTLN acts as a role to centrally manage metadata associated with stored outlines.

DIP

The Oracle Directory Integration and Provisioning (DIP) account that is installed with Oracle Label Security. This profile is created automatically as part of the installation process for Oracle Internet Directory-enabled Oracle Label Security.

ORACLE_OCM

The account used with Oracle Configuration Manager. This feature enables you to associate the configuration information for the current Oracle Database instance with OracleMetaLink. Then when you log a service request, it is associated with the database instance configuration information.

APPQOSSYS

The APPQASSYS account manages and owns all objects for Oracle Quality of Service Management.

WMSYS

The account used to store the metadata information for Oracle Workspace Manager.

EXFSYS

The account used internally to access the EXFSYS schema, which is associated with the Rules Manager and Expression Filter feature. This feature enables you to build complex PL/SQL rules and expressions. The EXFSYS schema contains the Rules Manager and Expression Filter DDL, DML, and associated metadata.

CTXSYS

The account used to administer Oracle Text. Oracle Text enables you to build text query applications and document classification applications. It provides indexing, word and theme searching, and viewing capabilities for text.

XDB

The account used for storing Oracle XML DB data and metadata.  Oracle XML DB provides high-performance XML storage and retrieval for Oracle Database data.

ANONYMOUS

Account that allows HTTP access to Oracle XML DB. It is used in place of the APEX_PUBLIC_USER account when the Embedded PL/SQL Gateway (EPG) is installed in the database.  EPG is a Web server that can be used with Oracle Database. It provides the necessary infrastructure to create dynamic applications.

XS$NULL

An internal account that represents the absence of a user in a session. Because XS$NULL is not a user, this account can only be accessed by the Oracle Database instance. XS$NULL has no privileges and no one can authenticate as XS$NULL, nor can authentication credentials ever be assigned to XS$NULL.

ORDPLUGINS

The Oracle Multimedia user. Plug-ins supplied by Oracle and third-party, format plug-ins are installed in this schema.  Oracle Multimedia enables Oracle Database to store, manage, and retrieve images, audio, video, DICOM format medical images and other objects, or other heterogeneous media data integrated with other enterprise information.

MDSYS

The Oracle Spatial and Oracle Multimedia Locator administrator account.

ORDDATA

The ORDDATA account owns the Oracle Mulimedia DICOM data modal.

ORDSYS

The Oracle Multimedia administrator account.

SI_INFORMTN_SCHEMA

The account that stores the information views for the SQL/MM Still Image Standard.

OLAPSYS

The account that owns the OLAP Catalog (CWMLite). This account has been deprecated, but is retained for backward compatibility.

MDDATA

The schema used by Oracle Spatial for storing Geocoder and router data.  Oracle Spatial provides a SQL schema and functions that enable you to store, retrieve, update, and query collections of spatial features in an Oracle database.

SPATIAL_WFS_ADMIN_USR

The Web Feature Service (WFS) account. It is used by Oracle Spatial WFS Cache Manager to load all feature type metadata and feature instances from the database into main memory for the feature types that are cached.

SPATIAL_CSW_ADMIN_USR

The Catalog Services for the Web (CSW) account. It is used by Oracle Spatial CSW Cache Manager to load all record-type metadata and record instances from the database into the main memory for the record types that are cached.

SYSMAN

The account used to perform Oracle Enterprise Manager database administration tasks. The SYS and SYSTEM accounts can also perform these tasks.

MGMT_VIEW

An account used by Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control.

OWBSYS

The account for administrating the Oracle Warehouse Builder repository.  Access this account during the installation process to define the base language of the repository and to define Warehouse Builder workspaces and users. A data warehouse is a relational or multidimensional database that is designed for query and analysis.

OWBSYS_AUDIT

The account is used by Warehouse builder to access the audit tables of OWBSYS.

DBSNMP

The account used by the Management Agent component of Oracle Enterprise Manager to monitor and manage the database.

 

 

Larry J. Catt, OCP 9i, 10g
oracle@allcompute.com
www.allcompute.com

11g, hp-ux, installer, network, Oracle, Oracle 10g, RAC, unix

Oracle RAC and the NTP process

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If you are installing Oracle Clusterware on a Linux or UNIX machine, the following error may occur if you have not turned on Slewing:

PRVF-5439: NTP daemon does not have slewing option “-x” set on the node

The following procedure will remedy this problem, as demonstrated in a RHEL 5.4 environment.

1. Logon to your Oracle cluster node as the root user

2. Open the file /etc/sysconfig/ntpd and ensuring that the line


OPTIONS=”-u ntp:ntp -p /var/run/ntpd.pid -x”

3. If the line does not contain the –x option, edit the file so it reads as above.

4. Then stop the service as below, with the command /sbin/service ntpd stop


[root@mylinux1 ~]# /sbin/service ntpd stop
Shutting down ntpd: [ OK ]

5. Restart the service as below, with the command /sbin/service ntpd start


[root@mylinux1 ~]# /sbin/service ntpd start
ntpd: Synchronizing with time server: [ OK ]
Starting ntpd: [ OK ]
[root@mylinux1 ~]#

6. Verify that the –x option has been implemented, with the command ps –ef|grep ntp


[root@mylinux1 ~]# ps -ef|grep ntp
ntp 8301 1 0 20:33 ? 00:00:00 ntpd -u ntp:ntp -p /var/run/ntpd.pid -x
root 8792 28965 0 20:34 pts/1 00:00:00 grep ntp
[root@mylinux1 ~]#

This completes turning the NTPD slewing option on for Oracle clusteware.

Larry J. Catt, OCP 9i, 10g
oracle@allcompute.com
www.allcompute.com

11g, hp-ux, installer, linux, Oracle, Oracle 10g, unix

Formatting of OCFS2 Shared Storage

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The Oracle OCFS2 file system can be used to format shared storage for multiple node access. To accomplish this task, OCFS2 rpm must be installed and configured. Below is the procedure for preparing the shared disks for use, once OCFS2 has been installed and configured.

1. Logon to one of your Oracle servers as the root user.

2. Locate the shared storage presented in the directory /dev/mapper on both nodes.

-mylinux1
[root@mylinux1 ~]# ll /dev/mapper
total 0
crw——- 1 root root 10, 63 Jan 22 17:44 control
brw-rw—- 1 root disk 253, 3 Jan 22 17:45 DATA-50GB-02
brw-rw—- 1 root disk 253, 8 Jan 22 17:45 DATA-50GB-03
brw-rw—- 1 root disk 253, 1 Jan 22 17:45 VOTE-1GB-05
brw-rw—- 1 root disk 253, 2 Jan 22 17:45 VOTE-1GB-06
brw-rw—- 1 root disk 253, 4 Jan 22 17:45 HOME-50GB-02
[root@mylinux1 ~]#

-mylinux2
[root@mylinux2 ~]# ll /dev/mapper
total 0
crw——- 1 root root 10, 63 Jan 22 17:44 control
brw-rw—- 1 root disk 253, 3 Jan 22 17:45 DATA-50GB-02
brw-rw—- 1 root disk 253, 8 Jan 22 17:45 DATA-50GB-03
brw-rw—- 1 root disk 253, 1 Jan 22 17:45 VOTE-1GB-05
brw-rw—- 1 root disk 253, 2 Jan 22 17:45 VOTE-1GB-06
brw-rw—- 1 root disk 253, 4 Jan 22 17:45 HOME-50GB-03
[root@mylinux2 ~]#

3. The shared storage will be mounted on each node of the RAC. In this example our shared storage includes the following:


/dev/mapper/DATA-50GB-02
/dev/mapper/DATA-50GB-03
/dev/mapper/VOTE-1GB-05
/dev/mapper/VOTE-1GB-06

4. As the root user, format each shared storage device with the following command: NOTE: formatting of the share disks is only performed on a single node, repeating on additional nodes will destroy all information.

Example:

/sbin/mkfs.ocfs2 /dev/mapper/DATA-50GB-02

[root@mylinux1 ~]# /sbin/mkfs.ocfs2 /dev/mapper/DATA-50GB-02
mkfs.ocfs2 1.4.4
Cluster stack: classic o2cb
Overwriting existing ocfs2 partition.
Proceed (y/N): y
Label:
Features: sparse backup-super unwritten inline-data strict-journal-super
Block size: 2048 (11 bits)
Cluster size: 4096 (12 bits)
Volume size: 1069252608 (261048 clusters) (522096 blocks)
Cluster groups: 17 (tail covers 7096 clusters, rest cover 15872 clusters)
Extent allocator size: 4194304 (1 groups)
Journal size: 33554432
Node slots: 2
Creating bitmaps: done
Initializing superblock: done
Writing system files: done
Writing superblock: done
Writing backup superblock: 0 block(s)
Formatting Journals: done
Growing extent allocator: done
Formatting slot map: done
Writing lost+found: done
mkfs.ocfs2 successful

[root@mylinux1 ~]#

This procedure is repeated for each shared storage device.

Larry J. Catt, OCP 9i, 10g
oracle@allcompute.com
www.allcompute.com

11g, hp-ux, linux, Oracle, RAC, unix

CRS-4640 and CRS-4000 during execution of root.sh

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The following procedure will help in resolving error CRS-4640 and CRS-4000 during the execution of root.sh script in the installation of Oracle 11g clusteware.

ERROR:
Adding daemon to inittab
CRS-4640: Oracle High Availability Services is already active
CRS-4000: Command Start failed, or completed with errors.
ohasd failed to start: Inappropriate ioctl for device
ohasd failed to start at /u01/app/11.2.0/grid/crs/install/rootcrs.pl line 443.
[root@mylinux1 grid]#

CAUSE: Previous install of clusterware not properly removed.

FIX:

1. Execute the script $CRS_HOME/crs/install/rootcrs.pl -deconfig -force

[root@mylinux1 install]# ./rootcrs.pl -deconfig -force
2010-04-1515:43:23: Parsing the host name
2010-04-1515:43:23: Checking for super user privileges
2010-04-1515:43:23: User has super user privileges
Using configuration parameter file: ./crsconfig_params
PRCR-1035 : Failed to look up CRS resource ora.cluster_vip.type for 1
PRCR-1068 : Failed to query resources
Cannot communicate with crsd
PRCR-1070 : Failed to check if resource ora.gsd is registered
Cannot communicate with crsd
PRCR-1070 : Failed to check if resource ora.ons is registered
Cannot communicate with crsd
PRCR-1070 : Failed to check if resource ora.eons is registered
Cannot communicate with crsd

ACFS-9200: Supported
CRS-4535: Cannot communicate with Cluster Ready Services
CRS-4000: Command Stop failed, or completed with errors.
CRS-2791: Starting shutdown of Oracle High Availability Services-managed resources on ‘mylinux1’
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop ‘ora.cssdmonitor’ on ‘mylinux1’
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop ‘ora.evmd’ on ‘mylinux1’
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop ‘ora.mdnsd’ on ‘mylinux1’
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop ‘ora.gpnpd’ on ‘mylinux1’
CRS-2677: Stop of ‘ora.cssdmonitor’ on ‘mylinux1’ succeeded
CRS-2677: Stop of ‘ora.mdnsd’ on ‘mylinux1’ succeeded
CRS-2677: Stop of ‘ora.evmd’ on ‘mylinux1’ succeeded
CRS-2677: Stop of ‘ora.gpnpd’ on ‘mylinux1’ succeeded
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop ‘ora.gipcd’ on ‘mylinux1’
CRS-2677: Stop of ‘ora.gipcd’ on ‘mylinux1’ succeeded
CRS-2793: Shutdown of Oracle High Availability Services-managed resources on ‘mylinux1’ has completed
CRS-4133: Oracle High Availability Services has been stopped.
Successfully deconfigured Oracle clusterware stack on this node
[root@mylinux1 install]#

2. Once you have received the message “Successfully deconfigured Oracle clusterware”, then you can re-execute the shell script $CRS_HOME/root.sh

[root@mylinux1 grid]# ./root.sh
…
…
…
…
Configure Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster … succeeded
Updating inventory properties for clusterware
Starting Oracle Universal Installer…

Checking swap space: must be greater than 500 MB. Actual 17625 MB Passed
The inventory pointer is located at /etc/oraInst.loc
The inventory is located at /u01/app/oraInventory
‘UpdateNodeList’ was successful.
[root@mylinux1 grid]#

This completes the resolution to Oracle clusterware errors CRS-4640 and CRS-4000 during the execution of root.sh.

Larry J. Catt, OCP 9i, 10g
oracle@allcompute.com
www.allcompute.com

11g, hp-ux, installer, itanium, linux, Oracle, Oracle 10g, oracle 9i, RAC, unix

Creation of Oracle OS accounts for 11g RAC install on Linux

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Deployment of Oracle software requires the creation of multiple groups and users on UNIX and Linux servers to properly configure and administrate. This procedure covers the basic creation of Oracle groups and users for a standard 11g RAC implementation.

1. Create group accounts on all nodes: NOTE: id must be exactly the same

/usr/sbin/groupadd -g 501 oinstall
/usr/sbin/groupadd -g 502 dba
/usr/sbin/groupadd -g 504 asmadmin
/usr/sbin/groupadd -g 506 asmdba
/usr/sbin/groupadd -g 507 asmoper

2. Create user accounts on all nodes: NOTE: id must be exactly the same

/usr/sbin/useradd -u 501 -g oinstall -G asmadmin,asmdba,asmoper grid
/usr/sbin/useradd -u 502 -g oinstall -G dba,asmdba oracle

3. Set password for GRID and ORACLE account to be the same on every node.

passwd oracle
Changing password for user oracle.
New UNIX password: password
retype new UNIX password: password
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
passwd grid
Changing password for user oracle.
New UNIX password: password
retype new UNIX password: password
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

This completes the standard configuration creation of Oracle groups and users on Linux.

Larry Catt, OCP 9i, 10g
oracle@allcompute.com
www.allcompute.com