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ACTIVE RESPONSE 5.0 TOPICS BLUEPRINTS TROUBLESHOOTING DOC INDEX


 

TOC
Prerequisites
The blueprint steps
Step 1: Reserve a node from the free pool to use as an image host
Step 2: Install and configure the operating system

Step 3: Install and configure your software

Step 4: Capture the image
Step 5: Create the tier
Step 6: Personalize the image instances
Step 7: Allocate nodes and activate the tier
   
know-how:

Oracle 9i RAC: Capturing an Image and Creating a Tier

Intended for use with Cassatt Active Response V5.0.

This blueprint describes how to install, configure, and deploy Oracle 9i Real Application Clusters (Oracle 9i RAC) release 2 (9.2.0.6) software to run in the Cassatt Active Response environment. If you haven't read Understanding Blueprints for Deploying Applications, read that first for background and context.

Prerequisites

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Application node hardware requirements:

If you are installing a 64-bit version of the OS, follow these steps to set a custom attribute to identify x86_64 servers and ensure they are the only nodes allocated to run the image:

  1. Identify all of the x86_64 nodes.
  2. Add a custom attribute to each of those nodes that indicates the nodes can be allocated to run images that require a 64-bit-capable archictecture. Refer to the online help topic entitled "Using custom hardware attributes to specify hardware for your software" for information.
  3. When you capture the Apache image, assign the same custom attribute to the image as you assigned to the nodes.
  4. When you create the Apache tier, the custom attribute is assigned by default. Do not remove the custom attribute.

If you intend to run a 64-bit version of the OS in VMware ESX 3.0 VMs, you must have set up your VMware host tier with the same custom attribute so that only x86_64 nodes are allocated to your host tier. See also VMware KB 1901, Hardware and Firmware Requirements for 64-Bit Guest Operating Systems.
checkmark Image host requirements: If you are installing a 64-bit version of the OS, select a node with the x86_64 custom attribute.

Software requirements:

  • Red Hat ELAS 3 or 4
  • Oracle 9i Real Application Clusters (Oracle 9i RAC) release 2 (9.2.0.6)

Tier Settings: Determine the policy settings for the Oracle 9i RAC image and the tier. To understand how to determine policy values, see Understanding Tier Configuration and Personalization.

Network Requirements: Determine the network to associate with the tier. Make sure it has adequate IP addresses free to accommodate maximum nodes for the tier.

The blueprint steps

This blueprint follows the standard high-level blueprint steps.

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Step 1: Reserve a node from the free pool to use as an image host

  1. From the Controller, click the Free Pool.
  2. Select a physical node to reserve.
    You can differentiate between physical and virtual node by looking at the ID; virtual node IDs are appended with _vnodeN, for example, node003_vnode1.
    Be sure to select a node with the architecture required for your operating system; that is, Sparc for Solaris or IA32 for Linux or Windows.
  3. Select Node Actions > Reserve for Image Capture.
  4. Note the node's IP address, which you will use when you install the OS and capture the image.

Step 2: Install and configure the operating system

Follow instructions to install and configure ELAS 3 (32-bit only) or 4 (32-bit or 64-bit): Red Hat ELAS.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is not supported for this blueprint.

If you are using Red Hat ELAS 4, install the following RPM:

libaio-0.3.103-3.i386.rpm

Step 3: Install and configure your software

Prerequisites

  • The following OracleMetaLink step-by-step installation document (available to registered MetaLink users):

    Doc ID: Note:184821.1
    Subject: Step-By-Step Installation of 9.2.0.5 RAC on Linux
  • The following OracleMetaLink note:

    Doc ID: Note:191587.1
    Subject: Link Phase Fails for 'ins_ctx.mk' While Installing Oracle Server 9.2.0.1 on Linux
  • The path to the Oracle database data files. You will use this path when setting the Oracle environment variables.
  • The path to the Oracle Quorum files. (You will use this path during Oracle installation.) If this file system is NFS, it must be mounted with the noac option (no attribute caching).
  • The ora_preinstall.sh script, available for downloading at Cassatt info central:
    http://www.cassatt.com/infocentral/collage/5.0/downloads/ora_preinstall.sh
  • Optional: the customized version of the ocmstart.sh script. (As an alternative, you can edit the default version, as described in step 4.) This script is available for downloading at Cassatt info central:
    http://www.cassatt.com/infocentral/collage/5.0/downloads/ocmstart.sh
  • The dbora script, available in a zip file for downloading at Cassatt info central:
    http://www.cassatt.com/infocentral/collage/5.0/downloads/dbora.zip
  • The script to monitor Oracle status, /home/oracle/oracle_status.sh. This script is available for downloading at Cassatt info central:
    http://www.cassatt.com/infocentral/collage/5.0/downloads/oracle_status.sh

Follow these steps to install Oracle 9i Real Application Clusters (Oracle 9i RAC) release 2 (9.2.0.6) on the image host:

  1. Enable rsh via xinetd, as follows:
    1. Edit the file /etc/xinet.d/rsh.
    2. Ensure that the disable line is set to “no”. This line should appear as follows:
      disabled			=no
    3. Restart the xinetd service:

      service xinetd restart
  2. Set up the Oracle environment variables according to the OracleMetaLink step-by-step installation document, including the following:
    • $ORACLE_BASE=/opt/app/oracle/product
    • $ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/920
      (Note that $ORACLE_BASE must be on the shared root.)
    • $SHARED_DATAFILES_PATH=datafile_path
  3. Log in as root and run the script ora_preinstall.sh.
  4. Follow the instructions in the OracleMetaLink step-by-step installation document to install Oracle Cluster Manager and Oracle RAC on the image host. Note the following during installation:
    • Before running step 2.8 ("Start the ORACM"), either edit the ocmstart.sh script to remove the watchdog timer steps, or use the customized version of ocmstart.sh listed in the prerequisites.
    • During step 3.1 ("Install 9.2.0.4 RAC"), see the following OracleMetaLink note:

      Doc ID: Note:191587.1
      Subject: Link Phase Fails for 'ins_ctx.mk' While Installing Oracle Server 9.2.0.1 on Linux
    • Stop after step 3.2 ("Patch the RAC Installation"). The remaining steps are completed during tier personalization—do not configure the Oracle network with netca or create a database with dbca until tier personalization.
  5. Create a symbolic link to the echo command:

    ln -s /bin/echo /usr/bin/echo
  6. Install the Oracle Client on the shared storage device by running the Oracle runinstaller script and selecting the shared storage device for the installation location.
  7. Configure Oracle to start automatically when the system is rebooted:
    1. Copy the service script dbora to the /etc/init.d directory:

      cp /DownloadLocation/dbora /etc/init.d
    2. Set execute permissions for the script:

      chmod +x /etc/init.d/dbora
    3. Add the dbora service:

      chkconfig --add dbora

The OracleMetaLink note, "How to Automate Startup/Shutdown of Oracle Database on Linux" (Doc ID Note: 222813.1) does not work correctly for Oracle 9i RAC. Using dbstart and dbshut to start up a RAC instance causes multiple problems:

    • /etc/oratab is set incorrectly to the RAC SID instead of the database name, which prevents dbshut from correctly finding the instance. The incorrect setting causes problems with Enterprise Manager discovery.
    • Using dbstart and dbshut leaves the database instances in an unknown state.

    For RAC, the service script dbora uses srvctl instead of dbstart and dbshut to start and stop the databases.

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Step 4: Capture the image

In this step, you will capture the base image from the image host using the cccapture command—an interactive script. Although you can change the values later, it is most efficient to supply valid values now.

Follow these steps:

  1. Log into the active control node as root.
  2. Enter the following command to start the capture of the base image from the image host:

    /opt/cassatt/bin/cccapture
  3. Answer each prompt.

    The next table lists the recommended values for the Oracle 9i RAC blueprint; unless you have site-specific reasons, accept the default values for other cccapture prompts.

    For names, descriptions, and other discretionary fields, use values that are meaningful to you. In the image name, do not use spaces or characters (for example, /) special to Unix-based file systems such as Linux and Solaris.

    Specifying the applications and versions contained in this image is not required for this blueprint, but you may wish to do so for tracking purposes.

    For file system selection: selecting unneeded file systems wastes space but is otherwise harmless.

    At this prompt...

    Enter...

    Notes
    Enter the image type (linux,vmhost,windows,solaris): linux  

    Do any of the applications in the image require personalization (additional configuration once the image is booted)? [n]

    y

     

    If a tier using this image must always run on a specific set of nodes,
    custom attributes can be specified for the tier. These same attributes
    must then be specified on each node that will be reserved for the tier.
    The Cassatt system will then match on these attributes to ensure that
    those nodes are always allocated for a tier with this image.

    Do you want to specify any custom attributes for tiers using this image? [n]

    		 y or n If you are installed a 64-bit version of the OS, specify the x86_64 server architecture custom attribute
    Enter an attribute value for nodes to use: x86_64attribute  

    Enter the hardware architecture for this image

    (ia32): [ia32]

    		 ia32 Select "ia32" even when your image requires a 64-bit-capable server. A custom attribute is required to ensure allocation of 64-bit-capable servers.

    Do you want to specify the hardware requirements for a tier using this image? [n]

    y

     

    Enter minimum amount of RAM (MBytes) per node for this image (128,256,512,1024,2048,4096,8192): [no minimum]

    512

     

    Does this image require a local disk? [n]

    y

     

    Enter the minimum size in Gbytes for the required local disk: [0]

    disk size

    Cassatt Active Response uses this value in determining which nodes to allocate to tiers running this image. Use the smallest size you believe will provide adequate space for swap and temp (no smaller than 6 GB). Nodes with smaller disks will not be allocated to run this image.

    Does this image require local swap space? [n]:

    y

    		  

    Enter the required amount of swap space (in Gbytes): [8]

    2

    The space remaining on the local disk after swap partitions are created is assigned to local temp space.

    Does this image require local temp space? [n]:

    y

    		  

    Should this image be installed on the local disk (allowing the node to boot locally)? [n] y

    		 y or n See Alternatives to NFS: Image on Local Disk for details.

    OS Monitoring Options
    Specify the operating system monitoring that will be used for this image (at least one monitoring option must be configured):
    Monitor via SNMP? [n]

    y

    		  

    Monitor via ping? [n]

    y

    		  

    Monitoring for the Oracle application cannot be specified during cccapture because the tier must be personalized before monitoring is activated. You will specify monitoring settings for the Oracle application in a later step.

  4. In the Controller, release the image host back to the free pool by selecting the node using the checkbox, then select Node Actions > Release from Image Capture.

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Step 5: Create the tier

Return to the Controller to define the Oracle 9i RAC tier. Cassatt Active Response prepopulates tier values with the parameters you set during image capture. If necessary, you can change them during tier creation.

  1. On the left navigation pane, click Tiers to display the Tier List.
  2. On the Tier List page, click the New Tier button (on the right).
  3. On the Properties page, set the properties for the Oracle tier.

    The next table lists the suggested values for the Oracle blueprint; unless you have site-specific reasons, accept the defaults in other fields.

    Prompt or Parameter

    Example Value or Selection

    Notes

    Email Alerts

    On

     

    Email On:
    Tier Critical
    Tier Non-Critical


    Select all choices

    Reboot on failure

    On

     

    Automatic move to maintenance pool

    On

     

    Harvest priority

    Low

    		  

    Allow harvest

    On

     
  4. On the Requirements page, set the hardware requirements for the tier.

    At this prompt...

    Enter...

    Notes

    Operational Target

    TargetNodes

    		  

    Minimum Nodes

    MinNodes

    		  

    Maximum Nodes

    MaxNodes

    		  
  5. On the networks page, select a primary network.
  6. On the IPs and Hostnames page, assign IP addresses or host names, or accept the default settings.
  7. You can close the Creating Tier Progress page and continue with the next section.

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Step 6: Personalize the Oracle 9i RAC image instances

On the tier page, select the Oracle 9i tier using the checkbox, then select Personalize from the actions dropdown menu.

Cassatt Active Response boots the maximum nodes for the tier.

Prerequisites

  • The host names and IP addresses for each node in the tier.
  • The path to the Oracle database data files. You will use this path as an argument to the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) during tier personalization.
  • If you use Oracle Enterprise Manager (EM), the following OracleMetaLink documents (available to registered MetaLink users):

    Doc ID: 158295.1
    Subject: How to Configure EM with 9i Real Application Clusters (RAC)

    Doc ID: 71913.1
    Subject: How to “Clean Start” the Intelligent Agent When Irrecoverable Errors Occur

    Doc ID: 114007.1
    Subject: How to Check the Status of a Remote Agent from a Client Machine

    Doc ID: Note: 165034.1
    Subject: How to Configure Em 9i Using an OMS / Intelligent Agents

Personalization

This procedure summarizes the per-node configuration steps described in the following OracleMetaLink document:

Doc ID: Note:184821.1
Subject: Step-By-Step Installation of 9.2.0.5 RAC on Linux

Do the following:

  1. Ensure that the environment is configured correctly for Oracle:
    • The oracle user must exist.
    • The oracle user must be the owner of the directories $ORACLE_HOME and /var/ opt/oracle.
    • The Oracle environment variables must be set correctly, as described in the Oracle installation documentation.
  2. Log into each node in the tier and edit the $ORACLE_HOME/oracm/admin/cmcfg.ora file to include all the host names associated with the tier in the Cluster Manager configuration, as follows:
    • Change HostName to the node’s host name.
    • Add all the nodes in the tier to PrivateHostNames and PublicHostNames. List the nodes in exactly the same order on each node.

    You must complete this step on each node before continuing to step 3.

  3. Edit the file/etc/hosts.equiv and add the IP addresses for each node in the tier. Add the maximum number of nodes for the tier.
  4. Ensure that the oracle user can use rsh to connect to all nodes in the tier without entering a password.
  5. On each node, start the Oracle Cluster Manager (oracm) as root:

    . /home/oracle/.bashrc
    $ORACLE_HOME/oracm/bin/ocmstart.sh
  6. On each node, start the Global Service Daemon as oracle:

    gsdctl start
  7. On the primary node, set up the listener as oracle using netca (the Oracle Net Configuration Assistant). The netca utility copies the listener.ora file to each node.
  8. On the primary node, create the target datafile directory. Without this target directory, Oracle has errors on file creation.

    mkdir /datafile_path/DbName
  9. On the primary node, create the cluster database using dbca (the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant) as oracle. This creates the database and the tnsnames.ora file. Specify the path to the Oracle database data files as the datafileDestination argument, as follows:

    dbca –datafileDestination datafile_path
  10. On the primary node, start the database and all instances. Run the following command to ensure that the database has started:

    srvctl status database -d database_name

    Use the following command to start an instance, as necessary:

    srvctl start instance -d database_name –I instance_name
  11. Set up Oracle to automatically start the database and instances at reboot.
  12. If you use Oracle Enterprise Manager (EM) and the Intelligent Agent, use these steps on the primary node:
    1. Set up EM according to the OracleMetaLink document 158295.1, How to Configure EM with 9i Real Application Clusters (RAC). Use the following tips during this procedure:
      • See OracleMetaLink document 71913.1 for information on resolving problems with the Intelligent Agent.
      • To make the clean-up before starting agentctl, also toggle lsnrctl and gsdctl.
      • See OracleMetaLink document 114007.1 for information on monitoring the agent using tnsping.
    2. Install the RAC database for EM by creating the target database directory:

      mkdir /DatafileDestination/DatabaseName
    3. Then create the cluster database:

      dbca -datafileDestination /DatafileDestination/DatabaseName
    4. Install the EM database repository by setting up the agent, EM database repository, and node discovery, as described in OracleMetaLink document 165034.1. During the repository installation, install the repository as a new tablespace in the previously created RAC database—do not create a new database, because it would not be a RAC database.
    5. If you want to set up EM with the web server, set the $DISPLAY environment variable as follows, using your web server name for servername:

      export DISPLAY=servername:1

      Then navigate to Oracle’s apachectl directory:

      cd $ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/apachectl start

      Finally, use your local browser to connect to the web server with the following URL:

      http://servername:3339
  13. When you are finished, return to the Controller, select the tier, and select "Personalization Complete" for the tier.

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Set monitoring parameters

Follow these steps to set up monitoring for the Oracle application.

  1. Select Images from the left navigation pane.
  2. Select the Oracle image.

    Cassatt Active Response displays the image properties page.
  3. Select the Applications tab.

    Cassatt Active Response displays the applications table. In this case the table is empty; had you specified applications during image capture, the table would have been prepopulated from the image manifest.
  4. Click the Add Application button.

    Cassatt Active Response displays the Properties page.
  5. Set up monitoring for the Oracle application using the following settings.


    6. Prompt or Parameter

    Value or Selection

    Notes

    Application name

    oracle

     

    Description

    ApplicationDescription

    Optional

    JMX

    		  

    Leave Blank

    SNMP

    		  

    Leave Blank

    Script

    		  

    Script path/name

    /home/oracle/oracle_status.sh

    		  

    Timeout

    60

    Enter a value in seconds

    Collection Interval

    60

     

    Retry Count

    3

    		  

    HTTP

    		  

    Leave blank

  6. Click Save Changes.

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Step 7: Allocate nodes and activate the tier

Follow these steps to allocate nodes and activate the tier.

  1. From the Tiers table on the Domain page, select the checkbox for the Oracle tier.
  2. From the Tier Actions dropdown menu, select Allocate Nodes. Click Allocate Nodes on the confirmation page.

    Cassatt Active Response allocates nodes and displays the Tiers table.
  3. Again, select the checkbox for the Oracle tier.
  4. From the Tier Actions dropdown menu, select Activate. Click Activate on the confirmation page.

    Cassatt Active Response starts the operating system and the applications on each node in the tier.

This completes the procedure to create and deploy an Oracle 9i RAC image.

 
 
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