3 Oracle Grid Infrastructure

The Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone server is the Oracle software that
provides system support for an Oracle database including volume management, file
system, and automatic restart capabilities. If you plan to use Oracle Restart or Oracle
Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM), you must install Oracle Grid
Infrastructure before installing your database. Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a
standalone server is the software that includes Oracle Restart and Oracle ASM.
Oracle combined the two infrastructure products into a single set of binaries that is
installed as the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home. Oracle Grid Infrastructure should be
installed before installing Oracle Database 11g Release 2.

Oracle ASM is a volume manager and a file system for Oracle database files that
supports single-instance Oracle Database and Oracle Real Application Clusters
(Oracle RAC) configurations. Oracle ASM also supports a general purpose file system
for your application needs including Oracle Database binaries. Oracle ASM is Oracle's
recommended storage management solution that provides an alternative to
conventional volume managers, file systems, and raw devices.

Oracle Restart improves the availability of your Oracle database by providing the
following:

 When there is a hardware or a software failure, Oracle Restart automatically

starts all Oracle components, including Oracle database instance, Oracle Net
Listener, database services, and Oracle ASM.
 Oracle Restart starts up components in the proper order when the database
host is restarted.
 Oracle Restart runs periodic checks to monitor the health of Oracle
components. If a check operation fails for a component, then the component
is shut down and restarted.

Note:

 If you want to use Oracle ASM or Oracle Restart, then you must
first install Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone server and
then install Oracle Database.
 Oracle Restart is used in single-instance (non-clustered)
environments only.

This chapter contains the following sections:

 Requirements for Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation

 Oracle ACFS and Oracle ADVM Support
 Managing Disk Groups for Older Database Versions
 Migrating Existing Oracle Automatic Storage Management Instances
 Oracle Automatic Storage Management Installation Considerations
 Preparing Disks for an Oracle Automatic Storage Management Installation
 Installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure Using a Software-Only Installation
  Installing and Configuring Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a Standalone Server
 Modifying Oracle Grid Infrastructure Binaries After Installation
 Manually Configuring Oracle Automatic Storage Management Disk Groups
 Testing the Oracle Automatic Storage Management Installation

3.1 Requirements for Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation

The system must meet the following requirements:

 Memory Requirements
 Disk Space Requirements
 Configuring the User's Environment

3.1.1 Memory Requirements

The following are the memory requirements for installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure.

On Linux x86:

 At least 1 GB of RAM

To determine the RAM size, enter the following command:

# grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo

If the size of the RAM is less than the required size, then you must install
more memory before continuing.

 The following table describes the relationship between installed RAM and the
configured swap space requirement:

Note:

On Linux, the HugePages feature allocates non-swappable

memory for large page tables using memory-mapped files. If you
enable HugePages, then you should deduct the memory allocated
to HugePages from the available RAM before calculating swap
space.

RAM Swap Space

Between 1 GB and 2 GB 1.5 times the size of RAM
Between 2 GB and 16 GB Equal to the size of RAM
More than 16 GB 16 GB

On Linux x86-64:
  At least 4 GB of RAM

To determine the RAM size, enter the following command:

# grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo

If the size of the RAM is less than the required size, then you must install
more memory before continuing.

 The following table describes the relationship between installed RAM and the
configured swap space requirement:

Note:

On Linux, the HugePages feature allocates non-swappable

memory for large page tables using memory-mapped files. If you
enable HugePages, then you should deduct the memory allocated
to HugePages from the available RAM before calculating swap
space.

RAM Swap Space

Between 4 GB and 8 GB 2 times the size of RAM
Between 8 GB and 32 GB 1.5 times the size of RAM
More than 32 GB 32 GB

If the size of the RAM is less than the required size, then you must install more
memory before continuing.

To determine the size of the configured swap space, enter the following command:

# grep SwapTotal /proc/meminfo

If necessary, refer to the operating system documentation for information about how
to configure additional swap space.

To determine the available RAM and swap space, enter the following command:
# free
Note:
Oracle recommends that you take multiple values for the available RAM and swap
space before finalizing a value. This is because the available RAM and swap space
keep changing depending on the user interactions with the computer.

3.1.2 Disk Space Requirements

The following are the disk space requirements for installing Oracle Grid
Infrastructure:

 At least 2.2 GB of disk space.

 At least 1 GB of disk space in the /tmp directory.

To determine the amount of free disk space available in the /tmp directory, enter the
following command:

# df -k /tmp

If there is less than 1 GB of free disk space available in the /tmp directory, then
complete one of the following steps:

 Delete unnecessary files from the /tmp directory to meet the disk space
requirement.
 Set the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables to specify a temporary directory
when setting the oracle user's environment.

See Also:

"Configuring the oracle User's Environment" for more information

about setting TMP and TMPDIR

 Extend the file system that contains the /tmp directory. If necessary, contact
the system administrator for information about extending file systems.

3.1.3 Configuring the User's Environment

Complete the following tasks to set the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software owner
user's environment:

 Review the information in "Logging In to the System as root" section.

 Ensure that you set the path to the Oracle base directory. Oracle Restart and
Oracle Database reside under the same Oracle base. For example:
 # ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle;
 # export ORACLE_BASE
 Set the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software owner user default file mode
creation mask (umask) to 022 in the shell startup file. Setting the mask to 022
ensures that the user performing the software installation creates files with
755 permissions.
 Set ulimit settings for file descriptors and processes for the Oracle Grid
Infrastructure installation software owner.
 Set the DISPLAY environment variable in preparation for installation.

3.2 Oracle ACFS and Oracle ADVM Support

Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS) extends
Oracle ASM technology to support of all of your application data in both single
instance and cluster configurations. Oracle Automatic Storage Management Dynamic
Volume Manager (Oracle ADVM) provides volume management services and a
standard disk device driver interface to clients. Oracle Automatic Storage
Management Cluster File System is layered on Oracle ASM through the Oracle
Automatic Storage Management Dynamic Volume Manager interface.

Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System and Oracle Automatic
Storage Management Dynamic Volume Manager are supported on Oracle Enterprise
Linux 5 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 for Linux x86 and Linux x86-64. Starting with
Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.2), it is also supported on SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server 10 SP3 and later SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack's
for Linux x86-64 only.

Note:
Oracle recommends that Oracle data files are installed in Oracle ASM disk groups.
Installing Oracle data files on an Oracle ACFS file system is not supported. Oracle
ACFS can be used as an option only when Oracle ASM is configured.

Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (ACFS) resources are not
supported for Oracle Restart configurations on all platforms. ACFS drivers must be
manually unloaded and loaded; ACFS file systems must be manually unmounted and
mounted (after the ASM instance is running); ACFS database home file systems can
be placed into the ACFS mount registry to be mounted along with other registered
ACFS file systems.

See Also:

 Oracle Database Release Notes for Linux for latest information

about supported platforms and releases
 Oracle Automatic Storage Management Administrator's Guide for
more information about Oracle Automatic Storage Management
Cluster File System and Oracle Automatic Storage Management
Dynamic Volume Manager

3.3 Managing Disk Groups for Older Database Versions

Releases prior to Oracle Database 11g Release 2 used Database Configuration

Assistant to perform administrative tasks on Oracle ASM. Starting with 11g Release
2, Oracle ASM is installed with Oracle Restart.

3.4 Migrating Existing Oracle Automatic Storage Management

Instances

If you have an Oracle ASM installation from a prior release installed on your server,
or in an existing Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation, you can use Oracle Automatic
Storage Management Configuration Assistant (Oracle ASMCA) to upgrade the existing
Oracle ASM instance to 11g Release 2 (11.2), and subsequently configure disk
groups, Oracle ASM volumes and Oracle ASM file systems.
Note:
You must first shut down all databases and applications using an existing Oracle ASM
instance before upgrading it.

During installation, if you chose to use Oracle ASM and Oracle ASMCA detects that
there is a prior Oracle ASM version installed in another Oracle ASM home, then after
installing the Oracle ASM 11g Release 2 (11.2) binaries, you can start Oracle ASMCA
to upgrade the existing Oracle ASM instance.

You can then choose to configure an Automatic Storage Management File System
deployment by using the Oracle ASMCA to create an Oracle Automatic Storage
Management Dynamic Volume and an Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster
File System (Oracle ACFS).

See Also:

 "Upgrading an Oracle ASM Instance with Oracle ASM

Configuration Assistant" in Oracle Automatic Storage
Management Administrator's Guide
 "Upgrading an Oracle ASM Instance With Oracle Universal
Installer" in Oracle Automatic Storage Management
Administrator's Guide

3.5 Oracle Automatic Storage Management Installation Considerations

In previous releases, Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) was

installed as part of the Oracle Database installation. With Oracle Database
11gRelease 2 (11.2), Oracle ASM is part of an Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation,
either for a cluster, or for a standalone server.

If you want to upgrade an existing Oracle ASM installation, then you must upgrade
Oracle ASM by running an Oracle Grid Infrastructure upgrade (upgrades of existing
Oracle ASM installations). If you do not have Oracle ASM installed and you want to
use Oracle ASM as your storage option, then you must complete an Oracle Grid
Infrastructure installation before you start your Oracle Database installation.

You must run Oracle Automatic Storage Management Configuration Assistant (Oracle
ASMCA) for installing and configuring Oracle ASM instances, disk groups, volumes,
and Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS). In
addition, you can use the ASMCA command-line interface as a non-GUI utility.

See Also:
Chapter 11, "Oracle ASM Configuration Assistant" in Oracle Automatic Storage
Management Administrator's Guide for information about Oracle ASMCA

Apply the following guidelines when you install Oracle ASM:

  You must complete the steps listed under "Preparing Disks for an Oracle
Automatic Storage Management Installation" to prepare a disk partition to use
for the Oracle ASM disk groups.
 Ensure that at least one disk is configured appropriately for use in an Oracle
ASM diskgroup before beginning the installation.
 When you install Oracle ASM, Oracle Automatic Storage Management
Configuration Assistant (Oracle ASMCA) creates a separate server parameter
file (SPFILE) and password file for the Oracle ASM instance. As soon as Oracle
ASM is installed, the ASMSNMP schema and user are created. See Oracle
Automatic Storage Management Administrator's Guide for more information.
 The Oracle ASM instance that manages the existing disk group will be running
in the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home directory.

3.6 Preparing Disks for an Oracle Automatic Storage Management

Installation

This section describes how to configure disks for use with Oracle ASM. The following
sections describe how to identify the requirements and configure the disks on each
platform:

 General Steps for Configuring Oracle Automatic Storage Management

 Step 1: Identifying Storage Requirements for Oracle Automatic Storage
Management
 Step 2: Creating DAS or SAN Disk Partitions for Oracle Automatic Storage
Management
 Step 3: Configuring Disks for Oracle Automatic Storage Management

Note:
Oracle does not recommend using identifiers for database object names that must be
quoted. While these quoted identifiers may be valid as names in the SQL
CREATE statement, such as CREATE DISKGROUP "1data" ..., the names may not be valid
when using other tools that manage the database object.
See Also:
"Creating Disk Groups for a New Oracle Installation", in Oracle Automatic Storage
Management Administrator's Guide for information about creating and managing disk
groups

3.6.1 General Steps for Configuring Oracle Automatic Storage Management

The following are the general steps to configure Oracle ASM:

1. Identify the storage requirements of the site.

2. If you are creating a new Oracle ASM disk group, create partitions for DAS or
SAN disks.
3. Configure the disks for use with Oracle ASM. You will need to provide the
Oracle ASM disk configuration information during the Oracle Grid
Infrastructure installation.
3.6.2 Step 1: Identifying Storage Requirements for Oracle Automatic Storage
Management

To identify the storage requirements for using Oracle ASM, you must determine the
number of devices and the amount of free disk space that you require. To complete
this task:

1. Determine whether you want to use Oracle ASM for Oracle Database files,
recovery files, or both.

Note:

You do not have to use the same storage mechanism for Oracle
Database files and recovery files. You can use a file system for
one file type and Oracle ASM for the other.

If you choose to enable automated backups and you do not have

a shared file system available, then you must choose Oracle ASM
for recovery file storage.

During the database installation, if you plan to enable automated backups,

then you can choose Oracle ASM as the storage mechanism for recovery files
by specifying an Oracle ASM disk group for the fast recovery area. Depending
on how you choose to create a database during the database installation, you
have the following options:

o You can run Oracle ASMCA in interactive mode to create and configure
the required disk groups.

During the database installation, if you select an installation method

that runs Database Configuration Assistant in interactive mode
(Advanced Installation type), then you can select the diskgroups that
you created using Oracle ASMCA.

You have the option to use the disk groups you created using Oracle
ASMCA both for database files and recovery files, or you can choose to
use different disk groups for each file type. Ideally, you should create
separate Oracle ASM disk groups for data files and for recovery files.

o If you run Oracle ASMCA in noninteractive mode, then you must use
the same Oracle ASM disk group for data files and recovery files.
During the database installation (Typical Installation type), you will
have to select the same disk group for both data files and recovery
files.

See Also:
 o "Oracle ASM Configuration Assistant Command-Line
Interface" section in Oracle Automatic Storage
Management Administrator's Guide
o "Create a Fast Recovery Area Disk Group"
2. Choose the Oracle ASM redundancy level that you want to use for each Oracle
ASM disk group that you create.

The redundancy level that you choose for the Oracle ASM disk group
determines how Oracle ASM mirrors files in the disk group and determines the
number of disks and amount of disk space that you require, as follows:

o External redundancy

This option does not allow Oracle ASM to mirror the contents of the
disk group. Oracle recommends that you select this redundancy level
either when the disk group contains devices, such as RAID devices,
that provide their own data protection or when the database does not
require an uninterrupted access to data.

o Normal redundancy

To optimize performance and reliability in a normal redundancy disk

group, Oracle ASM uses two-way mirroring for data files and three-way
mirroring for control files, by default. In addition, you can choose the
mirroring characteristics for individual files in a disk group.
Alternatively, you can use two-way mirroring or no mirroring.

A normal redundancy disk group requires a minimum of two failure

groups (or two disk devices) if you are using two-way mirroring. The
effective disk space in a normal redundancy disk group is half the sum
of the disk space in all of its devices.

For most installations, Oracle recommends that you use normal

redundancy disk groups.

o High redundancy

The contents of the disk group are three-way mirrored by default. To

create a disk group with high redundancy, you must specify at least
three failure groups (a minimum of 3 devices).

Although high-redundancy disk groups provide a high level of data

protection, you must consider the higher cost of additional storage
devices before deciding to use this redundancy level.

3. Determine the total amount of disk space that you require for the database
files and recovery files.
 If an Oracle ASM instance is already running on the system, then you can use
an existing disk group to meet these storage requirements. If necessary, you
can add disks to an existing disk group during the database installation.

Use the following table to determine the minimum number of disks and the
minimum disk space requirements for the installation:

Redundancy Minimum Number of Data Recovery Both File

Level Disks Files Files Types
External 1 1.8 GB 3.6 GB 5.4 GB
Normal 2 3.6 GB 7.2 GB 10.8 GB
High 3 5.4 GB 10.8 GB 16.2 GB

4. Optionally, identify failure groups for the Oracle ASM disk group devices.

If you intend to use a normal or high redundancy disk group, then you can
further protect the database against hardware failure by associating a set of
disk devices in a custom failure group. By default, each device comprises its
failure group. However, if two disk devices in a normal redundancy disk group
are attached to the same SCSI controller, then the disk group becomes
unavailable if the controller fails. The controller in this example is a single
point of failure.

For instance, to avoid failures of this type, you can use two SCSI controllers,
each with two disks, and define a failure group for the disks attached to each
controller. This configuration would enable the disk group to tolerate the
failure of one SCSI controller.

Note:

If you define custom failure groups, then you must specify a

minimum of two failure groups for normal redundancy disk
groups and three failure groups for high redundancy disk groups.

5. If you are sure that a suitable disk group does not exist on the system, then
install or identify appropriate disk devices to add to a new disk group. Apply
the following guidelines when identifying appropriate disk devices:
o The disk devices must be owned by the user performing the grid
installation.

See Also:

Example 2-2, "Example of a Rules File With User grid" for

information about creating or modifying permissions
 o All the devices in an Oracle ASM disk group should be the same size
and have the same performance characteristics.
o Do not specify multiple partitions on a single physical disk as a disk
group device. Oracle ASM expects each disk group device to be on a
separate physical disk.
o Oracle does not recommend the use of a logical volume as a device in
Oracle ASM because the logical volume is capable of hiding the physical
disk architecture which prevents Oracle ASM from optimizing I/O across
physical devices.

See Also:

o "Step 3: Configuring Disks for Oracle Automatic Storage

Management" for information about completing this task
o "Preparing Storage for ASM" in Oracle Automatic Storage
Management Administrator's Guide for information about
configuring Oracle ASM disk groups

3.6.3 Step 2: Creating DAS or SAN Disk Partitions for Oracle Automatic Storage
Management

In order to use a DAS or SAN disk in Oracle ASM, the disk must have a partition
table. Oracle recommends creating exactly one partition for each disk containing the
entire disk.

Note:
You can use any physical disk for Oracle ASM, as long as it is partitioned.

3.6.4 Step 3: Configuring Disks for Oracle Automatic Storage Management

Oracle provides an Oracle ASM library driver that you can use to simplify the
configuration and management of the disk devices that you want to use with Oracle
ASM. A disk that is configured for Oracle ASM is known as a candidate disk.

If you intend to use Oracle ASM for database storage, then Oracle recommends that
you install the Automatic Storage Management library driver (ASMLIB) and
associated utilities and use them to configure the devices that you want to include in
an Oracle ASM disk group.

Note:
If you choose to configure disks using the Oracle Automatic Storage Management
library driver, then you must change the default disk discovery string to ORCLDISK:*. If
the diskstring is set to ORCLDISK:*, or is left empty (""), then the installer discovers
these disks.

This section describes how to configure storage for use with Oracle ASM.

 Configuring Disks for Oracle Automatic Storage Management Using the

Automatic Storage Management Library Driver (ASMLIB)
  Configuring Disk Devices Manually for Oracle Automatic Storage Management

3.6.4.1 Configuring Disks for Oracle Automatic Storage Management Using the Automatic
Storage Management Library Driver (ASMLIB)

To use the Automatic Storage Management library driver to configure Automatic

Storage Management devices, complete the following tasks:

 Installing and Configuring the Automatic Storage Management Library Driver

Software
 Configuring the Disk Devices to Use the Automatic Storage Management
Library Driver
 Administering the Automatic Storage Management Library Driver and Disks

Installing and Configuring the Automatic Storage Management Library Driver

Software

To install and configure the Automatic Storage Management library driver software:

1. Enter the following command to determine the kernel version and architecture
of the system:
2. # uname -rm
3. If necessary, download the required Automatic Storage Management library
driver packages from the Oracle Technology Network Web site:
4. http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/linux/asmlib/index.html

You must install the following packages, where version is the version of the
Automatic Storage Management library driver, arch is the system architecture,
and kernel is the version of the kernel that you are using:
oracleasm-support-version.arch.rpm
oracleasm-kernel-version.arch.rpm
oracleasmlib-version.arch.rpm

5. Enter a command similar to the following to install the packages:

6. # sudo rpm -Uvh oracleasm-support-version.arch.rpm \
7. oracleasm-kernel-version.arch.rpm \
8. oracleasmlib-version.arch.rpm

For example, if you are using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 3.0 enterprise
kernel on an x86 system, then enter a command similar to the following:
# sudo rpm -Uvh oracleasm-support-1.0.0-1.i386.rpm \
oracleasm-2.4.9-e-enterprise-1.0.0-1.i686.rpm \
oracleasmlib-1.0.0-1.i386.rpm

9. Enter a command similar to the following to determine the UID of the Oracle
software owner user that you are using for this installation and the GID of the
OSASM group:
10. # id oracle
11. Enter the following command to run the oracleasm initialization script with
the configure option:
12. # /etc/init.d/oracleasm configure
 13. Enter the following information in response to the prompts that the script
displays:

Prompt Suggested Response

Default UID to own the driver Specify the UID of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure
interface: owner user (typically, grid).
Default GID to own the driver Specify the GID of the OSASM group
interface: (typically, asmadmin).
Start Oracle Automatic Storage Enter y to start the Oracle Automatic Storage
Management Library driver on start Management library driver when the system starts.
(y/n):
Scan for Oracle ASM disks on boot Enter y to to scan for presence of any Oracle
(y/n): Automatic Storage Management disks when the
system starts.

14.

Configuring the Disk Devices to Use the Automatic Storage Management Library
Driver

To configure the disk devices that you want to use in an Automatic Storage
Management disk group:

1. If you intend to use IDE, SCSI, or RAID devices in the Automatic Storage
Management disk group, then:
a. If necessary, install or configure the disk devices that you intend to use
for the disk group and restart the system.
b. To identify the device name for the disks that you want to use, enter
the following command:
c. # /sbin/fdisk -l

Depending on the type of disk, the device name can vary:

Disk Device Name

Type Format Description
IDE /dev/hdxn In this example, x is a letter that identifies the IDE disk and n is the
disk partition number. For example, /dev/hda is the first disk on the first
IDE bus.
SCSI /dev/sdxn In this example, x is a letter that identifies the SCSI disk and n is
disk the partition number. For example, /dev/sda is the first disk on the
first SCSI bus.
RAID /dev/rd/cxdypz Depending on the RAID controller, RAID devices can have
/dev/ida/cxdypz
disk different device names. In the examples shown, x is a number that
identifies the controller, y is a number that identifies the disk,
and z is a number that identifies the partition. For
 Disk Device Name
Type Format Description
example, /dev/ida/c0d1 is the second logical drive on the first
controller.

Note:

Oracle recommends that you create a single whole-disk

partition on each disk that you want to use.

d. Use either fdisk or parted to create a single whole-disk partition on the

disk devices that you want to use.
2. Enter a command similar to the following to mark a disk as an Automatic
Storage Management disk:
3. # /etc/init.d/oracleasm createdisk DISK1 /dev/sdb1

In this example, DISK1 is a name that you want to assign to the disk.

Note:

o If you are using a multipathing disk driver with Automatic

Storage Management, then ensure that you specify the
correct logical device name for the disk.

The disk names that you specify can contain uppercase

letters, numbers, and the underscore character. They must
start with an uppercase letter.

o To create a database during the installation using the

Automatic Storage Management library driver, you must
change the default disk discovery string to ORCLDISK:*.

Administering the Automatic Storage Management Library Driver and Disks

To administer the Automatic Storage Management library driver and disks, use
the oracleasm initialization script with different options, as follows:

Option Description
configure Use the configure option to reconfigure the Automatic Storage Management
library driver, if necessary:
# /etc/init.d/oracleasm configure
enable Use the disable and enable options to change the behavior of the Automatic
disable
Storage Management library driver when the system starts. The enable option
causes the Automatic Storage Management library driver to load when the
system starts:
# /etc/init.d/oracleasm enable
Option Description
start Use the start, stop, and restart options to load or unload the Automatic Storage
stop
restart Management library driver without restarting the system:
# /etc/init.d/oracleasm restart

createdisk Use the createdisk option to mark a disk device for use with the Automatic
Storage Management library driver and give it a name:
# /etc/init.d/oracleasm createdisk DISKNAME devicename
deletedisk Use the deletedisk option to unmark a named disk device:
# /etc/init.d/oracleasm deletedisk DISKNAME

Note: Do not use this command to unmark disks that are being used by an
Automatic Storage Management disk group. You must drop the disk from the
Automatic Storage Management disk group before you unmark it.
querydisk Use the querydisk option to determine whether a disk device or disk name is
being used by the Automatic Storage Management library driver:
# /etc/init.d/oracleasm querydisk {DISKNAME | devicename}
listdisks Use the listdisks option to list the disk names of marked Automatic Storage
Management library driver disks:
# /etc/init.d/oracleasm listdisks
scandisks Use the scandisks option to enable cluster nodes to identify which shared disks
have been marked as Automatic Storage Management library driver disks on
another node:
# /etc/init.d/oracleasm scandisks

3.6.4.2 Configuring Disk Devices Manually for Oracle Automatic Storage Management

By default, the 2.6 kernel device file naming scheme udev dynamically creates device
file names when the server is started, and assigns ownership of them to root.
If udev applies default settings, then it changes device file names and owners for the
disks, corrupting them when Oracle Storage Management instance is restarted. If
you use ASMLIB, then you do not need to ensure permissions and device path
persistency in udev.

If you do not use ASMLIB, then you must create a custom rules file. When udev is
started, it sequentially carries out rules (configuration directives) defined in rules
files. These files are in the path /etc/udev/rules.d/. Rules files are read in lexical
order. For example, rules in the file 10-wacom.rules are parsed and carried out before
rules in the rules file 90-ib.rules.

Where rules files describe the same devices, on Asianux, Red Hat, and Oracle
Enterprise Linux, the last file read is the one that is applied. On SUSE 2.6 kernels, the
first file read is the one that is applied.

To configure a permissions file for disk devices, complete the following tasks:

1. Configure SCSI devices as trusted devices (white listed), by editing

the /etc/scsi_id.config file and adding "options=-g" to the file. For example:
 2. # cat > /etc/scsi_id.config
3. vendor="ATA",options=-p 0x80
4. options=-g
5. Using a text editor, create a UDEV rules file for the Oracle ASM devices,
setting permissions to 0660 for the installation owner and the group whose
members are administrators of the grid infrastructure software. For example,
using the installation owner grid and using a role-based group configuration,
with the OSASM group asmadmin:
6. # vi /etc/udev/rules.d/99-oracle-asmdevices.rules
7.
8. KERNEL=="sd?1", BUS=="scsi", PROGRAM=="/sbin/scsi_id",
9. RESULT=="14f70656e66696c00000000", OWNER="grid", GROUP="asmadmin", MODE="0660"
10. KERNEL=="sd?2", BUS=="scsi", PROGRAM=="/sbin/scsi_id",
11. RESULT=="14f70656e66696c00000000", OWNER="grid", GROUP="asmadmin", MODE="0660"
12. KERNEL=="sd?3", BUS=="scsi", PROGRAM=="/sbin/scsi_id",
13. RESULT=="14f70656e66696c00000000", OWNER="grid", GROUP="asmadmin", MODE="0660"
14. Load updated block device partition tables on the server,
using /sbin/partprobe devicename. You must do this as root.
15. Enter the command to restart the UDEV service.

On Asianux, OEL5, and RHEL5, the commands are:

# /sbin/udevcontrol reload_rules
# /sbin/start_udev

On SUSE 10 and 11, the command is:

# /etc/init.d boot.udev restart

Check to ensure that your system is configured correctly.

3.7 Installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure Using a Software-Only

Installation

A software-only installation only copies the Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a

Standalone Server binaries to the specified location. Configuring Oracle Grid
Infrastructure for a standalone server and Oracle ASM must be done manually after
the installation has finished.

When you perform a software-only installation of Oracle Grid Infrastructure software,

you must complete a few manual configuration steps to enable Oracle Restart after
you install the software.

Note:
Oracle recommends that only advanced users perform the software-only installation,
because this installation method provides no validation of the installation and this
installation option requires manual postinstallation steps to enable the Oracle Grid
Infrastructure software.

Performing a software-only installation involves the following steps:

1. Installing the Software Binaries

2. Configuring the Software Binaries
3.7.1 Installing the Software Binaries

1. Start the runInstaller command from the relevant directory on the Oracle
Database 11g release 2 (11.2) installation media or download directory.
2. Complete a software-only installation of Oracle Grid Infrastructure.

See "Configuring the Software Binaries" for information about configuring

Oracle Grid Infrastructure after performing a software-only installation.

3. Verify that the server meets the installation requirements using the
command runcluvfy.bat stage -pre hacfg. Ensure that you have completed all
storage and server preinstallation requirements.

3.7.2 Configuring the Software Binaries

To configure and activate a software-only Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation for

Oracle Restart, complete the following tasks:

1. Run the roothas.pl script from Grid_home, using the following syntax:
2. Grid_home/perl/bin/perl -I Grid_home/perl/lib -I Grid_home/crs/install
3. Grid_home/crs/install/roothas.pl

For example, if your Grid home is /app/11.2.0/grid, then run the following
script:
$ /app/11.2.0/grid/perl/bin/perl -I /app/11.2.0/grid/perl/lib -I /app
/11.2.0/grid/crs/install /app/11.2.0/grid/crs/install/roothas.pl

4. Change the directory to Grid_home/oui/bin, where Grid_home is the path of the

Oracle Grid Infrastructure home.
5. Enter the following command:
6. ./runInstaller -updateNodeList ORACLE_HOME=Grid_home -defaultHomeName

For example:
$ ./runInstaller -updateNodeList ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/11.2.0/grid
-defaultHomeName
CLUSTER_NODES= CRS=TRUE

7. Use the SRVCTL utility along with Network Configuration Assistant and Oracle
ASMCA to add the listener, the Oracle ASM instance, and all Oracle ASM disk
groups to the Oracle Restart configuration.

3.8 Installing and Configuring Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a

Standalone Server

If you install Oracle Grid Infrastructure and then create your database, the database
is automatically added to the Oracle Grid Infrastructure configuration, and is then
automatically restarted when required. However, if you install Oracle Grid
Infrastructure on a host computer on which a database already exists, you must
manually add the database, the listener, the Oracle ASM instance, and other
components to the Oracle Grid Infrastructure configuration.

Note:
Oracle Grid Infrastructure can accommodate multiple single-instance databases on a
single host computer.

This section includes the following topics:

 Installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure with a New Database Installation

 Installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure for an Existing Database

3.8.1 Installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure with a New Database Installation

Perform the following steps to install Oracle Grid Infrastructure and then create a
database that is managed by Oracle Restart. First install Oracle Grid Infrastructure,
which installs Oracle Restart and Oracle ASM, then configure Oracle ASM with at
least one disk group, and then install Oracle database that stores database files in
Oracle ASM disk groups. Click the help button on the Oracle Universal Installer page
for page level assistance.

You may need to shut down existing Oracle processes before you proceed with the
Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation. Refer to "Stopping Existing Oracle
Processes" for more information.

To install Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone server with a new database
installation:

1. Start Oracle Universal Installer as the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software

owner user. Complete one of the following steps depending on the location of
the installation files:
o If the installation files are on installation media, enter commands
similar to the following, where directory_path is the path of the
Oracle Grid Infrastructure directory on the installation media:
o $ /directory_path/runInstaller
Note:

You must install Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone

server from the Oracle Grid Infrastructure media.

o If the installation files are on the hard disk, change the directory to the
path of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure (clusterware) directory and enter
the following command:
o $ ./runInstaller
Note:
 Start Oracle Universal Installer from the terminal session where
you logged in as the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software owner
user and set the user's environment.

See Also:

"Configuring the User's Environment" for information about

setting the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software owner user's
environment

If Oracle Universal Installer is not displayed, refer to "X Window Display

Errors" and "Remote Terminal Installation Error" for information about
troubleshooting.

2. In the Download Software Updates screen, select one of the following options
and click Next:
o Use My Oracle Support credentials for download: Select this option to
download and apply the latest software updates.

Click Proxy Settings to configure a proxy for Oracle Universal Installer

to use to connect to the Internet. Provide the proxy server information
for your site, along with a user account that has access to the local
area network through which the server is connecting.

Click Test Connection to ensure that your proxy settings are correctly
entered, and the installer can download the updates.

o Use pre-downloaded software updates: Select this option to apply

previously downloaded software updates.
o Skip Software Updates: Select this option if you do not want to apply
any updates.
3. The Apply Software Updates screen is displayed if you select to download the
software updates or provide the pre-downloaded software downloads location.
If you selected Use My Oracle Support credentials for download in the
previous screen, then select Download and apply all updates, and
click Next.

If you selected Use pre-downloaded software updates in the previous screen,

then select Apply all updates, and click Next.

4. In the Select Installation Option screen, select the Install and Configure
Grid Infrastructure for a Standalone Server option to install and
configure Oracle Restart and Oracle ASM. Click Next.
5. In the Select Product Languages screen, select one or more languages. Move
the languages from the Available Languages list to the Selected Languages
list. Click Next.
6. The Create ASM Disk Group screen lists all the Oracle ASM disks
under ORCLDISK:*
 Click Change Disk Discovery Path to select any devices that will be used by
Oracle ASM but are not listed. In the Change Disk Discovery Path window,
enter a string to use to search for devices that Oracle ASM will use. If the
diskstring is set to ORCLDISK:* or is left empty (""), then the installer
discovers these disks. Click OK.

After you finish selecting the disks to be used by Oracle ASM, click Next.

Note:

During installation, disk paths mounted on ASM and registered on

ASMLIB with the string ORCLDISK:* are listed as default database
storage candidate disks.

Consider the following information about disk devices while performing this
step:

o The Disk Group Name default is DATA. You can enter a new name for
the disk group, or use the default name.
o The disk devices must be owned by the user performing the grid
installation.

See Also:

Example 2-2, "Example of a Rules File With User grid" for

information about creating or modifying permissions

o Check with your system administrator to determine if the disks used by

Oracle ASM are mirrored at the storage level. If so, select External for
the redundancy. If the disks are not mirrored at the storage level, then
choose Normal for the redundancy.

Note:

For normal redundancy, you require twice as much disk

space to hold the same amount of data. For example, if
your database is 100 GB, then you require approximately
200 GB of storage.

7. In the Specify ASM Password screen, enter SYSASM password required to

connect to the Oracle ASM instance. The Oracle ASM instance is managed by
a privileged role called SYSASM, which grants full access to Oracle ASM disk
groups. Oracle recommends that you create a less privileged
user, ASMSNMP, with SYSDBA privileges to monitor the Oracle ASM
instance.
8. Enter passwords for the SYS and ASMSNMP user accounts. The passwords
should be at least eight characters in length and include at least one
alphabetic and one numeric character.

Optionally, you can use the same password for all accounts. However, Oracle
recommends that you specify a different password for each account. You must
remember the passwords that you specify.

9. In the Privileged Operating System Groups screen, select the name of the
operating system group you created for the OSDBA group, the OSASM group,
and the database operator group OSOPER. If you choose to create only
the dba group, then you can use that group for all three privileged groups. If
you created a separate asmadmin group, then use that value for the OSASM
group. Click Next.
10. In the Specify Installation Location screen, enter the following details, and
click Next:
o Oracle Base: Enter the directory location for Oracle base. Do not
include spaces in the path name.
o Software Location: This field is populated by default in concurrence
with Oracle base location.

See Also:

"Naming Directories" for directory naming conventions

11. If you have not installed any Oracle software previously on this server, the
Create Inventory screen appears.

Change the path for the Inventory Directory, if required. Select oinstall for
the oraInventory Group Name, if required. Click Next.

12. The Perform Prerequisite Checks screen checks if the minimum system
requirements are met to carry out the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation. If
all the system requirements are met, then you will be directed to the
Summary screen. However, in case of a failed installation, you can review the
error.

If you click Check Again, then you can run the prerequisite check again to
see if the minimum requirements are met to carry on with the database
installation.

Click Fix & Check Again, if you want the installer to fix the problem and
check the system requirements once more.

Note:

The Fix & Check Again option generates a script that you need to
run as the root user. This generated script sets some of the
 system parameters to Oracle-recommended values. Oracle
recommends that you do not modify the contents of this script.
Refer to "Installation Fixup Scripts" for more information about
fixup scripts.

To get a list of failed requirements, select ShowFailed from the list. To get a
list of all the prerequirement checks run by the OUI, select Show All. To get
a list of the prerequirement checks that are successful, select Show
Succeeded.

Note:

Oracle recommends that you use caution in checking the Ignore

All option. If you check this option, then Oracle Universal Installer
may not confirm that your system is able to install Oracle
Database successfully.

13. Review the contents of the Summary screen, and click Finish.

Starting with Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2), you can save all the
installation steps into a response file by clicking Save Response File. This file
can be used for a silent installation.

14. The Setup screen displays the progress of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure
installation. During the installation process, the Execute Configuration Scripts
window appears. Do not click OK until you have run the scripts mentioned in
this screen.

Run the root.sh and, if required, the orainstRoot.sh configuration scripts as

the root user.

15. The Finish screen displays the installation status. Click Close to end the
installation, then Yes to confirm that you want to exit Oracle Universal
Installer.

If you encounter any problems, refer to the configuration log for information.
The path to the configuration log is displayed on the Configuration Assistants
window.

16. If you want to create additional disk groups, then run the Oracle ASMCA
utility. For example, you can create another disk group named RECOVERY to
store the fast recovery area.

See Also:

o "Manually Configuring Oracle Automatic Storage

Management Disk Groups"
o "Create a Fast Recovery Area Disk Group"
 Note:

To check if the Oracle High Availability Service is installed

properly, run ./crsctl check has command
from Grid_home/bindirectory.

Grid_home is the path to the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home for a

standalone server. Ohasd is a daemon installed with Oracle Grid
Infrastructure that starts software services, such as Oracle ASM.

17. Install Oracle database.

Because you have already installed Oracle Grid Infrastructure, Oracle

Universal Installer will automatically add the database instance to the Oracle
Grid Infrastructure configuration if you choose to create a database as part of
the installation.

See Also:

"Installing the Oracle Database Software" for information about

installing Oracle database

Note:

o If a new database is installed after a grid infrastructure

installation, then the listener runs from the Oracle Grid
Infrastructure home. Because Oracle ASM is installed as
part of Oracle Grid Infrastructure, the default listener is
created and runs from the Oracle Grid Infrastructure
home. If you perform a database installation, then the
database must use the same listener created during the
Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.
o If you are using Oracle Restart, then the default listener
and any additional listeners must run from the Oracle Grid
Infrastructure home.

3.8.2 Installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure for an Existing Database

Follow the high-level instructions in this section to install Oracle Grid Infrastructure
and configure it for an existing Oracle database. Please note that Oracle Restart can
only manage existing 11.2 resources and hence you can install Oracle Grid
Infrastructure only for an existing 11.2 database. However, Oracle database releases
prior to 11.2 can coexist on the same server without being managed by Oracle
Restart.

To install Oracle Grid Infrastructure for an existing database:

  On the same host computer as the database, use Oracle Universal Installer to
install Oracle Grid Infrastructure, and select Install and Configure Grid
Infrastructure for a Standalone Server as the installation option.

The Oracle Grid Infrastructure components are installed in a separate Oracle

home.

Refer to "Installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure with a New Database

Installation" for detailed instructions.

 Go to the Grid home's bin directory. Use the srvctl add database command to
manually add the database, the listener, the Oracle ASM instance, all Oracle
ASM disk groups, and any database services to the Oracle Grid Infrastructure
configuration.

See Also:

"srvctl add database" in Oracle Database Administrator's

Guide for more information about the srvctl add
databasecommand

3.9 Modifying Oracle Grid Infrastructure Binaries After Installation

After installation, you must first stop the Oracle Restart stack to modify the software
installed in your Grid home. For example, if you want to apply a one-off patch or
modify any of the DLLs used by Oracle Restart or Oracle ASM, then you must follow
these steps to stop and restart the Oracle Restart stack.

Caution:
Before relinking executables, you must shut down all executables that run in the
Oracle home directory that you are relinking. In addition, shut down applications
linked with Oracle shared libraries.

Prepare the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home for modification using the following
procedure:

1. Log in as the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software owner user and change the
directory to the path Grid_home\bin, where Grid_home is the path to the Oracle
Grid Infrastructure home:
2. $ cd Grid_home/bin
3. Shut down the Oracle Restart stack using the following command:
4. $ crsctl stop has -f
5. After the Oracle Restart stack is completely shut down, perform the updates
to the software installed in the Grid home.
6. Use the following command to restart the Oracle Restart stack:
7. $ crsctl start has

3.10 Manually Configuring Oracle Automatic Storage Management Disk

Groups
The Oracle Automatic Storage Management Configuration Assistant utility creates a
new Automatic Storage Management instance if there is no Oracle ASM instance
currently configured on the computer.

After installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure, you can also use Oracle ASMCA to create
and configure disk groups, Oracle Automatic Storage Management Dynamic Volume
Manager (Oracle ADVM) and Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File
System (Oracle ACFS).

If you want to create additional disk groups or manually configure Oracle ASM disks,
then you can run the Oracle ASMCA as follows:
$ cd Grid_home/bin
$ ./asmca

Where Grid_home is the path to the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home for a standalone
server.

See Also:
Oracle Automatic Storage Management Administrator's Guide for more information
on Oracle ASMCA

3.11 Testing the Oracle Automatic Storage Management Installation

To test the Oracle ASM installation, try logging in by using the asmcmd command-line
utility, which lets you manage Oracle ASM disk group files and directories. To do this:

1. Open a shell window, and temporarily set

the ORACLE_SID and ORACLE_HOME environment variables to specify the appropriate
values for the Oracle ASM instance that you want to use.

For example, if the Oracle ASM SID is named +ASM and the Oracle home is
located in the grid subdirectory of the ORACLE_BASE directory, then enter the
following commands to create the required settings:

o Bourne, Bash, or Korn shell:

o $ ORACLE_SID=+ASM
o $ export ORACLE_SID
o $ ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/grid
o $ export ORACLE_HOME
o C shell:
o % setenv ORACLE_SID +ASM
o % setenv ORACLE_HOME /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/grid
2. Use ASMCMD to list the disk groups for the Oracle ASM instance::
3. $ORACLE_HOME/bin/asmcmd lsdg

ASMCMD connects by default as the SYS user with SYSASM privileges.

If the Oracle ASM instance is not running, you can start the instance with the
following:
 $ORACLE_HOME/bin/asmcmd startup
See Also: