5 Oracle Grid Infrastructure Postinstallation Procedures

5.1.1 Download and Install Patch Updates

Refer to the My Oracle Support Web site for required patch updates for your installation.

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To download required patch updates:

1. Use a Web browser to view the My Oracle Support Web site:

   https://support.oracle.com

2. Log in to My Oracle Support Web site.

   Note:

   If you are not a My Oracle Support registered user, then click Register for My Oracle Support and register.

3. On the main My Oracle Support page, click Patches & Updates.

4. On the Patches & Update page, click Advanced Search.

5. On the Advanced Search page, click the search icon next to the Product or Product Family field.

6. In the Search and Select: Product Family field, select Database and Tools in the Search list field, enter RDBMS Server in the text field, and click Go.

   RDBMS Server appears in the Product or Product Family field. The current release appears in the Release field.

7. Select your platform from the list in the Platform field, and at the bottom of the selection list, click Go.

8. Any available patch updates appear under the Results heading.

9. Click the patch number to download the patch.

10. On the Patch Set page, click View README and read the page that appears. The README page contains information about the patch set and how to apply the patches to your installation.

11. Return to the Patch Set page, click Download, and save the file on your system.

12. Use the unzip utility provided with Oracle Database 11g release 2 (11.2) to uncompress the Oracle patch updates that you downloaded from My Oracle Support. The unzip utility is located in the $ORACLE_HOME/bin directory.

13. Refer to Appendix E for information about how to stop database processes in preparation for installing patches.

5.2.1 Back Up the root.sh Script

Oracle recommends that you back up the root.sh script after you complete an installation. If you install other products in the same Oracle home directory, then the installer updates the contents of the existing root.sh script during the installation. If you require information contained in the original root.sh script, then you can recover it from the root.sh file copy.

5.2.2 Configure IPMI-based Failure Isolation Using Crsctl

On Solaris platforms, where Oracle does not currently support the native IPMI driver, DHCP addressing is not supported and manual configuration is required for IPMI support. OUI will not collect the administrator credentials, so failure isolation must be manually configured, the BMC must be configured with a static IP address, and the address must be manually stored in the OLR.

To configure Failure Isolation using IPMI, complete the following steps on each cluster member node:

1. If necessary, start Oracle Clusterware using the following command:

   $ crsctl start crs
   

2. Use the BMC management utility to obtain the BMC's IP address and then use the cluster control utility crsctl to store the BMC's IP address in the Oracle Local Registry (OLR) by issuing the crsctl set css ipmiaddr address command. For example:

   $crsctl set css ipmiaddr 192.168.10.45
   

3. Enter the following crsctl command to store the user ID and password for the resident BMC in the OLR, where youradminacct is the IPMI administrator user account, and provide the password when prompted:

   $ crsctl set css ipmiadmin youradminact
   IPMI BMC Password: 
   

   This command attempts to validate the credentials you enter by sending them to another cluster node. The command fails if that cluster node is unable to access the local BMC using the credentials.

   When you store the IPMI credentials in the OLR, you must have the anonymous user specified explicitly, or a parsing error will be reported.

5.2.3 Tune Semaphore Parameters

Refer to the following guidelines only if the default semaphore parameter values are too low to accommodate all Oracle processes:

1. Calculate the minimum total semaphore requirements using the following formula:

   2 * sum (process parameters of all database instances on the system) + overhead for background processes + system and other application requirements

2. Set semmns (total semaphores systemwide) to this total.

3. Set semmsl (semaphores for each set) to 250.

4. Set semmni (total semaphores sets) to semmns divided by semmsl, rounded up to the nearest multiple of 1024.

5.2.4 Create a Fast Recovery Area Disk Group

During installation, by default you can create one disk group. If you plan to add an Oracle Database for a standalone server or an Oracle RAC database, then you should create the Fast Recovery Area for database files.

5.3.1 General Restrictions for Using Older Oracle Database Versions

You can use Oracle Database release 9.2, release 10.x and release 11.1 with Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 (11.2).

However, placing Oracle Database homes on Oracle ACFS that are prior to Oracle Database release 11.2 is not supported, because earlier releases are not designed to use Oracle ACFS.

If you upgrade an existing version of Oracle Clusterware, then required configuration of existing databases is completed automatically. However, if you complete a new installation of Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster, and then want to install a version of Oracle Database prior to 11.2, then you must complete additional manual configuration tasks.

5.3.2 Using ASMCA to Administer Disk Groups for Older Database Versions

Use Oracle ASM Configuration Assistant (ASMCA) to create and modify disk groups when you install older Oracle databases and Oracle RAC databases on Oracle Grid Infrastructure installations. Starting with 11g release 2, Oracle ASM is installed as part of an Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation, with Oracle Clusterware. You can no longer use Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) to perform administrative tasks on Oracle ASM.

5.3.3 Pinning Cluster Nodes for Oracle Database Release 10.x or 11.x

When Oracle Clusterware 11g release 11.2 is installed on a cluster with no previous Oracle software version, it configures Oracle Database 11g release 11.2 and later releases dynamically. However, dynamic configuration does not occur when you install an Oracle Database release 10.x or 11.1 on the cluster. Before installing 10.x or 11.1 Oracle Databases on an Oracle Clusterware 11g release 11.2 cluster you must establish a persistent configuration. Creating a persistent configuration for a node is called pinning a node.

To pin a node in preparation for installing or using an older Oracle Database version, use Grid_home/bin/crsctl with the following command syntax, where nodes is a space-delimited list of one or more nodes in the cluster whose configuration you want to pin:

crsctl pin css -n nodes

For example, to pin nodes node3 and node4, log in as root and enter the following command:

$ crsctl pin css -n node3 node4

To determine if a node is in a pinned or unpinned state, use Grid_home/bin/olsnodes with the following command syntax:

To list all pinned nodes:

olsnodes -t -n 

For example:

# /u01/app/11.2.0/grid/bin/olsnodes -t -n
node1 1       Pinned
node2 2       Pinned
node3 3       Pinned
node4 4       Pinned

To list the state of a particular node:

olsnodes -t -n node3

For example:

# /u01/app/11.2.0/grid/bin/olsnodes -t -n node3
node3 3       Pinned

5.3.4 Enabling The Global Services Daemon (GSD) for Oracle Database Release 9.2

By default, the Global Services daemon (GSD) is disabled. If you install Oracle Database 9i release 2 (9.2) on Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster 11g release 2 (11.2), then you must enable the GSD. Use the following commands to enable the GSD before you install Oracle Database release 9.2:

srvctl enable nodeapps -g
srvctl start nodeapps

5.3.5 Using the Correct LSNRCTL Commands

To administer 11g release 2 local and scan listeners using the lsnrctl command, set your $ORACLE_HOME environment variable to the path for the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home (Grid home). Do not attempt to use the lsnrctl commands from Oracle home locations for previous releases, as they cannot be used with the new release.