3 Configuring Operating Systems for Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle RAC

3.1 Reviewing Operating System and Software Upgrade Best Practices

Review the following information regarding upgrades:

• General Upgrade Best Practices

• Oracle ASM Upgrade Notifications

• Rolling Upgrade Procedure Notifications

3.2 Reviewing Operating System Security Common Practices

Secure operating systems are an important basis for general system security. Ensure that your operating system deployment is in compliance with common security practices as described in your operating system vendor security guide.

3.3 Using Installation Fixup Scripts

Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) detects when the minimum requirements for an installation are not met, and creates shell scripts, called Fixup scripts, to finish incomplete system configuration steps. If OUI detects an incomplete task, then it generates a Fixup script (runfixup.sh). You can run the script after you click Fix and Check Again.

You also can have CVU generate Fixup scripts before installation.

Fixup scripts do the following:

• If necessary set, kernel parameters to values required for successful installation, including:

  • Shared memory parameters.

  • Open file descriptor and UDP send/receive parameters.

• Create and set permissions on the Oracle Inventory (central inventory) directory.

• Create or reconfigures primary and secondary group memberships for the installation owner, if necessary, for the Oracle Inventory directory and the operating system privileges groups.

• Set shell limits if necessary to required values.

  Note:

  If you have not set HTTP or FTP proxy addresses, then some configuration tasks involving updates of kernel packages may fail to complete.

If you have SSH configured between cluster member nodes for the user account that you will use for installation, then you can check your cluster configuration before installation and generate a fixup script to make operating system changes before starting the installation.

To do this, log in as the user account that will perform the installation, navigate to the staging area where the runcluvfy command is located, and use the following command syntax, where node is a comma-delimited list of nodes you want to make cluster members:

$ ./runcluvfy.sh stage -pre crsinst -n node -fixup -verbose

For example, if you intend to configure a two-node cluster with nodes node1 and node2, enter the following command:

$ ./runcluvfy.sh stage -pre crsinst -n node1,node2 -fixup -verbose

3.4 Logging In to a Remote System Using X Terminal

During installation, you are required to perform tasks as root or as other users on remote terminals. Complete the following procedure for user accounts that you want to enable for remote display.

To enable remote display, complete one of the following procedures:

• If you are installing the software from an X Window System workstation or X terminal, then:

  1. Start an X terminal session (xterm).

  2. If you are installing the software on another system and using the system as an X11 display, then enter a command using the following syntax to enable remote hosts to display X applications on the local X server:

     # xhost + RemoteHost
     

     where RemoteHost is the fully qualified remote host name. For example:

     # xhost + somehost.example.com
     somehost.example.com being added to the access control list
     

  3. If you are not installing the software on the local system, then use the ssh command to connect to the system where you want to install the software:

     # ssh -Y RemoteHost
     

     where RemoteHost is the fully qualified remote host name. The -Y flag ("yes") enables remote X11 clients to have full access to the original X11 display.For example:

     # ssh -Y somehost.example.com
     

  4. If you are not logged in as the root user, then enter the following command to switch the user to root:

     $ su - root
     password:
     #
     

• If you are installing the software from a PC or other system with X server software installed, then:

  Note:

  If necessary, see your X Window System documentation for more information about completing this procedure. Depending on the X software that you are using, you may need to complete the tasks in a different order.

  1. Start the X Window System software.

  2. Configure the security settings of the X Window System software to permit remote hosts to display X applications on the local system.

  3. Connect to the remote system where you want to install the software as the Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster software owner (grid, oracle) and start a terminal session on that system; for example, an X terminal (xterm).

  4. Open another terminal on the remote system, and log in as the root user on the remote system, so you can run scripts as root when prompted.

3.5 About Software Requirements

Depending on the products that you intend to install, that you have the required operating system kernel and packages installed. Note that patch requirements are minimum required patch versions, and that earlier patch numbers are rolled into later patch updates.

Requirements listed in this document are current as of the date listed on the title page. To obtain the most current information about kernel requirements, see the online version on the Oracle Technology Network at the following URL:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/indexes/documentation/index.html

OUI performs checks your system to verify that it meets the listed operating system package requirements. To ensure that these checks complete successfully, verify the requirements before you start OUI.

3.6 Operating System Requirements List for HP-UX Itanium Platforms

PHCO_43503 - 11.31 diskowner(1M) cumulative patch
PHKL_38038 - 11.31 vm cumulative patch
PHKL_38938 - 11.31 SCSI cumulative I/O patch
PHKL_40941 - 11.31 scheduler cumulative patch
PHSS_36354 - 11.31 assembler patch
PHSS_37042 - 11.31 hppac
PHSS_37959 - Libcl patch for alternate stack issue fix (QXCR1000818011)
PHSS_38141 - 11.31 aC++ Runtime
PHSS_39094 - 11.31 linker + fdp cumulative patch
PHSS_39100 - 11.31 Math Library Cumulative Patch
PHSS_39102 - 11.31 Integrity Unwind Library

3.7 Additional Drivers and Software Packages for HP-UX

You are not required to install additional drivers and packages, but you may choose to install or configure drivers and packages in the following list:

• Installation Requirements for Open Database Connectivity

• Installation Requirements for Oracle Messaging Gateway

• Installation Requirements for Programming Environments for HP-UX Itanium Systems

• Installation Requirements for Web Browsers

https://support.oracle.com

https://support.oracle.com

3.8 Checking the Software Requirements

To ensure that the system meets these requirements, follow these steps:

1. To determine which version of HP-UX is installed, enter the following command:

   # uname -a
   "HP-UX hostname B.11.31 U ia64 4156074294 unlimited-user license"
   

   In this example, the version of HP-UX 11i is 11.31 on Itanium.

2. Verify that the system meets the minimum patch bundle requirements using the following command:

   # /usr/sbin/swlist -l bundle |grep QPK
   

   The QPK (Quality Pack) bundles have version numbers of the form B.11.31.0809.326a (for the September 2008 release), B.11.31.0903.334a (for the March 2009 release), and so on. If a required bundle, product, or fileset is not installed, then you must install it. Refer to your operating system or software documentation for information about installing products.

   Note:

   There may be more recent versions of the patches listed in the preceding paragraph that are installed on the system. If a listed patch is not installed, then determine if a more recent version is installed before installing the version listed.

3. If a required patch is not installed, then download it from the following website and install it:

   http://itresourcecenter.hp.com">>http://itresourcecenter.hp.com

   If the web site shows a more recent version of the patch, then download and install that version.

4. If you require a CSD for WebSphere MQ, then refer to the following website for download and installation information:

   http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21182310

3.9 Setting Network Time Protocol for Cluster Time Synchronization

Oracle Clusterware requires the same time zone setting on all cluster nodes. During installation, the installation process picks up the time zone setting of the Grid installation owner on the node where OUI runs, and uses that on all nodes as the default TZ setting for all processes managed by Oracle Clusterware. This default is used for databases, Oracle ASM, and any other managed processes.

You have two options for time synchronization:

• An operating system configured network time protocol (NTP)

• Oracle Cluster Time Synchronization Service

Oracle Cluster Time Synchronization Service is designed for organizations whose cluster servers are unable to access NTP services. If you use NTP, then the Oracle Cluster Time Synchronization daemon (ctssd) starts up in observer mode. If you do not have NTP daemons, then ctssd starts up in active mode and synchronizes time among cluster members without contacting an external time server.

If you have NTP daemons on your server but you cannot configure them to synchronize time with a time server, and you want to use Cluster Time Synchronization Service to provide synchronization service in the cluster, then deactivate and deinstall the Network Time Protocol (NTP).

To deactivate the NTP service, you must stop the existing ntpd service, disable it from the initialization sequences and remove the ntp.conf file. To complete these steps, run the following commands as the root user

# /sbin/init.d/xntpd stop
# rm /etc/ntp.conf

or, mv /etc/ntp.conf to /etc/ntp.conf.org.

When the installer finds that the NTP protocol is not active, the Cluster Time Synchronization Service is installed in active mode and synchronizes the time across the nodes. If NTP is found configured, then the Cluster Time Synchronization Service is started in observer mode, and no active time synchronization is performed by Oracle Clusterware within the cluster.

To confirm that ctssd is active after installation, enter the following command as the Grid installation owner:

$ crsctl check ctss

3.10 Using Automatic SSH Configuration During Installation

To install Oracle software, Secure Shell (SSH) connectivity should be set up between all cluster member nodes. OUI uses the ssh and scp commands during installation to run remote commands on and copy files to the other cluster nodes. You must configure SSH so that these commands do not prompt for a password.

You can configure SSH from the OUI interface during installation for the user account running the installation. The automatic configuration creates passwordless SSH connectivity between all cluster member nodes. Oracle recommends that you use the automatic procedure if possible.

To enable the script to run, you must remove stty commands from the profiles of any Oracle software installation owners, and remove other security measures that are triggered during a login, and that generate messages to the terminal. These messages, mail checks, and other displays prevent Oracle software installation owners from using the SSH configuration script that is built into the Oracle Universal Installer. If they are not disabled, then SSH must be configured manually before an installation can be run.

In rare cases, Oracle Clusterware installation may fail during the "AttachHome" operation when the remote node closes the SSH connection. To avoid this problem, set the following parameter in the SSH daemon configuration file /opt/ssh/etc/sshd_config on all cluster nodes to set the timeout wait to unlimited:

LoginGraceTime 0

3.11 Creating Required Symbolic Links

To enable you to successfully relink Oracle products after installing this software, enter the following commands to create required X library symbolic links in the /usr/lib directory:

# cd /usr/lib
# ln -s libX11.3 libX11.sl
# ln -s libXIE.2 libXIE.sl
# ln -s libXext.3 libXext.sl
# ln -s libXhp11.3 libXhp11.sl
# ln -s libXi.3 libXi.sl
# ln -s libXm.4 libXm.sl
# ln -s libXp.2 libXp.sl
# ln -s libXt.3 libXt.sl
# ln -s libXtst.2 libXtst.sl

3.12 Setting the Minor Number for Device Files

Oracle Universal Installer, as part of its prerequisite checks, verifies that the device file settings for the minor number across all nodes is 0x4 or 0x104 for the /dev/async device. By default, the minor number is set to 0x0. To change the minor number prior to starting the installation, perform the following steps:

1. Log in as the root user.

2. Determine whether /dev/async exists. If the device does not exist, then use the following command to create it:

   # /sbin/mknod /dev/async c 101 0x4
   

   Alternatively, you can set the minor number value to 0x104 using the following command:

   # /sbin/mknod /dev/async c 101 0x104
   

3. If /dev/async exists, then determine the current value of the minor number, as shown in the following example:

   # ls -l /dev/async
   
   crw-r--r--   1 root       sys        101 0x000000 Sep 28 10:38 /dev/async
   

4. If the existing minor number of the file is not 0x4 or 0x104, then change it to an expected value using one of the following commands:

   # /sbin/mknod /dev/async c 101 0x4
   or
   # /sbin/mknod /dev/async c 101 0x104
   

3.13 Checking the Run Level and Name Service Cache Daemon

To allow Oracle Clusterware to better tolerate network failures with NAS devices or NFS mounts, enable the Name Service Cache Daemon (nscd). The nscd provides a caching mechanism for the most common name service requests. It is automatically started when the system starts in a multiuser state. Oracle software requires that the server is started with multiuser run level (3), which is the default for HP-UX.

To check to see if the server is set to 3, enter the command who -r. For example:

# who -r 
.run-level 3  Jan 4 14:04     3      0  S 

Refer to your operating system documentation if you must change the run level.

To check to see if the password and group caching daemon (pwgrd) is running, enter the following command:

ps -aef |grep pwgrd