2 Installing Oracle RAC and Oracle RAC One Node

2.1 Selecting a Security Notification Contact

Oracle issues security alerts as needed for vulnerability fixes that are determined to be too critical to wait for distribution in the next Critical Patch Update.

During installation, you are asked in the Configure Security Updates screen to provide a security contact. Select one of the following options:

• Provide an e-mail address to receive security information for your installation.

• Provide a My Oracle Support e-mail address or account name to receive security information for your installation, and to enroll your system for Security Updates. You can receive information about alerts through My Oracle Support.

You can choose not to provide this information, but Oracle strongly recommends that you configure a security notification contact.

The information collected by Security Updates is limited to configuration information. The data collected does not include personally identifiable information (with the exception of a local contact name in case of transmission problems). You may still use all licensed Oracle functionality if you decline to enable Security Updates.If you prefer not to receive security notifications, then leave all fields in the Configure Security Updates screen blank, and click Next to continue.

If you provide your My Oracle Support credentials, then Security Updates automatically gathers configuration information regarding your installed Oracle products and uploads it to Oracle's support systems. You can access the information it collects through your My Oracle Support account, and review health check recommendations, patch recommendations and other recommendations for your system in addition to security alerts.

2.2 Deciding Between Multitenant Container Databases and Non-CDBs in Oracle RAC

Starting in Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1), you must create a database as either a multitenant container database (CDB) or as an Oracle database that is non-CDB. This also applies to Oracle RAC databases. The only difference to the installation process is to choose whether to create the Oracle RAC database as a CDB or non-CDB.

A pluggable database (PDB) is a portable collection of schemas, schema objects, and nonschema objects that appears to an Oracle Net client as a non-CDB. PDBs can be plugged into CDBs. A CDB can contain multiple PDBs. Each PDB appears on the network as a separate database.

If you create an Oracle RAC database as a CDB and plug one or more PDBs into the CDB, then, by default, a PDB is not started automatically on any instance of the Oracle RAC CDB. With the first dynamic database service assigned to the PDB (other than the default database service which has the same name as the database name), the PDB is made available on those instances on which the service runs.

Whether or not a PDB is available on more than one instance of an Oracle RAC, CDB is typically managed by the services running on the PDB. You can manually enable PDB access on each instance of an Oracle RAC CDB by starting the PDB manually on that instance.

2.3 Selecting an Installation Option

On the Select Installation Option page, you are given the following options:

• Create and Configure a Database: Provides you with the option to create a database using a preconfigured database template designed for particular system load demands, such as an online transaction processing (OLTP) database, or a decision support or data warehouse database.

• Install database software only: Installs Oracle Database software; you must complete the database configuration after the installation completes using the installed utilities.

• Upgrade an existing database: Upgrades an existing database.

If you are installing Oracle Database software, then Oracle recommends that you use a preconfigured database option, or select the Advanced option on the Select Configuration page, and configure a custom starter database. See "Selecting an Installation Type" for more information about the different preconfigured database options.

If you have an existing Oracle installation, then write down the version numbers, patches, and other configuration information, and review upgrade procedures for your existing installation. Review Oracle Database Upgrade Guide before proceeding with the installation.

2.4 Selecting the Database Type for Oracle Grid Infrastructure Deployments

During installation, OUI detects if you have Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster installed. If you do, then you must specify the type of database you plan to create:

• A single-instance database

• An Oracle RAC database

• An Oracle RAC One Node database

If you plan to create databases of different types on this cluster, then choose the most advanced option. For example, if you plan to create only single-instance and Oracle RAC One Node databases, then choose the Oracle RAC One Node database option. If you plan to create single-instance databases and Oracle RAC databases, then choose the Oracle RAC database option.

You can install Oracle RAC One Node on two or more nodes in the cluster. An Oracle RAC One Node installation starts up an instance on one of the nodes you select as an Oracle RAC One Node pool member. If that instance goes down, then the Oracle RAC One Node instance fails over to another pool member. This feature relocates database instances and connections to other cluster nodes for high availability.

2.5 Choosing the Cluster Database Management Type

When creating an Oracle RAC database, you can choose to create on of the following types of databases:

• A policy-managed database: The database instances are automatically managed based on server pools for effective resource utilization.

• An administrator-managed database: The database instances are tied to specific servers in the cluster.

2.6 Selecting an Installation Type

When you run Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) to install Oracle RAC, you can select the Typical or the Advanced installation type.

The Typical installation type installs a default configuration of Oracle Database, with basic configuration choices. Oracle recommends that most users select Typical as their installation type.

The Advanced installation type is for customized installations. You should use Advanced installation only when you have a specific requirement for it, such as adding specific components to your installation, requiring different passwords for the SYS, SYSTEM and DBSNMP accounts, using a different database character set than is in use on your servers, changing product languages, or other nonstandard configurations.

If you plan to use any of the following options during installation, then you should choose the Advanced Installation Type:

• Preconfigured Database Types Supplied with Oracle Database

• Using Advanced Database Configuration

• Installing Oracle Database with Other Languages

2.7 Selecting an Oracle Database Configuration Type

When you choose the Advanced Installation option in OUI, then you can select the General Purpose/Transaction Processing, Data Warehouse, or Advanced database configuration type. If you choose the Typical Installation Option, then the database configuration type defaults to General Purpose/Transaction Processing.

If you select Advanced configuration, then you can use Oracle Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) to create the database as described in Chapter 2, "Installing Oracle RAC and Oracle RAC One Node". Oracle recommends that you use DBCA to create your database.

2.8 Selecting a Database Name

The database name input field sets the following Oracle initialization parameter values:

• DB_NAME

• DB_UNIQUE_NAME

• DB_DOMAIN

In Oracle RAC environments, the database name (DB_UNIQUE_NAME) portion is a string of no more than 30 characters that can contain alphanumeric, underscore (_), dollar ($), and pound (#) characters, but must begin with an alphabetic character. No other special characters are permitted in a database name. The DB_NAME parameter for a database is set to the first 8 characters of the database name.

The domain portion of the global database name (DB_DOMAIN) can be no more than 128 characters. Domain names using underscores (_) are not allowed. The values for DB_UNIQUE_NAME.DB_DOMAIN in its entirety must be unique within the enterprise.

For example, if your database has a global database name of orl$racprod2551.example.com which you supplied during installation, then the following values are used for initialization parameters:

The SID prefix is the first 8 characters of the database name. The SID prefix can contain only the characters a-z, A-Z, and 0-9. The SID prefix cannot contain operating system special characters, so if you use special characters in the first 8 characters of the database name, then these special characters are omitted in the SID prefix. There is a single SID prefix for every database. The SID prefix for a database must be unique within the cluster.

For an Oracle RAC database, each instance has a unique identifier, ORACLE_SID, which consists of the SID prefix and an instance number. The ORACLE_SID for Oracle RAC database instances is generated differently, depending on how you choose to manage the database. If you select a policy-managed database, then Oracle generates the SID in the format name_#, where name is the first eight alphanumeric characters of DB_UNIQUE_NAME, and # is the instance number. If you select an administrator-managed database, then DBCA generates the SID for the instance names in advance, and the SID is in the format name#.

For an Oracle RAC One Node database, the instance is ORACLE_SID_1, which consists of _1 appended to the SID prefix. During online relocation, a second instance ORACLE_SID_2 is started, which becomes the only instance after the relocation completes. The next online relocation uses ORACLE_SID_1 for the new instance.

For example, if the DB_UNIQUE_NAME for a database is orl$racprod2551, then the following SID values are used:

2.9 Creating Database Passwords

Apply the following guidelines when specifying passwords:

• Passwords must be between 8 and 30 characters long.

• Passwords must be from the ASCII character set.

• Passwords must not start with a numeral.

• Passwords must not be the same as the user name.

• Passwords must not be Oracle reserved words.

• The SYS account password must not be change_on_install.

• The SYSTEM account password must not be manager.

• To use the same password for all the accounts, you must use a password that is not change_on_install, manager, or dbsnmp.

• Passwords should have at least 1 alphabetic, 1 numeric, and 1 punctuation character.

• Passwords should not be simple or obvious words, such as welcome, account, database, oracle, or user.

2.10 Understanding the Actions of OUI and DBCA During Installation

After installing Oracle Database, OUI runs DBCA to create your database, in accordance with Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) guidelines. An installation created following OFA guidelines means that DBCA creates your database files, including the default server parameter file (SPFILE), using standard file naming and file placement practices.

You can also use DBCA in standalone mode to create or delete a database.

2.11 Using Oracle Universal Installer to Install Oracle RAC

To install Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1) with Oracle RAC:

1. Ensure that you can access other nodes with SSH. OUI requires that the user account running the Oracle RAC installation is permitted to set up passwordless SSH. OUI can set this up for you automatically, or your system administrator can set this up for you before installation is started.

2. Open the terminal from which you intend to run OUI, and log in as the user account that you want to own the Oracle Database installation (for example, oracle).

   If you are not able to turn off stty commands, or have other restrictions that would prevent automatic SSH configuration from within OUI, then you must ensure that SSH is configured and enabled before you proceed to start OUI.

3. Ensure that you have su or sudo credentials, because you will be prompted to run a script as the root user during installation.

4. Start the runInstaller command from the Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1) installation media or install binary download area. For example, if the software binary download area is /home/oracle/oraclesw, enter the following commands:

   $ cd /home/oracle/oraclesw
   $ ./runInstaller
   

5. Provide information or run scripts as root when prompted by OUI. If you need assistance during installation, click Help. Click Details to examine the log file.

   Note:

   You can run the root.sh script simultaneously on all nodes in the cluster for Oracle RAC installations or upgrades.

   If you encounter problems during installation, then examine the OUI actions recorded in the installation log file. The log file is located in the Oracle Inventory directory with a name that includes the time stamp (date_time) of the installation process, as shown in this example:

   OraInventory/logs/installActionsdate_time.log
   

   Caution:

   Do not install the Oracle Database with Oracle RAC software into the same home in which you installed Oracle Grid Infrastructure software.

   Note that because Oracle ASM is part of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home, it cannot be upgraded during an Oracle RAC installation.

When you have completed the second and final phase of the installation, proceed to Chapter 5, "Oracle Real Application Clusters Postinstallation Procedures" to perform the postinstallation tasks.

2.12 Using Oracle Universal Installer to Install Oracle RAC One Node

To install Oracle RAC One Node:

1. Open the terminal from which you intend to run OUI, and log in as the user account that you want to own the Oracle Database installation (for example, oracle).

   If you are not able to turn off stty commands, or have other restrictions that would prevent automatic SSH configuration from within OUI, then you must ensure that SSH is configured and enabled before you start OUI.

2. Ensure that you have su or sudo credentials, because you will be prompted to run a script as the root user during installation.

3. Start the runInstaller command from the Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1) installation media or install binary download area. For example, where the software binary download area is /home/oracle/oraclesw, enter the following commands:

   $ cd /home/oracle/oraclesw
   $ ./runInstaller
   

4. Select to configure an Oracle RAC One Node database, and select to install Oracle RAC on all nodes where Oracle RAC One Node will run.

5. Provide information when prompted by OUI. If you need assistance during installation, click Help. Click Details to see the log file.

   Note:

   You can run the root.sh script simultaneously on all nodes in the cluster for Oracle RAC installations or upgrades.

   If you encounter problems during installation, then examine the OUI actions recorded in the installation log file. The log file is located in the Oracle Inventory directory with a name that includes the timestamp (date_time) of the install process, as shown in this example:

   OraInventory/logs/installActionsdate_time.log
   

   Caution:

   The Oracle home name and path that you provide during database installation must be different from the home that you used during the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation in phase one. You must not install Oracle Database with Oracle RAC software into the same home in which you installed the Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster software.

   Note that because Oracle ASM is part of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home, it cannot be upgraded during an Oracle RAC installation.

2.13 Installing the Oracle Database Vault Option

Installing and configuring Oracle Database Vault requires actions during and after installation, as described in the following topics:

• Starting the Listener with Oracle Database Vault Installations

• Configuring Oracle Database Vault Using DBCA