February 24th, 2009
st0ma
Monitor your RAID Controller at all times!
There is no need to tell you that Monitoring your RAID is of great importance.
Another important thing that I would like to say is that RAID is Not a Backup solution.
So just don’t use it is one or the chances are you will recall these words with bitter regret when you least expect it.
The above sounds like a curse, doesn’t it 🙂
And “when you least expect it” could be an uncomfortable period time for you [no internet, vacation to a deserted destination with no network coverage what so ever, no laptop or mobile device that could allow you to react,… here you can let your imagination lose for a moment and you might get a grasp of all the bad moments to have a RAID problem, or any other problem with your service but this article focuses on the RAID…]
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February 20th, 2009
st0ma
When I finished the clusterware install in the lab environment I have continued with the database software itself but it appears that I needed a VMware ESXi Update 3 required! The kernel version of SLES failed verification and upon an upgrade of the kernel through YAST both machines were unusable since they would not boot.
This is an obstacle until completed since I can’t continue with the How-to until this is done.
In Part 9 of the Oracle RAC How-to we have completed successfully the installation of the Oracle Clusterware services on the shared storage for the two Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9 SP5 nodes.
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Categories: Database, ESX, ESXi, Linux, Oracle, SLES, VI, VMware Tags: Database, ESX, ESXi, Kernel, Oracle, VMware
February 18th, 2009
st0ma
VMware VI toolkit (for Windows)
1. Overview and download
The VMware VI toolkit for windows allows you to script administer and manage you virtual infrastructure in command line from your Windows Operating system machine. VMware VI Toolkit requires Microsoft PowerShell to run. If you didn’t have a chance to download those two applications, here are the download links:
Download and install Microsoft PowerShell
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/management/powershell/default.mspx
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February 17th, 2009
st0ma
Let’s say you had a field CITIZEN in table called EMPLOYEE that was created as VARCHAR2(10) but this has to be changed to VARCHAR2(3). The syntax to change the the column datatype in Oracle is as follows:
ALTER TABLE table_name MODIFY ( column_name VARCHAR2(3));
If there is existing column data you should first export that data and then import it after the datatype change. Make sure the exported data will be suitable for import upon the change (You can’t import a row with CITIZEN column of 5 after you have changed the column to VARCHAR2(3)).
February 16th, 2009
st0ma
Verify the Oralce Clusterware Installation
With the introduction of Oracle RAC 10g, cluster management is controller by the evmd, ocssd and crsd processes.
Run the ps command on both nodes to make sure that the processes are running.
rac01:/u01/clusterware/cluvfy # ps -ef |grep d.bin
root 4694 1 0 Feb13 ? 00:00:00 /u01/crs1020/bin/crsd.bin reboot
oracle 5242 4692 0 Feb13 ? 00:00:00 /u01/crs1020/bin/evmd.bin
oracle 5344 5326 0 Feb13 ? 00:00:00 /u01/crs1020/bin/ocssd.bin
root 20078 10946 0 09:44 pts/1 00:00:00 grep d.bin
Next you should check the /etc/inittab file, which is processed whenever the runlevel changes:
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Categories: Database, ESX, ESXi, Linux, Oracle, SLES, SSH, VMware Tags: Clusterware, ESXi, Linux, Oracle, SLES, VMware
February 16th, 2009
st0ma
Oracle Clusterware Installation
Install the xntpd service and configure it.
You can use the Yast management console to do so.
It is extremely important that both nodes are configured to use ntp server and that they are regularly being updated.
If there is any difference at all within the date of all nodes this could result into inoperable cluster.
1. Copy the cpio.gz file to the first node and unzip the contents of the cpio file
#gunzip 10201_clusterware_linux_x86_64.cpio.gz
#cpio -idmv < 10201_clusterware_linux_x86_64.cpio
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Categories: Database, ESX, ESXi, Linux, Oracle, SLES, SSH, VMware Tags: Clusterware, Database, ESXi, Linux, Oracle, SLES, VIPCA
February 15th, 2009
st0ma
Configuring and Using Raw Partitions for the Oracle Shared Storage
For the purpose of my cluster I will use raw partitions that are shared disks on the ESXi host.
First I will identify my needs for shared disks and them will create them and format them accordingly.
After some high level overview of my requirements I have created the following list of required files:
asm01.vmdk = 6GB [ ORADATA ]
asm02.vmdk = 2GB [Application data]
asm03.vmdk = 4GB [FLASH]
ocr.vmdk = 256MB [Cluster Registry]
voting.vmdk = 40MB [Voting disk]
spfile.vmdk = 16MB [Parameter configuration]
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Categories: Database, ESX, ESXi, Linux, Oracle, SLES, VMware Tags: ESXi, Linux, Oracle, RAC, raw devices, shared storage, SLES, vmdk
February 14th, 2009
st0ma
Linux OS Parameters
Here is the list of the required parameters for clusterware and oracle database 10g
Parameter |
Value |
File |
semmsl semmns semopm semmni |
25 032 000 100 128 |
/proc/sys/kernel/sem |
shmmax |
The minimum of the following (4 GB – 1 byte), or half the size of physical memory (in bytes), whichever is lower. |
/proc/sys/kernel/shmmax |
shmmni |
4096 |
/proc/sys/kernel/shmmni |
shmall |
2097152 |
/proc/sys/kernel/shmall |
file-max |
65536 |
/proc/sys/fs/file-max |
ip_local_port_range |
Minimum: 1024 Maximum: 65000 |
/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range |
rmem_default |
262144 |
/proc/sys/net/core/rmem_default |
rmem_max |
4194304 |
/proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max |
wmem_default |
262144 |
/proc/sys/net/core/wmem_default |
wmem_max |
4194304 |
/proc/sys/net/core/wmem_max |
In order to check the values in your system use the sysctl command.
You will probably get the following results from the default kernel configuration:
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Categories: Database, ESX, ESXi, Linux, Oracle, SLES, VMware Tags: ESXi, Linux, Oracle, SLES, sysctl, VMware
February 14th, 2009
st0ma
Configuring SSH access for the oracle user for Remote installation
Login as the oracle user and generate keys for ssh authentication without passwords.
I usually check the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file to make sure I have the proper configuration in place.
I usually disable the DNS check since it causes the ssh to timeout.
UseDNS no
Now I will generate the ssh keys with no password
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Categories: Database, ESX, ESXi, Linux, Oracle, SLES, SSH, VMware Tags: ESXi, Oracle, ORACLE_HOME, SLES, SSH, VMware
February 13th, 2009
st0ma
Required UNIX groups and users. User environment and Shell Limits
1. Creating an oracle user, a dba and an oinstall group on each node.
# groupadd -g 500 oinstall
# groupadd -g 501 dba
# useradd -u 500 -d /home/oracle -g oinstall -G dba -m -s /bin/bash oracle
Reset the oracle user password to something you want
# passwd oracle
Changing password for oracle.
New password:
Re-enter new password:
Password changed
Check that the nobody user exists:
#grep nobody /etc/ passwd
[I had to add space between the / and passwd since mod_security of this server would not allow me to post.. ]
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Categories: Database, ESX, ESXi, Linux, Oracle, SLES, VMware Tags: ESXi, Linux, Oracle, SLES, VMware