Pro Oracle Database 11g RAC on Linux

Title page

Copyright page

Contents at a Glance

Table of contents

About the Author

About the Technical Reviewer

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

Introducing Oracle Real Application Clusters

Examining the RAC Architecture

Deploying RAC

Maintaining High Availability

Providing Fault Tolerance by Redundancy

Making Failover Seamless

Putting the Technology Stack in Perspective

Defining Scalability

Scoping Various Levels of Scalability

Scaling Vertically vs. Horizontally

Increasing Manageability

Achieving Manageability Through Consolidation

Enabling Database Consolidation

Consolidating Servers

Assessing the Cost of Ownership

Choosing RAC vs. SMP

Evaluating Service-Level Agreements

Improving Database Management

Factoring in the Additional Hardware Cost

Assessing the Staff and Training Cost

Clustering with Oracle on Linux

Running Linux on Oracle

Understanding the Role of Unix

Liberating Software

Developing Linux

Expanding the Concept of Free with Open Source

Combining Oracle, Open Source, and Linux

Drilling Down on Unbreakable Linux

Creating and Growing Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Extending Red Hat with Oracle Enterprise Linux

Drilling Down on SuSE Linux Enterprise Server

Taking Linux to Asia

Summary

CHAPTER 2 RAC Concepts

Clustering Concepts

Configuring Active/active Clusters

Implementing Active/passive Clusters

Configuring a Shared-All Architecture

Configuring a Shared-Nothing Architecture

Exploring the Main RAC Concepts

Working with Cluster Nodes

Leveraging the Interconnect

Using an Ethernet-based Interconnect

Implementing an Infiniband-based Interconnect

Clusterware/Grid Infrastructure

Planning a RAC Installation

Choosing a Process Structure

Configuring Network Components

Setting up Shared Grid Infrastructure Components

Implementing the Oracle Cluster Registry and Oracle Local Registry

Configuring Voting Disks

Leveraging Automatic Storage Management

Working with ASM Disks

Exploiting ASM Disk Groups

Configuring Failure Groups

Weighing Your ASM Installation and Administration Options

Installing Real Application Clusters

Sorting Through Your Installation Options

Choosing Between a Single Instance and a RAC Database

Working with Database Files

Leveraging Online Redo Logs and Archiving

Managing Undo Tablespaces

Weighing Storage Options for RAC Databases

Drilling Down on a RAC Database Instance

Storing Information in Control Files

Using the Global Resource Directory (GRD)

Maintaining Cache Coherence with Global Cache Services (GCS)

Managing Global Enqueues with Global Enqueue Services (GES)

Transferring Data Between Instances with Cache Fusion

Achieving Read Consistency

Synchronizing System Change Numbers

Exploring the New Features of 11g Release 2

Leveraging Grid Plug and Play

Modeling Resources with Server Pools

Ensuring POSIX Compliance with ACFS

Using Oracle Restart Instead of RAC

Simplifying Clusterd Database Access with SCAN Listener

Summary

CHAPTER 3 RAC Architecture

Availability Considerations

Deciding the Number of Nodes

Two-Node RAC Clusters

Oracle RAC One Node

Multi-Node RAC Systems

Online Maintenance and Patching

Patching Real Application Clusters Using opatch

Opatch Operation Modes

All Node Patch Mode

Rolling Patch Mode

Minimum Downtime Patch Mode

Local Patch Mode

Instance Recovery in RAC

Enqueue Remastering

Database Recovery

Failover Considerations

Transparent Application Failover

Failover Modes

Failover Methods

Fast Connection Failover and Fast Application Notification

Scalability Considerations

Scalability Enhancers

Scalability Inhibitors

Standby Databases

Introduction to Oracle Standby Databases

Types of Standby Database

Physical Standby Database

Snapshot Standby Database

Logical Standby Database

Transient Logical Standby Database

Active Data Guard

Role Transitions

Data Protection Modes

The Data Guard Broker

Extended Distance Clusters

Oracle Streams

Streams Processing

Oracle Streams Prerequisites

Cluster Topologies

Summary

CHAPTER 4 Hardware

Oracle Availability

Server Processor Architecture

x86 Processor Fundamentals

x86-64

Multicore Processors and Hyper-Threading

CPU Cache

CPU Power Management

Virtualization

Memory

Virtual Memory

Physical Memory

NUMA

Memory Reliability

Additional Platform Features

Onboard RAID Storage

Machine Check Architectures

Remote Server Management and IPMI

Network Interconnect Technologies

Server I/O

PCI

PCI-X

PCI-Express

Private Interconnect

Standard Ethernet Interconnects

Fully Redundant Ethernet Interconnects

Infiniband

Private Interconnect Selection Summary

Storage Technologies

RAC I/O Characteristics

Read Activity

Write Activity

Asynchronous I/O and Direct I/O

Hard Disk and Solid State Disk Drive Performance

RAID

RAID 0 Striping

RAID 1 Mirroring

RAID 10 Striped Mirrors

RAID 0+1 Mirrored Stripes

RAID 5

Storage Cache

RAID Summary

Storage Protocols for Linux

SCSI

Fibre Channel and FCoE

iSCSI

SATA

Using Block-Based Storage

Linux I/O Scheduling

NFS and NAS

Evaluating Storage Performance

Summary

CHAPTER 5 Virtualization

Virtualization Definition and Benefits

Oracle VM

Oracle VM Server Architecture

Paravirtualization

Full Virtualization

Oracle VM Design

Oracle VM Server Installation

Oracle VM Manager Installation

Oracle VM CLI Installation and Configuration

Configuring Oracle VM

Network Configuration

Server Pool Configuration

Enabling High Availability

Configuring Shared Storage

Cluster Configuration

Installing and Configuring Guests

Importing a Template

Creating a Guest from a Template

Accessing a Guest

Configuring a Guest for RAC

Managing Domains

Oracle VM Agent

Oracle VM Manager

Oracle VM Manager CLI

The xm Command-Line Interface

Displaying Information

Managing Domains

Managing Resources

Summary

CHAPTER 6 Linux Installationand Configuration

Selecting the Right Linux Software

Reviewing the Hardware Requirements

Drilling Down on Networking Requirements

Configuring a GNS or a Manual IP

Configuring DNS and DHCP

Downloading the Linux Software

Preparing for a Network Install

Installing Oracle Enterprise Linux 5

Starting the Installation

Installation Media Check

Anaconda Installation

Install or Upgrade

Disk Partitioning

Creating a Default Partitioning Scheme

Creating a Partition Manually

Creating an MBR Partition

Creating an EFI Partition

Customized Partitioning

Configuring Swap Space

Configuring RAID

Configuring the Boot Loader and Network

Selecting a Time Zone

Configuring the Root Password

Reviewing the Package Installation Defaults

Selecting a Package Group

Installing Packages

Setting the Final Configuration

Accepting the License Agreement

Configuring the Firewall

Configuring SELinux

Enabling kdump

Setting the Date and Time

Creating a User

Installing Additional CDs

Configuring Oracle Enterprise Linux 5

Configuring a Server with the Oracle Validated RPM

Configuring YUM

Running the Oracle Validated RPM

Using the up2date Command

Verifying the Oracle Validated RPM Actions

Creating the Oracle User and Groups

Configuring Kernel Parameters

Working with Shared Memory

Using Semaphores

Setting Network Parameters

Message Queues

Setting the Number of Open Files

Configuring Asynchronous I/O

Using Magic SysRq Keys

Setting PAM Limits

Setting Kernel Boot Parameters

Setting Kernel Module Parameters

Post Oracle Validated RPM Configuration

Setting the Huge Pages Kernel Parameter

I/O Fencing and the Hangcheck-Timer Kernel Module

Configuring the oracle user

Creating the Oracle Software Directories

Setting Environment Variables

Putting Environment Variables to Work

Completing the Linux Configuration for RAC

Configuring Hostnames and Name Resolution

Using NTP

Configuring Secure Shell

Configuring Shared Storage

Discovering and Configuring SAN Disk

Partitioning Disks

I/O Multipathing with Device-Mapper

Preparing the Partitions for ASM with ASMLIB

Preparing the Partitions for ASM with udev

Network Channel Bonding

I/O Fencing with IPMI

Summary

CHAPTER 7 Grid Infrastructure Installation

Getting Ready for Installation

Obtain Software Distribution

Configure X Environment

Checking Prerequisites

Starting an X environment in a console window

Starting an X environment using VNC

Determining Configuration Type

Advanced Installation - Manual Configuration

Network Configuration

DNS Configuration

Choosing an Installation Option

Selecting an Advanced or Typical Installation Type

Selecting a Language

Configuring the Grid Plug and Play

Configuring the Cluster Node Information Page

Configuring the Network Interface Usage Page

Configuring the Storage Option Information Page

Creating an ASM Disk Group

Specifying an ASM Password

Specifying a Username and Password for IPMI

Configuring Privileged Operating System Groups

Setting the Installation Location

Specify the Central Inventory’s Location

Performing Prerequisite Checks

Identifying Typical Errors

Getting More Detail

Fixup Scripts

Anatomy of Fixup Scripts

Addressing Failed Checks

Reviewing the Summary Page

Setup Page

Reviewing Execute Configuration Scripts

Execution Order

Running the orainstRoot.sh Script

Executing the root.sh script

Monitoring Configuration Assistants

Implementing an Advanced Installation for Automatic Configuration

Configuring a Network Configuration

Configuring DNS

Configuring DHCP

Setting up the Grid Plug and Play Information Page

Configuring the Cluster Node Information Page

The Summary Page

Typical Installation

Choosing the Installation Type

Specifying the Cluster Configuration Page

Install Locations Page

Reviewing the Summary Page for a Typical Installation

Installing a Standalone Server

Selecting an Installation Option

Creating an ASM Disk Group Page

Reviewing the Summary Page for a Standalone Installation

Configuring the Execute Configuration Scripts

Deinstalling the Grid Infrastructure Software

Summary

CHAPTER 8 Clusterware

Introducing Clusterware

Examining the Hardware and Software Requirements

Using Shared Storage with Oracle Clusterware

Storing Cluster Information with the Oracle Cluster Registry

Storing Information in the Oracle Local Registry

Fencing with the Voting Disk

Recording Information with the Grid Plug and Play Profile

Using Background Processes

Grid Infrastructure Software Stacks

Drilling Down on the High Availability Stack

Drilling Down on the Cluster Ready Services Stack

Using Grid Infrastructure Agents

Initiating the Startup Sequence

Managing Oracle Clusterware

Using the Enterprise Manager

Using the Clusterware Control Utility

Managing Resources with srvctl

Verifying the Cluster with the CVU

Configuring Network Interfaces with oifcfg

Administering the OCR and OLR with ocrconfig

Checking the State of the OCR and its Mirrors with ocrcheck

Dumping Contents of the OCR with ocrdump

Defining Server-Side Callouts

Protecting Applications with Clusterware

Managing Resource Profiles

Configuring Active/Passive Clustering for Oracle Database

Configuring Active/Passive Clustering for Apache Tomcat

Using Oracle Restart

Troubleshooting

Resolving Startup Issues

Failing to Start OHAS

Failing to Start Agents Created by OHAS

Failing to Start the Cluster Synchronization Services Daemon

Failing to Start the Cluster Ready Services Daemon

Failing to Start the GPnP Daemon

Agents spawned by CRSD

Resolving Problems with Java Utilities

Patching Grid Infrastructure

Adding and Deleting Nodes

Adding Nodes

Checking the Prerequisites

Executing the addNode.sh Script

Finishing the Node Addition

Adding the RDBMS Software

Deleting Nodes

Removing the Clustered RDBMS Home

Removing the Node from the Cluster

Finishing the Node Removal

Exploring More Advanced Topics

Selecting non-Default Listener Ports

Selecting a non-Default SCAN Listener Endpoint

Changing the SCAN After Installation

Maintaining Voting Disks

Restoring Voting Disks

Moving Voting Disks into ASM

Maintaining Local and Cluster Registry

Dealing With a Corrupt or Inaccessible OLR

Dealing with a Corrupt or Inaccessible OCR

Moving the OCR into ASM

Summary

CHAPTER 9 Automatic Storage Management

Introducing ASM

ASM Terminology

Supported File Types

ASM Management

ASM and RDBMS Support

ASM Installation

ASM Components and Concepts

ASM Instances

Instance Names

SGA

Background Processes

Parameters

Failure Groups

ASM Files

Naming Files

Aliasing Files

Managing Control Files

Understanding Extents, Allocation Units, Types, and Templates

Redundancy

Striping

Mirroring

Intelligent Data Placement

Access Control

Understanding Access Privileges

Preparing the ASM Disk Group

Changing File Ownership and Permissions

Maintaining ASM

Creating an ASM Disk Group

Extending an ASM Disk Group

Dropping Disks from an ASM Disk Group

Enabling Disk Discovery

Understanding the ASM Header

Installing the Grid Infrastructure

Re-creating the ASM Disks

ASM Cluster File System

Creating and Mounting an ACFS Using ASMCA

Creating and Mounting an ACFS Using the Command Line

Maintaining the ACFS

Using ACFS with Oracle Restart

Administering ASM

Using SQL*Plus to Administer ASM

Setting the Environment

Determining the User and Privilege

Knowing Your Options

Dealing with Connected Clients

Checking for Corruption

Manually Mounting a Disk Group

Dropping a Disk Group

Creating ADVM Volumes

ASM Administration Using SRVCTL

Accessing Files in ASM

Using Files Instead of Devices

Virtualization and Shared Disks

Summary

CHAPTER 10 RDBMS Installationand Configuration

Installing the RAC Software

Start the Installer

Configuring the Security Updates Page

Configuring the Installation Options Page

Configuring the Node Selection Page

Configuring the Product Language Selection Page

Configuring the Database Editions Page

Configuring the Installation Locations Page

Configuring the Privileged Operating Systems Group Page

Configuring the Prerequisites Check Page

Reviewing the Summary Page

Executing Configuration Scripts

Using the Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA)

Starting the DBCA and Choosing an Operation

Configuring the Welcome Page

Configuring the Operations Page

Creating a Database

Configuring the Database Templates Page

Configuring the Database Identification Page (Admin-Managed)

Configuring the Database Identification Page (Policy-Managed)

Management Options Page

Database Credentials Page

Database File Locations Page

Setting up the Recovery Configuration Page

Configuring the Database Content Page

Configuring the Standard Database Components Page

Configuring the Initializations Parameters Page

Configuring the Database Storage Page

Configuring the Creation Options Page

Reviewing the Summary Page

Configuring the Database Options

Deleting a Database

Managing Templates

Building Database Creation Scripts

Setting up Admin-Managed Database Scripts

Executing the ADMIN1.sh Script

Creating the ADMIN1.sql Script

Generating the init.ora File

Executing the CreateDB.sql Script

Executing the CreateDBFiles.sql Script

Executing the CreateDBCatalog.sql Script

Executing the JServer.sql Script

Executing the xdb_protocol.sql Script

Executing the ordinst.sql Script

Executing the intermedia.sql Script

Executing the emRepository.sql Script

Executing the apex.sql Script

Executing the CreateClustDBViews.sql Script

Executing the lockAccount.sql Script

Executing the postDBCreation.sql Script

Building Policy-Managed Database Scripts

Executing the POLICY_1.sh Script

Executing the POLICY_1.sql Script

Executing the init.ora File for a Policy-Managed Database

Deinstalling the RDBMS Software

Summary

CHAPTER 11 Workload Management

Introducing Services

Creating an Administrator Managed Database vs.Policy-Managed Database

Managing Services with the Database Scheduler

Using Services with Shared Server

Managing Services

Managing Services with SRVCTL

Managing Services with Enterprise Manager

Managing Services with DBMS_SERVICE

Balancing the Workload

Configuring Client-Side Load Balancing

Configuring Server-Side Load Balancing

Exploring the Load Advisory Framework

Using Transparent Application Failover

Configuring Transparent Application Failover

Using TAF with JDBC Applications

Implementing Fast Connection Failover

Implementing Fast Application Notification

Implementing a Fast Connection Failover Example

Establishing Connection Affinity

Reading FAN events using the FAN API

Using the Resource Manager

Caging an Instance

Database Resident Connection Pool

Summary

CHAPTER 12 Oracle Performance Monitoring

Enterprise Manager Database Control

The Cluster Tab

The Database Tab

The Performance Tab

AWR Reports

Interpreting the RAC Statistics of an AWR Report

Top 5 Timed Foreground Events

Global Cache Load Profile

Global Cache Efficiency Percentages

Global Cache and Enqueue Services - Workload Characteristics

Global Cache and Enqueue Services - Messaging Statistics

Cluster Interconnect

Foreground Wait Class

Wait Event Histogram

“SQL Statement” Sections

RAC-Related Segment Statistics

Dictionary Cache Stats (RAC)

Library Cache Activity (RAC)

Global Messaging Statistics

Global CR Served Statistics

Global Current Served Statistics

Global Cache Transfer Statistics

Interconnect Statistics

Dynamic Remastering Statistics

Active Session History

Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor

Executing an ADDM Report

Controlling ADDM

The Report Format

AWR SQL Report

Performance Monitoring Using SQL*Plus

GV$ Views

System Statistics

Segment Statistics

Global Caches Services: Consistent and Current Reads

Global Cache Services: Current Block Activity

Global Enqueue Service

Library Cache

Dictionary Cache

Lock Conversions

Automatic Diagnostic Repository

Summary

CHAPTER 13 Linux Performance Monitoring

The uptime and last Commands

The ps Command

free, ipcs, pmap, and lsof

The free Command

The /proc File System

The /sys/devices/system/node File System

The ipcs Command

The pmap Command

The lsof Command

top

vmstat

strace

netstat, ss, and tcpdump

Looking at Interface Statistics

Summary Statistics

Listening Socket Statistics

Looking up Well-Known Ports

Reporting on Socket Statistics Using ss

Capturing and Displaying Network Packets

iostat

mpstat

sar and kSar

Configuring sar

Invoking sar Directly

Graphing the Results

Oracle Cluster Health Monitor

Installing the Oracle Cluster Health Monitor

Starting and Stopping the Oracle Cluster Health Monitor

Understanding the Architecture

Installing the Client-Side GUI

Viewing Current and Captured Activity

OSWatcher

Installing OSWatcher

Starting OSWatcher

Stopping OSWatcher

Viewing Results Graphically

nmon

Summary

CHAPTER 14 Parallel Execution

Parallel Execution Concepts

Serial Execution

Parallel Execution

Producers and Consumers

Bloom Filters

Partitioning

Parallel Execution Configuration

cluster_interconnects

db_block_size, db_cache_size, and db_file_multiblock_read_count

instance_groups and parallel_instance_group

large_pool_size, parallel_execution_message_size, andshared_pool_size

parallel_adaptive_multi_user

parallel_automatic_tuning

parallel_degree_limit

parallel_degree_policy, parallel_min_time_threshold, andparallel_servers_target

Automatic Degree of Parallelism

Statement Queuing

In-memory Parallel Execution

parallel_force_local

parallel_io_cap_enabled

parallel_max_servers, parallel_min_servers,parallel_threads_per_cpu, and processes

parallel_min_percent

pga_aggregate_target

Parallel Execution Performance

AWR Reports

SQL*Plus

Trace Files

Summary

CHAPTER 15 Upgrading to Oracle 11g Release 2

Upgrading Grid Infrastructure Components

Installing the Prerequisites

Running the Installer

Specifying Options

Running the Upgrade

Upgrading RAC Software

Running the Installer

Running Configuration Scripts

Preparing for the Database Upgrade

Identifying the Upgrade Path

Determine Upgrade Method

Testing the Upgrade Process

Running the pre-Upgrade Tool

Performing Other Checks

Saving Current Database Parameters

Backing up the Database

Configuring the Listener Process

Upgrading Automatically with DBUA

Upgrading a Database Manually

Preparing the Parameter Files

Preparing Password Files

Modifying the Initialization Parameters

Restarting the Database in UPGRADE Mode

Running the Catalog Upgrade Script

Configuring SPFILE

Running the post-Upgrade Status Tool

Running post-Upgrade Scripts

Recompiling Invalid Packages

Updating /etc/oratab

Updating Environment Variables

Updating the Oracle Cluster Registry

Setting the Initialization Parameters for the New Release

Performing the Necessary post-Upgrade Steps

Completing Mandatory post-Upgrade Tasks

Performing the Recommended Tasks

Resolving Problems in Mixed-Database Environments

Using a Swing Kit

Summary

Index