What's New in Oracle Database 10g Oracle Real Application Clusters Installation and Configuration?

This section describes Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) features as they pertain to the installation and configuration of Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC). The topic in this section is:

Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) New Features for RAC Installation and Configuration

Note:

Updates from the preceding 10.x releases are preceded by the release number, in parentheses. For example: (10.1). Where there are lists of updates to a feature that contain multiple releases, these releases are preceded by the release number in parentheses as follows where feature is the description of the feature:

(10.1) feature
(10.2) feature

Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) New Features for RAC Installation and Configuration

Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) is provided with Cluster Verification Utility. Cluster Verification Utility (CVU) is a validation tool that you can use to check whether or not your cluster is properly configured, to avoid installation and database creation failures. It provides the following cluster setup checks:
- The cluster configuration meets the requirements for installing Oracle Clusterware
- The cluster configuration meets the requirements for Real Application Clusters installation
- The cluster configuration meets the requirements for creating a database with Oracle Real Application Clusters, or meets the requirements for a change in database configuration
You can use the CVU command-line interface:
- To validate cluster components individually, including node connectivity, and proper configuration of administrative privileges, Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR), Oracle Clusterware, and other required components for Real Application Clusters
- To validate a pre-defined set of requirements, including the proper setup for node connectivity, shared storage accessibility, integrity of the Oracle Clusterware stack, and other requirements that a system must meet for a specific stage of Oracle Clusterware or RAC database installation or configuration.
CVU is available on the Oracle 10g Release 2 (10.2) installation media. You can either run CVU from the installation media, or run it from you local system after installation to perform configuration checks before installing Oracle software. CVU commands to perform installation checks are provided in this installation guide.

See Also:
Oracle Database Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Real Application Clusters Administration and Deployment Guide for detailed information about CVU
With Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2), you can now create duplicates of cluster nodes (or clone a node) using an image file. In addition, cloning is now the preferred method for adding nodes. The process for cloning, as well as details about using non-interactive (silent) installation scripts, is described in Oracle Universal Installer and OPatch User's Guide.

Both Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Real Application Clusters can be cloned. You can also use Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control and Grid Control to perform cloning.
With Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2), Cluster Ready Services, or CRS, is now called Oracle Clusterware.
Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) enables rolling upgrades from Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1) Cluster Ready Services to Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) Oracle Clusterware.

During Oracle Clusterware installation, if Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) detects a 10g Release 1 (10.1) Cluster Ready Services installation, then OUI provides the option to install Oracle Clusterware across all nodes in the cluster, or across a subset of nodes in the cluster. During Oracle Clusterware installation, Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1) Cluster Ready Services remains available on nodes that are not being upgraded.
Starting with Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2), Oracle Clusterware should be installed in a separate Oracle Clusterware home directory. This is a change to the Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) rules. You should not install Oracle Clusterware in a release-specific Oracle home mount point, typically /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0, as succeeding versions of Oracle Clusterware will overwrite the Oracle Clusterware installation in the same path. Also, If Oracle Clusterware 10g Release 2 (10.2) detects an existing Oracle Cluster Ready Services installation, then it overwrites the existing installation in the same path.
Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) Oracle Clusterware installation provides the option to use a Cluster Configuration File. The Cluster Configuration File simplifies Oracle Clusterware installation in situations such as installing in test environments, or installing Oracle Clusterware on a large number of nodes.
With Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2), Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) provides a simplified procedure for creating an Automatic Storage Management (ASM) instance and for configuring disk groups.
With Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2), Automatic Storage Management should be installed in a separate ASM home directory. This is a change to the Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) rules. To install ASM in its own home directory, you must run the database OUI twice. The first time you run the database OUI, install the ASM home. The second time you run the database OUI, install the database with RAC home.
With Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2), a single ASM instance for each node is now able to serve disk groups to all the database instances in the cluster, whether or not database instances are configured with the RAC parameter turned on in the database parameter file. This change simplifies managing the cluster, because you do not need to distribute disks across multiple ASM instances statically. Instead, you can manage all disks with a single cluster of ASM instances.
(10.1) Oracle Database 10g with RAC is available in both Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition.
(10.1) Oracle Database 10g installation requires you to perform a two-phase process in which you run Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) twice. The first phase installs Oracle Clusterware 10g Release 2 (10.2) and the second phase installs the Oracle Database 10g software with RAC. The installation also enables you to create and configure services for your RAC environment.

(10.1) If you have a previous Oracle Database version with RAC or Oracle Parallel Server, then OUI activates Database Upgrade Assistant (DBUA) to automatically upgrade your previous release Oracle Database. DBUA can upgrade the following to Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2): Oracle8i (8.1.7.4) Oracle Parallel Server databases; Oracle9i (9.0.1.4 and higher) and Oracle 9i (9.2.0.4 and higher) RAC databases; and can upgrade 10.1.0.2 and higher RAC databases, including those using ASM. It can also upgrade ASM 10.1 to ASM 10.2.

See Also:
Oracle Database Upgrade Guide for information about how to plan for upgrading an existing database
Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) Oracle Clusterware contains the cluster management software required to support Oracle Database 10g RAC databases. Oracle Clusterware also provides high availability components that provide many system management features, including determining node availability, cluster group membership, and locking services for Oracle Database processes. The components of Oracle Clusterware interact with third-party vendor clusterware, if present, to coordinate cluster membership information.

In addition, while continuing to be required for RAC databases, Oracle Clusterware is also available for use with single-instance databases and applications that you deploy on clusters. The API libraries required for use with single-instance databases are provided with the Oracle Client installation media.

With this release, the following updates have been made to Oracle Clusterware:
- The Oracle Database cluster manager on database releases previous to 10g Release 1 was referred to as "Cluster Manager." In Oracle Database 10g releases, the cluster manager role is performed by Cluster Synchronization Services (CSS), a component of Oracle Clusterware, on all platforms. The Cluster Synchronization Service Daemon (CSSD) performs this function.
- With Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) with RAC, Oracle Clusterware provides for the creation of a mirrored Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) file, enhancing cluster reliability.
- With Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) with RAC, CSS has been modified to allow you to configure CSS with multiple voting disks. In 10g Release 1 (10.1), you could configure only one voting disk. By enabling multiple voting disk configuration, the redundant voting disks allow you to configure a RAC database with multiple voting disks on independent shared physical disks.
  
  Note:
  To obtain the benefits of multiple voting disks, you must configure at least three voting disks.
(10.1) There are new and changed pages and dialog boxes for Oracle Universal Installer (OUI), Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA), and Database Upgrade Assistant (DBUA). The Virtual Internet Protocol Configuration Assistant (VIPCA) is a new tool for the 10.x releases. These enhancements are described in the following:
- (10.1)Database Creation Page: This page lets you select the type of starter database to create, and enables you to configure a database using DBCA after the software installation is complete.
- (10.1) Database Backup and Recovery Page
- (10.1) Database Security Page: You can now set the password for the ASM instance SYS user as well as the other database administration and monitoring accounts during installation.
- (10.1) Database Management Page: This page provides the option to use Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control or Database Control to monitor the database.
- (10.1) Create Disk Group Page: This page lets you create one disk group for ASM database data file management for backup and recovery.
- (10.1) Existing ASM Disk Groups Page: This page provides assistance with placing disk groups in cases where you already have an ASM instance on your system.
- (10.1) OUI Cluster Installation Mode Page: This page lets you select whether to perform a cluster or a single-instance Oracle Database 10g installation.
- (10.1) SYS and SYSTEM Passwords Page: This page has fields for entering and confirming the SYS and SYSTEM user passwords. This includes SYSMAN and DBSNMP if you use Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control.
- (10.1) Storage Options Page: This page has storage options for selecting the storage type for the database files such as control files, data files, and redo logs.
- (10.1) DBCA Services Page: This page lets you create and configure services for your RAC environment.
- (10.1) DBCA Initialization Parameters Page: This page has two dialog boxes to display both Basic and Advanced parameter settings.
- (10.1) VIPCA: The pages for this assistant lets you configure virtual Internet protocol addresses for your RAC database.
(10.1) A new auxiliary, system-managed tablespace called SYSAUX contains performance data and combines content that was stored in different tablespaces (some of which are no longer required) in earlier releases. This is a required tablespace for which you must plan disk space.
(10.1) The gsdctl commands should be used only with Oracle9i databases. The Oracle Clusterware installation process stops any existing Global Service Daemon (GSD) processes. To start or stop the GSD processed manually, use srvctl start nodeapps or srvctl stop nodeapps respectively.
(10.1) On some platforms, versions of the cluster manager previous to Oracle Database 10g were referred to as Cluster Manager. On all platforms in Oracle Database 10g, this function is performed by an Oracle Clusterware component known as Cluster Synchronization Services (CSS). Cluster Synchronization Service Daemon (CSSD) performs this function.

(10.1) Oracle Database 10g provides cluster file system support for Linux and Windows-based platforms.