3 Oracle Grid Infrastructure

3.1.1 Memory Requirements

The following are the memory requirements for installing Oracle grid infrastructure:

• At least 1 GB of RAM

  To determine the RAM size, enter the following command:

  # grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo
  

  If the size of the RAM is less than the required size, then you must install more memory before continuing.

• The following table describes the relationship between installed RAM and the configured swap space requirement:

  Note:

  On Linux, the HugePages feature allocates non-swappable memory for large page tables using memory-mapped files. If you enable HugePages, then you should deduct the memory allocated to HugePages from the available RAM before calculating swap space.

  RAM	Swap Space
  Between 1 GB and 2 GB	1.5 times the size of RAM
  Between 2 GB and 16 GB	Equal to the size of RAM
  More than 16 GB	16 GB

  
  

  To determine the size of the configured swap space, enter the following command:

  # grep SwapTotal /proc/meminfo
  

  If necessary, refer to the operating system documentation for information about how to configure additional swap space.

  To determine the available RAM and swap space, enter the following command:

  # free
  

3.1.2 Disk Space Requirements

The following are the disk space requirements for installing grid infrastructure:

• At least 2.2 GB of disk space.

• At least 1 GB of disk space in the /tmp directory.

To determine the amount of free disk space available in the /tmp directory, enter the following command:

# df -k /tmp

If there is less than 1 GB of free disk space available in the /tmp directory, then complete one of the following steps:

• Delete unnecessary files from the /tmp directory to meet the disk space requirement.

• Set the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables when setting the oracle user's environment.

  See Also:

  "Configuring the oracle User's Environment" for more information on setting TMP and TMPDIR

• Extend the file system that contains the /tmp directory. If necessary, contact the system administrator for information about extending file systems.

3.1.3 Configuring the User's Environment

Complete the following tasks to set the Oracle grid infrastructure software owner user's environment:

• Review the information in "Logging In to the System as root" section.

• Ensure that you set the path to the Oracle base directory. Oracle Restart and Oracle Database reside under the same Oracle base. For example:

  # ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle; 
  # export ORACLE_BASE
  

• Set the Oracle grid infrastructure software owner user default file mode creation mask (umask) to 022 in the shell startup file. Setting the mask to 022 ensures that the user performing the software installation creates files with 755 permissions.

• Set ulimit settings for file descriptors and processes for the Oracle grid infrastructure installation software owner.

• Set the DISPLAY environment variable in preparation for installation.

3.5.1 General Steps for Configuring Automatic Storage Management

The following are the general steps to configure Automatic Storage Management:

1. Identify the storage requirements of the site.

2. Optionally, use an existing Automatic Storage Management disk group.

3. If you are creating a new Automatic Storage Management disk group, create partitions for DAS or SAN disks.

4. Use one of the following methods to complete the Automatic Storage Management configuration:

   • If you plan to install Oracle Database using interactive mode, Oracle Universal Installer prompts you for the Automatic Storage Management disk configuration information during the installation.

   • If you plan to install Oracle Database using silent or response file mode, you will need to manually configure the disks before performing the installation.

3.5.2 Step 1: Identifying Storage Requirements for Automatic Storage Management

To identify the storage requirements for using Automatic Storage Management, you must determine the number of devices and the amount of free disk space that you require. To complete this task:

1. Determine whether you want to use Automatic Storage Management for Oracle Database files, recovery files, or both.

   Note:

   You do not have to use the same storage mechanism for , Oracle Database files, and recovery files. You can use a file system for one file type and Automatic Storage Management for the other.

   If you choose to enable automated backups and you do not have a shared file system available, then you must choose Automatic Storage Management for recovery file storage.

   If you plan to enable automated backups during the installation, then you can choose Automatic Storage Management as the storage mechanism for recovery files by specifying an Automatic Storage Management disk group for the fast recovery area. Depending on how you choose to create a database during the installation, you have the following options:

   • If you select an installation method that runs Oracle Automatic Storage Management Configuration Assistant in interactive mode, by choosing the Advanced database configuration option for example, then you can decide whether you want to use the same Automatic Storage Management disk group for database files and recovery files, or you can choose to use different disk groups for each file type. Ideally, you should create separate Automatic Storage Management disk groups for data files and for recovery files.

     The same choice is available to you if you use Oracle Database Configuration Assistant after the installation to create a database.

   • If you select an installation type that runs Oracle Automatic Storage Management Configuration Assistant in silent or response file mode, then you must use the same Automatic Storage Management disk group for data files and recovery files.

   See Also:

   "Create a Fast Recovery Area Disk Group"

2. Choose the Automatic Storage Management redundancy level that you want to use for each Automatic Storage Management disk group that you create.

   The redundancy level that you choose for the Automatic Storage Management disk group determines how Automatic Storage Management mirrors files in the disk group and determines the number of disks and amount of disk space that you require, as follows:

   • External redundancy

     This option does not allow Automatic Storage Management to mirror the contents of the disk group. Oracle recommends that you select this redundancy level either when the disk group contains devices, such as RAID devices, that provide their own data protection or when the database does not require an uninterrupted access to data.

   • Normal redundancy

     To optimize performance and reliability in a normal redundancy disk group, Automatic Storage Management uses two-way mirroring for data files and three-way mirroring for control files, by default. In addition, you can choose the mirroring characteristics for individual files in a disk group. Alternatively, you can use two-way mirroring or no mirroring.

     A normal redundancy disk group requires a minimum of two failure groups (or two disk devices) if you are using two-way mirroring. The effective disk space in a normal redundancy disk group is half the sum of the disk space in all of its devices.

     For most installations, Oracle recommends that you use normal redundancy disk groups.

   • High redundancy

     The contents of the disk group are three-way mirrored by default. To create a disk group with high redundancy, you must specify at least three failure groups (a minimum of 3 devices).

     Although high-redundancy disk groups provide a high level of data protection, you must consider the higher cost of additional storage devices before deciding to use this redundancy level.

3. Determine the total amount of disk space that you require for the database files and recovery files.

   If an Automatic Storage Management instance is already running on the system, then you can use an existing disk group to meet these storage requirements. If necessary, you can add disks to an existing disk group during the installation.

   Use the following table to determine the minimum number of disks and the minimum disk space requirements for the installation:

   Redundancy Level	Minimum Number of Disks	Data Files	Recovery Files	Both File Types
   External	1	1.8 GB	3.6 GB	5.4 GB
   Normal	2	3.6 GB	7.2 GB	10.8 GB
   High	3	5.4 GB	10.8 GB	16.2 GB

   
   

4. Optionally, identify failure groups for the Automatic Storage Management disk group devices.

   If you intend to use a normal or high redundancy disk group, then you can further protect the database against hardware failure by associating a set of disk devices in a custom failure group. By default, each device comprises its failure group. However, if two disk devices in a normal redundancy disk group are attached to the same SCSI controller, then the disk group becomes unavailable if the controller fails. The controller in this example is a single point of failure.

   To avoid failures of this type, you can use two SCSI controllers, each with two disks, and define a failure group for the disks attached to each controller. This configuration would enable the disk group to tolerate the failure of one SCSI controller.

   Note:

   If you define custom failure groups, then you must specify a minimum of two failure groups for normal redundancy disk groups and three failure groups for high redundancy disk groups.

5. If you are sure that a suitable disk group does not exist on the system, then install or identify appropriate disk devices to add to a new disk group. Apply the following guidelines when identifying appropriate disk devices:

   • The disk devices must be owned by the user performing the grid installation.

     See Also:

     Example 2-2, "Example of a Rules File With User grid" for information on creating or modifying permissions

   • All the devices in an Automatic Storage Management disk group should be the same size and have the same performance characteristics.

   • Do not specify multiple partitions on a single physical disk as a disk group device. Automatic Storage Management expects each disk group device to be on a separate physical disk.

   • Oracle does not recommend the use of a logical volume as a device in Automatic Storage Management because the logical volume is capable of hiding the physical disk architecture which prevents Automatic Storage Management from optimizing I/O across physical devices.

   See Also:

   • "Step 4: Configuring Disks for Automatic Storage Management" for information about completing this task

   • "Preparing Storage for ASM" in Oracle Database Storage Administrator's Guide for information on configuring Automatic Storage Management disk groups

3.5.3 Step 2: Using an Existing Automatic Storage Management Disk Group

This step describes how to identify existing disk groups and determine the free disk space that they contain. If you want to store either database or recovery files in an existing Automatic Storage Management disk group, then you have the following choices, depending on the installation method that you select:

• Before you run Oracle Automatic Storage Management Configuration Assistant in interactive mode, ensure that you have already created a disk group or selected an existing one.

• If you select an installation method that runs Oracle Automatic Storage Management Configuration Assistant in silent or response file mode, then you must choose an existing disk group for the new database; you cannot create a disk group. However, you can add disk devices to an existing disk group if it has insufficient free space for your requirements.

To determine whether an existing Automatic Storage Management disk group exists, or to determine whether there is sufficient disk space in a disk group, you can use Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control or Database Control. Alternatively, you can use the following procedure:

1. View the contents of the oratab file to determine whether an Automatic Storage Management instance is configured on the system:

   # more /etc/oratab
   

   If an Automatic Storage Management instance is configured on the system, then the oratab file should contain a line similar to the following:

   +ASM:oracle_home_path:N
   

   In this example, +ASM is the system identifier (SID) of the Oracle Automatic Storage Management instance and oracle_home_path is the Oracle home directory where Oracle Automatic Storage Management is installed. By convention, the SID for an Oracle Automatic Storage Management instance should be +ASM.

2. Open a shell prompt and temporarily set the ORACLE_SID and ORACLE_HOME environment variables to specify the appropriate values for the Automatic Storage Management instance that you want to use.

   For example, the Automatic Storage Management SID, which is named +ASM and is located in the grid subdirectory of the ORACLE_BASE directory, then enter the following commands to create the required settings:

   • Bourne, Bash, or Korn shell:

     $ ORACLE_SID=+ASM
     $ export ORACLE_SID
     $ ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/grid/
     $ export ORACLE_HOME
     

   • C shell:

     % setenv ORACLE_SID +ASM
     % setenv ORACLE_HOME /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/grid
     

3. By using SQL*Plus, connect to the Automatic Storage Management instance as the SYS user with SYSASM privilege and start the instance if necessary:

   # $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus 
   SQL> CONNECT SYS as SYSASM
   Enter password: SYS_password 
   SQL> STARTUP
   

4. Enter the following command to view the existing disk groups, their redundancy level, and the amount of free disk space in each one:

   SQL> SELECT NAME,TYPE,TOTAL_MB,FREE_MB FROM V$ASM_DISKGROUP;
   

5. From the output, identify a disk group with the appropriate redundancy level and note the free space that it contains.

6. If necessary, install or identify the additional disk devices required to meet the storage requirements listed in the previous section.

   Note:

   If you are adding devices to an existing disk group, then Oracle recommends that you use devices that have the same size and performance characteristics as the existing devices in that disk group.

3.5.4 Step 3: Creating DAS or SAN Disk Partitions for Automatic Storage Management

In order to use a DAS or SAN disk in Automatic Storage Management, the disk must have a partition table. Oracle recommends creating exactly one partition for each disk containing the entire disk.

3.5.5 Step 4: Configuring Disks for Automatic Storage Management

Oracle provides an Automatic Storage Management library driver that you can use to simplify the configuration and management of the disk devices that you want to use with Automatic Storage Management. A disk that is configured for Automatic Storage Management is known as a candidate disk.

If you intend to use Automatic Storage Management for database storage on Linux, then Oracle recommends that you install the Automatic Storage Management library driver (ASMLIB) and associated utilities and use them to configure the devices that you want to include in an Automatic Storage Management disk group.

configure

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm configure

enable
disable

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm enable

start
stop
restart

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm restart

createdisk

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm createdisk DISKNAME devicename

deletedisk

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm deletedisk DISKNAME

querydisk

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm querydisk {DISKNAME | devicename}

listdisks

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm listdisks

scandisks

# /etc/init.d/oracleasm scandisks

3.6.1 Installing Grid Infrastructure with a New Database Installation

Perform the following steps to install the grid infrastructure and then create a database that is managed by Oracle Restart. First install grid infrastructure, which installs Oracle Restart and Automatic Storage Management, then configure Automatic Storage Management with at least one disk group, and then install Oracle database that stores database files in Automatic Storage Management disk groups. Click the help button on the Oracle Universal Installer page for page level assistance.

To install Oracle grid infrastructure for a standalone server with a new database installation:

1. Start Oracle Universal Installer as the grid infrastructure software owner user. Complete one of the following steps depending on the location of the installation files:

   • If the installation files are on installation media, enter commands similar to the following, where directory_path is the path of the grid infrastructure directory on the installation media:

     $ /directory_path/runInstaller
     

     Note:

     You must install Oracle grid infrastructure for a standalone server from the grid infrastructure media.

   • If the installation files are on the hard disk, change the directory to the path of the grid infrastructure (clusterware) directory and enter the following command:

     $ ./runInstaller
     

   Note:

   Start Oracle Universal Installer from the terminal session where you logged in as the grid infrastructure software owner user and set the user's environment.

   See Also:

   "Configuring the User's Environment" for information about setting the grid infrastructure software owner user's environment

   If Oracle Universal Installer is not displayed, refer to "X Window Display Errors" and "Remote Terminal Installation Error" for information about troubleshooting.

2. The Select Installation Option screen appears. Select Install and Configure Grid Infrastructure for a Standalone Server option, to install and configure Oracle Restart and Oracle Automatic Storage Management. Click Next.

3. On the Select Product Languages screen, select one or more languages. Move the languages from the Available Languages list to the Selected Languages list. Click Next.

4. The Create ASM Disk Group screen, lists all the Automatic Storage Management disks under ORCL:*

   Click Change Disk Discovery Path to select any devices that will be used by Automatic Storage Management but are not listed. In the Change Disk Discovery Path window, enter a string to use to search for devices that Automatic Storage Management will use. If the diskstring is set to ORCL:* or is left empty (""), then the installer discovers these disks. Click OK.

   After you finish selecting the disks to be used by Automatic Storage Management, click Next.

   Note:

   During installation, disk paths mounted on ASM and registered on ASMLIB with the string ORCL:* are listed as default database storage candidate disks.

   Consider the following information about disk devices while performing this step:

   • The Disk Group Name default is DATA. You can enter a new name for the disk group, or use the default name.

   • The disk devices must be owned by the user performing the grid installation.

     See Also:

     Example 2-2, "Example of a Rules File With User grid" for information on creating or modifying permissions

   • Check with your system administrator to determine if the disks used by Automatic Storage Management are mirrored at the storage level. If so, select External for the redundancy. If the disks are not mirrored at the storage level, then choose Normal for the redundancy.

     Note:

     For normal redundancy, you require twice as much disk space to hold the same amount of data. For example, if your database is 100 GB, then you require approximately 200 GB of storage.

5. In the Specify ASM Password screen, enter SYSASM password required to connect to the Automatic Storage Management instance. The Oracle Automatic Storage Management instance is managed by a privileged role called SYSASM, which grants full access to Automatic Storage Management disk groups. Oracle recommends that you create a less privileged user, ASMSNMP, with SYSDBA privileges to monitor the Oracle Automatic Storage Management instance.

   Enter passwords for the SYS and ASMSNMP user accounts. The passwords should be at least eight characters in length and include at least one alphabetic and one numeric character.

6. On the Privileged Operating System Groups screen, select the name of the operating system group you created for the OSDBA group, the OSASM group, and the database operator group OSOPER. If you choose to create only the dba group, then you can use that group for all three privileged groups. If you created a separate asmadmin group, then use that value for the OSASM group. Click Next.

7. On the Specify Installation Location screen, enter the following details and click Next:

   • Oracle Base: Enter the directory location for Oracle base. Do not include spaces in the path name.

   • Software Location: This field is populated by default in concurrence with Oracle base location.

   See Also:

   "Naming Directories" for directory naming conventions

8. If you have not installed any Oracle software previously on this server, the Create Inventory screen appears.

   Change the path for the Inventory Directory, if required. Select oinstall for the oraInventory Group Name, if required. Click Next.

9. The Perform Prerequisite Checks screen, checks if the minimum system requirements are met to carry out the grid infrastructure installation. If all the system requirements are met, then you will be directed to the Summary screen. However, in case of a failed installation, you can review the error.

   If you click Check Again, then you can run the prerequisite check again to see if the minimum requirements are met to carry on with the database installation.

   Click Fix & Check Again, if you want the installer to fix the problem and check the system requirements once more.

   Note:

   The Fix & Check Again option generates a script that you need to run as the root user. This generated script sets some of the system parameters to Oracle-recommended values. Oracle recommends that you do not modify the contents of this script. Refer to "Installation Fixup Scripts" for more information on fixup scripts.

   To get a list of failed requirements, select ShowFailed from the list. To get a list of all the prerequirement checks run by the OUI, select Show All. To get a list of the prerequirement checks that are successful, select Show Succeeded.

   Note:

   To ignore all the errors and proceed with the database installation, check Ignore All.

10. Review the contents of the Summary screen, and click Finish.

11. The Setup screen displays the progress of the grid infrastructure installation. During the installation process, the Execute Configuration Scripts window appears. Do not click OK until you have run the scripts mentioned in this screen.

    Run the root.sh and, if required, the orainstRoot.sh configuration scripts as the root user.

12. The Finish screen displays the installation status. Click Close to end the installation, then Yes to confirm that you want to exit Oracle Universal Installer.

    If you encounter any problems, refer to the configuration log for information. The path to the configuration log is displayed on the Configuration Assistants window.

13. If you want to create additional disk groups, then run the Oracle Automatic Storage Management Configuration Assistant (ASMCA) utility. For example, you can create another disk group named RECOVERY to store the fast recovery area.

    Note:

    To check if the Oracle High Availability Service is installed properly, run ./crsctl check has command from Grid_home/bin directory.

    Grid_home is the path to the Oracle grid infrastructure home for a standalone server. Ohasd is a daemon installed with Oracle grid infrastructure that starts software services, such as Oracle Automatic Storage Management.

14. Install Oracle database.

    Because you have already installed Oracle grid infrastructure, Oracle Universal Installer will automatically add the database instance to the Oracle grid infrastructure configuration if you choose to create a database as part of the installation.

    See Also:

    "Installing the Oracle Database Software" for information about installing Oracle database

    Note:

    If a new database is installed after a grid infrastructure installation, then the listener runs from the grid infrastructure home. Because Oracle Automatic Storage Management is installed as part of the grid infrastructure, the default listener is created and runs from the grid infrastructure home. If you perform a database installation, then the database uses the same listener created during the grid infrastructure installation.

3.6.2 Installing Grid Infrastructure for an Existing Database

Follow the high-level instructions in this section to install Oracle grid infrastructure and configure it for an existing Oracle database. To install Oracle grid infrastructure for an existing database:

• On the same host computer as the database, use Oracle Universal Installer to install the grid infrastructure, and select Install and Configure Grid Infrastructure for a Standalone Server as the installation option.

  The grid infrastructure components are installed in a separate Oracle home.

  Refer to "Installing Grid Infrastructure with a New Database Installation" for detailed instructions.

• Go to the Grid home bin directory. Use the srvctl add database command to manually add the database, the listener, the Automatic Storage Management instance, all Automatic Storage Management disk groups, and any database services to the Oracle grid infrastructure configuration.

  See Also:

  "srvctl add database" in Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for more information about the srvctl add database command