RAC on Windows (10g)

Technical Solution
In order to improvise the database high availability and to enable to balance the load, CRIS opted for implementing 2 node 10G Release 2 Oracle Real Application Cluster on Automatic Storage Management (ASM) since it was on a Standard Edition License. Oracle CRS was installed on both the nodes, which was the base layer for installing the Oracle 10G Release 2 Real Application Cluster software subsequently.


ORACLE CLUSTER WARE INSTALLATION OF 10.2.0.1 & 10.2.0.1 DATABASE SOFTWARE INSTALLATION
Configuration of Shared Disks
Real Application Clusters requires that all each instance be able to access a set of ASM devices on a shared disk subsystem. The Oracle instances in Real Application Clusters write data onto the ASM to update the control file, server parameter file, each datafile, and each redo log file. All instances in the RAC share these ASM data.

The Oracle instances in the RAC configuration write information to ASM defined for:
The control file
The spfile.ora
Each datafile
Each ONLINE redo log file
Cluster ware configuration information
Creation of Disk drives
It is mandatory to create the disk partitions prior to Clusterware & RAC installation.
Please Note: - Failure to execute these commands on both the nodes would result in non-recognition of disk partitions during the Clusterware installation.
Go to
"My Computer" => Manage =>Storage => Disk Management
Create the Primary Partition & create a logical drive without formatting the drive neither assign the logical drive letter. Create extended partitions & create a logical drive without formatting the drive neither assigns the logical drive.

Reboot the partner node
Check if any of the disk partition created has any Logical drives. If so, then delete the drive letters on the partner node before initiating the clusterware installation.

10G Release 2 RAC Pre-Installation Tasks
After configuring the raw volumes, perform the following steps prior to installation as administrator user. Require 10G Release 2 Clusterware software shipped in Oracle Medias or software downloaded from "metalink" site only.

Create "administrator" user & "dba" group on 2 nodes with administrator user privileges on partner node, to update the node registry information.

On the node from which you will run the Oracle Universal Installer, set up user equivalence by adding entries for all nodes in the cluster, including the local node.

On both the nodes setup the hosts file with the following entries: This is an example only, use actual values as per site requirement.
192.168.44.34 node1
192.168.44.33 node2

10.10.5.1 node1-priv
10.10 .5.2 node2-priv

192.168.44.35 node1-vip
192.168.44.32 node2-vip

Execute the following commands to check whether the required prerequisites are met prior to initiating the clusterware installation.

Go to D:\>crs_stage\clusterware\cluvfy & run the following command

runcluvfy.bat stage -pre crsinst -n node1,node2

Determine the complete path for the raw devices or shared file systems, and set up the voting disk and Oracle Cluster Registry partitions

During installation, at the Cluster Configuration Storage page, you are asked to provide paths for two files that must be shared across all nodes of the cluster, either on a shared raw device, or a shared file system file:

The Cluster Synchronization Services (CSS) voting disk is a partition that Oracle Clusterware uses to verify cluster node membership and status. Provide at least 100 MB disk space for the voting disk.

The Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) contains cluster and database configuration information for the RAC database and for Oracle Clusterware, including the node list, and other information about cluster configuration and profiles. Provide at least 100 MB disk space for the OCR.
Ensure that you create at least the minimum required drives for installation.

Determine your cluster name, public node names, private node names, and virtual node names for each node in the cluster.

When you enter the public node name, use the primary host name of each node. In other words, use the name displayed by the hostname command but without any portion of the domain name that may be returned by the command.

In addition, ensure that the following are true:
Determine a cluster name with the following characteristics:

It must be globally unique throughout your host domain

It must be at least one character long and less than 15 characters long

It must consist of the same character set used for host names: underscores (_), hyphens (-), and single-byte alphanumeric characters (a to z, A to Z, and 0 to 9). If you use third-party vendor clusterware, then Oracle recommends that you use the vendor cluster name

Determine a private node name or private IP address for each node. The private IP address is an address that is only accessible by the other nodes in this cluster.

Oracle uses private IP addresses for inter-node, or instance-to-instance Cache Fusion traffic. Oracle recommends that you provide a name in the format public_hostname-priv. Example: node2-priv.

Determine a virtual host name for each node. A virtual host name is a public node name that is used to reroute client requests sent to the node if the node is down. Oracle uses virtual IP addresses (VIPs) for client to database connections, so the VIP address must be publicly accessible. Oracle recommends that you provide a name in the format public_hostname-vip. Example: node2-vip

Establish Oracle environment variables:
Set the following Oracle environment variables, This is an example do according to your configuration requirements.
Environment Variable

Variable values
ORACLE_BASE D:\oracle\product\10.2.0
ORACLE_HOME D:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_1
ORACLE_CRS D:\oracle\product\10.2.0\crs

Using Oracle Universal Installer to Install Oracle Clusterware on Windows
Perform the following procedures to complete phase one, install Oracle Clusterware with the Oracle Universal Installer, of the installation of the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 with Real Application Clusters (RAC):

1.Log in to Windows with Administrative privileges and run the setup.exe command on the Oracle Clusterware media from one of the node only, as the same installation window would install the software & would configure the cluster information automatically on the partner node. This will open the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) Welcome page.

2.After you click Next on the Welcome page, the Specify File Locations page will allow you to accept the displayed path name for the Oracle Clusterware products or select a different one. You may also accept default directory and path name for the location of your Oracle Clusterware home or browse for an alternate directory and destination. You must select a destination that exists on each cluster node that is part of this installation. Click Next to confirm your choices.

3.The installer verifies that your environment meets all of the minimum requirements for installing and configuring the products that you have chosen to install. The results are displayed on the Product-Specific Prerequisite Checks page. Verify and confirm the items that are flagged with warnings and items that require manual checks. After you confirm your configuration, the OUI proceeds to the Cluster Configuration page.

4.The OUI displays the Cluster Configuration page without predefined node information.
Provide your own cluster name if you do not wish to use the name provided by the OUI. Note that the selected cluster name must be globally unique throughout the enterprise and its allowable character set is the same as that for hostnames, that is, underscores (_), hyphens (-), and single-byte alphanumeric characters (a to z, A to Z, and 0 to 9).

5.Enter a public, a virtual, and a private host name for each node. When you enter the public host name, use the primary host name of each node, that is, the name displayed by the hostname command. The virtual node name is the name to be associated with the VIP for the node. The private node refers to an address that is only accessible by the other nodes in this cluster, and which Oracle uses for Cache Fusion processing. You should enter the private host name for each node.

Note:
The above is a sample entry, use according to the node information and host information of your actual configuration.

Click Next after you have entered the cluster configuration information. This saves your entries and opens the Specify Network Interface Usage page.


6.In the Specify Network Interface Usage page the OUI displays a list of cluster-wide interfaces. Use the drop-down menus on this page to classify each interface as Public, Private, or Do Not Use. The default setting for each interface is Do Not Use. You must classify at least one interconnect as Public and one as Private. Click Next when you have made your selections to open the Select Disk Formatting Options page.

7.On the Cluster Configuration Storage page, identify the disks that you want to use for the Oracle Clusterware files and, optionally, Oracle Cluster File System (OCFS) storage. Highlight each of these disks one at a time and click Edit to open the Specify Disk Configuration page where you define the details for the selected disk.

8.On the Specify Disk Configuration page, designate whether you want to place a copy of the OCR, a copy of the voting disk, or a copy of both files on the partition.


9.After you click Next, the OUI checks whether the remote inventories are set. If they are not set, then the OUI sets up the remote inventories by setting registry keys. The OUI also verifies the permissions to enable writing to the inventory directories on the remote nodes. After completing these actions, the OUI displays a Summary page that shows the cluster node information along with the space requirements and availability. Verify the installation that the OUI is about to perform and click Finish.

10.When you click Finish, the OUI installs Oracle Clusterware software on the local node and validates the installation again. After validating the installation, the OUI completes the Oracle Clusterware software installation and configuration on the remote nodes.


11.As there is a known bug while installing clusterware software, the installation of "vipca" would failed in the initial installation. Ignore the error while installing the Clusterware for the first time & invoke the "vipca" manually through command prompt, post installation of clusterware installation.


Using the Oracle Universal Installer to install Oracle 10.2.0.1 Real Application Clusters binaries software

Follow these procedures to use the Oracle Universal Installer to install the Oracle Standard Edition Cluster Ware installation and the Real Application Clusters software. Oracle 10.2.0.1 is supplied on 2 CD-ROM. During the installation process it is necessary to switch between the CD-ROMS. OUI will manage the switching between CDs.

To install the Oracle 10G Release 2 RAC binaries, perform the following:

Login as the "Administrator" user
Prior to installation of 10G Release 2 RAC, check the installation of clusterware by typing the following command:

D:\oracle\product\10.2.0\crs\bin> crs_stat

Execute the command on both the nodes. Once the commands are executed successfully on both the nodes, perform the next steps

Go to the D:\ & invoke setup.exe, to initiate the installation of RAC installation

At the OUI Welcome screen, click Next.

A prompt will appear for the Inventory Location (if this is the first time that OUI has been run on this system). This is the base directory into which OUI will install files. The Oracle Inventory definition can be found in the file D:\oracle\product\10.2.0\oraInst.loc.
Click OK.
The File Location window will appear.
Do NOT change the Source field. The Destination field defaults to the ORACLE_HOME environment variable.
Click Next.
Select the Products to install. In this example,
select the Oracle10G Server then click Next.
Select the installation type. Choose the Standard Edition option. The selection on this screen refers to the installation operation, not the database configuration. The next screen allows for a customized database configuration to be chosen.
Click Next.
Select Software Only and click Next.
Select the configuration type. In this example you choose the Advanced Configuration as this option provides a database that you can customize, and configures the selected server products. Select Customized and click Next.

Select both the nodes on which the Oracle RDBMS software will be installed on the Node Selection screen. It is not necessary to select the node on which the OUI is currently running. Click Next.
An option to Upgrade or migrate an existing database is presented. Do NOT select the upgrade radio button.

The Summary screen will be presented. Confirm that the RAC database software will be installed and then click Install. The OUI will install the Oracle 10.2.0.1 software on to the local node, and then copy this information to the other nodes selected.

Once Install is selected, the OUI will install the Oracle RAC software on to the local node, and then copy software to the other nodes selected earlier. This will take some time. During the installation process, the OUI does not display messages indicating that components are being installed on other nodes - I/O activity may be the only indication that the process is continuing.


Database Creation - node (Name as per requirement)

Invoke the database creation window through "dbca" and create the database according to site specific requirements.

Eg. SID node would create node1 & node2 would be created respectively on node1 & node2 nodes.

Enter DBCA from the command prompt and follow the below steps for creating the database. Select RAC ie both the nodes in this DBCA first page menu.

In the first screen of the DBCA
select "create Database" option and click next
Select a database template from the template list to create a database, say according to your need, eg. General purpose or transaction processing.
Specify the database name information, give same name from global database name and SID of the database ie SID prefix will be taken automatically ie eg: node - node1/node2.

Select the mode in which you want the database, you can select the dedicated server mode and click next.

In the screen for initialization parameters, fill site specific and hardware specific values that suits that specific configuration and click next.

In the ASM menu for selecting the disk drive for datafiles/controlfiles/redologfiles select the disk drive you have created initially for what ever database size you want and click next.

Then the database file name / control files name / redo log file name list menu comes, where you can give site and SID specific meaningful names to these files and click next.

In the database creation options menu click finish and you the parameter file displayed just accept and click ok.

Your database in the cluster mode is automatically created successfully.

At the end of the database creation wizard the password management menu asks for password for sys/system users, enter according to your requirement and click ok.

Now you have created a RAC database which will be started and running on both the selected nodes.

Configuring TAF for the "coa" database

The (load_balance=yes)
parameter instructs net protocol to proceed through the list of listener addresses in a random sequence, balancing the load on the various listeners.
When set to OFF, instructs Net to try the addresses sequentially until one succeeds.
This parameter must be correctly coded in your net service name (connect descriptor).
By default, this parameter is set to ON for DESCRIPTION_LISTs. Load balancing can be specified for an ADDRESS_LIST or associated with a set of Addresses or set DESCRIPTIONs. If you use ADDRESS_LIST,(load_balance=yes) should be within the (ADDRESS_LIST=) portion. If you do not use ADDRESS_LIST, (load_balance=yes) should be within the (description=) portion.
(failover=on) is default for ADDRESS_LISTs, DESCRIPTION_LISTs, and a set of DESCRIPTIONs., therefore, you do not have to specify. This is for connect-time-failover, please do not confuse it with transparent application failover (TAF).

failover_mode=): The FAILOVER_MODE parameter must be included in the CONNECT_DATA portion of a net_service_name.

Try to replicate the tnsnames.ora file from any of the working sides and make changes for the hostnames alone.

Guidelines/info.

Hostnames, ip address are site specific and specific to that configuration.

ORACLE_SID,ORACLE_HOME,CRS_HOME etc can be set as per site needs.

Only if the same application, same server hardware and same load pattern exists, you can replicate the spfile ie the parameter file of oracle database. Else site specific changes need to be made for each spfile.

Only select statements will be failed over in TAF(Transparent Application Failover) technology of RAC (Real Application Clusters). Hence application logics doing other operations will be rolled back.

Select your appropriate licensed Editions ie standard/Enterprise etc based on the license agreement.

In the dbca ie wizard for creating the database enter site specific ie hardware specific values for the initialization parameters menu, so that the DBCA menu doesn't fail.

Only place you could face problem is during the installation of CRS part, hence all the screen shots from a sample installation have been attached.

RAC software installation and DBCA are simillar to a single node type of installation and creation, hence step-by-step procedure is provided.

Only one error message occurs during the entire installation and it is during the failure at the end of installation of CRS ie during the configuration page, here it fails for VIP configuration portion.
At this stage invoke VIPCA separately and finish the installation.

This is just a guideline and an installation sample which should not be replicate as such, only an Oracle DBA should understand and can follow this for a successful 2 Node RAC Installation.


-- Cheers!!! (Post on Linux RAC soon)