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Introduction to Real Application Clusters Installation and Configuration

This chapter provides an overview of the procedures and components involved in installing and configuring the Real Application Clusters software. This chapter includes the following topics:

Real Application Clusters Software Components

Real Application Clusters software uses all the components of single instance Oracle environments plus cluster software that facilitates inter-node communication. This section, with Figure 1-1, briefly describes the process for installing this software.

The Oracle9i Enterprise Edition and Oracle9i Real Application Clusters

The Oracle9i Enterprise Edition, which is required for Real Application Clusters, provides single instance database software and the optional software to operate Real Application Clusters databases. Some of the Real Application Clusters-specific components include:

The templates to create Real Application Clusters preconfigured databases
The default server parameter file known as spfile.ora with its default settings for cluster databases
Additional redo log files for operating cluster databases

The Operating System-Dependent Clusterware

The operating system clusterware contains operating system-dependent clusterware (OSD) components. The OSD clusterware controls the operating system and clusterware services required for Real Application Clusters. Its two primary subcomponents are the Cluster Manager (CM) and the Inter-process Communication (IPC) software.

The Cluster Manager monitors the state of all nodes and broadcasts information about the nodes throughout the cluster. This includes information about which nodes are active or inactive members of the cluster. The IPC layer controls messaging functions so the nodes can communicate with each other through the interconnect.

The OSD clusterware installation process varies according to platform. For UNIX operating systems, your vendor provides the OSD clusterware. For Windows NT and Windows 2000 operating systems, use the Oracle Cluster Setup Wizard to install the Oracle OSD clusterware after configuring your logical partitions as described in the online document, Oracle9i Database installation guide for Windows.

The Oracle Universal Installer and Real Application Clusters

The Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) provides a graphical user interface for the installation of the Oracle Enterprise Edition software. Figure 1-1 shows the OUI process flow.

Figure 1-1 Installation Components for Real Application Clusters

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When the installer runs, Oracle Corporation recommends that you select one of the preconfigured databases or use the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) interactively to create your cluster database. You can also manually create your database with scripts provided you have properly configured your shared disks.

When you install Real Application Clusters, the installer copies the Oracle software onto the node from which you are running the installer. The Oracle Universal Installer then propagates the software onto the other nodes that you have identified as part of your cluster database.

The Oracle Universal Installer can also install the software for the system management tool, Oracle Enterprise Manager, to integrate this tool into your new cluster environment. Or you can install Oracle Enterprise Manager onto other nodes outside your cluster as shown in Figure 1-1 (*). You can also use Server Management (SRVM) and Performance Manager, which are subcomponents of Oracle Enterprise Manager, to administer Real Application Clusters environments as described in the next section.

Server Management and Performance Manager for Real Application Clusters

You can use the Oracle Enterprise Manager Server Management (SRVM) subcomponent to start and stop Real Application Clusters databases. Use the Performance Manager subcomponent to monitor the performance of your Real Application Clusters database.

To operate, Oracle Enterprise Manager interacts with an Oracle Intelligent Agent which uses SRVM's SRVCTL Utility to control your Real Application Clusters database. Performance Manager interacts with the Intelligent Agent to monitor performance.

The Oracle Intelligent is installed when you install Oracle Enterprise Manager. The Oracle Intelligent Agent must reside on each node that is part of your Real Application Clusters database.

See Also:

Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Administration for information about using Server Management to administer Real Application Clusters environments and Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Deployment and Performance for information about using Performance Manager to monitor performance in Real Application Clusters environments

The Installed Real Application Clusters Storage Components

All instances in Real Application Clusters environments share the control file, server parameter file, and each datafile. These files reside on shared disks that are accessed by multiple nodes. Each instance has its own discrete set of redo log files that also reside on the shared disks. During failures, this arrangement of shared access to redo log files allows surviving instances to perform recovery for failed instances.

Installation Overview

The Real Application Clusters installation process includes four major tasks.

Install the operating system-dependent (OSD) clusterware. The OSD clusterware installation process varies according to platform:
- For UNIX, refer to your vendor documentation.
- For Windows NT and Windows 2000, use the Oracle Cluster Setup Wizard as described in the online document, Oracle9i Database installation guide for Windows.
Configure the shared disks as described in Chapter 2.
Run the Oracle Universal Installer to install the Oracle9i Enterprise Edition and the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters software.
Create and configure your database as described in either:
- Chapter 4 that explains how to use the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA)
- Chapter 5 that explains how to manually create your database

System Installation Requirements

Verify that your system meets the requirements discussed under the following topics before proceeding with installation:

Hardware and Software Requirements for Oracle9i Real Application Clusters

Verify the following hardware and software requirements for each node:

Hardware

Each node in a cluster requires the following hardware:

Software

Each node in a cluster requires the following software:

Operating system-specific software as described in operating system-specific installation guides

Certified vendor-supplied operating system-dependent layer for UNIX, or Oracle operating system-dependent layers for Windows NT and Windows 2000

Oracle9i Enterprise Edition

Oracle Net

Oracle Intelligent Agent release 1 (9.0.1) if using Oracle Enterprise Manager

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File System Requirements for Using Oracle Managed Files (Optional)

If you use Oracle Managed Files, your platform must support a cluster file system and the cluster file system must be supported by Oracle. The Oracle Managed Files feature automatically creates and deletes files that Oracle requires to manage the database. Cluster file systems are available only for a limited number of system types.

See Also:

Oracle9i Database Administrator's Guide for more information on Oracle Managed Files

Supported Interconnect Software

Interconnects that support Real Application Clusters and Cache Fusion use one of the following protocols:

Real Application Clusters can use any interconnect product that supports these protocols. You can also use other proprietary protocols that are hardware vendor-specific. The interconnect product you use must be certified by Oracle for your Oracle9i Real Application Clusters hardware platform.