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Sun Cluster Data Service for Oracle Guide for Solaris OS

How to Prepare the Nodes

Use this procedure to prepare for the installation and configuration of Oracle software.

Caution – Caution –

Perform all of the steps in this section on all of the nodes. If you do not perform all of the steps on all of the nodes, the Oracle installation is incomplete. An incomplete Oracle installation causes Sun Cluster HA for Oracle to fail during startup.

Note –

Consult the Oracle documentation before you perform this procedure.

The following steps prepare your nodes and install the Oracle software.

  1. Become superuser on all of the cluster members.

  2. Configure the /etc/nsswitch.conf files as follows so that the data service starts and stops correctly if a switchover or failover occurs.

    On each node that can master the logical host that runs Sun Cluster HA for Oracle, include the following entries in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file.


    passwd:    files nis [TRYAGAIN=0]
publickey: files nis [TRYAGAIN=0]
project:   files nis [TRYAGAIN=0]
group:     files

    Sun Cluster HA for Oracle uses the su user command to start and stop the database node. The network information name service might become unavailable when a cluster node's public network fails. Adding one of the preceding entries for group ensures that the su(1M) command does not refer to the NIS/NIS+ name services if the network information name service is unavailable.

  3. Configure the cluster file system for Sun Cluster HA for Oracle.

    If raw devices contain the databases, configure the global devices for raw device access. See the Sun Cluster Software Installation Guide for Solaris OS for information about how to configure global devices.

    If you use the Solstice DiskSuiteTM/Solaris Volume Manager software, configure the Oracle software to use UNIX file system (UFS) logging on mirrored metadevices or raw-mirrored metadevices. See the Solstice DiskSuite/Solaris Volume Manager documentation for more information about how to configure raw-mirrored metadevices.

  4. Prepare the $ORACLE_HOME directory on a local or multihost disk.

    Note –

    If you install the Oracle binaries on a local disk, use a separate disk if possible. Installing the Oracle binaries on a separate disk prevents the binaries from overwrites during operating environment reinstallation.

  5. On each node, create an entry for the database administrator (DBA) group in the /etc/group file, and add potential users to the group.

    You typically name the DBA group dba. Verify that the root and oracle users are members of the dba group, and add entries as necessary for other DBA users. Ensure that the group IDs are the same on all of the nodes that run Sun Cluster HA for Oracle, as the following example illustrates.


    dba:*:520:root,oracle

    You can create group entries in a network name service (for example, NIS or NIS+). If you create group entries in this way, add your entries to the local /etc/inet/hosts file to eliminate dependency on the network name service.

  6. On each node, create an entry for the Oracle user ID (oracle).

    You typically name the Oracle user ID oracle. The following command updates the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files with an entry for the Oracle user ID.


    # useradd -u 120 -g dba -d /Oracle-home oracle

    Ensure that the oracle user entry is the same on all of the nodes that run Sun Cluster HA for Oracle.