Common Problems and Their Solutions

The subsections that follow describe problems that can affect Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC. Each subsection provides information about the cause of the problem and a solution to the problem.

Node Panic During Initialization of Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC

If a fatal problem occurs during the initialization of Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC, the node panics with an error message similar to the following error message:

panic[cpu0]/thread=40037e60: Failfast: Aborting because "ucmmd" died 30 seconds ago

Description:

A component that the UCMM controls returned an error to the UCMM during a reconfiguration.

Cause:

The most common causes of this problem are as follows:

• The license for Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) is missing or has expired.

• The ORCLudlm package that contains the Oracle UDLM is not installed.

• The version of the Oracle UDLM is incompatible with the version of Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC.

• The amount of shared memory is insufficient to enable the Oracle UDLM to start.

A node might also panic during the initialization of Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC because a reconfiguration step has timed out. For more information, see Node Panic Caused by a Timeout.

Solution:

For instructions to correct the problem, see How to Recover From a Failure of the UCMM or a Related Component.

When the node is a global-cluster voting node of the global cluster, the node panic brings down the entire machine. When the node is a zone-cluster node, the node panic brings down only that specific zone and other zones remain unaffected.

Failure of the ucmmd Daemon to Start

The UCMM daemon, ucmmd, manages the reconfiguration of Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC. When a cluster is booted or rebooted, this daemon is started only after all components of Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC are validated. If the validation of a component on a node fails, the ucmmd fails to start on the node.

The most common causes of this problem are as follows:

• The ORCLudlm package that contains the Oracle UDLM is not installed.

• An error occurred during a previous reconfiguration of a component Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC.

• A step in a previous reconfiguration of Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC timed out, causing the node on which the timeout occurred to panic.

For instructions to correct the problem, see How to Recover From a Failure of the UCMM or a Related Component.

How to Recover From a Failure of the UCMM or a Related Component

Perform this task to correct the problems that are described in the following sections:

• Node Panic During Initialization of Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC

• Failure of the ucmmd Daemon to Start

This procedure provides the long forms of the Sun Cluster maintenance commands. Most commands also have short forms. Except for the forms of the command names, the commands are identical. For a list of the commands and their short forms, see Appendix A, Sun Cluster Object-Oriented Commands, in Sun Cluster Data Services Planning and Administration Guide for Solaris OS.

1. To determine the cause of the problem, examine the log files for UCMM reconfigurations and the system messages file.

   For the location of the log files for UCMM reconfigurations, see Sources of Diagnostic Information.

   When you examine these files, start at the most recent message and work backward until you identify the cause of the problem.

   For more information about error messages that might indicate the cause of reconfiguration errors, see Sun Cluster Error Messages Guide for Solaris OS.

2. Correct the problem that caused the component to return an error to the UCMM.

   For example:

   • If the license for VxVM is missing or has expired, ensure that VxVM is correctly installed and licensed.

     1. Verify that you have correctly installed your volume manager packages.

     2. If you are using VxVM, check that you have installed the software and check that the license for the VxVM cluster feature is valid.

     ---

     Note –

     A zone cluster does not support VxVM.

     ---

   • If the ORCLudlm package that contains the Oracle UDLM is not installed, ensure that the package is installed.

     ---

     Note –

     Oracle UDLM is required only when it is actually used.

     ---

     1. Ensure that you have completed all the procedures that precede installing and configuring the Oracle UDLM software.

        The procedures that you must complete are listed in Table 1–1.

     2. Ensure that the Oracle UDLM software is correctly installed and configured.

        For more information, see SPARC: Installing the Oracle UDLM.

   • If the version of the Oracle UDLM is incompatible with the version of Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC, install a compatible version of the package.

     For more information, see SPARC: Installing the Oracle UDLM.

   • If the amount of shared memory is insufficient to enable the Oracle UDLM to start, increase the amount of shared memory.

     For more information, see How to Configure Shared Memory for the Oracle RAC Software in the Global Cluster.

   • If a reconfiguration step has timed out, increase the value of the extension property that specifies the timeout for the step.

     For more information, see Node Panic Caused by a Timeout.

3. If the solution to the problem requires a reboot, reboot the node where the problem occurred.

   The solution to only certain problems requires a reboot. For example, increasing the amount of shared memory requires a reboot. However, increasing the value of a step timeout does not require a reboot.

   For more information about how to reboot a node, see Shutting Down and Booting a Single Node in a Cluster in Sun Cluster System Administration Guide for Solaris OS.

4. On the node where the problem occurred, bring online the RAC framework resource group.

   1. Become superuser or assume a role that provides solaris.cluster.admin RBAC authorization.

   2. Type the command to bring online and in a managed state the RAC framework resource group and its resources.

      # clresourcegroup online -emM -n node rac-fmwk-rg

      -n node

      Specifies the node name or node identifier (ID) of the node where the problem occurred.

      rac-fmwk-rg

      Specifies the name of the resource group that is to be moved to the MANAGED state and brought online.

Node Panic Caused by a Timeout

The timing out of any step in the reconfiguration of Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC causes the node on which the timeout occurred to panic.

To prevent reconfiguration steps from timing out, tune the timeouts that depend on your cluster configuration. For more information, see Guidelines for Setting Timeouts.

If a reconfiguration step times out, use the Sun Cluster maintenance commands to increase the value of the extension property that specifies the timeout for the step. For more information, see Appendix C, Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC Extension Properties.

After you have increased the value of the extension property, bring online the RAC framework resource group on the node that panicked.

Failure of a SUNW.rac_framework Resource to Start

If a SUNW.rac_framework resource fails to start, verify the status of the resource to determine the cause of the failure. For more information, see How to Verify the Status of Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC.

The state of a resource that failed to start is shown as Start failed. The associated status message indicates the cause of the failure to start as follows:

Faulted - ucmmd is not running

Description:

The ucmmd daemon is not running on the node where the resource resides.

Solution:

For information about how to correct this problem, see Failure of the ucmmd Daemon to Start.

Degraded - reconfiguration in progress

Description:

The UCMM is undergoing a reconfiguration. This message indicates a problem only if the reconfiguration of the UCMM is not completed and the status of this resource persistently remains degraded.

Cause:

If this message indicates a problem, the cause of the failure is a configuration error in one or more components of Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC.

Solution:

The solution to this problem depends on whether the message indicates a problem:

• If the message indicates a problem, correct the problem as explained in How to Recover From a Failure of the UCMM or a Related Component.

• If the message does not indicate a problem, no action is required.

Online

Description:

Reconfiguration of Oracle RAC was not completed until after the START method of the SUNW.rac_framework resource timed out.

Solution:

For instructions to correct the problem, see How to Recover From the Timing Out of the START Method.

How to Recover From the Timing Out of the START Method

This procedure provides the long forms of the Sun Cluster maintenance commands. Most commands also have short forms. Except for the forms of the command names, the commands are identical. For a list of the commands and their short forms, see Appendix A, Sun Cluster Object-Oriented Commands, in Sun Cluster Data Services Planning and Administration Guide for Solaris OS.

1. Become superuser or assume a role that provides solaris.cluster.admin RBAC authorization.

2. On the node where the START method timed out, take offline the RAC framework resource group.

   To perform this operation, switch the primary nodes of the resource group to the other nodes where this group is online.

   # clresourcegroup switch -n nodelist resource-group

   -n nodelist

   Specifies a comma-separated list of other cluster nodes on which resource-group is online. Omit from this list the node where the START method timed out.

   resource-group

   Specifies the name of the RAC framework resource group. If this resource group was created by using the clsetup utility, the name of the resource group is rac-framework-rg.

3. On all cluster nodes that can run Sun Cluster Support for Oracle RAC, bring the RAC framework resource group online.

   # clresourcegroup online resource-group

   resource-group

   Specifies that the resource group that you brought offline in Step 2 is to be moved to the MANAGED state and brought online.

Failure of a Resource to Stop

If a resource fails to stop, correct this problem as explained in Clearing the STOP_FAILED Error Flag on Resources in Sun Cluster Data Services Planning and Administration Guide for Solaris OS.