5 Installing and Configuring Oracle Restart

If you intend to use Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM), then you must install Oracle Restart before installing your database.

Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone server is a version of Oracle Grid Infrastructure that supports single instance databases. This support includes volume management, file system, and automatic restart capabilities. Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone server includes Oracle Restart and Oracle Automatic Storage Management. Oracle combined the two infrastructure products into a single set of binaries that is installed into an Oracle Restart home.

Oracle Restart is a feature provided as part of Oracle Grid Infrastructure. Oracle Restart monitors and can restart Oracle Database instances, Oracle Net Listeners, and Oracle ASM instances. Oracle Restart is currently restricted to manage single instance Oracle Databases and Oracle ASM instances only, and is subject to desupport in future releases. Oracle continues to provide Oracle ASM as part of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation for a standalone server and Cluster deployments.

Oracle Automatic Storage Management is a volume manager and a file system for Oracle Database files that supports single-instance Oracle Database and Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) configurations. Oracle Automatic Storage Management also supports a general purpose file system for your application needs, including Oracle Database binaries. Oracle Automatic Storage Management is Oracle's recommended storage management solution that provides an alternative to conventional volume managers and file systems.

Oracle Restart improves the availability of your Oracle database because of the following:

  • When there is a hardware or a software failure, Oracle Restart automatically starts all Oracle components, including the Oracle database instance, Oracle Net Listener, database services, and Oracle ASM.

  • Oracle Restart starts components in the proper order when the database host is restarted.

  • Oracle Restart runs periodic checks to monitor the status of Oracle components. If a check operation fails for a component, then the component is shut down and restarted.

Note:

  • You can neither install Oracle Restart on an Oracle Grid Infrastructure cluster member node, nor add an Oracle Restart server to an Oracle Grid Infrastructure cluster member node. Oracle Restart supports single-instance databases on one server, while Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster supports single-instance or Oracle RAC databases on a cluster.

  • If you want to use Oracle ASM or Oracle Restart, then you must install Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone server before you install and create the database. Otherwise, you must install Oracle Restart, and then manually register the database with Oracle Restart.

  • You can use the Oracle Restart implementation of Oracle Grid Infrastructure only in single-instance (nonclustered) environments. Use Oracle Grid Infrastructure with Oracle Clusterware for clustered environments.

About Upgrading Existing Oracle Automatic Storage Management Instances

Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) upgrades are carried out during an Oracle Grid Infrastructure upgrade.

If you are upgrading from Oracle ASM 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.4) or later, then Oracle ASM is always upgraded with Oracle Grid Infrastructure as part of the upgrade, and Oracle Automatic Storage Management Configuration Assistant (Oracle ASMCA) is started by the root scripts during upgrade. Subsequently, you can use Oracle ASMCA (located in Grid_home/bin) to configure failure groups, Oracle ASM volumes, and Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS).

Oracle ASMCA cannot perform a separate upgrade of Oracle ASM from a prior release to the current release.

Upgrades of Oracle ASM from releases prior to 11g Release 2 (11.2) are not supported.

Installing and Configuring Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a Standalone Server

Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone server includes Oracle Restart and Oracle Automatic Storage Management.

If you install Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone server and then create your database, then the database is automatically added to the Oracle Restart configuration. Oracle Restart automatically restarts the database when required.

If you install Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone server on a host computer on which a database already exists, then you must manually add the database, the listener, the Oracle ASM instance, and other components to the Oracle Restart configuration before you are able to configure automatic database restarts.

Note:

Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone server can support multiple single-instance databases on a single host computer.