A Troubleshooting the Oracle Real Application Clusters Installation

This appendix provides troubleshooting information for installing Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC).

A.1 General Installation Issues

The following is a list of examples of types of errors that can occur during installation. It contains the following issues:

Nodes unavailable for selection from the OUI Node Selection screen
Node nodename is unreachable
Time stamp is in the future
Administrative user unable to log in to SQL*Plus using the SYSDBA role

Nodes unavailable for selection from the OUI Node Selection screen: Cause: Oracle Clusterware is either not installed, or the Oracle Clusterware services are not up and running.; Action: Install Oracle Clusterware, or review the status of your Oracle Clusterware. Consider restarting the nodes, as doing so may resolve the problem.

Node nodename is unreachable

Cause: Unavailable IP host

Action: Attempt the following:

Run the command ipconfig /all. Compare the output of this command with the contents of the C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file to ensure that the node IP is listed.
Run the command nslookup to see if the host is reachable.

Time stamp is in the future

Cause: One or more nodes has a different clock time than the local node. If this is the case, then you may see output similar to the following:

time stamp 2019-04-04 14:49:49 is 106 s in the future

Action: Ensure that all member nodes of the cluster have the same clock time.

Administrative user unable to log in to SQL*Plus using the SYSDBA role: Cause: When you install Oracle Database on Microsoft Windows, Oracle Universal Installer creates a Windows local group called ORA_DBA, and then adds your Windows username to it. Members of ORA_DBA automatically receive the SYSDBA privilege. However, for cluster installations, Oracle Universal Installer does not add the user to ORA_DBA if they have performed the installation remotely. As a result, this user cannot log in to SQL*Plus using the SYSDBA role; Action: Manually add remote users to ORA_DBA.

See Also:
Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for information about connecting to the database using SQL*Plus

A.2 Oracle RAC Installation Error Messages

Oracle Real Application Clusters Management Tools Error Messages are in Oracle Real Application Clusters Administration and Deployment Guide.

Note that the user performing the Oracle RAC installation must have Administrator privileges or the installation will fail

A.3 Performing Cluster Diagnostics During Oracle RAC Installations

When installing Oracle RAC, if Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) does not display the Node Selection page, then perform clusterware diagnostics by running the olsnodes -v command from the binary directory in your Oracle Clusterware home CRS_home\bin) and analyzing its output. Refer to Oracle Clusterware documentation if the detailed output indicates that your clusterware is not running.

In addition, use the following command syntax to check the integrity of the Cluster Manager:

cluvfy comp clumgr -n node_list -verbose

In the preceding syntax example, the variable node_list is the list of nodes in your cluster, separated by commas.

A.4 Resolving Oracle RAC Installation Errors

This section provides information on how to proceed if you encounter an error during installation of Oracle RAC.

A.4.1 Verifying Requirements

Before you try any of the troubleshooting steps in this appendix, do the following:

Check Chapter 1, "Preinstallation Checklist" to make sure that your system meets the requirements and that you have completed all of the preinstallation tasks.
Read the release notes for the product on your platform before installing it. The release notes are available on the Oracle Database installation media. You can find the latest version of the release notes on the Oracle Technology Network Web site:
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http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/index.html
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A.4.2 Resolving Installation Errors

If you encounter an error during installation:

Do not exit Oracle Universal Installer.
If you clicked Next after you entered incorrect information about one of the installation windows, then click Back to return to the window and correct the information.
If you encounter an error while Oracle Universal Installer is copying or linking files, then see "Reviewing the Log of an Installation Session" for interactive installations or "Silent or Noninteractive Installation Response File Error Handling" for more information.
If you encounter an error while a configuration assistant is running, then see the "Troubleshooting Configuration Assistant Errors" section.
If you cannot resolve the problem, then remove the failed installation by following the steps listed in "Cleaning Up After a Failed Installation".

A.4.3 Reviewing the Log of an Installation Session

During an installation, Oracle Universal Installer records all the actions that it performs in a log file. If you encounter problems during the installation, then review the log file for information about possible causes of the problem.

By default, the log files are located in the following directory:

SYSTEM_DRIVE:\> Program Files\Oracle\Inventory\logs

Log filenames from interactive installations take the form:

installActionsdate_time.log

For example, if an interactive installation occurred at 9:00:56 a.m. on October 14, 2009, then the log file would be named:

installActions2009-10-14_09-00-56AM.log

Note:

Do not delete or manually alter the Inventory directory or its contents. Doing so can prevent Oracle Universal Installer from locating products that you install on your system.

A.5 Troubleshooting Configuration Assistant Errors

To troubleshoot an installation error that occurs when a configuration assistant is running, do the following:

Review the installation log files listed in the section "Reviewing the Log of an Installation Session".
Review the specific configuration assistant log file located in the Oracle base directory, in the path ORACLE_BASE\cfgtoollogs. Try to fix the issue that caused the error.
If you see the "Fatal Error. Reinstall" message, then look for the cause of the problem by reviewing the log files. Refer to the section "Fatal Errors Reported by Configuration Assistants" for further instructions.

A.5.1 Configuration Assistant Failures

If an Oracle configuration assistant is not able to complete its configuration tasks, then it reports a status of 'Failed'. Oracle configuration assistant failures are noted at the bottom of the installation screen. The configuration assistant interface displays additional information, if available.

The configuration assistant execution status is stored in the following file:

C:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory\logs\installActionsdate_time.log

More details on errors related to the configuration assistant can be found in the following directory:

ORACLE_BASE\cfgtoollogs

The ORACLE_BASE directory is the Oracle base for the Oracle RAC installation. Completion status codes are listed in the following table:

Status	Result Code
Configuration assistant succeeded	0
Configuration assistant failed	1
Configuration assistant cancelled	-1

A.5.2 Fatal Errors Reported by Configuration Assistants

If you receive a fatal error while a configuration assistant is running, then you must complete the following tasks:

Remove the failed installation as described in the "Cleaning Up After a Failed Installation" section.
Correct the cause of the fatal error.
Reinstall the Oracle software.

A.6 Silent or Noninteractive Installation Response File Error Handling

To determine whether a silent or noninteractive installation succeeds or fails, check the silentInstallActionsdate_time.log file, located in DRIVE_LETTER:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory\logs.

If necessary, see the previous section for information about determining the location of the Inventory directory.

A silent or noninteractive installation fails if:

You do not specify a response file.
You specify an incorrect or incomplete response file.

For example, a common problem is that while all the product-specific data is filled out correctly, the staging area location may be incorrect. If this is the case, then check the FROM_LOCATION variable and make sure that it points to the products.xml file in the installation media. In the installation media, this products.xml is in database\stage.
Oracle Universal Installer encounters an error, such as insufficient disk space.

Oracle Universal Installer or a configuration assistant validates the response file at runtime. If the validation fails, then the silent or noninteractive installation or configuration process ends. Oracle Universal Installer treats values for parameters that are of the wrong context, format, or type as if no value was specified in the file.

A.7 Cleaning Up After a Failed Installation

If an installation fails, then you must remove the Oracle home directory and remove all files that Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) created during the attempted installation. Perform the following steps to cleanup the failed installation:

Follow the instructions in Chapter 8, "Removing Oracle Real Application Clusters Software" to run Oracle Universal Installer to deinstall Oracle RAC
Manually remove the directory that was used as the Oracle home directory during the installation

Remove the following Windows Registry keys created by OUI during the previous installation attempt:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBCINST.INI
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Oracle11\Performance
 \KEY_ORACLE_HOME_NAME

After you have completed these steps you can start the installation again.