Creating a Global Device Group for the Oracle RAC Database

If you are using a volume manager for Oracle database files, the volume manager requires a global device group for the Oracle RAC database to use.

The type of global device group to create depends on the volume manager that you are using:

If you are using Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster, create a multi-owner disk set. See How to Create a Multi-Owner Disk Set in Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster for the Oracle RAC Database.

How to Create a Multi-Owner Disk Set in Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster for the Oracle RAC Database

Note - Perform this task only if you are using Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster.

If you are using Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster, Solaris Volume Manager requires a multi-owner disk set for the Oracle RAC database or Oracle ASM to use. For information about Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster multi–owner disk sets, see Multi-Owner Disk Set Concepts in Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide.

Before You Begin

Note the following points.

Ensure that the required Support for Oracle RAC software packages are installed on each node. For more information, see Installing the Support for Oracle RAC Package.
Ensure that the multiple-owner volume-manager framework resource group is created and is online. For more information, see Registering and Configuring the Multiple-Owner Volume-Manager Framework Resource Group.

Caution - Do not attempt to manually create the /var/run/nodelist file. Doing so can put the cluster at risk of a cluster-wide panic.
Do not create any file systems in the multi-owner disk set.
Disk devices that you add to the multi-owner disk set must be directly attached to all the cluster nodes.

Create a multi-owner disk set.
Use the metaset(1M) command for this purpose.
```
# metaset -s setname -M -a -h nodelist
```
-s setname

Specifies the name of the disk set that you are creating.

-M

Specifies that the disk set that you are creating is a multi-owner disk set.

-a

Specifies that the nodes that the -h option specifies are to be added to the disk set.

-h nodelist

Specifies a space-separated list of nodes that are to be added to the disk set. The Support for Oracle RAC software packages must be installed on each node in the list.
Add global devices to the disk set that you created in Step 1.
```
# metaset -s setname -a devicelist
```
-s setname

Specifies that you are modifying the disk set that you created in Step 1.

-a

Specifies that the devices that devicelist specifies are to be added to the disk set.

devicelist

Specifies a space-separated list of full device ID path names for the global devices that are to be added to the disk set. To enable consistent access to each device from any node in the cluster, ensure that each device ID path name is of the form /dev/did/dsk/dN, where N is the device number.
For the disk set that you created in Step 1, create the volumes that the Oracle RAC database will use.
Tip - If you are creating many volumes for Oracle data files, you can simplify this step by using soft partitions. For information about soft partitions, see Chapter 12, Soft Partitions (Overview), in Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide and Chapter 13, Soft Partitions (Tasks), in Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide.

Create each volume by concatenating slices on global devices that you added in Step 2. Use the metainit(1M) command for this purpose.
```
# metainit -s setname volume-abbrev numstripes width slicelist
```
-s setname

Specifies that you are creating a volume for the disk set that you created in Step 1.

volume-abbrev

Specifies the abbreviated name of the volume that you are creating. An abbreviated volume name has the format dV, where V is the volume number.

numstripes

Specifies the number of stripes in the volume.

width

Specifies the number of slices in each stripe. If you set width to greater than 1, the slices are striped.

slicelist

Specifies a space-separated list of slices that the volume contains. Each slice must reside on a global device that you added in Step 2.
If you are using mirrored devices, create the mirrors by using volumes that you created in Step 3 as submirrors.
If you are not using mirrored devices, omit this step.
Use the metainit command to create each mirror as follows:
```
# metainit -s setname mirror -m submirror-list
```
-s setname

Specifies that you are creating a mirror for the disk set that you created in Step 1.

mirror

Specifies the name of the mirror that you are creating in the form of an abbreviated volume name. An abbreviated volume name has the format dV, where V is the volume number.

submirror-list

Specifies a space-separated list of submirrors that the mirror is to contain. Each submirror must be a volume that you created in Step 3. Specify the name of each submirror in the form of an abbreviated volume name.

Note - For information on configuring a Solaris Volume Manager disk set in a zone cluster, see How to Add a Disk Set to a Zone Cluster (Solaris Volume Manager) in Oracle Solaris Cluster Software Installation Guide.
Verify that each node is correctly added to the multi-owner disk set.
Use the metaset command for this purpose.
```
# metaset -s setname
```
-s setname

Specifies that you are verifying the disk set that you created in Step 1.

This command displays a table that contains the following information for each node that is correctly added to the disk set:
- The Host column contains the node name.
- The Owner column contains the text multi-owner.
- The Member column contains the text Yes.
Verify that the multi-owner disk set is correctly configured.
```
# cldevicegroup show setname
```
setname

Specifies that configuration information only for the disk set that you created in Step 1 is displayed.

This command displays the device group information for the disk set. For a multi-owner disk set, the device group type is Multi-owner_SVM.
Verify the online status of the multi-owner disk set.
```
# cldevicegroup status setname
```
This command displays the status of the multi-owner disk set on each node in the multi-owner disk set.
On each node that can own the disk set, change the ownership of each volume that you created in Step 3.
Note - For a zone cluster, perform this step in the zone cluster.

Change the volume ownership as follows:
- Owner: the DBA user
- Group: the DBA group
The DBA user and the DBA group are created as explained in How to Create the DBA Group and the DBA User Accounts.
Ensure that you change ownership only of volumes that the Oracle RAC database will use.
```
# chown user-name:group-name volume-list
```
user-name

Specifies the user name of the DBA user. This user is normally named oracle.

group-name

Specifies the name of the DBA group. This group is normally named dba.

volume-list
Specifies a space-separated list of the logical names of the volumes that you created for the disk set. The format of these names depends on the type of device where the volume resides, as follows:
- For block devices: /dev/md/setname/dsk/dV
- For raw devices: /dev/md/setname/rdsk/dV
The replaceable items in these names are as follows:
setname

Specifies the name of the multi-owner disk set that you created in Step 1.

V

Specifies the volume number of a volume that you created in Step 3.

Ensure that this list specifies each volume that you created in Step 3.
Grant read access and write access to the owner of each volume whose ownership you changed in Step 8.
Note - For a zone cluster, perform this step in the zone cluster.

Grant access to the volume on each node that can own the disk set. Ensure that you change access permissions only of volumes that the Oracle RAC database will use.
```
# chmod u+rw volume-list
```
volume-list

Specifies a space-separated list of the logical names of the volumes to whose owners you are granting read access and write access. Ensure that this list contains the volumes that you specified in Step 8.
If you are using Oracle ASM, specify the raw devices that you are using for the Oracle ASM disk group.
To specify the devices, modify the ASM_DISKSTRING Oracle ASM instance-initialization parameter.
For example, to use the /dev/md/setname/rdsk/d path for the Oracle ASM disk group, add the value /dev/md/*/rdsk/d* to the ASM_DISKSTRING parameter. If you are modifying this parameter by editing the Oracle initialization parameter file, edit the parameter as follows:
```
ASM_DISKSTRING = '/dev/md/*/rdsk/d*'
```
If you are using mirrored devices, specify external redundancy in the Oracle ASM configuration.
For more information, see your Oracle documentation.

Next Steps

Go to Registering and Configuring Storage Resources for Oracle Files.

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