Review the Documentation

• Review the Oracle Database Readme, which is available at the following location:

  Oracle Database Readme

• Review the Oracle Database Release Notes for your platform, which are available for your release at the following URL:

  http://docs.oracle.com/en/database/database.html

• Be familiar with the installation steps for Oracle RAC software and creating an Oracle RAC database.

Review the Licensing Information

You are permitted to use only those components in the Oracle Database media pack for which you have purchased licenses. For more information about licenses, refer to the following URL:

Oracle Database Licensing Information

Obtain your My Oracle Support account information.

During installation, you require a My Oracle Support user name and password to configure security updates, download software updates, and other installation tasks. You can register for My Oracle Support at the following URL:

https://support.oracle.com/

Review Oracle Support Certification Matrix

New platforms and operating system software versions can be certified after this guide is published, review the certification matrix on the My Oracle Support website for the most up-to-date list of certified hardware platforms and operating system versions:

https://support.oracle.com/

You must register online before using My Oracle Support. After logging in, from the menu options, select the Certifications tab. On the Certifications page, use the Certification Search options to search by Product, Release, and Platform. You can also search using the Certification Quick Link options such as Product Delivery, and Lifetime Support.

Review online information to assist with installation

• Log on to My Oracle Support to access certifications for your installation for your platform.

• Refer to Oracle.com (http://www.oracle.com) for additional resources about planning for specific implementation scenarios, best practices, and other information that can help you with your installation plan. In particular, refer to the Oracle Real Application Clusters pages on the Oracle Technology Network at http://www.oracle.com/goto/rac

Run Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) with CVU and use fixup scripts

Oracle Universal Installer is fully integrated with Cluster Verification Utility (CVU), automating many CVU prerequisite checks. Oracle Universal Installer runs all prerequisite checks and creates fixup scripts when you run the installer. You can run OUI up to the Summary screen without starting the installation.

• Obtain the latest version of CVU at the following URL:

  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/options/clustering/downloads/cvu-download-homepage-099973.html

• You can also run CVU commands manually to check that your system is prepared for installation before you start an Oracle RAC installation. If you have vendors performing hardware or operating system configuration steps, then ask the vendors to complete the relevant CVU checks of the cluster after they complete their work to ensure that your system is configured correctly.

• Run OUI and DBCA from a node where an Oracle RAC Oracle database instance is located.

• In case of an upgrade failure, follow common industry standards for data recovery planning, including backing up your existing database.

Download and run ORAchk for runtime and upgrade checks, or runtime health checks

The ORAchk utility provides system checks that can help to prevent issues before and after installation. These checks include kernel requirements, operating system resource allocations, and other system requirements.

Use the ORAchk Upgrade Readiness Assessment to obtain an automated upgrade-specific system health check for upgrades to 11.2.0.3, 11.2.0.4, 12.1.0.1 and 12.2, For example:

• Before you perform a fresh database installation:

  ./orachk -profile preinstall

• To upgrade your existing database to a higher version or release:

  ./orachk -o pre

The ORAchk Upgrade Readiness Assessment automates many of the manual pre- and post-upgrade checks described in Oracle upgrade documentation. ORAchk is supported on Windows 2008 and Windows 2012 on a Cygwin environment only. For more information refer to the following URL:

https://support.oracle.com/rs?type=doc&id=1268927.1

Verify if Oracle Grid Infrastructure is installed

• To install Oracle RAC 12c Release 2 (12.2), you must have Oracle Grid Infrastructure (Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM) 12c release 2 (12.2) installed on your cluster. The Oracle Clusterware version must be equal to or greater than the Oracle RAC version that you plan to install.

• Currently, there are no supported clusterware products other than Oracle Clusterware for the Microsoft Windows platforms. If you intend to install Oracle RAC, then you must first install Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster, which includes Oracle Clusterware.

Check running Oracle processes, and shut down if necessary

• On a standalone database not using Oracle ASM: You do not need to shut down the database while you install Oracle Grid Infrastructure.

• On a standalone database using Oracle ASM: Stop the existing Oracle ASM instances. The Oracle ASM instances are restarted during installation.

• On an Oracle RAC Database node: This installation requires an upgrade of Oracle Clusterware, as Oracle Clusterware is required to run Oracle RAC. As part of the upgrade, you must shut down the database one node at a time as the rolling upgrade proceeds from node to node.

Ensure Task Scheduler jobs do not run during installation

If the installer is running when daily scheduled jobs start, then you may encounter unexplained installation problems if your scheduled job is performing cleanup, and temporary files are deleted before the installation is finished. Oracle recommends that you complete installation before daily scheduled jobs are run, or disable daily scheduled jobs that perform cleanup until after the installation is completed.

Decide on an Oracle Database management tool

By default, Oracle Database 12c is managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Express.

If you have an existing Oracle Management Agent, and decide to use Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control to centrally manage your database, then obtain the following information to enter during the database installation:

• OMS host

• OMS port

• EM admin username

• EM admin password

• Specify password of ASMSNMP user

You need a web browser to access documentation, to use Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Express, and to use Oracle Application Express. Web browsers must support JavaScript and the HTML 4.0 and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 1.0 standards.

Review memory allocation and Automatic Memory Management feature

You can enable automatic memory management either during, or after Oracle Database installation. If you enable automatic memory management after installation, then you must shut down and restart of the database.

With Automatic Memory Management, Oracle Database instances automatically manage and tune memory. You choose a memory target, and the instance automatically distributes memory between the system global area (SGA) and the instance program global area (instance PGA). As memory requirements change, the instance dynamically redistributes memory between the SGA and instance PGA.

For more information, refer to the following URL: