Using PXE to Image a New System for Releases Earlier than 12.1.2.2.0

6.12.4.2 Using PXE to Image a New System for Releases Earlier than 12.1.2.2.0

You can use PXE to prepare a new Exadata system running an Oracle Exadata System Software release earlier than 12.1.2.2.0 for deployment.

Obtain the latest Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant (OEDA) from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/exadata/oeda-download-2076737.html.
Run the OEDA configuration tool to generate the configuration files.
Power on all the servers.
When the system is first started, the following conditions exist:
1. Database nodes and cells will automatically assign to themselves unused IP addresses on eth0 in the 172.16 range.
2. Host names of the nodes will be of the format nodeN, where N is a number.
Run OEDA to generate the preconf.csv file that you will use to image the system.
Connect to the first database node.
Use one of the following connection options:
- Attach a serial cable between a console and the SER MGT port on the server.
  
  Connections through the modular jack serial port must use shielded cables to comply with radio frequency emission limits.
  
  Set the terminal device communication properties to these values: 9600 baud, 8 bit, no parity, 1 stop bit.
  
  For more details, see Connect to Oracle ILOM.
- Attach an Ethernet cable to the NET MGT port on the server and then connect using a workstation on the network.
  
  For more details, see Connect to Oracle ILOM.
Obtain the eth0 MAC address for each database node.
The eth0 MAC address is the fru_macaddress field from /SYS/MB/NET0 in the ILOM (or from ip addr if logged into the console).
1. Connect to the each database node through SSH from the console.
2. Run ibhosts to get a list of node names and IP addresses.
Insert the MAC addresses using uppercase characters in the seventh field of the preconf.csv file for each node.
This field should be empty, that is, you should see two consecutive comma characters (,,).
For example:
```
orhb42-b08-01,example.com,db,eth0,eth0,Management,00:10:E0:69:34:52,10.196.3.
106,255.255.224.0,10.196.31.250,orhb42-b08-01-priv,Private:active-bond-ib,192.1
68.10.15,255.255.255.0,,,America/Los_Angeles
```
Create a PXE configuration file for each node.
Below are the recommended options for PXE imaging of versions prior to release 12.1.2.2.0. The line starting with append should be entered as a single line with no line breaks.
```
append initrd=img_file pxe factory stit reboot-on-success notests=diskgroup dhcp 
preconf=n.n.n.n:/directory/preconf.csv sk=n.n.n.n:/directory console=ttyS0,
115200n8
```
Download the ImageMaker kit to prepare and create the files for the PXE server.
The kit is available publicly on the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud (edelivery) site under “Oracle Database Products -> Linux x86-64”. There are separate ImageMaker files for database nodes and cells.
After downloading the kit, as the root user, unzip the first file that has a name similar to V75080-01.zip, and then unzip the subsequent ZIP file. Finally, extract the resulting archive.
```
# unzip V75080-01.zip

# unzip cellImageMaker_12.1.2.1.1_LINUX.X64_150316.2-1.x86_64.zip

# tar -pxvf cellImageMaker_12.1.2.1.1_LINUX.X64_150316.2-1.x86_64.tar
```
View the README_FOR_FACTORY.txt file in the resulting directory for additional details.
Run makeImageMedia.sh to build the kernel, initrd, and image files, if necessary.
Place the image files in the relevant directories on the PXE server. These files will be sent at boot time to the node being imaged.
1. Change directory to the dl180 or dl360 directory and make the PXE build using:
```
./makeImageMedia.sh -pxe -pxeout ImageName
```
  If the dl180 or dl360 directory are not available, then change directory to the cell or compute directory.
  The makeImageMedia.sh command creates four files in the ./PXE subdirectory:
```
kernel: vmlinux-version-ImageName-{DL180|DL360}
initrd: initrd-version-ImageName-{DL180|DL360}.img
image: nfsimg-version-ImageName-{DL180|DL360}.tar
image: nfsimg-version-ImageName-{DL180|DL360}.tar.md5
```
Change the boot order using the ILOM to boot from PXE and then restart the server to start the imaging process.
For example, from the Oracle Linux prompt on the host:
```
# ipmitool chassis bootdev pxe

# shutdown -r now
```

If you are using Oracle VM run switch_to_ovm.sh on all Oracle VM database servers before running the OEDA installation tool.

When you run this command, the database servers will reboot.

# /opt/oracle.SupportTools/switch_to_ovm.sh
2014-12-07 11:58:36 -0800 [INFO] Switch to DOM0 system partition /dev/VGExaDb/LV
DbSys3 (/dev/mapper/VGExaDb-LVDbSys3)
2014-12-07 11:58:36 -0800 [INFO] Active system device: /dev/mapper/VGExaDb-LVDbS
ys1
2014-12-07 11:58:36 -0800 [INFO] Active system device in boot area: /dev/mapper/
VGExaDb-LVDbSys1
2014-12-07 11:58:36 -0800 [INFO] Set active systen device to /dev/VGExaDb/LVDbSy
s3 in /boot/I_am_hd_boot
2014-12-07 11:58:36 -0800 [INFO] Reboot has been initiated to switch to the DOM0
 system partition

On systems with InfiniBand Network Fabric only, run /opt/oracle.SupportTools/reclaimdisks.sh -free -reclaim on each database server before installing any software.

The command reclaims disk space reserved for the deployment type not selected, which is not required on RoCE-based Exadata database servers.

The command typically takes less than 5 minutes.

Caution:

Do not skip this step. Skipping this step results in unused space that can no longer be reclaimed by reclaimdisks.sh.

# /opt/oracle.SupportTools/reclaimdisks.sh -free -reclaim
Model is ORACLE SERVER X5-2
Number of LSI controllers: 1
Physical disks found: 4 (252:0 252:1 252:2 252:3)
Logical drives found: 1
...
[INFO     ] Copying /usr/share/grub/x86_64-redhat/* to /boot/grub ...
[INFO     ] Create filesystem on device /dev/sda1
[INFO     ] Tune filesystem on device /dev/sda1

GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.  For the first word, TAB
lists possible command completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename.]
grub> root (hd0,0)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub> setup (hd0)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
 Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... failed (this is not fatal)
 Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0,0)"... failed (this is not fatal)
 Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd0) /grub/stage2 p /grub/grub.conf "... succeeded
Done.
grub> quit

Run ibhosts and verify that all nodes show the correct IP addresses and host names.
There should be no nodes with elasticNode in the description.

Run the OEDA tool to deploy.

[root] # ./install.sh -cf ../machine_config_file.xml -l
1. Validate Configuration File
2. Setup Capacity-on-Demand
3. Create Virtual Machine  
4. Create Users  
5. Setup Cell Connectivity  
6. Create Cell Disks  
7. Create Grid Disks  
8. Configure Alerting  
9. Install Cluster Software  
10. Initialize Cluster Software  
11. Install Database Software  
12. Relink Database with RDS  
13. Create ASM Diskgroups  
14. Create Databases  
15. Apply Security Fixes  
16. Install Exachk  
17. Setup ASR Alerting  
18. Create Installation Summary  
19. Resecure Machine

Related Topics

Oracle Software Delivery Cloud

Parent topic: Using PXE to Image a New System