8 Preparing the Host Computers for an Enterprise Deployment
It is important to perform a set of tasks on each computer or server before you configure the enterprise deployment topology. This involves verifying the minimum hardware and operating system requirements for each host, configuring operating system users and groups, enabling Unicode support, mounting the required shared storage systems to the host and enabling the required virtual IP addresses on each host.
This chapter describes the tasks that you must perform from each computer or server that is hosting the enterprise deployment.
- Verifying the Minimum Hardware Requirements for Each Host
After you procure the required hardware for the enterprise deployment, it is important to ensure that each host computer meets the minimum system requirements. - Verifying Linux Operating System Requirements
You can review the typical Linux operating system settings for an enterprise deployment in this section. - Configuring Operating System Users and Groups
The users and groups to be defined on each of the computers that host the enterprise deployment are listed in this section. - Enabling Unicode Support
It is recommended to enable Unicode support in your operating system so as to allow processing of characters in Unicode. - Setting the DNS Settings
- Configuring Users and Groups
- Configuring a Host to Use an NTP (time) Server
- Configuring a Host to Use an NIS/YP Host
- Mounting the Required Shared File Systems on Each Host
It is important to understand how to mount the shared storage to all the servers that require access. - Enabling the Required Virtual IP Addresses on Each Host
You must enable the required virtual IP addresses on each host in order to prepare the host for the enterprise deployment.
Parent topic: Preparing for an Enterprise Deployment
Verifying the Minimum Hardware Requirements for Each Host
After you procure the required hardware for the enterprise deployment, it is important to ensure that each host computer meets the minimum system requirements.
After you have procured the required hardware for the enterprise deployment, log in to each host computer and verify the system requirements listed in Hardware and Software Requirements for the Enterprise Deployment Topology.
If you deploy to a virtual server environment, such as Oracle Exalogic, ensure that each of the virtual servers meets the minimum requirements.
Ensure that you have sufficient local disk storage and shared storage configured as described in Preparing the File System for an Enterprise Deployment.
Allow sufficient swap and temporary space; specifically:
-
Swap Space–The system must have at least 500 MB.
-
Temporary Space–There must be a minimum of 500 MB of free space in the
/tmp
directory.
Verifying Linux Operating System Requirements
You can review the typical Linux operating system settings for an enterprise deployment in this section.
To ensure the host computers meet the minimum operating system requirements, ensure that you have installed a certified operating system and that you have applied all the necessary patches for the operating system.
In addition, review the following sections for typical Linux operating system settings for an enterprise deployment.
Setting Linux Kernel Parameters
The kernel-parameter and shell-limit values shown in Table 8-1are recommended values only. Oracle recommends that you tune these values to optimize the performance of the system. See your operating system documentation for more information about tuning kernel parameters.
Kernel parameters must be set to a minimum of those in Table 8-1 on all nodes in the topology.
The values in the following table are the current Linux recommendations. For the latest recommendations for Linux and other operating systems, see Oracle Fusion Middleware System Requirements and Specifications.
If you deploy a database onto the host, you might need to modify additional kernel parameters. Refer to 12c (12.2.1.3.0) Configuring Kernel Parameters in Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation Guide for Linux.
Table 8-1 UNIX Kernel Parameters
Parameter | Value |
---|---|
kernel.sem |
256 32000 100 142 |
kernel.shmmax |
4294967295 |
To set these parameters:
Parent topic: Verifying Linux Operating System Requirements
Setting the Open File Limit and Number of Processes Settings on UNIX Systems
On UNIX operating systems, the Open File Limit
is an important system setting, which can affect the overall performance of the software running on the host computer.
For guidance on setting the Open File Limit
for an Oracle Fusion Middleware enterprise deployment, see Host Computer Hardware Requirements.
Note:
The following examples are for Linux operating systems. Consult your operating system documentation to determine the commands to be used on your system.
For more information, see the following sections.
- Viewing the Number of Currently Open Files
- Setting the Operating System Open File and Processes Limits
Parent topic: Verifying Linux Operating System Requirements
Viewing the Number of Currently Open Files
You can see how many files are open with the following command:
/usr/sbin/lsof | wc -l
To check your open file limits, use the following commands.
C shell:
limit descriptors
Bash:
ulimit -n
Verifying IP Addresses and Host Names in DNS or Hosts File
Before you begin the installation of the Oracle software, ensure that the IP address, fully qualified host name, and the short name of the host are all registered with your DNS server. Alternatively, you can use the local hosts
file and add an entry similar to the following:
IP_Address Fully_Qualified_Name Short_Name
For example:
10.229.188.205 host1.example.com host1
Oracle also recommends that you use aliases to map to different IPs in different data centers in preparation for disaster recovery. You can also use these aliases to configure the listen address for some of the components.
In this guide, the abstract hostnames that are provided on the Hardware - Host Computers tab of the workbook (SOAHOSTn and ADMINVHN) are used for these aliases, so the /etc/hosts
can be similar to this example:
10.229.188.204 host1-vip.example.com host1-vip ADMINVHN 10.229.188.205 host1.example.com host1 SOAHOST1 10.229.188.206 host2.example.com host2 SOAHOST2 10.229.188.207 host3.example.com host3 WEBHOST1 10.229.188.208 host4.example.com host4 WEBHOST2
Parent topic: Verifying Linux Operating System Requirements
Configuring Operating System Users and Groups
The users and groups to be defined on each of the computers that host the enterprise deployment are listed in this section.
Groups
You must create the following groups on each node.
-
oinstall
-
dba
Users
You must create the following user on each node.
-
nobody
–An unprivileged user. -
oracle
–The owner of the Oracle software. You may use a different name. The primary group for this account must beoinstall
. The account must also be in thedba
group.
Note:
-
The group
oinstall
must have write privileges to all the file systems on shared and local storage that are used by the Oracle software. -
Each group must have the same Group ID on every node.
-
Each user must have the same User ID on every node.
Enabling Unicode Support
It is recommended to enable Unicode support in your operating system so as to allow processing of characters in Unicode.
Your operating system configuration can influence the behavior of characters supported by Oracle Fusion Middleware products.
On UNIX operating systems, Oracle highly recommends that you enable Unicode support by setting the LANG
and LC_ALL
environment variables to a locale with the UTF-8 character set. This enables the operating system to process any character in Unicode. Oracle SOA Suite technologies, for example, are based on Unicode.
If the operating system is configured to use a non-UTF-8 encoding, Oracle SOA Suite components may function in an unexpected way. For example, a non-ASCII file name might make the file inaccessible and cause an error. Oracle does not support problems caused by operating system constraints.
Setting the DNS Settings
Configure the host to access your corporate DNS hosts. To do this, update DNS settings by updating the file /etc/resolv.conf
.
Configuring Users and Groups
Create the following groups and user either locally or in your NIS or LDAP server. This user is the Oracle Software Owner.
The instructions below are for creating the user locally. Refer to your NIS documentation for information about creating these groups and user in your NIS server.
Groups
You must create the following groups on each node.
-
oinstall
-
dba
To create the groups, use the following command as root:
groupadd groupname
For example
groupadd -g 500 oinstall groupadd -g 501 dba
User
You must create the following user on each node.
-
oracle
–The owner of the Oracle software. You may use a different name. The primary group for this account must beoinstall
. The account must also be in thedba
group.
Note:
-
The group
oinstall
must have write privileges to all the file systems on shared and local storage that are used by the Oracle software. -
Each group must have the same Group ID on every node.
-
Each user must have the same User ID on every node.
-
The user and group should exists at the NIS server due to the NFSv4 mount requirement.
To create a local user, use the following command as root
:
useradd -g primary group -G optional groups -u userid username
For example:
useradd -g oinstall -G dba -u 500 oracle
Note:
To create this user in NIS, refer to your NIS documentation.
Configuring a Host to Use an NTP (time) Server
All servers in the deployment must have the same time. The best way to achieve this is to use an NTP server. To configure a host to use an NTP server:
Configuring a Host to Use an NIS/YP Host
If you are using NFS Version 4, configure a directory service or an NIS (Network Information Server). If your organization does not have one already, use the built-in one on the ZFS storage appliance. See Configuring NFS Version 4 (NFSv4) on Exalogic in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Exalogic Machine Owner's Guide for more information.
Once you have configured your NIS host, configure each compute node to use it. Before beginning, determine the host names of the NIS servers you are going to use.
Mounting the Required Shared File Systems on Each Host
It is important to understand how to mount the shared storage to all the servers that require access.
The shared storage configured, as described in Shared Storage Recommendations When Installing and Configuring an Enterprise Deployment, must be available on the hosts that use it.
In an enterprise deployment, it is assumed that you have a hardware storage filer, which is available and connected to each of the host computers that you have procured for the deployment.
You must mount the shared storage to all servers that require access.
Each host must have appropriate privileges set within the Network Attached Storage (NAS) or Storage Area Network (SAN) so that it can write to the shared storage.
Follow the best practices of your organization for mounting shared storage. This section provides an example of how to do this on Linux by using NFS storage.
You must create and mount shared storage locations so that SOAHOST1 and SOAHOST2 can see the same location if it is a binary installation in two separate volumes.
See Shared Storage Recommendations When Installing and Configuring an Enterprise Deployment.
You use the following command to mount shared storage from a NAS storage device to a Linux host. If you are using a different type of storage device or operating system, refer to your manufacturer documentation for information about how to do this.
Note:
The user account used to create a shared storage file system owns and has read, write, and execute privileges for those files. Other users in the operating system group can read and execute the files, but they do not have write privileges.
See Selecting an Installation User in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Planning Guide.
In the following example, nasfiler
represents the shared storage filer. Also note that these are examples only. Typically, the mounting of these shared storage locations should be done by using the /etc/fstabs
file on UNIX systems, so that the mounting of these devices survives a reboot. Refer to your operating system documentation for more information.
To mount the shared storage on Linux:
-
Create the mount directories on SOAHOST1, as described in Summary of the Shared Storage Volumes in an Enterprise Deployment, and then mount the shared storage. For example:
mount -t nfs nasfiler:VOL1/oracle/products/ /u01/oracle/products/
-
Repeat the procedure on SOAHOST2 using VOL2.
Validating the Shared Storage Configuration
Ensure that you can read and write files to the newly mounted directories by creating a test file in the shared storage location that you just configured.
For example:
$ cd newly mounted directory
$ touch testfile
Verify that the owner and permissions are correct:
$ ls -l testfile
Then remove the file:
$ rm testfile
Note:
The shared storage can be a NAS or SAN device. The following example illustrates creating storage for a NAS device from SOAHOST1. The options may differ depending on the specific storage device.
mount -t nfs -o rw,bg,hard,nointr,tcp,vers=3,timeo=300,rsize=32768,wsize=32768 nasfiler:VOL1/Oracle/u01/oracle
Contact your storage vendor and machine administrator to learn about the appropriate options for your environment.
Enabling the Required Virtual IP Addresses on Each Host
You must enable the required virtual IP addresses on each host in order to prepare the host for the enterprise deployment.
To prepare each host for the enterprise deployment, you must enable the virtual IP (VIP) addresses that are described in Reserving the Required IP Addresses for an Enterprise Deployment.
It is assumed that you have already reserved the VIP addresses and host names and that they have been enabled by your network administrator. You can then enable the VIPs on the appropriate host.
Note that the virtual IP addresses used for the enterprise topology are not persisted because they are managed by Whole Server Migration (for selected Managed Servers and clusters) or by manual failover (for the Administration Server).
Starting with Oracle Enterprise Linux 6, the "ifconfig
" command is deprecated and is replaced with the "ip
" command.
root
: