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Oracle Database 11g Release 2 RAC On Windows 2008 Using VirtualBox

This article describes the installation of Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.2.0) RAC on Windows 2008 Server Standard Edition using VirtualBox with no additional shared disk devices.

Related articles.

Introduction

One of the biggest obstacles preventing people from setting up test RAC environments is the requirement for shared storage. In a production environment, shared storage is often provided by a SAN or high-end NAS device, but both of these options are very expensive when all you want to do is get some experience installing and using RAC. A cheaper alternative is to use a FireWire disk enclosure to allow two machines to access the same disk(s), but that still costs money and requires two servers. A third option is to use virtualization to fake the shared storage.

Using VirtualBox you can run multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) on a single server, allowing you to run both RAC nodes on a single machine. In additon, it allows you to set up shared virtual disks, overcoming the obstacle of expensive shared storage.

Virtual RAC

Before you launch into this installation, here are a few things to consider.

Download Software

Download the following software.

VirtualBox Installation

First, install the VirtualBox software. On RHEL and its clones you do this with the following command as the root user.

# rpm -Uvh VirtualBox-4.1-4.1.2_73507_fedora15-1.x86_64.rpm

Once complete, VirtualBox is started from the "Applications > System Tools > Oracle VM VirtualBox" menu option.

Virtual Machine Setup

Now we must define the two virtual RAC nodes. We can save time by defining one VM, then cloning it when it is installed.

Start VirtualBox and click the "New" button on the toolbar. Click the "Next" button on the first page of the Virtual Machine Wizard.

New VM Wizard - Welcome

Enter the name "w2008-112-rac1", OS "Microsoft Windows" and Version "Windows 2008 (64 bit)", then click the "Next" button.

New VM Wizard - VM Name and OS Type

Enter "4096" as the base memory size, then click the "Next" button.

New VM Wizard - Memory

Accept the default option to create a new virtual hard disk by clicking the "Next" button.

New VM Wizard - Virtual Hard Disk

Select the desired file type, then click the "Next" button.

New Virtual Hard Disk Wizard - File Type

Acccept the default option by clicking the "Next" button.

New Virtual Hard Disk Wizard - Hard Disk Storage Type

Accept the default location, or enter an alterative, set the size to "30G" and click the "Next" button.

New Virtual Hard Disk Wizard - Virtual Disk Location And Size

Click the "Create" button on the Virtual Disk Wizard Summary screen.

New Virtual Hard Disk Wizard - Summary

Click the "Create" button on the Virtual Machine Wizard Summary screen.

New VM Wizard - Virtual Hard Disk

The "w2008-112-rac1" VM will appear on the left hand pane. Scroll down the "Details" tab on the right and click on the "Network" link.

Virtual Box - Console

Make sure "Adapter 1" is enabled, set to "Bridged Adapter" and select your physical network adapter "em1", then click on the "Adapter 2" tab.

Virtual Box - Network Adapter 1

Make sure "Adapter 2" is enabled, set to "Bridged Adapter" and select your physical network adapter "em1", then click on the "OK" button.

Virtual Box - Network Adapter 2

The virtual machine is now configured so we can start the guest operating system installation.

Guest Operating System Installation

Place the Windows 2008 SE disk in the CD drive and start the virtual machine by clicking the start button on the toolbar. The resulting console window will contain the Windows boot screen.

Windows Boot

Continue through the Full Standard Edition installation as you would for a normal server.

When the installation is complete, remember to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions on the server. This is initiated from the "Devices > Install Guest Additions..." menu. Accept all the defaults and reboot the server when requested.

Oracle Installation Prerequisites

Turn off the Windows firewall "Start > Control Panel > System and Security (Check Firewall Status) > Turn Windows Firewall on or off" to prevent it from interferring with the sever communication. You can turn it on later and open up any required ports if you want to.

Perform the following steps whilst logged into the virtual machine.

Amend the "C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts" file to contain the following information. Note. If you will be using DNS to resolve the SCAN, comment out the entries for it in the "hosts" files.

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
# Public
192.168.0.151   w2008-112-rac1.localdomain        w2008-112-rac1
192.168.0.152   w2008-112-rac2.localdomain        w2008-112-rac2
#Private
192.168.1.151   w2008-112-rac1-priv.localdomain   w2008-112-rac1-priv
192.168.1.152   w2008-112-rac2-priv.localdomain   w2008-112-rac2-priv
#Virtual
192.168.0.153   w2008-112-rac1-vip.localdomain    w2008-112-rac1-vip
192.168.0.154   w2008-112-rac2-vip.localdomain    w2008-112-rac2-vip
#SCAN (192.168.0.155 - 192.168.0.157 in DNS)
192.168.0.155   w2008-112-scan.localdomain w2008-112-scan
192.168.0.156   w2008-112-scan.localdomain w2008-112-scan
192.168.0.157   w2008-112-scan.localdomain w2008-112-scan

Open the "Network Connections" screen (Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change adapter settings). Rename the two connections to "public" and "private" respectively, making sure you apply the names to the appropriate connections. You can do this by right-clicking on the connection and selecting "Rename" from the pop-up menu.

Set the correct IP information for the two connections. Right-click on a connection and select the "Properties" menu option. Click on "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)" option and click the "Properties. button. Enter the appropriate IP, subnet, default gateway and DNS for the networks.

public:

private:

If any of the network connections are left in a disabled state, right-click on then and select the "Diagnose" option to repair them.

Ensure the public interface is first in the bind order:

Disable Windows Media Sensing for TCP/IP:

Open the "System Properties" dialog (Start > Control Panel > System and Security > System > Change Settings) and do the following:

In this installation I will install Oracle as the Administrator user. If you want to set up another user, it must be part of the administrator group and have the "TMP" and "TEMP" environment variables set correctly.

Create Shared Disks

Make sure the VM is shutdown, create a directory to host the shared virtual disks on the host OS, then create the shared disks. My host is Linux, so the paths to the virtual disks are UNIX-style paths. If your host is Windows, then you will be using Windows-style paths.

$ mkdir -p /u04/VirtualBox/w2008-112-rac
$ cd /u04/VirtualBox/w2008-112-rac
$
$ # Create the disks and associate them with VirtualBox as virtual media.
$ VBoxManage createhd --filename asm1.vdi --size 5120 --format VDI --variant Fixed
$ VBoxManage createhd --filename asm2.vdi --size 5120 --format VDI --variant Fixed
$ VBoxManage createhd --filename asm3.vdi --size 5120 --format VDI --variant Fixed
$ VBoxManage createhd --filename asm4.vdi --size 5120 --format VDI --variant Fixed
$ VBoxManage createhd --filename asm5.vdi --size 5120 --format VDI --variant Fixed
$
$ # Connect them to the VM.
$ VBoxManage storageattach w2008-112-rac1 --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 1 --device 0 --type hdd --medium asm1.vdi --mtype shareable
$ VBoxManage storageattach w2008-112-rac1 --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 2 --device 0 --type hdd --medium asm2.vdi --mtype shareable
$ VBoxManage storageattach w2008-112-rac1 --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 3 --device 0 --type hdd --medium asm3.vdi --mtype shareable
$ VBoxManage storageattach w2008-112-rac1 --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 4 --device 0 --type hdd --medium asm4.vdi --mtype shareable
$ VBoxManage storageattach w2008-112-rac1 --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 5 --device 0 --type hdd --medium asm5.vdi --mtype shareable
$
$ # Make shareable.
$ VBoxManage modifyhd asm1.vdi --type shareable
$ VBoxManage modifyhd asm2.vdi --type shareable
$ VBoxManage modifyhd asm3.vdi --type shareable
$ VBoxManage modifyhd asm4.vdi --type shareable
$ VBoxManage modifyhd asm5.vdi --type shareable

Start the w2008-112-rac1 virtual machine by clicking the "Start" button on the toolbar. When the server has started, log in so you can partition the disks.

We will partition the disks using the "DiskPart" utility. To get alist of the current disks do the following.

C:\>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.0.6001
Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: RAC1

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status      Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  ----------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online        24 GB      0 B
  Disk 1    Online        10 GB    10 GB
  Disk 2    Online        10 GB    10 GB
  Disk 3    Online        10 GB    10 GB
  Disk 4    Online        10 GB    10 GB
  Disk 5    Online        10 GB    10 GB

DISKPART>

In the diskpart utility we will perform the following commands.

automount enable
select disk 1
create partition extended
create partition logical
select disk 2
create partition extended
create partition logical
select disk 3
create partition extended
create partition logical
select disk 4
create partition extended
create partition logical
select disk 5
create partition extended
create partition logical
exit

Stamp the disks for use with ASM. This is done using the asmtool that comes with the Grid Infrastructure media.

C:> Z:
Z:> cd z:\software\oracle\11gR2\11.2.0.2.0\win64_grid\asmtool
Z:> asmtool -add \Device\HardDisk1\Partition1 ORCLDISK1
Z:> asmtool -add \Device\HardDisk2\Partition1 ORCLDISK2
Z:> asmtool -add \Device\HardDisk3\Partition1 ORCLDISK3
Z:> asmtool -add \Device\HardDisk4\Partition1 ORCLDISK4
Z:> asmtool -add \Device\HardDisk5\Partition1 ORCLDISK5

Z:> asmtool -list

NTFS                             \Device\Harddisk0\Partition1              100M
NTFS                             \Device\Harddisk0\Partition2            30618M
ORCLDISK1                        \Device\Harddisk1\Partition1             5117M
ORCLDISK2                        \Device\Harddisk2\Partition1             5117M
ORCLDISK3                        \Device\Harddisk3\Partition1             5117M
ORCLDISK4                        \Device\Harddisk4\Partition1             5117M
ORCLDISK5                        \Device\Harddisk5\Partition1             5117M

Z:>

The shared disks are now configured.

Clone the Virtual Machine

Later versions of VirtualBox allow you to clone VMs, but these also attempt to clone the shared disks, which is not what we want. Instead we must manually clone the VM.

Shutdown the "w2008-112-rac1" VM.

Manually clone the virtual disk using the following commands on the host server.

$ mkdir -p /u03/VirtualBox/w2008-112-rac2
$ VBoxManage clonehd /u02/VirtualBox/w2008-112-rac1/w2008-112-rac1.vdi /u03/VirtualBox/w2008-112-rac2/w2008-112-rac2.vdi

Create the "w2008-112-rac2" virtual machine in VirtualBox in the same way as you did for "w2008-112-rac1", with the exception of using an existing "w2008-112-rac2.vdi" virtual hard drive.

Remember to add the second network adaptor as you did on the first VM. When the VM is created, attach the shared disks to this VM.

$ cd /u04/VirtualBox/w2008-112-rac
$
$ VBoxManage storageattach w2008-112-rac2 --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 1 --device 0 --type hdd --medium asm1.vdi --mtype shareable
$ VBoxManage storageattach w2008-112-rac2 --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 2 --device 0 --type hdd --medium asm2.vdi --mtype shareable
$ VBoxManage storageattach w2008-112-rac2 --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 3 --device 0 --type hdd --medium asm3.vdi --mtype shareable
$ VBoxManage storageattach w2008-112-rac2 --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 4 --device 0 --type hdd --medium asm4.vdi --mtype shareable
$ VBoxManage storageattach w2008-112-rac2 --storagectl "SATA Controller" --port 5 --device 0 --type hdd --medium asm5.vdi --mtype shareable

Start the "w2008-112-rac2" virtual machine.

Open the "Network Connections" screen (Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change adapter settings) and amend the IP address values of each network to the appropriate values for the second node.

Open the "System Properties" dialog (Start > Control Panel > System and Security > System > Change Settings) and change the machine name by clicking the "Change" button. Click all "OK" buttons to exit the "System Properties" dialog and restart the server when prompted.

Once the RAC2 virtual machine has restarted, start the RAC1 virtual machine. When both nodes have started, check they can both ping all the public and private IP addresses using the following commands.

ping rac1
ping rac1-priv
ping rac2
ping rac2-priv

At this point the virtual IP addresses defined in the hosts file will not work, so don't bother testing them.

The virtual machine setup is now complete.

Install the Grid Instrastructure

Start the installer by double-clicking on the "Setup.exe" in the root of the installation media.

Check the "Skip software updates" option, then click the "Next" button.

Grid - Software Updates

Select the "Install and Configure Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster" option, then click the "Next" button.

Grid - Select Installation Option

Select the "Typical Installation" option, then click the "Next" button.

Grid - Select Installation Type

On the "Specify Cluster Configuration" screen, click the "Add" button.

Grid - Specify Cluster Configuration

Enter the details of the second node in the cluster, then click the "OK" button.

Grid - Add Cluster Node Information

Click the "Identify network interfaces..." button and check the public and private networks are specified correctly. Once you are happy with them, click the "OK" button and the "Next" button on the previous screen.

Grid - Network Interfaces

Enter appropriate paths and "Automatic Storage Manager" as the cluster registry storage type. Enter the ASM password and click the "Next" button.

Grid - Specify Install Locations

Set the redundancy to "External", select all 5 disks and click the "Next" button.

Grid - Create ASM Disk Group

Wait while the prerequisite checks complete. If you have any issues, either fix them or check the "Ignore All" checkbox and click the "Next" button. In this installation I used the local "Administrator" user, rather than a domain user, hence the failure. The installation completes successfully despite this.

Grid - Perform Prerequisite Checks

If you are happy with the summary information, click the "Install" button.

Grid - Summary

Wait while the setup takes place.

Grid - Setup

Click the "Close" button to exit the installer.

Grid - Finish

The clusterware installation is now complete.

Install the Database Software and Create a Database

Start the installer by double-clicking on the "Setup.exe" in the root of the installation media.

Uncheck the security updates checkbox and click the "Next" button.

DB - Configure Security Updates

Check the "Skip software updates" checkbox and click the "Next" button.

DB - Software Updates

Accept the "Create and configure a database" option by clicking the "Next" button.

DB - Select Installation Option

Accept the "Server Class" option by clicking the "Next" button.

DB - System Class

Make sure both nodes are selected, then click the "Next" button.

DB - Node Selection

Accept the "Typical install" option by clicking the "Next" button.

DB - Select Istall Type

Enter appropriate paths. The storage type should be set to "Automatic Storage Manager". Enter the appropriate passwords and database name, in this case "rac.localdomain".

DB - Typical Install Configuration

Wait for the prerequisite check to complete. If there are any problems either fix them, or check the "Ignore All" checkbox and click the "Next" button. If there are no errors, you will move directly to the summary screen. If you are happy with the summary information, click the "Install" button.

DB - Summary

Wait while the installation takes place.

DB - Install Product

Perform any suggested tasks on the "Finish" screen. Click the "Close" button to exit the installer.

DB - Finish

The RAC database creation is now complete.

Check the Status of the RAC

There are several ways to check the status of the RAC. The srvctl utility shows the current configuration and status of the RAC database.

C:\>srvctl config database -d RAC
Database unique name: rac
Database name: rac
Oracle home: C:\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\db_1
Oracle user: nt authority\system
Spfile: +DATA/rac/spfilerac.ora
Domain: localdomain
Start options: open
Stop options: immediate
Database role: PRIMARY
Management policy: AUTOMATIC
Server pools: rac
Database instances: rac1,rac2
Disk Groups: DATA
Mount point paths:
Services:
Type: RAC
Database is administrator managed

C:\>
 
C:\>srvctl status database -d RAC
Instance rac1 is running on node w2008-112-rac1
Instance rac2 is running on node w2008-112-rac2

C:\>

The V$ACTIVE_INSTANCES view can also display the current status of the instances.

 
C:\>sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Tue Sep 13 12:58:23 2011

Copyright (c) 1982, 2010, Oracle.  All rights reserved.


Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, Real Application Clusters, Automatic Storage Management,
OLAP,
Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL> SELECT inst_name FROM v$active_instances;

INST_NAME
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

W2008-112-RAC1:rac1
W2008-112-RAC2:rac2

SQL>

If you have configured Enterprise Manager, it can be used to view the configuration and current status of the database using a URL like "https://w2008-112-rac1.localdomain:1158/em".

OEM

For more information see:

Hope this helps. Regards Tim...

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