A Troubleshooting the Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation Process

A.1 General Installation Issues

The following is a list of examples of types of errors that can occur during installation. It contains the following issues:

• INS-32026 INSTALL_COMMON_HINT_DATABASE_LOCATION_ERROR

• Failure to start network or VIP resources when Microsoft Failover Cluster is installed

• Nodes unavailable for selection from the OUI Node Selection screen

• Node nodename is unreachable

• Shared disk access fails

• Installation does not complete successfully on all nodes

• INS-20802: Grid Infrastructure configuration failed

• Timed out waiting for the CRS stack to start

• Other Installation Issues and Errors

A.2 Interpreting CVU "Unknown" Output Messages Using Verbose Mode

If you run Cluster Verification Utility (CVU) using the -verbose argument, and a Cluster Verification Utility command responds with UNKNOWN for a particular node, then this is because Cluster Verification Utility cannot determine if a check passed or failed. The following is a list of possible causes for an "Unknown" response:

• The node is down

• Common operating system command binaries required by Cluster Verification Utility are missing in the bin directory of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure home or Oracle home directory

• The user account starting Cluster Verification Utility does not have privileges to run common operating system commands on the node

• The node is missing an operating system patch, or a required package

A.3 Interpreting CVU Messages About Oracle Grid Infrastructure Setup

If the Cluster Verification Utility report indicates that your system fails to meet the requirements for Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation, then use the topics in this section to correct the problem or problems indicated in the report, and run Cluster Verification Utility again.

A.4 About the Oracle Clusterware Alert Log

The Oracle Clusterware alert log is the first place to look for serious errors. In the event of an error, it can contain path information to diagnostic logs that can provide specific information about the cause of errors.

After installation, Oracle Clusterware posts alert messages when important events occur. For example, you might see alert messages from the Cluster Ready Services (CRS) daemon process when it starts, if it aborts, if the failover process fails, or if automatic restart of a CRS resource failed.

Oracle Enterprise Manager monitors the Oracle Clusterware alert log and posts an alert on the Cluster Home page if an error is detected. For example, if a voting disk is not available, then a CRS-1604 error is raised, and a critical alert is posted on the Cluster Home page. You can customize the error detection and alert settings on the Metric and Policy Settings page.

The location of the Oracle Clusterware log file is Grid_home\log\hostname\alerthostname.log, where Grid_home is the directory in which Oracle Grid Infrastructure was installed and hostname is the host name of the local node.

A.5 Oracle Clusterware Install Actions Log Errors and Causes

During installation of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software, a log file named installActions<Date_Timestamp>.log is written to the %TEMP%\OraInstall<Date_Timestamp> directory.

The following is a list of potential errors in the installActions.log:

• PRIF-10: failed to initialize the cluster registry

  Configuration assistant "Oracle Private Interconnect Configuration Assistant" failed

• KFOD-0311: Error scanning device device_path_name

• Step 1: checking status of Oracle Clusterware cluster

  Step 2: configuring OCR repository

  ignoring upgrade failure of ocr(-1073740972)

  failed to configure Oracle Cluster Registry with CLSCFG, ret -1073740972

Each of these error messages can be caused by one of the following issues:

C:\> diskpart
DISKPART> automount enable

A.6 Performing Cluster Diagnostics During Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installations

If the installer does not display the Node Selection page, then use the following command syntax to check the integrity of the Cluster Manager:

cluvfy comp clumgr -n node_list -verbose

In the preceding syntax example, the variable node_list is the list of nodes in your cluster, separated by commas.

A.7 About Using CVU Cluster Healthchecks After Installation

Starting with Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g release 2 (11.2.0.3) and later, you can use the CVU healthcheck command to check your Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Database installations for their compliance with mandatory requirements and best practices guidelines, and to ensure that they are functioning properly.

Use the following syntax to run the healthcheck command option:

cluvfy comp healthcheck [-collect {cluster|database}] [-db db_unique_name] [-bestpractice|-mandatory] [-deviations] [-html] [-save [-savedir directory_path]

For example:

$ cd /home/grid/cvu_home/bin
$ ./cluvfy comp healthcheck -collect cluster -bestpractice -deviations -html

The options are:

• -collect [cluster|database]

  Use this flag to specify that you want to perform checks for Oracle Clusterware (cluster) or Oracle Database (database). If you do not use the collect flag with the healthcheck option, then cluvfy comp healthcheck performs checks for both Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Database.

• -db db_unique_name

  Use this flag to specify checks on the database unique name that you enter after the db flag.

  CVU uses JDBC to connect to the database as the user cvusys to verify various database parameters. For this reason, if you want checks to be performed for the database you specify with the -db flag, then you must first create the cvusys user on that database, and grant that user the CVU-specific role, CVUSAPP. You must also grant members of the CVUSAPP role SELECT permissions on system tables.The SQL script cvusys.sql is included in the CVU_home/cv/admin/ directory to facilitate the creation of this user. Use this SQL script to create the cvusys user on all the databases that you want to verify using CVU.

  If you use the db flag but do not provide a database unique name, then CVU discovers all the Oracle Databases on the cluster. If you want to perform best practices checks on these databases, then you must create the cvusys user on each database, and grant that user the CVUSAPP role with the SELECT privileges needed to perform the best practice checks.

• [-bestpractice | -mandatory] [-deviations]

  Use the bestpractice flag to specify best practice checks, and the mandatory flag to specify mandatory checks. Add the deviations flag to specify that you want to see only the deviations from either the best practice recommendations or the mandatory requirements. You can specify either the -bestpractice or -mandatory flag, but not both flags. If you specify neither -bestpractice or -mandatory, then both best practices and mandatory requirements are displayed.

• -html

  Use the html flag to generate a detailed report in HTML format.

  If you specify the html flag, and a browser CVU recognizes is available on the system, then the browser is started and the report is displayed on the browser when the checks are complete.

  If you do not specify the html flag, then the detailed report is generated in a text file.

• -save [-savedir dir_path]

  Use the save or -save -savedir flags to save validation reports (cvuchecdkreport_timestamp.txt and cvucheckreport_timestamp.htm), where timestamp is the time and date of the validation report.

  If you use the save flag by itself, then the reports are saved in the path CVU_home/cv/report, where CVU_home is the location of the CVU binaries.

  If you use the flags -save -savedir, and enter a path where you want the CVU reports saved, then the CVU reports are saved in the path you specify.

A.8 Interconnect Configuration Issues

If you plan to use multiple network interface cards (NICs) for the interconnect, then you should use a third party solution to bond the interfaces at the operating system level. Otherwise, the failure of a single NIC will affect the availability of the cluster node.

If you install Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle RAC, then they must use the same bonded NIC cards or teamed NIC cards for the interconnect. If you use bonded or teamed NIC cards, then they must be on the same subnet.

If you encounter errors, then perform the following system checks:

• Verify with your network providers that they are using the correct cables (length, type) and software on their switches. In some cases, to avoid bugs that cause disconnects under loads, or to support additional features such as Jumbo Frames, you may need a firmware upgrade on interconnect switches, or you may need newer NIC driver or firmware at the operating system level. Running without such fixes can cause later instabilities to Oracle RAC databases, even though the initial installation seems to work.

• Review virtual local area network (VLAN) configurations, duplex settings, and auto-negotiation in accordance with vendor and Oracle recommendations.

A.9 SCAN VIP and SCAN Listener Issues

If your installation reports errors related to the SCAN VIP addresses or listeners, check the following items to make sure your network is configured correctly:

• Check that the TCP/IP configuration settings are the same for the network interface on each node.

• Verify there is a DNS entry for the SCAN and that it resolved to three valid IP addresses. Use the command nslookup scan-name; this command should return the DNS server name and the three IP addresses configured for the SCAN.

• Use the ping command to test the IP addresses assigned to the SCAN; you should get a response for each IP address.

  Note:

  If you do not have DNS configured for your cluster environment, you can create an entry for the SCAN in the C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file on each node. However, doing so will result in only one SCAN being available for the entire cluster instead of three. Only the first entry for SCAN in the hosts file is used.

• Ensure the SCAN uses the same netmask that is used by the public interface.

If you need additional assistance troubleshooting errors related to the SCAN, SCAN VIP or listeners, refer to My Oracle Support. For example, the note with Doc ID 1373350.1 contains some of the most common issues for the SCAN VIPs and listeners.

A.10 Storage Configuration Issues

The following is a list of issues involving storage configuration:

• Recovery from Losing a Node File System or Grid Home

• Oracle ASM Storage Issues

C:\Grid_home\oui\bin> addNode.bat -silent "CLUSTER_NEW_NODES=lostnode"

C:\Grid_home\oui\bin> addNode.bat -silent "CLUSTER_NEW_NODES={lostnode}" 
"CLUSTER_NEW_VIRTUAL_HOSTNAMES={lostnode-vip}"

C:\>Grid_home\crs\config\gridconfig.bat

A.11 Completing an Installation That Exited Before Completing the Scipts

As part of the installation, OUI runs scripts at the operating system level to finish the installation and start the configuration assistants. If OUI exits before these scripts have finished running, then the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation is incomplete.

To complete an interrupted installation, as Administrator user on the node where the installation was started, execute the following command:

Grid_home\cfgtoollogs\configToolAllCommands

Run this command on only the first node. Running this command completes the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation. If the configToolAllCommands file does not exist, contact My Oracle Support for assistance in creating the file manually.

A.12 Troubleshooting Windows Firewall Exceptions

If you cannot establish certain connections even after granting exceptions to the executables listed in Chapter 5, "Oracle Grid Infrastructure Postinstallation Procedures,", then follow these steps to troubleshoot the installation:

1. Examine Oracle configuration files (such as *.conf files), the Oracle key in the Windows registry, and network configuration files in %ORACLE_HOME%\network\admin.

2. Pay particular attention to any executable listed in %ORACLE_HOME%\network\admin\listener.ora in a PROGRAM= clause. Each of these must be granted an exception in the Windows Firewall, because a connection can be made through the TNS listener to that executable.

3. Examine Oracle trace files, log files, and other sources of diagnostic information for details on failed connection attempts. Log and trace files on the database client computer may contain useful error codes or troubleshooting information for failed connection attempts. The Windows Firewall log file on the server may contain useful information as well.

4. If the preceding troubleshooting steps do not resolve a specific configuration issue on Windows, then provide the output from the following command to Oracle Support for diagnosis and problem resolution:

   netsh firewall show state verbose=enable