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Oracle® Grid Infrastructure Installation Guide
11g Release 2 (11.2) for IBM AIX on POWER Systems (64-Bit)

Part Number E24614-03
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What's New in Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation and Configuration?

This section describes new features as they pertain to the installation and configuration of Oracle Grid Infrastructure (Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Automatic Storage Management), and Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC). This guide replaces Oracle Clusterware Installation Guide. The topics in this section are:

Desupported Options

The following is a list of options desupported with this release:

Block and Raw Devices Not Supported with OUI

With this release, OUI no longer supports installation of Oracle Clusterware files on block or raw devices. Install Oracle Clusterware files either on Oracle Automatic Storage Management diskgroups, or in a supported shared file system.

New Features for Release 2 (11.2.0.3)

The following is a list of new features for Release 2 (11.2.0.3):

Cluster Health Monitor (CHM) Included with Oracle Clusterware

With 11.2.0.3.0, Cluster Health Monitor (CHM) is available on AIX. Cluster Health Monitor gathers operating system metrics in real time, and stores them in its repository for later analysis, so that it can determine the root cause of many Oracle Clusterware and Oracle RAC issues with the assistance of Oracle Support.

Cluster Health Monitor also works in conjunction with Oracle Database Quality of Service Management (QoS) by providing metrics to detect memory over-commitment on a node. QoS Management can shut down services on overloaded nodes to relieve stress, to and preserve existing workloads.

To support QoS Management, Oracle Database Resource Manager and metrics have been enhanced to support fine-grained performance metrics, and also can manage workloads with user-defined performance classes.

Extended Oracle ACFS and ADVM Support for AIX

ACFS (including ACFS Snapshots) and ADVM are supported on both AIX 7.1 and AIX 6.1 TL4 SP2 and later updates to AIX 6.1 (on PPC64 only).

Oracle Clusterware Upgrade Configuration Force Feature

If nodes become unreachable in the middle of an upgrade, starting with release 11.2.0.3, you can run the rootupgrade.sh script with the -force flag to force an upgrade to complete.

New Features for Release 2 (11.2.0.2)

The following is a list of new features for Release 2 (11.2.0.2):

Configuration Wizard for the Oracle Grid Infrastructure Software

The Oracle Grid Infrastructure Configuration Wizard enables you to configure the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software after performing a software-only installation. You no longer have to manually edit the config_params configuration file as this wizard takes you through the process, step by step.

See Also:

Oracle Clusterware Administration and Deployment Guide for more information about the configuration wizard.

Enhanced Patch Set Installation

Starting with the release of the 11.2.0.2 patch set for Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g Release 2 (Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Automatic Storage Management), Oracle Grid Infrastructure patch sets are full installations of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software. Note the following changes with the new patch set packaging:

See Also:

My Oracle Support note 1176177, "Important Changes to Oracle Database Patch Sets Starting With 11.2.0.2", available from the following URL:

https://support.oracle.com

Oracle ACFS and ADVM Support for AIX

Oracle ASM 11g release 2 (11.2.0.2) and later for AIX provides support for Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS), including ACFS Snapshots, and Oracle ASM Dynamic Volume Manager (ADVM).

ACFS (including ACFS Snapshots) and ADVM are supported only on AIX 6.1 TL4 SP2 and later updates to AIX 6.1 (on PPC64 only).

Cluster Health Monitor Included with Oracle Clusterware

Cluster Health Monitor gathers operating system metrics in real time, and stores them in its repository for later analysis, so that it can determine the root cause of many Oracle Clusterware and Oracle RAC issues with the assistance of Oracle Support.

Cluster Health Monitor also works in conjunction with Oracle Database Quality of Service Management (QoS) by providing metrics to detect memory over-commitment on a node. QoS Management can shut down services on overloaded nodes to relieve stress, to and preserve existing workloads.

To support QoS Management, Oracle Database Resource Manager and metrics have been enhanced to support fine-grained performance metrics, and also can manage workloads with user-defined performance classes.

Grid Installation Owner and ASMOPER

During installation, in the Privileged Operating System Groups window, it is now optional to designate a group as the OSOPER for ASM group. If you choose to create an OSOPER for ASM group, then you can enter a group name configured on all cluster member nodes for the OSOPER for ASM group. In addition, the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation owner no longer is required to be a member.

New Software Updates Option

Use the Software Updates feature to dynamically download and apply software updates as part of the Oracle Database installation. You can also download the updates separately using the download Updates option and later apply them during the installation by providing the location where the updates are present.

Redundant Interconnect Usage

In previous releases, to make use of redundant networks for the interconnect, bonding, trunking, teaming, or similar technology was required. Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle RAC can now make use of redundant network interconnects, without the use of other network technology, to enhance optimal communication in the cluster. This functionality is available starting with Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.2).

Redundant Interconnect Usage enables load-balancing and high availability across multiple (up to four) private networks (also known as interconnects).

Oracle Database Quality of Service Management

The Database Quality of Service (QoS) Management Server allows system administrators to manage application service levels hosted in Oracle Database clusters by correlating accurate run-time performance and resource metrics and analyzing with an expert system to produce recommended resource adjustments to meet policy-based performance objectives.

See Also:

Oracle Database Quality of Service Management User's Guide

New Features for Release 2 (11.2)

The following is a list of new features for installation of Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM 11g release 2 (11.2):

Automatic Storage Management and Oracle Clusterware Installation

With Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g release 2 (11.2), Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) and Oracle Clusterware are installed into a single home directory, which is referred to as the Grid Infrastructure home. Configuration assistants start after the installer interview process that configures Oracle ASM and Oracle Clusterware.

The installation of the combined products is called Oracle Grid Infrastructure. However, Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Automatic Storage Management remain separate products.

See Also:

Oracle Database Installation Guide for IBM AIX on POWER Systems (64-Bit) for information about how to install Oracle Grid Infrastructure (Oracle ASM and Oracle Clusterware binaries) for a standalone server. This feature helps to ensure high availability for single-instance servers

Automatic Storage Management and Oracle Clusterware Files

With this release, Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) and voting disks can be placed on Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM).

This feature enables Oracle ASM to provide a unified storage solution, storing all the data for the clusterware and the database, without the need for third-party volume managers or cluster filesystems.

For new installations, OCR and voting disk files can be placed either on Oracle ASM, or on a cluster file system or NFS system. Installing Oracle Clusterware files on raw or block devices is no longer supported, unless an existing system is being upgraded.

Oracle ASM Job Role Separation Option with SYSASM

The SYSASM privilege that was introduced in Oracle ASM 11g release 1 (11.1) is now fully separated from the SYSDBA privilege. If you choose to use this optional feature, and designate different operating system groups as the OSASM and the OSDBA groups, then the SYSASM administrative privilege is available only to members of the OSASM group. The SYSASM privilege also can be granted using password authentication on the Oracle ASM instance.

You can designate OPERATOR privileges (a subset of the SYSASM privileges, including starting and stopping ASM) to members of the OSOPER for ASM group.

Providing system privileges for the storage tier using the SYSASM privilege instead of the SYSDBA privilege provides a clearer division of responsibility between Oracle ASM administration and database administration, and helps to prevent different databases using the same storage from accidentally overwriting each other's files.

See Also:

Oracle Database Storage Administrator's Guide

Cluster Time Synchronization Service

Cluster node times should be synchronized. With this release, Oracle Clusterware provides Cluster Time Synchronization Service (CTSS), which ensures that there is a synchronization service in the cluster. If Network Time Protocol (NTP) is not found during cluster configuration, then CTSS is configured to ensure time synchronization.

Enterprise Manager Database Control Provisioning

Enterprise Manager Database Control 11g provides the capability to automatically provision Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle RAC installations on new nodes, and then extend the existing Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle RAC database to these provisioned nodes. This provisioning procedure requires a successful Oracle RAC installation before you can use this feature.

See Also:

Oracle Real Application Clusters Administration and Deployment Guide for information about this feature

Fixup Scripts and Grid Infrastructure Checks

With Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 (11.2), the installer (OUI) detects when minimum requirements for installation are not completed, and creates shell script programs, called fixup scripts, to resolve many incomplete system configuration requirements. If OUI detects an incomplete task that is marked "fixable", then you can easily fix the issue by generating the fixup script by clicking the Fix & Check Again button.

The fixup script is generated during installation. You are prompted to run the script as root in a separate terminal session. When you run the script, it raises kernel values to required minimums, if necessary, and completes other operating system configuration tasks.

You also can have Cluster Verification Utility (CVU) generate fixup scripts before installation.

Grid Plug and Play

In the past, adding or removing servers in a cluster required extensive manual preparation. With this release, you can continue to configure server nodes manually, or use Grid Plug and Play to configure them dynamically as nodes are added or removed from the cluster.

Grid Plug and Play reduces the costs of installing, configuring, and managing server nodes by starting a grid naming service within the cluster to allow each node to perform the following tasks dynamically:

Because servers perform these tasks dynamically, the number of steps required to add or delete nodes is minimized.

Oracle Clusterware Out-of-place Upgrade

With this release, you can install a new version of Oracle Clusterware into a separate home from an existing Oracle Clusterware installation. This feature reduces the downtime required to upgrade a node in the cluster. When performing an out-of-place upgrade, the old and new version of the software are present on the nodes at the same time, each in a different home location, but only one version of the software is active.

Oracle Clusterware Administration with Oracle Enterprise Manager

With this release, you can use Oracle Enterprise Manager Cluster Home page to perform full administrative and monitoring support for both standalone database and Oracle RAC environments, using High Availability Application and Oracle Cluster Resource Management.

When Oracle Enterprise Manager is installed with Oracle Clusterware, it can provide a set of users that have the Oracle Clusterware Administrator role in Oracle Enterprise Manager, and provide full administrative and monitoring support for High Availability application and Oracle Clusterware resource management. After you have completed installation and have Oracle Enterprise Manager deployed, you can provision additional nodes added to the cluster using Oracle Enterprise Manager.

SCAN for Simplified Client Access

With this release, the single client access name (SCAN) is the host name to provide for all clients connecting to the cluster. The SCAN is a domain name registered to at least one and up to three IP addresses, either in the domain name service (DNS) or the Grid Naming Service (GNS). The SCAN eliminates the need to change clients when nodes are added to or removed from the cluster. Clients using the SCAN can also access the cluster using EZCONNECT.

SRVCTL Command Enhancements for Patching

With this release, you can use srvctl to shut down all Oracle software running within an Oracle home, in preparation for patching. Oracle Grid Infrastructure patching is automated across all nodes, and patches can be applied in a multi-node, multi-patch fashion.

Typical Installation Option

To streamline cluster installations, especially for those customers who are new to clustering, Oracle introduces the Typical Installation path. Typical installation defaults as many options as possible to those recommended as best practices.

Voting Disk Backup Procedure Change

In prior releases, backing up the voting disks using a dd command was a required postinstallation task. With Oracle Clusterware release 11.2 and later, backing up and restoring a voting disk using the dd command is not supported.

Backing up voting disks manually is no longer required, as voting disks are backed up automatically in the OCR as part of any configuration change and voting disk data is automatically restored to any added voting disks.

See Also:

Oracle Clusterware Administration and Deployment Guide

New Features for Release 1 (11.1)

The following is a list of new features for release 1 (11.1)

Changes in Installation Documentation

With Oracle Database 11g release 1, Oracle Clusterware can be installed or configured as an independent product, and additional documentation is provided on storage administration. For installation planning, note the following documentation:

Oracle Database 2 Day + Real Application Clusters Guide

This book provides an overview and examples of the procedures to install and configure a two-node Oracle Clusterware and Oracle RAC environment.

Oracle Clusterware Installation Guide

This book (the guide that you are reading) provides procedures either to install Oracle Clusterware as a standalone product, or to install Oracle Clusterware with either Oracle Database, or Oracle RAC. It contains system configuration instructions that require system administrator privileges.

Oracle Real Application Clusters Installation Guide

This platform-specific book provides procedures to install Oracle RAC after you have completed successfully an Oracle Clusterware installation. It contains database configuration instructions for database administrators.

Oracle Database Storage Administrator's Guide

This book provides information for database and storage administrators who administer and manage storage, or who configure and administer Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM).

Oracle Clusterware Administration and Deployment Guide

This is the administrator's reference for Oracle Clusterware. It contains information about administrative tasks, including those that involve changes to operating system configurations and cloning Oracle Clusterware.

Oracle Real Application Clusters Administration and Deployment Guide

This is the administrator's reference for Oracle RAC. It contains information about administrative tasks. These tasks include database cloning, node addition and deletion, Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) administration, use of SRVCTL and other database administration utilities, and tuning changes to operating system configurations.

Release 1 (11.1) Enhancements and New Features for Installation

The following is a list of enhancements and new features for Oracle Database 11g release 1 (11.1).

New SYSASM Privilege and OSASM Operating System Group for ASM Administration

This feature introduces a new SYSASM privilege that is specifically intended for performing ASM administration tasks. Using the SYSASM privilege instead of the SYSDBA privilege provides a clearer division of responsibility between Oracle ASM administration and database administration.

OSASM is a new operating system group that is used exclusively for Oracle ASM. Members of the OSASM group can connect as SYSASM using operating system authentication and have full access to Oracle ASM.