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Create a 2 node RAC database manually

Contributed by Martin
Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Last Updated Wednesday, 20 February 2008

Once again, dbca has failed me when I tried to create a second database - it did not detect my ASM instance(s). I had to
revert to the good old scripted approach to create the second database but that was a welcome challenge. Actually, it's
not that difficult at all: a RAC database is just a single instance database which happens to run on multiple severs over
shared storage. All you need is an extra redo log thread per additional instance and another undo tablespace (I know
that this is oversimplified).

The article assumes that you already have a clustered ASM installation up and running on Linux, so let's get going.

Prepare the hosts

My database is called RACDB, instances are RACDB1 and RACDB2. My hostnames are node1 and node2, it's a
Standard Edition 2 node RAC install using ASM. My $ORACLE_BASE is /u01/app/oracle, $ORACLE_HOME therefore
translates to /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1, I also have an $ASM_HOME in
$ORACLE_BASE/product/10.2.0/asm_1 in addition to the Clusterware install.

To allow for trace and dump file generation, go to $ORACLE_BASE and create the top level directory RACDB. Descend
into RACDB and create {a,b,c,u}dump, scripts, dpump and pfile directories. Repeat this for the second host as well.

Initial init.ora

Go to $ORACLE_HOME/dbs and create a simple init.ora file as follows:

*.audit_file_dest='/u01/app/oracle/admin/RACDB/adump'
*.background_dump_dest='/u01/app/oracle/admin/RACDB/bdump'
*.cluster_database=false
*.compatible='10.2.0.1.0'
*.core_dump_dest='/u01/app/oracle/admin/RACDB/cdump'
*.db_block_size=8192
*.db_create_file_dest='+DATA'
*.db_domain=''
*.db_file_multiblock_read_count=16
*.db_name='RACDB'
*.db_recovery_file_dest='+DATA'
*.db_recovery_file_dest_size=2G
*.sga_target = 250M
*.job_queue_processes=10
*.log_checkpoints_to_alert=TRUE
*.pga_aggregate_target=100M
*.processes=500
*.remote_listener='LISTENERS_RACDB'
*.remote_login_passwordfile='exclusive'
*.sessions=200
*.undo_management='AUTO'
*.undo_tablespace='UNDOTBS1'
*.user_dump_dest='/u01/app/oracle/admin/RACDB/udump'
RACDB1.instance_name = RACDB1

Note the instance_name and db_name parameters. There is no reference to any RAC stuff here at all. Note also the
absence of "control_files". If you set it to a value, the create database statement will fail (Rember that ASM = OMF at
large!)

You also need to create a password file using orapw: orapw file=orapwRACDB1 password=sysRACDB.

Network configuration
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Now go to $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin and edit tnsnames.ora to add entries for your instances, the database and
the listeners. The listeners_racdb entry has to look like this:

LISTENERS_RACDB =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = node1-vip)(PORT = 1521))
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = node2-vip)(PORT = 1521))
)

I usually have an entry for the database on my server but don't bother with individual instances. Example:

RACDB =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = node1-vip)(PORT = 1521))
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = node2-vip)(PORT = 1521))
(LOAD_BALANCE = yes)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVER = DEDICATED)
(SERVICE_NAME = RACDB)
(FAILOVER_MODE =
(TYPE = SELECT)
(METHOD = BASIC)
(RETRIES = 180)
(DELAY = 5)
)
)
)

My application developers unfortunately don't make use of FCF/TAF or any more advance failover technology so this is
ok for my case.

Start the instance and create the database

Perform the finishing touches (add database instance to /etc/oratab and such), export the ORACLE_SID to RACDB1 and
start the instance:

SQL> startup nomount

Correct any errors until you don't have any more problems brining the instance to nomount state. Then run the create
database script, an example is given below:

CREATE DATABASE RACDB

MAXINSTANCES 8
MAXLOGHISTORY 100
MAXLOGFILES 64
MAXLOGMEMBERS 3
MAXDATAFILES 150
DATAFILE SIZE 300M AUTOEXTEND ON NEXT 10240K MAXSIZE 1024M EXTENT MANAGEMENT LOCAL
SYSAUX DATAFILE SIZE 200M AUTOEXTEND ON NEXT 10240K MAXSIZE 800M
DEFAULT TEMPORARY TABLESPACE TEMP TEMPFILE SIZE 200M AUTOEXTEND ON NEXT 10M MAXSIZE 1000M
EXTENT MANAGEMENT LOCAL
UNDO TABLESPACE UNDOTBS1 DATAFILE SIZE 200M AUTOEXTEND ON NEXT 10M MAXSIZE 1000M
CHARACTER SET WE8ISO8859P1
NATIONAL CHARACTER SET AL16UTF16
LOGFILE
GROUP 1 SIZE 50M,
GROUP 2 SIZE 50M,
GROUP 3 SIZE 50M
USER SYS IDENTIFIED BY "sysRACDB"
USER SYSTEM IDENTIFIED BY "systemRACDB";

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Note that I am using WE8ISO8859P1 character set - you might need something different. Any use of the "reuse" keyword
will cause the statement to fail.

Once that command has finished, enter "show parameter control" to get the location of the control file and add this to
your init.ora file. If you don't, the database will not mount after the next bounce!

The rest of the database creation is fairly standard - run at least catalog.sql, catproc.sql and catclust.sql. If you need
Java or XMLDB consult the Oracle documentation on which scripts to run in addition.

You should create a user tablespace and make it the database default tablespace to avoid objects "accidentally" stored
in SYSTEM or SYSAUX.

SQL> create tablespace users datafile 5m;

Tablespace created

SQL> Alter database default tablespace users;

Database altered

Turn single instance database to RACDB

A few more steps are now necessary to convert your single instance to a RAC database. Edit initRACDB1.ora and add
the cluster parameters:

*.cluster_database_instances=2
*.cluster_database=true
RACDB1.instance_number=1
RACDB2.instance_number=2
RACDB2.thread=2
RACDB1.thread=1
*.undo_management='AUTO'
RACDB1.undo_tablespace='UNDOTBS1'
RACDB2.undo_tablespace='UNDOTBS2'
RACDB1.instance_name = RACDB1
RACDB1.instance_name = RACDB2

This concludes the init.ora moification. In our case we have both information about the local and remote node in it, which
makes it easy to copy the file across to node2 (and rename it to initRACDB2.ora). Now create the second undo
tablespace:

SQL> Create undo tablespace undotbs2 datafile size 200M;

Tablespace created

Create the second instance's redo log thread:

SQL> alter database add logfile thread 2

2 group 4 size 50M,
3 group 5 size 50M,
4 group 6 size 50M;

Database altered

Issue a "shutdown immediate" now, then start the instance. It should come up ok, you'll find additional information in the
alert.log about RAC specifics. The important bit is the message stating that the database is mounted in shared mode
(CLUSTER_DATABASE=TRUE).

Now activate the 2nd redo log thread:

SQL> alter database enable public thread 2;

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Make sure you copy tnsnames.ora, initRACDB1.ora (as initRACDB2.ora), the password file over to the second node.
Add RACDB2 to /etc/oratab as well. Then rename all *RACDB1* files to *RACDB2* if you haven't done so already.
Finally start your second instance - and voila! You have a proper RAC database up and running now. Check
v$active_instances to make sure both appear in that view.

Finishing touches

I don't recmmend running RAC with pfiles, that never has been a good idea. Rather, I'd create the spfile in ASM:

SQL> create spfile='+data/RACDB/spfileRACDB.ora' from pfile;

Shut down both instances next and register the database and its instances with Clusterware as oracle:

$> srvctl add databaese -d RACDB -o $ORACLE_HOME

$> srvctl add instance -d RACDB -i RACDB1 -n node1
$> srvctl add instance -d RACDB -i RACDB2 -n node2

Check crs_stat to see if that worked and start the database:

$> srvctl start database -d RACDB

DONE!

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