2 Server and Network Preinstallation Tasks

2.2.1 Web Browser Support

On 32-bit Windows systems, the following Web browsers are supported for Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control:

• Netscape Navigator 7.2 and higher

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 with service pack 2, and higher

• Mozilla version 1.7 and higher

• Firefox versions 1.0.4, 1.5, 2. 0 and higher

On 64-bit Windows systems, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and higher is supported for iSQL*Plus and Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control.

To view or develop Oracle Application Express applications, Web browsers must support Java Script and the HTML 4.0, and CSS 1.0 standards. The following browsers meet this requirement:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later version

• Firefox 1.0 or a later version

2.2.2 Telnet and Terminal Services Support

This section contains these topics:

• Windows Telnet Services Support

• Windows Terminal Services and Remote Desktop Support

mstsc -v:servername /F /console

2.3.1 Hard Disk Space Requirements

Oracle recommends that you store Oracle components on NTFS. Because it is difficult for OUI to estimate NTFS and FAT disk sizes on Windows, the system requirements in this section are likely more accurate than the values reported on the Oracle Universal Installer Summary screen. In other words, it is difficult for OUI to provide accurate hard disk values for disk space. This includes the space required to create databases that are over 700 MB in size and the sizes of compressed files that are expanded on the hard drive.

Data files are not placed on NTFS partitions because they cannot be shared. Data files can be placed on unformatted (raw) disks used by ASM, Oracle Cluster File System (OCFS), or shared unformatted disks. Oracle Clusterware shared files can be placed only on OCFS or shared unformatted disks.

To install Oracle Clusterware, it requires 650 MB of available disk space for the software binaries. For the shared files used by Oracle Clusterware, you must have either 1.1 GB of available disk space if using external redundancy for the disks or 1.4 GB of available disk space if using the redundancy features available with Oracle Clusterware.

For both the Enterprise and Standard Editions of Oracle RAC, the hard disk requirements for Oracle Database components include 32 MB required to install Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and OUI on the partition where the operating system is installed. If sufficient space is not detected, then the installation fails and an error message appears. Table 2-1 lists the hard disk space requirements, including the requirement for the starter database.

^Footnote 1 Refers to the contents of the admin, flash_recovery_area, and oradata directories in the ORACLE_BASE directory

^Footnote 2 This size can be greater, depending on the installation options selected, such as languages or additional components. If you later plan to install Oracle Database and Oracle Real Application Clusters with automated backups enabled, then include at least an additional 2 GB for data file disk space.

2.7.1 Network Hardware Requirements

Each node in the cluster must meet the following requirements:

• Each node must have at least two network adapters; one for the public network interface and one for the private network interface (the interconnect).

• The private and public private network connection names must be different from each other and cannot contain any multibyte language characters. The names are case-sensitive.

• The private network connection name must be the same on all nodes.

• The public network connection name must be the same on all nodes.

• The public interface on each node must be listed first in the bind order (the order in which network services access the node).

• Oracle supports the TCP/IP protocol for the public and private networks

• Windows Media Sensing must be disabled for the private network connection by setting the value of the DisableDHCPMediaSense parameter to 1.

2.7.2 IP Address Requirements

Before starting the installation, you must have the following IP addresses available for each node:

• An IP address with an associated network name registered in the domain name service (DNS) for the public interface. If you do not have an available DNS, then record the network name and IP address in the system hosts file, %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.

• One virtual IP (VIP) address with an associated network name registered in DNS. If you do not have an available DNS, then record the network name and VIP address in the system hosts file, %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. Select an address for your VIP that meets the following requirements:

  • The IP address and network name are currently unused

  • The VIP is on the same subnet as your public interface

  Before installation, ensure that the default gateway can be accessed by a ping command. To find the default gateway, use the route print command, as described in your operating system's Help utility. After installation, configure clients to use either the VIP address or the network name associated with the VIP. If a node fails, then the node's virtual IP address fails over to another node.

• A private IP address with a host name for each private interface.

  Oracle recommends that you use private network IP addresses for these interfaces (for example: 10.*.*.* or 192.168.*.*). Use the %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file on each node to associate private network names with private IP addresses.

  Note:

  Avoid changing host names after you complete the Oracle Clusterware installation, including adding or deleting domain qualifications. You must remove the node from the cluster configuration and add it back later with the new name.

For example, with a two-node cluster where each node has one public and one private interface, you might have the configuration shown in the following table for your network interfaces, where the hosts file is %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts:

To enable VIP failover, the configuration shown in the preceding table defines the public and VIP addresses of both nodes on the same subnet, 143.46.43.0. When a node or interconnect fails, then the associated VIP is relocated to the surviving instance, enabling fast notification of the failure to the clients connecting through that VIP. If the application and client are configured with transparent application failover options, then the client is reconnected to the surviving instance.

2.7.3 Checking Network Requirements

To verify that each node meets the requirements, follow these steps:

1. If necessary, install the network adapters for the public and private networks and configure them with either public or private IP addresses.

2. Register the host names and IP addresses for the public network interfaces in DNS.

3. For each node, register one virtual host name and IP address in DNS.

4. For each private interface on every node, add a line similar to the following to the %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file on all nodes, specifying the private IP address and associated private host name:

   10.0.0.1     rac1-priv
   

If you need to change a network interface name, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, then Settings, then Control Panel, and then Network and Dial-up Connections

2. Right click the icon of the network interface for which you need to change the name

3. Select Rename

4. Enter and save the new name

To ensure that your public interface is first in the bind order, follow these steps:

1. Right-click My Network Places and choose Properties.

2. In the Advanced menu, click Advanced Settings...

3. If the public interface name is not the first name listed under the Adapters and Bindings tab, then select it and click the arrow to move it to the top of list

4. Click OK to save the setting and then exit network setup dialog

To disable Windows Media Sensing for TCP/IP, you must set the value of the DisableDHCPMediaSense parameter to 1 on each node. Because you need to modify the Windows registry to disable Media Sensing, you should first backup the registry and confirm that you can restore it, using the methods described in your Windows documentation. Disable Media Sensing by completing the following steps on each node of your cluster:

1. Backup the Windows registry.

2. Use Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe) to view the following key in the registry:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
   

3. Add the following registry value:

   Value Name: DisableDHCPMediaSense
   Data Type: REG_DWORD -Boolean
   Value: 1
   

4. Restart the computer.

2.8.1 Oracle Advanced Security Requirements

Satisfy hardware and software requirements to use authentication support with Oracle components. Some Oracle Advanced Security components can use a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) such as Oracle Internet Directory.

2.8.2 Oracle Enterprise Manager Requirements

All Oracle Enterprise Manager products that you use on your system must be of the same release. Older versions of Enterprise Manager are not supported with the current release.

2.10.1 Entering Cluster Verification Utility Commands

CVU is provided with two scripts: runcluvfy.bat, which is designed to be used before installation, and cluvfy, which is in the path CRS_home\bin. The script runcluvfy.bat contains temporary variable definitions which enable it to be run before installing Oracle Clusterware or Oracle Database. After you install Oracle Clusterware, use the command cluvfy to check prerequisites and perform other system readiness checks.

Before Oracle software is installed, to enter a CVU command, change directories and start runcluvfy.bat using the following syntax:

cd mountpoint
runcluvfy.bat options

In the preceding example, the variable mountpoint represents the path for the installation media and the variable options represents the CVU command options that you select. For example:

C:\> cd d:\media\db\Disk1\
C:\> runcluvfy.bat comp nodereach -n node1,node2 -verbose

By default, when you enter a CVU command, CVU provides a summary of the test. During preinstallation, Oracle recommends that you obtain detailed output by using the -verbose argument with the CVU command. The -verbose argument produces detailed output of individual checks. Where applicable, it shows results for each node in a tabular layout.

2.10.2 Using CVU to Determine if Installation Prerequisites are Complete

You can use CVU to determine which system prerequisites for installation are already completed. Use this option if you are installing Oracle 11g release 1 (11.1) on a system with a pre-existing Oracle software installation. In using this option, note the following:

• You must complete the prerequisites for using CVU, notably configuring SSH between all nodes in the cluster, before you can complete a cluster-wide status check.

• CVU can assist you by finding preinstallation steps that need to be completed, but it cannot perform preinstallation tasks

Use the following syntax to determine what preinstallation steps are completed, and what preinstallation steps must be performed

runcluvfy.bat stage -pre crsinst -n node_list 

In the preceding syntax example, replace the variable node_list with the names of the nodes in your cluster, separated by commas.

For example, for a cluster with the installation media located at D:\media\db and consisting of nodes node1, node2, and node3, you would enter the following command:

C:\> cd d:\media\db\Disk1\
D:\> runcluvfy.bat stage -pre crsinst -n node1,node2,node3

Review the CVU report, and proceed to the sections of the preinstallation chapter to complete additional steps as needed.

2.10.3 Using the Cluster Verification Utility Help

The cluvfy commands have context-sensitive help that shows correct syntax usage based on the command line arguments that you enter.

If you enter an invalid CVU command, then CVU shows the correct usage for that command. For example, if you type runcluvfy.bat stage -pre dbinst, then CVU shows the correct syntax for the database preinstallation checks that CVU performs with the dbinst stage option. The following is a list of context help commands.

• cluvfy -help —CVU displays detailed CVU command information.

• cluvfy comp -list—CVU displays a list of components that can be checked, and brief descriptions of how each component is checked.

• cluvfy comp -help—CVU displays detailed syntax for each of the valid component checks.

• cluvfy stage -list—CVU displays a list of valid stages.

• cluvfy stage -help—CVU displays detailed syntax for each of the valid stage checks.

2.10.4 Using Cluster Verification Utility with Oracle Database 10g Release 1 or 2

You can use CVU on the Oracle Database 11g release 1 (11.1) media to check system requirements for Oracle Database 10g release 1 (10.1) and later installations. To use CVU to check 10. 2 installations, append the command flag -r 10gR2 to the standard CVU system check commands.

For example, to perform a verification check for a Cluster Ready Services 10. 2 installation, on a system where the installation media is located on drive D: and the cluster nodes are node1, node2, and node3, enter the following command:

C:\> cd d:\Disk1\
D:\> runcluvfy.bat stage -pre crsinst -n node1,node2,node3 -r 10gR2

2.10.5 Verbose Mode and "Unknown" Output

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

• The node is down

• Executables required by CVU are missing in the Oracle_home\BIN directory, where Oracle_home represents the Oracle Clusterware home or the Oracle Database home directory

• The user account starting CVU does not have privileges to run common operating system executables on the node

• The node is missing an operating system patch, or other required software