For a production RAC implementation, the private interconnect should be at least Gigabit (or more) with redundant paths and "only" be used by Oracle to transfer Cluster Manager and Cache Fusion related data. In addition, each Linux node will only be configured with two network interfaces one for the public network ( eth0) and one that will be used for both the Oracle RAC private interconnect "and" the network storage server for shared iSCSI access ( eth1). For example, the shared Oracle Clusterware files (OCR and voting files) and all physical database files in this article will be set up on only one physical disk, while in practice that should be configured on multiple physical drives. This guide is provided for educational purposes only, so the setup is kept simple to demonstrate ideas and concepts.
All shared disk storage for Oracle RAC will be based on iSCSI using Openfiler release 2.3 x86_64 running on a third node (known in this article as the Network Storage Server).Īlthough this article should work with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Enterprise Linux (available for free) will provide the same if not better stability and will already include the ASMLib software packages (with the exception of the ASMLib userspace libraries which is a separate download).
The system will consist of a two node cluster, both running Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) Release 5 Update 4 for x86_64, Oracle RAC 11 g Release 2 for Linux x86_64, and ASMLib 2.0. In most cases, this would be a Storage Area Network (SAN), which generally start at US$10,000.įor those who want to become familiar with Oracle RAC 11 g without a major cash outlay, this guide provides a low-cost alternative to configuring an Oracle RAC 11 g Release 2 system using commercial off-the-shelf components and downloadable software at an estimated cost of US$2,200 to US$2,700. This cost would not even include the heart of a production RAC environment, the shared storage. A small two-node cluster can cost from US$10,000 to well over US$20,000. Unfortunately, for many shops, the price of the hardware required for a typical production RAC configuration makes this goal impossible. There's no better way to understand its benefits-including fault tolerance, security, load balancing, and scalability-than to experience them directly. One of the most efficient ways to become familiar with Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 11 g technology is to have access to an actual Oracle RAC 11 g cluster.
Configure iSCSI Volumes using Openfiler.Install Required Linux Packages for Oracle RAC.