3.3. Preparing Oracle Nodes

To prepare the Oracle nodes, follow these steps:

1. At each node, create the oracle group. For example:

   # groupadd dba -g 501

2. Make the oracle user's home directory. For example:

   # mkdir -p /home/oracle

3. At each node, create the oracle user. Make sure that the oracle user primary group is the dba group. For example:

   # useradd -c "Oracle Software Owner" -g dba -u 101 -m -d /home/oracle -s /bin/bash oracle

   	Note
   	All text on the preceding lines should appear as one continuous line. It has been broken up because of print limitations.

4. Change ownership of /home/oracle to oracle.dba. For example:

   # chown oracle.dba /home/oracle

5. Grant unlimited ulimit to oracle.

6. Make sure that oracle:dba owns the following mount points and quorum pool devices:

   • /dev/raw/raw1

   • /dev/raw/raw2

   • /mnt/oracle_base

   • /mnt/oraundo

   • /mnt/oraindex

   • /mnt/oradata

7. Adjust kernel parameters to the values shown in Table 3-1.

   	Note
   	The kernel parameter values are for the example cluster in this manual and may be different for your environment.

   Kernel Parameter	Setting
   fs.aio-max-size	1048576
   fs.aio-max-nr	1048576
   net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range	1024 65000
   net.ipv4.ip_forward	0
   shmmax	2147483648
   shmmni	4096
   semmsl	250
   semmns	32000
   semopm	100
   semmni	128

   Table 3-1. Kernel Parameter Values

   1. Specify the kernel parameters by modifying the /etc/sysctl.conf file according to Example 3-1. Specifying the parameters in the sysctl.conf file causes the parameters to be set upon reboot.

      # Kernel sysctl configuration file for Red Hat Linux # # For binary values, 0 is disabled, 1 is enabled. See sysctl(8) and # sysctl.conf(5) for more details. fs.aio-max-size = 1048576 fs.file-max = 327680 fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576 net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1024 65000 net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0 kernel.shmmax = 2147483648 kernel.shmmni = 4096 kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128

      Example 3-1. Kernel Parameters

   2. After modifying the sysctl.conf file, set the parameters with the sysctl -p command as follows:

      # sysctl -p fs.aio-max-size = 1048576 fs.file-max = 327680 fs.aio-max-nr = 1048576 net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1024 65000 net.ipv4.ip_forward = 0 kernel.shmmax = 2147483648 kernel.shmmni = 4096 kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128

8. Create libcwait.c.

   1. As user oracle, in the oracle user's home directory, create a file named libcwait.c with the following contents:

      #include <errno.h> #include <sys/syscall.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/wait.h> pid_t __libc_wait (int *status) { int res; asm volatile ("pushl %%ebx\n\t" "movl %2, %%ebx\n\t" "movl %1, %%eax\n\t" "int $0x80\n\t" "popl %%ebx" : "=a" (res) : "i" (__NR_wait4), "0" (WAIT_ANY), "c" (status), "d" (0), "S" (0)); return res; }

   2. Compile the file in the oracle user's home directory:

      # gcc -O2 -shared -o $HOME/libcwait.so -fpic $HOME/libcwait.c

9. Establish environment variables for the oracle user.

   1. Set the following Oracle environment variables (Table 3-2):

      Environment Variable	Suggested Value
      ORACLE_BASE	For example: /mnt/oracle_base
      ORACLE_HOME	For example: $ORACLE_BASE/product/920
      ORACLE_TERM	Xterm
      ORA_NLS33	$ORACLE_HOME/ocommon/nls/admin/data
      PATH	$ORACLE_HOME/bin:/usr/bin/X11/:/usr/local/bin and any other items you require in your PATH
      DISPLAY	ip-address:0.0 (Note: Comment out if installing remotely. Remember to use the ssh -X user@hostname command. For example, use ssh -X oracle@rac1 for the rac1 node.)
      TMPDIR	Set a temporary directory path for TMPDIR with at least 100 MB of free space to which the OUI has write permission.
      ORACLE_SID	Set this to what you will call your database instance. This should be a unique value on each node.
      umask	022
      LD_ASSUME_KERNEL	2.4.19
      LD_LIBRARY_path	$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/usr/lib
      LD_PRELOAD	$HOME/libcwait.so
      LD_LIBRARY_path	$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/usr/lib

      Table 3-2. Environment Variables for the oracle User

   2. Save the environment values listed in Table 3-2 to .bashrc, .login, or .profile for user oracle and user root. By saving the environment values to one of those files, you do not have to set the environment values each time you log in.

   3. Create the directory /var/opt/oracle and set ownership to the user oracle if it does not exist. For example:

      $ mkdir /var/opt/oracle $ chown oracle.dba /var/opt/oracle

10. Proceed to Section 3.4 Installing and Configuring Oracle Components.