Oracle Grid Infrastructure 19c (Oracle Restart) Installation

Requirements

1. Oracle Linux 8.10

2. Oracle Grid Infrastructure 19c (GI) zip file

3. Oracle Database 19c (DB) zip file

4. VirtualBox 7.1

5. Vitrual Machine resource allocation:

   • 5 GB RAM

   • 1 Cores [CPU]

   • 70 GB Virtual Disk for OS

   • 30x2 GB Virtual Disk for ASM

Steps

• Set up the Virtual Machine

  • Cloning existing VM and Adding Virtual Disk

• OS preparation for GI and DB Installation

  • Configuring disks to be used by Automatic Storage Management as disk groups

• Oracle Grid Infrastructure 19c (Standalone Server) installation

• Creating FRA disk group using ASMCA

• Oracle Database 19c Software Only installation

• Creating Database using DBCA

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Set up the Virtual Machine

I strongly recommend creating a new virtual machine by cloning an existing one. This way, if you ever want to start from the beginning, you won’t need to reinstall the operating system. Make sure that base machine at least 60 GB disk space. For more details see Oracle Linux 8.10 Installation using VirtualBox 7.1.

Cloning existing VM and Adding Virtual Disk

• Select a virtual machine and right-click.

• Choose the clone option.

• Name your machine.

• Choose the path where you want to store your virtual machine.

• Select full clone.

• Choose the generate new MAC addresses option. This is the best option when both the source VM and the cloned VM must operate on the same network.

• Click finish.

When cloning is finished, open settings of your cloned VM and add virtual disks.

• Open settings for the cloned VM.

• Navigate to the storage tab.

• Click the add hard disk button.

• Select create.

• Specify 30 GB for the disk size.

• Make sure pre-allocate full size option is unchecked.

• Click finish.

• Under the not attached tab, select the newly created disk.

• Repeat these steps to add another 30 GB virtual disk.

• Start VM.

Prepare the OS for GI and DB Installation

Throughout this article, some Oracle standard configuration settings will be modified or not strictly followed such as using a single OS user (oracle) as the administrator for both Grid Infrastructure components and the Oracle Database. These adjustments are neither mandatory nor critical but they aim to improve ease of use and enhance understanding. Once you are familiar with the workflow and the relationships between components, you can modify these settings by performing a fresh installation.

Login as root user.

make sure you have internet connection
# ping www.google.com

Install Oracle prerequisites packages, if you wonder where those packages are installed, you can run the "dnf repolist" command also run the "dnf list" command to display installed packages.

display packages
# dnf list

display repositories
# dnf repolist

install oracle prereqisites  
# dnf install oracle-database-preinstall-19c -y

optional, upgrade your system
# dnf check-update
# dnf upgrade 

Ensure that "oracle" user is a member of necessary OS groups.

"id" command prints real and effective user and group IDs
# id oracle

create OS groups for ASM administration and operation
# groupadd -g 54327 asmdba
# groupadd -g 54328 asmoper
# groupadd -g 54329 asmadmin

add oracle user to the created secondary groups
# usermod -a -G asmadmin,asmdba,asmoper oracle

change the password of oracle user
# passwd oracle

Below are the OS groups used to manage and operate Oracle Grid Infrastructure (GI) and Oracle Database (DB)

oinstall is primary group, others are secondary group

also known as Oracle Inventory group. grants all system privileges for Oracle Clusterware, Oracle ASM and Oracle Databases on the servers. Also all system privileges for installation owners.
54421 oinstall     

grants privileges to administer the database
54322 dba   

grants limited set of database administrative privileges       
54323 oper         

grants privileges to perform backup and recovery operations using RMAN or SQL*Plus
54324 backupdba    

grants privileges to perform Data Guard operations
54325 dgdba        

grants privileges to perform Transparent Data Encryption keystore operations.
54326 kmdba        

allows access the Oracle ASM disk devices
54327 asmdba       

grants startup and shutdown privileges of Oracle ASM.
54328 asmoper      

grants privileges to administer Oracle ASM.
54329 asmadmin     

grants privileges to perform administration of Oracle databases on an Oracle RAC cluster.
54330 racdba       

Create the directories for the Oracle GI and Oracle DB installation

oracle base
# mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle

oracle home                    
# mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/19.0.0/dbhome_1

grid base  
# mkdir -p /u01/app/grid

grid home
# mkdir -p /u01/app/19.0.0/grid

change the directory owner, group and mode
# chown -R oracle:oinstall /u01
# chmod -R 775 /u01   
       
permissions of 775 are required for installation and may be changed during the installation process. Ownership and these permissions allow Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) to create the Oracle Inventory directory at /u01/app/oraInventory.

# ll /u01
# ll /u01/app

Switch to the oracle user, take a backup of .bash_profile file.

# su - oracle
cd ~   same as cd /home/oracle
$ cd /home/oracle
$ cp .bash_profile .bash_profile.bkp

Create .grid_env file in /home/oracle with the required Oracle GI environment variables, alternatively using cat.

$ cat > /home/oracle/.grid_env <<EOF

paste the following text
# Environment variables
ORACLE_SID=+ASM; export ORACLE_SID
ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/grid; export ORACLE_BASE
ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/19.0.0/grid; export ORACLE_HOME
ORACLE_TERM=xterm; export ORACLE_TERM
JAVA_HOME=/usr/bin/java; export JAVA_HOME
TNS_ADMIN=\$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin; export TNS_ADMIN
PATH=.:\${JAVA_HOME}/bin:\${PATH}:\$HOME/bin:\$ORACLE_HOME/bin
PATH=\${PATH}:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/bin
export PATH

# setting the mask to 022 ensures that the user performing the software installation creates files with 644 permissions
umask 022
EOF

Create .db19c_env file in /home/oracle with the required Oracle DB 19c environment variables

$ cat > /home/oracle/.db19c_env <<EOF

# Environment variables
ORACLE_HOSTNAME=\$HOSTNAME; export ORACLE_HOSTNAME
ORACLE_SID=d4tdb; export ORACLE_SID
ORACLE_UNQNAME=d4tdb; export ORACLE_UNQNAME
ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle; export ORACLE_BASE
ORACLE_HOME=\$ORACLE_BASE/product/19.0.0/dbhome_1; export ORACLE_HOME
ORACLE_TERM=xterm; export ORACLE_TERM
JAVA_HOME=/usr/bin/java; export JAVA_HOME
TNS_ADMIN=\$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin; export TNS_ADMIN
PATH=.:\${JAVA_HOME}/bin:\${PATH}:\$HOME/bin:\$ORACLE_HOME/bin
PATH=\${PATH}:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/bin
NLS_DATE_FORMAT="DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS"; export NLS_DATE_FORMAT
TEMP=/tmp ;export TMP
TMPDIR=\$tmp ; export TMPDIR
export PATH
umask 022
EOF

Append the commands to the .bash_profile file and apply.

$ echo "source ~/.grid_env" >> ~/.bash_profile
$ echo "source ~/.db19c_env" >> ~/.bash_profile
$ source /home/oracle/.bash_profile
$ . .db19c_env
$ echo $ORACLE_HOME

Check the NTP service

switch to root user
$ su - root

check the NTP service (to ensure your system clock stays accurate)
# systemctl status chronyd
# systemctl start chronyd

check the current synchronization status
# chronyc tracking

Set SELinux to permissive to prevent it from potentially blocking required operations such as file access, network calls, and shared memory.

change SELINUX=enforcing to SELINUX=permissive
# sed -i s/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=permissive/g /etc/selinux/config
# sed -i s/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=disabled/g /etc/selinux/config
# cat /etc/selinux/config | grep SELINUX

# setenforce Permissive

stop the firewall and disable it 
# systemctl stop firewalld
# systemctl disable firewalld

Set up disks to be used by Automatic Storage Management as disk groups

Oracle ASM expects each disk group device to be on a separate physical disk.

# lsblk

Now, we will set up OS disks to be used as disk groups by Oracle ASM. By running the lsblk command, block devices can be listed. You can see the initial 70 GB and 30 GB disks as sda, sdb, and sdc

# udevadm info -a  /dev/sdb | grep -i kernel=
# udevadm info /dev/sdb | grep -i devtype
# /lib/udev/scsi_id -gud /dev/sdb

# udevadm info -a  /dev/sdc | grep -i kernel=
# udevadm info /dev/sdc | grep -i devtype
# /lib/udev/scsi_id -gud /dev/sdc

open a new terminal

you can maintain storage file path persistence by creating a rules file

create and edit the rules file for devices
# vim /etc/udev/rules.d/99-asm-disks.rules

since Oracle Restart (but not Oracle Clusterware) will be installed, OCR and Oracle GIMR disk groups do not need to be configured. The DATA and FRA disk groups are sufficient for now.

paste below text to the file

DO NOT FORGET TO CHANGE the "RESULT" parameter which should be set to the output of "/lib/udev/scsi_id -gud" command

KERNEL=="sd*", OWNER="oracle", GROUP="asmadmin", MODE="0660", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="disk", PROGRAM=="/lib/udev/scsi_id -gud /dev/$name", RESULT=="1ATA_VBOX_HARDDISK_VB6c2e1f8d-2d9c2549", SYMLINK+="oracleasm/DAT_ASM_1"
KERNEL=="sd*", OWNER="oracle", GROUP="asmadmin", MODE="0660", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="disk", PROGRAM=="/lib/udev/scsi_id -gud /dev/$name", RESULT=="1ATA_VBOX_HARDDISK_VB801f4283-df18b664", SYMLINK+="oracleasm/FRA_ASM_1"

# fsck -N /dev/sdb
# fsck -N /dev/sdc

reload the UDEV rules 
# udevadm control --reload-rules && udevadm trigger --action=add

# ll /dev | grep -e sdb -e sdc
# ll /dev/oracleasm/

Installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure 19c (Standalone Server)

Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone server also known as Oracle Restart

supports single instance databases, includes Oracle Restart and Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM). This support includes volume management, file system, and automatic restart capabilities. Install Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone server, which installs Oracle Restart and Oracle ASM, and creates one disk group.

Oracle Restart is currently restricted to manage single instance Oracle Databases and Oracle ASM instances only. Oracle Restart improves the availability of your Oracle database by providing the following services:

• When there is a hardware or a software failure, Oracle Restart automatically starts all Oracle components, including the Oracle database instance, Oracle Net Listener, database services, and Oracle ASM.

• Oracle Restart starts components in the proper order when the database host is restarted.

• Oracle Restart runs periodic checks to monitor the status of Oracle components. If a check operation fails for a component, then the component is shut down and restarted.

Download related files from Oracle downloads for Linux page.

Transfer the installed zip files using one of the following tools scp , ftp or sftp then unzip the files

open "cmd" on your Windows machine
> which scp

change IP address as your VM IP addreess
> scp D:\Storage\LINUX.X64_193000_grid_home.zip oracle@192.168.0.25:/u01/app/19.0.0/grid
 
> scp D:\Storage\LINUX.X64_193000_db_home.zip oracle@192.168.0.25:/u01/app/oracle/product/19.0.0/dbhome_1

If you got "WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!" error, run below command and try again. Running it clears old key entry so you can connect again without the mismatch error.

ssh-keygen -R 192.168.0.25
> ssh-keygen -R <host> 

Switch to oracle user

set grid environment variables
$ . .grid_env

$ cd $ORACLE_HOME
$ ll
$ unzip LINUX.X64_193000_grid_home.zip

Configure X11 forwarding by setting the display environment

open a new terminal and switch to root user
$ su - root
# xdpyinfo | head

run below commands as oracle user 
$ export DISPLAY=:1.0
$ xhost +

to test the x11 forwarding run below command 
$ xev

$ export CV_ASSUME_DISTID=OEL7.6

run GI installer
$ ./gridSetup.sh

Redundancy option determines how many copies of your data files, control files, online log files and archived log files are kept. The External means no copies are kept, only the original ones are stored.

Set the discovery path as the path defined in the 99-asm-disks.rules file.

open a new terminal and switch to root user then run the required scripts

$ su - root

# sh /u01/app/oraInventory/orainstRoot.sh
# sh /u01/app/19.0.0/grid/root.sh

When installation is successfully completed run the following command:

crsctl stat res -t

CRSCTL is an Oracle Restart/Clusterware specific utility. It manages the Oracle High Availability Services stack in the Oracle Restart environment, which consists of the Oracle High Availability Services daemon (ohasd), Oracle ASM (if installed), and Cluster Synchronization Services (if Oracle ASM is installed). In Oracle Restart environment CRSCTL commands only affect the local server on which you run them.

Focus on local resources for now:

ora.DATA.dg             created disk group named as DATA
ora.LISTENER.lsnr       Oracle Net Listener 
ora.asm                 asm instance

Creating FRA Disk Group using ASMCA

run below command in the same terminal

$ asmca

$ crsctl stat res -t

Installing Oracle Database 19c Software Only

Unzip the Oracle Database 19c zip file in the Oracle home directory.

cd ~
$ cd /home/oracle

set database environment variables
$ . .db19c_env 
$ echo $ORACLE_HOME
$ /u01/app/oracle/product/19.0.0/dbhome_1
$ cd $ORACLE_HOME
$ ll

$ unzip LINUX.X64_193000_db_home.zip

get the display value as described earlier

$ export DISPLAY=:1.0
$ export CV_ASSUME_DISTID=OEL7.6

run Oracle DB installer
$ ./runInstaller

open a new terminal and switch to root user

$ su - root

# sh /u01/app/oracle/product/19.0.0/dbhome_1/root.sh

Creating Database Using DBCA

run database configuration assistant (dbca)
$ dbca

if you get following error navigate to the bin directory and run dbca again ($ORACLE_HOME/bin)
$ cd bin

About Fast Recovery Area and Fast Recovery Area Disk Group

Oracle Database writes all RMAN backups, archive logs, control file automatic backups, and database copies to the fast recovery area. Fast recovery area size is set to 29 GB because the disk used to create FRA disk group was 30 GB.

Number of processes may vary for your installation

You may leave this step with default parameters or choose the language you want to set up for your database

$ cd ~
$ . .grid_env
$ crsctl stat res -t

$ . .db19c_env

try to connect database
$ sqlplus / as sysdba


SQL> select 1 from dual;
SQL> select open_mode from v$database;
SQL> exit

$ . .grid_env

run ASM Command-Line Utility
$ asmcmd

check the file directories

See the following Oracle documents for advanced information

• Oracle® Automatic Storage Management Administrator's Guide

• Oracle® Database Administrator’s Guide

• Oracle® Database Installation Guide for Linux