9. How is possible to install a RAC if we don’t have a CFS?
This is possible by using a raw device.
10. What is a raw device?
A raw device is a disk drive that does not yet have a file system set up. Raw devices are used for Real
Application Clusters since they enable the sharing of disks.
11. What is a raw partition?
A raw partition is a portion of a physical disk that is accessed at the lowest possible level. A raw partition
is created when an extended partition is created and logical partitions are assigned to it without any
formatting. Once formatting is complete, it is called cooked partition.
12. When to use CFS over raw?
A CFS offers:
- Simpler management
- Use of Oracle Managed Files with RAC
- Single Oracle Software installation
- Autoextend enabled on Oracle datafiles
- Uniform accessibility to archive logs in case of physical node failure
- With Oracle_Home on CFS, when you apply Oracle patches CFS guarantees that the updated
Oracle_Home is visible to all nodes in the cluster.
Note: This option is very dependent on the availability of a CFS on your platform.
13. When to use raw over CFS?
- Always when CFS is not available or not supported by Oracle.
- The performance is very, very important: Raw devices offer best performance without any intermediate
layer between Oracle and the disk.
Note: Autoextend fails on raw devices if the space is exhausted. However the space could be added
online if needed.
14. What CRS is?
Oracle RAC 10g Release 1 introduced Oracle Cluster Ready Services (CRS), a platform-independent set
of system services for cluster environments. In Release 2, Oracle has renamed this product to Oracle
Clusterware.
15. What is VIP IP used for?
It returns a dead connection IMMIDIATELY, when its primary node fails. Without using VIP IP, the clients
have to wait around 10 minutes to receive ORA-3113: “end of file on communications channel”. However,
using Transparent Application Failover (TAF) could avoid ORA-3113.
16. Why we need to have configured SSH or RSH on the RAC nodes?
SSH (Secure Shell,10g+) or RSH (Remote Shell, 9i+) allows “oracle” UNIX account connecting to another
RAC node and copy/ run commands as the local “oracle” UNIX account.
17. Is the SSH, RSH needed for normal RAC operations?
No. SSH or RSH are needed only for RAC, patch set installation and clustered database creation.
18. Do we have to have Oracle RDBMS on all nodes?
Each node of a cluster that is being used for a clustered database will typically have the RDBMS and
RAC software loaded on it, but not actual data files (these need to be available via shared disk).
19. What are the restrictions on the SID with a RAC database? Is it limited to 5
characters?
The SID prefix in 10g Release 1 and prior versions was restricted to five characters by install/ config tools
so that an ORACLE_SID of up to max of 5+3=8 characters can be supported in a RAC environment. The
SID prefix is relaxed up to 8 characters in 10g Release 2, see bug 4024251 for more information.
20. Does Real Application Clusters support heterogeneous platforms?
The Real Application Clusters do not support heterogeneous platforms in the same cluster.
21. Are there any issues for the interconnect when sharing the same switch as the
public network by using VLAN to separate the network?
RAC and Clusterware deployment best practices suggests that the interconnect (private connection) be
deployed on a stand-alone, physically separate, dedicated switch. On big network the connections could
be instable.
22. What is the Load Balancing Advisory?
To assist in the balancing of application workload across designated resources, Oracle Database 10g
Release 2 provides the Load Balancing Advisory. This Advisory monitors the current workload activity
across the cluster and for each instance where a service is active; it provides a percentage value of how
much of the total workload should be sent to this instance as well as service quality flag.
23. How many nodes are supported in a RAC Database?
With 10g Release 2, we support 100 nodes in a cluster using Oracle Clusterware, and 100 instances in a
RAC database. Currently DBCA has a bug where it will not go beyond 63 instances. There is also a
documentation bug for the max-instances parameter. With 10g Release 1 the Maximum is 63.
24. What is the Cluster Verification Utiltiy (cluvfy)?
The Cluster Verification Utility (CVU) is a validation tool that you can use to check all the important
components that need to be verified at different stages of deployment in a RAC environment.
25. What versions of the database can I use the cluster verification utility (cluvfy)
with?
The cluster verification utility is release with Oracle Database 10g Release 2 but can also be used with
Oracle Database 10g Release 1.
26. If I am using Vendor Clusterware such as Veritas, IBM, Sun or HP, do I still
need Oracle Clusterware to run Oracle RAC 10g?
Yes. When certified, you can use Vendor Clusterware however you must still install and use Oracle
Clusterware for RAC. Best Practice is to leave Oracle Clusterware to manage RAC. For details see
Metalink Note 332257.1 and for Veritas SFRAC see 397460.1.
27. Is RAC on VMWare supported?
Yes.
28. What is hangcheck timer used for ?
The hangcheck timer checks regularly the health of the system. If the system hangs or stop the node will
be restarted automatically.
There are 2 key parameters for this module:
-> hangcheck-tick: this parameter defines the period of time between checks of system health. The
default value is 60 seconds; Oracle recommends setting it to 30seconds.
-> hangcheck-margin: this defines the maximum hang delay that should be tolerated before hangcheck-
timer resets the RAC node.
29. Is the hangcheck timer still needed with Oracle RAC 10g?
Yes.
30. What files can I put on Linux OCFS2?
For optimal performance, you should only put the following files on Linux OCFS2:
- Datafiles
- Control Files
- Redo Logs
- Archive Logs
- Shared Configuration File (OCR)
- Voting File
- SPFILE
31. Is it possible to use ASM for the OCR and voting disk?
No, the OCR and voting disk must be on raw or CFS (cluster file system).
32. Can I change the name of my cluster after I have created it when I am using
Oracle Clusterware?
No, you must properly uninstall Oracle Clusterware and then re-install.
33. What the O2CB is?
The O2CB is the OCFS2 cluster stack. OCFS2 includes some services. These services must be started
before using OCFS2 (mount/ format the file systems).
34. What the OCR file is used for?
OCR is a file that manages the cluster and RAC configuration.
35. What the Voting Disk file is used for?
The voting disk is nothing but a file that contains and manages information of all the node memberships.
36. What is the recommended method to make backups of a RAC
environment? RMAN to make backups of the database, dd to backup your voting disk
and hard copies of the OCR file.
37. What command would you use to check the availability of the RAC system?
crs_stat -t -v (-t -v are optional)
38. What is the minimum number of instances you need to have in order to create
a RAC?
You can create a RAC with just one server.
39. Name two specific RAC background processes
RAC processes are: LMON, LMDx, LMSn, LKCx and DIAG.
40. Can you have many database versions in the same RAC?
Yes, but Clusterware version must be greater than the greater database version.
41. What was RAC previous name before it was called RAC?OPS: Oracle Parallel Server
42. What RAC component is used for communication between instances?Private
Interconnect.
43. What is the difference between normal views and RAC views?A RAC view has the
prefix ‘G’. For example, GV$SESSION instead of V$SESSION
44. Which command will we use to manage (stop, start) RAC services in
command-line mode?
srvctl
45. How many alert logs exist in a RAC environment?
A- One for each instance.
46. What are Oracle Clusterware Components
Voting Disk — Oracle RAC uses the voting disk to manage cluster membership by way of a health
check and arbitrates cluster ownership among the instances in case of network failures. The voting disk
must reside on shared disk.
Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) — Maintains cluster configuration information as well as configuration
information about any cluster database within the cluster. The OCR must reside on shared disk that is
accessible by all of the nodes in your cluster
47. How do you backup voting disk
#dd if=voting_disk_name of=backup_file_name
48. How do I identify the voting disk location
#crsctl query css votedisk
49. How do I identify the OCR file location
check /var/opt/oracle/ocr.loc or /etc/ocr.loc ( depends upon platform)
or
#ocrcheck
50. What is SCAN?
Single Client Access Name (SCAN) is s a new Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 11g Release 2
feature that provides a single name for clients to access an Oracle Database running in a cluster. The
benefit is clients using SCAN do not need to change if you add or remove nodes in the cluster.
