1 Introduction to RAC Administration

Real Application Clusters Documentation Overview

This section describes the RAC documentation set. This book, the Oracle Real Application Clusters Administrator's Guide, provides RAC-specific administration information. Some of the topics described in this book include the use of Oracle Enterprise Manager in RAC environments. This book also describes how to administer services and storage, and how to use RAC scalability features to add and delete instances and nodes in RAC environments. The Oracle Real Application Clusters Administrator's Guide also discusses how to use Recovery Manager (RMAN), and how to perform backup and recovery in RAC.

The Oracle Real Application Clusters Administrator's Guide also describes how to use the Server Control (SRVCTL) utility to start and stop the database and instances, manage configuration information, and to delete or move instances and services. You can also use the appendix to resolve various RAC tools error and informational messages. A troubleshooting section describes how to interpret the content of various RAC-specific log files. In addition to this book, the Oracle Real Application Clusters Deployment and Performance Guide is on the Server Documentation CD and the Oracle Real Application Clusters Installation and Configuration Guide is on your platform CD as described under the following headings:

• Oracle Real Application Clusters Deployment and Performance Guide

• Oracle Real Application Clusters Installation and Configuration Guide and Oracle Real Application Clusters Quick Installation Guide

Introduction to Administering Real Application Clusters

Install your Oracle Database 10g software with the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) and create your database with the Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA). This ensures that your RAC environment has the optimal network configuration, database structure, and parameter settings for the environment that you selected. As a DBA, after installation your tasks are to administer your RAC environment at three levels:

• Instance Administration

• Database Administration

• Cluster Administration

Administering Real Application Clusters

Use the following tools to perform administrative tasks in RAC:

• Enterprise Manager—Oracle recommends that you use Enterprise Manager to perform administrative tasks whenever feasible

• Task-specific GUIs such as the Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) and the Virtual Internet Protocol Configuration Assistant (VIPCA)

• Command-line tools such as SQL*Plus, Server Control (SRVCTL), and the Oracle Interface Configuration tool (OIFCFG)

Database Instance Management and Database Administration in RAC

Use Enterprise Manager, SQL*Plus, or SRVCTL to administer database instances and RAC databases as described in Chapter 2, " Administering Database Instances in Cluster Databases".

Storage Management in Real Application Clusters

When you create your database, you can create Automatic Storage Management (ASM) disk groups and configure mirroring for ASM disk groups using the DBCA. After your RAC database is operational, you can administer ASM disk groups with Enterprise Manager or the SRVCTL utility as described in Chapter 3, " Administering Storage".

Administering Services in Real Application Clusters

When you create a RAC database, you can also create services and assign them to instances using the DBCA. After your RAC database is operational, you can use the DBCA, as well as Enterprise Manager and SRVCTL to administer services and high availability components as described in Chapter 4, "Administering Services".

Other high availability components include node resources such as the Virtual Internet Protocol (VIP) address for each node, the Global Services Daemon, the Enterprise Manager Agent, and the Oracle Net Listeners. These resources are automatically started when Cluster Ready Services (CRS) starts the node and CRS automatically restarts them if they fail. The application level resources are the instances and CRS background processes that run on each instance.

You can use the VIPCA to administer VIP addresses, and SRVCTL to administer other node resources. The information that describes the configuration of these components is stored in the Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) which you administer as described in Chapter 3, " Administering Storage".

Additional Real Application Clusters Administrative Topics

This book contains the following additional RAC administrative topics:

• Scalability—Adding instances and nodes to a RAC database as described in Chapter 5, " Adding and Deleting Nodes and Instances"

• Backup and Recovery—Configuring Recovery Manager (RMAN) and performing backup and recovery processing as described in Chapter 6, "Configuring Recovery Manager and Archiving" and Chapter 7, " Managing Backup and Recovery"

• Log Files—Administering information that Oracle records in log files as described in Appendix A, "Troubleshooting" and Appendix B, " Server Control (SRVCTL) Reference"

• Using SRVCTL—Using SRVCTL to administer RAC instances, databases, services, and so on, as described in Appendix B, " Server Control (SRVCTL) Reference"

• Error Messages—Interpreting error messages for RAC high availability and management tools as described in Appendix C, "Oracle Real Application Clusters Tools Messages"

Overview of Using Enterprise Manager with Real Application Clusters

Enterprise Manager is a Web-based tool with RAC-specific administration and performance-related features. If you create your RAC database with the Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA), then the Enterprise Manager Database Control tool is automatically configured for your RAC environment. This means that all instances that were part of your installation have an Enterprise Manager Agent running on them. Enterprise Manager Database Control enables you to manage a single RAC database with its instance targets, Oracle Net Services listener targets, host targets, and a cluster target.

Additionally, you can configure Enterprise Manager Grid Control on other hosts either inside or outside your cluster environment. Enterprise Manager Grid Control enables you to manage multiple cluster databases, cluster database instances, and the hosts on which cluster database components operate.

Grid Control enables you to monitor and administer your entire computing environment from one network location. Use Grid Control to manage all of your enterprise services, including hosts, databases, listeners, application servers, HTTP Servers, and Web applications, as one cohesive unit. Enterprise Manager Grid Control only requires one Agent on one host in your cluster environment to perform cluster database and instance discovery. Install Enterprise Manager Grid Control from a separate CD-ROM that is part of the Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1) CD-ROM Pack.

You can also use both Enterprise Manager Database Control and the Enterprise Manager Grid Control to:

• Administer database services—Start, stop, relocate, obtain status, and so on

• Create and assign resource plans—Assign resource plans to cluster database instances

• Administer storage—Assign undo tablespaces and re-assign them from one instance to another, administer redo log assignments among cluster database instances, and switch archive log modes

• Administer Automatic Storage Management—Administer ASM instances and ASM disk groups

• Perform general database activities—Start up and shut down RAC databases and instances, perform backup and recovery operations, edit server parameter file (spfile) settings for instances or for entire cluster databases, and so on

• Display host configurations—Memory, CPU, device I/O, network interfaces, the operating system and installed patches