I’m working on a series of videos to demonstrate all the steps required to create a RAC 11g R2 using VMWare and iSCSI from scratch. These videos will be reasonably free from clips, to show the full process and what to expect. I find there are a lot of “How-tos” out there that are written, with screenshots, but that do not provide the newer DBA with the confidence that the procedure will work. I feel a video first, procedure second, provides confidence that the steps documented do lead to something usable in the end.
These videos will be published in a seemingly random order, partly related to how I decide to edit/cut them. Also there will be some differences in video/audio quality as I improve my processes over time. The videos were not necessarily shot in the order of execution, but I will sequence them in a “Playlist” on youtube so it’s easy to figure out the order in which they should be watched.
Please keep in mind there will be gaps. At present, I have put four new videos up; my intention is the following set of videos:
- Working with VMWare: Understanding guests, multiple virtual NICs, vmnet, vmdks, and the cloning process
- Install Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL, RHEL, CentOS) 5.4 or 5.3 using a kickstart file to build a generic “base brick machine” (BBM)
- Understanding runlevels and booting into single user mode with GRUB and Linux
- Create an iSCSI target host using a BBM (not bloated openfiler)
- Create a router using a BBM to serve as a gateway and DHCP server for the public network of a RAC
- Create a DNS server using a BBM, and create zones for Oracle Grid Infrastructure GNS
- Install Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control 10.2.0.x and patch to 10.2.0.5 (10gR5) on a BBM
- Understanding ssh user equivalency and using the basics of authorized_keys
- Prepare a BBM for Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g R2
- Install Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g R2 in VMWare on 2 nodes
- Run root scripts for Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g R2
- Install Oracle Database Real Application Clusters (RAC) 11g R2 on 2 nodes
- Creating a RAC 11g R2 database using DBCA
Arguably steps 4 and 9 are probably the most difficult for configuring a RAC; #4, creating the shared storage “device” (in this case, a server running OEL with iSCSI target software) and #9, attaching the nodes to this device.
The 4 videos I’ve prepared and uploaded so far:
4. Create an iSCSI target host using a BBM
9. Prepare a BBM for Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g R2
10. Install Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g R2 in VMWare on 2 nodes
11. Run root scripts for Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11g R2
The playlist that I will maintain with this full list of videos is at this link.
http://www.youtube.com/user/masterschema#grid/user/8DBBE5E49A28EA6A
