Install

Installing 10.2.0.5 EM using software-only on 10.2.0.4/11g DB (GUI)

In this article , I will discuss how to install 10.2.0.5 EM Grid using 10.2.0.4 database. This method can also be used with 11g database.When you carry out 10.2.0.1 EM Grid control installation, it creates a 10.1.0.4 Database by default which is no longer supported and  requires one to upgrade to supported release i.e 10.2. In case you choose EM grid installation with existing database, then DB version need’s to be <=10.2.0.3 which you would again like to upgrade to so as to easily receive bug fixes and be on latest supported release. So if you want to use 10.2.0.4 DB or 11.1 database, you will not be able to install using existing database directly but would have to follow a upgrade path. To overcome such situation, starting 10.2.0.4 EM Grid Control we now have Software-Only install method .Using the ‘Installing Software-Only and Configuring Later’ installation method, you can install only the software of the base release and then configure it later by applying the latest patch set.

Note that 10.2.0.4 /10.2.0.5 are patchset’s and need a 10.2.0.1 base installation to work.

In case you wish to carry out the installation in silent mode, you can find OTN article at below mentioned link

http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/revitt-oem.html

There is also metalink Note 763347.1 – How to Install Enterprise Manager Grid Control 10.2.0.5.0 Using an Existing Database with the Software Only Method

One of the issue while using silent install mode is that due to Bug 7137054 (Refer Note 602750.1 ConfigureGC.pl Reports – Invalid Username/Password ), you will be required to change sys password and run the ConfigureGC.pl script multiple times. Also you would be required to enter the password’s in the response file, which you might not be comfortable with. (Yeah in some environments, people can be very particular 🙂 )

While using GUI mode, I did not face any issues arising out of bug 7137054. Below steps are tried on a 10.2.0.4 database (11g database can also be used) and Platform is AIX 5L. Installation steps would remain same for other platforms too (In windows you will have to check the steps where in you are supposed to run scripts. GUI part should remain same)

Steps To Perform 10.2.0.5 EM Grid Installation using Software-only Install Method – GUI

1. Ensure that  database parameters are set to following values. This is important as OUI checks for these values and if it is not set , then installation fails

job_queue_processes 10
db_block_size 8192
timed_statistics TRUE
open_cursors 300
session_cached_cursors 200
aq_tm_processes 1
compatible <currently installed Oracle Database release> (default)
undo_management AUTO
undo_retention 10800
undo_tablespace <any acceptable name>
processes 150
log_buffer 1048576
statistics_level TYPICAL (Note that this value is specific only to Enterprise Manager 10g Repository Database release and later.)
TEMP space (Tablespace)Foot 1 50 MB (extending to 100 MB)
_b_tree_bitmap_plans false (hidden parameter)

2. Ensure that dbconsole repository is not present in the database. If it is, then remove it. You need to stop the dbconsole before starting the process.

 $ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl stop dbconsole

Remove the following directories from your filesystem:

rm -rf $ORACLE_HOME/(hostname_sid)
rm -rf $ORACLE_HOME/oc4j/j2ee/OC4J_DBConsole_(hostname)_(sid)

Removing DB Repository

ALTER system ENABLE RESTRICTED SESSION ;
EXEC sysman.emd_maintenance.remove_em_dbms_jobs;
EXEC sysman.setEMUserContext('',5);
REVOKE dba FROM sysman;
DECLARE CURSOR c1 IS SELECT owner, synonym_name name FROM dba_synonyms WHERE table_owner = 'SYSMAN';
 BEGIN
FOR r1 IN c1
 LOOP
IF r1.owner = 'PUBLIC'
THEN
 EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP PUBLIC SYNONYM '||r1.name; ELSE EXECUTE IMMEDIATE 'DROP SYNONYM '||r1.owner||'.'||r1.name;
END IF;
 END LOOP;
 END;
/
DROP USER mgmt_view CASCADE;
 DROP ROLE mgmt_user;
DROP USER sysman CASCADE;
 ALTER SYSTEM DISABLE RESTRICTED SESSION;

3.Log in to the database as SYSDBA and run the following command to install DBMS_SHARED_POOL package:

@?/rdbms/admin/dbmspool.sql

commit;

4. Install the 10.2.0.1 database using -noconfig option i.e to skip the configuration part. This will be carried out in the end by running ConfigureGC.pl script

./runInstaller -noconfig

Choose Installation with Existing Database

Specify the ORACLE_BASE Location under which you would like to install the EM Grid

You will be now prompted to enter the database details for the Repository database. Ensure that listener is UP.

a)In the Configure Email Notification section, specify an appropriate e-mail address, and the corresponding SMTP server name. You will receive important information on the condition of the monitored targets, including critical alerts at this e-mail address.

b)Specify the My Oracle Support (formerly Metalink) credentials.

c)Specify the Proxy Information if Grid Control is using a proxy server for external access


Refer to following documentation link for more information

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B16240_01/doc/install.102/e10953/installing_em.htm#CHDJJBCJ

a)Specify the password for Securing agent
b)Specify password for SYSMAN user. Please note that default ias_admin password is the same as the password assigned to the SYSMAN account. This is required to access the Oracle application server console



OUI will install OMS under $BASE_DIR/oms10g

OUI will install Management Agent under $BASE_DIR/agent10g

Once the installation finishes , you will be prompted to run allroot.sh script (as shown below). Before executing it, stop all the OPMN processes by running the following command from the Oracle home directory of the OMS (for example, oms10g):

Open a different shell and execute following commands using Oracle Software owner

Processes in Instance: EnterpriseManager0.db11g
-------------------+--------------------+---------+---------
ias-component      | process-type       |     pid | status
-------------------+--------------------+---------+---------
DSA                | DSA                |     N/A | Down
HTTP_Server        | HTTP_Server        |     N/A | Down
LogLoader          | logloaderd         |     N/A | Down
dcm-daemon         | dcm-daemon         |     N/A | Down
OC4J               | home               |     N/A | Down
WebCache           | WebCache           |     N/A | Down
WebCache           | WebCacheAdmin      |     N/A | Down

$./opmnctl stopall
opmnctl: stopping opmn and all managed processes...

$./opmnctl status
Unable to connect to opmn.
Opmn may not be up.

Now run the script allroot.sh as Root.


You will get a message that configuration assistants were skipped. You can ignore it as we used -noconfig method



Installation for 10.2.0.1 Base release is complete now. We now need to proceed towards 10.2.0.5 Patchset installation


5. Run following command from 10.2.0.5 patchset directory.

<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>cd $patch_dir/3731593/Disk1
./runInstaller -noconfig b_softwareonly=true

Choose OMS home to patch and proceed


You will be prompted for Sys password


Enter ias_admin Password. This will be same as SYSMAN password


Application server console will be now shutdown. You will get a message confirming same. Click Ok.

After Installation completes , you will be prompted to run root.sh (as shown below) as root from OMS_HOME


6. Next apply 10.2.0.5 patchset to AGENT_HOME by issuing following command.

<span style="font-size: small;">.</span>/runInstaller -noconfig

Select AGENT_HOME for patching i.e agent10g


After Installation completes , you will be prompted to Run root.sh (as shown below) from Oracle Home for Management Agent ($BASE_DIR/agent10g)


7.Now the installation part is over. Next we need to run ConfigureGC.pl script which will actually configure 10.2.0.5 Grid Control.

Before making changes to the environment variable PERL5LIB, take a backup of the variable:

 setenv PERL5LIB_BACKUP $PERL5LIB

Set PERL5LIB to $OMS_ORACLE_HOME/perl/lib/5.6.1

export PERL5LIB=/db40/temp2/oms10g/perl/lib/5.6.1

Configure Grid Control by running the ConfigureGC.pl script from the Oracle home directory of the OMS

/db40/temp2/oms10g/perl/bin/perl /db40/temp2/oms10g/sysman/install/ConfigureGC.pl /db40/temp2

This script will take long time (took 2 hrs on my setup). You can monitor $OMS_ORACLE_HOME/cfgtoollogs/cfgfw/ CfmLogger*log file to check for any errors

The plug-in Starting Oracle Management Server has successfully been performed
------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
The plug-in EMCLI Configuration is running

Operation EMCLI Setup is in progress.

The plug-in EMCLI Configuration has successfully been performed
------------------------------------------------------
The action patchsetConfiguration has successfully completed
###################################################

Once you get message that the configuration is complete, then check the status for OMS and AGENT

$OMS_ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl status oms
$AGENT_ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl status agent

You can now proceed with Agent installation on the targets to be monitored

Silent Install :OUI-10133:Invalid staging area Error

While using silent install for database software installation , you could encounter following errors

SEVERE:OUI-10133:Invalid staging area. There are no top level components for IBM SP AIX available for installation in this staging area.

This error is reported when OUI is unable to find products.xml file. Check response file for FROM_LOCATION parameter and see if it is correct and Oracle software owner has read permission on this file. In my case it was set to /oracle/dump/Disk1/database/stage/products.xml but the actual file was present at /oracle/ora10g/Disk1/database/stage/products.xml

ls -l "/oracle/ora10g/Disk1/database/stage/products.xml"
-rwxr-xr-x    1 ora10g   oinstall     804962 Aug 20 2005  /oracle/ora10g/Disk1/database/stage/products.xml

Modify the FROM_LOCATION to correct value and re-run the installation. It should go fine.

This parameter can have incorrect settings when you have copied the response file from $media/response/*rsp to a local directory due to which relative file naming convention makes file unavailable. By default value for FROM_LOCATION is set to “../stage/products.xml”. Edit the response file and enter the absolute path giving correct location for the file.

It can also be the case that you have created a custom response file using runInstaller GUI mode and the software media directory has now changed on the new server on which this response file is being used. e.g In my case response file was created when the Oracle software was staged in /oracle/dump/Disk1 directory but on the new server it has been moved to /oracle/ora10g/Disk1 . Due to this , OUI was not able to locate products.xml file and we were required to change value for FROM_LOCATION variable.

In case you are wondering how to create a custom response file, then it is pretty simple.To create response file for custom Installation

./runInstaller -record -destinationFile /oracle/ora10g/work/custom10g.rsp

Select the custom installation and choose the components which you wish to install.
When Oracle Universal Installer displays the Summary screen, perform one of the following actions:

 -Click Install to create the response file, then continue with the installation OR
    -Click Cancel and then Yes to create the response file but exit from Oracle Universal Installer without installing the software.

The response file is saved in the location that you specified using the -destinationFile option.

OUI-67124 – Copy failed from ‘location 1’ to ‘location 2’

Just a short note to discuss a problem faced by me while applying CPU Jan patch to clusterware on AIX 5L. I was getting following errors

UtilSession failed: ApplySession failed in system modification phase... 'ApplySession::apply failed: Copy failed from '/archive/oracle/soft/Patch/6980307/6756433/files/lib/libhasgen10.so' to '/oracle/crs_base/app/product/crs10gR2/lib/libhasgen10.so'...
Copy failed from '/archive/oracle/soft/Patch/6980307/6756433/files/lib/libocr10.so' to '/oracle/crs_base/app/product/crs10gR2/lib/libocr10.so'...
Copy failed from '/archive/oracle/soft/Patch/6980307/6756433/files/lib/libocrb10.so' to '/oracle/crs_base/app/product/crs10gR2/lib/libocrb10.so'...
Copy failed from '/archive/oracle/soft/Patch/6980307/6756433/files/lib/libocrutl10.so' to '/oracle/crs_base/app/product/crs10gR2/lib/libocrutl10.so'..

I had followed all the  pre-requsites for this patch installation i.e

1)Stopped the database instance and ASM instance on the node

2)Stopped the nodeapps services

3)Stopped the clusterware

4) Executed /usr/sbin/slibclean as root

I searched over metalink and found a note recommending renaming the files and  retrying the patching process. One more suggestion was to copy the files manually. I thought of debugging this issue (also wanted to have clean installation), so I checked for processes being run by ‘oracle’ user. I found that listener was running

oracle 1982506       1   0 00:30:13      -  0:00 /oracle/ora_base/app/product/db10gR2/bin/tnslsnr LISTENER_TAF_PRODDB1 -inherit

This was a listener which was created manually (not using netca) and not registered in the OCR. As a result, it did not stop when we stopped the nodeapps services. I then stopped the listener and executed /usr/sbin/slibclean (as root) and re-initiated the patching process. This time it went fine.

One more easier way would have been to use ‘fuser’ command to identify the pid’s for the processes accessing the file.

In the end I realized that before proceeding to apply patch ,it is better to check for if any Instance or listener or any other process (RMAN, sqlplus or sqlloader utilities too) is running from Oracle Home being patched even though you have followed all the steps mentioned in Patch readme.

Cheers

Amit

Using RDA As RDBMS Pre-Install Check Tool

Many of us would have come across RDA (Remote Diagnostic Agent) while working on a ticket with Oracle support. In case you have not heard about it, I would recommend to go through Metalink Note:314422.1 – Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA) 4 – Getting Started

RDA captures System Information such as OS,Hardware Details (like number of CPU and amount of RAM),OS error log,OS Monitoring tool output (like vmstat,TOP,etc). This can be handy in case you do not know the command or the location of the OS logs.Similary you can find Database version,Database Patch inventory,Database Alert log and trace files.

This can help save lot of time as you need not remember all OS commands to capture the information.
Similarly RDA also collects Database Performance Statistics like OS Statistics (CPU,Memory and Disk I/O Stats) along with TOP SQL, Locking and Latch statistics. In case of 10g, it generates AWR Report (60 mins) and ADDM report based on captured Snapshots. All this information can be helpful for diagnosing a Performance Problem.

There is one more use of RDA which not many people are aware of. i.e RDA Health Check / Validation Engine (HCVE). HCVE Engine can be used to perform Pre-Install checks for Oracle Database and Oracle Application server on Unix system (At time of writing this article, this functionality is not available on windows)


To run this , you need to execute rda.sh -T hcve e.g I need to validate if I can install Oracle 10gR2 on my OEL4 (Linux x86).

$ ./rda.sh -T hcve
Processing HCVE tests ...
Available Pre-Installation Rule Sets:
   1. Oracle Database 10g R1 (10.1.0) PreInstall (Linux-x86)
   2. Oracle Database 10g R1 (10.1.0) PreInstall (Linux AMD64)
   3. Oracle Database 10g R1 (10.1.0) PreInstall (IA-64 Linux)
   4. Oracle Database 10g R2 (10.2.0) PreInstall (Linux AMD64)
   5. Oracle Database 10g R2 (10.2.0) PreInstall (IA-64 Linux)
   6. Oracle Database 10g R2 (10.2.0) PreInstall (Linux-x86)
   7. Oracle Database 11g R1 (11.1.0) PreInstall (Linux AMD64)
   8. Oracle Database 11g R1 (11.1.0) PreInstall (Linux-x86)
   9. Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4) PreInstall (Linux)
  10. Oracle Application Server 10g R2 (10.1.2) PreInstall (Linux)
  11. Oracle Application Server 10g R3 (10.1.3) PreInstall (Linux AMD64)
  12. Oracle Application Server 10g R3 (10.1.3) PreInstall (IA-64 Linux)
  13. Oracle Application Server 10g R3 (10.1.3) PreInstall (Linux-x86)
  14. Oracle Portal PreInstall (Generic)
Available Post-Installation Rule Sets:
  15. Oracle Portal PostInstall (generic)
  16. RAC 10G DB and OS Best Practices (Linux)
  17. Data Guard PostInstall (Generic)
Enter the HCVE rule set number
Hit 'Return' to accept the default (1)
<strong>&gt; 6</strong>

Enter value for &lt; Planned ORACLE_HOME location or if set &gt;
Hit 'Return' to accept the default ($ORACLE_HOME)
<strong>&gt; /u01/app/oracle</strong>

Test "Oracle Database 10g R2 (10.2.0) PreInstall (Linux-x86)" executed at Wed Aug 27 15:12:18 2008

Test Results
~~~~~~~~~~~~

   ID NAME                 RESULT VALUE
===== ==================== ====== ========================================
   10 OS Certified?        PASSED Adequate
   20 User in /etc/passwd? PASSED userOK
   30 Group in /etc/group? PASSED GroupOK
   40 Input ORACLE_HOME    RECORD /u01/app/oracle
   50 ORACLE_HOME Valid?   PASSED OHexists
   60 O_H Permissions OK?  PASSED CorrectPerms
   70 Umask Set to 022?    PASSED UmaskOK
   80 LDLIBRARYPATH Unset? FAILED IsSet
  100 Other O_Hs in PATH?  FAILED OratabEntryInPath
  110 oraInventory Permiss PASSED oraInventoryOK
  120 /tmp Adequate?       PASSED TempSpaceOK
  130 Swap (in MB)         RECORD 1051
  140 RAM (in MB)          FAILED 1001
  150 Swap OK?             FAILED InsufficientSwap
  160 Disk Space OK?       PASSED DiskSpaceOK
  170 Kernel Parameters OK PASSED KernelOK
  180 Got ld,nm,ar,make?   PASSED ld_nm_ar_make_found
  190 ulimits OK?          FAILED StackTooSmall MaxLockMemTooSmall
  200 EL4 RPMs OK?         PASSED EL4rpmsOK
  204 RHEL3 RPMs OK?       PASSED NotRedHat
  205 RHEL4 RPMs OK?       PASSED NotRedHat
  209 SUSE SLES9 RPMs OK?  PASSED NotSuSE
  212 Patch 3006854 Instal PASSED NotRHEL3
  214 ip_local_port_range  PASSED ip_local_port_rangeOK
  220 Tainted Kernel?      PASSED NotVerifiable
  230 Other OUI Up?        PASSED NoOtherOUI
Result file: /home/oracle/rda/output/RDA_HCVE_A201DB10R2_lnx_res.htm

I also tried out option “RAC 10G DB and OS Best Practices (Linux)” which is part of Post Install but for some reason some of the components failed.

Enter the HCVE rule set number
Hit 'Return' to accept the default (1)
&gt; 16

Enter the password for 'SYSTEM':
Please re-enter it to confirm:

Test "RAC 10G DB and OS Best Practices (Linux)" executed at Wed Aug 27 17:26:33 2008

Test Results
~~~~~~~~~~~~

   ID NAME                 RESULT VALUE
===== ==================== ====== ========================================
   10 ORA_CRS_HOME         RECORD /u01/app/crs
  100 Database Name        RECORD orcl
  102 Database Version     RECORD 10.2.0.4.0
  104 Interconnect Network RECORD
  106 DB Block Size        RECORD 8192
  108 DB File Multiblock R RECORD 16
  120 Max Commit Propagati PASSED 0
  130 SYS.AUDSES$ Cache Si PASSED 10000
  132 SYS.IDGEN1$ Cache Si FAILED 20
<strong>  140 Parallel Execution M FAILED 2148</strong>
  150 Min Parallel Servers RECORD 1
  152 Min Parallel Servers FAILED 0
  200 $ORA_CRS_HOME Define PASSED Found
  210 Remote Access        PASSED All loaded
<strong>  220 _USR_ORA_DEBUG / CRS FAILED blrraclnx1:? blrraclnx2:?
  230 _USR_ORA_DEBUG / ORA FAILED blrraclnx1:? blrraclnx2:?</strong>
  240 rmem_max             PASSED OK
  250 UDP Buffer Size      PASSED OK
  260 wmem_max             PASSED OK
  270 rmem_default         PASSED OK
  280 wmem_default         PASSED OK
  290 Sysrq Magic Keys     PASSED OK
  300 Oracle Executable Li PASSED linked
<strong>  310 hangcheck-timer      FAILED blrraclnx1:Unknown blrraclnx2:Unknown
  320 aio-max-size Setting FAILED blrraclnx1:Unknown blrraclnx2:Unknown</strong>
  330 Memory (32-bit)      PASSED OK
<strong>  340 Swap (32-bit)        FAILED [blrraclnx1:]Swap&lt;2RAM [blrraclnx2:]S..&gt;</strong>
  350 Swap (64-bit)        PASSED OK
  360 Patch List           PASSED Complete
Result file: /home/oracle/rda/output/RDA_HCVE_P400RAC_lnx_res.htm

We can find details about prescribed values at

https://metalink.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/docs/HCVE_P400RAC_lnx.htm

e.g To fix SYS.IDGEN1$ Cache Size, we need to set cache size for sequence SYS.IDGEN1$ greater than or equal to 10,000.

SQL> alter sequence SYS.IDGEN1$ cache 10200;

Sequence altered.

Now we see that SYS.IDGEN1$ requirement is passed

<strong>132 SYS.IDGEN1$ Cache Si PASSED 10200</strong>

Refer Note:250262.1 – RDA 4 – Health Check / Validation Engine Guide for more information on HCVE.

Oracle Database 11G Installation on Solaris 10

I had installed Oracle Database 11g on Solaris 10 few days back. I thought of documenting the steps for easy reference. Please find below steps for the same

Installation Pre-Requisite

Refer to Oracle Database Installation Guide 11g Release 1 (11.1) for Solaris Operating System for checking Hardware and Software Requirements.

User Creation and Environment Settings

1)Create groups for Oracle account

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">#groupadd oinstall
#groupadd dba
#groupadd oper</span>

2)Create Oracle Default Home directory

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"># mkdir /export/home
# mkdir /export/home/oracle</span>

3)Create Oracle user

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"># useradd -g oinstall -G dba -d /export/home/oracle -s /usr/bin/bash oracle
# chown oracle:oinstall /export/home/oracle</span>

4)Create Project for Oracle for setting the kernel parameters

In case of Solaris 10, you can use projects to configure the kernel parameters instead of /etc/system file. This can be done as following

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"># projadd -U oracle -K "project.max-shm-memory=(priv,4g,deny)" oracle
# projmod -sK "project.max-sem-nsems=(priv,256,deny)" oracle
# projmod -sK "project.max-sem-ids=(priv,100,deny)" oracle
# projmod -sK "project.max-shm-ids=(priv,100,deny)" oracle</span>

There are many more ways of creating project entries such as group.group-name or user.user-name. For more details refer to Solaris Administration documents.

Update

Last three settings made by projmod command are not required as these values are lower than the default. This was pointed by Mike Madland and he also gave a Sun documentation link

http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-2724/6n50b0795?l=en&a=view#chapter1-33
You can check the values for max-sem-ids and max-shm-ids with this command:

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">prctl -n project.max-sem-ids -i task `ps -o taskid= -p $$`</span>

5)Create .bash_profile for Oracle user

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">#Oracle Environment Settings
TMP=/tmp; export TMP
TMPDIR=$TMP; export TMPDIR
ORACLE_BASE=/u03/app/oracle; export ORACLE_BASE
ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/11.1.0/db_1; export ORACLE_HOME
ORACLE_SID=TESTDB11G; export ORACLE_SID
PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:/usr/sfw/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/bin</span>

Now Set the Display to a X-windowing enabled system.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">$ export DISPLAY=192.168.4.47:0.0</span>

Also allow the host to accept the connection by

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">$xhost +</span>

Oracle Software Installation

Go to the Oracle dump location and run runInstaller as Oracle user

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">$./runInstaller</span>

This will open Oracle Universal Installer(OUI) screen. If Oracle Universal Installer is not displayed, then ensure DISPLAY variable is set correctly. Select “Software only” option and install the software. If any of the pre-requisite’s are not met , then installation will fail. You would be required to make necessary changes to proceed.

Database Creation

We will be using ASM for the Database files. For this we need to perform some configuration

1)Prepare the Raw device for using as ASM Disks

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"># ls -l
total 0
crw------- 1 root root 125, 1 Jun 20 10:39 1</span>

Disk should be owned by Oracle user and should have permission set to 660

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"># chown oracle:dba 1
# chmod 660 1

- # ls -ltr
total 0
crw-rw---- 1 oracle dba 125, 1 Jun 20 10:39 1</span>

2)Configure CSS Service

In case of Solaris 10, we need to use Service Management Facility (SMF) for configuring CSS service else it will not start. Refer to my earlier post for this step i.e 11.1.0.6 ASM installation on Solaris fails -II

3) Configure ASM Instance

a)Go to $ORACLE_HOME/bin

b)Execute dbca from this directory (ensure dbca is properly set)

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">$./dbca</span>

c) Select Configure ASM Instance option. This will create ASM instance for you. After this you can create Diskgroups using GUI or else use sqlplus to do the same.

4)Now continue creating database normally and enter Diskgroup Name after selecting Oracle Managed files as database file location.

While you navigate through GUI screens, it will prompt you to Specifying Security Settings

– Keep the enhanced 11g security settings(recommended)
– Revert to pre 11g settings

Select the 11g settings which will enable Auditing by default and also enable Case sensitive passwords with Stronger password hashing algorithm.

I have not discussed GUI screens for DBCA and OUI in this article. These are pretty much standard screens. In case you need more information about it, then you can refer to Oracle 11g Install guide for Solaris

11.1.0.6 ASM installation on Solaris fails -II

Some time back, I had written about CSS service not starting in my post 11.1.0.6 ASM installation on Solaris fails -I

After doing some research, I came across Metalink Document

Note:397238.1 – How to Convert init.cssd as a SMF service for Solaris 10

This document talks about using Service Management Facility (SMF) which was introduced in Solaris 10. To configure it we have to download a zip file from the note and copy two files called initcssd to /lib/svc/method/initcssd and copy the second file initcssd.xml to /var/svc/manifest/site and some other steps (as listed in doc)

1) Install Oracle Software on Solaris 10

2) Download files from Note: 397238.1. Once done, modify the files accordingly and copy to the required location.

3) Do the configuration and then enable the service.

<strong># svcadm -v enable initcssd</strong>

After doing this, still service does not start.

# ps -ef|grep css
    root 29137  3793   0 14:54:39 ?           0:00 /bin/sh /lib/svc/method/initcssd run
    root 29188 26874   0 14:54:50 pts/9       0:00 grep css

Note talks about checking the content of content of file /var/opt/oracle/scls_scr/<Your-hostname>/root/cssrun file.

But when I tried to check, I found that directory does not exists.

# cd /var/opt/oracle/scls_scr/
 cd: /var/opt/oracle/scls_scr/: No such file or directory
# cd /u03/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/bin/
<strong># ./crsctl start crs</strong>
Attempting to start Oracle Clusterware stack
Failure at scls_scr_create with code 1
Segmentation Fault (core dumped)

Actually this directory is created when we run ‘localconfig add’ which will configure the socket files and directories.

<strong># ps -ef|grep css</strong>
    root 29137  3793   0 14:54:39 ?           0:00 /bin/sh /lib/svc/method/initcssd run
# pwd
/u03/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/bin
<strong># ./localconfig add</strong>
Successfully accumulated necessary OCR keys.
Creating OCR keys for user 'root', privgrp 'root'..
Operation successful.
Configuration for local CSS has been initialized

Cleaning up Network socket directories
Setting up Network socket directories
Adding to inittab
Startup will be queued to init within 30 seconds.
Checking the status of new Oracle init process...
Expecting the CRS daemons to be up within 600 seconds.
Cluster Synchronization Services is active on these nodes.
        testzone2
Cluster Synchronization Services is active on all the nodes.
Oracle CSS service is installed and running under init(1M)
<strong># ps -ef|grep css</strong>
  oracle 29137  3793   0 14:54:39 ?           0:00 /u03/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/bin/ocssd.bin

Now just for fun, I thought of disabling the SMF and trying the configuration again.

# ./localconfig delete
Stopping Cluster Synchronization Services.
Shutting down the Cluster Synchronization Services daemon.
Shutdown request successfully issued.
Shutdown has begun. The daemons should exit soon.
Cleaning up Network socket directories

Disable the SMF
# svcadm -v disable initcssd
svc:/system/initcssd:default disabled.

Now again add CSS service

# ./localconfig add
Successfully accumulated necessary OCR keys.
Creating OCR keys for user \'root\', privgrp \'root\'..
Operation successful.
Configuration for local CSS has been initialized

Cleaning up Network socket directories
Setting up Network socket directories
Adding to inittab
Startup will be queued to init within 30 seconds.
Checking the status of new Oracle init process...
Expecting the CRS daemons to be up within 600 seconds.

Giving up: Oracle CSS stack appears NOT to be running.
Oracle CSS service would not start as installed
Automatic Storage Management(ASM) cannot be used until Oracle CSS service is started

Enable the initcssd SMF service

<strong># svcadm -v enable initcssd</strong>
svc:/system/initcssd:default enabled.
# ps -ef|grep css
  oracle  2589  3793   1 15:14:31 ?           0:00 /u03/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/bin/ocssd.bin

Cool!! CSS Service has started again 🙂

Note:397238.1 says that problem occurs only after rebooting the service and not during installation. May be document needs to be updated for Oracle 11g on Solaris 10. I would suggest anyone installing Oracle 11g on Solaris 10 should try using these steps. I will try to add a remark to the note. Apart from that Article is quite good.