Install

11.1.0.6 ASM installation on Solaris fails -I

Looks like that there is no easy way for me to install/configure Oracle components. And every install/configuration leads me to some or the other problems. Anyways I was trying to install Oracle Database 11g on a Solaris 10 but the CSS does not seems to come up. While issuing localconfig add as root user it gives following message and fails

-bash-3.00# ./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

On checking further for css log messages in $ORACLE_HOME/log/hostname/client , I found following messages

Oracle Database 11g CRS Release 11.1.0.6.0 - Production Copyright 1996, 2007 Oracle. All rights reserved.
2008-06-18 21:38:29.721: [ CSSCLNT][1]clsssInitNative: failed to connect to (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(<strong>KEY=OCSSD_LL_test1zone2_</strong>))
, rc 9

On checking the /var/adm/messages file , found following errors

Jun 18 01:16:23 test1zone2 root: [ID 702911 user.error] Oracle Cluster Synchronization Service starting by user request.
Jun 18 01:16:25 test1zone2 root: [ID 702911 user.error] Cluster Ready Services completed waiting on dependencies.
Jun 18 01:16:35 test1zone2 last message repeated 9 times

/var/tmp/.oracle does not show any files created after running localconfig add. These are called Socket files and CSS uses these for communication.I suspect this to be a issue.
I checked our Linux machine (with RAC) and found that we have some files and one of them is named as

srwxrwxrwx  1 oracle oinstall 0 Jun 11 22:10 <strong>sOCSSD_LL_prod01_</strong>

This is quite similar to the error message in css.log files i.e KEY=OCSSD_LL_test1zone2_

As this is a test machine so I cant raise a ticket with Oracle. Currently posted a thread on Oracle Forum. Let’s see if someone is able to figure out something. I will keep you posted. If anyone is interested in reading how these sockets work then they can visit this article from Frits Hoogland.

18 June, 2008 by 11g 3

Easy and Free X-Windowing Setup with Cygwin

Today I had to carry out Oracle client Installation on one of the server. Normally I use vncviewer to connect to one of my Linux machine (having vncserver setup) and then get the display on to that machine.

But my colleague suggested me about one more approach, which I thought of sharing with all of you. This is using a X –Windowing software which is Free 🙂 Surprised!!

This can be done using Cygwin which is a freeware so you can trash your Reflection X or Hummingbird Installations. You can check various X-Windows software available here

Lets come back to Cygwin. You can download the software from http://x.cygwin.com/

To perform the Cygwin setup, you need to follow below steps

1) Start the XWindows server on your PC. This could be done by running startxwin-multiwindow file present on Desktop (Created during installation) or running /usr/X11R6/bin/startxwin.sh from cygwin

$ sh /usr/X11R6/bin/startxwin.sh

You can also use startx. For configuration check this link

http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ug/using.html

3) Connect to the Unix/Linux machine and set the display to your machine. Use ipconfig command to get the IP address for your machine. E.g

C:\Documents and Settings\amit &gt;ipconfig
Windows IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : xyz.com
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : <strong>192.168.4.47</strong>
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : X.X.X.X
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : X.X.X.X

Now set the DISPLAY variable as

$export DISPLAY=192.168.4.47:0.0

4) Test it by typing any application like xcalc,xclock,etc.

If X11 Forwarding is enabled on the remote machine, you can also directly login to server using ssh

$ssh oracle@ip –X

Now you can carry out oracle Installation using runInstaller 🙂

5 June, 2008 by Unix 2

CPU (Critical Patch Update) and N-apply

OVERVIEW

Oracle has been regularly releasing security fixes for all it’s products to take care of any security vulnerability. Since 2005 Oracle formulated a policy that it will release CPU patch ( bundle of security fixes) every quarter (January, April, July, and October).

CPU includes fixes for various Oracle products including Database. Initially Oracle decided to include security fixes, fixes that conflict with security fix and fixes for bugs that affect wide range of users.

With each CPU Oracle provides a brief overview of fixes included, but does not elaborate on the vulnerabilities as this information could be misused. CPU patches are applied using Opatch utility.

CONFLICTS – SUPER SET – SUBSET

Before moving any further let us understand what a patch conflict is. As we all know, Oracle is bunch of c-programs. Any patch makes one or more changes to the c program files. Two patches can make changes to the same or different sets of c-code. When a patch shares one or more files with an existing patch then it is known as CONFLICT.

If a old patch makes all the changes to the c-code as compared to the new patch plus a set of additional changes, then the old patch is the SUPERSET of new patch. On the contrary if an existing patch contains only some of the changes compared to the new patch being installed, then it is called a SUBSET. While apply any new patch, Opatch checks for these 3 conditions.

In case of a superset situation, Opatch does not install the new patch and in case of subset old patch is rolled back and new patch is installed. When opatch detects a conflict scenario, user can decide which patch to keep and which patch to rollback.

N-APPLY

While applying a cpu patch, users can face a patch conflict with an all ready applied patch. You can request Oracle for a merge patch. CPU patches are cumulative i.e. fixes included in Jan fix will be part of April fix.

To take care of all the conflicts reported by various users, Oracle releases CPU super merge patches mid-way between 2 CPU patch releases. CPU super merge patches are merge of a CPU patch and all the reported patches conflicting with a given CPU patch.

This entire process was time consuming. Conflicts also prevent application of CPU patches. To overcome this, Oracle has come up with a new concept of packaging cpu patches for 10.2.0.3 (not all platforms) and upwards since July 2007. With this new process Oracle has stopped including non-security fixes in CPUs. Oracle has come up with N-apply concept.

With the new N-apply concept, a cpu is divided into one or more molecules. Molecule is set of one or more bug fixes. This feature is specially use full when users encounter conflicts. Conflicts can be resolved at the molecular level. This provides us a technique to apply a part of cpu fixes while patch conflicts are resolved.

To make use of the n-apply feature ensure that you have latest version of opatch, run the command:

opatch napply -skip_subset -skip_duplicate

OPatch parameter -skip_subset, which is specified at CPU patch install, enables OPatch to determine that a merge patch that includes a molecule is already installed in the Oracle home, and to then skip application of the molecule patch.

OPatch parameter, -skip_duplicate, provides the additional benefit of detecting when a molecule patch has already been applied, as in the case of a previous CPU, and to skip application of it. This reduces the length of time required to do the n-apply CPU installation and minimizes the overall change to the Oracle home.

4 May, 2008 by 10g 1

Disclaimer!!

This blog reflect our own views and do not necessarily represent the views of our current or previous employers.

The contents of this blog are from our experience, you may use at your own risk, however you are strongly advised to cross reference with Product documentation and test before deploying to production environments.

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