Oracle Database Appliance 2.6 Is now Available

Oracle Database Appliance Software version 2.6 is now available for Download. ODA 2.6 is the first version that contains combined software for ODA V1 and ODA X3-2.
This release also has an offline configuration Tool that will work with Virtualized and Non Virtualized ODA Configurations. This provides a lot of help in upfront planning and configuration of the Database Appliance.
The offline configurator is available on Oracle Technology Network and can be downloaded here.
The Configurator now asks a set of Questions like Environment and Hardware to determine deployment and network structure to use.

From the patching perspective ODA 2.6 Offers a few enhancements
For the Virtualized Platform
1. Remote Template Support
2. Support for Assemblies i.e .ova Support
3. a GUI VM Console can be accessed via oakcli
For Bare Metal (aka Non Virtualized)
1. SAP Application deployment is supported
2. PSU Patch
3. Unified Patch for Both V1 and X3-2

I'm still testing the patch and will  put up something on how to patch a virtualized ODA as well as Baremetal steps shortly
The Information Center and various notes on MOS still have not been updated yet with ODA 2.6 information.
As always please test before deploying to production.

Collaborate 13 Presentation - Oracle Database Appliance RAC In a box some strings attached.

I just uploaded my presentation on Oracle Database Appliance  - RAC In a box some strings attached. Thank you for all the people that attended and i hope i was able to convey my points about the Database Appliance in a manner that was objective and factual

Oracle Database Appliance RAC in a box Some Strings Attached from Fuad Arshad

Oracle Database Appliance - RAC in a box Some strings attached from Fuad Arshad

Collaborate 2013 - Lots Of learning Lots of Fun

Collaborate 2013 is right around the corner and that is the place to be this April in Denver.
 There are a lot of Learning and a lot of social Activities. I'm goign to be down there presenting an Paper on Oracle Database Appliance http://bit.ly/YFmPpu .
I will be talking about how to deploy the Database Appliance and how it has changed how i do my day to day work. If you are interested in listening to me talk about Oracle Database Appliance , How it works , how easy it is to deploy etc . Please  join me at http://bit.ly/YFmPpu
There will be a lot of Tracks and Sessions and even time with a lot of influential People.
Below is a sneak peak of what i will be talking about. So if you feel that the Topic interests you. Please Come and join me or just come by to say Hi.

Moving Datafile from Physical Standby to Primary via Rman

Rman is an interesting tool and it seems everyday you learn something new. As part of a production issue we lost a diskgroup . This Diskgroup was only a small subset of the actual data but due to an issue in the underlying disk (External Redundancy). The database crashed. As we were debugging the issue with our vendor . We decided to use Rman and our Physical Standby to bring back the datafiles to help mitigate the outage. Now we could have failed over to our standby but since  our Standby hardware was not sized to handle production workload that was a risk the business was not willing to take.
As Oracle 11.1 you can use file from a standby(physical) database and move them to the primary.
We went thru to the Standby and determined which datafiles were in the particular group and then connected to primary from the standby as an auxiliary and copied the files over the network to the different diskgroup.

connect sys@standby AUXILIARY sys@primary;
BACKUP AS COPY DATAFILE 2 AUXILIARY FORMAT '+DATA/COPY_FILE/COPY_FILE.dbf;
..
..

Once the Files are copied you can switch the datafiles .

CATALOG DATAFILE COPY '+DATA/COPY_FILE/COPY_FILE.dbf';

RUN {
  SET NEWNAME FOR DATAFILE 2 TO ''+DATA/COPY_FILE/COPY_FILE.dbf';
  SWITCH DATAFILE 2;
}

This will allow for a move of the datafile as well as rename on the primary.
you will then  have do a crash recovery on the datafile(s) in question.

recover database 2;
alter database datafile 2 online;

you have just copied a file over the network and plugged it into your primary from standby. This is a pretty convenient if accidents happens.

Changing Enterprise Manager 12c Default inactive Timeout

Oracle Enterprise defaults to a timeout of 45 minutes . Depending on the organization or security policies you might want to change that to a lesser amount of time or in my case a longer period .
To check what the timeout is set

em@emap1>./emctl get property -name oracle.sysman.eml.maxInactiveTime
Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 2
Copyright (c) 1996, 2012 Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.
SYSMAN password:
Value for property oracle.sysman.eml.maxInactiveTime for oms All Management Servers is null    null = default of 45 minutes

After you have checked the value . you can change it

/u01/app/oraem/oem12c/oms/bin
em@emap1>./emctl set property -name oracle.sysman.eml.maxInactiveTime -value 90
Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 2
Copyright (c) 1996, 2012 Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.
SYSMAN password:
Property oracle.sysman.eml.maxInactiveTime has been set to value 90 for all Management Servers
OMS restart is required to reflect the new property value  

This will set the inactive time to 90 minutes . you will need an OMS bounce for this to take effect. Please ensure that whatever value you set meets your requirements and the security requirements of your company

Deploying a Virtualized Oracle Database Appliance ODA 2.5

So I finally got the opportunity  to deploy ODA 2.5 on a development Oracle Database Appliance. The Documentation  is very lacking and needs more refinement for the masses.
Here are the steps to deploy ODA 2.4 by reimaging the ODA . Concepts and procedures for bare maetaling the box remain the same.
    1. Use the ILOM to connect to the box via remote control and mount the VM Image  ( Need to do this on both hosts individually)
    2. After the reboot . The imaging Process will start and should takes between 1-2 hrs (Took about 2 hrs 30 minutes for me)
    3. Once you get the Oracle VM Server 3.1.1 screen. Your box has been imaged with a dom0 image.
    4. If you are using the ILOM you can ALT-F2 to get a login prompt
    5. Login as root
    6. Ensure that both boxes have been reimaged before starting the next step
    7. Run /opt/oracle/oak/bin/oakcli configure firstnet  ( on the first node)
    8. You have 2 options  (Local or Global)
    9. Global should be selectedi f both nodes are ready ot be ip'ed
    10. Select the network net1 , net2, net3, net4)
    11. Please note it is a little confusing but Here is a break down
        a.  priv1=bond0 (Interconnect)
        b.  Net1=bond1
        c. Net2=bond2
        d. Net3=bond3
        d. Net4=xbond0
    12. Oracle Failed to mention this but on startup does provide the MAC Addresses as well as ethernet names and bond info so be careful and ensure that  you understand your network topology prior to installing.
    13. You do want to make sure you have a DNS entry and a new IP Address for the DOM0 for each Server Node (2 x Dom0)
    14. Needless to say the network should be same on both nodes e.g public should be cabled on net1 on both nodes for consistency
    15. The network config will configure the public on both nodes  for Dom0 only
    16. After the config scp patch 16186172 into /OVS on the Dom0 box 0
    17. Unzip the patch 1 & 2 files and cat them together  cat a b >templates.
    18. Deploy the oda_base

 [root@odadb1-dom0 bin]# ./oakcli deploy oda_base
 Enter the template location: /OVS/templateBuild-2013-01-15-08-53.tar.gz
 Core Licensing Options:
         1. 2 CPU Cores
         2. 4 CPU Cores
         3. 6 CPU Cores
         4. 8 CPU Cores
         5. 10 CPU Cores
         6. 12 CPU Cores
         Selection[1 : 6]        : 5
         ODA base domain memory in GB(min 8, max 88)[default 80] :
 INFO: Using default memory size i.e. 80 GB
 INFO: Node 0
 INFO: Deployment in non local mode
 INFO: Running the command to copy the template /OVS/templateBuild-2013-01-15-08-                                                            53.tar.gz to remote node 1
 templateBuild-2013-01-15-08-53.tar.gz         100% 4620MB  47.6MB/s   01:37
 INFO: Node 0
 INFO: Spawned the process 26679 in the deployment node 0
 INFO: Trying to setup on deployment node 0
 INFO: Spawned the process 26680 in the node 1
 INFO: Trying to setup on node 1
 templateBuild-2013-01-15-08-53/swap.img
        ......
 templateBuild-2013-01-15-08-53/u01.img
 Using config file "/OVS/Repositories/odabaseRepo/VirtualMachines/oakDom1/vm.cfg"                                                            .
 Started domain oakDom1 (id=1)
 INFO: Deployment in local mode
 INFO: Node 1
 INFO: Extracted the image files on node 1
 INFO: Node 1
 INFO: The VM Configuration data is written to /OVS/Repositories/odabaseRepo/Virt                                                            ualMachines/oakDom1/vm.cfg file
 INFO: Running /sbin/losetup /dev/loop0 /OVS/Repositories/odabaseRepo/VirtualMach                                                            ines/oakDom1/System.img command to mount the image file
 INFO: Mount is successfully completed on /dev/loop0
 INFO: Making change to the /OVS/Repositories/odabaseRepo/VirtualMachines/oakDom1                                                            /tmpmnt/boot/grub/grub.conf file
 INFO: Node 1
 INFO: Node 1
 INFO: Assigning IP to the second node...
 INFO: Node 1
 INFO: Created oda base pool
 INFO: Starting ODA Base...
 Using config file "/OVS/Repositories/odabaseRepo/VirtualMachines/oakDom1/vm.cfg"                                                            .
 Started domain oakDom1 (id=1)
 INFO: Deployment in local mode
 INFO: Node 0
 INFO: Extracted the image files on node 0
 INFO: Node 0
 INFO: The VM Configuration data is written to /OVS/Repositories/odabaseRepo/Virt                                                            ualMachines/oakDom1/vm.cfg file
 INFO: Running /sbin/losetup /dev/loop0 /OVS/Repositories/odabaseRepo/VirtualMach                                                            ines/oakDom1/System.img command to mount the image file
 INFO: Mount is successfully completed on /dev/loop0
 INFO: Making change to the /OVS/Repositories/odabaseRepo/VirtualMachines/oakDom1                                                            /tmpmnt/boot/grub/grub.conf file
 INFO: Node 0
 INFO: Node 0
 INFO: Assigning IP to the first node...
 INFO: Node 0
 INFO: Created oda base poo1
 INFO: Starting ODA Base…

19. Once oda_base is deployed
                

 [root@podadb31-dom0 bin]# ./oakcli show oda_base
 ODA base domain
 ODA base CPU cores      :10
 ODA base domain memory  :80
 ODA base template       :/OVS/templateBuild-2013-01-15-08-53.tar.g

20.Once the oda_base is installed you will have to vnc in using the dom0 port 5900 to get access to the database server ( Due to a bug you will need to vnc in on both servers first and press the press any key to continue).
21. Once logged in you will need to IP the oda_base

22.You can either use the /opt/oracle/oak/bin/oakcli configure firstnet ( Please note it detects VM Environment and gives eth1,eth2,eth3 and eth4 as options )

23. Better to use  ./oakcli deploy
24. Oakcli now has option to change the proxy port for ASR as wella s configure external ASR server
25. External ASR server needs a server name as well as port (no definition of what the port is supposed to be )
26.  Also due to a bug if vm manager is bounced   you will have to vnc in and hit "press any key to continue". you can see that below

 The deployment process has not changed and will follow the same deployment steps.
This is the first release of ODA on a virtualized platform and glitches are to be expected. but it does seems to have been rushed out .
Please feel free to comment or ask questions. I have only deployed a DOm0 and the ODA_base here but i will deploy an app shortly and post my experience

Update: Edited steps and changed the network names

Oracle Database Appliance 2.5 And Virtualization (Updated)

So the cats out of the bag and Oracle has finally announced that Jan 31st ODA 2.5 will be available. The ODA 2.5 is a pretty significant update to the ODA Platform. it will have 1. Virtualization as an option with OVM 3.1.1 2. Official External ASR management. So The virtualization is huge since it allows for using the capacity of the ODA for things other than the Database. The concept is a DOM0 and an ODA_BASE which is a privileged domain that ensures that The Database Appliance performs optimally. Intially the DOMU or user Domain will not have access to ASM Disks or ACFS mounts but that is something that will show up in a future release . The User Domain will not be patched as part of the Single Patching technique which mean if you go with virtualization the user domain needs to be patched independently. Also initially only 250GB extra slice is the only space available for the DOM0 and DOMU areas. This can bring in a little more complexity but from a DR perspective it helps in building idle capacity with a smaller footprint . The question that is important is should ODA deployments start with a Virtual deployment even though there might be no requirement for it initially. Oracle will ship the physical deployment and customers can bare metal it to be virtualized. Oracle Claims to be able to provide virtualization with ease of use but only time will tell. I am pretty excited about this since i can build virtualized boxes and do DR at a cheaper cost but the same horse power that i need. I do intend to test this and see how the ease of use to determine if that is my goign in stance for all new ODA deployments . Update: The Database Appliance has 500GB of Local Disk space which means DOM0 and DOMU will have access to 250GB and ODA_BASE will have 250GB available to it.

Reinstalling an Oracle Database Appliance Part 3

An Oracle Database appliance is a set of standard hardware and software molded together to created a 2 node RAC cluster that is easy to deploy. In parts 1 & 2 i talked about what methods you can use to reformat or erase the Oracle Database Appliance and rebuild it. In this post  i will talk about 2 methods to complete a deployment on the Oracle Database Appliance (ODA).
You can use the GUI tool oakcli deploy that will walk you thru all the steps and let you add all the IP's and then do the deploy.
You can use the Oracle Appliance Kit offline configurator to generate the conf file and then either run  oakcli deploy to quickly validate all the information and runa graphical deploy.
The Oracle Appliance Kit Offline Configurator is available at the Oracle Technology Network ODA Page .  The Offline configurator is an exact replica of the oakcli deploy tool except it can be done on your laptop so you dont have to type all the info on the server. The Offline Configurator allows to save a text file in the below format.

#onecommand.params generated by GUI tool
# Confuration information
CONFIGVERSION=2.4.0.0.0

# CLUSTERINFO
DBMPREFIX=test1
DOMAIN=test.com
CLUSTERNAME=test1-c
REGION=America
TIMEZONE=America/Chicago

# DATABASE INFO
DbHomeArr=(test1)
OraHomeArr=(/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1)
DbBlkSizArr=(8192)
DBBackupType=External
DataDgArr=(DATA)
RecoDgArr=(RECO)
RedoDgArr=(REDO)
RecoSizeArr=(2048)
DbTypeArr=(RAC)
DbNodeArr=(ALL )
DbCharset=AL32UTF8
DbTeritory=AMERICA
DbLang=AMERICAN
DbClass=VSmall
DbQOSTypArr=(ADMIN)
COMPONENT_LANGUAGES={en}

This text file contains a complete snapshot of the ODA being Built. Below is how the ODA configurator looks like.

Once the file is loaded you can go thru a standard GUI deployment.
The Second method which is very useful to deploy an ODA is the silent method. you can use the text file generated from the ODA offline configurator and copy the config file

./oakcli copy -conf /software/test11_12.txt
Successfully copied the config file!!!

Once the config file has been copied you list what the GridInst.pl steps are

[root@oak1 onecmd]# cd /opt/oracle/oak/onecmd
[root@oak1 onecmd]# ./GridInst.pl -l
INFO   : Logging all actions in /dev/null and traces in /dev/null
INFO   : Loading configuration file /opt/oracle/oak/onecmd/onecommand.params...
The steps in order are...
Step  0 = ValidateParamFile
Step  1 = SetupNetwork
Step  2 = WriteNodelists
Step  3 = SetupSSHroot
Step  4 = SetupDNS
Step  5 = UpdateEtcHosts
Step  6 = SetTimezone
Step  7 = SetupNTP
Step  8 = SetupILOM
Step  9 = ValidateEnv
Step 10 = CreateUsers
Step 11 = SetupStorage
Step 12 = SetupSSHusers
Step 13 = InstallGIClone
Step 14 = RunGIClonePl
Step 15 = RunRootScripts
Step 16 = GIConfigAssists
Step 17 = CreateASMDiskgroups
Step 18 = InstallDBClone
Step 19 = RunDBClonePl
Step 20 = DbcaDB
Step 21 = SetupEMDbControl
Step 22 = SetupACFS
Step 23 = SetupTFA
Step 24 = SetupASR
Step 25 = ResecureMachine
[root@oak1 onecmd]#

It is very important to validate how many steps are there since Oracle can change the number between the versions. The above is a snapshot of ODA 2.4 Steps. you can decide to break down the number of steps run this in debug mode in which case you will have interaction on some steps. or just execute GridInst.pl via a shell script

[root@oak1 onecmd]# ./GridInst.pl -r 1-25

This will execute the ODA deploy in non GUI mode with all logging happening as normal.
This concludes this 3 part series on how to reinstall an Oracle Database Appliance. Please feel free to ask any questions regarding the ODA and i will try to the best of my knowledge to answer them

Reinstalling an Oracle Database Appliance part 1 Reinstalling an Oracle Database Appliance Part 2