sap netweaver / oracle database 10gr2 rac on windows 2003 ... · oracle real application clusters...

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SAP Netweaver / Oracle Database 10gR2 RAC

on Windows 2003

A “Best Practices” Guide

An Oracle White Paper September 2007

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Preface...........................................................................................................................4

Naming Conventions and Terms ...............................................................................4 Implementation Roadmap..........................................................................................5

Technical Knowledge ............................................................................................5 Evaluation ..............................................................................................................5 Pre-Installation.......................................................................................................5 Installation..............................................................................................................5 Testing....................................................................................................................5

Prerequisites...............................................................................................................6 New Cluster Hardware...........................................................................................6

Storage ...............................................................................................................6 Hardware Configuration ............................................................................................7

Storage ...................................................................................................................7 Network..................................................................................................................8

Network Interfaces.............................................................................................8 System Configuration ..............................................................................................10

Operating System.................................................................................................10 Support of Windows 2003 Server........................................................................10 Microsoft Cluster Software and Heartbeat ..........................................................11 Windows 2003 64-bit or 32-bit............................................................................11

Windows 2003 64-bit on x86_64 platforms ....................................................11 Windows 2003 32-bit on x86_32 platforms ....................................................11

Storage, Disks ......................................................................................................12 Network Interfaces...............................................................................................14

Installation before Migration?..................................................................................14 Software Installation & Configuration ....................................................................16

Overview..................................................................................................................16 Oracle Clusterware (OCW)......................................................................................17

Installation............................................................................................................17 Upgrade................................................................................................................29

Oracle CFS...............................................................................................................31 Choosing the right NIC for OCFS .......................................................................31 Setting up OCFS volumes....................................................................................31 OCFS IO-Modes ..................................................................................................31

Rules for Formatting Volumes with OCFS .....................................................31 Formatting Volumes ............................................................................................32

Migration..................................................................................................................33 Oracle RDBMS Software ....................................................................................33

Installation........................................................................................................33 Upgrade............................................................................................................34

Database Conversion to RAC ..............................................................................34 Enabling RAC..........................................................................................................34

Undo Tablespaces ................................................................................................34 Online Redo Logs ................................................................................................35 Init.ora and Spfile.ora ..........................................................................................35 Oracle Administrator Groups...............................................................................36 Oracle Instance Creation......................................................................................37 Environment Variables ........................................................................................37 SQL*Net Configuration and Service Creation ....................................................37

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Major Differences between Oracle 9i and Oracle 10g Configurations............37 Oracle Net Configuration Assistant (netca) .....................................................38 Listener.ora ......................................................................................................42 Tnsnames.ora ...................................................................................................43 Sqlnet.ora .........................................................................................................45 Putting the Database and Instances under CRS control...................................45 Services ............................................................................................................46

Checking the Setup ..............................................................................................47 Important additional changes for SAP.................................................................48

DDLOG Sequence ...........................................................................................48 Contention on dc_sequences............................................................................48

Srvctl and crsctl........................................................................................................48 Windows 2003 and NTBackup................................................................................50 Backing up OCR......................................................................................................50 Backup .....................................................................................................................50 Testing......................................................................................................................51

Failures.................................................................................................................51 Hardware Failures ............................................................................................51 Software Failures .............................................................................................52

SAP Application Workload .................................................................................53 Additional Performance Recommendations ............................................................53

Automated Segment Space Management (ASSM)..............................................53 Local Update Dispatching....................................................................................53 Automatic Offlining of Undo Segments by SMON ............................................54

Appendix A: Oracle Cluster File System for Windows (OCFS).............................54 Introduction..........................................................................................................54

Mount and Volume Recognition Process ........................................................54 Differences to NTFS and FAT.............................................................................55

Security ............................................................................................................55 Multi-Host Concurrent Metadata Changes ......................................................55 Predictable “Hangs”.........................................................................................55 Mount Points, Drive Letters.............................................................................55 Internal Metadata for Multiple Cluster Nodes .................................................55

OCFS Administration ..........................................................................................56 Setting Volumes Offline ..................................................................................56 Setting Volumes Online...................................................................................56 Adding a new OCFS Volume ..........................................................................56 Removing a Volume ........................................................................................56

Split-Mirror Backup and Restore under OCFS....................................................57 Appendix B: FAQ....................................................................................................57 Appendix C: BR*Tools Sample Configuration for “Legato Networker”................59

initT011.sap: ........................................................................................................59 initT012.sap: ........................................................................................................59 initT01arch.sap: ...................................................................................................59 initT01arch.utl......................................................................................................65

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Preface Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) is a supported solution for the database backend in an SAP installation. Using SAP with Oracle RAC provides high availability and scalability. The purpose of this document is to provide best practices on how to migrate an existing single-node SAP installation to a multiple-instance Oracle 10gR2 RAC cluster database configuration. This document covers the installation of Oracle Clusterware, Oracle Cluster Filesystem (OCFS) and Oracle RDBMS software. It describes the necessary changes to the database structures on the disk, as well as to database and SAP system configurations. The pre-installation steps for setting up the underlying cluster hardware are also discussed as a preliminary requirement. However, due to the fact that the cluster technology from different hardware vendors is evolving quickly, this paper just gives some guidelines on what hardware is required and how this hardware has to be configured. It is highly recommended that you be familiar with installing and configuring SAP

and Oracle RDBMS software before starting a new SAP and Oracle RAC integration!

Please refer also to the white paper “Configuration of SAP NetWeaver for Oracle

10g Release 2 Real Application Clusters” and SAP note #527843 and the notes it

references.

Naming Conventions and Terms

The following naming conventions and terms are used in this document:

Name or Synonym Description / Purpose

Disk, physical disk A single physical disk from a Windows point of view. We create extended partitions on physical disks.

Extended partition An extended partition can span part of a disk or a whole disk. Logical volumes are created inside an extended partition.

Logical volume Logical volumes are created in an extended partition and can either be used as raw devices or formatted for use with a filesystem like NTFS or OCFS.

OCFS Oracle Cluster Filesystem

OCFS volume A volume formatted with ocfsformat and used by OCFS

OCW or CRS Oracle ClusterWare that consists of a whole stack of clustering software components. OCFS also belongs to OCW. This was formerly called “Cluster Ready Services” and is often used as a synonym for Oracle Clusterware.

OCR Oracle Cluster Repository

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Implementation Roadmap

Technical Knowledge

Clusters are different to single server systems and require specific skills in terms of implementation and administration. This is also true for Oracle 10gR2 RAC Clusters running on Windows. Many customers run single instance systems for many years and know their systems very well. But most do not have enough technical knowledge to implement and run a RAC system. It is essential to build up that knowledge and make yourself familiar with that new technology. This will take time, so start as early as possible.

Evaluation

In Oracle RAC environments with two or more nodes the hardware configuration is different compared with single server systems. The most important differences are the requirement of a shared storage system and local disks. Also the number of network interfaces and switches is usually higher than in single server systems. Take time to evaluate the hardware components and check if they meet all requirements for running RAC. This will avoid misunderstandings and trouble later on.

Pre-Installation

Before starting an installation of the whole software stack to run Oracle RAC ensure you have a detailed plan of how your configuration should look like. E.g. required IP addresses, sub net masks, default gateway, bind order of network interface cards, DNS, configuration of network switches and vlans, disk layout, volume sizes and usage, drive letters or symbolic links that have to be used, swap space configuration and much more.

Installation

An installation of RAC on a Windows cluster consists of multiple steps. Each step of the installation should be finished, checked and tested meticulously before proceeding with the next step. Overlooking wrong or missing configuration steps will very likely cause problems during the later steps.

Testing

When the installation of the whole Windows cluster with Oracle RAC is done it is necessary to test your configuration before going live. Create a detailed test plan. This plan should include tests for hardware failures, software failures, application and load tests and backup and recovery scenarios. Test examples are documented in a later chapter Testing. Going live tests should take weeks not days!

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Prerequisites

New Cluster Hardware

New cluster hardware must be provided in order to set up a new RAC environment.

Storage

• Each node of the cluster must have its own local disks attached for Operating System and Oracle Clustersoftware.

• The cluster must have shared disks attached to each node for the Database and Oracle RDBMS software.

Each node requires at least 2 NICs:

• In an Oracle RAC environment, database instances communicate with each other using a dedicated private network called “Cluster Interconnect”. This private network requires at least Gigabit Ethernet, and a dedicated Ethernet-Switch must be used to connect each node to this private network. OCFS will also use this private network for synchronization purposes. � Two “teamed” NICs are recommended in order to ensure that the cluster interconnect still works even if one connection fails. This requires two switches, which must be connected with each other in order to detect a failed connection.

• The second NIC is required for the “public” network from the RAC point of view. It should be used for all other networking needs like connecting SAP application servers to the DB in 3-tier configurations or connecting front-end users to the application servers in 2-tier configurations.

• One or more additional NICs may be required when MSCS is used to provide high availability for the SAP central instance.

Shared

Storage

Node 1 Node 2 Node N

Fiberchannel Switch

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Hardware Configuration

Storage

The required number and size of shared disks must be discussed with the hardware vendor. This depends on customer’s requirements. The storage devices should be “dual attached” to each server in order to lower the risk of a single path failure. A high available connection to the storage devices can be provided in conjunction with appropriate drivers (e.g. EMC² Powerpath). As a general rule there should be:

• Three extended partitions (each >=500MB) for the “Oracle Cluster Ready Service” (OCW) voting disks. These should be distributed over multiple physical disks.

• Two extended partitions (each >=500MB) for the “Oracle Cluster Repository” (OCR). These should be distributed over multiple physical disks.

• One extended partition for Oracle HOME (>=4GB)

• At least one extended partition for the database files (depends on the size of the database)

Node 1 Node 2

Gigabit Ethernet Private Network Switch

(Interconnect)

Node N

Public Network Switch

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Network

Network Interfaces

Proper configuration of the network is one of the most important and most

difficult tasks of the whole cluster configuration process. Extreme care and

attention must be taken when selecting and configuring network interface cards

and configuring network protocols and services. Furthermore, newly configured

clusters must be extensively tested and verified in order to ensure that all

components are working properly with each other. Incorrect or incomplete

network configuration can be very hard to diagnose and might cause serious

issues like hardware crashes, hangs or data loss!

General Rules for Network Configuration

• All server NICs must be from the same vendor and must use the same firmware and driver versions.

• All servers should use the latest recommended NIC device drivers. NIC settings must be re-checked after updating, installing or reinstalling a driver because the new driver might override previously configured settings. If available, vendor-specific instructions should be followed explicitly.

• All NICs must use the same explicit speed and duplex settings. They should be configured manually on both the switch ports and the NICs. Auto negotiating, when enabled, can result in lost packets.

• Public and private connects must be on separate subnets and network address ranges. All switch ports must belong to the same subnet and/or VLAN!

• The OS on each server node must have properly configured NIC priorities (network connections must specify public, then private, then unused adapters. See “Network Connections – Advanced – Advanced Settings-Connections”

(priority order is top to bottom)

E.g.

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• For Windows 2003 Server, Microsoft recommends disabling IP media sense policy. Please refer to Microsoft Knowledge Base article # 239924 for more information.

• Although using “teamed” NICs is recommended in order to ensure a reliable cluster interconnect, extreme care should be taken when using teamed NIC configurations. Not all NIC teaming solutions might be as stable and well-tested as you might expect! Only solutions of proven reliability (e.g. NICs of

the Intel PROSet family) should be used for teaming NICs. Even then, the implementation can be finicky. If any network problems arise, disable network teaming and make sure the network is working properly without it.

• If firewall software is installed on the cluster nodes, it should be disabled. Care should be taken when installing MS Windows Service Packs. Service packs might add new security features, such as an integrated firewall, that might prevent cluster communications from working properly, thus causing serious problems! It is strongly recommended that you use a dedicated server as a firewall between the cluster nodes and the outside world instead of a “personal firewall solution”.

• If there is antivirus software installed on the cluster nodes, ensure that it does not affect network communications. Many modern antivirus solutions also install network filter drivers that can interfere with proper networking. It is

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strongly recommended that you do not install any antivirus software on the cluster nodes and that you scan all software to be installed on another PC dedicated for virus scanning.

• Use “human-readable” names for your network interface like “Public”, “Private”, “Interconnect” etc. Never use non-alphanumeric characters or

special characters in their names. Allowed are “A-Z”, “a-z” and “0-9”. If this rule is ignored, you cannot install Oracle Clusterware successfully!

Please also refer to "Server Clusters: Network Configuration Best Practices for Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003" at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/clustering/clstntbp.mspx

TCP/IP Configuration

The private network to be used for the cluster interconnect should be a dedicated switched (and if possible redundant) Gigabit Ethernet network. A sample network configuration is shown below:

Node / NIC IP-Address Subnet Mask

1 / 1 1.1.1.1 255.255.255.0

1 / 2 IP for public network

2 / 1 1.1.1.2 255.255.255.0

2 / 2 IP for public network

Do not specify a default gateway for private interconnect. Only one default

gateway must be configured - usually on the public network.

System Configuration

Operating System

Windows 2003 Server Standard or Enterprise Edition must be used on all nodes. Make sure that the latest Windows service packs and patches have been installed on all nodes. Use the same users and passwords on all cluster nodes. This is required in order to be able to copy files from one node to another during software installation. � It is highly recommended that you use domain users only and that you add them to the required local groups. See Oracle Administrator Groups.

Support of Windows 2003 Server

Please note that when creating partitions for use with OCFS, only “Basic MBR Disks” are supported under Windows 2003.

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Microsoft Cluster Software and Heartbeat

Microsoft Cluster Software can be used on the same cluster in order to provide high availability for the SAP central instance. In this case, a dedicated network interface must be used for the heartbeat. When using MS Cluster for Windows 2003 in a three or more node cluster configuration with heartbeat communication over a switch, it is important that the switch is able to forward multi-broadcast messages. Otherwise, nodes may “disappear” and “re-appear” in the cluster causing node evictions and other problems. If the switch used does not support multi-broadcasts, you have to use single broadcasts. Please refer to Microsoft’s Knowledgebase on how to do this.

Windows 2003 64-bit or 32-bit

Windows 2003 64-bit on x86_64 platforms

64-bit x86_64 systems are getting cheaper and cheaper. If there are no compelling reasons why you should use a 32-bit based operating system it is strongly recommended to use a 64-bit OS. There are many advantages to this, such as bigger Oracle SGA, faster large memory access, larger OS memory pool sizes etc.

Windows 2003 32-bit on x86_32 platforms

Customers often use Window’s special boot.ini switches like /3GB /PAE /AME to support more than 2GB of memory for user applications. If these switches have to be used on RAC cluster nodes, then Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition must be used instead of Windows 2000 Server as long Microsoft does not support the /userva switch for Windows 2000 Server. Please see next paragraph “Tuning OS Memory” for further details.

Tuning OS Memory

On Windows 2003 Server operating systems, the memory pool sizes differ greatly when using /3GB /PAE /AME switches in boot.ini compared to when these switches are not used. Kernel Memory without the /3GB switch: Non-paged Pool Memory Max =~ 256MB Paged Pool Memory Max =~ 332MB Free System PTEs =~ 450MB Kernel Memory with the /3GB switch: Non-paged Pool Memory Max =~ 128MB Paged Pool Memory Max =~ 256MB Free System PTEs =~ 64MB

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As you can see, the pool sizes are significantly reduced when using the /3GB… switches. The free system PTEs in particular are reduced dramatically. This can cause several problems in RAC environments. For systems using the /3GB… switches, you should monitor free system PTEs using perfmon to ensure that the number never drops below 20000. If the number of free system PTEs drops below 20000, you may have to deal with database instance crashes due to insufficient free system PTEs. It is therefore recommended that you use Windows 2003 Server, which supports the /userva switch in boot.ini. Please refer to Microsoft’s support page and Knowledge Base to find out if it is supported or not. The /userva switch reduces the 3072MB available to user processes to the given value and provides the memory gained to the free system PTE pool. The recommended boot.ini parameters for such installations are: /3GB /PAE /AME /Userva=3008 Please note that this reduces the available memory for user processes by 64MB and gives the memory to the free system PTEs. The free system PTEs should still be monitored to ensure that this reduction was enough, especially if other PTE-consuming applications are also running on the same cluster node. Please also refer to the following articles and notes for further information: MS Knowledge Base #316739 “How to use the /userva switch with the /3GB switch to tune the User-mode space to a value between 2 GB and 3 GB” #810371 “Using the /Userva switch on Windows Server 2003-based computers that are running Exchange Server” Oracle Metalink #297498.1 ”Resolving Instance Evictions on Windows Platforms Due to OS 10055 Errors”

Storage, Disks

• OCW for Windows is installed together with OCFS and must be installed in a separate Oracle Home on local disks, e.g. C:\oracle\ohcrs102.

• OCW requires “Voting disk volumes” and “Cluster Repository disk volumes”. Three voting disk volumes and two volumes are recommended for the cluster repository (one is used as a mirror). These must be placed on OCFS volumes as described later. All volumes must be created in extended partitions on a basic disk. Dynamic disks are not supported! All disk volumes used by Oracle Clusterware require drive letters!

• For disks storing Oracle binaries and database files, extended partitions must be created on a basic volume (not a dynamic volume) on each disk. All of

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these partitions must be formatted using the ocfsformat tool, discussed later.

• OCFS also supports mount points for OCFS volumes. They can also be mixed with volumes with drive letters. It is NOT recommended that you create

any OCFS volumes manually before OCW is installed properly! Before starting to install OCW, create the required volumes in the “Disk

Administrator” of Windows. Do NOT assign drive letters or mount points for

them and do NOT format the volumes. Drive letters are assigned during OCW

installation. The volumes will be formatted during OCW installation. Drive

letters that have already been assigned before OCW installation will not be

available for use as voting disks or home/mirror of the cluster repository. After

the volumes have been created, it is highly recommended that you reboot all the

cluster nodes to ensure that every node will “see” the changes made by the “Disk

Administrator” from one of the nodes.

E.g.:

Purpose Disk/Partition Location FS-Type*

OCW Home Physicaldisk0/0 C:\oracle\ohcrs102 NTFS

Oracle HOME Physicaldisk1/0 M:\oracle\<sid>\102 OCFS

Oracle Database Physicaldisk2/0 N:\oracle\<sid>\sapdata…. OCFS

Oracle Database Physicaldisk3/0 O:\oracle\<sid>\origlog…. OCFS

Oracle Database Physicaldisk4/0 P:\oracle\<sid>\mirrlog…. OCFS

OCW voting disk volume 1

Physicaldisk1/1 Q:\ OCFS


Physicaldisk2/1 R:\ OCFS


Physicaldisk3/1 S:\ OCFS

OCW cluster repository disk volume

Physicaldisk3/1 T:\ OCFS

OCW cluster repository disk volume (mirror)

Physicaldisk4/1 U:\ OCFS

Oracle Database Physicaldisk5/0 C:\oracle\<sid>\sapdatax OCFS Volume mounted into an NTFS directory

SAP Physicaldisk6/0 W:\usr\… NTFS (it is not supported to run SAP from OCFS)

* If the SAP system and the database are to be installed on a cluster node from scratch and not copied from a different server to one of the cluster nodes, some additional installation steps apply. In order to avoid problems with incompatibilities between sapinst and OCFS, you must switch file systems at the relevant installation step by backing up the volume, dropping the volume and then reformatting it with the appropriate file system.

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Network Interfaces

Use static IP addresses for

• the cluster interconnect (private network),

• the public network,

• the VIP, and make sure that each cluster node can be reached from the other nodes by a

• public hostname,

• a private hostname,

• a VIP hostname. The “hosts” file under c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc should resolve the hostnames. E.g. 127.0.0.1 localhost 192.168.228.1 oracx3 192.168.228.50 w2kracna w2kracna.vmware 192.168.228.51 w2kracnb w2kracnb.vmware 192.168.228.52 w2kracna-vip w2kracna-vip.vmware 192.168.228.53 w2kracnb-vip w2kracnb-vip.vmware 192.168.228.54 w2kracnc w2kracnc.vmware 192.168.228.55 w2kracnc-vip w2kracnc-vip.vmware 192.168.22.50 w2kracna-priv 192.168.22.51 w2kracnb-priv 192.168.22.52 w2kracnc-priv 192.168.228.60 w2kdom w2kdom.vmware 192.168.22.60 w2kdom-priv w2kdom-priv.vmware

Do not start OCW software installation until all nodes have been properly

configured. � For production systems, you must use teamed, fault-tolerant NICs and redundant switches to ensure that the RAC interconnect is highly available. Otherwise, a simple switch failure might cause one or more nodes to fail. If the network interface cards support “interrupt throttling”, you should keep the hardware default. This will usually prevent very high interrupt rates during high network loads in terms of many but small packets, as well as reduce the load on PCI buses while not significantly delaying the delivery of the data to be transferred (small latency).

Installation before Migration?

The next sections assume that there is already an existing SAP System with a single-instance Oracle database to be migrated to an SAP System with multiple RAC instances.

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These assumptions have been made because there is no standard installation procedure for all of these components. There are some obstacles that will cause the installation to fail, e.g. SAP installation tools do not know anything about OCFS. They all assume NTFS as the underlying file system to be used and try to set NTFS file system permissions (ACLs) for some Oracle directories. As OCFS does not support ACLs, the whole setup procedure will fail. To avoid this and other problems, there is no direct installation path. You have to install an SAP System and a single-instance Oracle database on NTFS and move all Oracle files (Oracle Software and Oracle Database) to OCFS volumes later. For a completely new system, first install the SAP System with the Oracle database as described in SAP installation guides, and then continue with the migration steps described in this document. If the source system is initially installed on one of the cluster nodes, proceed as follows in order to avoid these obstacles:

1. Check all prerequisites. 2. Install Oracle Clusterware (OCW) while ALL (!!!) nodes are up and running

on a local disk, e.g. C:\ 3. Create an OCFS volume and install the Oracle database software on this

volume while all nodes are up and running. This will ensure that the Oracle Universal Installer makes important registry and environment settings.

4. Backup the whole volume. 5. Drop the OCFS volume using ocfsutil while all nodes are up and running.

Check that all nodes dropped it properly by trying to access it. 6. Shut down all the cluster nodes, except the one where the installation will be

performed. 7. Reformat the volume with NTFS and create the volumes needed for the

database and the SAP system. 8. Restore the backup from step 3. 9. Perform a standard SAP installation. 10. Back up all volumes (Oracle database software, Oracle database, SAP System)

and drop all NTFS partitions you created in step 7 except the one where the

SAP System was installed. 11. Create OCFS volumes for all NTFS volumes dropped in step 10. 12. Restore all files from the previous backup(s).

Keep the drive letters assigned during the whole setup! Never boot another node while one of the shared disk volumes contains an NTFS file system. This would cause data corruption! To switch an NTFS volume to an OCFS volume, proceed as follows:

1. Delete the volume using Disk Administrator 2. Create the volume using Disk Administrator without formatting it 3. Reboot all nodes and check that drive letters have been assigned correctly 4. Format the volume on one node using ocfsformat

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To switch an OCFS volume to a NTFS volume, proceed as follows:

1. Use ocfsutil to delete the volume cluster wide (all nodes should be up and running) and check that the volume is now inaccessible from all the nodes.

2. Shut down all nodes except one in order to prevent simultaneous access from more than one node.

3. Format the volume with NTFS.

Software Installation & Configuration

Overview

The complete software stack to run RAC consists of the following components:

• Oracle Clusterware (which also has its own software stack)

• Oracle RDBMS Software The installation and upgrade of each component are described in the following sections.

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Oracle Clusterware (OCW)

Installation

Run setup.exe from your original Oracle 10.2.0.1 Clusterware distribution media. Enter a name for the Oracle Home of CRS and a local path where the Oracle Home will be located.

The next screen shows the result of some prerequisite checks. Do not continue if any of the checks fail, otherwise the installation may not work properly.

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Specify the cluster configuration. Ensure that public, private and virtual hostnames are correct.

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Define how to use the installed NICs. If more than two NICs are displayed, e.g. when using NAS (network attached storage) or SAN (storage area network) solutions, click “Edit” and select “Do not use” for these NICs.

The next screen shows all volumes available for use by OCW. Select a volume and press “Edit” to define how this volume shall be used. Please note that this screenshot was taken on a demo system that uses only one voting disk and two OCR disks. In a production environment, three voting disks are highly recommended.

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Choose “Format with OCFS”, select the drive letter to assign, select “Place voting disk on this partition”, and press “OK”

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Specify that you want to use this volume as the primary location for the OCR.

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Specify that you want to use this volume as the mirror location for the OCR.

Press “Next” after you have assigned all volumes properly.

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One of the following warning messages will appear if you placed the primary cluster repository and its mirror on the same physical disk, or if you have configured just one voting disk. This is not recommended for production systems!

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Start the installation by pressing, “Install”.

After all files have been copied, the installer runs a number of configuration assistants. In some situations “Virtual Private IP Configuration Assistant” will fail as shown below. If this is the case, press OK and NEXT to finish the installation. A second error message will appear saying that one of the configuration assistants had a problem.

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If the “Virtual Private IP Configuration Assistant” fails, then it should be run manually. Open a command prompt window and start VIPCA by calling vipca.bat. It is located in the “bin” directory of OCW´s Oracle Home, e.g. c:\oracle\ohcrs102\bin\vipca.bat. Configure VIP as shown below.

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Upgrade

After the installation, upgrade the Oracle Clusterware to the latest release shipped with the latest patch set. Follow the instructions in the release information document on how to do this. Usually, you just have to stop the running CRS on each node by calling crsctl stop crs before starting the upgrade of OCW components. Note that stopping CRS may take a few minutes. Check the absence of crsd.exe and evtd.exe in the Windows Task Manager. If one of these processes did not terminate after 5 minutes it is necessary to kill them using Windows Task Manager before proceeding with the upgrade. The screenshots below demonstrate the mandatory upgrade from OCW 10.2.0.1 to 10.2.0.2!!!

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Important: After installing OCW patches run the post-patch batch file “patch102.bat” on every node. This may take a while. Do not run the script in parallel on more than one node. E.g. C:\oracle\crs102\install\patch102.bat

Oracle CFS

As described earlier, CRS voting disks, primary OCR and mirror OCR locations are defined and created using the OCW installation tool. OCFS volumes for Oracle database software and all files belonging to the database should be created manually.

Choosing the right NIC for OCFS

You probably have to change the NIC that OCFS uses for synchronization. This is done with the Ocfschangecommif tool. Run Ocfschangecommif /p on each node in order to see which NIC is used. If it is not the right one, run Ocfschangecommif /c on each node to change the NIC. Then reboot the nodes. If configured NICs are different, OCFS will still work, but for better performance OCFS should be configured to use the same NIC on all cluster nodes.

Setting up OCFS volumes

� OCFS is not an entirely general-purpose file system. It is designed to support RAC databases in a shared file system environment. It is highly recommended that you read “Appendix A: Oracle Cluster File System for Windows (OCFS)” on how to use OCFS in order to avoid problems due to administration errors.

OCFS IO-Modes

OCFS supports “DirectIO-Mode” and “NondirectIO-Mode” for volumes.

Rules for Formatting Volumes with OCFS

Please take care when deciding how to format a volume. There are some restrictions on what may be stored depending on how a volume was formatted.

Type of data stored on OCFS volume IO-Modes allowed

ORACLE_HOME (Oracle executables etc.) non-direct

Datafiles non-direct

Archivelogfiles (saparch or oraarch) Direct

DB alertfiles and tracefiles (saptrace) Direct

DB controlfiles non-direct

Online Redo Logfiles non-direct

To format a volume for DirectIO-Mode, use “/d”.

To format a volume for NondirectIO-Mode (default), just omit the “/d”.

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Formatting Volumes

Ocfsformat is used to format new OCFS volumes. The table below shows how to use Ocfsformat for different drive letters / links or DirectIO / NondirectIO modes:

Volume configuration Command / Example

Assign a drive letter to a volume with NondirectIO-Mode

ocfsformat /l <driveletter>: /c <clustersize in kb)

/v <volumelabel> /f

e.g. ocfsformat /l e: /c 8 /v sapdata1 /f

Assign a drive letter to a volume with DirectIO-Mode

ocfsformat /l <driveletter>: /c <clustersize in kb)

/v <volumelabel> /f /d

e.g. ocfsformat /l e: /c 8 /v sapdata1 /f /d

Assign an NTFS link s to a volume with NondirectIO-Mode

ocfsformat /l <path to mountpoint> /c <clustersize

in kb) /v <volumelabel> /f

e.g. ocfsformat /l c:\oracle\T01\sapdata1 /c 8 /v

sapdata1 /f

Assign an NTFS link to a volume with DirectIO-Mode

ocfsformat /l <path to mountpoint> /c <clustersize

in kb) /v <volumelabel> /f /d

e.g. ocfsformat /l c:\oracle\T01\sapdata1 /c 8 /v

sapdata1 /f /d

Always specify 8 KB as the cluster size to be used. Attention If a disk was already formatted with ocfsformat and needs to be formatted again, you MUST dismount the volume on the cluster first! Otherwise the ocfsformat will not format the disk properly and might cause corruptions in the future. It will not show an error, but the disk will not be usable if you forget this step! Use ocfsutil to dismount the volume on the cluster and then ocfsformat to format it. Again: Read “Appendix A: Oracle Cluster File System for Windows (OCFS)” before starting with OCFS!

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Migration

If there is an Oracle Home installed on the target system, this will have to be removed first. During the installation described in the next section, some registry entries are made on all of the cluster nodes. They are required to successfully run RAC on all the nodes. It is assumed that OCW is already installed and upgraded to the latest patch set.

Oracle RDBMS Software

Installation

This step assumes that you have manually created an OCFS volume. The OCFS volume should be visible from all cluster nodes. Install Oracle 10.2.0.1 Enterprise Edition in a separate Oracle Home on the shared OCFS volume. Only install the Oracle software. Do not create a database at this point! When the Installation asks which nodes to install the software on, choose “Cluster Installation” and select all cluster nodes.

If you are using Oracle RDBMS CDs shipped by SAP, you will have to execute setup.exe directly. SAP´s documentation says to use a setup script that invokes

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setup.exe with a special response file. Do not start setup.exe in this way because setup based on the response file will not install the RAC option. � As already mentioned, it is assumed that a database that can be copied to the cluster already exists on a source system, or that a new database will be installed on one of the nodes before the migration starts. Usually you might want to run the central instance (probably highly available by using MS-Cluster) on the cluster together with the database. If this is the case, you will have to install all SAP/CI related files on a separate NTFS volume as a cluster resource later.

Upgrade

Get the latest patch set for Oracle 10gR2 and install it as described in the patch set note that comes with it.

Database Conversion to RAC

If you are converting an existing database to cluster hardware, it is recommended that you copy the whole database to the new hardware maintaining the same names for directories and file locations. If the existing database has not been upgraded to Oracle 10gR2, it should be upgraded to Oracle 10gR2 on the existing hardware before moving it to the new hardware. If this is not possible, there are two main ways to move the database:

• Issue a “shutdown normal” on the source database, copy the database to the target system, and then upgrade it to 10gR2. The advantage is that it is not necessary to install 9.2 RDBMS software on the cluster. The upgrade can be done immediately after copying. The disadvantage may be longer downtime for the additional upgrade step and copying the database to the new cluster hardware.

• Set up a standby database on the target system and stop the source database just before the upgrade. The advantage is that no downtime is needed for copying. Disadvantages are: more work, more complex setup, the need to install 9.2 RDBMS software for the recovery of the physical standby.

If it is not possible to put the database under the same paths as the source system start the database instance (10gR2) on the target system into “mount” state and rename all the datafiles and online redolog files before proceeding with the upgrade. Alternatively issue an “alter database backup control file to trace” on the source system, modify the paths to match the new structure, and recreate the control files on the target system using the same database version as the source system.

Enabling RAC

Undo Tablespaces

Create one undo tablespace for each node on the first instance. The undo tablespaces should be as large as your current PSAPUNDO tablespace.

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E.g. create undo tablespace PSAPUNDO1

datafile 'J:\oracle\T01\sapundo1\undo_1\undo1.data1'

size 100M autoextend on;

create undo tablespace PSAPUNDO2

datafile 'J:\oracle\T01\sapundo2\undo_2\undo2.data1'

size 100M autoextend on;

Online Redo Logs

Each RAC instance uses a specific thread for writing redo logs, thread 1 on a single instance. In an RAC environment, each instance has its own thread and its own online redo logs. You therefore have to create new redologs. It’s a good idea to implement the corresponding thread number in their name. E.g. alter database add logfile thread 2 group 24

('L:\ORACLE\T01\ORIGLOGB\LOG_G24M1_T2.DBF',

'K:\ORACLE\T01\MIRRLOGB\LOG_G24M2_T2.DBF')

size 20M;

You should add the same number of redo log groups and mirrors as in a single node environment. The redo log sizes should also be the same. � If you have plenty of disk space, it’s a good idea to use this additional disk space for more online redologs. This will reduce the chance that the system requires archived redologs during crash recovery. For all new redolog groups been added, the corresponding thread has to be enabled: alter database enable thread 2;

Init.ora and Spfile.ora

1.

If you are using a pfile (init<sid>.ora), copy it to a working copy (e.g. “init_work.ora”) and continue with step 3.

2.

If you are already using a spfile.ora, you will have to transfer it to a pfile in order to be able to make the necessary changes for RAC: e.g.

create pfile = ‘init_work.ora’ from spfile;

3.

Modify the “init_work.ora" and add the following lines for each instance:

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<sid><instancenumber>.instance_name='<sid><instancenumber>' <sid><instancenumber>.instancenumber=<instancenumber> <sid><instancenumber>.local_listener=’<listener_name>’ <sid><instancenumber>.thread=<threadnumber> <sid><instancenumber>.undo_tablespace=’<nameofundotablespace>’

E.g. assuming that your SID is ‘T01’, you have 2 instances: *.cluster_database=TRUE

T011.instance_name='T011'

T012.instance_name='T012'

T011.instance_number=1

T012.instance_number=2

T011.local_listener='LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNA.world'

T012.local_listener='LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNB.world'

T011.thread=1

T012.thread=2

T011.undo_tablespace='PSAPUNDO1'

T012.undo_tablespace='PSAPUNDO2'

T011.remote_listener='REMOTE_LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNA.world'

T012.remote_listener='REMOTE_LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNB.world'

4.

Enable automatic undo management by setting undo_management=auto 5. Save the modified “init_work.ora” and create a spfile.ora from it: Create spfile from pfile = ‘init_work.ora’ Please note that it is not possible to start the database until “Oracle Administrator Groups” and the Windows services for the instances have been created and the SQL*Net and Services configuration is completed. This is described in the following sections.

Oracle Administrator Groups

In the next step we will remove the installed OracleService<SID> on node 1, and then create new windows services OracleService<SID>1 on node 1, OracleService<SID>2 on node 2 and so on. In addition, ensure that the Windows 2003 groups ORA_<SID><instanceno>_DBA and ORA_<SID><instanceno>_OPER exist on all nodes and that the same users belong to them. E.g. ORA_T011_DBA and ORA_T011_OPER on node 1 and ORA_T012_DBA and ORA_T012_OPER on node 2 and so on.

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Oracle Instance Creation

Check if there is already an Oracle Service (OracleService<SID>) running on Node 1. If so, remove it: Oradim –delete –sid <sid> Then create a new one: Oradim –new –sid <sid><nodenumber> E.g. Oradim –new –sid T011 On Node 2 create a new one: Oradim –new –sid <sid><nodenumber> E.g. Oradim –new –sid T012

Environment Variables

On Node 1: Set ORACLE_SID to <SID>1 Set NLS_LANG to the right value for your system. E.g. AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8DEC for a Non-Unicode system. Set DBS_ORA_TNSNAME to the service name to which the application server should connect. E.g. T01_D00 (as defined in tnsnames.ora) On Node 2: Set ORACLE_SID to <SID>2 Set NLS_LANG to the right value for your system. E.g. AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8DEC for a non-Unicode system. Set DBS_ORA_TNSNAME to the service name to which the application server should connect. E.g. T01_D01 (as defined in tnsnames.ora)

SQL*Net Configuration and Service Creation

Major Differences between Oracle 9i and Oracle 10g Configurations

• Unlike the RAC 9i / SAP integration, the TNS_ADMIN environment variable pointing to node-specific directories for sqlnet.ora, listener.ora and tnsnames.ora configuration files should not be set for a RAC 10g / SAP installation. The SQL*Net configurations for all nodes are stored in one single sqlnet.ora, listener.ora and tnsnames.ora under the ORACLE_HOME/network/admin directory.

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Make sure TNS_ADMIN is not set before starting netca!

Application Servers of course may use their own tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora to connect to the database.

• While the listener name was “OracleTNSListener<SID>” with Oracle 9i, Oracle 10g uses different node-specific names for the listener on each node.

• With Oracle 9i, the server provided high availability through RAC and the client decided which RAC instance to connect to by having multiple entries in the address list in tnsnames.ora. Oracle 10g introduces services to which a client connects. The client does not decide to which database instance it will connect based on the supplied address list in tnsnames.ora and which instances are available during connect time. Instead it connects to a service that can run on one or more nodes. Although it is possible not to use services, it is highly recommended to do so. A configuration without services is not discussed in this whitepaper.

Oracle Net Configuration Assistant (netca)

Run netca to create a listener on all cluster nodes. As per convention, the names should be “LISTENER_<SID>_<hostname>”. Furthermore, Netca not only creates the required entries in listener.ora, it also creates the corresponding resources in the OCR. The screenshots below show a sample configuration:

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As already mentioned above, the convention for listener names is

“LISTENER_<SID>_<hostname”. Only enter “LISTENER_<SID>” here

because netca will append the hostnames automatically!

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When netca has finished configuring listeners, your listener.ora configuration file should look like this:

Listener.ora

This is a sample configuration: SID_LIST_LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNA =

(SID_LIST =

(SID_DESC =

(SID_NAME = PLSExtProc)

(ORACLE_HOME = R:\oracle\T01\102)

(PROGRAM = extproc)

)

(SID_DESC =

(SID_NAME = T011)


)

)

SID_LIST_LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNB =

(SID_LIST =

(SID_DESC =

(SID_NAME = PLSExtProc)


(PROGRAM = extproc)

)

(SID_DESC =

(SID_NAME = T012)


)

)

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LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNA =

(DESCRIPTION_LIST =

(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = w2kracna-vip)(PORT =

1527)(IP = FIRST))

(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 192.168.228.50)(PORT =

1527)(IP = FIRST))

)

)

LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNB =

(DESCRIPTION_LIST =

(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = w2kracnb-vip)(PORT =

1527)(IP = FIRST))

(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 192.168.228.51)(PORT =

1527)(IP = FIRST))

)

)

Tnsnames.ora

This is a sample configuration:

### LOCAL LISTENER ENTRIES ###

### only a single address is allowed here

LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNA.WORLD =

(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS_LIST =

(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = w2kracna-vip)(PORT = 1527))

)

(CONNECT_DATA =

(SERVICE_NAME = LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNA.WORLD)

)

)

### only a single address is allowed here

LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNB.WORLD =

(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS_LIST =

(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = w2kracnb-vip)(PORT = 1527))

)

(CONNECT_DATA =

(SERVICE_NAME = LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNB.WORLD)

)

)

### REMOTE LISTENER ENTRIES ###

### add more address entries for remote listeners if necessary

REMOTE_LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNA.WORLD =

(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS_LIST =


)

(CONNECT_DATA =

(SERVICE_NAME = REMOTE_LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNA.WORLD)

)

)

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REMOTE_LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNB.WORLD =

(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS_LIST =


)

(CONNECT_DATA =

(SERVICE_NAME = REMOTE_LISTENER_T01_W2KRACNB.WORLD)

)

)

### SERVICE ENTRY FOR SAP CENTRAL INSTANCE ###

T01_D00.WORLD =

(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS_LIST =



)

(CONNECT_DATA =

(SERVICE_NAME = T01_D00)

(GLOBAL_NAME = T01.WORLD)

(FAILOVER_MODE =

(TYPE = SELECT)

(METHOD = BASIC)

)

)

)

### SERVICE ENTRY FOR CONNECT TO INSTANCE T011 ###

T011.WORLD =

(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS_LIST =


)

(CONNECT_DATA =

(SID = T011)


)

)

### SERVICE ENTRY FOR CONNECT TO INSTANCE T012 ###

T012.WORLD =

(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS_LIST =


)

(CONNECT_DATA =

(SID = T012)


)

)

### DEFAULT SERVICE ENTRY FOR CONNECT TO ANY INSTANCE ###

T01.WORLD =

(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS_LIST =



)

(CONNECT_DATA =

(SERVICE_NAME = T01)


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(FAILOVER_MODE =

(TYPE = SELECT)

(METHOD = BASIC)

)

)

)

EXTPROC_CONNECTION_DATA =

(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS_LIST =

(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC0))

)

(CONNECT_DATA =

(SID = PLSExtProc)

(PRESENTATION = RO)

)

)

Sqlnet.ora

This is a sample configuration: AUTOMATIC_IPC = ON

TRACE_LEVEL_CLIENT = OFF

NAMES.DEFAULT_DOMAIN = WORLD

SQLNET.EXPIRE_TIME = 0

SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES = (NTS)

DEFAULT_SDU_SIZE=32768

Putting the Database and Instances under CRS control

After completing the steps described above, the database instances can be started using sqlplus. The next step is to put the database and database instances under CRS control. CRS will then monitor these resources and can take actions if one or more of these resources fail.

1. Add the database resource to the OCR e.g. srvctl add database -d T01 -o R:\oracle\T01\102

2. Add the database instances to the OCR

e.g. srvctl add instance -d T01 -i T011 -n w2kracna srvctl add instance -d T01 -i T012 -n w2kracnb

3. Activate the database resource

e.g. srvctl start database -d TST

4. Check that the database resource and the instances have come online. e.g. crs_stat –t

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Name Type Target State Host ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ora....11.inst application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna ora....12.inst application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracnb ora.T01.db application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna ora....NA.lsnr application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna ora....cna.gsd application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna ora....cna.ons application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna ora....cna.vip application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna ora....NB.lsnr application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracnb ora....cnb.gsd application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracnb ora....cnb.ons application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracnb ora....cnb.vip application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracnb

Services

After configuring SQL*Net, the services have to be defined in OCR. For services to which SAP application servers will connect, our naming convention is: <SID>_<sapinstancename>, e.g. T01_D00 as service name for the central instance of T01.

• Each Oracle RAC instance must have a service named like the instance itself. If the instance name is “T011”, then the service name must be “T011”. This service must be configured to run on this instance only. E.g. srvctl add service -d T01 -s T011 -r "T011" srvctl add service -d T01 -s T012 -r "T012"

• Each SAP instance must have its own service for instance T01_D00, for the central instance of T01, T01_D01, for an additional application instance and so on. Never configure a service for SAP instances to run on more than

one Oracle instance at the same time! This can cause problems in the SAP system such as aborted transactions, performance issues etc. E.g. Let’s assume service T01_D00 should be run preferably on instance T011 but may also run on instance T012. srvctl add service –d T01 –s T01_D00 –r “T011” –a “T012”

Once you have defined the services, start them with: Srvctl start service –d <databasesid> -s <servicename> E.g. Srvctl start service –d T01 –s T011 Srvctl start service –d T01 –s T012 Srvctl start service –d T01 –s T01_D00

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Checking the Setup

After the above services have been defined and started, check the configuration. Some of the most important checks are listed below:

• Check that all OCR resources are online R:\oracle\T01\102\NETWORK\ADMIN>crs_stat -t

Name Type Target State Host

------------------------------------------------------------

ora....011.srv application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna

ora....T011.cs application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna

ora....11.inst application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna

ora....012.srv application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracnb

ora....T012.cs application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracnb

ora....12.inst application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracnb

ora....011.srv application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna

ora...._D00.cs application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna

ora.T01.db application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna

ora....NA.lsnr application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna

ora....cna.gsd application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna

ora....cna.ons application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna

ora....cna.vip application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracna

ora....NB.lsnr application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracnb

ora....cnb.gsd application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracnb

ora....cnb.ons application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracnb

ora....cnb.vip application ONLINE ONLINE w2kracnb

• Reboot the cluster nodes and check that all services start properly.

• From each node, use the tnsping utility to ping all configured services (e.g. tnsping T01, tnsping T011, tnsping T012, tnsping T01_D00).

• Try to connect to every service using sqlplus on each node (e.g. sqlplus /@T01, sqlplus /@T011, sqlplus /@T012, sqlplus /@T01_D00).

• Check that database instances stop and start as expected using srvctl utility, which is described in the next section.

• Check that relocating your services to where SAP connects to works as expected.

• Check the alert logs for errors.

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Important additional changes for SAP

DDLOG Sequence

SAP is using a database sequence called “DDLOG” to generate timestamps for various purposes. Therefore SAP needs consecutive numbers returned from DDLOG. To guarantee this in a RAC environment the sequence has to be recreated in “ordered” mode. Please refer to SAP note #743555 for a description on how to do this.

Contention on dc_sequences

Contention on dc_sequences can cause contention in the row cache of Oracle and cause performance issues in 10.2.0.2. It is recommended to raise the number of cached values for this sequence to 10000 to avoid this type of contention. Issue the following command in SQL*Plus to change it: alter sequence sys.audses$ cache 10000;

Srvctl and crsctl

Most SAP / Oracle administrators use BR*Tools or/and sqlplus to start and stop Oracle instances. In 10g RAC, OCW controls the state of each cluster resource. Oracle instances, listeners, VIPs and services are cluster resources controlled by OCW. Because of this, an administrator should not use BR*Tools or sqlplus without notifying OCW when starting or stopping a database instance. E.g. If the administrator were to shut down a database instance using sqlplus and OCW´s “target” were to set this resource online, CRS would start this instance immediately having recognized its offline state. The same applies for BR*Tools! Because of this, Oracle recommends that you use OCW tools srvctl, crsctl and crs_stat to control these resources.

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The following table lists the commands most frequently used with OCW:

Command Purpose

Srvctl stop database –d <sid> -o immediate

Stops all database instances and takes the database offline in CRS

Srvctl start service –d <sid> Starts all services. This implies setting the database and instance resources online.

Srvctl start service –d <sid> -s <service> Starts the specified service

Srvctl stop service –d <sid> -s <service> Stops the specified service

Srvctl relocate service –d <sid> -s <service> -i <currentinstance> -t <newinstance> -f

Forces a disconnect of all clients currently connected to the instance providing the specified service and relocates the specified service to another instance. Always use “–f” (=force) option to

ensure all disp+work processes are connected

to the same instance. If you omit “-f”, only new

connections will connect to the instance

running that service. Crs_stat –t Displays a table of all CRS resources

with their current state and their target state

Refer to CRS documentation for a complete reference.

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Windows 2003 and NTBackup

Windows 2003´s NTFS introduced a new feature called “volume shadow copy”, which allows files to be backed up while in use. This feature is not supported by OCFS and must therefore be disabled in Windows 2003 NT-Backup when backing up data on OCFS file systems using this tool. Otherwise, the backup will fail with an error.

Backing up OCR

Backing up the Oracle Cluster Repository is very important. Losing OCR will definitely mean unplanned downtime. Please refer to the standard Oracle documentation “Oracle Real Application Clusters Administrator´s Guide 10g Release 2” for further information.

Backup

The backup strategy to be implemented may become quite complicated depending on the customer’s requirements. There are currently two tested and supported ways of backing up.

• “Split-mirror” (e.g. by using EMC²´s BCV technology) for the database together with “br*tools” and Legato Networker for the archives

• “BR*Tools” with Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN). This is the recommended option for most customers where the backup time is not critical because of the size of the database.

It is very important to understand that not every backup tool for backing up

Oracle databases can work with Oracle databases on OCFS! Most backup tools

assume that the database resides on NTFS and not on OCFS.

A sample BR*Tools configuration for the first option can be found in Appendix

C: BR*Tools Sample Configuration for “Legato Networker”.

Additional scripts are required to successfully implement a backup method. The customer’s storage partner should be involved in the implementation of these scripts. As a general rule, each backup and restore scenario that is not based on “BR*Tools” with RMAN has to be treated as an “implementation” project which may require development of scripts and will require testing.

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Testing

Failures

One of the most important things before going into production with a new cluster environment is testing. Only by testing the behaviour of the cluster by simulating hardware and software failures ensures that it will react as expected when a real failure occurs. The following two sections describe some basic tests that should be done. It is highly recommended not to go into production if those tests do not show the expected results. The list is not complete and customers may think about additional tests that have to be done for their specific cluster environment and HA requirements.

Hardware Failures

Power Loss or Complete Failure of Cluster Node

Action

One of the most likely failures that may occur is a crash of a cluster node. Simulate a crash by issuing a “hard power-off” for one of the cluster nodes. Expected Behaviour

One of the remaining nodes should do a crash recovery for the crashed node. Depending on the services definitions and their failover policy the services may be activated on one of the remaining nodes. The whole failover may take some minutes. Check if the failover process is finished with “crs_stat –t”. Check that one of the remaining nodes finished the crash recovery by viewing the alert.logs. Finally the VIP of the failed cluster node and all services should be available as defined. Action

Power on the shutdown cluster node. Expected Behaviour

The VIP of the started cluster node that was serviced by one of the remaining cluster nodes should fail back to the rebooted cluster node. All defined Oracle instances (if more than one database was running on the node before) should start automatically. All services that fell over to other cluster nodes should stay there. They have to be moved to their corresponding nodes using “srvctl relocate service….”.

Oracle Interconnect Failures

Cluster node has lost its connection to the switch

Action

Disconnect one cluster node from the switch by unplugging all network cables of the Oracle Interconnect. If you have NIC teaming active (redundant interconnect) also check what happens when you unplug only one network cable. Expected Behaviour

In a two node RAC cluster one of both nodes should crash. In a three or more node RAC cluster the node where you did unplug the network cables should crash. In both situations the VIP should move to one of the remaining nodes. One of the remaining

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instances should do the crash recovery for the crashed node. Services should move to the remaining nodes as defined.

(Multiple) Switch Failures with all nodes loosing their connection

Action

Turn off or disable the network switch of the Oracle Interconnect. Expected Behaviour

Regardless of the number of cluster nodes all nodes except one should crash. The remaining node should takeover the VIP´s of the crashed nodes, perform a crash recovery and provide the database services as defined.

Storage Failures

One cluster node looses its storage connection

Action

Unplug one of the cluster nodes from the storage. If you have redundant paths to the storage also check what happens when you unplug only one (fiberchannel-) cable. Expected Behaviour

The node should crash without automatic reboot. Automatic reboot may be a configuration option in the BIOS of the node.

All cluster nodes lose their storage connection

Action

Unplug all cluster nodes from the storage or turn off all switches to the storage. Expected Behaviour

All cluster nodes should crash. After reconnecting the nodes to the storage and rebooting all the nodes the database should be available as expected.

Software Failures

Shutdown abort

Action

Shutdown an Oracle instance with “shutdown abort”.

Expected Behaviour

The cluster node should stay up and running. One of the remaining Oracle instances should do the crash recovery. All services of the stopped instance should move to the previously defined remaining instances. “crs_stat” utility should display “OFFLINE” as the target state for the stopped instance.

Kill oracle.exe

Action

Kill oracle.exe with the Windows Task Manager.

Expected Behaviour

The cluster node should stay up and running. One of the remaining Oracle instances should do the crash recovery. All services of the killed instance should move to the previously defined remaining instances. CRS should start the killed instance

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automatically. All services that moved to other instances should stay there. They have to be relocated manually.

SAP Application Workload

The most important tests that have to be run are workload tests where customers should try to run their SAP applications under simulated business conditions. Testing the performance of core transactions and batchjobs will help to resolve bottlenecks and configuration issues before going into production with your new cluster environment. These tests should also be combined with some of the failure test scenarios described earlier. Check if local update dispatching (described in the next chapter) is active and working as expected with “dpmon.exe” or SAP Management Console. Both tools show the number of times an update process was active. Check if database service relocation works as expected and every SAP applicationserver can connect to its service.

Additional Performance Recommendations

Use the ASSM tablespace feature! Use local update dispatching for SAP update-processes Turn off automatic offlining of undo segments by SMON

Automated Segment Space Management (ASSM)

In RAC environments it is highly recommended that you use Oracle’s ASSM feature for optimal performance of space management functions. Unfortunately, most SAP systems do not use this feature at all, and only new installations use it as default. Nevertheless, it is a good idea to move all tables to ASSM tablespaces step by step (e.g. when doing reorganizations). Please refer to your Oracle documentation to learn how to use ASSM.

Local Update Dispatching

The SAP application does a lot of the update work on the database asynchronously through “update-processes”. A dialog work process inserts an update job into tables VBHDR, VBDATA, VBMOD and posts the dispatcher on the central instance to select an update-process to actually perform the update job. This update-process may be connected to another RAC instance, similarly to the dialog-process. If this is the case, the update-process would read the data just written by the dialog-process. To satisfy this read request, all required database blocks have to be shipped over the interconnect from the instance where the data was inserted to the instance where the data has to be read. This produces unnecessary additional data load and can be avoided. In order to avoid these “non-local updates”, it is recommended that you:

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• have a number of update-processes on each SAP instance

• turn off update-dispatching and use the local update-processes

To turn off update dispatching, set rdisp/vb_dispatching to 0 as described in SAP note #62203. Also, set rdisp/vb_name to the name of the local instance (e.g. rdisp/vb_name = app1_C11_00).

Automatic Offlining of Undo Segments by SMON

Onlining and offlining of undo segments is an operation performed dynamically by an Oracle instance. These operations are serialized over all Oracle instances with the US enqueue lock. This serialization can cause wait situations for other enqueue locks (e.g. TX locks) when SMON starts offlining “unused” undo segments while some Oracle shadow processes are onlining undo segments because of increased workload. To stop SMON from offlining undo segments, set event 10511 in SPFILE.ORA and restart your database instances. e.g. *.event="10511 trace name context forever, level 2" It is highly recommended that you set this event for production systems.

Appendix A: Oracle Cluster File System for Windows (OCFS)

Introduction

Usually “single-hosted” file systems like NTFS or FAT assume they are the only ones accessing a volume once they have mounted it. Therefore they do not have to pay attention to other hosts that modify data and metadata in the same file system. Using disks with these file systems on more than one host would corrupt them pretty fast because neither host would pay attention to what the others are doing. OCFS provides mechanisms to support concurrent access to shared volumes from multiple hosts. This section also provides some background information on OCFS probably not mentioned in other documents.

Mount and Volume Recognition Process

Windows usually loads file system drivers while booting. This does not mean that a volume is mounted immediately. In fact, mounting is usually delayed until a program or the OS itself accesses a volume for the first time. When this happens, Windows sends a message to each file system driver telling it to mount a specific volume. The file system driver in turn accesses the volume and tries to recognize the file system. If the file system is recognized, it completes the mount request and further IO requests are sent to that file system driver. Mounting can be (and usually is) even more complex. Usually, a file system driver not only performs file system recognition before responding with “Success” to the OS. It may also check whether the volume is “dirty” (which means the system was not

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shut down properly) or whether the volume has simply been disabled because the administrator is doing maintenance work.

Differences to NTFS and FAT

There are some differences between NTFS and OCFS that you should be aware of.

Security

Unlike NTFS, OCFS has no built-in support for ACLs, neither on directory nor file level. There is no directory or file security at all. The only security mechanism OCFS provides is that only users that belong to the “Administrators” group can access OCFS volumes at all.

Multi-Host Concurrent Metadata Changes

Although OCFS coordinates simultaneous access from different hosts, it is not designed for high concurrency on its metadata. It is designed to support database access for several oracle instances on different hosts. Examples for metadata operations are:

• Creating, renaming or deleting directories or files

• Extending or shrinking files

Predictable “Hangs”

There are a few scenarios where one or more cluster nodes might appear to hang. How long this hang lasts depends on the reason.

• A crash of one node might cause the other nodes to hang for up to 7 minutes. This is because the other nodes have to be sure that the “dead node” is really dead and that the locks it owned can never be acquired.

• A regular shutdown or restart of one node will stop the other nodes for less than a minute.

Mount Points, Drive Letters

OCFS only supports one mount point per volume. It can either be a drive letter or linked from an NTFS partition. The mount point is assigned by the Disk Administrator and stored on each OCFS volume during formatting. It is not sufficient to change a mount point in the Disk Administrator only. You must change it using ocfsutil. Although it is better not to change mount points once the volume has been formatted as this may create an inconsistent view onto the volumes from different nodes. NTFS links to OCFS volumes should be preferred over drive letters.

Internal Metadata for Multiple Cluster Nodes

One of the most important things to know about OCFS is that it needs some extra disk space for its node specific metadata. This node specific metadata is usually allocated

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only once when a node mounts a volume the first time and will stay allocated during the whole lifetime of the file system on the volume. It is very important that every node that will ever need to access a volume has to immediately mount it at least once after the volume was formatted and before any data is written to it. This guarantees that every node has allocated its metadata before the volume is filled up with data. If you fill up the volume with data you may never be able to mount the volume on a new cluster node later on.

OCFS Administration

� Be sure to back up all data so that you can restore the system in case something goes wrong. � Always do critical maintenance tasks, such as adding or removing volumes, during offline hours.

Setting Volumes Offline

OCFS volumes that are in use can be set offline with ocfsutil. Setting a volume offline results in the volume being dismounted by the file system and the “offline” state being written to the volume in order to prevent automatic (re-) mounting (which occurs during reboot and on several other events). Although the volume will be set offline on the node on which ocfsutil was executed, the volume stays online on all the other nodes. This is true even if the volume already contains “offline” state. The reason is that there is no automatic function that dismounts the volumes on the other nodes. You must therefore take the volume offline on EACH node by executing ocfsutil on every node.

Setting Volumes Online

As discussed before, setting a volume offline will prevent it from being mounted by OCFS because the “offline” state is stored on the volume itself. You can initiate a mount by using ocfsutil to set a volume online. This just marks the volume with an “online” state and the file system driver will mount it when it receives the next mount request from the operating system (usually during boot, on first access or manually with the mountvol command).

Adding a new OCFS Volume

If the new volume is already available in the Disk Administrator of all cluster nodes and the drive letter or link is already assigned consistently on all nodes, you can just use ocfsformat to format the volume. Otherwise create the volume in Disk Administrator and reboot all the nodes. After reboot, check that the drive letter or link has been assigned correctly and then format the volume using ocfsformat.

Removing a Volume

Before removing a volume using Disk Administrator, you must set a volume offline and delete it from OCFS usage.

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1. Set the volume offline on all cluster nodes: ocfsutil /c OfflineVol /m <driveletter>: or <mountpoint>

2. Check that the volume has been offlined properly by trying to access it. Do this on all nodes.

3. Delete the volume from OCFS configuration: ocfsutil /c DeleteVol /m <driveletter>: or <mountpoint>

Split-Mirror Backup and Restore under OCFS

Split-mirror backup techniques like EMC²´s BCV technology can be used to create online backups of an Oracle database. This is also true if the database resides on OCFS volumes. The procedure for backing up a database is the same as for non-RAC Oracle databases on NTFS file systems. Restoring an online backup that was created using a split-mirror technique is

more complex. Some storage systems may not be able to handle the disks in a

way required by OCFS. In this case split-mirror cannot be used! As already stated, OCFS stores the state of a volume (online or offline) on the volume itself. When doing a split-mirror backup, this “online” state is saved like all other data on the disk. Before a volume can be restored, it is necessary to set the volume in question offline on all cluster nodes. When the volume is restored (copied sector by sector!), the volume state (= online!!!) will also be restored. This may cause OCFS to start mounting the volume in question before the restore has finished. This can cause data corruption on the volume! To do a safe restore, the storage device has to support “offlining LUNs”. On EMC² storage devices this is possible by using a command line tool that can also be called by a shell script. The trick is to set the LUN offline after the volume has been set offline with ocfsutil on all cluster nodes. This will set the device to a “not ready” state and prevent automatic mounting until the LUN has been set back online again.

Appendix B: FAQ

The following list of “Questions and Answers” is a compilation of some questions from partners and customers that want to implement or already have implemented SAP with Oracle RAC on Windows. Q: What are the differences between OCFS for Windows and OCFS1/OCFS2 for Linux ? A: The filesystems are completely different! While OCFS on Linux is available as two different versions OCFS1 and OCFS2, OCFS on Windows is available as OCFS 9.2 and OCFS 10.2. All filesystem versions are incompatible with each other, so basically no volume created with one filesystem type can be mounted using another filesystem driver. Although OCFS 9.2 can be upgraded to 10.2 this is not recommended. It is not possible to use different OCFS filesystems at the same time.

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Q: Is it possible to install SAP (SAP binaries and Oracle database that is created by sapinst and loaded with R3load) on OCFS for Windows ? A: No! As described in one of the previous chapters sapinst does not know about any other filesystem than NTFS. OCFS does not support ACLs and the installation will fail if one tries to install directly to OCFS volumes. Q: Is it allowed or possible to share CRS home on an OCFS volume like on Linux ? A: No! On Windows CRS has to be installed on a local disk (e.g. C:\). Q: Is it possible to run more than one database on a RAC cluster ? A: Yes. As long as each database has its own ORACLE_HOME! It is not supported to share an ORACLE_HOME to run different databases, but multiple nodes have to share the ORACLE_HOME for the same database. Q: Is it possible to use symbolic links for those volumes that contain Oracle Cluster Repository (OCR) and voting disks? A: No. The standard installation of CRS does only support driveletters. Q: Is it possible to use symbolic links for ORACLE_HOME and database files ? A: Yes. This is described in an earlier chapter of this document. Q: Is it possible to re-install CRS ? A: Yes, but it is a little bit tricky to do it the right way! Before de-installing CRS using Oracle Universal Installer it is necessary to delete the OCFS volumes where CRS stores its OCR and voting files. The steps are: Stop CRS on every node. Use “ocfsutil /c DeleteVol /m…” to delete the volumes. De-install CRS using Oracle Universal Installer. It is very important to delete the partitions first because otherwise the installation procedure will install and start OCFS, OCFS will mount the volumes and then the installation procedure will format the volumes while the volumes are already mounted. This would cause data corruption!!!

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Appendix C: BR*Tools Sample Configuration for “Legato

Networker”

In order to be able to back up the database using BR*Tools from different nodes, each node needs its own BR*Tools configuration file. These configuration files are only needed to start BR*Tools. The actual configuration that will be used can come from a “shared” configuration file. In the examples below, initT011.sap and initT012.sap are the “dummy” configuration files needed to start BR*Tools. The actual configuration file is initT01arch.sap, which should be provided as a command line parameter to BR*Tools. It also includes a file called initT01arch.utl that contains Legato Networker specific parameters for backing up the archives. All three *.sap files are basically the same, so only one is printed below.

initT011.sap:

initT012.sap:

initT01arch.sap: # @(#) $Id: //bas/BIN/src/ccm/rsbr/initNT.sap#1 $ SAP

########################################################################

# #

# SAP backup sample profile. #

# The parameter syntax is the same as for init.ora parameters. #

# Enclose parameter values which consist of more than one symbol in #

# double quotes. #

# After any symbol, parameter definition can be continued on the next #

# line. #

# A parameter value list should be enclosed in parentheses, the list #

# items should be delimited by commas. #

# There can be any number of white spaces (blanks, tabs and new lines) #

# between symbols for parameter definition. #

# #

########################################################################

# backup mode [all | all_data | full | incr | sap_dir | ora_dir

# | <tablespace_name> | <file_id> | <file_id1>-<file_id2>

# | <generic_path> | (<object_list>)]

# default: all

backup_mode = all

# restore mode [all | all_data | full | incr | incr_only | incr_full

# | <tablespace_name> | <file_id> | <file_id1>-<file_id2>

# | <generic_path> | (<object_list>)]

# redirection with '=' is not supported here - use option '-m' instead

# default: all

restore_mode = all

# backup type [offline | offline_force | offline_standby | offline_split

# | offline_stop | online | online_cons | online_split]

# default: offline

backup_type = online

# backup device type

# [tape | tape_auto | tape_box | pipe | pipe_auto | pipe_box | disk

# | disk_copy | disk_standby | stage | stage_copy | stage_standby

# | util_file | util_file_online | rman_util | rman_prep]

# default: tape

backup_dev_type = util_file

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# backup root directory [<path_name> | (<path_name_list>)]

# default: %SAPDATA_HOME%\sapbackup

backup_root_dir = B:\oracle\T01\sapbackup

# stage root directory [<path_name> | (<path_name_list>)]

# default: value of the backup_root_dir parameter

stage_root_dir = B:\oracle\T01\sapbackup

# compression flag [yes | no | hardware | only]

# default: no

compress = no

# compress command

# first $-character is replaced by the source file name

# second $-character is replaced by the target file name

# <target_file_name> = <source_file_name>.Z

# for compress command the -c option must be set

# recommended setting for brbackup -k only run:

# "%SAPEXE%\mkszip -l 0 -c $ > $"

# no default

compress_cmd = "G:\usr\sap\T01\sys\exe\run\mkszip -c $ > $"

# uncompress command

# first $-character is replaced by the source file name

# second $-character is replaced by the target file name

# <source_file_name> = <target_file_name>.Z

# for uncompress command the -c option must be set

# no default

uncompress_cmd = "G:\usr\sap\T01\sys\exe\run\uncompress -c $ > $"

# directory for compression [<path_name> | (<path_name_list>)]

# default: value of the backup_root_dir parameter

compress_dir = B:\oracle\T01\sapreorg

# brarchive function [save | second_copy | double_save | save_delete

# | second_copy_delete | double_save_delete | copy_save

# | copy_delete_save | delete_saved | delete_copied]

# default: save

archive_function = save_delete

# directory for archive log copies to disk

# default: first value of the backup_root_dir parameter

archive_copy_dir = B:\oracle\T01\sapbackup

# directory for archive log copies to stage

# should contain <SID> subdirectory

# default: first value of the stage_root_dir parameter

archive_stage_dir = B:\oracle\T01\sapbackup

# new database home directory for disk_copy | disk_standby

# no default

# new_db_home = H:\oracle\C11

# stage database home directory for stage_copy | stage_standby

# default: value of the new_db_home parameter

# stage_db_home = /oracle/C11

# original database home directory for split mirror disk backup

# no default

# orig_db_home = /oracle/C11

# remote host name

# no default

# remote_host = <host_name>

# remote user name

# default: current operating system user

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# remote_user = <user_name>

# tape copy command [cpio | cpio_gnu | dd | rman | rman_dd]

# default: cpio

tape_copy_cmd = cpio

# disk copy command [copy | dd | rman]

# default: copy

disk_copy_cmd = copy

# stage copy command [rcp | ftp]

# default: rcp

stage_copy_cmd = rcp

# flags for cpio output command

# default: -ovB

cpio_flags = -ovB

# flags for cpio input command

# default: -iuvB

cpio_in_flags = -iuvB

# flags for cpio command for copy of directories to disk

# default: -pdcu

cpio_disk_flags = -pdcu

# flags for dd output command

# default: "obs=16k"

# caution: option "obs=" not supported for Windows NT

# recommended setting:

# Unix: "obs=nk bs=nk", example: "obs=64k bs=64k"

# NT: "bs=nk", example: "bs=64k"

dd_flags = "bs=64k"

# flags for dd input command

# default: "ibs=16k"

# caution: option "ibs=" not supported for Windows NT

# recommended setting:

# Unix: "ibs=nk bs=nk", example: "ibs=64k bs=64k"

# NT: "bs=nk", example: "bs=64k"

dd_in_flags = "bs=64k"

# number of members in RMAN savesets [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | tsp | all ]

# default: 1

saveset_members = 1

# additional parameters for RMAN

# rman_channels and rman_filesperset are only used when rman_util

# rman_channels defines the number of parallel sbt channel allocations

# rman_filesperset = 0 means:

# one file per saveset - for non-incremental backups

# all files in one saveset - for incremental backups

# the others have the same meaning as for native RMAN

# rman_channels = 1

# rman_filesperset = 0

# rman_kbytes = 0

# rman_readrate = 0

# rman_maxopenfiles = 0

# rman_setsize = 0

# additional parameters for RMAN version 8.1

# the parameters have the same meaning as for native RMAN

# rman_diskratio = 0

# rman_pool = 0

# rman_duplex = 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

# rman_proxy = no | yes | only

# remote copy-out command (backup_dev_type = pipe)

# $-character is replaced by current device address

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# no default

copy_out_cmd = "dd ibs=8k obs=64k of=$"

# remote copy-in command (backup_dev_type = pipe)


# no default

copy_in_cmd = "dd ibs=64k obs=8k if=$"

# rewind command


# no default

# operating system dependent, examples:

# HP-UX: "mt -t $ rew"

# OSF1: "mt -f $ rew"

# AIX: "tctl -f $ rewind"

# SINIX: "mt -f $ rew"

# SUN: "mt -f $ rew"

# NT: "mt -f $ rewind"

rewind = "mt -f $ rewind"

# rewind and set offline command


# default: value of the rewind parameter


# HP-UX: "mt -t $ offl"

# OSF1: "mt -f $ offline"

# AIX: "tctl -f $ offline"

# SINIX: "mt -f $ offline"

# SUN: "mt -f $ offline"

# NT: "mt -f $ offline"

rewind_offline = "mt -f $ offline"

# tape positioning command

# first $-character is replaced by current device address

# second $-character is replaced by number of files to be skipped

# no default


# HP-UX: "mt -t $ fsf $"

# OSF1: "mt -f $ fsf $"

# AIX: "tctl -f $ fsf $"

# SINIX: "mt -f $ fsf $"

# SUN: "mt -f $ fsf $"

# NT: "mt -f $ fsf $"

tape_pos_cmd = "mt -f $ fsf $"

# mount backup volume command in auto loader / juke box

# used if backup_dev_type = tape_box | pipe_box

# caution: if successful, exit code 0 and no output!

# no default

# mount_cmd = "<mount_cmd> $ $ $ [$]"

# dismount backup volume command in auto loader / juke box

# used if backup_dev_type = tape_box | pipe_box


# no default

# dismount_cmd = "<dismount_cmd> $ $ [$]"

# split mirror disks command

# used if backup_type = offline_split | online_split


# no default

# split_cmd = "<split_cmd> [$]"

# resynchronize mirror disks command

# used if backup_type = offline_split | online_split


# no default

# resync_cmd = "<resync_cmd> [$]"

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# volume size in KB = K, MB = M or GB = G (backup device dependent)

# default: 1200M

# recommended values for tape devices without hardware compression:

# 60 m 4 mm DAT DDS-1 tape: 1200M




# 112 m 8 mm Video tape: 2000M

# 112 m 8 mm high density: 4500M

# DLT 2000 10/20 GB: 10000M

# DLT 2000XT 15/30 GB: 15000M

# DLT 4000 20/40 GB: 20000M

# DLT 7000 35/70 GB: 35000M

# recommended values for tape devices with hardware compression:





# 112 m 8 mm Video tape: 1800M

# 112 m 8 mm high density: 4300M

# DLT 2000 10/20 GB: 9000M

# DLT 2000XT 15/30 GB: 14000M

# DLT 4000 20/40 GB: 18000M

# DLT 7000 35/70 GB: 30000M

tape_size = 1200M

# volume size in KB = K, MB = M or GB = G used by brarchive

# default: value of the tape_size parameter

# tape_size_arch = 1200M

# level of parallel execution

# default: 0 - set to number of backup devices

exec_parallel = 0

# address of backup device without rewind

# [<dev_address> | (<dev_address_list>)]

# no default


# HP-UX: /dev/rmt/0mn

# OSF1: /dev/nrmt0h

# AIX: /dev/rmt0.1

# SINIX: /dev/ios0/rstape005n

# SUN: /dev/rmt/0mn

# NT: /dev/nmt0

tape_address = /dev/nmt0

# address of backup device without rewind used by brarchive

# default: value of the tape_address parameter

# operating system dependent

# tape_address_arch = /dev/nmt0

# address of backup device with rewind


# no default


# HP-UX: /dev/rmt/0m

# OSF1: /dev/rmt0h

# AIX: /dev/rmt0

# SINIX: /dev/ios0/rstape005

# SUN: /dev/rmt/0m

# NT: /dev/mt0

tape_address_rew = /dev/mt0

# address of backup device with rewind used by brarchive

# default: value of the tape_address_rew parameter


# tape_address_rew_arch = /dev/mt0

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# address of backup device with control for mount/dismount command


# default: value of the tape_address_rew parameter


# tape_address_ctl = /dev/...

# address of backup device with control for mount/dismount command

# used by brarchive

# default: value of the tape_address_rew_arch parameter


# tape_address_ctl_arch = /dev/...

# volumes for brarchive

# [<volume_name> | (<volume_name_list>) | SCRATCH]

# no default

volume_archive = (T01A01, T01A02, T01A03, T01A04, T01A05,

T01A06, T01A07, T01A08, T01A09, T01A10,

T01A11, T01A12, T01A13, T01A14, T01A15,

T01A16, T01A17, T01A18, T01A19, T01A20,

T01A21, T01A22, T01A23, T01A24, T01A25,

T01A26, T01A27, T01A28, T01A29, T01A30)

# volumes for brbackup

# [<volume_name> | (<volume_name_list>) | SCRATCH]

# no default

volume_backup = (T01B01, T01B02, T01B03, T01B04, T01B05,

T01B06, T01B07, T01B08, T01B09, T01B10,

T01B11, T01B12, T01B13, T01B14, T01B15,

T01B16, T01B17, T01B18, T01B19, T01B20,

T01B21, T01B22, T01B23, T01B24, T01B25,

T01B26, T01B27, T01B28, T01B29, T01B30)

# expiration period for backup volumes in days

# default: 30

expir_period = 30

# recommended usages of backup volumes

# default: 100

tape_use_count = 100

# backup utility parameter file

# default: no parameter file

util_par_file = F:\oracle\T01\102\database\initT01.utl

# mount/dismount command parameter file

# default: no parameter file

# mount_par_file = initT01.mnt

# Oracle instance string to the primary database

# [primary_db = <inst_str> | LOCAL]

# no default

# primary_db = <inst_str>

# description of parallel instances for Oracle Parallel Server

# parallel_instances = <instance_desc> | (<instance_desc_list>)

# <instance_desc_list> -> <instance_desc>[,<instance_desc>...]

# <instance_desc> -> <Oracle_sid>:<Oracle_home>@<inst_str>

# <Oracle_sid> -> Oracle system id for parallel instance

# <Oracle_home> -> Oracle home for parallel instance

# <inst_str> -> Oracle instance string to parallel instance

# Do not include the local instance in the parameter definition!

# default: no parallel instances

#

# example for initC11.sap:

# parallel_instances = (C11_002:/oracle/C11@C11_002,

# C11_003:/oracle/C11@C11_003)

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parallel_instances = (T011:F:\Oracle\T01\102@T011,

T012:F:\Oracle\T01\102@T012)

initT01arch.utl #

# This is the sample init.utl file.

#

# This file contains settings for the NetWorker Module for SAP with

# Oracle (a.k.a. NMSAP).

#

# Note: Comments have a "#" in the first column.

# Parameter name is always lowercase.

#

###########################################################################

# Default Value: no

# Valid Values: no/yes

# Set to 'yes' if you want client-side software compression.

# No compression unless set to 'yes'.

# This parameter is mutually exclusive from 'checksum' and 'encrypt'.

# The priority order is: 'compress', 'checksum', 'encrypt'.

# So, if you specify all, only compression will be done.

#

# compress = yes

# Default Value: 20

# Valid Values: > 0 integer

# Number of savesets to use for backups.

# This parameter will be ignored if 'ss_group_by_fs' is set to 'yes'.

#

# savesets = 20

# Default Value: 8


# Number of simultaneous savesets/savestreams to send to server.

# Be sure your server and devices are configured to support at least

# as many streams.

#

parallelism = 2

# Default Value: Default

# Valid Values: any group defined in your NetWorker server

# Uncomment to set the group to use for saves. If not specified,

# the Default group is used.

#

group = sonder8wochendb1

# Default Value: Default

# Valid Values: any pool defined in your NetWorker server

# Uncomment to set the media pool to use for saves. If not specified,

# the Default pool is used.

#

pool = svbackup04oracleRAC

# Default Value: 2 Weeks

# Valid Values: any string in getdate(man nsr_getdate) format.

# Uncomment to set the explicit expiration date for this save set.

# The setting here will supersede the browse and retention policy settings

# in the client resource. Must be in getdate (man nsr_getdate) format,

# e.g. 3 Months. Do not use quotes.

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#

expiration = 1 Weeks

# Default Value: <null>

# Valid Values: any string which is a valid mail command in your system

# Notifications for backint activity. Unices only. See documentation

# for details.

#

# notify_start = mailx -s 'backint start' root

# notify_done = mailx -s 'backint done' root

# notify_success = mailx -s 'backint success' root

# notify_error = mailx -s 'backint error' root

# Default Value: local host

# Valid Values: your NetWorker server hostname

# Set the NetWorker server hostname to use for backups and restores.

#

server = svbackup01

# Default Value: local host

# Valid Values: your NetWorker client hostname

# Use the client name under which the current backup should be catalogued.

# Setting the client name will append the "-c <hostname>" to the save

# command that is built by backint. This should always be set if the client

# is a virtual cluster client.

#

client = svsapswpracdb

# Default Value: no


# Dump more information from NetWorker functions into log file.

# For other diagnostic procedures, please contact Technical Support.

#

# verbose = yes


# Valid Values: the directory name(s) of your raw disk partitions

# Set raw partition directory other than /dev and /devices. Any files below

# these two directories are considered to be raw disk partitions. If you

# have raw partitions under another directory, you must use this option.

# Use a semicolon to separate directory paths

# e.g. raw_dir = /oracle/data;/sap/data;/lotus/data

# raw_dir = /oracle/data

# Default Value: no


# Unices only (query_index is always forced to 'yes' for Windows).

# This variable controls querying of the NetWorker server indexes (indices)

# before backint starts a recover. If the value is 'no', the query will not

# take place. If the value is 'yes', before recover starts the server will

be

# queried for validation of the requested files & backup id's.

#

# query_index = yes

# Default Value : old

# Valid Values : old/new

# This variable controls the saveset naming convention. If the

# value is "old" the saveset name for ALL backups is "backint:<ORACLE_SID>".

If

# the value is "new" the saveset name for each session will differ according

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# to the files being backed up. The saveset name will be

# "backint:<ORACLE_SID>:<absolute path of the first filename in the

saveset>".

#

# Please be aware that setting ssNameFormat=new will eliminate the

# possibility of recovering the database with NetWorker recover -S and

brrestore

# will be the only alternative to recover the savesets. Recovering with

# NetWorker recover is at your sole discretion.

#

# ssNameFormat = old

# Default Value : 30.

# Valid Values : > 0 integer.

# This variable controls the amount of time (in minutes)

# that backint will wait for brbackup/brconnect to remove the semaphore

file.

# At the end of this timeout period, if the semaphore file was not deleted

# backint will exit with an error.

#

# sem_timeout = 30

# Default Value: yes

# Valid Values: yes/no, setting to 'no' is at your sole discretion.

# This variable controls the "-l Full" invocation of save. If set to 'yes'

# the file will be saved with the "-l Full" parameter set.

#

# level_full = yes

# Default Value: 0


# This variable controls the number of times a failed backup

# is retried for each saveset.

#

# retry_count = 0

# Default Value: 0


# This variable sets the maximum number backint session logs to be saved in

# the log file. If the value of this parameter is 0, ALL backup logs will be

# saved in the log file. Please refer to backint_log parameter.

#

# max_logs = 1

###########################################################################

#

# New parameters added in NMSAP 3.0

#

# Default Value: /nsr/applogs/arch_backint<ORACLE_SID>.log

# Valid Values: any valid fullpath name with proper permission

# Fullpath name (absolute path and filename) of backint log file for running

# brarchive.

#

arch_backint_log = b:\oracle\swp\backint\legato\arch_backintswp.log

# Default Value: /nsr/applogs/backint<ORACLE_SID>.log

# Valid Values: any valid fullpath name with proper permission

# Fullpath name of backint log file for running brbackup/brrestore.

#

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# You can specify a separate log file for restore by modifying this

parameter

# before running brrestore. Alternatively, you can specify your own value

for

# backint_log in your own init<ORACLE_SID>_restore.utl file, which can be

# referenced from your own init<ORACLE_SID>_restore.sap's 'util_par_file'

# parameter (brrestore -p init<ORACLE_SID>_restore.sap).

#

backint_log = b:\oracle\swp\backint\legato\backintswp.log

# Default Value: /nsr/applogs

# Valid Values: any valid directory name with proper permission

# Directory name of backint temporary files

#

backint_tmpdir = b:\oracle\swp\backint\legato

# Default Value: no


# Group saveset by file system

# If set to 'yes', savesets parameter will be ignored

#

# ss_group_by_fs = yes

# Default Value: 0


# saveset grouping max size in MB. If not set, unlimited sizing takes

# effect.

#

# ss_size_max = 4096

# Default Value: no


# Unices only: whether to allow restoring previous backup if the required

one

# cannot be found when query_index = no.

#

# prev_bk_restore = yes

# Default Value: no


# Set to "yes" if you want to do CRC checking on restore.

# This parameter is mutually exclusive from 'compress' and 'encrypt'.



#

# checksum = yes

# Default Value: no


# Set to "yes" if you want to encrypt the backup data.

# This parameter is mutually exclusive from 'compress' and 'checksum'.



#

# encrypt = yes

###########################################################################

#

# New parameters added in NMSAP 3.0 - New PS Snapshot Feature:

# NMSAP 3.0 and the accompanying PS modules only officially support

scheduled

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# backups as invoked from savegrp, whereby PS snapshot disk hardware

resources

# will be automatically managed by NetWorker.

#

# Default Value: no


# This variable controls whether to enable the new PS (aka snapshot)

feature's

# mode. An accompanying PS module must be installed and licensed.

#

# Note that PS savesets will be named "backint:<SID|UID>:PS:". You should

# set all ps_xxx_mode variables to yes (or all to no or commented out).

Setting

# ps_backup_mode to yes (and ps_archive_mode to yes or no) generally

requires

# ps_restore_mode and ps_inquire_mode both be set to yes; doing otherwise

# is intended only for diagnostic/exploratory purposes and is to be used at

# your sole discretion.

#

# ps_backup_mode = yes

# ps_archive_mode = yes

# ps_restore_mode = yes

# ps_inquire_mode = yes


# Valid Values: any string, but should be a valid absolute path name of

# a PS file that has parameters which will be blindly passed by backint to

# the PS module. Refer to the documentation of the relevant PS module for

# details.

#

# This variable indirectly controls the behaviour of the PS module. It is

# mandatory once the ps_xxx_mode variables are set to yes. PS module

specific

# parameters are specified in one or more "x = y" lines, e.g.:

# NSR_SNAP_TYPE = sunii

#

# ps_opaque_pfilename = /nsr/res/nsrsapps.cfg


# Valid Values: any string of numbers, but should be one or more valid

backint

# run numbers, e.g. "2" --- minus the quotes in actuality. Run#2 is usually

# the second backint run invocation by brtools that only backs up the

parameter

# files, the SAP backup catalogue files, etc. The first backint run will

usually

# be for the main database data files; these files are usually very large

and

# are the only ones that will really benefit from undergoing PS snapshot

# processing.

#

# This variable says whether to force all "PS" files in a backint session

# to follow the traditional non-snapshot processing, i.e., whether to

exclude

# them from any PS snapshot processing, thereby saving valuable snapshot

# disk hardware resources for the large files.

#

# The following starting values are recommended:

#

ps_exclude_backup_bi_run_nums = 2

ps_exclude_archive_bi_run_nums = 1;2


# Valid Values: any fullpath string, including standard Unix wild-card

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# characters. The values should be based on actual brtools input file names

# passed to backint.

#

# This variable controls whether to force "PS" files to follow the

traditional

# non-snapshot processing, i.e. whether to exclude them from any PS

processing.

# A "PS" file is one that is on a NetWorker-aware snapshot-capable file

system.

#

# Note that there is limited support for wildcard characters on Windows: a

# single trailing '*' denotes simple case-insensitive prefix matching, e.g.,

# C:\DB01\FOO.DBF will be excluded from PS backups if

ps_exclude_backup_paths =

# C:\*, or = c:\db*, or = C:\DB01\*, and so forth. Under Unix, the wildcard

# matching is as provided by standard shell support for full file path

names,

# e.g., /db01/foo.dbf will be excluded if ps_exclude_backup_paths =

# /db01/foo.*, or /db??/*.dbf, but not excluded if ps_exclude_backup_paths =

# /db*.

#

# Preference should be given to setting ps_exclude_xxx_bi_run_nums before

# using this parameter.

#

# ps_exclude_backup_paths =

# ps_exclude_archive_paths =



# This variable says whether to do all PS file processing before any

# traditional, non-snapshot nonPS file processing. This can help prevent

# potential resource conflicts. This can be set to no to allow for

concurrent

# processing of PS and nonPS files during backup/archive and restore modes,

# when there is no possibility of resource usage conflicts --- to be used

# solely at your own discretion.

#

# ps_ps_before_nonps = no



# This variable says whether to group all session files (aka objects) in

# each PS operation (prepare/sync, snapshot/split, save/restore, postpare).

# Certain DB disk/filesystem configurations and brbackup usage can show

# better NMSAP performance if ps_group_objs is set to yes, e.g. large number

of

# files being processed by current BRTools & PS engines, with

util_file_online.

# However, grouping objects also reduces the potential parallelism during

# certain backup and restore sub-operations; consider setting to no for

these

# cases.

#

# ps_group_objs=yes is also intended for use with BRTools6.10+ offline &

file_

# online: brbackup -t offline -d util_file_online.

#

# ps_group_objs = no

###########################################################################

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SAP Netweaver / Oracle Database 10gR2 RAC on Windows 2003

A “Best Practices” Guide September 2007 Author: Markus Breunig Contributing Authors: Yuri Sharonin, Jan Klokkers

Oracle Corporation

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