Step-By-Step Installation of RAC on Linux

Purpose

This document will provide the reader with step-by-step instructions on how to install a cluster, install Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) and start a cluster database on Linux. For additional explanation or information on any of these steps, please see the references listed at the end of this document.

  1. Configuring the Clusters Hardware

 1.1 Minimal Hardware list / system Requirements

 1.1.1 Hardware
 1.1.2 Software

 1.2 Installing the Shared Disk Subsystem
 1.3 Installing Cluster Interconnect and Public Network Hardware
 1.4 Configuring the Interconnect

 2. Creating a Cluster

 2.1 Cluster Software Installation
 2.2 Configuring the Kernel for Real Application Cluster Support

 3. Preparing for the Installation of RAC

 3.1 Configure the Shared Disks and UNIX Preinstallation Tasks

 3.1.1 UNIX Preinstallation Steps
 3.1.2 Configure the shared disks

 3.2 Using the Oracle Universal Installer for Real Application Clusters
 3.3 Configure the Cluster Manager, Node Monitor and SRVCTL configuration file
 3.4 Configuring the Listeners
 3.5 Create a RAC Database using the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant

 4. Administering Real Application Cluster Instances
 5. References

Please check the RAC/Linux certification matrix for information on currently supported hardware/software.

1.1.1 Hardware

• Requirements:
• Refer to the RAC/Linux certification matrix for information on supported configurations.
  

1.1.2 Software

• Certified platforms:
• Certified distributions and configurations are documented here.
  

1.2 Installing the Shared Disk Subsystem
This is highly dependent on the subsystem you have chosen. Please refer to your hardware documentation for installation and configuration instructions on Linux. Additional drivers and patches might be required. In this article we assume that the shared disk subsystem is correctly installed and that the shared disks are visible to all nodes in the cluster. Real Application Clusters requires the use of raw devices on Linux. You will need to carefully partition your disks to have adequate sized partitions. Using LVM (Logical Volume Manager) is very useful to make the management of raw devices more flexible.
In this article we will use LVM logical volumes. The only difference with using disk partitions is in the binding of the raw devices, you'll have to use the partitions (ex: /sbin/raw /dev/raw/raw1 /dev/sda1) instead of the logical volumes (ex: /sbin/raw /dev/raw/raw1 /dev/oracle/db_name_raw_system_251m).

1.3 Installing Cluster Interconnect and Public Network Hardware

• If not already installed, install host adapters in your cluster nodes. For the procedure on installing host adapters, see the documentation that shipped with your host adapters and node hardware.

Each system will have at least an IP address for the public network and one for the private cluster interconnect. For the public network, get the addresses from your network manager. For the private interconnect use 1.1.1.1 , 1.1.1.2 for the first and second node. Make sure to add all addresses in /etc/hosts.
 

ex:
9.25.120.143    rac1        #Oracle 9i Rac node 1 - public network
9.25.120.143    rac2        #Oracle 9i Rac node 2 - public network

1.1.1.1              int-rac1   #Oracle 9i Rac node 1 - interconnect
1.1.1.2              int-rac2   #Oracle 9I Rac node 2 - interconnect

Use your favorite tool to configure these adapters (ex: YaST2 on SuSE Linux). Make sure your public network is the primary (eth0).

2.1 Cluster Software Installation

On Linux, the cluster software required to run Real Application Clusters is included in the Oracle distribution. There is a difference between Oracle V9.0 and V9.2 as indicated in the relevant sections.

2.2 Configuring the Kernel for Real Application Cluster Support
When the Kernel sources are included, you can check support for

• Raw devices:

    $ ls /usr/src/linux/drivers/raw.c
 
• Watchdog support:
• Make sure the watchdog device exists and has the correct permission and ownership.
$ ls -l /dev/watchdog
crw-------    1 oracle   root      10, 130 Sep 24  2001 /dev/watchdog
• If it does not exist, issue the following commands as root
$ mknod /dev/watchdog c 10 130
$ chmod 600 /dev/watchdog
$ chown oracle /dev/watchdog
• Check for support in the kernel
$ grep WATCHDOG ls /usr/src/linux/.config
CONFIG_WATCHDOG=y
CONFIG_WATCHDOG_NOWAYOUT=y
CONFIG_SOFT_WATCHDOG=m

When the kernel is correctly configured for watchdog support as a loadable module, we need to load this module. Put the following command also in your startup scripts. I would recommend to group all actions to be performed as root at system startup in a file called startoracle_root.sh. The following command will be the first entry:

/sbin/insmod softdog soft_margin=60

The Real Application Clusters installation process includes four major tasks.

1. Configure the shared disks and UNIX preinstallation tasks.
2. Run the Oracle Universal Installer to install the Oracle9i Enterprise Edition and the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters software.
3. Configure the cluster manager and node monitor (V90 only).
4. Create and configure your database.

3.1.1 UNIX Preinstallation Steps

Add the Oracle USER
Depending on your Linux Operating System vendor (ex: SuSE) , this may have been preconfigured.

• Make sure you have an osdba group defined in the /etc/group file on all nodes of your cluster. To designate an osdba group name and group number and osoper group during installation, these group names must be identical on all nodes of your Linux cluster that will be part of the Real Application Clusters database. The default UNIX group name for the osdba and osoper groups is dba. A typical entry would therefore look like the following:

 
dba::101:oracle
oinstall::102:root,oracle
• Create an oracle account on each node so that the account:
• Is a member of the osdba group
• Is used only to install and update Oracle software

A typical command would look like the following:

# useradd -c "Oracle software owner" -G dba, oinstall -u 101 -m -d /export/home/oracle -s /bin/ksh oracle
 

or use a graphical interface like YaST2.

• Create a mount point directory on each node to serve as the top of your Oracle software directory structure so that:
• The name of the mount point on each node is identical to that on the initial node
• The oracle account has read, write, and execute privileges

We used /oracle in our example.
$ mkdir /oracle
$ chown -R oracle.oinstall /oracle
$ chmod -R ug=rwx,o=rx /oracle

• Make sure inetd is started on all nodes and that the ftp, telnet, shell and login services are enabled (see /etc/inetd.conf). For SuSE Linux, you can use YaST2 network configuration.

 
• On the node from which you will run the Oracle Universal Installer, set up user equivalence by adding entries for all nodes in the cluster, including the local node, to the .rhosts file of the oracle account, or the /etc/hosts.equiv file.

 
Sample entries in /etc/hosts.equiv file:
rac1
rac2
int-rac1
int-rac2

 
• As oracle user, check for user equivalence for the oracle account by performing a remote login (rlogin) to each node (public and private) in the cluster.

 
Note: If you are prompted for a password, you have not given the oracle account the same attributes on all nodes. You must correct this because the Oracle Universal Installer cannot use the rcp command to copy Oracle products to the remote node's directories without user equivalence.

You will have to set the correct parameters during system startup, so include them in your startup script (startoracle_root.sh):

$ export SEMMSL=100
$ export SEMMNS=1024
$ export SEMOPM=100
$ export SEMMNI=100
$ echo  $SEMMSL $SEMMNS $SEMOPM $ SEMMNI > /proc/sys/kernel/sem
$ export SHMMAX=2147483648
$ echo $SHMMAX > /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax

$ cat /proc/sys/kernel/sem
$ cat /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax

Establish system environment variables

• Set a local bin directory in the user's PATH, such as /usr/local/bin, or /opt/bin. It is necessary to have execute permissions on this directory.
• Set the DISPLAY variable to point to the system's (from where you will run OUI) IP address, or name, X server, and screen.
• Set a temporary directory path for TMPDIR with at least 100 Mb of free space to which the OUI has write permission.

• Make sure you unset LANG, JRE_HOME and JAVA_HOME in your .profile.
• Create the directory /var/opt/oracle and set ownership to the oracle user.
$ mkdir /var/opt/oracle
$ chown oracle.oinstall /var/opt/oracle

Real Application Clusters requires that all instances be able to access a set of unformatted devices on a shared disk subsystem. These shared disks are also referred to as raw devices. If your platform supports an Oracle-certified cluster file system, however, you can store the files that Real Application Clusters requires directly on the cluster file system.

The Oracle instances in Real Application Clusters write data onto the raw devices to update the control file, server parameter file, each datafile, and each redo log file. All instances in the cluster share these files. The Oracle provided node monitor also needs a raw device shared by all nodes.

The Oracle instances in the RAC configuration write information to raw devices defined for:

• The control file
• The spfile.ora
• Each datafile
• Each ONLINE redo log file
• Server Manager (SRVM) configuration information

It is therefore necessary to define raw devices for each of these categories of files. The Oracle Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) will create a seed database expecting the following configuration (replace db_name with the actual name of your database):
 

Note: the logical volumes should be bigger than the size of the oracle datafiles, in the following table, Datafile Size indicates the size used for the Oracle datafiles. In this article, we created the logical volumes or disk partitions 1Mb bigger (indicated by the sample filenames).The sizes indicated here are according to what dbca uses as defaults except for the redo logfiles. You are strongly encouraged to adjust the sizes to your needs, but don't forget to correct them when running DBCA to create the database.

Notes:

• Automatic Undo Management requires an undo tablespace per instance therefore you would require a minimum of 2 tablespaces as described above. By following the naming convention described in the table above, the logical volumes are identified with the database and the volume type (the data contained in the raw volume). Volume size is also identified using this method.
• In the sample names listed in the table, the string db_name should be replaced with the actual database name, thread is the thread number of the instance, and lognumber is the log number within a thread.
• The name of the undo tablespace will be UNDOTBS for the first instance and UNDOTBS2 for the second.

After creating the nessecary partitions or logical volumes, , you have to bind the raw devices.  Please check where your raw devices are located, look for /dev/raw1 or /dev/raw/raw1.These bindings have to be recreated at system reboot, so put the commands in your startup scripts (startoracle_root.sh) .  This must be executed as root on all nodes. The bind commands look like:

/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw1 /dev/oracle/db_name_raw_system_251m
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw2 /dev/oracle/db_name_users_26m
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw3 /dev/oracle/db_name_raw_temp_41m
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw4 /dev/oracle/db_name_raw_undotbs_201m
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw5 /dev/oracle/db_name_raw_undotbs2_201m
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw6 /dev/oracle/db_name_raw_indx_26m
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw7 /dev/oracle/db_name_raw_controlfile1_110m
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw8 /dev/oracle/db_name_raw_controlfile2_110m
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw9 /dev/oracle/db_name_raw_rdo_1_1_121m
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw10 /dev/oracle/db_name_raw_rdo_1_2_121m
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw11 /dev/oracle/db_name_raw_rdo_2_1_121m
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw12 /dev/oracle/db_name_raw_rdo_2_2_121m
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw13 /dev/oracle/db_name_raw_spfile_5m
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw14 /dev/oracle/nm_raw_5m
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw15 /dev/oracle/srvctl_raw
/usr/sbin/raw /dev/raw16 /dev/oracle/db_name_raw_tools_11m

/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw1
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw2
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw3
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw4
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw5
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw6
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw7
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw8
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw9
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw10
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw11
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw12
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw13
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw14
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw15
/bin/chmod 600 /dev/raw16

/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw1
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw2
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw3
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw4
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw5
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw6
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw7
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw8
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw9
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw10
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw11
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw12
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw13
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw14
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw15
/bin/chown oracle.dba /dev/raw16
 

$ raw -qa
/dev/raw1:  bound to major 3, minor 7
/dev/raw2:  bound to major 3, minor 8
...

$ mkdir /oracle/oradata
$ mkdir /oracle/oradata/db_name
ln -s /dev/raw1 /oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_system_251m
ln -s /dev/raw2 /oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_users_26m
ln -s /dev/raw3 /oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_temp_41m
ln -s /dev/raw4 /oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_undotbs_201m
ln -s /dev/raw5 /oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_undotbs2_201m
ln -s /dev/raw6 /oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_indx_26m
ln -s /dev/raw7 /oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_controlfile1_110m
ln -s /dev/raw8 /oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_controlfile2_110m
ln -s /dev/raw9 /oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_rdo_1_1_121m
ln -s /dev/raw10 /oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_rdo_1_2_121m
ln -s /dev/raw11 /oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_rdo_2_1_121m
ln -s /dev/raw12 /oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_rdo_2_2_121m
ln -s /dev/raw13 /oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_spfile_5m
ln -s /dev/raw16 /oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_tools_11m

database_object=raw_device_file_path or database_object=soft_link

When you create the ASCII file, separate the database objects from the paths with equals (=) signs as shown in the example below:-

system=/oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_system_251m
users=/oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_users_26m
temp=/oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_temp_41m
undotbs1=/oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_undotbs_201m
undotbs2=/oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_undotbs2_201m
control1=/oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_controlfile1_110m
control2=/oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_controlfile2_110m
redo1_1=/oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_rdo_1_1_121m
redo1_2=/oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_rdo_1_2_121m
redo2_1=/oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_rdo_2_1_121m
redo2_2=/oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_rdo_2_2_121m
spfile=/oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_spfile_5m
indx=/oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_indx_26m
tools=/oracle/oradata/db_name/db_name_raw_tools_11m

setenv DBCA_RAW_CONFIG filename
or
export DBCA_RAW_CONFIG=filename
 

3.2 Using the Oracle Universal Installer for Real Application Clusters

Follow these procedures to use the Oracle Universal Installer to install the Oracle Enterprise Edition and the Real Application Clusters software. Oracle9i is supplied on multiple CD-ROM disks. During the installation process it is necessary to switch between the CD-ROMS. OUI will manage the switching between CDs.

To install the Oracle Software, perform the following:

• Mount the first CD as root
• Allow oracle access to the Xserver
$ xhost +
• Login as the oracle user
• Make sure your display is set
$ export DISPLAY=:0 (or setenv DISPLAY :0)
• $ <cdrom_mount_point>/runInstaller

 
• At the OUI Welcome screen, click Next.
• A prompt will appear for the Inventory Location (if this is the first time that OUI has been run on this system). This is the base directory into which OUI will install files. The Oracle Inventory definition can be found in the file /etc/oraInst.loc. Click OK.
• Enter oinstall as the UNIX group name of the user who controls the installation of the Oracle9i software. Click Next.
• An instruction to run /tmp/orainstRoot.sh appears. Run this as root and click Continue.
• The File Location window will appear. Do NOT change the Source field. The Destination field defaults to the ORACLE_HOME environment variable. Click Next.

• Check Oracle Cluster  Manager. Click Next.
• On the public node information screen, enter the public node names and click Next.
• On the private node information screen, enter the interconnect node names. Click Next.
• Accept the default value (60000) for the watchdog parameter. Click Next.
• Enter the full name of the raw device you have created for the node monitor for the Quorum disk information. Click Next.
• Press Install at the summary screen.
• You will now briefly get a progress window followed by the end of installation screen. Click Exit. and confirm by clicking Yes.
• Create the directory $ORACLE_HOME/oracm/log (as oracle) on the other nodes and start the cluster manager on all nodes as root .

• Run the installer again.
• Custer Node Selection Screen. Select nodes. Press Next.
• At the file location screen, press Next.
• Select the Products to install. In this example, select the Oracle9i Database then click Next.
• Select the installation type. Choose the Custom option. The selection on this screen refers to the installation operation, not the database configuration. Click Next.
• Select database components, make sure you include the Real Application Clusters option (i also installed  partitioning and netlistener). Click Next.
• Component Locations, accept defaults and press Next.
• You are prompted for the pathname of the shared configuration file : enter the pathname of the raw device you used for the srvconf file (ex: /dev/raw/raw15) and click Next.
• Privileged operating system groups. Click Next.
• Create database, check no. Click Next.
• Summary screen. Click Install.
• Install screen shows the progress.
• Insert (umount + mount ) CD2 when asked. Press ok.
• Insert (umount + mount ) CD3 when asked. Press ok.
• You will get a popup indicating to run $ORACLE_HOME/root.sh as root. Do so and answer the questions (just press return) on all nodes. Then press OK.
• Configuration tools window appears and starts cluster configuration assistant - net configuration assistant
• Net Configuration assistant - Do not configure this now.Click Cancel and confirm by clicking Yes.
• Accept the error indicating that one or more tools have failed. This is because we cancelled net configuration. Click Ok. Click Next.
• End of installation screen. Press Exit and confirm by clicking Yes.
• Make sure the directory $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/audit exists on all nodes, create it if not.
• Make sure the directory $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/log exists on all nodes, create it if not.
• Make sure the directory $ORACLE_HOME/network/log exists on all nodes, create it if not.

• Select the Products to install. In this example, select the Oracle9i Database then click Next.
• Select the installation type. Choose the Custom option. The selection on this screen refers to the installation operation, not the database configuration. Click Next.
• Select the product components you need. Make sure to include the Real Application Clusters option. Click Next. Depending on your choise, there might be some additional screens as mentioned here. We have chosen only Real application clusters and the partitioning options.
• The next screen allows you to specify an alternate path for the OUI. Click Next.
• You are prompted for the pathname of the shared configuration file : enter the pathname of the raw device you used for the srvconf file (ex: /dev/raw15) and click Next.
• On the cluster nodes selection screen, select all nodes where the software should be installed. Specify the interconnect node names (ex: int-rac2). Click Next.
• Privileged operating system groups. Click Next.
• You get the summary screen. Once Install is selected, the OUI will install the Oracle RAC software on to the local node, and then copy software to the other nodes selected earlier. This will take some time. You will need to switch to the second an third CDROM when asked by the installer (umount an mount as root). During the installation process, the OUI does not display messages indicating that components are being installed on other nodes - I/O activity may be the only indication that the process is continuing.
• You will get a popup indicating to run $ORACLE_HOME/root.sh as root. Do so and answer the questions (just press return). Then press OK.
• Now click Exit and confirm (click Yes) and confirm the exit (click YES) to exit the installer.
• You can now umount your cdrom as root.

• create the file $ORACLE_HOME/oracm/admin/nmcfg.ora with the following contents:
CmHostName=int-rac1 (on the other node, you specify int-rac2...)
DefinedNodes=int-rac1 int-rac2
CmDiskFiles=/dev/raw/raw14 (the raw device bound to the node monitor raw device)
 
• start the cluster manager and the node monitor as root - add these commands to your startup file (startoracle_root.sh)
$ export ORACLE_HOME=/oracle/product/9.0.1
$ORACLE_HOME/oracm/bin/ocmstart.s

• initialize the raw device used by the srvctl utility (as oracle user):
$ srvconfig -init
 
• start the global services daemon as the oracle user, also put this command in a startup script run as oracle user (startoracle.sh)
$ gsd

            $ gsdctl start

• make sure the LANG environment variable is not set
$ unset LANG
 
• start the network configuration assistant as oracle user:
$ netca
• On the welcome screen, select cluster configuration and click Next.
• On the nodes screen, select all nodes and click Next.
• On this screen, select listener configuration and click Next.
• You get the listener configuration screen. Select add and click Next.
• Accept the default name listener by clicking Next.
• This is the protocol selection screen. TCPIP should already be selected. Add IPC (click IPC then >) and click Next.
• Accept the default port number (1521) on the screen by clicking Next.
• On the IPC configuration screen, enter your database name as key and click Next.
• Do not configure anything else and exit netca unless you want to use Oracle intelligent agent. You will have to statically add the service names to allow automatic detection of your database by the agent.  The instances will register themselves with the listener.

The Oracle Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) will create a database for you (for an example of manual database creation see Database Creation in Oracle9i RAC). The DBCA creates your database using the optimal flexible architecture (OFA). This means the DBCA creates your database files, including the default server parameter file, using standard file naming and file placement practices. The primary phases of DBCA processing are:-

• Verify that you correctly configured the shared disks for each tablespace (for non-cluster file system platforms)
• Create the database

The DBCA and the Oracle Net Configuration Assistant also accurately configure your Real Application Clusters environment for various Oracle high availability features and cluster administration tools.

• Start DBCA by executing the command dbca. The RAC Welcome Page displays. Choose Oracle Cluster Database option and select Next.
• The Operations page is displayed. Choose the option Create a Database and click Next.
• The Node Selection page appears. Select the nodes that you want to configure as part of the RAC database and click Next. If nodes are missing from the Node Selection then perform clusterware diagnostics by executing the $ORACLE_HOME/bin/lsnodes -v command and analyzing its output. Resolve the problem and then restart the DBCA.
• The Database Templates page is displayed. The templates other than New Database include datafiles. Choose New Database and then click Next.
• The Show Details button provides information on the database template selected.
• DBCA now displays the Database Identification page. Enter the Global Database Name and Oracle System Identifier (SID). The Global Database Name is typically of the form name.domain, for example mydb.us.oracle.com while the SID is used to uniquely identify an instance (DBCA should insert a suggested SID, equivalent to name1 where name was entered in the Database Name field). In the RAC case the SID specified will be used as a prefix for the instance number. For example, MYDB, would become MYDB1, MYDB2 for instance 1 and 2 respectively.
• The Database Options page is displayed.  Deselect all options (also click additional / standard database configuration) and accept the tablespaces to be dropped as well, then choose Next. Note: If you did not choose New Database from the Database Template page, you will not see this screen.

• Select the dedicated server mode option from the Database Connection Options page. Note: If you did not choose New Database from the Database Template page, you will not see this screen. Click Next.
• DBCA now displays the Initialization Parameters page. This page comprises a number of Tab fields. Modify the Memory settings if desired and then select the File Locations tab. The option Create persistent initialization parameter file is selected by default. The file name should point to the correct database link. Otherwise you didn't set the DBCA_RAW_CONFIG correctly or the file contains errors. The button All Initialization Parameters... displays the Initialization Parameters dialog box. This box presents values for all initialization parameters and indicates whether they are to be included in the spfile to be created through the check box, included (Y/N). Instance specific parameters have an instance value in the instance column. Complete entries in the All Initialization Parameters (especially check/correct the remote_listener entry, should read LISTENER) page and select Close. Note: There are a few exceptions to what can be altered via this screen. Ensure all entries in the Initialization Parameters page are complete. You might want to select an 8 bit character set in the db Sizing section and select Next.
• DBCA now displays the Database Storage Window. This page allows you to enter file names for each tablespace in your database. They should be pointing to the correct raw device or database link. Make sure to correct the datafile sizes to what you have planned and remember that the datafile should be somewhat smaller than the raw device. Click Next.
• The Database Creation Options page is displayed. Ensure that the option Create Database is checked and click Finish.
• The DBCA Summary window is displayed. Review this information and then click OK.
• Once the Summary screen is closed using the OK option, DBCA begins to create the database according to the values specified.
• You will get the password management window, complete as desired and click Exit.

For Oracle RAC V9.2.0.1:
Please install patch  Patch 2417903 available via MetaLink. This resolves an issue with slow startup of your instances.

Oracle Corporation recommends that you use SRVCTL to administer your Real Application Clusters database environment. SRVCTL manages configuration
information that is used by several Oracle tools. For example, Oracle Enterprise Manager and the Intelligent Agent use the configuration information that
SRVCTL generates to discover and monitor nodes in your cluster. Before using SRVCTL, ensure that your Global Services Daemon (GSD) is running. To use SRVCTL, you must have already created the configuration information for the database that you want to administer.
You must have done this either by using the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA), or by using the srvctl add command. If you have followed the instructions in this article, dbca will have added your database and instances.

For Oracle RAC V9.0.1:
$ srvctl config -p racdb1
racnode1 racinst1
racnode2 racinst2

$ srvctl config -p racdb1 -n racnode1
racnode1 racinst1

Examples of starting and stopping RAC follow:-

$ srvctl start -p racdb1
Instance successfully started on node: racnode2
Listeners successfully started on node: racnode2
Instance successfully started on node: racnode1
Listeners successfully started on node: racnode1

$ srvctl stop -p racdb1
Instance successfully stopped on node: racnode2
Instance successfully stopped on node: racnode1
Listener successfully stopped on node: racnode2
Listener successfully stopped on node: racnode1

$ srvctl stop -p racdb1 -i racinst2 -s inst
Instance successfully stopped on node: racnode2

$ srvctl stop -p racdb1 -s inst
PRKO-2035 : Instance is already stopped on node: racnode2
Instance successfully stopped on node: racnode1

For Oracle RAC V9.2+:
$ srvctl config database -d racdb1
racnode1 racinst1 /oracle/product/9.2.0
racnode2 racinst2 /oracle/product/9.2.0

Examples of starting and stopping RAC follow:-

$ srvctl start database -d racdb1
$ srvctl status database -d arldb
Instance racinst1 is running on racnode1
Instance racinst2 is running on racnode2

$ srvctl stop database -d racdb1
$ srvctl status database -d arldb
Instance racinst1 is not running on racnode1
Instance racinst2 is not running on racnode2

$ srvctl start instance -d racdb1 -i racinst1
$ srvctl status instance -d racdb1 -i racinst1
Instance racinst1 is running on racnode1

$ srvctl status database -d arldb
Instance racinst1 is running on racnode1
Instance racinst2 is not running on racnode2

$ srvctl stop instance -d racdb1 -i racinst1

For further information on srvctl see the Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Administration Release 1 (9.0.1) manual.

• Oracle9i Installation Guide for UNIX Systems: AIX-Based Systems, Compaq Tru64 UNIX, HP 9000 Series HP-UX, Linux Intel and Sun SPARC Solaris
• Oracle9i Installation Checklist for Linux Intel
• Oracle9i Quick Installation Procedure for Linux 
• Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Installation and Configuration