E-Business Suite Applications 11i on RAC/ASM

I recently mentioned working with a client to convert their E-Business Suite environment to RAC and ASM. I enjoyed this project; there are a few good high-level guides to the process but there are still a lot of small hiccups and configuration decisions where I could put my RAC experience to work.

The main guide that we used for this conversion process was metalink note 362135.1. However there were a few divergences; the two main ones were that (1) the client had already upgraded their source database to 10g and (2) the metalink note was updated with a few new steps in the middle of our project but we chose to stick with the original document that we’d started with. The flowchart to the left gives a pretty good summary of our conversion process (click on it to see a larger image).

RConfig simplified the actual conversion to RAC and ASM but there were quite a few additional steps that we had to perform manually before and after RConfig. Here’s a breakdown of the database-related steps:

Install, patch, and configure RAC software (Flowchart Step 3)

1. Install Clusterware and Patchset

   FYI, although this client chose to use version 10.2.0.2 you can in fact use 10.2.0.3 with E-Business Suite Applications. Have a look at note 362203.1 for more info.

2. Install ASM Software and Patchset and Configure ASM Diskgroups

   Remember that you may need multiple disk groups in ASM. Think of an ASM disk group as the same thing as a filesystem mount point. If you were spreading your files over 4 mount points then four disk groups would give you an equivalent configuration based on ASM.

3. Install DB Software and Patchset

   We chose to install a new ORACLE_HOME for the database software. It is also possible to skip this step and use your existing ORACLE_HOME (although you will then need to clone this home to all cluster nodes).

   After installing this home you must apply all patches that were applied to the source ORACLE_HOME… this is one disadvantage of this approach.

4. Fix 10.2.0.2 Patchset Bug (libknlopt.a)

   Naturally this only applies to the 10.2.0.2 patchset. This is known bug 5128575 and you can find a detailed description and workaround in note 5128575.8.

5. Fix Listener ONS Notification Config Bug

   The installation of Oracle clusterware onto the same machine as a cloned instance of Oracle Apps triggered a rather nasty networking bug. I put together a few detailed blogs about this when we were working on it; have a look at them for more info.

Database conversion with RConfig (Flowchart Step 4)

This part was pretty straightforward. We updated the oratab first just for convenience then used RConfig to convert the database to RAC and ASM. After the conversion there were three additional steps: (1) deleting the listener that RConfig made, (2) updating the racgwrap script for Oracle Apps, and (3) setting up AutoConfig on the ORACLE_HOME. The third step also created the context and configuration files for E-Business Suite.

Database tier configuration (Flowchart Step 5)

The post-config was a bit involved and I’m not going to detail every step we took but here’s the overview:

1. Update oraenv Script

2. Symlink Apps Environment Script

3. Make All Redo Threads Public

4. Enable Block Change Tracking

5. Make Multiple Controlfiles

6. Update Initialization Parameters and Switch to SPFile

7. Configure Shared SPFile and PWFile

8. Fix DBConsole Installation Script Bug

9. Configure DBConsole (OEM)

10. Update LISTENER.ORA

The most complicated step was making multiple control files. RConfig only made a single controlfile by default (because DB_CREATE_FILE_DEST was set but there was no flash recovery area). And unfortunately you can’t just copy files in and out of ASM – so we had to use RMAN to make the copies. Took a few more steps than I’m used to!

That being said the project was certainly a success. We got the environment converted and documented in record time – although it did take me awhile after that to get the “pretty” docs finalized. (I hate writing sometimes. Blog posts are easy… but long docs can be torture to finish… ugh!)