使用VirtualBox虚拟机在Redhat Linux 5.5上安装Oracle 11g RAC

Oracle Database 11g Release 2 RAC On Linux Using VirtualBox

This article describes the installation of Oracle Database 11g release 2 (11.2 64-bit) RAC on Linux (Oracle Linux

5.5 64-bit) using VirtualBox (3.2.8) with no additional shared disk devices.

 Introduction

 Download Software

 VirtualBox Installation

 Virtual Machine Setup

 Guest Operating System Installation

 Check the Status of the RAC

Introduction

One of the biggest obstacles preventing people from setting up test RAC environments is the requirement for

shared storage. In a production environment, shared storage is often provided by a SAN or high-end NAS device,

but both of these options are very expensive when all you want to do is get some experience installing and using

RAC. A cheaper alternative is to use a FireWire disk enclosure to allow two machines to access the same disk(s),

but that still costs money and requires two servers. A third option is to use virtualization to fake the shared storage.

Using VirtualBox you can run multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) on a single server, allowing you to run both RAC

nodes on a single machine. In additon, it allows you to set up shared virtual disks, overcoming the obstacle of

expensive shared storage.

4G if you don't want the VMs to swap like crazy. As you can see, 11gR2 RAC requires much more memory

than 11gR1 RAC. Don't assume you will be able to run this on a small PC or laptop. You won't.

 This procedure provides a bare bones installation to get the RAC working. There is no redundancy in the

Grid Infrastructure installation or the ASM installation. To add this, simply create double the amount of

shared disks and select the "Normal" redundancy option when it is offered. Of course, this will take more

disk space.

 During the virtual disk creation, I always choose not to preallocate the disk space. This makes virtual disk

access slower during the installation, but saves on wasted disk space. The shared disks must have their

space preallocated.

 This is not, and should not be considered, a production-ready system. It's simply to allow you to get used to

prevent the installation working. If you want to avoid this, define 3+Gig of swap.

 This article uses the 64-bit versions of Oracle Linux and Oracle 11g Release 2.

Download Software

Download the following software.

 Oracle Linux 5.5

 VirtualBox (Must be version 3.2.8 or later)

 Oracle 11g Release 2 (11.2) Software (64 bit)

VirtualBox Installation

First, install the VirtualBox software. On RHEL and its clones you do this with the following command as the root

user.

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Enter "2048" as the base memory size, then click the "Next" button.

Accept the default option to create a new virtual hard disk by clicking the "Next" button.

Click the "Next" button on the Create Virtual Disk Wizard welcome screen.

Acccept the default option by clicking the "Next" button.

Accept the default location and set the size to "20G" and click the "Next" button.

Click the "Finish" button on the Virtual Disk Wizard Summary screen.