Manually Convert Single Instance to RAC on Unix

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Now, I know what you are going to say and yes I know there is a new utility in 10g called rconfig that will do all this for you but just in case you want to do it the old fashioned way I thought I’d include the steps to do it. So, here we go…

1. Convert the oracle home on each Node

(Note 211177.1 on Metalink)

a. Login as the Oracle software owner and make sure any databases running out of this oracle home are down

b. cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib

c. make -f ins_rdbms.mk rac_on

If this step did not fail with fatal errors then proceed to step 4.

d. make -f ins_rdbms.mk ioracle

2. Each instance require its own redo thread. So add a new logfile thread for each additional instance.

alter database add logfile thread 2 group 4 ('/oradata1/ORA2/ORA2_t2g4_m1.rdo', '/oradata1/ORA2/ORA2_t2g4_m2.rdo') size 50m, group 5 ('/oradata1/ORA2/ORA2_t2g5_m1.rdo', '/oradata1/ORA2/ORA2_t2g5_m2.rdo') size 50m, group 6 ('/oradata1/ORA2/ORA2_t2g6_m1.rdo', '/oradata1/ORA2/ORA2_t2g6_m2.rdo') size 50m / ALTER DATABASE ENABLE PUBLIC THREAD 2 /3. Each instance requires its own undo tablespace. So add an undo tablespace for each additional instance

create undo tablespace undo02 datafile '/oradata1/ORA2/ORA2_undo02_01.dbf' size 4001m /4. Create the cluster views needed for RAC

SQL> @?/rdbms/admin/catclust5. If you are using an spfile, create an init.ora from it.

SQL> create pfile='/tmp/initORA.ora' from spfile
/6. Edit the init.ora to include the cluster parameters

*.cluster_database_instances=2
*.cluster_database=TRUE
ORA1.instance_name='ORA1'
ORA2.instance_name='ORA2'
ORA1.instance_number=1
ORA2.instance_number=2
ORA1.thread=1
ORA2.thread=2
ORA1.undo_tablespace='UNDO01'
ORA2.undo_tablespace='UNDO02'
ORA1.local_listener='LISTENER_ORA1'
ORA2.local_listener='LISTENER_ORA2'
ORA1.remote_listener='LISTENER_ORA2'
ORA2.remote_listener='LISTENER_ORA1'7. Shutdown and startup using the edited init.ora

SQL> connect / as sysdba
SQL> shutdown immediate
SQL> startup pfile='/tmp/initORA.ora'8. If the db starts up ok using this init.ora, create your spfile in a shared location

SQL> create spfile='/sharedlocation/spfileORA.ora' from pfile='/tmp/initORA.ora';9. On each node create a link in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs to the shared spfile, ie

cd $ORACLE_HOME/dbs
ln -s /sharedlocation/spfileORA.ora spfileORA1.ora10. Add the database and instances to the cluster registry

srvctl add database -d ORA -o $ORACLE_HOME
srvctl add instance -d ORA -i ORA1 -n oraserv1
srvctl add instance -d ORA -i ORA2 -n oraserv211. Start the db through server control

srvctl start database -d ORANB If you still have one instance up from step 7 you will get an error but this is nothing to worry about, as the node that is down should still start.

12. Create services as needed.

This can be done through the dbca under Service management or manually as follows:

srvctl add service -d ORA -s ORA_TAF -r ORA1, ORA2Your single instance database is now RAC enabled. I have only recently done this so I know these steps work.