Oracle 10g Pre-installation steps for RHEL 5

Following are the steps required to configure Linux for Oracle Database 10g Release 2.

Verifying System Requirements

To verify that your system meets the minimum requirements for an Oracle Database 10g Release 2 database, log in as root and run the commands below.
To check the amount of RAM and swap space available, run this:
grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo

grep SwapTotal /proc/meminfo

Ex:

1. grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo
   MemTotal: 1034680 kB
2. grep SwapTotal /proc/meminfo
   SwapTotal: 1534196 kB

The minimum RAM required is 8GB, and the minimum required swap space is 10 GB. Allocating the Swap space will be based on the DBA team requirement, but the minimum space should be 10 GB.

Memory depends upon the application we are running. For example ,iHotlier database will be having more memory compared to Databridge.

Adding swap space
This option of adding swap space is required only if the server is not configured with the required amount of swap space at the time of installation.
Swapon and SwapOff are two command provided with Linux to enable/disable devices and files for paging and swapping.

1)Create Swap File using DD command
dd if=/dev/zero of=/extraswap bs=1M count=12048
2)Setup Linux swap area using MKSWAP command
# mkswap -c /extraswap
# swapon /extraswap
3)run "swapon -s" and view the addition made. or free -m" command to verify addition of your new swap space.
4) Make swap upgrade permanently available to OS through fstab file.
/extraswap        none     swap    sw        0 0 

Create the Oracle Groups and User Account

Next, create the Linux groups and user account that will be used to install and maintain the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 software.

Example:

Groupname	Group ID	Group ID
	Production	Pre-Prod
dba	1500	1601
oinstall	1501	1602
orasegp		1604
Username	User ID	User ID	Primary Group	Secondary Group	Default shell
	Production	Pre-Prod
oracle	1500	1600	Dba	oinstall	/bin/bash
gridagnt	1502	1605	Dba	oinstall	/bin/bash
gguser	1501		Dba	oinstall	/bin/bash
orase		1603	Dba	orasegp	/bin/bash

Set the password for all the user accounts.
Example for Pre-prod:

/usr/sbin/groupadd -g 1602  oinstall
/usr/sbin/groupadd -g 1601  dba
/usr/sbin/groupadd -g  1604    orasegp
/usr/sbin/useradd -m -u 1600 -g oinstall -G dba -s /bin/bash oracle
/usr/sbin/useradd -m -u 1605 -g oinstall -G dba -s /bin/bash gridagnt

# id oracle
uid=1600(oracle) gid=1602(oinstall) groups=1602(oinstall),1602(dba)

Following directories are being created in the root filesystem.

Production	Pre-prod
/u00  should be a partition of minimum size 15GB, but as a standard follow 30GB of local partition.  In production environment ./u01 is a separate partition mounted with external lun.  chown -R oracle:oinstall /u01  chown -R oracle:oinstall /u00  mkdir /u01  mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle  chown -R oracle:oinstall /u01/app/  chmod -R 775 /u01/app/	/data  is a separate partition mounted with external lun  ln -s /data /u01  chown -R oracle:oinstall /u01  chown -R oracle:oinstall /u00  mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle  chown -R oracle:oinstall /u01/app/oracle  chmod -R 775 /u01/app/oracle

Configuring Linux Kernel Parameters

The Linux kernel is a wonderful thing. Unlike most other *NIX systems, Linux allows modification of most kernel parameters while the system is up and running. There's no need to reboot the system after making kernel parameter changes. Oracle Database 10g Release 2 requires the kernel parameter settings shown below. The values given are minimums, so if your system uses a larger value, don't change it.

/etc/sysctl.conf
kernel.shmmax = 68719476736  (for pre-prod kernel.shmmax = 4180148224)
kernel.shmall = 4294967296
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
fs.file-max = 65536
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1024 65000
net.core.rmem_default=262144
net.core.wmem_default=262144
net.core.rmem_max=262144
net.core.wmem_max=262144

To change the modified Kernel parameters while runtime, execute the below command.
# sysctl  -p

Setting Shell Limits for the oracle User

Oracle recommends setting limits on the number of processes and open files each Linux account may use. To make these changes, cut and paste the following commands as root:

/etc/security/limits.conf
oracle soft nproc 2047
oracle hard nproc 16384
oracle soft nofile 1024
oracle hard nofile 65536

If necessary Stack and MaxLockMem, make these changes, cut and paste the following commands as root

/etc/security/limits.conf
oracle soft memlock 3145728
oracle hard memlock 4145728
oracle soft stack 32768
oracle hard stack 43768

/etc/pam.d/login
session required pam_limits.so

Follow the same steps for given below packages installation

yum update *
yum install binutils*
yum install lib-Xp*

yum install libXp*
yum install compat-*
yum install control-center-*
yum install gcc-*
yum install glibc-*
yum install libstdc++*
yum install make*
yum install sysstat*
yum install xorg-x11-libs*
yum install libaio*
yum install compat-libstdc++*
yum install xorg-x11-*
yum install openmotif*
yum instal glibc-devel*

# rpm -qa --queryformat "%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE} (%{ARCH})\n" | grep glibc

Enable direct login to oracle and provide sudo to root access for DBA Group to complete the installation. Revoke root access and direct login for oracle from DBA once installation is completed *

FUNC - Fedora Unified Network Controller

INTRODUCTION

FUNC is an open source automation tool developed by using Python programming language. We can use this tool for automating system admin tasks such as status check, configuration tweak, file transfer, rebooting the systems etc in multiple Linux-based systems. It uses the typical Client-Server model, where the server is called by the term "overlord" and the clients which are binded to the server are called as "minions".

INSTALLATION PROCEDURE

The installation procedure for Server and Clients are same but the configuration makes the difference to run as a Server or Client. 

Following are the required packages which have to be installed. 

smolt

python-ctypes

python-paste

python-simplejson

pyOpenSSL 

certmaster
func

The main configuration file for Server is "/etc/certmaster/certmaster.conf" and for client is "/etc/certmaster/minion.conf"
For a Server to run it requires a service by name "certmaster" and it listens to port 51235.
For a Client to run it requires a service by name "funcd" and it listens to port 51234.

FUNC Client installation on 32bit OS

scp the following file to local system and install the RPM in same order as mentioned.

pyOpenSSL-0.6-2.el5.i386.rpm

certmaster-0.27-1.el5.noarch.rpm
python-ctypes-1.0.2-2.el5.i386.rpm
python-paste-1.7.4-1.el5.noarch.rpm

python-simplejson-2.0.9-8.el5.i386.rpm

smolt-1.4-2.3.el5.noarch.rpm

func-0.27-1.el5.noarch.rpm

Configuration
#edit /etc/certmaster/minion.conf file with following content

# configuration for minions
[main]
certmaster = <FUNC Server IP>
certmaster_port = 51235
log_level = DEBUG
cert_dir = /etc/pki/certmaster

start the services
#service funcd start
#chkconfig funcd on 

Note: We should ensure the Network team allows TCP traffic through on these ports.   

HOW IT WORKS  

Func uses an X.509 public key infrastructure (PKI) to authenticate the minions to the overlord daemon (Master). These SSL certificates are also used to encrypt and verify all communications.

The certmaster daemon running on the overlord creates a Certificate Authority (CA) when it is first started. This serves as the root of the PKI. As each minion starts it will generate a key pair and a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) which contains its public key. The CSR is uploaded to the Master. After the minion has its certificate signed by the overlord's CA you can start issuing commands to that host.

Keys are stored in /etc/pki/func for both sides. Certmaster stores certs and csrs in /var/lib/func (and do not need to be protected against unauthorized read access).

Note: Despite the fact that we have a SSL communication established between Server and clients, we still can't login to client server (from Master) without a password. We can issue commands to client machines only using Func module. Hence this prevents the security risk like we have in establishing SSH connection using empty phase phrase.

HOW TO USE

The command-line syntax for Func is as follows: 

# func "hostnames" module method [arg1] [arg2] 

Every command should start with the keyword 'func' followed by 'hostnames' within double quotes, module name, method name and the arguments. 

In Detail: 

"Hostname" - Hostnames within double quotes can be a single servername or a servernames separated by semicolons or we can use wildcard characters to specified a set of servers. 

"Module" - In a simple term, we can say a module is a high-level description of an entity and it contains number of useful functions or a set of commands. In OOPS term, we can call it as a Class which contains number of methods. 

"Methods" - These are functions or a set of command set available under a particular Module 

"Arguments" - Parameters which are passed to methods. 

Note: In Func, we have an option of creating Python API which does the same as we do in command-line and include it in a Python script. But I haven't covered it in this document. 

EXAMPLES 

To list the minions connected to the Master server:

[root@bkpllm01 ~]# func "" list_minions*
 
dbsllm01-d1
webllm04-t1
webllm04-t2
webllm04-t3

To obtain the list of all the remote modules we can use on a particular client server (here it is 'applsb01')

[root@sysllm01 ~]# func "applsb01" call system list_modules
{'applsb01': ['bridge',
              'certmastermod',
              'command',
              'copyfile',
              'delegation',
              'djangoctl',
              'echo',
              'filetracker',
              'func_getargs',
              'func_module',
              'hardware',
              'iptables',
              'iptables.port',
              'jboss',
              'jobs',
              'meta',
              'mount',
              'nagios-check',
              'netapp.options',
              'netapp.snap',
              'netapp.vol',
              'netapp.vol.clone',
              'networktest',
              'overlord',
              'process',
              'reboot',
              'rpms',
              'service',
              'smart',
              'snmp',
              'sysctl',
              'test',
              'vlan',
              'yumcmd']}

Here is the example for how the Method in each module can be used listed and used in real time

To obtain the list of methods offered by a particular module (say jboss), the syntax would be:

[root@sysllm01 ~]#  func "applsb01" call jboss list_methods
{'applsb01': ['status',
              'save_config',
              'search_by_port',
              'search_by_address',
              'search_by_instance',
              'check',
              'module_description',
              'module_version',
              'get_method_args',
              'module_api_version',
              'list_methods']}

[root@sysllm01 ~]#  func "applsb01" call jboss status
{'applsb01': [[31253, 'ihcore', 'applsb01', []]]}

To run the 'uptime' command in all the minions

[root@sysllm01 ~]# func "appls*" call command run uptime
('applsb01',
 [0,
  ' 11:20:24 up 120 days, 20:10,  2 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00\n',
  ''])
('applsb02',
 [0,
  ' 11:20:25 up 120 days, 12:08,  1 user,  load average: 0.01, 0.05, 0.01\n',
  ''])
('applsb03',
 [0,
  ' 11:20:24 up 179 days, 13:04,  1 user,  load average: 0.03, 0.01, 0.00\n',
  ''])
('applsb04',
 [0,
  ' 11:20:25 up 120 days,  4:03,  2 users,  load average: 0.14, 0.05, 0.01\n',
  ''])

Here is an another example of using command module to execute remote commands

[root@sysllm01 ~]# func "appls*" call command run "uname -a"
('applsb01',
 [0,
  'Linux applsb01 2.6.18-164.el5 #1 SMP Tue Aug 18 15:51:48 EDT 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux\n',
  ''])
('applsb02',
 [0,
  'Linux applsb02 2.6.18-164.el5 #1 SMP Tue Aug 18 15:51:48 EDT 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux\n',
  ''])
('applsb03',
 [0,
  'Linux applsb03 2.6.18-128.el5 #1 SMP Wed Dec 17 11:41:38 EST 2008 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux\n',
  ''])
('applsb04',
 [0,
  'Linux applsb04 2.6.18-164.el5 #1 SMP Tue Aug 18 15:51:48 EDT 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux\n',
  ''])

More on JBoss module

This module allow you to monitor and control your jboss instances; it permit to get status of instances (listening port, pid, instance name and bind address), simple search by address, by port and by instance name, and check instances problems (example when a jboss instance is up but don't listen on any ports).

Command Line Usage

func "*" call jboss status
func "*" call jboss check
func "*" call jboss search_by_instance "default"
func "*" call jboss search_by_address "127.0.0.1"
func "*" call jboss search_by_port 8080
func "*" call jboss start
func "*" call jboss stop

Details start(), stop() need a proper configuration. The default values are

jboss_home=/var/lib/jboss
jboss_instance=default
jboss_address=127.0.0.1

If you have different settings, you must create and edit a configuration module file. Your file is /etc/func/modules/JBoss.conf and should be configure (for example) as below:

[main]
jboss_home=/usr/local/jboss-4.2.2.GA/
jboss_address=127.0.0.1
jboss_instance=default

status() return, for each host a list with pid, instance name, bind address and a list of listening ports:

[root@sysllm01 ~]#  func "applsb01" call jboss status
{'applsb01': [[31253, 'ihcore', 'applsb01', []]]}

Service Module

It starts, stops, and checks the status of services.
Command line usage:

[root@sysllm01 ~]# func applsb01 call service status vsftpd
{'applsb01': 0}
0--Success

[root@sysllm01 ~]# func applsb04 call service status vsftpd
{'applsb04': 3}

3-- Other than 0 in the output meant for Failure or the service doesn't exist on remote system

SUMMARY

Func is a great automation tool, invented exclusively for performing system admin tasks more effective than before on Linux platform. It totally eliminates the difficulties in login to multiple servers without compromising the security and it's pretty faster in executing the commands in remote clients. In addition to taking care of client login issue, it makes our work easier by capturing the result of command execution on remote machines and displaying it locally on Server's terminal. As we know, capturing the output of remote execution is indeed a major challenge and Func comes as a handy tool by eliminating it. Having said all this, Func does have some limitations. First is, the Func output is somewhat chaotic and we can't expect a formatted output. Next is, we can't do every system admin tasks using Func and it's not meant to replace the scripting languages such as Perl, Bash, Expect etc. Instead we can use the Func as a component in our scripting and derive some logic out of it. All we have to do is to learn the functionalities of Func modules/methods and see how we can use in our environment.

  

Information Source https://fedorahosted.org/func/