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This sixth post describes how to remove a node from a 10.2 RAC cluster in silent mode. It differs from the associated documentation in that it will show how to remove a node, even if it has been made unavailable for any reason, including an error by a DBA or a SA.

Here is the complete series agenda:

1. Installation of 10.2 And 11.1 Databases
2. Patches of 10.2 And 11.1 databases
3. Cloning Software and databases
4. Install a 10.2 RAC Database
5. Add a Node to a 10.2 RAC database
6. Remove a Node from a 10.2 RAC database (this post!)
7. Install a 11.1 RAC Database
8. Add a Node to a 11.1 RAC database
9. Remove a Node from a 11.1 RAC database
10. A ton of other stuff you should know

Now for the substance of this part.

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This fifth post assumes that you want to add a new node to your cluster and database. It describes most of the associated “silent” syntaxes. Even if you don’t leverage RAC’s ability to add or remove nodes to gain in agility, it’s still very likely you’ll come to these techniques when you want to upgrade some of your Servers or Operating Systems. For a complete series agenda up to now, see below:

1. Installation of 10.2 And 11.1 Databases
2. Patches of 10.2 And 11.1 databases
3. Cloning Software and databases
4. Install a 10.2 RAC Database
5. Add a Node to a 10.2 RAC database (this post!)
6. Remove a Node from a 10.2 RAC database
7. Install a 11.1 RAC Database
8. Add a Node to a 11.1 RAC database
9. Remove a Node from a 11.1 RAC database
10. A ton of other stuff you should know

Adding a node involves adding all the components of the RAC in their order of appearance, i.e.: (1) The Clusterware and the associated resources, (2) the database software, (3) the listeners, (4) the ASM instance if necessary, and (5) the database instance. The last is the subject of this post.

For a complete reference to this procedure, see to the corresponding section of the 10.2 documentation.

Make Sure You Can Add The New Node To The Cluster

Before you start with anything else, proceed with the hardware and OS configuration. The new node must access the shared storage, the networks, the packages, parameter, users, etc. There is no difference if you add a node later or at the time of the initial install. You can use Oracle CVU and RDA as described in the corresponding section of the previous post to check that all the nodes can be part of a single cluster.

Adding a Node to the Clusterware

This step is actually pretty easy if the prerequisites are met. It’s also the one that can have the deepest impact on the cluster and the one that can end up badly. A lot of components are impacted by this addition: the voting disk, the cluster registry (OCR), and the inventories from all the nodes. Make sure you know how to revert any changes you are going to make. Make sure also that you have everything you need to revert the changes.

Note
Before you start with the node addition, make sure you’ve backed up the voting disk. There is no need to backup the OCR because it’s done automatically but it’s probably a good idea to locate the backup and make sure it contains the latest changes you’ve made.

You should also make sure that the Clusterware owner, oracle, or crs, or whatever it is, can write into the Clusterware ORACLE_HOME and the Oracle Inventory on the new server. Create the associated directory if necessary.

We’ll assume we want to add a new node rac-server5 to the cluster we’ve build in the previous post. In order to proceed, connect as the Clusterware owner on any of the existing nodes and run the set of commands below:

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This fourth post introduces the fundamental silent installation commands for a 10.2 RAC. For a complete series agenda, see below:

1. Installation of 10.2 And 11.1 Databases
2. Patches of 10.2 And 11.1 databases
3. Cloning Software and databases
4. Install a 10.2 RAC Database (this post!)
5. Add a Node to a 10.2 RAC database
6. Remove a Node from a 10.2 RAC database
7. Install a 11.1 RAC Database
8. Add a Node to a 11.1 RAC database
9. Remove a Node from a 11.1 RAC database
10. A ton of other stuff you should know

As the title suggests, this post will dig into how to (1) install the 10.2 Clusterware, (2) apply the latest Patch Set on top of it, (3) install the 10.2 database, (4) apply the latest Patch Set on top of it, and (5) create a RAC database. These operations will be performed with the Oracle Universal Installer, NETCA and DBCA in silent mode. Before you start, just in case you’re not familiar yet with Oracle Silent Installation, have a look at the first post of the series

Checking the prerequisites

Before you start the installation, make sure all the prerequisites are met. Use the 10.2 Clusterware and Real Application Clusters Installation Guide for your platform to set them up. You should also refer to Metalink Note 169706.1 for the latest updates and make sure the prerequisites for non-RAC databases are met by running the RDA HCVE module as described in the 1st post of the series.

To check that you haven’t missed anything, you should also run the Cluster Verify Utility (CVU). This utility is part of the Clusterware distribution or can be downloaded — get the latest release from here (note that you don’t have to be connected to OTN to download the latest release; you can just wget it once you’ve got its URL).

To run the latest Cluster Verify Utility, create a directory and unzip the CVU there. You can run the check as below:

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