Convert your single instance to

RAC database with RCONFIG

360 Degrees

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 1

 Disclaimer
This views/content in this slides are those of the author and
do not necessarily reflect that of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates/subsidiaries. The material in this document is for
informational purposes only and is published with no
guarantee or warranty, express or implied..

This material should not be reproduced or used without the

authors' written permission.

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 2

 Know your presenter
• DBA Team Lead at Alinma Bank
• Nearly 20 years of IT experience
• Over 10 years of DBA hands-on experience
• Oracle ACE
• Oracle Certified Master (OCM) 10g
• OCP DBA v8i,9i,10g,11g
• RAC expert certified
• Co-author ‘Oracle 11g R1/R2 RAC Essentials’
• Official Oracle RAC SIG Representative for Saudi Arabian region
(http://www.oracleracsig.org/)
• Recently acquired - ITIL v3 Foundation certification

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 Question

What is the uphill task usually a DBA

come across after migrating from the
existing non-RAC environment to RAC?

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 Agenda
Overview of existing conversion methods.
Convert single instance to RAC with RCONFIG utility

RCONFIG overview

Prerequisites

Demonstration
Testing the conversion process.
Tips to accelerate conversion time for VLDB.
How to resume from a failed conversion.
Logs to monitor.
Post conversion steps.
Q&A.

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 5

 Existing conversion methods

Grid Control / Enterprise Manager(EM)

Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA)

RCONFIG

Manual

Streams & Data pumps *

Image courtesy: Oracle University

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 Convert single instance to
RAC with RCONFIG

RCONFIG overview

Prerequisites

Demonstration

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 RCONFIG overview
• A non interactive command line utility introduced with 10gR2 to
make the life of DBAs easier for converting a single-instance database
to RAC database.

• rconfig executable (binary) installed by default, located

under $GRID_HOME/bin & $ORACLE_HOME/bin locations.

• Takes in a xml input file and process the conversion procedure.

ConvertToRAC.xml (pre 11gR2)
ConvertToRAC_AdminManaged.xml (11gR2)
ConvertToRAC_PolicyManaged.xml (11gR2)

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 RCONFIG overview
Advantages
• A pretty cool, a very light and easy to use utility for conversion.
• Comes by default, no additional configuration steps are required.
• Not much DBA intervention is required.
• Fully automated conversion process.
• Provides testing capabilities without actually converting to RAC.
• Ability to migrate the non-ASM DB to ASM storage.
• Creates RAC DB instances on the specified nodes.
• Configure required tnsname and Listeners entries.
• Register CRS resources (instance, database, listener) to the
cluster.
• Startup RAC DB all instances on the specified nodes.

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 RCONFIG overview
Disadvantages
• Database downtime is required.
• Additional space requirements.

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 10

 Migrate single instance to
RAC with RCONFIG

RCONFIG overview

Prerequisites

Demonstration

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 11

 Prerequisites
• Ensure the clusterware is configured, up and running on the nodes.
• Oracle RDBMS binaries for RAC must be installed.
• Active ASM instance across the nodes.
• Create and mount required ASM diskgroups.

• Stand alone database running on the local node.

• Stand alone db and RAC must be of same db versions.

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ConvertToRAC_AdminManaged.xml contents
/u00/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1/assistants/rconfig/sampleXMLs

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ConvertToRAC_AdminManaged.xml contents
The Convert verify option in the ConvertToRAC.xml file has three options:

Convert verify="YES”
Runs through verification checks to ensure that the prerequisites for single-instance
to RAC db conversion have been met before it actually starts the conversion.

Convert verify="NO”
Bypass the prerequisite verification checks, and starts conversion straight away.

Convert verify="ONLY”
Do not perform the actual conversion process. Rather, just run through the
prerequisite verification checks and ends.

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 14

 ConvertToRAC_AdminManaged.xml modified contents
/u00/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1/assistants/rconfig/sampleXMLs

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 15

 Migrate single instance to
RAC with RCONFIG

RCONFIG overview

Prerequisites

Demonstration*

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 16

 Convert single instance to RAC with RCONFIG

The following has been used for the demonstration purpose:

Oracle single-instance db (RACDB), db files configured on

the filesystem.

Oracle 11.2.0.2.

ASM storage for RAC db.

HPUX Itanium 64-bit v11.31 OS.

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 17

 Convert single instance to RAC with RCONFIG
• Ensure you have a valid and latest backup copy for the single-instance database.

• Copy the original xml file before you modify the contents.

• Ensure necessary configuration changes are done in the

xml file.

• Ensure the single-instance db is up and running on the

local node.

• Execute the following command, typically as oracle user:

./$ORACLE_HOME/bin/rconfig ConverToRAC_AdminManaged.xml

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 Convert single instance to RAC with RCONFIG

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 19

 Convert single instance to RAC with RCONFIG

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 20

 Convert single instance to RAC with RCONFIG
alert_RACDB1.log file contents

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 Convert single instance to RAC with RCONFIG
alert_RACDB1.log file contents

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 22

 Testing the conversion process
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/rconfig ConvertToRAC_AdminManaged.xml
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<RConfig version="1.1" >
<ConvertToRAC>
<Convert>
<Response>
<Result code="0" >
Operation Succeeded
</Result>
</Response>
<ReturnValue type="object">
There is no return value for this step </ReturnValue>
</Convert>
</ConvertToRAC></RConfig>

• Set the parameter <n:Convert verify="ONLY“> in the xml file.

• Performs the prerequisites checks, doesn’t run the actual
conversion process.
March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 23
 Testing the conversion process
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/rconfig ConvertToRAC_AdminManaged.xml
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<RConfig version="1.1" >
<ConvertToRAC>
<Convert>
<Response>
<Result code=“1" >
Operation Failed
</Result>
<ErrorDetails>

<ErrorDetails>
</Response>
<ReturnValue type="object">
There is no return value for this step </ReturnValue>
</Convert>
</ConvertToRAC></RConfig>

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 24

 Tips to accelerate conversion time for VLDB
• Is there any way to accelerate the conversion time while converting
a very large database (VLDB)?
o Unfortunately, there is no direct option available.

• Applying some degree of parallelism in the RMAN might help.

• Saved 4 hours of time when converted 1TB Oracle 10g db to RAC.

o With no parallelism, took almost 9 hours to finish.
o With parallelism (6), took just 4 hours to finish.

RMAN> CONFIGURE DEVICE TYPE DISK PARALLELISM 6;

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 How to resume from a failed conversion

• Simply rerun the command if the rconfig exits in the mid-of the
conversion for any fatal reasons.

• Performs clean-up operations on converted instance before

reinitializing the conversion procedure.

• You can manually add the resources to CRS, in case rconfig utility fails
to perform the final steps.

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 26

 Logs to monitor

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 Post conversion steps
• Adjust the SGA for the RAC database, at least 15% for buffer cache
and shared pool.

• Create SERVICE and apply TAF & Load balancing options, if required.

• Backup the RAC database.

• Backup OCR.

• Remove single-instance database.

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 References
RCONFIG : Frequently Asked Questions [ID 387046.1]
http://sabdarsyed.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-we-faster-process-of-converting-non.html
http://jaffardba.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-experience-of-converting-cross.html
Much more real-world scenarios in our upcoming book ‘Oracle 11g R1/R2 RAC Essentials’.

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 29

 Thank you for listening

You can mail me at sjaffarhussainATgmail.com

I blog at http://jaffardba.blogspot.com
Follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/sjaffarhussain

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 Q&A

March 17 2011 Prepared by : Syed Jaffer Hussain 31