Creating a Starter Database on CFS Using dbca

When creating a starter database on a cluster file system, create a disk group and volume for the tablespaces before running the dbca utility.

Preparing a Cluster File System (CFS) for Tablespaces

1. Create a disk group (for example, rac_dg):
     # vxdg -s init rac_dg c2t3d1s2
2. Create a single shared volume (for example, rac_vol1) large enough to contain a file system for all the tablespaces. The tablespaces require about 6.8 GB:
     # vxassist -g rac_dg make rac_vol1 6600M
3. Start the volume in the disk group:
     # vxvol -g rac_dg startall
4. Set the activation for the disk group on all cluster nodes:
     # vxdg -g rac_dg set activation=sw
5. Create a VxFS file system in this volume. From one node, type:
     # mkfs -F vxfs /dev/vx/rdsk/rac_dg/rac_vol1
6. Create a mount point for the shared file system:
     # mkdir /rac_ts
7. From the same node, mount the file system:
     # mount -F vxfs -o cluster /dev/vx/dsk/rac_dg/rac_vol1 /rac_ts
8. Set "oracle" as the owner of the file system and "755" as the permissions:
     # chown oracle:dba /rac_ts
     # chmod 755 /rac_ts
9. On the other node(s), complete step 6 through step 8.

Running the dbca Utility for Cluster File System

As oracle user, use the dbca utility on the master node to create a general purpose database on a cluster file system. This utility is a graphical user interface and requires setting the DISPLAY environment variable.

1. Make sure an oracle account is created on all nodes.
2. Verify that remsh works among all the nodes under the oracle account.
3. Examine the /var/opt/oracle/srvConfig.loc configuration file and note the path name defined for the srvconfig_loc variable. For example, the path name may resemble:
     srvconfig_loc=/orasrv/ora_srvm

   where /orasrv/ora_srvm is the path name of the SRVM configuration file.

   1. Use the ls -l pathname command to display the long listing for the defined path. The file is initialized if the output shows a file size greater than zero bytes.
   2. If the variable is not initialized (size is 0), type:
   
       $ srvconfig -init
   3. If the path is not yet defined (listing does not appear), initialize the variable after using the touch command to create it:
   
       $ touch /orasrv/ora_srvm
       $ srvconfig -init
4. Start the Oracle Real Application Clusters Manageability daemon on each node:
     $ gsdctl start
5. From one node, log in as oracle user.
6. Create and start the Oracle listener using NETCA utility (refer to the Oracle9i Installation Guide):
     $ netca
7. Run the dbca utility. When starting the utility with a cluster file system, use the -datafileDestination option to specify the mount point. For example:
     $ dbca -datafileDestination /rac_ts

Refer to the Oracle documentation for details on the dbca utility.