Dell PowerEdge User manual

Dell PowerEdge Systems
Oracle Database on
Enterprise Linux x86_64
Troubleshooting Guide
Version 4.4

Notes and Cautions
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of
your computer.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if
instructions are not followed.
____________________
Information in this publication is subject to change without notice.
© 2010 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction of these materials in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc.
is strictly forbidden.
Trademarks used in this text: Dell™, the DELL™ logo, PowerEdge™, and PowerVault™ are
trademarks of Dell Inc.; EMC®and PowerPath®are trademarks of EMC Corporation; Intel®,
Pentium®, and Celeron®are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries;
Oracle®is a registered trademark of Oracle Inc. in the US and other countries; Red Hat®and Red Hat
Enterprise Linux®are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this publication to refer to either the entities claiming
the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and
trade names other than its own.
July 2010 Rev. A02

Contents 3
Contents
1Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Required Documentation for Deploying
the Dell Oracle Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Terminology Used in this Document. . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Dell Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Performance and Stability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Enterprise Linux exhibits poor performance
and instability; excessive use of swap space . . . . 9
Unknown interface-type warning appears in the
Oracle alert file; poor system performance . . . . . 9
Enterprise Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Enterprise Manager agent fails . . . . . . . . 10
Oracle Clustered File System2 (OCFS2) . . . . . . . . . 10
System hangs while mounting or
unmounting OCFS partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Network Configuration Assistant (NETCA) . . . . . . . 11
NETCA fails, resulting in database
creation errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
NETCA cannot configure remote nodes
or a RAW device validation error occurs
while running DBCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

4Contents
Cluster Ready Services (CRS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
CRS fails prematurely when trying to start . . . . . 11
The Oracle Clusterware installation
procedure fails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
CRS fails to start when you reboot the nodes,
or after entering /etc/init.d/init.crs start . . . . . . 12
When you run root.sh, CRS fails to start . . . . . . 12
Node continuously reboots . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
CRS fails to start when you reboot the nodes,
or after entering /etc/init.d/init.crs start . . . . . . 15
Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) . . . . . . . 16
There is no response when you click OK in
the DBCA Summary window . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
You receive dd failure error messages
while installing the software using
Dell Deployment CD 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
When connecting to the database as a user
other than oracle, you receive the error
messages ORA01034: ORACLE not available
and Linux Error 13: Permission denied . . . . . . . 16
Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Oracle software fails to install on the nodes . . . . 17
When you run root.sh, the utility fails to
format the OCR disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Networking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
The cluster verification check fails . . . . . . . . . 17
Fibre Channel Storage System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
You receive I/O errors and warnings when
you load the Fibre Channel HBA driver module . . 18

Contents 5
Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
When you add a new peripheral device to
your Dell PowerEdge system, the operating
system does not recognize the device . . . . . . . 18
Using Dell DKMS Drivers
After Upgrading the Kernel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3Oracle Security Patches and
Recommended Patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Critical Patch Updates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Recommended Patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

6Contents

Overview 7
Overview
The Oracle Database on Linux Advanced Server Troubleshooting Guide
applies to Oracle Database 10g R2 running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux
or Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.5 AS x86_64.
Required Documentation for Deploying the
Dell Oracle Database
The Dell|Oracle Database Installation Documentation set is organized into a
series of modules. These modules cover the following topics:
• Dell PowerEdge Systems Oracle Database on Enterprise Linux x86_64-
Operating System and Hardware Installation Guide
—Describes the
required minimum hardware and software versions, how to install and
configure the operating system, how to verify the hardware and software
configurations, and how to obtain open source files.
• Dell PowerEdge Systems Oracle Database on Enterprise Linux x86_64-
Storage and Network Guide
—Describes how to install and configure the
network and storage solutions.
• Dell PowerEdge Systems Oracle Database on Enterprise Linux x86_64-
Database Setup and Installation Guide
—Describes how to install and
configure the Oracle database.
• Dell PowerEdge Systems Oracle Database on Enterprise Linux x86_64-
Troubleshooting Guide
—Describes how to troubleshoot and resolve errors
encountered during the installation procedures described in the
previous modules.
All modules provide information on how to receive technical assistance
from Dell.

8Overview
Terminology Used in this Document
This document uses the terms logical unit number (LUN) and virtual disk.
These terms are synonymous and can be used interchangeably. The term
LUN is commonly used in a Dell/EMC Fibre Channel storage system
environment and virtual disk is commonly used in a Dell Power Vault SAS
and iSCSI (Dell MD3000 and Dell MD3000i with MD1000 expansion)
storage environment.
This document uses the term Enterprise Linux that applies to both
Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Oracle Enterprise Linux unless
stated specifically.
Getting Help
This section provides information on contacting Dell or Oracle for
whitepapers, supported configurations, training, technical support,
and general information.
Dell Support
• For detailed information about using your system, see the documentation
that came with your system components.
• For whitepapers, Dell-supported configurations, and general information,
see the Dell|Oracle Tested and Validated Configurations website at
dell.com/oracle .

Troubleshooting 9
Troubleshooting
This section provides recommended actions for problems that you
may encounter while deploying and using your Enterprise Linux and
Oracle software.
Performance and Stability
Enterprise Linux exhibits poor performance and instability;
excessive use of swap space
When Oracle System Global Area (SGA) exceeds the recommended size,
Enterprise Linux exhibits poor performance. Always ensure that the SGA size
does not exceed 65% of the total system RAM. To decrease the SGA size:
Enter free at a command prompt to determine the total RAM and reduce
the values of db_cache_size and shared_pool_size parameters in the Oracle
parameter file accordingly.
Unknown interface-type warning appears in the Oracle alert file;
poor system performance
The problem occurs when the public interface is configured as cluster
communications (private interface).
Perform the following steps on one node to force cluster communications to
the private interface:
a Log in as oracle .
b Enter sqlplus "/ as sysdba" at the command prompt.
The
SQL> prompt appears.
c Enter the following lines at the SQL> prompt:
alter system set cluster_interconnects=<private
IP address node1>’ scope=spfile sid=’<SID1>’
alter system set cluster_interconnects =
’<private IP address node2>’ scope=spfile sid=
’<SID2>’

10 Troubleshooting
d Create these entries for each node in the cluster.
e Restart the database on all nodes by entering the
following commands:
srvctl stop database –d <dbname>
srvctl start database –d <dbname>
f Open the /opt/oracle/admin/<dbname>/bdump/alert_<SID>.log
file, and verify that the private IP addresses are being used for all
instances.
Enterprise Manager
The Enterprise Manager agent fails
The Enterprise Manager fails when the Enterprise Manager repository is
not populated.
Enter the following to re-create the configuration file and repository for the
Database Console:
emca -config dbcontrol db repos recreate
For detailed instructions, see the Oracle Metalink Note # 330976.1.
Oracle Clustered File System2 (OCFS2)
System hangs while mounting or unmounting OCFS partitions
The problem occurs when OCFS partitions are unmounted on two nodes at
exactly the same time.
CAUTION: Do not reboot more than one system at the same time.
NOTE: It is not recommended to restart the network on a live node. When trying to
restart the network service from any live node in the cluster, the node hangs
indefinitely. This behavior is expected for OCFS2.