Using the Oracle Toolkit in a HP Serviceguard Cluster README Revision: B.06.00, August 2010

to ensure all nodes have the same configuration at any point in time.
This is also the recommended configuration since there is no need for
replication of changes made to the configuration file on a particular
node.
A password file (that is, orapw${SID_NAME}) must be created for
each Oracle instance in the configuration directory. The password
file is created via the utility 'orapwd'.
Oracle supports multiple database instances running on a node
simultaneously. This allows the system administrator the ability to
move one instance from its own node while leaving another instance up.
Each node can potentially run several instances. If you are using
LVM, each Oracle package corresponds to a minimum of one separate
Oracle Database server instance with its own SID_NAME, unique volume
group, logical volume, and file system for storing control files, data
files, redo-log files etc. The same rule applies to other supported
Volume Managers. If a CFS mounted file system is being used
as a shared file system, each Oracle package usually corresponds to a
different shared file system. This means the configuration
information for each instance must be identical for each node that
will be configured to run that instance. Refer to the chapter
"Building an HA Cluster Configuration" in the manual "Managing
Serviceguard" for information on volume group creation and logical
volume management.
(NOTE: As previously stated, configuration can be stored on a local
disk. If you choose to do this, it is your responsibility to
ensure the data is propagated to all nodes, and is consistently
maintained. A disadvantage of storing the configuration on
local disks is that this can increase the chance of the
configuration for a database instance becoming inconsistent if
changes are made, but not distributed to all nodes that can run
that database instance.
However, please note that the parameter file - pfile/spfile - and the
Oracle password file should be on a shared disk.
In addition, the Oracle instance control files, data files, and redo
logs MUST reside on a shared disk.)
i. Setting Up The Application
NOTE: This README assumes that Oracle has already been installed in
/home/oracle on all the cluster nodes by 'oracle' as the
database administrator, and that shared storage has been
configured.
1. Make sure all database instances in the cluster have unique
names (as identified by the user-defined variable 'SID_NAME' in
the haoracle.conf configuration file).