Using Serviceguard Extension for RAC, 10th Edition, April 2011

The responsibilities of Oracle Clusterware in this combined environment include the following:
• Management of the database and associated resources (database instances, services, virtual
IP addresses (VIPs), listeners, etc.).
• Management of Oracle ASM instances, if configured.
All pieces of the combined stack must start up and shut down in the proper sequence and we need
to be able to automate the startup and shutdown sequences, if desired. In particular, the storage
needed for the operation of Oracle Clusterware must be activated up before the Oracle Clusterware
processes are started, and the storage needed for the operation of a RAC database instance must
be activated before the instance is started. On shutdown, the sequence is reversed—Oracle
Clusterware and the RAC database instance must be halted before deactivating the storage needed
by these two entities.
Traditionally, in the SG and SGeRAC environment, these ordering requirements have been met
using a package to encapsulate the startup and shutdown of an application as well as the startup
and shutdown of storage needed by that application. In SG and SGeRAC, a different model is
introduced for the case where the storage needs of an application are met by using a CFS. Here
the CFS is started up and shutdown in a separate package from the one that starts up and shuts
down the application. Beginning with patches PHSS_40885/PHSS_40886 SGeRAC has introduced
new MNP in to existing SGeRAC toolkit namely ASMDG MNP. In SGeRAC, a different model is
recommended for the case where the storage needs of an application are met by using Oracle
ASM. Here ASM disk groups are mounted, dismounted, and monitored using a separate MNP
package. It also activates and deactivates the shared volume groups needed by the ASM disk
groups if ASM is configured over SLVM. The ordering requirement is met by using the SGeRAC
feature of simple package dependencies, discussed later in this chapter.
Can we manage the storage needs of Oracle Clusterware and RAC database instances in Oracle
RAC, using SGeRAC packages in the ways just discussed? Starting in Oracle 10.1.0.4, Oracle
made the following improvements in coordination between Oracle Clusterware and platform
clusterware, enabling such use of SGeRAC packages.
Support for on-demand startup and shutdown of Oracle Clusterware and RAC database instances
• In addition to starting up and shutting down Oracle Clusterware automatically as HP-UX 11i
is taken up to init level 3 and taken down to a lower level respectively, Oracle Clusterware
can be start up and shut down on demand.
• To disable the automatic startup of Oracle Clusterware on entering init level 3, we use the
crsctl disable crs command. Oracle Clusterware may thereafter be started up and
shut down on demand using the commands crsctl start crs and crsctl stop crs
respectively.
• In addition to starting up and shutting down the RAC database instance automatically as
Oracle Clusterware itself is started up and shut down, we can start up and shut down the RAC
database instance on demand.
• To disable the automatic startup of the RAC database instance with the startup of Oracle
Clusterware, we follow the procedures described by Oracle to remove auto-start for the
instance. The RAC database instance may thereafter be started up and shut down on demand
by, for example, using the command srvctl start instance... and srvctl stop
instance... respectively.
NOTE: The above mentioned steps are the mandatory prerequisite steps to be performed before
you configure SGeRAC toolkit for CRS, ASMDG (if storage is ASM/SLVM), and RAC MNP’s.
Support for invocation of Oracle Clusterware commands from customer-developed scripts
This includes invocation of such commands from SGeRAC package control scripts or module scripts;
therefore, SGeRAC packages can invoke commands to start up and shutdown Oracle Clusterware
and/or RAC database instances.
82 SGeRAC Toolkit for Oracle RAC 10g or later