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Cloning Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a Standalone Server

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Most documents that describe the steps needed to clone an Oracle database using Grid Infrastructure (GI) assume that the GI is already installed on the target host, and that the ASM instance is up and running. 

The standard way to do this is to install GI from the installation media from scratch, either using the graphical installer, or scripting the process by invoking the installer in silent mode. The installer is responsible for copying the software as well as for the configuration of the Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM. Once this step is completed and ASM is up on the target host, database volumes can be refreshed from the source database volumes using FlashArray™ snapshots.    

A quicker approach would be to copy the source FlashArray volume where the Oracle Grid and Database software is installed. However, doing this will work only if the hostname of the target machine is the same as the source. This is because the Grid Infrastructure configuration files have the hostname hardcoded in them when they were originally created on the source. In practical situations, the target host name will need to be different from the source host name, which will cause ASM to break.

In this article, we will look at how we can get around this issue by resetting the Grid Infrastructure configuration files. This can significantly reduce the time it takes to create an Oracle ASM instance because now we can leverage FlashArray's instant volume copy to clone the Oracle Home and Grid Home as well. This technique really comes in handy when we are dealing with Oracle running in a virtualized environment because it's common to create a new virtual machine as a clone of an existing one. 

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Steps to re-configure Grid Infrastructure

In this example scenario, we have a source VM vm-ora-vvol-prod-01 that is hosting a database vvprd01. The objective is to clone a new VM vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 that runs a copy of the database. The cloned VM was created using the instructions provided in Cloning an Oracle Database on VMware Virtual Volumes. The hostname of the cloned VM was not changed as that would break Grid Infrastructure configuration.

The following steps need to be performed on the cloned VM to change the hostname and re-configure Grid Infrastructure so that ASM and the database can be started.  

Please note that all the commands in this documents with the exception of the the first one need to be executed on the cloned VM. The command prompt shows the name of the source VM because the hostname on the cloned VM has not been changed yet.

 

If ASM on the cloned VM is up and running with the source hostname, then these commands can be run on the cloned VM. If ASM is down, these commands can be run on the source database instead. All we are doing here is collecting some information that will be used in one of the subsequent steps.

[oracle@vm-ora-vvol-prod-01 ~]$ srvctl config asm
ASM home: <CRS home>
Password file: 
Backup of Password file: 
ASM listener: LISTENER
Spfile: +DATA/ASM/ASMPARAMETERFILE/registry.253.1035156397
ASM diskgroup discovery string: /dev/sd*

 

[oracle@vm-ora-vvol-prod-01 ~]$ srvctl config database -db vvprd01
Database unique name: vvprd01
Database name: vvprd01
Oracle home: /u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1
Oracle user: oracle
Spfile: +DATA/VVPRD01/PARAMETERFILE/spfile.266.1038345579
Password file: 
Domain: 
Start options: open
Stop options: immediate
Database role: PRIMARY
Management policy: AUTOMATIC
Disk Groups: FRA,DATA
Services: 
OSDBA group: 
OSOPER group: 
Database instance: vvprd01

Login as root and run the following command:

[root@vm-ora-vvol-prod-01 ~]# cd /u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/grid/crs/install
[root@vm-ora-vvol-prod-01 install]# ./roothas.sh -deconfig -force
Using configuration parameter file: /u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/grid/crs/install/crsconfig_params
The log of current session can be found at:
  /u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/grid_base/crsdata/vm-ora-vvol-prod-01/crsconfig/hadeconfig.log
2020/04/22 11:47:10 CLSRSC-332: CRS resources for listeners are still configured
CRS-2791: Starting shutdown of Oracle High Availability Services-managed resources on 'vm-ora-vvol-prod-01'
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.vvprd01.db' on 'vm-ora-vvol-prod-01'
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.evmd' on 'vm-ora-vvol-prod-01'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.evmd' on 'vm-ora-vvol-prod-01' succeeded
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.cssd' on 'vm-ora-vvol-prod-01'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.vvprd01.db' on 'vm-ora-vvol-prod-01' succeeded
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.DATA.dg' on 'vm-ora-vvol-prod-01'
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.FRA.dg' on 'vm-ora-vvol-prod-01'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.FRA.dg' on 'vm-ora-vvol-prod-01' succeeded
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.DATA.dg' on 'vm-ora-vvol-prod-01' succeeded
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.cssd' on 'vm-ora-vvol-prod-01' succeeded
CRS-2793: Shutdown of Oracle High Availability Services-managed resources on 'vm-ora-vvol-prod-01' has completed
CRS-4133: Oracle High Availability Services has been stopped.
2020/04/22 11:49:14 CLSRSC-337: Successfully deconfigured Oracle Restart stack

 

Run the following commands as root to change the host name.

HOSTNAME=vm-ora-vvol-dev-01
HOSTIP=10.21.184.111
echo "$HOSTIP $HOSTNAME" >> /etc/hosts
echo "$HOSTNAME" > /etc/hostname
hostnamectl set-hostname $HOSTNAME --static

Run the following commands as root to reconfigure the Restart stack. 

[root@vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 install]# ./roothas.sh -verbose
Using configuration parameter file: /u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/grid/crs/install/crsconfig_params
2020-04-22 11:51:46:   mkpath (/u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/grid_base/crsdata/vm-ora-vvol-dev-01/crsconfig)
2020-04-22 11:51:46: Setting owner (grid:54331) and group (oinstall:54321) on file /u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/grid_base/crsdata/vm-ora-vvol-dev-01/crsconfig
2020-04-22 11:51:46: Setting permissions (0775) on file/dir /u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/grid_base/crsdata/vm-ora-vvol-dev-01/crsconfig
The log of current session can be found at:
  /u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/grid_base/crsdata/vm-ora-vvol-dev-01/crsconfig/roothas_2020-04-22_11-51-46AM.log
LOCAL ADD MODE 
Creating OCR keys for user 'grid', privgrp 'oinstall'..
Operation successful.
LOCAL ONLY MODE 
Successfully accumulated necessary OCR keys.
Creating OCR keys for user 'root', privgrp 'root'..
Operation successful.
CRS-4664: Node vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 successfully pinned.
2020/04/22 11:52:22 CLSRSC-330: Adding Clusterware entries to file 'oracle-ohasd.service'
CRS-2791: Starting shutdown of Oracle High Availability Services-managed resources on 'vm-ora-vvol-dev-01'
CRS-2673: Attempting to stop 'ora.evmd' on 'vm-ora-vvol-dev-01'
CRS-2677: Stop of 'ora.evmd' on 'vm-ora-vvol-dev-01' succeeded
CRS-2793: Shutdown of Oracle High Availability Services-managed resources on 'vm-ora-vvol-dev-01' has completed
CRS-4133: Oracle High Availability Services has been stopped.
CRS-4123: Oracle High Availability Services has been started.

vm-ora-vvol-dev-01     2020/04/22 11:54:18     /u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/grid/cdata/vm-ora-vvol-dev-01/backup_20200422_115418.olr     70732493     
2020/04/22 11:54:19 CLSRSC-327: Successfully configured Oracle Restart for a standalone server

 

5. Set attributes to auto-start services

By default, the following services do not auto-start, so we modify the AUTO_START attribute to enable it. Change directory to GI_HOME/bin and execute the following commands.

[root@vm-ora-prdm-test-03 bin]# ./crsctl modify res ora.cssd -attr "AUTO_START=1" -unsupported
[root@vm-ora-prdm-test-03 bin]# ./crsctl modify res ora.diskmon -attr "AUTO_START=1" -unsupported

 

6. Start the CSSD service.
[root@vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 bin]# ./crsctl start resource ora.cssd -unsupported
CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.cssd' on 'vm-ora-vvol-dev-01'
CRS-2672: Attempting to start 'ora.diskmon' on 'vm-ora-vvol-dev-01'
CRS-2676: Start of 'ora.diskmon' on 'vm-ora-vvol-dev-01' succeeded
CRS-2676: Start of 'ora.cssd' on 'vm-ora-vvol-dev-01' succeeded

 

Login as grid. Update the hostname in $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/listener.ora

# listener.ora Network Configuration File: /u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/grid/network/admin/listener.ora
# Generated by Oracle configuration tools.

LISTENER =
  (DESCRIPTION_LIST =
    (DESCRIPTION =
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = vm-ora-vvol-dev-01)(PORT = 1521))
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC1521))
    )
  )

ENABLE_GLOBAL_DYNAMIC_ENDPOINT_LISTENER=ON              # line added by Agent
VALID_NODE_CHECKING_REGISTRATION_LISTENER=ON            # line added by Agent

Add the listener and start it.

[grid@vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 admin]$ srvctl add listener -l listener

[grid@vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 admin]$ srvctl start listener

[grid@vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 admin]$ srvctl status listener
Listener LISTENER is enabled
Listener LISTENER is running on node(s): vm-ora-vvol-dev-01

 

Login as grid. Execute the following command to configure ASM. This command takes the ASM diskgroup discovery string and spfile path as arguments. The values come from step 1. Note here we have to use the ASM parameter file here.

[grid@vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 admin]$ srvctl add asm -l listener -d "/dev/sd*" -p "+DATA/ASM/ASMPARAMETERFILE/registry.253.1035156397"

[grid@vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 admin]$ srvctl start asm

At this point, ASM instance should be up.

[grid@vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 admin]$ srvctl status asm
ASM is running on vm-ora-vvol-dev-01

[grid@vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 admin]$ ps -ef|grep smon
grid     14168 1  0 16:58 ?     00:00:00 asm_smon_+ASM

Check if the disk groups are mounted. If not, mount them.

[grid@vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 admin]$ asmcmd

ASMCMD> lsdg 
State    Type    Rebal  Sector  Logical_Sector  Block       AU  Total_MB  Free_MB  Req_mir_free_MB  Usable_file_MB  Offline_disks  Voting_files  Name
MOUNTED  EXTERN  N         512             512   4096  4194304   2097152  2094544                0         2094544              0             N  DATA/
MOUNTED  EXTERN  N         512             512   4096  1048576   1048576  1047875                0         1047875              0             N  FRA/

Check the status of the resources using the following command.

[grid@vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 admin]$ crsctl status resource -t
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name           Target  State        Server                   State details       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local Resources
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ora.DATA.dg
               ONLINE  ONLINE       vm-ora-vvol-dev-01       STABLE
ora.FRA.dg
               ONLINE  ONLINE       vm-ora-vvol-dev-01       STABLE
ora.LISTENER.lsnr
               ONLINE  ONLINE       vm-ora-vvol-dev-01       STABLE
ora.asm
               ONLINE  ONLINE       vm-ora-vvol-dev-01       Started,STABLE
ora.ons
               OFFLINE OFFLINE      vm-ora-vvol-dev-01       STABLE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cluster Resources
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ora.cssd
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       vm-ora-vvol-dev-01       STABLE
ora.diskmon
      1        OFFLINE OFFLINE                               STABLE
ora.evmd
      1        ONLINE  ONLINE       vm-ora-vvol-dev-01       STABLE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Once required disk groups are mounted, we can go ahead and register the database. Again, the value for the spfile parameter for the database can be obtained from step 1.

[oracle@vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 ~]$ srvctl add database -db vvprd01 -oraclehome /u01/app/oracle/product/18.0.0/dbhome_1 \
                                -spfile +DATA/VVPRD01/PARAMETERFILE/spfile.266.1038345579

Finally, we can start the database!

[oracle@vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 admin]$ srvctl start database -db vvprd01 
[oracle@vm-ora-vvol-dev-01 admin]$ ps -ef|grep smon
grid     24066     1  0 12:09 ?        00:00:00 asm_smon_+ASM
oracle   26688     1  0 12:35 ?        00:00:00 ora_smon_vvprd01

 

The database name and DBID is the same as the source. It can be changed using the DBNEWID utility.