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Creating shared disks in VSphere 6.5 - Oracle 12c RAC

Dear All,

I am installing Oracle db 12c release 2 on Oracle Linux 7 server using vSphere 6.5. I am going through the following documentation provided by Oracle for installation.

Code:

https://oracle-base.com/articles/12c/oracle-db-12cr2-rac-installation-on-oracle-linux-7-using-virtualbox

This installation process described in the above link is for virtual box. The document mentions creating shared disks using the following commands:

Code:

 

On the host server, create 4 sharable virtual disks and associate them as virtual media using the following commands. You can pick a different location, but make sure they are outside the existing VM directory.



$ mkdir -p /u04/VirtualBox/ol7-122-rac

$ cd /u04/VirtualBox/ol7-122-rac

$

$ # Create the disks and associate them with VirtualBox as virtual media.

$ VBoxManage createhd --filename asm1.vdi --size 20480 --format VDI --variant Fixed

$ VBoxManage createhd --filename asm2.vdi --size 20480 --format VDI --variant Fixed

$ VBoxManage createhd --filename asm3.vdi --size 20480 --format VDI --variant Fixed

$ VBoxManage createhd --filename asm4.vdi --size 20480 --format VDI --variant Fixed

$

$ # Connect them to the VM.

$ VBoxManage storageattach ol7-122-rac1 --storagectl "SATA" --port 1 --device 0 --type hdd --medium asm1.vdi --mtype shareable

$ VBoxManage storageattach ol7-122-rac1 --storagectl "SATA" --port 2 --device 0 --type hdd --medium asm2.vdi --mtype shareable

$ VBoxManage storageattach ol7-122-rac1 --storagectl "SATA" --port 3 --device 0 --type hdd --medium asm3.vdi --mtype shareable

$ VBoxManage storageattach ol7-122-rac1 --storagectl "SATA" --port 4 --device 0 --type hdd --medium asm4.vdi --mtype shareable

$

$ # Make shareable.

$ VBoxManage modifyhd asm1.vdi --type shareable

$ VBoxManage modifyhd asm2.vdi --type shareable

$ VBoxManage modifyhd asm3.vdi --type shareable

$ VBoxManage modifyhd asm4.vdi --type shareable

Code:

----Text from document

Start the virtual machine by clicking the "Start" button on the toolbar. When the server has started, log in as the root user so you can configure the shared disks. The current disks can be seen by issuing the following commands.



# cd /dev

# ls sd*

sda  sda1  sda2  sdb  sdc  sdd  sde

#

How can I do the above if I am working with vSphere? I know these commands of VBoxManage would not work in vSphere. Should I create separate disks?? How can i make it shared as mentioned above?? I would be glad for your help.

Note: The link to the Oracle document is attached above.

First of all, be careful with Oracle licensing if you are running it on VMs. If you are running RAC, I would avoid it. If it is on a cluster, you must license the number of cores in the entire cluster. For RAC on VMWare, it isn't all that straight forward. Here is what you will have to do:

1. Setup Virtual interfaces on the VMs for the private cluster interconnects that are on their own little separate network.

2. Create the shared disks for ASM to use. They must be thick provisioned, eager zeroed. You have to set a special flag called the multi-writer flag in the disk configuration advanced parameters.

Here is a VMWare KB that should help:

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1034165

Dear Tyler,

Thank you very much. That really helped.

Quote:

Thanks for sharing this with us! I am looking into vSphere quick boot now, and this helps.
VMware vSphere is not a specific product or software. Vmware Vsphere is the commercial name for the entire VMware pro product suite. The VMware vSphere product suite consists of virtualization, management, and an interface that integrates everything. The two main components of vSphere are the ESXi server and vCenter Server. ESXi is the hypervisor that creates and runs virtual machines. At the same time, the vCenter Server software helps us centrally manage the entire virtualization infrastructure.
It takes you some time to get everything about vSphere, but fixing the issues becomes easier when you learn about it.

Thanks for this!