Installing 11g RAC on Windows 2008

Overview of new concepts in 11gR2 Grid Infrastructure
The single client access name (SCAN) is the address used by all clients connecting to the cluster. The SCAN
name is a domain name registered to three IP addresses, either in the domain name service (DNS) or the Grid
Naming Service (GNS). The SCAN name eliminates the need to change clients when nodes are added to or

removed from the cluster. Clients using SCAN names can also access the cluster using EZCONNECT. For details click here
GNS
In the past, the host and VIP names and addresses were defined in the DNS or locally in a hosts file. GNS can
simplify this setup by using DHCP. To use GNS, DHCP must be configured in the subdomain in which the
cluster resides.
OCR and Voting on ASM storage
The ability to use ASM diskgroups for the storage of Clusterware OCR and Voting disks is a new feature in
the Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Grid Infrastructure. If you choose this option and ASM is not yet
configured, OUI launches ASM configuration assistant to configure ASM and a diskgroup.
Time sync
There is a general requirement for Oracle RAC that the time on all the nodes be the same. With 11gR2 time
synchronization can be performed by the Clusterware using CTSSD (Cluster Time Synchronization Services
Daemon) or by using the Windows Time Service. If the Windows Time Service is being used, it MUST be
configured to prevent the time from being adjusted backwards.
Clusterware and ASM share the same Oracle Home
The clusterware and ASM share the same home thus we call it Grid Infrastructure home (prior to 11gR2 ASM could be installed either in a separate home or in the same Oracle home as RDBMS.)
Hardware Requirements

•  Physical memory (at least 1.5 gigabyte (GB) of RAM)
•  An amount of swap space equal the amount of RAM
•  Temporary space (at least 1 GB) available in /tmp
•  A processor type (CPU) that is certified with the version of the Oracle software being installed
• At minimum of 1024 x 786 display resolution, so that Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) displays
  correctly
• All servers that will be used in the cluster have the same chip architecture, for example, all 32-bit
  processors or all 64-bit processors
• Disk space for software installation locations. You will need at least 4.5 GB of available disk space
  for the Grid home directory, which includes both the binary files for Oracle Clusterware and Oracle
  Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) and their associated log files, and at least 4 GB of
  available disk space for the Oracle Database home directory.
• Shared disk space

An Oracle RAC database is a shared everything database. All data files, control files, redo log files, and the
server parameter file (SPFILE) used by the Oracle RAC database must reside on shared storage that is
accessible by all the Oracle RAC database instances. The Oracle RAC installation that is described in this
guide uses Oracle ASM for the shared storage for Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Database files. The amount of shared disk space is determined by the size of your database.
Network Hardware Requirements

• Each node has at least two network interface cards (NIC), or network adapters.
• Public interface names must be the same for all nodes. If the public interface on one node uses the network adapter 'PublicLAN', then you must configure 'PublicLAN' as the public interface on all nodes.
• You should configure the same private interface names for all nodes as well. If 'PrivateLAN' is the private interface name for the first node, then 'PrivateLAN' should be the private interface name for your second node.
• For the private network, the end points of all designated interconnect interfaces must be completely reachable on the network. Every node in the cluster should be able to connect to every private network interface in the cluster.
• The host name of each node must conform to the RFC 952 standard, characters. Host names using underscores ("_") are not allowed.

IP Address Requirements

•  One public IP address for each node
•  One virtual IP address for each node
•  Three single client access name (SCAN) addresses for the cluster

Installation method
This post details the steps for installing a 2-node Oracle 11gR2 RAC cluster on Windows 2008:
The Oracle Grid Infrastructure Home binaries are installed on the local disk of each of the RAC nodes.

•  The files required by Oracle Clusterware (OCR and Voting disks) are stored in ASM 
• The installation is explained without GNS

Prepare the cluster nodes for Oracle RAC
Click here for details.

Prepare the shared storage for Oracle RAC
Click here for details.

Oracle Grid Infrastructure Install
Click here for details.

RDBMS Software Install
Click here for details.

Create Database
Click here for details.