Configuring and Starting the Listener on Each Node Oracle Database Tips by Donald Burleson

A listener must be configured and running on each node in order to create a RAC database. The following is a list of steps taken when using the netca tool to configure and launch the listeners. This step needs to be done from only one node.

1.      Use oraenv to set the $PATH and $ORACLE_HOME variables, then launch netca.

2.      Choose cluster configuration.

3.      Select all of the nodes.

4.      Add a listener.

5.      The listener name is LISTENER.

6.      TCP is the only protocol needed.

7.      Use port 1521.

8.      One listener is all that is needed.

By running through these steps with netca, the configuration file $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/listener.ora has been created on each node and a listener named ?LISTENER? has been started on each node.  Run the command lsnrctlstatus on each node to verify that the listener is started.

Starting the Global Services Daemon

The Oracle Enterprise Manager, srvctl, and dbca each rely on the Global Services Daemonservice. Srvctl is a command line tool used to start and stop clustered databases (among other tasks as will be discussed in Chapter 7). Database Configuration Assistant cannot create a clustered database without the GSD service running on each node.

The universal installer has created the file /var/opt/oracle/svrConfig.loc on each node, which is a text file that defines the location of the shared configuration file. The universal installer has also issued the command srvconfig ‑init which initialized the shared configuration file. At this time, the Global Services Daemon (GSD) should start without error.

Figure 6.6 demonstrates the commands used to start the GSD service. Run these commands as Oracle on each node. If the GSD needs to be stopped, use the command gsdctl stop. The GSD keeps a log of requests made by the various clients of its service in the file $ORACLE_HOME/srvm/log/gsdaemon_<NodeName>.log

Ensuring Oracle Services Start on Boot

The code depot for this book includes a script called oracle that can be installed in the directory /etc/init.d. Once installed and configured to start on boot with the chkconfigcommand, the hangcheck-timer, oracm, listener,  and gsdwill start whenever the node boots. Switch to the root user and run the commands shown in Figure 6.7 to configure the oracle services to start at boot. This step must be completed on each node.

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