Oracle RAC Clusterware High Level Tools

Oracle Database Tips by Donald Burleson

Oracle's low level clusterware tools are great for digging into real issues or reconfiguring the cluster as a whole; however, there are several high level tools that are used for every day needs, such as:

• Listing cluster resources

• Starting and stopping cluster resources

• Relocating resources

• Registering and unregistering resources

• Enabling and disabling resources

Keep in mind that a resource is any part of the cluster system as a whole: VIP, GSD, ONS, ASM, the listener, the database, instances, and services.

crs_stat

crs_stat is probably the most commonly used of all Oracle RAC tools.  This script accepts many different parameters to display information about all cluster resources.

By itself, the crs_statommand will list each resource registered with clusterware and show its status.

NAME=ora.racnode2.gsd

TYPE=application

TARGET=ONLINE

STATE=ONLINE on racnode2

NAME=ora.racnode2.ons

TYPE=application

TARGET=ONLINE

STATE=ONLINE on racnode2

NAME=ora.racnode2.vip

TYPE=application

TARGET=ONLINE

STATE=ONLINE on racnode2

Specifying the -t option will display information in tabular form.  For instance:

[oracle@racnode1 ~]$ crs_stat -t

Name           Type           Target    State     Host       

------------------------------------------------------------

ora.racdb.db   application    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2   

ora....b1.inst application    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1   

ora....b2.inst application    OFFLINE   OFFLINE              

ora....SM1.asm application    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1   

ora....E1.lsnr application    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1   

ora....de1.gsd application    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1   

ora....de1.ons application    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1   

ora....de1.vip application    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode1   

ora....SM2.asm application    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2   

ora....E2.lsnr application    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2   

ora....de2.gsd application    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2   

ora....de2.ons application    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2   

ora....de2.vip application    ONLINE    ONLINE    racnode2  

Another popular pair of options is a combination of -a and either -g or -r.

• -a allows a specific resource_name to be entered 

• -g will return 0 if the resource is registered with clusterware, 1 if it is not 

• -r will return 0 if the resource is running currently, and 1 if it is not

- This can also be combined with -c cluster_node to narrow the query to a specific node

• Any of these commands are very useful in scripting

The -p option is also highly used as it prints the profile of any resource.  This profile can be used to re-register resources later.

Other miscellaneous but useful options are:

•  -f  - Includes extended information and the profile

•  -ls - Lists resources along with their owners and permissions

- Can optionally include a resource_name

• -v - Returns extended information including failover counts

crs_start

crs_start is used to start resources, either one at a time or for the entire cluster.

To start all resources across a cluster, the crs_start command can be used with the -all option:

$ crs_start -all

To force a resource to start, all required prerequisites from that resource must be met.  After that, the crs_start command can use the -f option to force startup.  This is useful in cases like VIP failover, when the VIP must be relocated to another node.

If the -all option is not specified, a resource name must be given.  For instance:

$ crs_start ora.racnode1.vip