PRIMECLUSTER Wizard for Oracle Configuration and Administration Guide 4.2 - Linux for Itanium -

3.2 Oracle Maintenance

This section discusses how to change Oracle settings, apply Oracle patches, back up and recover Oracle databases. In a cluster system, the shared disk device in which Oracle data is stored is activated and deactivated along with Oracle startup and stop.

Oracle is monitored during userApplication operation. If Oracle is stopped manually, then the cluster system will consider that the Oracle resource fails, so Oracle will be restarted or Oracle operation will be switched to the standby node.

While userApplication is not running, the shared disk is deactivated.

If you need to control Oracle manually for Oracle cold backup or other maintenance tasks, stop monitoring the Oracle instances and listeners temporarily.

The basic maintenance procedure is as follows:

1. Start userApplication
   Start userApplication that includes the Oracle instance resource if it is stopped.
   
2. Stop monitoring
   Stop monitoring the Oracle instance and listener resources by executing the "hvoradisable" command. This will prevent resource failures when Oracle is stopped manually.
   Before going on to the next step, be sure to check that resource monitoring is disrupted.
3. Confirmation of stop monitoring
   Confirm stop monitoring was normally done.
   (Refer to note of "4.1 hvoradisable - Discontinue Monitoring Resources".)
   
4. Stop Oracle-dependent resources
   Before stopping Oracle, stop Oracle-dependent resources manually if there are any. If resource monitoring is disrupted with the "hvoradisable" command, stop monitoring the Oracle-dependent resources using the RMS command "hvdisable" then stop them manually.
   
5. Stop Oracle
   Stop Oracle manually.
   
6. Do maintenance on Oracle
   Change the Oracle settings, apply Oracle patches, back up and recovery Oracle databases.
   
7. Start Oracle
   After the maintenance is completed, start Oracle. Restart the Oracle listener, if it is also stopped. Before going on to the next step, be sure to check that Oracle instance and listener are properly running. The Oracle instance must be OPEN.
   
8. Start Oracle-dependent resources
   If Oracle-dependent resources are stopped, start them manually before canceling maintenance mode or start resource monitoring again. If resource monitoring is disrupted with the "hvoradisable" command, start resource monitoring the Oracle-dependent resources again using the RMS command "hvenable", then start them manually.
   
9. Restart resource monitoring
   Start monitoring the Oracle instance and listener resources again using the hvoraenable command.
10. Confirmation of restart monitoring
    Confirm restart monitoring was normally done.
    (Refer to note of "4.2 hvoraenable - Restart Monitoring Resources".)

• Maintenance mode and resource monitoring
  To stop Oracle with userApplication active, use the "monitoring disruption" function of PRIMECLUSTER Wizard for Oracle.
  "Monitoring disruption" - Stop the Oracle resource monitoring only. If non-Oracle resource fails, a failover will be generated.
  
• Oracle RAC 10g
  To operate Oracle RAC 10g resources, control RMS userApplication without using the srvctl or shutdown command. If you execute the command to the Oracle instance directly, PRIMECLUSETR will consider that the resource fails, and recovery processing might be initiated for the Oracle resource. To executing the command, put userApplication into maintenance mode.
  
• Oracle instance and listener monitoring
  For information on how to cancel or restart monitoring the Oracle instance and listener resources, refer to "4.1 hvoradisable - Discontinue Monitoring Resources" and "4.2 hvoraenable - Restart Monitoring Resources".

• Monitoring restart
  If Oracle instances and Oracle listeners are stopped manually after resource monitoring disruption, start them manually before starting resource monitoring again. If you restart resource monitoring with the Oracle resources inactive, the Oracle resources will fail.
  
• State transition during maintenance
  If Oracle monitoring is stopped with the "hvoradisable" command, the Oracle resources will fail, or the state transition will not occur even though the resources are stopped manually. However, the state transition might occur due to other reasons then Oracle.
  
• Resource state during monitoring
  If the "hvoradisable" command properly stops monitoring the resources, they will enter Warning.

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3.2.1 Oracle Setting Change

3.2.2 Patch Application

3.2.3 Backup

3.2.4 Recovery