Cloning a node/cluster in Oracle RAC

In mine previous post (Clone 11g ORACLE_HOME (different box, different path) on Linux) I have described how is easy (and wise) to clone ORACLE_HOME on described way.

Once a RAC cluster with ASM is successfully installed, the ASM and RAC setup can now be cloned to new cluster (new node). While it was possible before 11g to clone RAC and ASM to a new node in the same cluster, there is now the capability to clone entire clusters for easy deployment. This is a scripted method of quickly deploying RAC across the grid. ln order to clone ASM and RAC configurations, the mentioned script clone.pl is used again along with pre-scripted silent runs of NetCA and DBCA. As said before, the perl scriptclone.pl can be used to clone all ORACLE_HOME's

• ASM ORACLE_HOME
• Any Database ORACLE_HOME

as well. Do not forget that Clusterware ORACLE_HOME is currently not capable of cloning in a mentioned way-it has to be installed (and patched) manually in an old fashioned way.

So a useful extension on previous topic may be:

1. Cloning a single node (adding new)
2. Cloning a whole RAC to another RAC

So I'd like to express something that might help and it's been proven in praxis on 11gR2 database.

The Solution

Regardless adding new node is very well described in Adding New Nodes to Your Oracle RAC 10g Cluster on Linux, if you deal with several ORACLE_HOMES (ASM and at least another one for database...and maybe more) which are heavily patched, following from "Step 5: Install Oracle Software" to end may a really curious task!

Here are the steps involved in cloning RAC instances with ASM to another cluster (new node):
Install Oracle Clusterware on the new node(s)

1. With procedure express in prevous topic create tar backup of the Oracle 11g software
2. Backup the ASM HOME
3. Backup the DB HOME (or more of them if exists!)
4. Restore the ASM tar backup onto the new cluster nodes
5. Run the clone.pl Perl script on each node for ASM
6. Run the root.sh script on each node as root for ASM
7. Run NetCA in silent mode (using $ORACLE_HOME/network/install/netca_typ.rsp file) to create listeners on each node
8. Run DBCA in silent mode to create the ASM instance on each node
9. Restore the DB tar backup onto the new clusters nodes
10. Run the clone.pl Perl script on each node for DB Home
11. Run thc root.sh script as root on each node for DB Home
12. Run DBCA to create the RAC instances

As you see the very same procedure may be use when we want to add another node to existing RAC configuration. Detailed steps for that action may be found in Oracle document Using Cloning to Add ASM and Oracle RAC to Nodes in a New Cluster.

Cheers!