Applies to:

Goal

This is a guide on how to install the Grid Control Agents on RAC Clusters, in order to be managed by the Grid Control.

Fix

Overview

RAC Agent installation in "Cluster" mode allows for cluster-wide patching or individual Agent home patching.  Each Agent's ORACLE_HOME in a "Cluster" install will create state directories (one for each cluster member node) containing specific configuration files for each node. 

 In case you choose a shared (central agent or NFS agent) installation, all Agents running from this share must be shutdown before patching..  But you only need to patch the central Agent home.

Grid Control Agent installer will automatically detect installed the clusterware and will provide an option to install the Agent on every cluster member during the installation.

The current session's environment can affect clusterware detection and discovery process.  Please consider the following:

1.  Ensure that your cluster hostnames are resolveable.  Also, ensure that your /etc/hosts file on each cluster member node lists node names and IP addresses properly.  
Example:

127.0.0.1     localhost.localdomain  localhost  <<<< This line should not list the hostname of the server
11.10.10.1   node1.domain node1
10.10.10.2   node1-vip.domain node1-vip
.
.
etc...

2.  Ensure that you remove any environment variable with a space " ", a double colon "::", or a semi colon ";" (in the variable name or its value) before launching the agent installer.  

Example:

SSH_CLIENTS=aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd aaa.bbb.ccc.def
PATH2=/var/opt/java/bin;/home/oracle/scripts;

3.  Be sure to remove any ORACLE_HOME, NLS, LIB*, or any other environment variable you would set for an Oracle product from the current session where you will be installing the Agent.  Also, make sure that your software owner user default login script. does not set Oracle specific environment variables.

4.  Ensure that  the OMS is up and running and that the OMS receiver servlet is Active.  Check this using:
https://omsmachine.domain:1159/em/upload
You should see:

Http XML File receiver
Http Receiver Servlet active!

Verify that there is connectivity to the OMS hostname and the port from the machine where the Agent needs to be installed.

5.  If you choose to use a separate inventory for the Agent than any other installed Oracle software, you can selectively add each inventory to the Agent after installation.  Please see Grid Control Advanced Configuration Guide for details.  11g docs are here: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11857_01/index.htm

6.  If you have not configured CRS to use the default cluster name (crs), then skip this step.  Otherwise, to use a non-default cluster name (the default is crs), you can pass CLUSTER_NAME= argument when you run the installer, as well as setting an environment variable CLUSTER_NAME= in the install terminal session before installation.
You can also pass the cluster nodes to the Installer using the CLUSTER_NODES parameter

Example:

./runInstaller -CLUSTER_NAME=myTestCluster CLUSTER_NODES="{node1,node2,node3}"

(to find your cluster name, see Note below)

7.  Run the Agent installer and select all cluster nodes.  For 11g agents, you cannot run the installer interactively; proceed to step 8.

8.  Optionally, you can run the installer in silent mode by editing the response file and providing values for the following parameters: BASEDIR, CLUSTER_NODES, sl_OMSConnectInfo

Make sure these parameters are uncommented in the response files then kickoff the silent install.  For example, your response file content looks like the following:

SECURITY_UPDATES_VIA_MYORACLESUPPORT=false
DECLINE_SECURITY_UPDATES=true
INSTALL_UPDATES_SELECTION="skip"
ORACLE_AGENT_HOME_LOCATION=/app/oracle/product
b_silentInstall=true
CLUSTER_NODES="node1,node2,node3"
OMS_HOST=gridcontrol.acme.com
OMS_PORT=4889
AGENT_REGISTRATION_PASSWORD=

Save responsefile to the some physical location and issue command as below

runInstaller -silent -responseFile -noconfig

This should complete successfully.

If you run into problems after the install stage has completed, but the Agent Configuration Assistant fails, you may be able to re-secure the agents individually, then re-run "agentca" after exiting OUI:

    -  Run through steps 1 through 6 above
    -  Secure each agent manually
    -  Go to the agent10g (or agent11g) home and cd to the bin directory
    -  Run the following command:

       ./agentca -f -n -c -i

The above command will configure and start each agent on each node when run from one of the cluster nodes.
  

    -  Check the status of agents on each node:

       ./emctl status agent

The agent can also be installed by executing the agentDownload script. on one node at a time using the correct arguments.

For more details, please refer to Grid Control Installation and Basic Configuration guide, section
5.5.1.1.1 Standalone Agent Install Using the agentDownload Script. if you prefer to use the agent download method of installation.

When installing the agent using agentDownload script, if you want to discover the cluster targets as part of the install then you must set the CLUSTER_NAME environment variable prior to executing the agentDownload script, or pass the cluster name to the agentDownload script. as follows:

agentDownload -n

or

which will create a text file called OCRDUMPFILE
open that file and look for this entry
[SYSTEM.css.clustername]
ORATEXT : crs_cluster
In this case, "crs_cluster" is the cluster name.


Table 5–2 Command-line Options for Cluster Installation Options Description
-c This option is followed by a comma-separated list of the nodes in the cluster. It is possible to install a standalone agent that will still discover cluster targets by not specifying this option while still specifying the cluster name with the -n option.

-*n This option is followed by the name of the cluster. This option is required for 9i clusters; for 10g clusters, if this option is not specified, the default cluster name from the targets.xml file will be used.*

-l This option specifies that the install should be done just on the local node of the cluster.