Installing 12c (12.1.0.1) RAC on RHEL 6 with Role Seperation

After installing clusterware and database software remaining step is to create the database. In this post a container database (CDB) and a pluggable database (PDB) will be created using DBCA. CDB and PDB are part of 12c new multitenant feature.
1. Before starting DBCA change the permission on cfgtoollogs and admin folders. cfgtoolslogs permission was an issue in 11.2 when installed with role separation as well(see step 15). In 12c admin directory in ORACLE_BASE also causes issue as it doesn't have write permission for the oinstall group thus making oracle user unable to create necessary directories inside it.

To fix it change to ORACLE_BASE as grid user (or root) and execute the following

cd $ORACLE_BASE
chmod 770 cfgtoollogs
chmod 770 admin

2. Verify the database installation pre-req check with cluvfy -pre dbcfg

[oracle@rhel12c1 ~]$ cluvfy stage -pre dbcfg -n rhel12c1,rhel12c2 -d /opt/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbhome_1

Performing pre-checks for database configuration

Checking node reachability...
Node reachability check passed from node "rhel12c1"


Checking user equivalence...
User equivalence check passed for user "oracle"

Checking node connectivity...

Checking hosts config file...

Verification of the hosts config file successful

Check: Node connectivity using interfaces on subnet "192.168.0.0"
Node connectivity passed for subnet "192.168.0.0" with node(s) rhel12c2,rhel12c1
TCP connectivity check passed for subnet "192.168.0.0"


Check: Node connectivity using interfaces on subnet "192.168.1.0"
Node connectivity passed for subnet "192.168.1.0" with node(s) rhel12c2,rhel12c1
TCP connectivity check passed for subnet "192.168.1.0"

Checking subnet mask consistency...
Subnet mask consistency check passed for subnet "192.168.0.0".
Subnet mask consistency check passed for subnet "192.168.1.0".
Subnet mask consistency check passed.

Node connectivity check passed

Checking multicast communication...

Checking subnet "192.168.1.0" for multicast communication with multicast group "224.0.0.251"...
Check of subnet "192.168.1.0" for multicast communication with multicast group "224.0.0.251" passed.

Check of multicast communication passed.
Group existence check passed for "oper"
Group existence check passed for "dba"
Group existence check passed for "backupdba"
Group existence check passed for "dgdba"
Group existence check passed for "kmdba"
Total memory check passed
Available memory check passed
Swap space check passed
Free disk space check passed for "rhel12c2:/tmp"
Free disk space check passed for "rhel12c1:/tmp"
Check for multiple users with UID value 500 passed
User existence check passed for "oracle"
Group existence check passed for "oinstall"
Group existence check passed for "dba"
Membership check for user "oracle" in group "oinstall" [as Primary] passed
Membership check for user "oracle" in group "dba" passed
Run level check passed
Hard limits check passed for "maximum open file descriptors"
Soft limits check passed for "maximum open file descriptors"
Hard limits check passed for "maximum user processes"
Soft limits check passed for "maximum user processes"
System architecture check passed
Kernel version check passed
Kernel parameter check passed for "semmsl"
Kernel parameter check passed for "semmns"
Kernel parameter check passed for "semopm"
Kernel parameter check passed for "semmni"
Kernel parameter check passed for "shmmax"
Kernel parameter check passed for "shmmni"
Kernel parameter check passed for "shmall"
Kernel parameter check passed for "file-max"
Kernel parameter check passed for "ip_local_port_range"
Kernel parameter check passed for "rmem_default"
Kernel parameter check passed for "rmem_max"
Kernel parameter check passed for "wmem_default"
Kernel parameter check passed for "wmem_max"
Kernel parameter check passed for "aio-max-nr"
Package existence check passed for "binutils"
Package existence check passed for "compat-libcap1"
Package existence check passed for "compat-libstdc++-33(x86_64)"
Package existence check passed for "libgcc(x86_64)"
Package existence check passed for "libstdc++(x86_64)"
Package existence check passed for "libstdc++-devel(x86_64)"
Package existence check passed for "sysstat"
Package existence check passed for "gcc"
Package existence check passed for "gcc-c++"
Package existence check passed for "ksh"
Package existence check passed for "make"
Package existence check passed for "glibc(x86_64)"
Package existence check passed for "glibc-devel(x86_64)"
Package existence check passed for "libaio(x86_64)"
Package existence check passed for "libaio-devel(x86_64)"
Check for multiple users with UID value 0 passed
Current group ID check passed

Starting check for consistency of primary group of root user

Check for consistency of root user's primary group passed

Checking CRS integrity...

Clusterware version consistency passed.

CRS integrity check passed

Checking node application existence...

Checking existence of VIP node application (required)
VIP node application check passed

Checking existence of NETWORK node application (required)
NETWORK node application check passed

Checking existence of ONS node application (optional)
ONS node application check passed

Time zone consistency check passed

Pre-check for database configuration was successful.

3.Start DBCA and create the CDB first.

It was noted that the time to create database using custom option without the use of OLTP and warehouse templates takes longer compared to 11.2

It is possible to create both CDB and PDB in one step but here only the CDB is created initially.

With 12c database vault and label security could be configured with DBCA at the time of database creation.

4. PDBs could be created with DBCA as well as using command "create pluggable database". Time it takes to provision a PDB is much shorter compared to creating a database using DBCA in previous releases. This is one of the reasons why oracle is "marketing/advertising/touting" that 12c is the database for the cloud.
Start DBCA to create the PDB.