7 Oracle Software Cloning Using Oracle Universal Installer

7.1 About Cloning

Cloning is the process of copying an existing installation to a different location while preserving its configuration. The source and the destination path (host to be cloned) need not be the same. During cloning, Oracle Universal Installer replays all actions that have been executed to install the home. It is very similar to installation except that Oracle Universal Installer will run the actions in a special mode called the clone mode.

Some situations in which cloning is useful are:

• Creating an installation that is a copy of a production, test, or development installation. Cloning enables you to create a new installation with all patches applied to it in a single step. This is in contrast with going through the installation process by performing separate steps to install, configure, and patch the installation.

• Rapidly deploying an instance and the applications it hosts.

• Preparing an Oracle home and deploying it to many hosts.

The cloned installation behaves the same as the source installation. For example, the cloned instance can be removed using Oracle Universal Installer or patched using OPatch. It can also be used as the source for another cloning operation. You can create a cloned copy of a test, development, or production installation by using the command-line cloning scripts. The default cloning procedure is adequate for most usage cases. However, you can also customize various aspects of the cloning process, for example, to specify custom port assignments, or preserve custom settings.

The cloning process works by copying all files from the source Oracle home to the destination Oracle home. Hence, any files used by the source instance that are located outside the source Oracle home's directory structure are not copied to the destination location.

The size of the binaries at the source and the destination may differ as these are relinked as a part of the clone operation and the operating system patch levels may also differ between these two locations. Additionally, the number of files in the cloned home would increase as several files copied from the source (specifically those being instantiated) are backed up as part of the clone operation.

Oracle Universal Installer Cloning is more beneficial over tarball approach as it sets up the Central Inventory and the Oracle home inventory in the cloned home and makes the home manageable and allows the paths in the cloned home and the target home to be different.

7.2 Overview of the Cloning Process

The cloning process makes use of the cloning functionality of Oracle Universal Installer. This operation is driven by a set of scripts and add-ons that are included in the respective Oracle software.

There are two phases in the cloning process:

• Source Preparation Phase

• Cloning Phase

7.3 Locating and Viewing Log Files

The cloning script invokes multiple tools, each of which may generate its own log files. However, the following log files, which are generated by Oracle Universal Installer and the cloning scripts, are the key ones of interest for diagnostic purposes:

• Central_Inventory/logs/cloneActions timestamp.log: Contains a detailed log of the actions that occur during the Oracle Universal Installer part of the cloning.

• Central_Inventory/logs/oraInstall timestamp.err: Contains information about errors that occur when Oracle Universal Installer is running.

• Central_Inventory/logs/oraInstall timestamp.out: Contains other miscellaneous messages generated by Oracle Universal Installer.

• $ORACLE_HOME/clone/logs/clone timestamp.log: Contains a detailed log of the actions that occur during the pre-cloning and cloning operations.

• $ORACLE_HOME/clone/logs/error timestamp.log: Contains information about errors that occur during the pre-cloning and cloning operations.

To find the location of the Oracle inventory directory:On UNIX systems, look in /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc and on Linux systems, look in /etc/oraInst.loc.

On Windows systems, the location can be obtained from the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\INST_LOC.

After the clone.pl script finishes running, consult these log files to get more information about the cloning process.

7.4 Cloning an Oracle Database 10.2 Oracle Home

There are two steps involved in cloning an Oracle Database 10.2 Oracle home:

• Preparing the Oracle Database 10.2 Source

• Cloning the Oracle Database 10.2

perl <Oracle_Home>/clone/bin/clone.pl ORACLE_HOME=<Path to the Oracle_Home being
 cloned> ORACLE_HOME_NAME=<Oracle_Home_Name for the Oracle_Home being cloned> 
[-command_line_arguments]

-O -paramFile C:\OraHome_1\oui\oraparam.ini

clone_command_line= -invptrloc /private/oracle/oraInst.loc

7.5 Cloning Real Application Clusters

The following section lists the process for cloning the nodes of a Real Application Clusters with an example.

Consider a scenario where there are three nodes — A, B, and C. You want to clone a Real Application Clusters home on node A to node B and node C. The nodes B and C should be the members of the cluster. To do this, perform the following steps:

1. Archive the Real Application Clusters home from node A and copy it to node B and node C. ($ORACLE_HOME)

2. Unarchive the home on the nodes B and C. In case of shared home, unarchive the home only once on either of the nodes.

3. On nodes B and C go to $ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin and execute the following command:

   For UNIX
   
   perl clone.pl ORACLE_HOME=<Path to the Oracle_Home being cloned> ORACLE_HOME
   _NAME=<Oracle_Home_Name for the Oracle_Home being cloned> '-O"CLUSTER_
   NODES={<node B>,<node C>}"' '-OLOCAL_NODE=node_B"
   
   For Windows
   
   perl clone.pl ORACLE_HOME=<Path to the Oracle_Home being cloned> ORACLE_HOME
   _NAME=<Oracle_Home_Name for the Oracle_Home being cloned> '-O"CLUSTER_
   NODES={<node B>,<node C>}"' '-OLOCAL_NODE=node_B"
   

   
   

   Note: Set the LOCAL_NODE to the node on which you execute the runInstaller command.

   
   

4. For UNIX, perform the following additional steps:

   • On node B, go to $ORACLE_HOME and run root.sh. Repeat this step on node C.On node B, set the environment variable to ORACLE_HOME. Also add $ORACLE_HOME/lib to LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

5. Run Net Configuration Assistant on node B.

6. Run Database Configuration Assistant on node B.

7.6 Cloning Oracle Clusterware

The following section lists the process for cloning the nodes of an Oracle Clusterware with an example.

Consider a scenario where there are three nodes — A, B, and C. You want to clone an Oracle Clusterware home on node A to node B and node C such that the member nodes of the new cluster are node B and node C. To do this, perform the following steps:

1. Archive the Oracle Clusterware home from node A and copy it to node B and node C. ($CRS_HOME)

2. Unarchive the home on the nodes B and C. In case of shared home, unarchive the home only once on either of the nodes.

3. On nodes B and C go to $CRS_HOME/oui/bin and execute the following command:

   For UNIX
   
   perl clone.pl ORACLE_HOME=<Path to the Oracle_Home being cloned> ORACLE_HOME_
   NAME=<Oracle_Home_Name for the Oracle_Home being cloned> '-On_
   storageTypeVDSK=2' '-On_storageTypeOCR=2' '-O"sl_tableList={node_B:node_B_
   priv:node_B-vip, node_C:node_C_priv:node_C-vip}"' 
   '-OINVENTORY_LOCATION=<central inventory location>'
   
   For Windows
   
   perl clone.pl ORACLE_HOME=<Path to the Oracle_Home being cloned> ORACLE_HOME_
   NAME=<Oracle_Home_Name for the Oracle_Home being cloned> '-On_
   storageTypeVDSK=2' '-On_storageTypeOCR=2' '-O"sl_tableList={node_B:node_B_
   priv:node_B-vip, node_C:node_C_priv:node_C-vip}"'
   
   

4. On UNIX, navigate to the <central_inventory> directory and run orainstRoot.sh on the nodes B and C. This populates /etc/oraInst.loc with the location of the Central Inventory. On nodes B and C, go to $CRS_HOME and run root.sh. This will bring the Oracle Clusterware stack on node B. Repeat this step on node C.

5. On node B, execute the following from $CRS_HOME/bin:

   For UNIX
   
   ./racgons add_config node B:<Remote_Port> node C:<Remote_Port>
   
   For Windows
   
   racgons add_config node B:<Remote_Port> node C:<Remote_Port>
   
   

6. To get the remote port information, execute the following command from the $CRS_HOME/opmn/conf directory:

   For UNIX
   
   ./ons.config
   
   For Windows
   
   ons.config
   
   

7. Execute the following command to get the interconnect information. You can use this information in the next step.

   For UNIX and Windows
   
   $CRS_HOME/bin/oifcfg iflist –p
   
   

8. Execute oifcfg command as follows:

   For UNIX and Windows
   
   oifcfg setif -global <interface_name>/<subnet>:public <inteface_
   name>/<subnet>:cluster_interconnect [<interface_name>/<subnet>:public
    <inteface_name>/<subnet>:cluster_interconnect .......]