CHAPTER 5
Oracle RAC Installation

In this chapter we walk through the Oracle 11g (11.2.0.2) RAC database installation process in detail. Most of the required groundwork for installation was completed in the preinstallation stages in the previous chapter; installing the Oracle RAC software will be similar to performing a single-instance installation. Even internally, the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) installs the binaries in a single node and uses the underlying file transfer mechanisms to propagate the files to other nodes, relinking them with the respective operating system binaries.

Oracle has introduced few changes in the Oracle 11g Release 2 database, especially in the 11.2.0.2 patchset. We will discuss the important changes in this section; changes and features introduced in Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 will be marked appropriately in this book for better readability. Starting with Oracle 11g Release 2, the database patchset will include the software binaries and support out-of-place database upgrades, thus avoiding installation of Oracle base release binaries and then upgrading to the latest patchset.