Validated Configuration Details

The goal of this program is to validate hardware with Oracle Linux and Oracle VM, and to identify issues and configuration details that would impact customer deployments. Oracle developed the program to go far beyond the standard certification testing normally performed with operating systems. Hardware vendors participating in this program perform thorough testing of the hardware in real-world configurations with Oracle Linux and Oracle VM.

This is not a database certification. Oracle Database is a component of the environment because it is demanding on hardware resources (processor, memory, cache, storage, network) and the operating system, and well suited for this advanced level of testing. The validation program uses Oracle Database as a tool and hardware is not certified with Oracle Database as a result of the validation program.

For more information please see the program's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

Configuration Summary

OEL 5 Update 2 x86_64 on Dell PowerEdge M905 and Dell/EMC CX4-480 Storage Array with Oracle Database 11g Release 1

Publication Date

27-FEB-09

Version

1.0

Server Platform

Dell PowerEdge M905

Storage Model

Dell/EMC CX4-480 Storage Array

Oracle Software

Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1.0.7) for Linux x86_64

Linux Distribution

Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 Update 2 x86_64

Server Model

2 X Dell PowerEdge M905

Server Details

Additional Server models covered by this configuration: M600, M605, M805

Processors

4 X Quad Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 8354

Memory

8GB RAM

OnBoardStorage

2 X 73GB SAS 15k

RAID

Dell SAS 6/iR

Network/Interconnect

1 X Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5709S Gigabit Ethernet

HBA

2 X Emulex LPe1105 Fibre Channel HBA

Multipath

EMC PowerPath version 5.1.2

Storage Model

Dell/EMC CX4-480 Storage Array , CX4-240 , CX4-120 , CX4-960

Storage Details

FC HDDs: 146G 15K rpm Drives(RAID 10)

Switch Model

Brocade 4424

Switch Type

FC switch

Additional Info.

None

Switch Model

Power Connect M6220

Switch Type

Network switch

Additional Info.

None

OEL 5 Update 2 x86_64

Kernel

kernel-2.6.18-92.0.0.0.1.el5.x86_64.rpm or higher

File Name

Conf File Settings

Comments

/etc/modprobe.conf

options bonding miimon=100 mode=1

 options hangcheck_timer hangcheck_tick=1 hangcheck_margin=10 hangcheck_reboot=1#These hangcheck timer settings is for the default css misscount value and needs to be tuned based on the css misscount value &  oracle RAC version

/etc/security/limits.conf

oracle hard core unlimited

oracle hard nproc 131072

oracle hard memlock 50000000

 oracle  soft    nofile  131072# depending on size of db, these may need to be larger

oracle soft nproc 131072

oracle hard nofile 131072

oracle soft core unlimited

 oracle  soft    memlock 50000000# set memlock greater than or equal to the sga size to allow oracle to use hugepages if configured

/etc/sysctl.confnet.core.rmem_max=4194304# rmem_max can be tuned based on workload to balance performance vs lowmem usage

net.core.wmem_default=262144

net.core.wmem_max=262144

net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range=1024 65000

 net.core.rmem_default=262144# rmem_default can be tuned based on workload to balance performance vs lowmem usage

kernel.sysrq=1

kernel.shmall=3279547

kernel.shmmni=4096

kernel.sem=250 32000 100 142

kernel.msgmnb = 65536

kernel.msgmax=8192

kernel.shmmax=4185235456

#Set to a value half the size of physical memory

fs.aio-max-nr=3145728

fs.file-max=327679

kernel.msgmni=2878

Filesystem

Mount Options

Details

ASMNoneUsing Automatic Storage Management Library Driver (asmlib) for datafiles using PowerPath devices.

 -  - ocr and voting disk located directly on block device using PowerPath devices, for configuration with datafiles on ASM storage.

Driver Module

Emulex driver module

Version

None

Settings

None

Additional Info.

The driver used is the version supplied with the distribution

Driver Module

Network driver module (bnx2)

Version

1.6.9-ora

Settings

None

Additional Info.

The driver used is the bnx2 driver supplied with the distribution

Driver Module

Hangcheck-timer module

Version

None

Settings

None

Additional Info.

The driver used is the hangcheck-timer module supplied with the distribution

Product

Oracle Database 11g Release 1, Single Instance and Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) for Linux x86_64

Version

11.1.0.7

Patches

7135702 , 7520217

Bug No

6045759

Summary

Applications using random numbers may hang or report errors if there is insufficient random data in the system

Affects

Oracle applications tools (e.g: java apps) requesting random data

Symptom

Oracle applications tools (e.g: java apps) requesting random data from /dev/random either hang or print out the following information message: Not enough random bytes available. Please do some other work to give the OS a chance to collect more entropy!

Solution/Workaround

If using e1000 or bnx2 network drivers on OEL5 the entropy=1 module option can be set for either of these drivers in /etc/modprobe.conf. Fixed in 2.6.18-8.0.0.4.1.el5 kernel or higher

Bug No

6075960

Summary

If an ORACLE_HOME resides on an nfs partition, a reboot while Oracle is running may cause a panic

Affects

Oracle deployments with Oracle_home on an nfs partition

Symptom

If the ORACLE_HOME resides on an nfs partition and the system is rebooted while an Oracle instance is still running, the system may panic. This does not cause a data corruption, but the system will need to be restarted

Solution/Workaround

Fixed in 2.6.18-53.0.0.0.1.el5 kernel or higher. For other kernel versions lower than this, please shutdown the database instance before reboot of the server.

Bug No

6081490

Summary

With selinux enabled, ocfs2 fails to startup via /etc/init.d/o2cb start

Affects

Automated startup of ocfs2 via /etc/init.d/o2cb start

Symptom

With selinux enabled, starting ocfs2 via "/etc/init.d/o2cb start" fails with the following error: "mount: block device ocfs2_dlmfs is write-protected mounting read-only. mount: cannot mount block device ocfs2_dlmfs read-only. Unable to mount ocfs2_dlmfs filesystem Failed"

Solution/Workaround

For OEL5U3, Manually mount OCFS2_DLMFS using the command mount -t ocfs2_dlmfs ocfs2_dlmfs /dlm. Fixed in OEL5U4.

Bug No

6219364

Summary

Systems using kexec/kdump with Broadcom Tigon3 NICs will not be able to dump vmcore.

Affects

Troubleshooting of systems via kexec/kdump with Broadcom Tigon3 NICs.

Symptom

When troubleshooting with kexec/kdump, the system throws errors when trying to bring up the ethernet interface when trying to connect to the system on to which the vmcore should be dumped. This does not affect normal operations.

Solution/Workaround

Fixed in 2.6.18-53.0.0.0.1.el5 kernel

Bug No

6241862

Summary

Using sysrq+t with netconsole/tg3 configured causes the system to panic.

Affects

Troubleshooting of systems via "alt sysrq t" with netconsole/tg3 configured.

Symptom

When troubleshooting system, usage of "alt + sysrq + t" with netconsole/tg3 configured to take a system stack trace may cause the system to panic . This does not affect the normal operation of the system.

Solution/Workaround

Fixed in 2.6.18-92.0.0.0.1.el5 kernel or higher

Bug No

6140224

Summary

SQLPLUS FAILS TO LOAD LIBNNZ11.SO WITH SELINUX ENABLED ON EL5/RHEL5

Affects

11gR1 and 11gR2

Symptom

sqlplus fails with the following error message "cannot restore segment prot after reloc: Permission denied"

Solution/Workaround

Disable selinux

Bug No

7036544

Summary

Database instance startup fails when sga_target was set to multiples of 4096M

Affects

11.1.0.6

Symptom

Database instance startup fails with the following error " ORA-12853: insufficient memory for PX buffers: current 0K, max needed 2640K and ORA-04031: unable to allocate 21544 bytes of shared memory ("large pool","unknown object","large pool","PX msg pool")"

Solution/Workaround

Fixed in 11.1.0.7, for 11.1.0.6 set the parameter large_pool_size in init.ora or increase the sga_target size.

Bug No

7135702

Summary

ORA-15001 when shutting down the database instance

Affects

11.1.0.7 database shutdown

Symptom

Errors in database alert log "Unexpected communication failure with ASM instance: error 15001 (ORA-15001: diskgroup""does not exist or is not mounted )"

Solution/Workaround

Apply patch 7135702

Bug No

7272646

Summary

Database instance startup fails when memory_target value is >4096M

Affects

11.1.0.7 database startup

Symptom

Database instance startup fails with the following error in the database alert log "error 27103 detected in background process, ORA-27103: internal error" and trace log error " Linux-x86_64 Error: 11: Resource temporarily unavailable"

Solution/Workaround

Apply patch 7520217 or reduce memory_target value.

Bug No

8451866

Summary

Incorrect multipath.conf setting affects RAC node failover. Settings(features = "1 queue_if_no_path") and/or (no_path_retry = queue) causes the node hang if io path fails. no_path_retry has to be set to the numeric value explicitly.

Affects

All applications using device mapper multipath devices which have contingency plan in case of io path failure.

Symptom

RAC node hangs if io path fails.

Solution/Workaround

In configuration file /etc/multipath.conf,set no_path_retry and polling_interval to the numeric values, for example, "no_path_retry=5" and "polling_interval=10" so as to disable queuing. These values depend on system workload.

Kernel

RHEL 5 Update 2 x86_64

kernel-2.6.18-92.el5.x86_64.rpm or higher

Packages

oracleasm-2.6.18-92.el5-2.0.5-1.el5.x86_64.rpm

oracleasm-support-2.1.2-1.el5.x86_64.rpm

oracleasmlib-2.0.3-1.el5.x86_64.rpm