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NetApp Automation

Install Oracle using Azure NetApp Files

Contributors dmp-netapp netapp-aoife
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You can use this automation solution to provision Azure NetApp Files volumes and install Oracle on an available virtual machine. Oracle then uses the volumes for data storage.

About this solution

At a high level, the automation code provided with this solution performs the following actions:

  • Set up a NetApp account on Azure

  • Set up a storage capacity pool on Azure

  • Provision the Azure NetApp Files volumes based on the definition

  • Create the mount points

  • Mount the Azure NetApp Files volumes to the mount points

  • Install Oracle on the Linux server

  • Create the listeners and database

  • Create the Pluggable Databases (PDBs)

  • Start the listener and Oracle instance

  • Install and configure the azacsnap utility to take a snapshot

Before you begin

You must have the following to complete the installation:

  • You need to download the Oracle using Azure NetApp Files automation solution through the BlueXP web UI. The solution is packaged as file na_oracle19c_deploy-master.zip.

  • A Linux VM with the following characteristics:

    • RHEL 8 (Standard_D8s_v3-RHEL-8)

    • Deployed on the same Azure Virtual Network used for the Azure NetApp Files provisioning

  • An Azure account

The automation solution is provided as an image and run using Docker and Docker Compose. You need to install both of these on the Linux virtual machine as described below.

You should also register the VM with RedHat using the command sudo subscription-manager register. The command will prompt you for your account credentials. If needed, you can create an account at https://developers.redhat.com/.

Step 1: Install and configure Docker

Install and configure Docker in a RHEL 8 Linux virtual machine.

Steps

  1. Install the Docker software using the following commands.

    dnf config-manager --add-repo=https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
dnf install docker-ce --nobest -y

  2. Start Docker and display the version to confirm the installation was successful.

    systemctl start docker
systemctl enable docker
docker --version

  3. Add the required Linux group with an associated user.

    First check if the group docker exists in your Linux system. If it doesn't, create the group and add the user. By default, the current shell user is added to the group.

    sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

  4. Activate the new group and user definitions

    If you created a new group with a user, you need to activate the definitions. To do this, you can logout of Linux and then back in. Or you can run the following command.

    newgrp docker

Step 2: Install Docker Compose and the NFS utilities

Install and configure Docker Compose along with the NFS utilities package.

Steps

  1. Install Docker Compose and display the version to confirm the installation was successful.

    dnf install curl -y
curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.29.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
docker-compose --version

  2. Install the NFS utilities package.

    sudo yum install nfs-utils

Step 3: Download the Oracle installation files

Download the required Oracle installation and patch files as well as the azacsnap utility.

Steps

  1. Sign in to your Oracle account as needed.

  2. Download the following files.

    File Description

    LINUX.X64_193000_db_home.zip

    19.3 base installer

    p31281355_190000_Linux-x86-64.zip

    19.8 RU patch

    p6880880_190000_Linux-x86-64.zip

    opatch version 12.2.0.1.23

    azacsnap_installer_v5.0.run

    azacsnap installer

  3. Place all the installation files in the folder /tmp/archive.

  4. Make sure all users on the database server have full access (read, write, execute) to the folder /tmp/archive.

Step 4: Prepare the Docker image

You need to extract and load the Docker image provided with the automation solution.

Steps

  1. Copy the solution file na_oracle19c_deploy-master.zip to the virtual machine where the automation code will run.

    scp -i ~/<private-key.pem> -r na_oracle19c_deploy-master.zip user@<IP_ADDRESS_OF_VM>

    The input parameter private-key.pem is your private key file used for Azure virtual machine authentication.

  2. Navigate to the correct folder with the solution file and unzip the file.

    unzip na_oracle19c_deploy-master.zip

  3. Navigate to the new folder na_oracle19c_deploy-master created with the unzip operation and list the files. You should see file ora_anf_bck_image.tar.

    ls -lt

  4. Load the Docker image file. The load operation should normally complete in a few seconds.

    docker load -i ora_anf_bck_image.tar

  5. Confirm the Docker image is loaded.

    docker images

    You should see the Docker image ora_anf_bck_image with the tag latest.

       REPOSITORY          TAG       IMAGE ID      CREATED      SIZE
ora_anf_bck_image    latest   ay98y7853769   1 week ago   2.58GB

Step 5: Create an external volume

You need an external volume to make sure the Terraform state files and other important files are persistent. These files must be available for Terraform to run the workflow and deployments.

Steps

  1. Create an external volume outside of Docker Compose.

    Make sure to update the volume name before running the command.

    docker volume create <VOLUME_NAME>

  2. Add the path to the external volume to the .env environment file using the command:

    PERSISTENT_VOL=path/to/external/volume:/ora_anf_prov.

    Remember to keep the existing file contents and colon formatting. For example:

    PERSISTENT_VOL= ora_anf _volume:/ora_anf_prov

  3. Update the Terraform variables.

    1. Navigate to the folder ora_anf_variables.

    2. Confirm the following two files exist: terraform.tfvars and variables.tf.

    3. Update the values in terraform.tfvars as required for your environment.

Step 6: Install Oracle

You can now provision and install Oracle.

Steps

  1. Install Oracle using the following sequence of commands.

    docker-compose up terraform_ora_anf
bash /ora_anf_variables/setup.sh
docker-compose up linux_config
bash /ora_anf_variables/permissions.sh
docker-compose up oracle_install

  2. Reload your Bash variables and confirm by displaying the value for ORACLE_HOME.

    1. cd /home/oracle

    2. source .bash_profile

    3. echo $ORACLE_HOME

  3. You should be able to login to Oracle.

    sudo su oracle

Step 7: Validate the Oracle installation

You should confirm the Oracle installation was successful.

Steps

  1. Log in to the Linux Oracle server and display a list of the Oracle processes. This confirms the installation completed as expected and the Oracle database is running.

    ps -ef | grep ora

  2. Log in to the database to examine the database configuration and to confirm the PDBs were created properly.

    sqlplus / as sysdba

    You should see output similar to the following:

    SQL*Plus: Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production on Thu May 6 12:52:51 2021
Version 19.8.0.0.0

Copyright (c) 1982, 2019, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Connected to:
Oracle Database 19c Enterprise Edition Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production
Version 19.8.0.0.0

  3. Execute a few simple SQL commands to confirm the database is available.

    select name, log_mode from v$database;
show pdbs.

Step 8: Install the azacsnap utility and perform a snapshot backup

You need to install and run the azacsnap utility to perform a snapshot backup.

Steps

  1. Install the container.

    docker-compose up azacsnap_install

  2. Switch to the snapshot user account.

    su - azacsnap
execute /tmp/archive/ora_wallet.sh

  3. Configure a storage backup detail file. This will create the azacsnap.json configuration file.

    cd /home/azacsnap/bin/
azacsnap -c configure –-configuration new

  4. Perform a snapshot backup.

    azacsnap -c backup –-other data --prefix ora_test --retention=1

Step 9: Optionally migrate an on-premise PDB to the cloud

You can optionally migrate the on-premise PDB to the cloud.

Steps

  1. Set the variables in the tfvars files as needed for your environment.

  2. Migrate the PDB.

    docker-compose -f docker-compose-relocate.yml up