Below are the questions and answers from the 9.21.11 webcast
"Virtualizing Oracle 11g/R2 RAC Database on Oracle VM: Methods/Tips."
Q: Is there any written tutorials/white papers on how to setup a RAC on an Oracle VM?
A: To use the RAC OVM Templates: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/clustering/overview/rac-template-11grel2-166623.html.
For whitepaper on RAC/OVM: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/clustering/oracle-rac-in-oracle-vm-environment-131948.pdf
For RAC support on Vmware, it is supported, just not certified, see My Oracle Support Note: https://support.oracle.com/CSP/main/article?cmd=show&type=NOT&id=249212.1
Q: Is it supported to increase the size of System.img file (plenty of approaches is available in the internet), since it is based on block device and not LVM, which could eliminate this problem?
A: Yes, the templates are a starting point, you are welcome to tune/tailor them further to your environments.
Q: Why should in production support template shared disk be on a local disk? How different node from multiple host can access them?
A: Test deployment allows a special case, where the DB files are on local disks, in that case all VMs forming the cluster must run on the same Dom0/OVS server. For production, shared disks must be used and accessible from all Dom0/OVS Servers. "lsinventory" output is available inside the zip file of each template, no need to create a VM, simply unzip and look at lsinventory output.
Q: Can RAC on VM use ASM instead of OCFS?
A: RAC inside the guests uses ASM, not OCFS2. On Dom0, for the repository, OVM may use NFS or OCFS2, but this places only the OS/Oracle VM files, not the database which is in ASM as said before.
Q: Will there be an OVM setup for RAC One Node?
A: The current RAC OVM Templates support RAC ONE NODE. Simply follow note# 1232802.1. Create a service, then use the convert database command. Note the troubleshooting section at bottom of that article.
Q: Does the template work when you deploy virtual images on different physical boxes and club them as nodes in RAC implementation?
A: Yes, the templates work for production (where each VM is on different Dom0), or for test (where some or all VMs may be on same dom0).
Q: Installation instruction for installing RAC11g2 under OVM3?. pdf files are for ovm 2.
A: The basic steps are the same. Import the template w/Manager, create the VMs, attach shared disks, adjust CPU/Memory. The only catch is to remove the xenbr0/1 on the template and map it to the bridge names in OVM3. We will have a reference document to highlight only these differences in some time.
Q: Do I need to install OVM 3.0 before I start applying my VM templates for RAC database?
A: Yes. You need to install Oracle VM servers and VM manager and configure the virtual infrastructure before using VM template.
Q: I am not clear how to proceed if I have bare bone server
A: Here is an outline of the steps.
1. Install Oracle VM server,
2. Install Oracle VM manager
3. Configure shared storage and networks on VM servers
4. Download and import the VM templates including RAC VM template
5. Create VMs using templates
6. configure the virtual networks and virtual storage on VMs
7. following the step given by Saar to configure RAC on the VMs.
The first part of the presentation covers the virtual infrastructure configuration (step 1-6) .