About
I’m an Oracle Database Consultant at SQL*Wizard (an Oracle Certified Advantage Partner and RedHat Advanced Business Partner)..
I made this weblog to serve as my Knowledge File…To share and keep track of all ideas, learnings, and experiences about my areas of interest on ORACLE (RAC, Performance, Security, etc, etc..) and LINUX. Well, it may not be “too complete” as I have envisioned but I’m working on it little by little 
I hope some of the posts would be useful to the community as well..
When I’m not busy with technology.. I do Underwater Hockey and Mountaineering
My Certifications:
Red Hat Certified Technician – RHEL5 (certificate #605008645020295), 8/2008
Oracle10g Database Administrator Certified Professional, 09/2007
Oracle10g Database Administrator Certified Associate, 01/2007
My Current OPN Certificates:
Oracle Database 11g PreSales Champion
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Presales Champion
Trainings Attended:
Oracle 9i Introduction to SQL
Oracle 9i PL/SQL
Oracle Database 10g Administration Workshop I
Oracle Database 10g Administration Workshop II
Junior Level Linux Administration
DB2 for Oracle DBAs
Oracle Database 10g: SQL Tuning Workshop
Governance, Risk & Compliance – Information Security & Privacy (Security Deep Dive Training) – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Oracle Application Server 10gR2: Administration Workshop I
Looking Under the Hood at RAC by Murali Vallath – Makati, PH
11i Install, Patch, and Maintain Oracle Applications
Advanced Oracle Troubleshooting Seminar by Tanel Poder – Singapore
Presentations:
Oracle Event, Scale Above the Limits of High Availability – Customer Case Study for National Transmission Corporation, 09/2008
Thanks for dropping by, happy reading! and would love to hear some comments..
Robert Lucente said
You made a comment on “Upgrade RHEL 4 to RHEL 5 on RAC system” and referred to
http://karlarao.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/single-instance-and-rac-kernel-upgrade.pdf
I can’t seem to find the above file
karlarao said
Hi Robert,
I’ve just updated the thread (http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=3383323�) to reflect the new link for the file. You can also check on Index Of My Posts for that paper. If you have any questions or clarifications just let me know. Happy Reading!
sundar said
Hi Karl Arao,
Nice to see your blogs. I would like know some basic details. Now we have a plan to upgrade our Linux 2.1 AS to RHEL 5. Is it possible and what is the best method. We plan to upgrade our Oracle 8i to 10g (for SAP). Simultaneously we want to upgrade Linux also. Please let me know your thoughts.
karlarao said
Interesting question.
First, you need to certify your machine if it’s possible to run the RHEL5. Regarding your upgrade from RHL2.1 to RHEL5, it is best practice to do a clean install of RHEL5 then restore your backed up config files on the new system. I’ve talked to an RHCA support engineer before and he recommended the same migration path.
Once the OS is okay, then you may now migrate your database to 10gR2. You can do an export/import (but check this with your SAP support because this is a packaged app, I know in Oracle Apps there’s a specific note for export/import), or you could check with Oracle Support if it’s possible to do a direct manual upgrade given your database files are coming from RHL2.1 to RHEL5.
I could give you some references, and send it on your mail.
Sundar, just keep this in mind. You need to certify everything (from Storage->HW->OS->DB->APPS)..
Hope this helps..
- Karl Arao
Sundar said
Dear Karl Arao,
Thank you for your reply. We purchased new IBM x3500 M2 with Dual Quad Core processor with 16 GB RAM and 6 x 300 GB HDD SAS. It will support RHEL5.It will support 64 bit but we planned to keep in 32 bit. Since we planned to keep the existing x235 Server as DR Server. It will support only 32 bit.
We planned to migrate as follows
From Linux 2.1 AS to RHEL 5
From Oracle 8i to Oracle 10g
From SAP 4.7 to SAP 4.7
From IBM X235 to IBM x3500 M2
One of my friend recommeded that we have to upgrade the Linux Kernal for this upgradation. Please recommand.
karlarao said
Hi Sundar,
Are you planning to configure both of the servers on Data Guard? The highest possible OS that you can put in x235 is RHEL4 AS 32bit. And in Data Guard you must have the same architecture on both primary and standby, so yes you’ll stick to 32bit (From Metalink 294223.1: The Data Guard product recommends that the configuration platforms use the same operating system version, but this is not a requirement. The important factor is the copy of the Oracle software you use and it’s bit level. You must use the same software media for both the standby and primary environment). If you’ll push through with these machines, you could install RHEL5 32bit on x3500 M2 and RHEL4AS 32bit on x235 but the effect would be:
- you’ll be on 32bit, and you have 16GB of RAM. You’ll not be able to fully utilize that big memory. Unless, you have to make workarounds, but still you’ll have limits.
- you’ll not be able to utilize the full power of your new server
See links below:
x235 – supported OS
http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/nos/redchatold.html
x3500 M2 – supported OS
http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/nos/redchat.html
And these other links:
x235 (8671) Compatibility
http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/xseries_old/x235.html
x3500 M2 (7839) Compatibility
http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/xseries/7839.html
sundar said
Dear Karlarao,
We have bought IBM X3500M2 server and try to install RHEL 4. but the system is not recognising the Server Raid. But if I try to install Linux 5 it is working properly.
Since the IBM Server does not contain floppy drive, i use USB Floppy to load the required server. But due to SDA of USb Floppy drive and Raid it does not recognise my hard disk. Please let me know your suggestions.
karlarao said
Yes RHEL5 32bit would be fine
You can just do a network install… Either through
- FTP
- HTTP
- NFS
Surachart Opun said
Dear Karl Arao,
Nice to meet you. Your blog’s very nice .
karlarao said
Thanks Surachart