Set up Oracle ASM on an Azure Linux virtual machine

Article
08/25/2022
14 minutes to read

Applies to: ✔️ Linux VMs

Azure virtual machines provide a fully configurable and flexible computing environment. This tutorial covers basic Azure virtual machine deployment combined with the installation and configuration of Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM). You learn how to:

Create and connect to an Oracle Database VM
Install and configure Oracle Automatic Storage Management
Install and configure Oracle Grid infrastructure
Initialize an Oracle ASM installation
Create an Oracle DB managed by ASM

For an overview of the value proposition of ASM, see the documentation at Oracle.

If you choose to install and use the CLI locally, this tutorial requires that you are running the Azure CLI version 2.0.4 or later. Run az --version to find the version. If you need to install or upgrade, see Install Azure CLI.

Prepare the environment

Create a resource group

To create a resource group, use the az group create command. An Azure resource group is a logical container in which Azure resources are deployed and managed. In this example, a resource group named myResourceGroup in the eastus region.

az group create --name myResourceGroup --location eastus

Create a VM

To create a virtual machine based on the Oracle Database image and configure it to use Oracle ASM, use the az vm create command.

The following example creates a VM named myVM that is a Standard_DS2_v2 size with four attached data disks of 50 GB each. If they do not already exist in the default key location, it also creates SSH keys. To use a specific set of keys, use the --ssh-key-value option.

az vm create --resource-group myResourceGroup \
 --name myVM \
 --image Oracle:Oracle-Database-Ee:12.1.0.2:latest \
 --size Standard_DS2_v2 \
 --generate-ssh-keys \
 --data-disk-sizes-gb 50 50 50 50

After you create the VM, Azure CLI displays information similar to the following example. Note the value for publicIpAddress. You use this address to access the VM.

{
  "fqdns": "",
  "id": "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/myResourceGroup/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/myVM",
  "location": "eastus",
  "macAddress": "00-0D-3A-36-2F-56",
  "powerState": "VM running",
  "privateIpAddress": "10.0.0.4",
  "publicIpAddress": "13.64.104.241",
  "resourceGroup": "myResourceGroup"
}

Connect to the VM

To create an SSH session with the VM and configure additional settings, use the following command. Replace the IP address with the publicIpAddress value for your VM.

ssh <publicIpAddress>

Install Oracle ASM

To install Oracle ASM, complete the following steps.

For more information about installing Oracle ASM, see Oracle ASMLib Downloads for Oracle Linux 6.

You need to login as root in order to continue with ASM installation:
```
sudo su -
```

Run these additional commands to install Oracle ASM components:

 yum list | grep oracleasm 
 yum -y install kmod-oracleasm.x86_64 
 yum -y install oracleasm-support.x86_64 
 wget https://download.oracle.com/otn_software/asmlib/oracleasmlib-2.0.12-1.el6.x86_64.rpm 
 yum -y install oracleasmlib-2.0.12-1.el6.x86_64.rpm 
 rm -f oracleasmlib-2.0.12-1.el6.x86_64.rpm

Verify that Oracle ASM is installed:

rpm -qa |grep oracleasm

The output of this command should list the following components:

oracleasm-support-2.1.10-4.el6.x86_64
kmod-oracleasm-2.0.8-15.el6_9.x86_64
oracleasmlib-2.0.12-1.el6.x86_64

ASM requires specific users and roles in order to function correctly. The following commands create the pre-requisite user accounts and groups:

 groupadd -g 54345 asmadmin 
 groupadd -g 54346 asmdba 
 groupadd -g 54347 asmoper 
 useradd -u 3000 -g oinstall -G dba,asmadmin,asmdba,asmoper grid 
 usermod -g oinstall -G dba,asmdba,asmadmin oracle

Verify users and groups were created correctly:

id grid

The output of this command should list the following users and groups:

uid=3000(grid) gid=54321(oinstall) groups=54321(oinstall),54322(dba),54345(asmadmin),54346(asmdba),54347(asmoper)

Create a folder for user grid and change the owner:

mkdir /u01/app/grid 
chown grid:oinstall /u01/app/grid

Set up Oracle ASM

For this tutorial, the default user is grid and the default group is asmadmin. Ensure that the oracle user is part of the asmadmin group. To set up your Oracle ASM installation, complete the following steps:

Setting up the Oracle ASM library driver involves defining the default user (grid) and default group (asmadmin) as well as configuring the drive to start on boot (choose y) and to scan for disks on boot (choose y). You need to answer the prompts from the following command:
```
/usr/sbin/oracleasm configure -i
```
The output of this command should look similar to the following, stopping with prompts to be answered.
```
Configuring the Oracle ASM library driver.

This will configure the on-boot properties of the Oracle ASM library
driver. The following questions will determine whether the driver is
loaded on boot and what permissions it will have. The current values
will be shown in brackets ('[]'). Hitting <ENTER> without typing an
answer will keep that current value. Ctrl-C will abort.

Default user to own the driver interface []: grid
Default group to own the driver interface []: asmadmin
Start Oracle ASM library driver on boot (y/n) [n]: y
Scan for Oracle ASM disks on boot (y/n) [y]: y
Writing Oracle ASM library driver configuration: done
```
Note

The /usr/sbin/oracleasm configure -i command asks for the user and group that default to owning the ASM driver access point. The database will be running as the grid user and the asmadmin group. By selecting Start Oracle ASM library driver on boot = 'y', the system will always load the module and mount the filesystem on boot. By selecting Scan for Oracle ASM disks on boot = 'y', the system will always scan the Oracle ASM disks on boot. The last two configurations are very important, otherwise, you will run into disk reboot problems.

View the disk configuration:

cat /proc/partitions

The output of this command should look similar to the following listing of available disks

8       16   14680064 sdb
8       17   14678976 sdb1
8        0   52428800 sda
8        1     512000 sda1
8        2   51915776 sda2
8       48   52428800 sdd
8       64   52428800 sde
8       80   52428800 sdf
8       32   52428800 sdc
11       0       1152 sr0

Format disk /dev/sdc by running the following command and answering the prompts with:

n for new partition
p for primary partition
1 to select the first partition
press enter for the default first cylinder
press enter for the default last cylinder
press w to write the changes to the partition table

fdisk /dev/sdc

Using the answers provided above, the output for the fdisk command should look like the following:

Device contains not a valid DOS partition table, or Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0xf865c6ca.
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
After that, of course, the previous content won't be recoverable.

Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

The device presents a logical sector size that is smaller than
the physical sector size. Aligning to a physical sector (or optimal
I/O) size boundary is recommended, or performance may be impacted.

WARNING: DOS-compatible mode is deprecated. It's strongly recommended to
        switch off the mode (command 'c') and change display units to
        sectors (command 'u').

Command (m for help): n
Command action
  e   extended
  p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-6527, default 1):
Using default value 1
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (1-6527, default 6527):
Using default value 6527

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

Repeat the preceding fdisk command for /dev/sdd, /dev/sde, and /dev/sdf.

Check the disk configuration:

cat /proc/partitions

The output of the command should look like the following:

major minor  #blocks  name

  8       16   14680064 sdb
  8       17   14678976 sdb1
  8       32   52428800 sdc
  8       33   52428096 sdc1
  8       48   52428800 sdd
  8       49   52428096 sdd1
  8       64   52428800 sde
  8       65   52428096 sde1
  8       80   52428800 sdf
  8       81   52428096 sdf1
  8        0   52428800 sda
  8        1     512000 sda1
  8        2   51915776 sda2
  11       0    1048575 sr0

Note

Note that, in the following configuration, please use the exact commands as this document shows. Make sure you are calling the Oracle ASM service with service oracleasm.

Check the Oracle ASM service status and start the Oracle ASM service:

service oracleasm status 
service oracleasm start

The output of the command should look like the following:

Checking if ASM is loaded: no
Checking if /dev/oracleasm is mounted: no
Initializing the Oracle ASMLib driver:                     [  OK  ]
Scanning the system for Oracle ASMLib disks:               [  OK  ]

Create Oracle ASM disks:
```
service oracleasm createdisk ASMSP /dev/sdc1 
service oracleasm createdisk DATA /dev/sdd1 
service oracleasm createdisk DATA1 /dev/sde1 
service oracleasm createdisk FRA /dev/sdf1
```
The output of the command should look like the following:
```
Marking disk "ASMSP" as an ASM disk:                       [  OK  ]
Marking disk "DATA" as an ASM disk:                        [  OK  ]
Marking disk "DATA1" as an ASM disk:                       [  OK  ]
Marking disk "FRA" as an ASM disk:                         [  OK  ]
```
Note

Disks are marked for ASMLib using a process described in ASMLib Installation. ASMLib learns what disk are marked during a process called disk scanning. ASMLib runs this scan every time it starts up. The system administrator can also force a scan via the service oracleasm scandisks command. ASMLib examines each disk in the system. It checks if the disk has been marked for ASMLib. Any disk that has been marked will be made available to ASMLib. You can visit documents Configuring Storage Device Path Persistence Using Oracle ASMLIB and Configuring Oracle ASMLib on Multipath Disks for more informations.
List Oracle ASM disks:
```
service oracleasm listdisks
```
The output of the command should list off the following Oracle ASM disks:
```
 ASMSP
 DATA
 DATA1
 FRA
```
Change the passwords for the root, oracle, and grid users. Make note of these new passwords as you are using them later during the installation.
```
passwd oracle 
passwd grid 
passwd root
```

Change the folder permission:

chmod -R 775 /opt 
chown grid:oinstall /opt 
chown oracle:oinstall /dev/sdc1 
chown oracle:oinstall /dev/sdd1 
chown oracle:oinstall /dev/sde1 
chown oracle:oinstall /dev/sdf1 
chmod 600 /dev/sdc1 
chmod 600 /dev/sdd1 
chmod 600 /dev/sde1 
chmod 600 /dev/sdf1

Download and prepare Oracle Grid Infrastructure

To download and prepare the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software, complete the following steps:

Download Oracle Grid Infrastructure from the Oracle ASM download page.

Under the download titled Oracle Database 12c Release 1 Grid Infrastructure (12.1.0.2.0) for Linux x86-64, download the two .zip files.
After you download the .zip files to your client computer, you can use Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) to copy the files to your VM:
```
scp *.zip <publicIpAddress>:.
```

SSH back into your Oracle VM in Azure in order to move the .zip files into the /opt folder. Then, change the owner of the files:

ssh <publicIPAddress>
sudo mv ./*.zip /opt
cd /opt
sudo chown grid:oinstall linuxamd64_12102_grid_1of2.zip
sudo chown grid:oinstall linuxamd64_12102_grid_2of2.zip

Unzip the files. (Install the Linux unzip tool if it's not already installed.)

sudo yum install unzip
sudo unzip linuxamd64_12102_grid_1of2.zip
sudo unzip linuxamd64_12102_grid_2of2.zip

Change permission:
```
sudo chown -R grid:oinstall /opt/grid
```
Update configured swap space. Oracle Grid components need at least 6.8 GB of swap space to install Grid. The default swap file size for Oracle Linux images in Azure is only 2048MB. You need to increase ResourceDisk.SwapSizeMB in the /etc/waagent.conf file and restart the WALinuxAgent service in order for the updated settings to take effect. Because it is a read-only file, you need to change file permissions to enable write access.
```
sudo chmod 777 /etc/waagent.conf  
vi /etc/waagent.conf
```
Search for ResourceDisk.SwapSizeMB and change the value to 8192. You will need to press insert to enter insert mode, type in the value of 8192 and then press esc to return to command mode. To write the changes and quit the file, type :wq and press enter.

Note

We highly recommend that you always use WALinuxAgent to configure swap space so that it's always created on the local ephemeral disk (temporary disk) for best performance. For more information on, see How to add a swap file in Linux Azure virtual machines.

Prepare your local client and VM to run x11

Configuring Oracle ASM requires a graphical interface to complete the install and configuration. We are using the x11 protocol to facilitate this installation. If you are using a client system (Mac or Linux) that already has X11 capabilities enabled and configured - you can skip this configuration and setup exclusive to Windows machines.

Download PuTTY and download Xming to your Windows computer. You will need to complete the installation of both of these applications with the default values before proceeding.
After you install PuTTY, open a command prompt, change into the PuTTY folder (for example, C:\Program Files\PuTTY), and run puttygen.exe in order to generate a key.
In PuTTY Key Generator:
1. Generate a key by selecting the Generate button.
2. Copy the contents of the key (Ctrl+C).
3. Select the Save private key button.
4. Ignore the warning about securing the key with a passphrase, and then select OK.
In your VM, run these commands:
```
sudo su - grid
mkdir .ssh 
cd .ssh
```
Create a file named authorized_keys. Paste the contents of the key in this file, and then save the file.

Note

The key must contain the string ssh-rsa. Also, the contents of the key must be a single line of text.
On your client system, start PuTTY. In the Category pane, go to Connection > SSH > Auth. In the Private key file for authentication box, browse to the key that you generated earlier.
In the Category pane, go to Connection > SSH > X11. Select the Enable X11 forwarding check box.
In the Category pane, go to Session. Enter your Oracle ASM VM <publicIPaddress> in the host name dialog box, fill in a new Saved Session name and then click on Save. Once saved, click on open to connect to your Oracle ASM virtual machine. The first time you connect you are warned the remote system is not cached in your registry. Click on yes to add it and continue.

Install Oracle Grid Infrastructure

To install Oracle Grid Infrastructure, complete the following steps:

Sign in as grid. (You should be able to sign in without being prompted for a password.)

Note

If you are running Windows, make sure you have started Xming before you begin the installation.
```
cd /opt/grid
./runInstaller
```
Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12c Release 1 Installer opens. (It might take a few minutes for the installer to start.)
On the Select Installation Option page, select Install and Configure Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a Standalone Server.
On the Select Product Languages page, ensure English or the language that you want is selected. Click next.
On the Create ASM Disk Group page:
- Enter a name for the disk group.
- Under Redundancy, select External.
- Under Allocation Unit Size, select 4.
- Under Add Disks, select ORCLASMSP.
- Click next.
On the Specify ASM Password page, select the Use same passwords for these accounts option, and enter a password.
On the Specify Management Options page, you have the option to configure EM Cloud Control. We are skipping this option - click next to continue.
On the Privileged Operating System Groups page, use the default settings. Click next to continue.
On the Specify Installation Location page, use the default settings. Click next to continue.
On the Create Inventory page, change the Inventory Directory to /u01/app/grid/oraInventory. Click next to continue.
On the Root script execution configuration page, select the Automatically run configuration scripts check box. Then, select the Use "root" user credential option, and enter the root user password.
On the Perform Prerequisite Checks page, the current setup will fail with errors. This is an expected behavior. Select Fix & Check Again.
In the Fixup Script dialog box, click OK.
On the Summary page, review your selected settings, and then click Install.
A warning dialog box appears informing you configuration scripts need to be run as a privileged user. Click Yes to continue.
On the Finish page, click Close to finish the installation.

Set up your Oracle ASM installation

To set up your Oracle ASM installation, complete the following steps:

Ensure you are still signed in as grid, from your X11 session. You might need to hit enter to revive the terminal. Then launch the Oracle Automatic Storage Management Configuration Assistant:
```
cd /u01/app/grid/product/12.1.0/grid/bin
./asmca
```
Oracle ASM Configuration Assistant opens.
In the Configure ASM: Disk Groups dialog box, click the Create button, and then click Show Advanced Options.
In the Create Disk Group dialog box:
- Enter the disk group name DATA.
- Under Select Member Disks, select ORCL_DATA and ORCL_DATA1.
- Under Allocation Unit Size, select 4.
- Click ok to create the disk group.
- Click ok to close the confirmation window.
In the Configure ASM: Disk Groups dialog box, click the Create button, and then click Show Advanced Options.
In the Create Disk Group dialog box:
- Enter the disk group name FRA.
- Under Redundancy, select External (none).
- Under Select Member Disks, select ORCL_FRA.
- Under Allocation Unit Size, select 4.
- Click ok to create the disk group.
- Click ok to close the confirmation window.
Select Exit to close ASM Configuration Assistant.

Create the database

The Oracle database software is already installed on the Azure Marketplace image. To create a database, complete the following steps:

Switch users to the Oracle superuser, and then initialize the listener for logging:
```
su - oracle
cd /u01/app/oracle/product/12.1.0/dbhome_1/bin
./dbca
```
Database Configuration Assistant opens.
On the Database Operation page, click Create Database.
On the Creation Mode page:
- Enter a name for the database.
- For Storage Type, ensure Automatic Storage Management (ASM) is selected.
- For Database Files Location, use the default ASM suggested location.
- For Fast Recovery Area, use the default ASM suggested location.
- type in an Administrative Password and confirm password.
- ensure create as container database is selected.
- type in a pluggable database name value.
On the Summary page, review your selected settings, and then click Finish to create the database.
The Database has been created. On the Finish page, you have the option to unlock additional accounts to use this database and change the passwords. If you wish to do so, select Password Management - otherwise click on close.

Delete the VM

You have successfully configured Oracle Automatic Storage Management on the Oracle DB image from the Azure Marketplace. When you no longer need this VM, you can use the following command to remove the resource group, VM, and all related resources:

az group delete --name myResourceGroup

Next steps

Tutorial: Configure Oracle DataGuard

Tutorial: Configure Oracle GoldenGate

Review Architect an Oracle DB