DNS and DHCP Setup Example for Grid Infrastructure GNS (Doc ID 946452.1)

Last updated on DECEMBER 12, 2023

Applies to:

Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition - Version 11.2.0.1 and later
Oracle Database Cloud Schema Service - Version N/A and later
Gen 1 Exadata Cloud at Customer (Oracle Exadata Database Cloud Machine) - Version N/A and later
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure - Database Service - Version N/A and later
Oracle Database Backup Service - Version N/A and later
Generic UNIX
Generic Linux

Purpose

The Grid Naming Service (GNS) is a new feature in the 11.2 Grid Infrastructure (GI). Its design is to simplify the management of the network configuration of the Real Application Cluster (RAC). When GNS is used, it eliminates the manual allocation of the Node and Single Client Access Name (SCAN) Virtual Internet Protocol (VIP) addresses. It also eliminates the need to configure VIP names and SCAN names in a Domain Name Server (DNS) as GNS provides the name resolution for the cluster. What this means is the GNS is configured as a delegated authority in DNS for the Cluster Nodes.

1. Allocate one static IP address on public network for the GNS VIP.
2. Setup GNS as a delegate for the cluster's sub-domain on the DNS server.
3. Validate that there is a DHCP server that is addressable by the cluster nodes.

When installing GI, there are 2 options:

1. Configure GNS and let it handle name resolution in the cluster subdomain.
2. Choose not to configure GNS and configure each Node and SCAN name with IP addresses defined in DNS

This note does not address option (2) as it is intended to cover how to setup the DNS servers and DHCP servers to work with GNS.

Please refer to following for more info:

Oracle® Grid Infrastructure
Installation Guide

Checking the Network Requirements

This article is an example of how to configure DNS to delegate a sub-domain to GNS. It also covers how DHCP is to be configured to allocate IP address for SCAN and Node VIP addresses.

Example below should be limited to an isolated test Lab. It should be set up by the Network Administrator, as it covers the configuration of the DNS server and DHCP server. This note does not cover the configuration of any of the cluster nodes.