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Deploying Oracle RAC on AWS Outposts

  • Updated
  • Products: FlashGrid Cluster on AWS

FlashGrid Cluster allows deploying Oracle RAC on AWS Outposts in essentially the same way as in a regular AWS region. However, some additional configuration items are required for deployments on Outposts as described further in this article.

In most cases one of the following configurations should be used:

  • All nodes of the cluster located on the same single Outpost.
  • Two database nodes spread across two Outposts, each Outpost attached to a different availability zone. Quorum node on a third Outpost attached to a third availability zone or in the region.
  • Three database nodes spread across three Outposts, each Outpost attached to a different availability zone. Two quorum nodes placed on two of the Outposts or in the region.

In configurations with a single Outpost, network setup is no different from a regular deployment in a region. With multiple Outposts, additional network configuration items are required, as described further in this article.

Note that the S3 bucket with Oracle installation files can be located in the region.

Network configuration with multiple Outposts

A single VPC cannot span multiple Outposts. Therefore, a separate VPC must be configured for each Outpost.

A security group allowing traffic between the nodes of the cluster must be created in each VPC. Private IP addresses of the other nodes in the cluster must be configured as allowed sources of the traffic. (A security group rule cannot reference a security group in a different VPC.) 

Below are the steps suggested for configuring the network:

  1. Create a VPC for each Outpost
  2. Within each VPC create a subnet for the corresponding Outpost
  3. Allocate a private IP address within the corresponding subnets for each of the cluster nodes
  4. Within each VPC create a separate security group for each cluster. The security group must allow all inbound and outbound traffic from all nodes of the same cluster using their private IP addresses.
  5. Open SSH access (TCP 22) and Oracle client access (default ports: TCP 1521, 1522) either by adding the corresponding rules to the same security groups, or by assigning additional security groups to all cluster node instances after CloudFormation deployment is complete.

Deploying a Cluster

  1. Download the configuration file attached to this article. (The attached file is for a 2-node RAC cluster on Outposts in multi-AZ configuration. For other cluster configurations contact FlashGrid support).
  2. For the database node instances in the configuration file manually set the following attributes:
    • outpost_arn: ARN of the target Outpost
    • ip: private IP address assigned to the EC2 instance (required only for multi-Outpost configurations)
    • sg: security group id (required only for multi-Outpost configurations)
  3. Open FlashGrid Launcher and upload the customized configuration file created at the previous step. Follow all steps starting with step 3 in section 3 of the Deployment Guide.

While going through the configuration steps in the FlashGrid Launcher tool, note the following:

  • On Storage page ignore IOPS and MBPS settings. These are applicable to GP3 volumes only, while Outposts use GP2 volumes.
  • On Network page provide Security Group Id that will be used for the quorum node in the region.