Now let's add a separate Hard Disk device in our first virtual machine(RAC1) to be used as a shared storage between both nodes as follows.
=> Make sure you virtual machine(RAC1) is shut-down before adding a new disk to it.
=> Right click on Virtual Machine Name and then click on Settings.
=> On Virtual machine Setting window, click on Add.
=> Select Hard Disk as Hardware Type and click on Next.
=> Right click on Virtual Machine Name and then click on Settings.
=> On Virtual machine Setting window, click on Add.
=> Select Hard Disk as Hardware Type and click on Next.
Select Create New Virtual Disk and click on Next.
Choose SCSI(recommended) as virtual disk type - and the most important on this page is select Independent Mode and persistent on this page and click on Next.
Specify disk capacity (50GB or so) and select option Ällocate all disk space now and choose option Store virtual disk as a single file > click on Next.
=> Provide complete path for this disk file name(In my case - Didnt specify path so it will store in rac1 folder) and click on Finish.
IMP : As we added a new HDD to our fist node(RAC1) to be used as a shared storage for our RAC installation,
we need to change the virtual device node controller to SCSI 1:0 from SCSI 0:1 - so in-order to do it go to virtual machine setting and click on Persistent Hard disk we added just above and click on Advance tab at right side and change to SCSI 1:0.
Now let's configure the virtual machine(RAC1) configuration file so that newly added persistent hard disk can be shared/accessed by another node(RAC2).
=> Open the virtual machine configuration file(G:\rac1\RAC1.vmx) of first Node(RAC1) in notepad. Before opening the file make a copy of that file as backup to restore in case of any corruption of it.
=> Add/append the below lines at the top of that file.
disk.locking = "FALSE"
diskLib.dataCacheMaxSize = "0"
diskLib.dataCacheMaxReadAheadSize = "0"
diskLib.dataCacheMinReadAheadSize = "0"
diskLib.dataCachePageSize = "4096"
diskLib.maxUnsyncedWrites = "0"
scsi1.sharedBus = "virtual"
=> Save the changes in the file.
=> Open the virtual machine configuration file(G:\rac1\RAC1.vmx) of first Node(RAC1) in notepad. Before opening the file make a copy of that file as backup to restore in case of any corruption of it.
=> Add/append the below lines at the top of that file.
disk.locking = "FALSE"
diskLib.dataCacheMaxSize = "0"
diskLib.dataCacheMaxReadAheadSize = "0"
diskLib.dataCacheMinReadAheadSize = "0"
diskLib.dataCachePageSize = "4096"
diskLib.maxUnsyncedWrites = "0"
scsi1.sharedBus = "virtual"
=> Save the changes in the file.
Note : - Add the above same lines in the virtul machine configuration file of Node 2(RAC2) and save that.
=> Now go to the Setting of Virtual machine of Node 2 and Click on Add to add a new HDD in there and click on Next.
=> Select the option "Use an existing virtual disk"option and click on Next.
=> Select SCSI(recommended) and Check the Independent checkbox and select Persistent option and click on Next.
=> Provide the complete path of shared HDD we added earlier(E:\RAC-Shared-Storage\) in node one(RAC1) and Select Independent andPersistent option and click on Finish.
Note :- Once you are done with step 3 and start back the VMs then you will get a message that "Clustering is not supported......................", just ignore it.
