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Oracle RAC 12.2 on VMware Workstation – Post 1: VMware Setup and iSCSI Target with targetcli

HenriqueBy Updated:4 Comments5 Mins Read

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Series: Oracle RAC 12.2 — Complete Installation on VMware Workstation

📌 About this series: This guide covers Oracle RAC 12c, which is out of support. The goal is to document learning and revisit concepts — not to recommend this version for production. Read the full context in the series overview →

📋 This series — Oracle RAC 12.2 on VMware Workstation:

Series posts
Series Overview — RAC architecture, environment, and software
Post 1 — VMware Setup and targetcli iSCSI Storage ← this post
Post 2 — Oracle Linux Configuration and iSCSI Initiator
Post 3 — Grid Infrastructure 12.2 Installation
Post 4 — Oracle Database Installation and DBCA
Post 5 — Final Validation and Quick Reference

⚙️ Prerequisite: VMware Workstation installed on the Linux host. A Linux server accessible on the local network (vpslab) to host the iSCSI target.

Why targetcli Instead of Openfiler?

Openfiler was widely used in Oracle RAC labs for years, but it has been discontinued since 2011 and the official website is offline. targetcli is based on Linux-IO Target (LIO), the standard iSCSI backend in Oracle Linux, RHEL, and CentOS since version 7. It is officially documented by Oracle at docs.oracle.com and requires no additional VM — it runs directly on any Linux server.

Environment Topology

vpslab (192.168.15.3)
  └── targetcli — iSCSI server
       └── /srv/lab/storage/rac-storage/

labnote → vmnet0 (Bridged → enp0s20f0u2)
  ├── orclrac1 eth0: 192.168.15.170 (public)
  │   orclrac1 eth2: 192.168.15.130 (iSCSI)   ← same vmnet0
  └── orclrac2 eth0: 192.168.15.171 (public)
      orclrac2 eth2: 192.168.15.131 (iSCSI)   ← same vmnet0

💡 Why do eth0 and eth2 share the same vmnet? VMware doesn’t allow two Bridged vmnets on the same physical NIC. Since enp0s20f0u2 is already used by vmnet0, a separate vmnet2 isn’t possible. Logical separation is done by IP — iSCSI traffic reaches vpslab (192.168.15.3) over the same physical network.

Configure VMware Networks

Open the Virtual Network Editor:

VMware Workstation → Edit → Virtual Network Editor → Change Settings

VMnet0 — Public and iSCSI Network (Bridged)

  • Type: Bridged
  • Bridged to: the active NIC on the host in the 192.168.15.x network

VMnet1 — RAC Interconnect (Host-only)

  • Type: Host-only
  • DHCP: Disabled ← required
  • Subnet: 10.10.10.0 / 255.255.255.0

⚠️ Disabling DHCP on the interconnect is mandatory. If left enabled, Clusterware may fail when attempting to use this network.

Final result:

VMnetTypeDHCPSubnetPurpose
vmnet0Bridged—192.168.15.0/24Public network and iSCSI
vmnet1Host-onlyDisabled10.10.10.0/24RAC interconnect

Configure the iSCSI Target on vpslab

Run this section on vpslab (192.168.15.3) as root.

Install targetcli

apt install -y targetcli-fb

systemctl enable rtslib-fb-targetctl
systemctl start rtslib-fb-targetctl

systemctl status rtslib-fb-targetctl

On Ubuntu the package is targetcli-fb and the service is rtslib-fb-targetctl. On Oracle Linux/RHEL the package is targetcli and the service is target.

Create Directory Structure

mkdir -p /srv/lab/storage/rac-storage

Create the LUN Files

⚠️ Use dd instead of truncate. truncate creates sparse files — the declared size doesn’t match real allocated space and targetcli won’t report sizes correctly to initiators.

cd /srv/lab/storage/rac-storage

dd if=/dev/zero of=lun-ocr-vote1.img bs=1M count=10240 status=progress
dd if=/dev/zero of=lun-ocr-vote2.img bs=1M count=10240 status=progress
dd if=/dev/zero of=lun-ocr-vote3.img bs=1M count=10240 status=progress

dd if=/dev/zero of=lun-gimr.img bs=1M count=40960 status=progress

dd if=/dev/zero of=lun-data1.img bs=1M count=61440 status=progress

dd if=/dev/zero of=lun-fra1.img bs=1M count=40960 status=progress

du -sh /srv/lab/storage/rac-storage/*.img

LUN mapping:

LUNFileSizeDeviceOracle Disk Group
lun-0lun-ocr-vote1.img10 GB/dev/sdc+OCR (voting)
lun-1lun-ocr-vote2.img10 GB/dev/sdh+OCR (voting)
lun-2lun-ocr-vote3.img10 GB/dev/sdg+OCR (voting)
lun-3lun-gimr.img40 GB/dev/sdf+MGMT (GIMR)
lun-4lun-data1.img60 GB/dev/sde+DATA
lun-5lun-fra1.img40 GB/dev/sdd+FRA

Configure the iSCSI Target via targetcli

sudo targetcli

Inside the interactive shell:

/backstores/fileio create lun-ocr-vote1 /srv/lab/storage/rac-storage/lun-ocr-vote1.img 10G write_back=false
/backstores/fileio create lun-ocr-vote2 /srv/lab/storage/rac-storage/lun-ocr-vote2.img 10G write_back=false
/backstores/fileio create lun-ocr-vote3 /srv/lab/storage/rac-storage/lun-ocr-vote3.img 10G write_back=false
/backstores/fileio create lun-gimr      /srv/lab/storage/rac-storage/lun-gimr.img      40G write_back=false
/backstores/fileio create lun-data1     /srv/lab/storage/rac-storage/lun-data1.img     60G write_back=false
/backstores/fileio create lun-fra1      /srv/lab/storage/rac-storage/lun-fra1.img      40G write_back=false

/iscsi create iqn.2024-01.com.vpslab:rac-storage

cd /iscsi/iqn.2024-01.com.vpslab:rac-storage/tpg1

set attribute authentication=0
set attribute demo_mode_write_protect=0
set attribute generate_node_acls=1

The 0.0.0.0:3260 portal is created automatically when the target IQN is created. Do not run portals/ create.

luns/ create /backstores/fileio/lun-ocr-vote1
luns/ create /backstores/fileio/lun-ocr-vote2
luns/ create /backstores/fileio/lun-ocr-vote3
luns/ create /backstores/fileio/lun-gimr
luns/ create /backstores/fileio/lun-data1
luns/ create /backstores/fileio/lun-fra1

ls

Expected output:

o- tpg1 ............................... [gen-acls, no-auth]
  o- luns ............................. [LUNs: 6]
  | o- lun0 ........................... [fileio/lun-ocr-vote1]
  | o- lun1 ........................... [fileio/lun-ocr-vote2]
  | o- lun2 ........................... [fileio/lun-ocr-vote3]
  | o- lun3 ........................... [fileio/lun-gimr]
  | o- lun4 ........................... [fileio/lun-data1]
  | o- lun5 ........................... [fileio/lun-fra1]
  o- portals .......................... [Portals: 1]
    o- 0.0.0.0:3260 ................... [OK]
cd /
saveconfig
exit

Allow Firewall Access

ufw allow 3260/tcp
ufw reload
ufw status | grep 3260

Verify the Service

ss -tlnp | grep 3260

targetcli ls

Test Discovery

From the labnote host or any machine on the LAN:

iscsiadm -m discovery -t sendtargets -p 192.168.15.3

Next Up

In Post 2 we’ll install Oracle Linux, configure orclrac1, clone it to orclrac2, and connect the iSCSI Initiator to the target created here.

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