Oracle RAC 12.2 on VMware Workstation — Post 1: VMware Networking and Openfiler Setup

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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:

⚙️ Prerequisite: VMware Workstation installed on the Linux host and the Openfiler 2.99 and Oracle Linux 7.6 ISOs available locally.

Configure VMware Networks

Open the Virtual Network Editor:

VMware Workstation → Edit → Virtual Network Editor → Change Settings

VMnet0 — Public Network (Bridged)

• Type: Bridged
• Bridged to: select the host’s physical NIC on the 192.168.15.x network
• No changes needed if already configured

VMnet1 — RAC Interconnect (Host-only)

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

VMnet2 — iSCSI Network (Host-only)

1. Click “Add Network…” → VMnet2 → OK
2. Type: Host-only
3. Uncheck “Use local DHCP service” ← mandatory
4. Subnet IP: 192.168.20.0
5. Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
6. Apply → OK

⚠️ Disabling DHCP on the interconnect and iSCSI networks is mandatory. If enabled, Clusterware may fail when trying to use those networks.

Final result:

Create and Install the Openfiler VM

Create the VM

File → New Virtual Machine → Custom (advanced) → Next
→ Hardware compatibility: select your installed VMware Workstation version → Next
→ I will install the operating system later → Next
→ Guest OS: Linux | Other Linux 3.x kernel 64-bit → Next
→ Name: openfiler
→ Location: /vms01/oracle/openfiler/
→ Processors: 1 × 1 core
→ Memory: 1024 MB
→ Network: Custom → /dev/vmnet2 (iSCSI)
→ I/O Controller: LSI Logic
→ Disk: SCSI | 20 GB | Single file
→ Finish

Add Storage Disks

With the VM created and powered off, add 4 disks via Settings → Add → Hard Disk.

For each disk: SCSI → Create a new virtual disk → do NOT check “Allocate all disk space now” → Store as single file

💡 Thin-provisioned disks work fine here because Openfiler manages space through LVM and presents fixed-size iSCSI LUNs to Oracle. ASM sees the LUN — not the underlying VMDK.

⚠️ The MGMT disk is mandatory. Openfiler reserves the first additional disk for internal management. Without it, storage disk sizes will be reported incorrectly.

Expected result in Settings:

Hard Disk  (SCSI 0:0)  →  20 GB   (OS)
Hard Disk  (SCSI 0:1)  →  10 GB   (MGMT)
Hard Disk  (SCSI 0:2)  →  35 GB   (OCR)
Hard Disk  (SCSI 0:3)  →  130 GB  (DATA)
Hard Disk  (SCSI 0:4)  →  45 GB   (FRA)

Add Management NIC

Settings → Add → Network Adapter → Custom → /dev/vmnet0

Expected NIC layout:

Network Adapter    →  vmnet2  (eth0 — iSCSI 192.168.20.10)
Network Adapter 2  →  vmnet0  (eth1 — management 192.168.15.175)

Install Openfiler

Mount the ISO openfileresa-2.99.1-x86_64-disc1.iso and power on the VM.

Click Next on the summary screen to start the installation. Wait for completion and reboot.

Access the Web Interface

Openfiler uses legacy SSL (TLS 1.0). In Firefox, go to about:config and set:

• security.tls.version.min → 1
• security.tls.version.enable-deprecated → true

https://192.168.15.175:446
Login: openfiler / password

Change the password under System → Password.

Connect via SSH

Openfiler uses legacy SSH algorithms. Add this to ~/.ssh/config on the Linux host:

Host openfiler
    HostName 192.168.15.175
    User root
    HostKeyAlgorithms +ssh-rsa,ssh-dss
    PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes +ssh-rsa,ssh-dss

Then connect with ssh openfiler.

Configure Storage in Openfiler

Create Disk Partitions

Menu: Volumes → Block Devices

The screen should show:

/dev/sda  →  20 GB   (OS — do not touch)
/dev/sdb  →  10 GB   (MGMT)
/dev/sdc  →  35 GB   (OCR/VOTE)
/dev/sdd  →  130 GB  (DATA)
/dev/sde  →  45 GB   (FRA)

For each disk (/dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, /dev/sdd, /dev/sde):

1. Click on the disk name
2. Scroll to “Create a partition”
3. Mode: Primary | Partition type: Physical volume | Cylinders: default
4. Click Create

Create Volume Groups

Menu: Volumes → Volume Groups

For each: enter the name, check the partition, and click “Add volume group”.

Create Logical Volumes (LUNs)

Menu: Volumes → Add Volume

Select the VG from the dropdown, click Change, enter the name, size, and select type block (iSCSI,FC,etc):

Allow iSCSI Network Access

Menu: System → Network Access Configuration

• Name: rac-iscsi-net
• Network/Host: 192.168.20.0
• Netmask: 255.255.255.0
• Type: Share
• Click Update

Enable iSCSI Service

Menu: Services → Manage Services → iSCSI Target → Enable → Start

Create iSCSI Target via SSH

💡 Why via SSH? The Openfiler 2.99 web interface allows you to create the target without any errors, but has a bug that prevents the configuration from being written to /etc/ietd.conf — the file stays empty after creation, with no warning. The fix is to create the target directly over SSH.

ssh openfiler

ls -la /dev/vg-ocr/
ls -la /dev/vg-data/
ls -la /dev/vg-fra/

cat > /etc/ietd.conf << 'EOF'
##### WARNING!!! - This configuration file generated by Openfiler. DO NOT MANUALLY EDIT. #####

Target iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:rac-storage
    Lun 0 Path=/dev/vg-ocr/lv-ocr-vote1,Type=blockio
    Lun 1 Path=/dev/vg-ocr/lv-ocr-vote2,Type=blockio
    Lun 2 Path=/dev/vg-ocr/lv-ocr-vote3,Type=blockio
    Lun 3 Path=/dev/vg-data/lv-gimr,Type=blockio
    Lun 4 Path=/dev/vg-data/lv-data1,Type=blockio
    Lun 5 Path=/dev/vg-fra/lv-fra1,Type=blockio
EOF

service iscsi-target restart
service iscsi-target status

netstat -tlnp | grep 3260

ssh openfiler

ls -la /dev/vg-ocr/
ls -la /dev/vg-data/
ls -la /dev/vg-fra/

cat > /etc/ietd.conf << 'EOF'
##### WARNING!!! - This configuration file generated by Openfiler. DO NOT MANUALLY EDIT. #####

Target iqn.2006-01.com.openfiler:rac-storage
    Lun 0 Path=/dev/vg-ocr/lv-ocr-vote1,Type=blockio
    Lun 1 Path=/dev/vg-ocr/lv-ocr-vote2,Type=blockio
    Lun 2 Path=/dev/vg-ocr/lv-ocr-vote3,Type=blockio
    Lun 3 Path=/dev/vg-data/lv-gimr,Type=blockio
    Lun 4 Path=/dev/vg-data/lv-data1,Type=blockio
    Lun 5 Path=/dev/vg-fra/lv-fra1,Type=blockio
EOF

service iscsi-target restart
service iscsi-target status

netstat -tlnp | grep 3260

⚠️ Protect the file from being overwritten: Openfiler 2.99 can overwrite ietd.conf on restart. Make the file immutable:

chattr +i /etc/ietd.conf

lsattr /etc/ietd.conf

chattr +i /etc/ietd.conf

lsattr /etc/ietd.conf

Known Errors

NIC without physical link after starting Openfiler (LOWER_UP missing)

Symptom: Openfiler starts but ip addr show eth0 does not show the LOWER_UP flag. Ping from the iSCSI network fails with Destination Host Unreachable.

Cause: Recent versions of VMware Workstation default to the e1000 driver for Linux VMs. Openfiler 2.99 (kernel 2.6.x) has a compatibility issue with this driver on modern hypervisor versions — the interface comes up in the OS but the physical link (L2) is never established.

Fix: With Openfiler powered off, switch the driver from e1000 to e1000e in the .vmx file:

sed -i 's/ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"/ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000e"/' \
  /vms01/openfiler/openfiler.vmx

sed -i 's/ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000"/ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000e"/' \
  /vms01/openfiler/openfiler.vmx

grep "virtualDev" /vms01/openfiler/openfiler.vmx

sed -i 's/ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"/ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000e"/' \
  /vms01/openfiler/openfiler.vmx

sed -i 's/ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000"/ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000e"/' \
  /vms01/openfiler/openfiler.vmx

grep "virtualDev" /vms01/openfiler/openfiler.vmx

Start Openfiler and validate:

ip addr show eth0

ping -c 3 192.168.20.1

ip addr show eth0

ping -c 3 192.168.20.1

Next Up

In Post 2 we’ll configure Oracle Linux on both nodes, install prerequisites, and connect the iSCSI storage.