Networking Guidelines
- by ACShorten
One of the things I have noticed in my years in IT is the changes in networking. In the past networking was pretty simple with the host name and name resolution (via DNS) being pretty simple. Some sites still use this simple networking setup.
These days, more complex name resolution, proxies, firewalls, demarcation nd virtualization, can make networking more complex. This can cause issues when installing products with in built networking that can frustrate even seasoned veterans.
I have put together a few basic guidelines to hopefully help along with product installation and getting a product to operate in a somewhat complex network setup.
All the components of the product (including the infrastructure) need to communicate via a network (even it is within a local machine/host). Ensure any host names referred to within configuration files are accessible via your networking setup. This may mean defining the hosts to the machines, to the DNS for name resolution and even your firewall to allow machines to communicate within your network.
Make sure the ports used for any of the infrastructure are accessible (even through your firewall) and are unique within the host. Host duplication can cause the product to fail on startup as the port is already in use.
If there are still issues, consider using localhost as your host name. I have used this in so many situations that I tend to use it now as a default anytime I install anything myself. Most Oracle products suggest to use localhost when using dynamic host or dynamic IP addresses and this is no different for the Oracle Utilities Application Framework. If you do use localhost then installing a Loopback Adapter for the operating system is recommended to force networking to a minimum. Usually localhost resolves to 127.0.0.1.
When using multiple network connections, especially in a virtualized environment, ensure the host and ports used are relevent for the network cards you have setup. One of the common issues is finding the product is using a vierualized network card only to find that it is not setup for correct networking.
If you are using the batch component, do not forget to ensure that the multicast protocol is enabled on your host and that the multicast address and port number specified are valid and accessible from all machines in the batch cluster (if clustering used). The same advice applies if you are using unicast where each host/port combination should be accessible.
Hopefully these basic networking recommendations will help minimize any networking issues you might encounter.
