Reinstalling Oracle 11gR2 RAC Grid Problem - ASM Disks Group

Question

Folks,
Hello.
I am installing Oracle 11gR2 RAC using 2 Virtual Machines (rac1 and rac2 whose OS are Oracle Linux 5.6) in VMPlayer.
I have been installing Grid Infrastructure using runInstaller in the first VM rac1 from step 1 to step 9 of 10.
On the step 9 of 10 in the Wizard, accidentally, I touch the Mouse, and the Wizard is gone.
The directory for installing Grid in the 2 VMs is the same: /u01
In order to make sure everything is correct, I delete entire directory /u01 in the 2 VMs and install Grid in rac1 again.
I have understood it's not the right way to delete /u01. The right way is to follow the tutorial
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/install.112/e22489/rem_orcl.htm#CBHEFHAC
But I have deleted /u01 and need to fix one by one. I install Grid again and get the error message on step 5 of 9 as follows:
[INS - 30516] Please specify unique disk groups.
[INS-3050] Empty ASM disk group.
Cause - Installer has detected the disk group name provided already exists on the system.
Action - Specify different disk group.
In Wizard, the previous Disk Group name is "DATA" and its Candidate disks (5 ASMDISKs) are gone. I try to use a different name "DATA2", but no ASMDISKs come up under "Candidate disks". For "ALL Disks", all ASMDISKs cannot be selected.
I want to use the same ASM disk group "DATA" and don't want to create a new disk group.
My question is:
How to have the previous ASM disks and its group "DATA" come up under "Candidate Disks" so that can use it again ?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi, in case this helps anyone else. I got this INS-30516 error too was stumped for little while. I have 2 x 2-node RAC which are hitting same SAN. The first-built RAC has a DATA diskgroup. When went to build second RAC on new ASM disk new DIskgroup (but same diskgroup name DATA) got INS-30516 about diskgroup name already in use etc. Finally figured out all that was required was to restrict diskstring using button in installer to only retrieve the LUNS for this RAC (this was quick and dirty - all LUNS for both RAC being presented to both RAC). Once diskstring only searched for the LUNS required for this RAC only, e.g.
ORCL:DATA_P* (for DATA_PD and FRA_PD)
the error went away.
I also have DATA_DR and FRA_DR presenting to both RAC. Apparently it scans the header and if it finds a diskgroup name that is already in use based on the diskstring scan it will not allow reuse of the diskgroup name since it has no way of knowing that the other ASM disks are for a different RAC.
HTH