11.2.0.2 RAC: ora.gsd.type offline

In my 2-nodes 11.2.0.2 RAC database on OEL 5.5 platform, when I used the depreciated command "crs_stat -t" to check CRS status, I got following output:


$crs_stat -t|grep OFFLINE
ora.asm        ora.asm.type   OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora....SM1.asm application    OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora.cash.gsd   application    OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora.gsd        ora.gsd.type   OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora....ry.acfs ora....fs.type OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora....SM2.asm application    OFFLINE   OFFLINE
ora.sting.gsd  application    OFFLINE   OFFLINE


Since the RAC database is using NetApp as shared storage rather than ASM, it's expected that the ASM related CRS daemons to be offline, so here is a filtered result:

$ crs_stat -t|grep OFFLINE|grep gsd

ora.cash.gsd   application    OFFLINE   OFFLINE

ora.gsd        ora.gsd.type   OFFLINE   OFFLINE

ora.sting.gsd  application    OFFLINE   OFFLINE

According to this post and Metalink note GSD Is Used Only if 9i RAC Database is Present [ID 429966.1] and 1075945.1:
"The function of GSD (10g and above) is to service requests for 9i RAC management clients and therefore when there are no 9i databases present, there is nothing for GSD to do. Consequently, there will be no impact on a RAC cluster if GSD is offline and 9i is not used.

If gsd fails to start due to whetever reasons then best thing is to work with Oracle support to analyze and fix the issue. Until that time, gsd can be temporarily disabled.

In 11.2 GSD is disabled by default and the service will show as target:offline, status:offline."