Cloning 11gR2

In general it seems to be a simple operation.
First one needs to copy ORACLE_HOME content to the new location (local or remote). The documentation suggests the zip utility, but I think rsync is also a right tool (for a local copy switches -av, for a remote -avz).
Second call runInstaller

$ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin/runInstaller -silent -clone ORACLE_HOME="[the new home]" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="[the new home id]" ORACLE_BASE="/oracle"

The docs do not mention the ORACLE_BASE specification, yet this is inevitable as without it the cloning process exits with information about lack of ORACLE_BASE value.

Utilities for examining redologs and data files (external link)

Utilities for examining redologs' and data files' content by David Litchfield (at the moment in Beta)

RAC using VirtualBox (external link)

Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.3.0) RAC On Oracle Linux 6.3 Using VirtualBox
Oracle Database 12g Release 1 (12.1.0.1.0) RAC On Oracle Linux 6.3 Using VirtualBox

The Oracle RDBMS with the MS AD for the poor (external link)

Authenticate database user against Active Directory - the poor man's version

Ora-30372 and what to do further

The error emerges at an mview creation. In my particular case this was an mview on a synonym, which indicated a remote view. The remote view is a subject of an access policy.
The whole issue is described on Oracle Support in the article Ora-30372: Fine Grain Access Policy Conflicts With Materialized View (Doc ID 604046.1).

Small tip: moving statistics

Here there is a small experiment. A colleague of mine stated that loading statistics through impdp is a horrible thing in comparison to simple export and import with the dbms_stats package.

begin
-- on the source
dbms_stats.create_stat_table('','','');
dbms_stats.export_database_stats('','','');

-- on the target
-- first impdp stats table
dbms_stats.import_database_stats('','','');
end;
/

I give it a try and I am very glad of the results. The main problem with exporting and importing the statistics with the Data Pump is the operation duration - using dbms_stats will take a fraction of time spent on the export and import with the Data Pump technology.

11g and sys.aud$

A short and relevant article on the maintenence of the audit structures (SYS.AUD$).
Also important news on usage of DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT, which may be used instead of the procedure from the previous link.