Oracle Exadata Management — Diary of an Exadata DBA

By Scott McNeil

I recently had the chance to sit down with Deba Chatterjee, Senior Product Manager, Database Manageability to talk about Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c and how it's making Oracle Exadata management easier for DBAs. He had a great analogy that I wanted to share. "To describe how Enterprise Manager is making Exadata management simple and less complex, is by using an approach we call, 'Exadata Aware Database Performance Analysis'. The best way to illustrate how this works, is to use real-world scenarios," Deba added. Here is one of those scenarios—an excerpt from the diary of an Exadata DBA. November 15th, Late Evening Database performance has suddenly dropped becoming very poor. The same reports that were running fine a couple of hours ago are now taking forever to complete. The boss just left me a message that the CRM analytics director was pretty upset and wants to know why we have a performance problem. I checked the queries and the execution plans both look the same with lots of smart scans and cell offloading. Suddenly, the response time has gone south and I cannot figure out why? My first step was to look at the database performance page in Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c, which now comes with built-in Oracle Exadata support. Hey, what do I have here in the I/O tab? The Exadata system health button is red, that's not good. What's happening? I clicked the button and it took me to the Exadata health triage page, this is where I can see if I have potential issues such as; Load imbalance ASM related problems Cell software or hardware failures Cell configuration issues Network related failures The red Oracle Exadata system health button indicates potential issues impacting database performance. Next, I noticed that the network status was red, it must be a network issue, right? I quickly checked the administration screen in the Infiniband Target Home page, and saw we had a degraded port in the Port Details status section. I disabled the bad port and allowed the network traffic to automatically fail over to its peer. I'll have to look into this later, for now I just wanted to get the system up and running. View of the degraded port in Infiniband Switch Schematic. I quickly re-checked the Exadata system health status again, it showed all green—looks like everything was working, problem solved. I called my boss back to give him the good news that the database performance was back up. I sure am glad all these things are integrated; otherwise I would have been here all night trying to figure this out.

Questions and Answers from the Oracle Enterprise Management Online Forum

By Scott McNeil

We received tons of questions from our recent Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Online Forum, we wanted to continue to provide answers to the most popular ones. In this installment, we'll cover questions from the DBA and developer track. Q. What kind of testing do you recommend for upgrading from Oracle Database 11gR1 to 11gR2? A. Oracle Real Application Testing using Database Replay and SQL Performance Analyzer's capabilities are recommended for any Oracle Database upgrade. Check out these resources for more details: Oracle Real Application Testing datasheet and OTN for details on upgrading your database. Q. Can I manage Oracle Exadata and traditional Oracle Databases from the same console? A. Yes, you can manage Oracle Exadata and single instance and/or RAC databases from the same Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control console, as well as WebLogic and many other targets. Check out this demo to see how. Q. I thought Active Session History (ASH) was intended for real-time? A. ASH can be use for both real-time and historical analysis. It is a black box that records session activities and helps to analyze across several performance dimensions. Click here to see a quick demo. Q. What is the difference between Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c and Oracle Database Control? A. Database Control is a subset which runs off a single database. Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c is a central repository which allows administrators to manage and monitor from a single console. Q. How does Real-Time Automatic Database Diagnostics Monitor (ADDM) work – the database is hung right? A. Real-Time ADDM, included in the Oracle Diagnostic Pack for Oracle Database, uses 2 different modes of connection to the database. A normal connection and a diagnostic mode that is a lock less, latch less connection which allows only few actions. Using the diagnostic mode connection Real-Time ADDM performs a hang analysis and determines any blockers in the systems. Check out this demo to see how Real-Time ADDM works. Q. Can we achieve all the new functionality in Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c using terminal? A. No. Features like ASH Analytics, Real-Time ADDM and Compare Period ADDM are only available using Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c's console. Q. Is Real-Time ADDM available only in Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c? A. Yes, Real-Time ADDM is a new feature in Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c. Q. Can you explain the difference between Oracle Database 11g Monitor in Memory Access Mode vs. Real-Time ADDM direct access to SGA? A. Real-Time ADDM does not use Memory attach mode. We use a proprietary connection method which connects using a lock less, latch less connection bypassing the SQL Access layer. Q. Is there any limit on the number of days on which ASH can be used for analysis? A. The in memory ASH data is typically available for 1 hour or till the point the memory buffer is flushed to disk. You can find out ASH retention by using: select min(sample_time), max(sample_time) from sys.WRH$_ACTIVE_SESSION_HISTORY;

OTN detailed documentation on Lifecycle Management

Dear Friends,

Oracle have just released a detailed documentation on Database and Middleware Lifecycle Mgmt on OTN.

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24628_01/em.121/e27046.pdf

Standing at more than 700 pages, this is possibly one of the most detailed EM documentations released till date. It covers Provisioning, Patching, Change Mgmt, Compliance and Config Mgmt of different configurations in detail. The information map in section 1.2 takes you directly to sections of interest.

Oracle has also released a podcast on database-as-a-service today,

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OracleOfmRadio/~3/LQtr7entDjg/11171719_DB_Service_011812.mp3

Regards,

Porus.

Cloud Management documentation enhanced and released

Friends,

The Cloud Management documentation has been enhanced and released for the public.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Administration Guide 12c Release 1 (12.1.0.1)

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24628_01/doc.121/e28814/toc.htm

Regards,

Porus.

New Cookbook for Database as a Service

Cloud Management in Enterprise Manager 12c is generating a huge amount of interest!! Have a look at the latest Cookbook by Oracle Product Management, this shows how to set up DbaaS (Database as a Service) step by step.

Database as a Service using Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cookbook
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/cloud-mgmt/em12c-dbaas-cookbook-1432364.pdf

Regards,

Porus.

Now Available: OVERVIEW presentation of Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control

Dear Readers,

Now Available: a brand-new OVERVIEW presentation of Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control. This is an excellent introduction to Enterprise Manager in general. Updated to latest EM 12c version.

This presentation also includes a number of slides on the Database Lifecycle Management pack, a very handy pack including database/server/OS configuration management, database provisioning and patch automation, and database change management (schema level changes and comparisons). Have a look at the presentation to get an idea of Cloud Control as well as this newly-combined powerful pack.

Download from Mediafire:

OVERVIEW presentation of Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control including DB Lifecycle Management Pack

http://www.mediafire.com/file/l25h2chvyv3ocvc/Enterprise_Manager12c_CloudControl_Overview_plus_DBLifeCycleMgmtPack.pdf

Alternatively, download from Ge.tt:

http://ge.tt/8j4CkDB?c

Includes a General introduction to Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control, recommended architecture, list of the most popular packs and a short introduction to the Application Management Suites, many slides on the Database Lifecycle Management Pack including the configuration management, provisioning, patch management and database change management aspects. Also includes slides on the new Test Data Management Pack (data subsetting) and a number of slides on Oracle and the cloud, showing cloud setup tasks for Iaas, DbaaS, and PaaS using Enterprise Manager, and on chargeback.

In all a very well-rounded presentation on Enterprise Manager that I have personally delivered to many customers/partners across ASEAN to give a solid idea of what is Enterprise Manager.

Enjoy!!

If you are based in the ASEAN region and feel your company could use any of the Enterprise Manager packs, please feel free to contact me for further details.

Regards,

Porus.

Latest Presentation: Managing Exadata with Enterprise Manager 12c

Friends,

Please see the latest presentation I have uploaded on:

Managing Exadata with Enterprise Manager 12c

http://www.mediafire.com/file/4ykp0mmu75xzceq/Managing_Exadata_with_Enterprise_Manager_12c.pdf

Alternative site for download: http://ge.tt/8ZJ9oQ9?c

I have updated this with the latest pack name changes and more slides as well so this is the most upto date presentation on this topic. Original presentation was by Deba Chatterjee and Mark Ramacher in Oracle Open World, October 2011.

Exadata DBAs will understand from this. that their machines can be managed very well with the latest Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control released recently by Oracle on October 3^rd 2011.

Packs and Options included in this presentation:

• Diagnostics/Tuning Packs

• Lifecycle Management Pack (3 EM11g packs combined in EM12c)

• Cloud Management Pack (Brand-new in EM12c)

• Data Masking Pack

• Test Data Management Pack (Brand-new in EM12c)

• Real Application Testing (RAT) DB EE Option

Using Cloud Control 12c, the client will be able to see an integrated view of all the hardware and software in the Exadata machine, with a schematic of storage cells, compute nodes and switches, and a software/system view of database systems/clusters. The client can inspect performance/availability /usage by databases /services/clusters and get software alerts on the database, cluster and ASM, as well as alerts on all hardware components. The Infiniband network and switches, so important for Exadata can be fully monitored with alerts, performance metrics and configuration standards. Storage cells can be monitored and also administered via Cloud Control. All storage cells in a database are automatically placed in a group, and you can administer the cells at the group level.

The performance of the RAC databases on Exadata can be fine tuned using the Diagnostics and Tuning pack capabilities of Enterprise Manager, these include the AWR repository, the ADDM diagnostics engine, and the SQL Tuning and SQL Access advisors. The database performance page is now Exadata aware with the performance graphs showing cell offload efficiency and cell smart scan, which are extremely powerful Exadata specific features. IO activity of other databases sharing the same storage can be examined. Exadata “smart scan” relevant info is also displayed on Real-time SQL monitoring and other SQL pages. There is also a Exadata System health page for a quick overview of availability across different time periods.

The newly-combined Lifecycle Management pack has the very useful capabilities of Configuration Management, Provisioning and Patch Automation, and Change Management. The Configuration management inventory has the version summary of all Exadata components, with the ability to compare configurations – useful in trouble shooting and to enforce configuration standards. The Patch Automation capabilities can be used to patch the multiple RAC database nodes and also the OS – a real need for automation when there are so many nodes, and the Change Management capabilities of the Lifecycle Management pack can be used to seamlessly propagate database schema changes across development, test and production databases. And, optionally, the Cloud Management pack for database lets you set up an internal DbaaS (Database as a service) cloud, with full self-service, metering and chargeback capabilities. The Cloud capabilities also include IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) if using Oracle VM server pools, or, if using Exalogic servers, the Cloud Management pack for Fusion Middleware lets you set up PaaS (Platform as a service).

In this presentation we also discuss the Test Data Management pack, brand new in Enterprise Manager 12c, that lets you create test or development databases with a relationally intact fraction of the production data. This reduces the storage overhead for multiple test and development copies of large databases, and is very useful in real life situations.

Enjoy the world of Managing Exadata with Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control!!

As of January 2012, this presentation has 1100+ downloads on mediafire and ge.tt on the internet.

Regards,

Porus.