Overview demo of Oracle Data Masking solution

This is an overview (introductory) demo of the Oracle Data Masking solution - Safely use production data for development, testing and sharing. Please see http://bit.ly/r8fF8o

Enterprise Manager for Oracle Technology on Oracle VM

Regarding the ongoing debate about using Oracle technology on VMware (a non-Oracle third party product), for such an environment, Oracle will only support issues that "are known to occur on the native OS, or can be demonstrated not to be as a result of running on VMware,"

"If a problem is a known Oracle issue, Oracle support will recommend the appropriate solution on the native OS," this is as per a Metalink document which adds "If that solution does not work in the VMware virtualized environment, the customer will be referred to VMware for support."

The implications of these statements are very serious. If there is an unknown issue, the client will be asked to reproduce the issue on non-VMware! VMware is not certified by Oracle for any of its single-instance or RAC databases. So, running Oracle production on a uncertified platform like VMware is not recommended and responsible IT managers would certainly prefer certified platforms. I know, if I was an IT manager, I would not want to put Oracle production on uncertified systems simply because of support issues. And for those VMware enthusiasts who say this is ok since Oracle doesnt certify any non-Oracle hardware anyway, I would say their equating VMware with hardware is very wrong. It is software, like an OS, rather than hardware. So would you run a production Oracle database on an uncertified OS? I guess not.

Of course, if virtualization is required, use Oracle VM and the issue is solved - Oracle will support the full stack, from virtualization software to app server to database. And we can also go inside the virtual machine and do performance analysis of the database, and deep management using Enterprise Manager! The third-party VMware has nothing like these powerful Oracle deep management tools to manage Oracle technology.

On another note, I just installed Oracle VIRTUAL BOX on Windows and am astonished how easy and flexible it is to use, instead of VMware workstation. My personal opinions of course in all my comments.

Publisher says Outstanding Orders to be filled soon

Friends,

I have heard back from the publisher today. They have printed enough copies to fill the demand. All outstanding orders should be filled within the next two weeks. The demand was higher than expected and caught them off guard. That is actually good news that the book is selling better than expected. Moving forward there will be sufficient copies available to satisfy everyone.

Thanks for the great support from all my readers.

You can place an order for the book by clicking on the title below. An out of stock warning may appear right now, but you can safely ignore that. A description of the book is as follows.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control: Advanced OEM Techniques for the Real World

Oracle’s Enterprise Manager Grid Control is recognized as the IT Industry’s leading Oracle stack (application to disk) administration and management tool. It is unrivalled in its ability to monitor, manage, maintain and report on entire enterprise grids that comprise hundreds (if not thousands) of Oracle databases, middle-ware and servers following an approach that is consistent and repeatable, as well as the Oracle Applications such as Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, Siebel, and so on.

However, Enterprise Manager Grid Control may seem daunting even to the most advanced Oracle Administrator. The problem is you know about the power of Enterprise Manager but how do you unleash that power amongst what initially appears to be a maze of GUI-based screens that feature a myriad of links to reports and management tasks that in turn lead you to even more reports and management tasks?

This book shows you how to unleash that power.

Based on the Author’s considerable and practical Oracle database and Enterprise Manager Grid Control experience you will learn through illustrated examples how to create and schedule RMAN backups, generate Data Guard Standbys, clone databases and Oracle Homes and patch databases across hundreds and thousands of databases. You will learn how you can unlock the power of the Enterprise Manager Grid Control Packs, PlugIns and Connectors to simplify your database administration across your company’s database network, as also the management and monitoring of important Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and the nuances of all important real-time change control using Enterprise Manager.

There are other books on the market that describe how to install and configure Enterprise Manager but until now they haven’t explained using a simple and illustrated approach how to get the most out of your Enterprise Manager. This book does just that.

Regards,

Porus.

Using Enterprise Manager Database Control for a RAC cluster

A friend wrote:

We are using 11GR2 RAC with 5 nodes on Redhat Linux;

We have configured the DB coonsole (not grid control) to run in Node 1 as repository and active node and the agents to run in nodes 2, node 3, node 4 and node 5.

We have used this command to configure that;

emca -config dbcontrol db -repos create -cluster -EM_NODE db01 -EM_NODE_LIST db02,db03,db04,db05

Now, in order to be prepared in the case of failure of our node 1, I have to prepare the procedure in order to maybe move the repository (the same node 1 repository) to run in node 2 actively and the agents to run in node 3, node 4 and node 5.

I would like to keep the node 1 repository but moving it to node 2, and run node 2 as the active node, in case of failure just to guarantee the HA.

Please let me know if it's clear now. I wonder if you could give a help and help guide me in order to have the procedure prepared,

My reply to him:

Oracle really recommends using a separate installation of Enterprise Manager Grid Control for RAC databases, and then putting agents on all RAC nodes. That way you are covered for any node failure, Enterprise Manager will keep on working.

For what you want, ie. using EM Database control and then failing over Database Control from 1 RAC node to the other, it is not recommnended but it is possible, please use these commands:

Drop the DB Control on all RAC nodes, but keeping the repository. Run this command on the first node: (in the second iteration, try it on a different node)

$ emca -deconfig dbcontrol db -cluster
Enter the following information:
- Database unique name

This emca command does the following:
- stop the DB Control (dbconsole, agent) on all nodes of the cluster
- remove all DB Control related directories on all nodes of the cluster

The repository is in the RAC database and has not been dropped. You can then recreate the DBControl without recreating the repository. Do this by:

emca -reconfig dbcontrol -cluster -EM_NODE db02 -EM_NODE_LIST db01,db03,db04,db05

Test out the above and let me know if ok.

For added info please see the My Oracle Support (MOS) note "How to manage DB Control 11.x for RAC Database with emca" [ID 578011.1]

Regards,

Porus.

New White Paper Published "Managing Oracle Applications with EM"

Friends,

I am pleased to announce that a brand new white paper of mine has been published this month (June 2011) on the Oracle Technical Network (OTN):

White Paper: Managing Oracle Applications with Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g

This white paper delves into the four Oracle Application Management Suites for Oracle’s E-Business Suite, Siebel, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne products and examines the many management capabilities that they offer for Oracle Applications. It is geared towards Oracle application managers and application administrators, with a goal to provide a clear understanding of the immense advantages and benefits the Application Management suites have to offer. It is a fantastic introduction to these powerful Application Management Suites of Oracle Enterprise Manager. Enjoy the world of Oracle EM !

Some comments in LinkedIn groups:

"Many congrats and really appreciate the efforts for the documentation on E-Biz related features. Highly informative. Its indeed a powerful EM :-)."

"Nice improvement over previous versions of EM! "

"This white paper is very useful for our jobs!"

"Hey .. Great white paper very valuable."

"Thanks for sharing this, very useful."

Thanks people for appreciating the white paper.

Regards,

Porus.

Latest List of my Published White Papers and Technical Articles on OTN

Many of you have asked me for a full list of all my published technical articles/white papers on the Oracle Technical Network (OTN), for easy reference. Here is the latest list as of Oct 2012. I have placed the white papers at the top, and the articles are in chronological order in the article list. The latest article on Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c, published in October 2012, is right at the bottom of the list. A couple of these articles were even in the most popular OTN article list in 2009.

My Published White Papers on Oracle Technology Network (OTN)

White Paper: Advanced Uses of Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g
White Paper: Managing Oracle Applications with Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g

My Published Articles on Oracle Technology Network (OTN)
Using Grid Control with Filer Snapshotting
Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Architecture for Very Large Sites
Oracle RMAN Backups: Pushing the "Easy" Button
Patch a Thousand Databases, Using Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control
Easy Disaster Proof Production with Grid Control
Using Oracle GoldenGate for Real-Time Data Integration

Mask Your Secrets Using Oracle Enterprise Manager

Manage Mass Provisioning Using Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control

Overview of Oracle EM Management Packs

Provision Your Oracle RAC Systems Using Oracle Enterprise Manager
NEW!! Ease the Chaos with Automated Patching: Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c

Happy Reading!

Agent Performance

A friend writes:

"Do you have any tips for keeping the emagent from making a bad situation worse. For instance when everything is working well emagent hardly takes any CPU or memory, but once the host or db's start getting a high load emagent seems to start using more CPU than just about anything else. It's kind of counter intuitive to me, that something designed to monitor and notify you about problems actually becomes the problem when a server becomes short on resources."

My response:

One point to remember is that you should always upgrade to the latest version of the agent. For eg. If your central OMS is on EM11g, then your agents should also be EM11g agents and not EM10g agents. Upgrading to the latest version at the agent level will also fix some performance issues for the agent.

The issue you describe happens when there is a contention for resources at both sides. Make sure the agent is properly configured, it has enough free disk space to store its temporary work, etc. Remember the agent pre-requisites should always be followed - for eg, if you install the EM 10g agent on a box running Oracle 9i, you must ensure the OS is patched etc upto the level required if you were installing an Oracle 10g database on the same box. All such pre-requisites for an Oracle 10g database should be followed in such a case.

Many times the prerequisites are not followed, and the agent then struggles to perform on the older boxes since the OS is not patched to the level required, some packages are older than the requirement, swap space is lower than required, etc. Then, there are performance issues. So please check the setup first.