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Manageability Tools for Real Application Clusters Environments

Oracle has many manageability tools that simplify the configuration and administration of Real Application Clusters databases. The topics in this chapter include:

• Overview of Manageability in Real Application Clusters
• Manageability for Real Application Clusters Installation, Setup, and Configuration
• Manageability for Real Application Clusters Administration
• Manageability for Real Application Clusters Performance Monitoring
• Manageability for Real Application Clusters Backup and Recovery

  See Also: Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Real Application Clusters Guard I - Concepts and Administration and Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Guard II Concepts, Installation, and Administration on the Real Application Clusters Guard II software CD for more information about the manageability tools for these features

Overview of Manageability in Real Application Clusters

Oracle provides manageability tools for all phases of deploying Real Application Clusters databases. The Oracle manageability framework provides out-of-the-box operability and scalability by providing user-friendly tools that simplify the installation, configuration, administration, and deployment of Real Application Clusters databases.

You can install Real Application Clusters using either a completely automated process or by using the customized installation process. Once your system is configured, your Real Application Clusters database is ready for data loading and production operations.

On-going administration of your Real Application Clusters database is simplified with features from Oracle Enterprise Manager (EM). Enterprise Manager is a graphical user interface-based tool that provides a cluster-wide view of all activity within Real Application Clusters database environments. You can also quickly execute administrative operations with the Server Control (SRVCTL) command-line utility and the Global Services Daemon (GSD) commands.

Real Application Clusters also takes full advantage of Oracle9i self-tuning features. In addition, you can use the full set of Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) features to automate backup and recovery operations. The rest of this chapter describes these features in more detail.

Manageability for Real Application Clusters Installation, Setup, and Configuration

The Oracle Universal Installer works with the Database Configuration Assistant and the Network Configuration Assistant to install the Oracle9i and Real Application Clusters software and to configure Real Application Clusters databases. The Installer offers several preconfigured installations that require little or no user input. You can select from configuration types that include Transaction Processing, Data Warehouse, and a General Purpose configuration. These configuration types install preconfigured options that are suitable for each type of processing environment.

You can also run the Installer and configuration tools separately to manually install the Oracle Real Application Clusters software and configure your cluster database environment. In addition, for some platforms, you can store the datafiles for Real Application Clusters on a cluster file system. This greatly simplifies your installation and administration procedures. Otherwise, before installing Real Application Clusters you must configure raw devices.

Manageability for Real Application Clusters Administration

Oracle provides several tools to simplify the administration of Real Application Clusters databases as described under the following headings:

• Oracle Enterprise Manager
• The Database Configuration Assistant
• The Server Control (SRVCTL) Utility
• Global Services Daemon Administration Commands

Oracle Enterprise Manager

Oracle Enterprise Manager provides control over both instance- and database-level operations. You can use EM to view the entire cluster as a single entity or to obtain detailed information about individual instances. The information that EM makes available for cluster databases is the same as for single-instance Oracle databases. That is, you can use EM to administer cluster databases and their related elements by navigating through the same master and detail views and menus that are available in a single-instance Oracle database.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Requirements

To use Enterprise Manager, the The Oracle Intelligent Agent must reside on each node that is part of your Real Application Clusters database. The Oracle Intelligent Agent is installed when the Oracle Universal Installer installs the Oracle database software.

Administrative Tasks You Can Accomplish with Enterprise Manager

You can use Enterprise Manager to start and stop instances, listeners, and cluster databases that the Oracle Intelligent Agent discovers. In addition, you can start and stop specific groups of instances and their services. Oracle Enterprise Manager also displays the statuses of all instances in your Real Application Clusters database. You can also use Enterprise Manager to perform the following administrative tasks:

• Display and set initialization parameter values in the server parameter file
• Control automatic undo management to further simplify the management of undo space
• Examine sessions and session details on all instances and terminate sessions on any instance
• Control resource management by assigning different resource plans to each instance to increase operating efficiency

You can also use EM to view the tablespaces of both cluster file system files or datafiles on raw devices. Use EM to either bring these objects online or to take them offline as needed. You can also use EM to assign redo log groups to specific threads of cluster database instances and to manage schema objects and users.

Enterprise Manager also enables you to automate repetitive tasks by creating and managing jobs that you execute within your Real Application Clusters environment. You can schedule jobs on any node or group of nodes on which the Intelligent Agent is running. You can also schedule jobs against a cluster database or against cluster database instances. As with single-instance Oracle databases, Enterprise Manager can also process reports for multiple cluster database instances or for the entire cluster database environment and publish these reports to a Web location.

The Database Configuration Assistant

The Database Configuration Assistant has several features with which you can administer Real Application Clusters environments. You can operate the DBCA from any node in your cluster regardless of whether the instance or instances on that node are started.

Use the Instance Management feature of the DBCA to add or remove instances, nodes, and databases from your cluster. You can also use Instance Management to develop and manage database creation scripts. This feature also enables you to reverse engineer a schema by creating scripts for preexisting databases. Instance Management enables you to make instance-specific object assignments. That is, you can assign rollback segments and redo log groups to specific instances.

The DBCA also supports Oracle-Managed Files (OMF) for operating systems that support a cluster file system. OMF greatly simplifies your file management overhead. Whenever Oracle requires additional files or no longer needs files, OMF automatically adds or deletes them.

The Server Control (SRVCTL) Utility

You can use the command-line Server Control (SRVCTL) utility to perform many database-level administrative tasks that you can perform with Oracle Enterprise Manager. For example, you can use SRVCTL to accomplish cluster database tasks and database configuration tasks.

At the cluster database level you can use SRVCTL to start and stop cluster databases, to start and stop cluster database instances, and to obtain the status of a cluster database and its cluster database instances. You can also use SRVCTL to perform the following cluster database configuration tasks:

• Add and delete cluster database configuration information
• Add an instance to and delete an instance from a cluster database configuration
• Move instances in a cluster database configuration from one node to another
• Set and unset the environment for an instance in a cluster database configuration
• Set and unset the environment for an entire cluster database in a cluster database configuration

You can also use SRVCTL to start and stop a group of programs that includes the Global Services Daemon, Virtual IP Addressing, listeners, and EM Agents.

Global Services Daemon Administration Commands

You can use gsdctl commands to start, stop, and obtain the status of the Global Services Daemon (GSD). These gsdctl commands operate on all platforms to control GSD operations on all the nodes in your Real Application Clusters database.

Manageability for Real Application Clusters Performance Monitoring

You can use two Oracle manageability tools to monitor Real Application Clusters performance as described under the following headings:

• Monitoring Performance with Oracle Enterprise Manager
• Monitoring Performance with Statspack

Monitoring Performance with Oracle Enterprise Manager

Oracle Enterprise Manager has performance charts for monitoring applications that run on Real Application Clusters databases. The performance charts collect information from all active instances and aggregate them into a single, comprehensive view. Use these charts to monitor both the cluster database and the cluster database instances.

Monitoring Performance with Statspack

Statspack displays Real Application Clusters statistics to show performance trends over time. Statspack displays Global Cache Service (GCS) statistics that reveal performance characteristics as well as Global Enqueue Service (GES) statistics. Statspack also displays GCS and GES messaging statistics.

Manageability for Real Application Clusters Backup and Recovery

Real Application Clusters supports the complete range of functionality of Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN). After you configure your archive log scheme as described in Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Administration and all the archive logs are readable by all instances in your cluster database, you can automate your backup and recovery operations using RMAN.