Glossary

• AGENT_HOME - location of the agent installed on target
• OMS_HOME - location of the Management Service
  
• ORACLE_HOME - location of the database

Management service

Management Service (OMS) is an application which interacts with agents, gathering data on targets and sending commands. It runs on Oracle Application Server. It saves data into repository.

Adding target to Grid Control

1. I have done the activities presented in the post "Agents"
   
2. I have had to run emctl secure agent, providing password for OMS due to errors during the configuration phase of agent installation process
3. next step was to run agent (emctl start agent)
4. that was enough assuming DBSNMP accounts on target databases were open
5. after that I was able to move to Grid Central Console, choose particular target database (by clicking link) and provide there password to DBSNMP account (on page loaded by link "Monitoring Configuration")

Versions

At the time there is available Release 3 of Grid Control. However full installers are provided only for Linux x86-64 and HP-UX Itanium architectures.

Beacause I am in position to run with completely new installation, I prefer full installer pack. For my architecture (Solaris 10 on sparc fortunately) there is Release 2 full installer with option to upgrade by patching to Release 3.

Database version provided in Release 2 is 10.1.0.4 - possible to be upgraded to 10.2.0.3 by installing full bunch of patches. That is why I decided to start the Grid Control installation with full installer of database in version 10.2.0.1 - I save this way installing some patches and can start directly with installation of 10.2.0.3 patches.

To install version 10.2.0.3 in this case it is required to run installer from p3731593_10203_SOLARIS64.zip (despite setting DISPLAY environment variable one needs to set ORACLE_HOME to OMS_HOME value). No special steps during this stage (I omit the installation of Oracle Configuration Manager).

Agents

Agents are provided for quite broad range of architectures and for many products (not only of Oracle origin). They work on hosts of targets and fulfill the role of a middle-man between Oracle Management Service (OMS) and target.

Agent is not the same as Database Console agent. You need to install agent provided in full installer or in Mass Agent Deployment section (depending on the architecture of target's host).

Agent software is installed on targets in two ways:

1. running Grid Control installer on target's host and choosing option Additional management agent
2. downloading agent and installing it within OMS_HOME/sysman/agent_download

Example of installation of agent for Solaris x64 for deployment:

1. download Solaris_x64_GridControl_agent_download_10_2_0_2_0.zip
2. create directory OMS_HOME/sysman/agent_download/10.2.0.2 if it does not exist
3. unzip zip file within the newly created directory
4. move agent_download.rsp.bak to agent_download.rsp, if agent_download.rsp does not exist
5. modify agent_download.rsp file
• %s_OMSHost% to correct OMS host
• %s_OMSPort% to correct port (default 4889)
• optionally one can set also %s_encrSecurePwd% (agent secure registration password) - there will not be the question about said password during installation
6. modify OMS_HOME/sysman/agent_download/10.2.0.2.0/solaris_x64/agentDownload.solaris_x64 in the same way as agent_download.rsp

Example of final installation of agent for Solaris x64 on a remote host:

1. one needs to ensure wget utility is provided and path to it within PATH environment variable
   
2. download http://OMS_HOST:4889/agent_download/10.2.0.2.0/solaris_x64/agentDownload.solaris_x64 by let's say wget (of course 10.2.0.2.0 can be substituted by any proper agent version one provided on OMS_HOST, while solaris_x64 architecture can be substituted by any supported archutecture)
   
3. run agentDownload.solaris_x64 on target host (usually one needs chmod u+x agentDownload.solaris_x64; agentDownload.solaris_x64 -b <agent_home_parent> -i <oracle_home>/oraInst.loc -t; during script run one will be prompted for agent registration password, if it was not specified already within agentDownload.solaris_x64 script)
• Configuration assistant "Agent Configuration Assistant" failed - information provided about that failure was rather scarce, <agent_home>/cfgtoollogs/configToolFailedCommands contained only name of a Java class (oracle.sysman.emcp.agent.AgentPlugIn)
• even with some commands failed agent software was installed correctly
• of course due to some problems with confguration I was made to do some additional steps to run agent - for these look "Adding target to Grid Control" post
• the configuration stage failed due to not setting AGENT_INSTALL_PASSWORD environment variable to agent secure registration password (or fulfilling the setting of said password within agent script and response (i.e. rsp) files)
  
4. after that one needs to run script AGENT_HOME/root.sh; however in case of failed installation the script exists somewhere within agentDownload{version}Oui directory. I must admit that after providing proper password (i.e. password configured at Setup->Registration Passwords of the OMS Control Console) installation fails no more. I have found also notices that any listeners should be down while installing agent.
   

Targets

Targets are opposite to repository elements of the Grid Control architecture. They are just databases or application servers or whatever is supported.

Databases are connected to as stated earlier by using DBSNMP accounts.

Repository

First thing is a repository - it is a common Oracle database, which must be Enterprise Edition (AFAIK that is due to usage of partitioning, may be more). Good news is one does not need to acquire additional licences as stated in post "Licences".

I start from the installation of RDBMS only from Oracle RDBMS 10.2.0.1 bundle. During the further installation of Grid Control I have to choose option of installation on an existing database. There were no special additions during installation of the database, I unchecked only the option with Database Console (wich is somewhat a duplication of the Grid Control functionality).

Accounts

Grid Control repository is run on SYSMAN account - it is created and populated while installing Grid Control or Database Control option of database installation.

Agents connect to database targets by DBSNMP accounts - those accounts are created always during database installation. However if You have not chosen Database Control option, it is locked and password stays set to change_on_install. Those accounts are granted with OEM_MONITOR role which allows for SELECT ANY DICTIONARY and usage of few other privileges (managing statistics and queues, creating jobs, managing advisors) needed for performing basic administration tasks.

However to access part of the console one needs to log on to a chosen database once again - this time directly from OMS using some account - it can be also DBSNMP, however one might be not allowed to perform all possible on console operations.


Most tabs

Trying to run Oracle Grid Control

Last time I realized, we want to monitor our Oracle databases. The Oracle Company provides something called shortly Grid Control what allows monitor performance of databases, application servers, etc and manage those targets.

I have started at 0 level - I have small knowledge about the whole thing and no idea about Oracle Application Server in particular. At first look it seems at least messy. The documentation is large and important things are sunk among those of low importance.

That's the reason behind writing this blog...