Configuring Database Control During and After Installation

Overview of Configuration Options

The following are the products, tools, and utilities you, as a database administrator, can use to configure the Database Control environment:

• Oracle Universal Installer

  Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) is a utility that installs your Oracle software and options. It can automatically start Oracle Database Configuration Assistant to install a database.

• DBCA

  Oracle Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) is a utility that creates a database from templates that are supplied by Oracle. It also enables you to create your own database by copying a preconfigured seed database, thus saving the time and effort needed to generate and customize a new database.

• Database Upgrade Assistant

  The Database Upgrade Assistant is a tool that guides you through the upgrade of your existing database to a new Oracle Database release.

• Net Configuration Assistant

  Net Configuration Assistant (NETCA) is a utility that enables you to configure listeners and naming methods, which are critical components of the Oracle Database network.

Configuring Database Control During Installation

If you create a database while installing Oracle Database, you have the option of configuring your database so it can be managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Console or by Database Control Console.

To select Grid Control Console as your management option, the Oracle Management Service must be installed on a network host. In addition, the Oracle Management Agent must be installed on the host where you are installing the database. Otherwise, the Grid Control Console option is unavailable and you must instead choose to manage your database with Database Control.

For most of the Oracle installation types, you must choose either Database Control or Grid Control as your management option when you create a database during the installation.

However, if you create a database using one of the following methods, you can choose not to configure Database Control:

• Choosing the Advanced database configuration option during an Enterprise or Standard Edition installation

• Running DBCA after the installation

Note that if you do not configure Database Control during installation of an Oracle Database 11g instance, a hostname_dbuniquename directory will not be created in the resulting Oracle home directory. When installing a release 10g database, a hostname_sid directory will not be created in the resulting Oracle home directory.

Configuring Database Control with DBCA

The primary method for configuring an existing Oracle database so it can be managed with Database Control is to use DBCA. You can use DBCA to create a new database or to reconfigure an existing database.

To use DBCA to reconfigure your database so it can be managed with Database Control:

1. Log in to the database host as a member of the administrative group that is authorized to install Oracle software and create and run the database.

2. Start DBCA, change directory to the $ORACLE_HOME/bin directory, then enter the following command:

   $ ./dbca
   

   The DBCA Welcome page appears.

3. Advance to the Operations page and select Configure Database Options.

4. Advance to the Database page and select the database that you want to configure.

5. Advance to the Management Options page and select the following options:

   • Configure the Database with Enterprise Manager

   • Use Database Control for Database Management

6. Select any desired options for enabling e-mail notifications and enabling daily backups.

   For more information about Enterprise Manager notifications and daily backups, click Help on the Management Options page.

7. Advance until the Finish button is available.

8. Click Finish to reconfigure the database to use Database Control.

   After DBCA reconfigures the database, a new subdirectory appears in the Oracle home. In release 11g of the database and later, this directory is named using the following format and contains Database Control configuration and state files specific to the database you just configured:

   hostname_dbuniquename

   Note that for cluster databases, the directories are named:

   nodename_dbuniquename.

   In Oracle Database 10g, the new subdirectory is named:

   hostname_sid

   Likewise in Oracle Database 10g, for cluster databases the directories are named:

   nodename_sid

   For example:

   mycluster1.example.com_myNewDB
   

Configuring Database Control Using EMCA

When you use DBCA to configure Oracle 11g Release 2 (11.2), DBCA provides a graphical user interface to help you select Database Control options and to configure other aspects of your database.

However, to use the operating system command line to configure Database Control, you can use the Enterprise Manager Configuration Assistant (EMCA).

To configure Database Control with EMCA:

1. Set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable to specify the Oracle home for the database that you want to manage.

2. Change directory to the $ORACLE_HOME/bin directory.

3. Start EMCA by entering the following command with any of the optional command-line arguments shown in Table 10-1, "EMCA Command-Line Operations":

   $ ./emca
   

   Depending on the arguments that you include on the EMCA command line, EMCA prompts you for the information required to configure Database Control.

   For example, enter the following command to configure Database Control so that it will perform automatic daily backups of your database:

   $ ./emca -config dbcontrol db -backup
   

EMCA commands are in the following form:

emca [operation] [mode] [flags] [parameters]

$ emca -config dbcontrol db -repos create

Table 10-1 describes the valid execution operations and modes and lists the optional parameters in brackets. Table 10-2 discusses the flags and their behavior and Table 10-3 defines the optional parameters in detail. EMCA parameters are in the form [-parameterName parameterValue]. Multiple parameters can be used in combination at the command line.

Using an Input File for EMCA Parameters

Instead of answering a series of prompts when you run EMCA, you can use the -respFile argument to specify an input file. The input file you create must be in a format similar to the following example:

PORT=1521
SID=DB
DBSNMP_PWD=xpE234D
SYSMAN_PWD=KDOdk432

After you create an EMCA input file, you can use it on the command line as follows:

$ ./emca -config dbcontrol db -respFile input_file_path

For example, to configure the Database Control to perform daily backups and create the Database Control Management Repository, create an input file similar to the one shown in Example 10-1 and enter the following command at the operating system prompt:

$ ./emca -config dbcontrol db -repos create -backup -respFile input_file_path

PORT=1521
SID=DB
DBSNMP_PWD=dow3l224
SYSMAN_PWD=squN3243
HOST_USER=johnson
HOST_USER_PWD=diTf32of
SYS_PWD=qlKj4352
BACKUP_SCHEDULE=06:30

Specifying the Ports Used by Database Control

When you initially install Oracle Database or configure Database Control with EMCA, Database Control uses a set of default system ports. For example, by default, you access Database Control using port 1158, as shown in the following example:

http://host.domain:1158/em

This is the default port assigned to Database Control by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Likewise, the default Database Control Agent port, as assigned by the IANA, is 3938.

To use ports other than the default ports, use the following EMCA command-line arguments when you initially configure the Database Control with EMCA. Alternatively, you can explicitly assign ports after configuring Database Control using the following command:

$ emca -reconfig ports [-cluster]

The following list summarizes the EMCA command-line arguments that control the standard Database Control port assignments:

• -DBCONTROL_HTTP_PORT port_number

  This port is used in the Database Control Console URL. For example, if you set this port to 5570, you can then use the following URL to display the Database Control Console:

  http://host.domain:5570/em
  

• -RMI_PORT port_number

  This port is used by the Remote Method Invocation (RMI) system, which is part of the J2EE software required by Database Control. The default port can be changed if you want to configure a specific port for Database Control. When a port other than the default port (1521) is used, use the -RMI_PORT or -JMS_PORT options along with the emca reconfig command.

• -JMS_PORT port_number

  This port is used by the OC4J Java Message Service (JMS), which is part of the J2EE software required by Database Control. The default port can be changed if the user wants to configure a specific port for Database Control. When a port other than the default port (1521) is used, use the -RMI_PORT or -JMS_PORT options along with the emca reconfig command.

• -AGENT_PORT port_number

  This port is used by the Database Control Management Agent, which is monitoring and administering the database for the Database Control.

Using EMCA With Oracle RAC

Each EMCA command can be used in Oracle RAC environments, and certain commands are only applicable in cluster setups. To perform cluster commands using EMCA, use the cluster flag that is available in almost every EMCA operational mode.

When you use EMCA to configure Database Control for Oracle RAC, you configure the Database Control for each instance in the cluster. However, by default the Database Control Console will only start on the local node. On every other node of the cluster, only the Enterprise Manager agent will start. This is because the Database Control Console opens several connections to the database. If an instance of the console is running on every host in the cluster, then you may easily exceed the maximum number of permitted open connections on a 32-node or 64-node environment.

To remedy this situation, the Database Control is started only on the local node. On every other node, the commands emctl start dbconsole and emctl stop dbconsole only start and stop the agent. Each of the remote agents will upload their respective data to the console running on the local node, from which you can monitor and manage all the targets in the cluster. The following subdirectory is created on each instance of the Oracle RAC database where nodename is the name of a node in the cluster, and dbuniquename is the database instance name of the database for release 11g and later:

$ORACLE_HOME/nodename_dbuniquename

For Oracle Database release 10g, nodename is the name of the node in the cluster and sid is the database instance name:

$ORACLE_HOME/nodename_sid

However, note that if you upgrade an existing Oracle RAC database configured with Database Control to the current release, then the existing Database Control configuration is retained. The existing Database Control has a Database Control running on each cluster node. The console will still be started on each individual node.

To modify the existing configuration in a release 11g and later database, use the following command where nodename is the public name of the node and node_list is a comma-delimited list of nodes where the database is configured:

$ emca -reconfig dbcontrol –cluster –EM_NODE nodename -EM_NODE_LIST node_list

To modify the existing configuration in a release 10g database, use the following command where nodename is the public name of the node and SID_list is a comma-delimited list of database system identifiers:

$ emca -reconfig dbcontrol –cluster –EM_NODE nodename -EM_SID_LIST SID_list

This command reconfigures the current Database Control setup and performs the following actions in sequence:

1. Starts a Database Control Console on nodename, if one has not been started yet.

2. Redirects the agents monitoring the database instances in node_list (SID_list in release 10g of the database) so that they upload their data to the console running on nodename. Also, agents monitoring database instances on nodename will also upload their data to the local console. Note that if you do not enter the command options -EM_NODE or -EM_NODE_LIST (-EM_SID_LIST for release 10g of the database) at the command line, you will be prompted to enter them.

-EM_NODE defaults to the local node if it is not specified when prompted. If not specified, -EM_NODE_LIST (-EM_SID_LIST for release 10g of the database) defaults to all nodes where the database is configured.

You can use this command to start the console on multiple nodes. For instance, on an 8-node cluster with nodes node1, node2, node3, node4, node5, node6, node7, and node8, you can run the following commands in succession:

$ emca -reconfig dbcontrol –cluster –EM_NODE node1 -EM_NODE_LIST node2,node3,node4
$ emca -reconfig dbcontrol –cluster –EM_NODE node5 -EM_NODE_LIST node6,node7,node8

For release 10g databases, run the following commands in succession:

$ emca -reconfig dbcontrol –cluster –EM_NODE node1 -EM_SID_LIST sid2,sid3,sid4
$ emca -reconfig dbcontrol –cluster –EM_NODE node5 -EM_SID_LIST sid6,sid7,sid8

In this scenario, there are two Database Control consoles running, one on node1 and the other on node5. From either of these consoles, you can manage and monitor all targets in the cluster.

For information about the current cluster configuration, run the following command:

$ emca -displayConfig dbcontrol –cluster

The preceding command prompts for the database unique name for the cluster database. This will print the current configuration onto the screen, indicating the nodes that have consoles running on them and the consoles where each agent is uploading.

To configure Enterprise Manager for a newly added node of a cluster, enter the following command:

$ emca -addNode db

To configure Enterprise Manager for a new cluster instance of an administrator-managed database or Oracle ASM storage, enter the following command:

$ emca -addInst db

For Oracle Database release 11g, on cluster policy managed databases another common operation is the addition and deletion of cluster nodes. After you add a new node, you can run EMCA to configure Database Control or central agent management for that node using the command emca -addNode db. Running EMCA only configures Enterprise Manager so that you can manage the instance in a way consistent with the rest of the cluster database instances.

For Oracle Database releases 10g and 11, on cluster databases you can create and delete database instances. After you create a new instance, you can run EMCA to configure Database Control or central agent management for that instance using the command emca -addInst db. Running EMCA does not create the actual database instance; it only configures Enterprise Manager so that you can manage the instance in a way consistent with the rest of the cluster database instances.

On release 11g and later, when configuring Enterprise Manager for a new node, run the EMCA command only after you have added the node. Also, run the command from a node in the cluster that already has Enterprise Manager configured for it, because the Enterprise Manager configuration settings on the existing node are propagated to the new node when you run the command. Because the -addNode option can be used only in an Oracle RAC environment, you do not need to use the -cluster option on the command line.

After running the command emca -addNode db, enter the node name and database unique name for the node and database. For example:

Node name: node2
Database Unique Name: EM102

Similarly in releases 10g and 11g of the database, when configuring Enterprise Manager for a new instance, run the EMCA command only after you have created the instance. Also, run the command from a node in the cluster that already has Enterprise Manager configured for its associated database instance, as these configuration settings will be propagated to the new instance. Do not run this command from the node on which the new instance was created. Note that this option can be used only in an Oracle RAC environment so you do not need to use the -cluster option on the command line. After running the command emca -addInst db, enter the following information for the node and database:

Node name: node2
Database Unique Name: EM102
Database SID: EM1022

For release 11g and later, to deconfigure Enterprise Manager for a specific node you are deleting from the cluster, log in to a different node from the one you plan to delete, then use the command emca -deleteNode db. Running this command removes the Enterprise Manager configuration so that you will no longer be able to manage the instance with Enterprise Manager on that node. Ensure that you run the EMCA command before you delete the actual cluster node. Because this option can be used only in an Oracle RAC environment, you do not need to use the -cluster option on the command line.

For Oracle Database release 10g, to deconfigure Enterprise Manager for a specific database instance (typically before the database instance is deleted), use the inverse command, emca -deleteInst db. Running EMCA does not delete the database instance; it only removes the Enterprise Manager configuration so that you will no longer be able to manage the instance with Enterprise Manager.

Ensure that you run the EMCA command before you delete the actual cluster database instance. Also, ensure that you run the command from a different node and not from the node on which the database instance will be deleted. Note that this option can be used only in an Oracle RAC environment, so you do not need to use the -cluster option on the command line.

For more information, see Table 10-1 which describes EMCA command line operations.