Database Support

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Exalogic Managing Machine - Part 7

Dear Readers,

My name is Franz Devantier, creator of this blog. I am an Oracle Certified Professional (OCP DBA 11g) Security DBA. I will be sharing with you the basic duties of an Oracle DBA, and also some of the undocumented, and not so well known tasks.

I will make a deal with you: If you refer me to a company that needs database support, from a few hours per week to full time, and I am able to sign a contract with them.

Then I will give you 10% of the monthly contract or deal price every month. When the contract ends, and we re-sign the contract, I will again give you 10% of the monthly contract price. This will go on until the company no longer employs or contracts me or my agents to look after their databases.

I can do this, because that 10% is my marketing budget. When we re-sign the contract, in the future, it may depend on you giving the thumbs up again, and that is worth 10% of the monthly contract price, to be given to you as commission.

Contact: Franz

Exalogic Managing Machine - Part 7

Viewing the Exalogic System Report

You can also view existing reports or create new reports. The Exalogic report contains a few sections:

-> Report Parameters

-> Summary Table

-> System Control Software Table

-> Compute Nodes Table

-> Switches Table

-> Storage Appliances Table

-> Power Distribution Units Table

-> Validation Table

Report Parameters

The Report Parameters section will display the name and the model of the Exalogic system. It will also display the number of assets in the rack, by their types, as for example Compute nodes, switches, storage Nodes in the System.

Summary Table

The Summary Table is a list of all the detailed tables in the full report. It will also display the number of records for each detail table.

System Control Software Table

The System Control Software table has a list of points that it lists:

-> Exalogic Control software components

-> Versions of Exalogic control software components

-> Descriptions

-> Names of VMs running Exalogic Control

-> Names of Oracle VM Servers hosting Exalogic Control VMs

Compute Nodes Table

The rack setup is displayed in the Compute nodes tables, which has the following entries:

-> Type of Asset

-> Name of asset or compute node

-> Firmware version, such as the BIOS, and the service processor, and the HCA adapter

-> Version and location of the asset in the rack

Switches Table

The switches tables displays the information that is relevant to the switch, such as:

-> The name of the switch node

-> Type of switch

-> Firmware version

-> Location of the switch in the rack

-> Slot number where it is placed

Storage Appliances Table

The Storage Appliances table, displays information relevant to the appliances such as:

-> Name of the compute Node

-> Version of the service processor firmware

-> Location of the appliance with the slot number

-> Where it is placed in the rack

Power Distribution Units Table

The table displays the Power Distribution Units (PDUs) and their firmware version.

Validation Table

This table will display the validation result of the rack. A baseline check is performed against the known schema for the rack. The “Expected Component” displays the expected component, only if the placed component in the slot does not match the schema, when the baseline check is performed.

Franz Devantier,

Need a database health check, or a security audit?

devantierf@gmail.com

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Monday, June 3, 2013

Exalogic Managing Machine - Part 6

Dear Readers,

I will make a deal with you: If you refer me to a company that needs database support, from a few hours per week to full time, and I am able to sign a contract with them.

Contact: Franz

Exalogic Managing Machine - Part 6

Creating and Viewing Exalogic Reports

Not only can you look at the photorealistic view of the server, but you can also look at reports to view the Exalogic rack setup. Such reports will include information about your assets, such as the job history, firmware versions, OS updates, and problems. You can choose to have your reports in PDF format or in CSV format. You can export your reports, or use the report to launch jobs on targeted assets.

Creating an Exalogic System Report

To create an Exalogic report from the Exalogic Control center, you will need to complete a few steps:

1.) Firstly, on the Navigation pane, click on “Reports”, then click on “Exalogic System Report”.

2.) On the Actions pane, click on “Create Exalogic System Report”. This will bring up and display the “Create Exalogic System Report” wizard.

In the “Define Report Parameters” window, you will fill in a few fields.

-> Report Name: Enter a name for the report

-> Description: Enter a short description of the report

-> Schedule: There is a check box for you to click if you want to run the report later on, or on a recurring basis or schedule.

-> Output Format: check the CSV box, or the PDF box or both.

3.) Click on the “Next” button to proceed. Because you checked the schedule box, the schedule screen will be displayed.

On the Schedule window, you will need to select one of the following options.

-> Now: Create the report job and run immediately

-> At a later date/time: Create and run the report job at a specific time

-> On a Recurring Schedule: Create and run the report job at a set time, and at a set interval.

. Select the Start time

. Select the end time

. Select the number of hours between reports, to create the intervals

4.) Click the “Next” button. The summary screen is displayed

5.) Review the Summary, and then click on “Run and Close”

You could also have clicked on “Save Template and Close”, instead of “Run and Close”. In this way you will save the report template. You can use the report template later to run similar reports.

Franz Devantier,

Need a database health check, or a security audit?

devantierf@gmail.com

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Sunday, June 2, 2013

Exalogic Managing Machine - Part 5

Dear Readers,

I will make a deal with you: If you refer me to a company that needs database support, from a few hours per week to full time, and I am able to sign a contract with them.

Contact: Franz

Exalogic Managing Machine - Part 5

Viewing the Photorealistic Representation of Exalogic Machine

The photorealistic view is a representation of the Exalogic physical rack. The front and the rear views of the rack are displayed in this view. You can see the rack layout with all of its components. All the slots and the respective assets are accurately displayed. Each asset in the rack is represented by an image.

The health status of the assets, such as “OK”, “Warning”, or “Critical”, are displayed in the form of coloured lights, that match the physical rack, almost like a photograph. This means that you don’t have to physically be in front of the machine, in order to see how it is running. You could be some distance away from the physical machine, and still see a photorealistic representation of the health status of the assets. The OK status is shown in green, whilst the warning and critical statuses are shown in yellow. You can hover the mouse over the slots in the rack to view information about the health etc of the specific assets.

The type of information that you can view by hovering the mouse over the slot, is the:

-> Slot number

-> Asset name

-> Description

-> Type of asset

-> Model number of the asset

-> The health status of the asset

A question mark in any of the slots indicates a discrepancy from the baseline chack.

To see the photorealistic view of the rack, there are a few steps to perform:

1.) ON the Navigation plane, under Assets, select Exalogic Systems

2.) Select a rack that you want to view

3.) In the center pane, click on the Details Tab

Now a photorealistic view of the rack will be displayed for you.

Franz Devantier,

Need a database health check, or a security audit?

devantierf@gmail.com

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Saturday, June 1, 2013

Exalogic Managing Machine - Part 4

Dear Readers,

I will make a deal with you: If you refer me to a company that needs database support, from a few hours per week to full time, and I am able to sign a contract with them.

Contact: Franz

Exalogic Managing Machine - Part 4

Infrastructure Networks

If you click on the Networks tab, then you will get the information for the infrastructure networks that are used in the Exalogic machine for communication between the different Exalogic Control Components, and vServers in the Exalogic vDC.

For each infrastructure network you will find the following information:

-> Network Name: This displays the name of the managed network

-> Network CIDR: This displays the type of asset.

-> Partition Key: This displays the partition of the port.

-> IP Range: This specifies the minimum and maximum boundaries of the IP addresses assigned to the network.

-> Roles: This displays the role.

-> Network Connectivity Table: The network connectivity section displays the infrastructure networks with IPs assigned to the individual hardware components of the Exalogic system.

-> Network Name:

-> Asset Type:

Viewing Unassigned Incidents and Alerts

You can click on the final Tab on the center pane, the Incidents Tab. On this page you can view all the unassigned incidents and alerts in your Exalogic system.

You can view all the incidents from this screen. You can also take actions to resolve them from this screen.

Viewing the Exalogic Machine Rack

You can view the Exalogic System Rack, the visualization of the rack or the physical layout, aggregated rack components. You can look at energy data, and other rack details. As the Exalogic system admin, you can drill down to any asset contained in the rack, such as a compute node, a storage node, a switch, a PDU, and then you can drill down further from that component.

To get to the view of the Exalogic System rack, you need to complete a few steps.

-> On the Navigation pane, under Assets, select Exalogic Systems.

-> Then you must select one of the racks that you want to view. You will see displayed the:

. rack ID

. Description of the rack

. Schematic view of the assets with the rack.

-> Then you can select one of the displayed components of the asset in the rack and view the asset details.

Franz Devantier,

Need a database health check, or a security audit?

devantierf@gmail.com

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Friday, May 31, 2013

Exalogic Managing Machine - Part 3

Dear Readers,

I will make a deal with you: If you refer me to a company that needs database support, from a few hours per week to full time, and I am able to sign a contract with them.

Contact: Franz

Exalogic Managing Machine - Part 3

Viewing Exalogic System Information

We have navigated to the Exalogic systems view, and from that pane in the center of the page we are now going to click on the Details tab.

On the details tab, you will be able to view the following information about your Exalogic System:

. Machine Name

. Description

. Model

. Number of Racks

. Number of compute nodes

. Number of storage nodes

. Number switches

. Number of power distribution units

. Number of fabrics

You may also see information about the Master Subnet Manager.

In the Tags pane on the right hand side, you will see details on the Tags, with their respective values. There is also a facility to search for a specific Tag.

Viewing Exalogic Control Information

To view the Controls information in Exalogic Control, you can click on the Controls Tab on the center pane. You will see information there about:

. Software name of Exalogic software components.

. Version of these software components.

. Description of these software components.

. Names of the virtual machines that are hosting the Exalogic components.

. Names of the Oracle VM (OVM) servers that are hosting these virtual machines.

You can double click on any of the Exalogic components in the table to view the dashboard for that component. This table is useful in helping to identify where the Exalogic Control Software components are running in your Exalogic machine. There is a refresh icon, above the list on the right hand side, if required.

Viewing Infrastructure Networks

You can also click on the Networks tab to view information abut the infrastructure networks and about Network connectivity. There is a lot of information provided. At the top is a table containing the data for the Infrastructure Networks. At the bottom is the table for Network connectivity, which also provides a lot of information.

Franz Devantier,

Need a database health check, or a security audit?

devantierf@gmail.com

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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Exalogic Managing Machine - Part 2

Dear Readers,

I will make a deal with you: If you refer me to a company that needs database support, from a few hours per week to full time, and I am able to sign a contract with them.

Contact: Franz

Exalogic Managing Machine - Part 2

Viewing System Summary, Membership Graph, and Status

Ok, so you have clicked on the Dashboard tab on the center pane, and you can see the following information about your Exalogic machine.

-> System Summary

-> Membership Graph

-> System Status

System Summary Section

The summary section is also the top section, or at the top of the page. You will see the name of the Exalogic machine. Also in this section you will see the description of name of the system identifier. The number of racks that are part of the system. On the right hand side is a summary of the number of unassigned incidents. There are three unassigned incident icons which represent: Critical incidents(Red), Warning incidents(Amber), and information incidents(Blue). These incidents originate from all the assets that belong to the Exalogic racks.

Membership Graph Section

The membership graph section or the middle section displays the Exalogic system as a hierarchy of its components. It shows the relationship between the Oracle Virtual Machine (OVM) Manager, the physical InfiniBand fabric, and the hardware that is stored in the rack. InfiniBand is a switched fabric communications link that is used in high performance computing and enterprise data centers, and also in the Exalogic Elastic Cloud System. You can navigate to any asset by double clicking on the asset in the membership graph.

With the controls on the top right of the graph pane, you can change the view of the graph to either a horizontal or a vertical orientation. You can refresh the view by clicking on the refresh Icon for the web page. There is also a control to change the depth of the graph or the size of the images, ie either bigger or smaller.

System Status Section

The bottom section or pane is the System Status Section. Here is a display of the total unassigned incidents in chart format on the left hand side. On the right hand side is a listing of the recent incidents encountered by the Exalogic system. This is listed in table format, with the following columns:

->Severity: The severity column displays the severity of the incident, with Blue, amber, and red icons.

-> State: This column displays the state of the incident.

-> ID: This column displays the incident ID, for example ‘13003’.

-> Description: This will give you a description of the incident.

-> Source: This will display the source of the incident

-> Owner: This displays the name of the owner, who reported the incident.

-> Creation Date: This column displays the date on which the incident was created.

Franz Devantier,

Need a database health check, or a security audit?

devantierf@gmail.com

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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Exalogic Managing Machine - Part 1

Dear Readers,

I will make a deal with you: If you refer me to a company that needs database support, from a few hours per week to full time, and I am able to sign a contract with them.

Contact: Franz

Exalogic Managing Machine - Part 1

The Exalogic Control, enables you to view your Exalogic machine as an appliance. You can monitor and actively manage the Exalogic hardware and fault management cycle.

The broad categories under Exalogic Management are:

-> Launching the Exalogic Control BUI

-> Navigating to Exalogic Systems

-> Viewing the Exalogic System

-> Viewing the Exalogic Machine Rack

-> Viewing the Photorealistic Representation of the Exalogic Machine

-> Creating and Viewing Exalogic Reports

Launching Exalogic Control BUI

After the Exalogic Control is started, you can access the Exalogic Control Browser User Interface (BUI), using this URL: http://<EMOC_IP>

-> <EMOC_IP> is the EoIB IP address of the Ops Center Enterprise Controller VM. This VM is a software component of Exalogic Control. For more information log into the Exalogic Control BUI as the Exalogic Systems Admin. You can also find information in the file. /opt/Exalogic/ecu/config/oc_ec.json.

http://<EMOC_IP> redirects to https://<EMOC_IP>/emoc

Navigating to Exalogic Systems

Once you are in the Exalogic BUI, go to the navigation pane. Under “Assets” select “Exalogic Systems” from the drop down list.

Viewing the Exalogic System

In Exalogic Control BUI there are four tabs on the Center pane.

. Dashboard

. Details

. Controls

. Networks

On the right hand side is the Actions pane. The actions in the Actions pane are context sensitive to the selected assets on the Navigation pane. The actions are also based on Roles, to prevent users from carryout actions that they are not authorized to do.

To view a specific Exalogic system in Exalogic Control BUI, you will follow this process. In the Navigation pane in the Center, move down to Assets, and select “Exalogic Systems” from the drop-down list. Then you will see a list of the specific Exalogic systems and you can select one of them:

After making your selection, there will be five tabs displayed in the Center pane.

. Dashboard

. Details

. Controls

. Networks

. Incidents

You should click on each of the Tabs on the center pane to view information that is contained there.

-> Dashboard: The Dashboard displays the summary of the Exalogic system, membership graph, as well as the status of the System.

-> Details: the details Tab will display the name of the Exalogic system, the description of the system, the master subnet manager address, the number of racks, the computer nodes, the storage nodes, switches, and the Power Distribution Units (PDU) present in the system.

-> Controls: The controls tab displays the Exalogic Control Software details such as the name of the software, version number, description, name of the virtual machine, and the server name.

-> Networks: The networks tab will display the infrastructure network table as well as the network connectivity table.

-> Incidents: The incidents tab displays all the incidents and alerts that have been reported in the Exalogic System.

Franz Devantier,

Need a database health check, or a security audit?

devantierf@gmail.com

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