Now Available: OVERVIEW presentation of Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control

Dear Readers,

Now Available: a brand-new OVERVIEW presentation of Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control. This is an excellent introduction to Enterprise Manager in general. Updated to latest EM 12c version.

This presentation also includes a number of slides on the Database Lifecycle Management pack, a very handy pack including database/server/OS configuration management, database provisioning and patch automation, and database change management (schema level changes and comparisons). Have a look at the presentation to get an idea of Cloud Control as well as this newly-combined powerful pack.

Download from Mediafire:

OVERVIEW presentation of Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control including DB Lifecycle Management Pack

http://www.mediafire.com/file/l25h2chvyv3ocvc/Enterprise_Manager12c_CloudControl_Overview_plus_DBLifeCycleMgmtPack.pdf

Alternatively, download from Ge.tt:

http://ge.tt/8j4CkDB?c

Includes a General introduction to Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control, recommended architecture, list of the most popular packs and a short introduction to the Application Management Suites, many slides on the Database Lifecycle Management Pack including the configuration management, provisioning, patch management and database change management aspects. Also includes slides on the new Test Data Management Pack (data subsetting) and a number of slides on Oracle and the cloud, showing cloud setup tasks for Iaas, DbaaS, and PaaS using Enterprise Manager, and on chargeback.

In all a very well-rounded presentation on Enterprise Manager that I have personally delivered to many customers/partners across ASEAN to give a solid idea of what is Enterprise Manager.

Enjoy!!

If you are based in the ASEAN region and feel your company could use any of the Enterprise Manager packs, please feel free to contact me for further details.

Regards,

Porus.

Latest Presentation: Managing Exadata with Enterprise Manager 12c

Friends,

Please see the latest presentation I have uploaded on:

Managing Exadata with Enterprise Manager 12c

http://www.mediafire.com/file/4ykp0mmu75xzceq/Managing_Exadata_with_Enterprise_Manager_12c.pdf

Alternative site for download: http://ge.tt/8ZJ9oQ9?c

I have updated this with the latest pack name changes and more slides as well so this is the most upto date presentation on this topic. Original presentation was by Deba Chatterjee and Mark Ramacher in Oracle Open World, October 2011.

Exadata DBAs will understand from this. that their machines can be managed very well with the latest Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control released recently by Oracle on October 3^rd 2011.

Packs and Options included in this presentation:

• Diagnostics/Tuning Packs

• Lifecycle Management Pack (3 EM11g packs combined in EM12c)

• Cloud Management Pack (Brand-new in EM12c)

• Data Masking Pack

• Test Data Management Pack (Brand-new in EM12c)

• Real Application Testing (RAT) DB EE Option

Using Cloud Control 12c, the client will be able to see an integrated view of all the hardware and software in the Exadata machine, with a schematic of storage cells, compute nodes and switches, and a software/system view of database systems/clusters. The client can inspect performance/availability /usage by databases /services/clusters and get software alerts on the database, cluster and ASM, as well as alerts on all hardware components. The Infiniband network and switches, so important for Exadata can be fully monitored with alerts, performance metrics and configuration standards. Storage cells can be monitored and also administered via Cloud Control. All storage cells in a database are automatically placed in a group, and you can administer the cells at the group level.

The performance of the RAC databases on Exadata can be fine tuned using the Diagnostics and Tuning pack capabilities of Enterprise Manager, these include the AWR repository, the ADDM diagnostics engine, and the SQL Tuning and SQL Access advisors. The database performance page is now Exadata aware with the performance graphs showing cell offload efficiency and cell smart scan, which are extremely powerful Exadata specific features. IO activity of other databases sharing the same storage can be examined. Exadata “smart scan” relevant info is also displayed on Real-time SQL monitoring and other SQL pages. There is also a Exadata System health page for a quick overview of availability across different time periods.

The newly-combined Lifecycle Management pack has the very useful capabilities of Configuration Management, Provisioning and Patch Automation, and Change Management. The Configuration management inventory has the version summary of all Exadata components, with the ability to compare configurations – useful in trouble shooting and to enforce configuration standards. The Patch Automation capabilities can be used to patch the multiple RAC database nodes and also the OS – a real need for automation when there are so many nodes, and the Change Management capabilities of the Lifecycle Management pack can be used to seamlessly propagate database schema changes across development, test and production databases. And, optionally, the Cloud Management pack for database lets you set up an internal DbaaS (Database as a service) cloud, with full self-service, metering and chargeback capabilities. The Cloud capabilities also include IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) if using Oracle VM server pools, or, if using Exalogic servers, the Cloud Management pack for Fusion Middleware lets you set up PaaS (Platform as a service).

In this presentation we also discuss the Test Data Management pack, brand new in Enterprise Manager 12c, that lets you create test or development databases with a relationally intact fraction of the production data. This reduces the storage overhead for multiple test and development copies of large databases, and is very useful in real life situations.

Enjoy the world of Managing Exadata with Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control!!

As of January 2012, this presentation has 1100+ downloads on mediafire and ge.tt on the internet.

Regards,

Porus.

How Can You Capitalize on Oracle's New Database Solutions?

How Can You Capitalize on Oracle's New Database Solutions?

You’re invited to join senior Oracle Database leaders for a live chat explaining what the latest product innovations coming out of Oracle OpenWorld mean for you and your business.

Get real-time advice and answers to your top questions:

• In-Memory Databases or Big Data?
• Engineered or DIY Systems?
• Appliances or machines?
• Private or public clouds?
• SQL or NoSQL?

Bring your database questions and learn how you’ll benefit from new product advances. Join the conversation -- register now for one of the two live sessions.

Session 1: From Oracle OpenWorld to Your Enterprise—Capitalizing on the Vision
Tues, October 18, 10am US Pacific

Session 2: From Oracle OpenWorld to Your Enterprise—Capitalizing on the Vision
Wed, October 19, 7:30am in India, 10am in China, 1pm in Sydney
(NOTE: SESSION 2 is better for APAC time zone)

Space is limited so register today using the link below:

http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=350793&s=1&k=51928AE8D947EABC86C7B629DEC6A1EC&partnerref=APACAce

Regards,

Porus.

Oracle Unveils Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control

Friends, Oracle has unveiled Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c "Cloud Control", notice the title change of this blog as well to include "Cloud Control" instead of "Grid Control"!!

Cloud Control, on which I did Beta testing as well, is a complete cloud management solution for your enterprise cloud - http://bit.ly/nAIhoJ #em12c #OOW11

The Oracle Enterprise Manager launch highlights can be viewed from http://www.oracle.com/openworld/live/on-demand/index.html

The link from the enterprise manager web page has the complete video that plays from (http://event.on24.com/view/presentation/flash/EventConsoleNG.html?uimode=nextgeneration&eventid=363130&sessionid=1&key=F84702A281E8EC9D97576E9604126690&format=fhvideo1&contenttype=A&playerwidth=1000&playerheight=650&mediametricid=772173&mode=launch&eventserver=http://event.on24.com&eventuserid=55468526&usercd=55468526&mediametricsessionid=45690682&mode=launch#

The New EM12c page is at http://www.oracle.com/enterprisemanager12c

Pricing for Enterprise Manager 12c "Cloud Control" will be announced soon on the Technology Price List, the link is http://www.oracle.com/corporate/pricing/technology-price-list.pdf Wait for the updates, some big suprises coming!!

You can also watch this new, interesting video -- The Enterprise Manager - Episode 7 : Cloud Management with Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M32RgzvUzco&feature=youtu.be

The EM 12c docs are available here: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E24628_01/index.htm

(they’re not listed on the central documentation page. This link originates from the Readme)

You can also download the zip from: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cds/E24628_01.zip

Jenny Tsai-Smith (Oracle) has mentioned "We have also created over 60+ technical videos on how to put Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c to work, please encourage your subscribers to visit http://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=44785:2:0:FORCE_QUERY::2,RIR,CIR:P2_SEARCH:EM12c%20Solution ". Thanks Jenny.

We have full DbaaS capability for databases on Exadata in this release of Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control. This will involve self-service provisioning, metering and chargeback. This will require licences of the Lifecycle Management Pack for database and the Cloud Management pack for database.

Regarding the public cloud, this is a great video on Oracle's Cloud Offering - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cAra36lgLxc

Enterprise Manager is also used heavily in Oracle's public cloud.

Enjoy the new world of Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control.

Oracle Enterprise Manager NEW VERSION Launch Event on Monday

Join Oracle Enterprise Manager launch event on Monday 3rd October at 5 PM pacific time.

Live : http://bit.ly/qC1C6y Online : http://bit.ly/rdwW9O #OOW11

Applying database and CRS patches on Exadata

A friend asked: "Could you share what is the best practise for appling rolling patches

on database, grid infrastructure and Storage cells on EXADATA environment, we

are using half rack node in our environment?"

My reply:

You can have a look at Enterprise Manager's Provisioning and Patch Automation pack,

which can automate the application of rolling patchs on database and Grid Infrastructure.

It is worthwhile to spend a few extra dollars on Enterprise Manager packs to aid

with managment of complicated Exadata machines - and EM managment of Exadata is

going to get better and better! Get the customer to agree on the management

software cost (EM). It will definitely help them in the long run. EM will be

able to centrally manage Exadata machines in the organization, find performance

issues, patch and upgrade the database, etc.

In reality, CRS/RAC patching is used extensively by Enterprise Manager Grid Control customers for RAC databases. We have had good success stories in the real world. In Exadata, there are mostly 8 nodes in the RAC database so It makes sense to use the automated patch deployment procedures in the Provisioning and Patch automation pack of Grid Control when we can have rolling patch upgrades automatically handled by the deployment procedure. It is not rocket science.

Remember to apply the OMS cumulative patches first, of course. Core DBAs should remember that this is a way to ease their manual work and their late nights, especially if CPU/PSU patches are to be applied every three months (as per Oracle recommendations) to the RAC databases. Fundamentally, give it a whirl. If the pre-reqs pass, the patching will work. If not, you can either fix the issues or do the patching manually if you prefer.

11g OCM certification achieved

Friends,

I am pleased to announce that I am now an Oracle 11g OCM (Oracle Certified Master), after passing the 1 day upgrade exam, in addition to my Oracle 10g OCM certification.

Regards,

Porus.

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.

My New EM11g Book is in stock now

I am pleased to say my first EM11g book is in stock and is being delivered now.

Thanks to all my readers for their patience. The book is not very expensive,

only $19.95 USD (30% off if ordered now).

http://www.rampant-books.com/book_1001_advanced_techniques_oem_grid_control.htm

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 database 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 and servers following an approach that is consistent and repeatable.

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.

Covers the NEW Enterprise Manager Grid Control 11g.

Regards,

Porus.

Please help this humanitarian work in India

Dear Friends,

As part of the humanitarian activities by the Enterprise Manager Blog, we like to recommend Mr. Krishnan of India who is a young humanitarian who cooks food himself and then travels on the streets of Chennai (India) to feed with his own hands, the mentally challenged people who may be lying on the streets of the city.

You can help this noble man to do his Godly work by visiting his website http://www.akshayatrust.org/and making a donation either in Indian Rupees or foreign currency.

Regards,

Porus.

Managing PeopleSoft with Enterprise Manager

Good blog post by Oracle ACE Nicolas Gasparotto on managing PeopleSoft installations with Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g.

http://gasparotto.blogspot.com/2011/04/manage-peoplesoft-with-oem-grid-control.html

Popular Webinar

Looks this was a very popular EM webinar.

There were 434 people registered for the Webcast out of whom 169 attended.

Since the live event 90 people have watched the on demand version of the Webcast. And this number is growing.

And many, many questions were asked (see the previous blog post) showing the growing interest among DBAs for Enterprise Manager technology.

Thanks to all who attended, those who watched the on demand version, and all my readers.

Regards,

Porus.

Favourite questions and answers from the EM webinar

Here are some favourite questions and answers from the EM webinar,

the answers may benefit all of you. I have put the most interesting

questions at the top.

Q. Is Oracle Enterprise Manager a licensed Product?

A. Base EM Grid Control software is free, you can install EM Grid Control on a separate server,

and then put EM agents on your target servers and start basic monitoring. When you start using the EM Packs like Diagnostics/Tuning/Config. Mgt/Change Mgt/Provisioning and Patch Automation Pack etc, you pay the licence fee per target server you use it on. For the cost please contact your local sales rep.

Regarding the difference between what is considered the licensable advanced monitoring (as opposed to basic monitoring), you can refer to the following link http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11857_01/license.111/e11987/database_management.htm#sthref12

for an idea of the features in each pack. If you use any of these features, you need the licence.

Another method to find out which pack is required is to use the + link at the bottom of the EM console, this shows what packs are required on each page.

Q. Can you give a noteID for us to follow on how to install the Oracle Enterprise managment?

A. Please see Master Note for Grid Control 11.1.0.1.0 Installation and Upgrade [ID 1067438.1], this is on My Oracle Support.

Q. How much impact is on performance if standalone Oracle Enterprise Manager

Database Control Console is running on the Database Server machine?

A. There is an impact since after all it is a JVM application running on

your database server, and as per the old rule, database servers should

not have applications on them. I recommend instead using Grid Control on

a separate non-Exadata machine and just putting agents on your Exadata

database servers.

Q. What is SQL Profile, is it a separate pack? Do we need to purchase

or is it in built with Oracle Enterprise Edition?

A. SQL Profile is a feature of the EM Tuning Pack, so you need to purchase

the Tuning Pack. You also need to get the Diagnostics pack which works to

find issues first. These packs are not included in the Oracle Enterprise

Edition database licence.

Q. In EM 10g, all components of Enterprise Manager Grid Control are bundled.

But in EM 11gR1, we need to install Oracle Database, WebLogic Server and Grid Control

separately. What is Oracle's philosophy behind this new installation scenario?

Please explain.

A. In EM 10g, database software was bundled but was often behind the current

version, for eg. 10.1 was used as the bundled database version. Serious production

users never used the budnled version since they wanted to use the more recent

database version which was better all around. So the decision was taken to

remove the bundled database software so there is no version lag issue.

Likewise for the application server software.

Q. Where can I get the Forrester report on OEM ROI ?

A. Go to http://www.oracle.com/oms/enterprisemanager11g and click on economic benefits.

Q. Where can we get the Installers for Oracle Enterprise Management?

A. From http://technet.oracle.com, please see Downloads and select Enterprise Manager.

Q. With Oracle EM 11g, Can it is possible to manage 9i, 10g DB ?

A. Yes, most definitely. You can manage all of 9i, 10g, 11g Oracle databases.

You can also manage Application Servers, Hosts and Applications etc. ie. a lot

of other things.

Q. Migrate DB from Sun V series to Sun T series (having Chip Multithread technology) shows

some batch precesses running slow. Can Enterprise manager Real Application Testing solve this type of issue?

A. Yes, definitely, also use Diagnostics and Tuning packs in addition to RAT. All three of these work together.

Q. Can I upgrade directly an existing Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control Release (10.1.0.x) to Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Grid Control Release 1 (11.1.0.1.0)?

A. Yes, upgrade is possible, Your repository and targets info will be retained. Please refer to EM documentation for the upgrade. Also see the Master Note for Grid Control 11.1.0.1.0 Installation and Upgrade [ID 1067438.1].

Q. Can we perform Databse Replay on captured workload in Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.5.0)?

A. Not Database replay at this stage for 10g Rel 2 databases. You can use SPA for this purpose right now.

Q. How can we access the previous stored sql plans in 11g?

A. Use SQL Plan Management, refer to http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b28274/optplanmgmt.htm

This requires Tuning Pack to be licenced.

Q. We are looking at setting EM as a DR also. The database repository part is easy i.e. Dataguard. How is the OMS failover handled please ?

A. There is an entire section in the documentation for this topic. Please see

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11857_01/em.111/e16790/part3.htm#sthref1164

This is the Oracle® Enterprise Manager Administration 11g Release 1 (11.1.0.1) Manual

and this is Part (Section) III of the manual: Enterprise Manager High Availability.

Q. Where can we see a list of all the EM Management Packs available?

A. Please see http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/grid-control/datasheets-091136.html which shows a list of all the EM packs and their data sheets. This page also shows a list of the Management Connectors and the System Monitoring Plug-ins available.

Q. Please give us the another slides or any imporatant doc or tech doc you have about the Change Management for Databases.

A. Definitely. Please see the datasheet

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/grid-control/overview/change-management-pack-11gr2-datash-131286.pdf

Q. what is basically diagnostics pack?

A. Please see http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/grid-control/overview/diagnostics-pack-11gr2-datasheet-134502.pdf

Q. Does OEM come with a set of comprehensive reports, particularly the DB space capacity?

A. Yes, EM Grid Control comes with many out-of box reports like space capacity. You can also add your own by copying an existing report.

Q. Can OEM manage non-Oracle database ? If yes can it manage IBM DB2 running on System i ?

A. Using Plug-Ins, Enterprise Manager can monitor non-Oracle databases like DB2. Please see

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/grid-control/overview/ds-db2-132295.pdf

However, the EM agent is not available for certain platforms like the IBM AS400.

Q. Hi, does the AWR snapshot report also need the diagnostic pack license?

A. Yes

Q. Can the diagnostics & tuning pack be disabled, if not required? As it requires a separate licence.

A. Yes it can be disabled in Enterprise Manager. In the 11g version there is also a parameter to

disable it, CONTROL_MANAGEMENT_PACK_ACCESS . But sooner or later all databases will need diagnosis and tuning.

Q. how can we automate or is there any way to automate the change management proccess in terms of disrtributed databases to stream line the meatadata accross all database?

A. Yes, it is excellent for this purpose. I suggest try out the Change Management Pack. You can shedule schema propagations across databases.

Q. Can we compare a awr report 10g with awr report 11g running the same database on different hosts in enterprise manager ?

A. Use SPA for this, which is a part of RAT option (Real Application Testing).

Q. what is main different between EM 10g and 11g

A. There are many enhancements. One example is the new tab for My Oracle Support inside EM and is fully integrated with Oracle Support. Also it now can do provisioning of Oracle database 11.2. Besides, the new version of EM is based on Weblogic server.

Q. Is there any bad impact of implementing SQL profile we are not sure whether it will enhance performance?

A. EM will tell you what is the impact of each profile, then you can decide. Normally choose a profile which will give you more than 60 to 70% gains.

Q. Is Grid Control 11g support Multiple OS like we have db on LINUX,WINDOWS,AIX ...

A. yes you can put the EM agent on multiple OS.

Q. In DB Enterprise edition default have diagnostic pack? If there need license other diagnostic pack for OEM?

A. DB Enterprise Edition by default does not include Diagnostics pack. You need to purchase this pack and Tuning Pack separately.

Q. Which version of agent will be required to manage 10g databases using 11g grid control

A. We recommend to use the EM 11g agent. Always use the latest agent as per your central EM installation version. This will help EM to use all the latest features since the agent is responsible for doing a lot of things.

Q. In this case whats the difference between Oracle Enterprise Manager and Grid Control ?

A. Database Control is only for 1 database, Grid Control is installed separately

and for multiple databases as well as application servers or applications etc.

Q. Is Real time SQL tuning only available in 11g r2 or r1?

A. Works on 11gR1 databases onwards

Q. How does the schema changes are logged how is authorised and unauthorised changes are determined

A. In a nutshell you need to set ENABLE_DDL_LOGGING at the db parameter level which requires a licence for the Change Mgt Pack. The authorized and unauthorized changes are for configuration changes which requires the Configuration Mgt Pack and also an EM Connector to ticket systems like Remedy. Then EM can see which config change is authorized or not.

Q. What does real time schema change detection mean?

A. In a nutshell you need to set ENABLE_DDL_LOGGING at the db parameter level which

requires a licence for the Change Mgt Pack. You can then track schema changes in real time

to identify unwanted or unplanned changes.

Q. Can we do an automatic backup in oracle enterprise management?

A. If you mean RMAN backups of databases, yes you can set up backups of any 9i/10g/11g db from EM and schedule it to run at any time.

Q. pls tell again is license must for ADDM?

A. Yes you have to purchase the Diagnostics pack licence for the target database even if you use ADDM at the command prompt or use the views.

Q. For change management pack what are important things for both database?

A. You only need the EM Agent installed and a licence to use the Change Management Pack on both servers. That is all.

Q. In Automatic SQL tuning, can EM creates Indexes automatically or else can it send and alert(probably thru email) stating that these are the coumns in a table that can be indexed.

A. Indexes are not created automatically, only SQL Profiles. The SQL Tuning results can be placed in a report and sent out.

Q. Is Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2) supported with Oracle Enterprise Manager 11gR1 Grid Control?

A. Yes. 11gR2 dbs are supported. For example, Grid Infrastructure Home in 11gR2 is supported in the Provisioning and Patch Automation Pack in EM 11g.

Q. Do we need to have a separate server of oracle enterprise repository?

A. Depending on number of targets and type of EM activity. For a smaller number of targets and

normal monitoring activity, you can put all components of EM on the same server. See the install guide for some sizing info.

Q. What are the benefits of Installing Enterprise Manager Patch Set Update (PSU)?

A. As normal, a PSU contains security patches and bug fixes.

Q. Hello how the performance management will have impact on the Server side?

A. Since it is inbuilt into the kernel, AWR and ADDM has minimum impact. Tuning pack may do

workload analysis when running Access Advisor so recommend to run Access Advisor in low impact periods if looking at large workloads, but in general, it is ok.

Q. Does it help to identify Network related issues?

A. Yes, using a network management plugin from Entuity. Please see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-p9rIoYe6U

Q. Does it support Cluster Management?

A. Yes, Database RAC clusters as well as application server clusters.

Q. How can we revert back to previously used sql plans

A. Use Sql Plan Management, refer to http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b28274/optplanmgmt.htm

This requires Tuning Pack to be licenced.

Q. How can I get a alert regarding the results of Automatic SQL tuning

A. When you set this up, reports are available.

Q. Can profiles be applied on development databases where code keeps on changing

A. What is the point? Most useful for production databases and staging databases, also on test databases.

Q. does oracle enterprise management same with oracle enterprise management console for windows ?

A. No, it is different. The latest version is EM 11g which you can download from technet.oracle.com, see Enterprise Manager under downloads.

Q. Does it support all type of processor?

A. Please see the EM certification matrix on My Oracle Support. The note id is

Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Certification Checker [ID 412431.1]

Q. grid or OEM is prefered for large systems?

A. EM Grid Control is recommended, the other is EM Database Control only for 1 db.

Q. Can we have multiple Instances of Oracle DB with different version in the same box?

A. Yes, place in different Oracle Homes. Oracle is quite flexible.

Q. what about ASM on oracle 11g ?

A. Yes, it can be managed by EM 11g.

Q. hi may I ask of what is the basic requirements for the OEM server like memory,HDD, cpu and memory? do I need a server type pc to install this?

A. Yes, you need a server. Guidelines for specs are in the installation manual. If there

are target servers over a certain number like 30 and performance is slow, consider increasing

number of management services ie. have a second server for Grid control.

Q. is there any way to ease and time saving process accoss data migration from production to

test database, other then traditional logical backup and recovery method?

A. Change management pack of EM will assist in schema change migration, not in data migration. You have to use database methods like data pump, RMAN backups, transportable tablespaces etc.

Q. what is spa / PA in sql?

A. SPA is SQL Performance Analyzer which is a part of RAT Real Application Testing and requires a licence. It can be used in SQL*Plus itself, please refer to the manual.

Q. How do I get trained on Oracle Exadata V2?

A. Please contact Oracle University in your city.

Q. Is oem plugins for exadata free or need to pay license?

e.g. plugin for avent KVM, cisco switch, PDU, IB switch etc thx

A. The Exadata Storage plug-in is incuded with Exadata. This monitors Exadata storage performance and availability. Monitoring things like Cisco Switch, Infiniband switch, ILOM, KVM, PDU etc require separate Plug-ins. You can download from

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/grid-control/exadata-plug-in-bundle-188771.html

These are currently free. Besides these things, you can use the main EM Packs with

Exadata, such as Diagnostics/Tuning/Config. Mgt./ Provisioning and Patch Automation/

Change Management Pack etc.

Q. Can we use Enterprise Manager for Exalogic as well?

A. You can definitely use EM for Exalogic.

For Exalogic, since it is built on WLS and Sun, you can use the following EM packs:

WebLogic Management Pack Enterprise Edition

OpsCenter Provisioning and Patch Automation

On Exalogic, with EM, you can do diagnostics, config mgt, patch automation, provisioning, cloning, testing (functional and load), and of course monitoring. You can scale up your Fusion Middleware domains. You can use EM Ops center to do the hardware monitoring.

You can also use RUEI for end user experience monitoring, which has in-built SLM.

Q. Where is an upto date list of the EM articles you have written for the Oracle Technical network?

A. You can see the updated list of EM articles I have written on this blog post:

http://enterprise-manager.blogspot.com/2011/02/latest-list-of-published-otn-articles.html

Recorded Webcast on Proactive Database Management with Enterprise Manager

Dear Readers,

I recently conducted a webcast on "Proactive Database Management with Enterprise Manager". It was attended by over 155 people from all over the world with more than 75 questions asked about Enterprise Manager, there is a lot of interest in this fantastic product. You can now watch this webcast on demand. The registration link to watch the on demand Webcast is :

http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=297321&s=1&k=1C4D0481409A8E243271EF2ECA0C3287

It will ask you to register first (free), and after you do so, it will allow you to launch the webcast.

Regards,

Porus.

News from my publisher

News from my publisher: Due to unforeseen printer-related delays for my EM Book, orders placed for the book may not have been delivered so far. The publisher is now using a new printer and expects to start delivery of my EM book very soon. If you have already placed an order, please wait another week or so for delivery. Thanks for your patience.

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

Database Application Developer Newsletter

My recent Enterprise Manager RAC provisioning article is featured in the February 2011 Database Application Developer Newsletter sent out by Oracle to thousands of subscribers this month. See attached newsletter. My article is the second one after the download link.

http://www.oracle.com/us/dm/65962-dad-nl-304424.html?msgid=3-3351742848

No one manages Oracle technology better than Oracle

There are several features in Oracle EM that third-parties do not have.

For eg., the EM Tuning pack has the SQL Profile. The SQL Profile contains auxiliary information collected by the ATO for a SQL statement and compensates for missing or stale statistics or errors in optimizer estimates, and is able to improve performance of even packaged application SQL without changing the code. No other non-Oracle software has this.

Oracle EM is also integrated with My Oracle Support in a way no other software can match and this is a big plus point.

The Application Management Suite for Oracle EBS can manage cloning, patching and customizations, in a way no other software can match. And there are App Mgt Suites for EBS, PeopleSoft and Siebel.

No one manages Oracle technology better than Oracle, and that is a fact. Management has to decide if they want to bypass all that EM has to offer, or they want to use it. It makes sense to use EM. The Oracle stack is best managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager.

For more information, please refer to my OTN article:

Overview of Oracle Enterprise Manager Management Packs

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/oem-packs-overview-195704.html

Enterprise Manager Creating Oracle Data Guard Standby for 11.2 Database with Grid user role separation

We recently had a LinkedIn discussion in which one of my friends had written:

We went down the role separation path with a grid user for storage/cluster admin that we were going to handover to our unix team and the oracle user for normal DB admin.....It turns out our Unix admins didn't want anything to do with managing ASM or GI so we'd have been better staying with it all under the oracle account. The role separation does cause it's fair share of issues. The listener being owned by the grid user is a particular problem as the oracle user can no longer reconfigure/restart the listener. This breaks a lot of the OEM provisioning functionality and causes problems when attempting to create standby databases...... a lot of manaul work arounds are needed to resolve.

My response to this was:

What he said about "Keep it simple" is right - that principle applies in any case. However just want to clarify on the issue mentioned. A little later after the comment was made, this issue was investigated further in his "My Oracle Support" SR and it was found it was a listener.ora file parsing issue - some spaces were missing in the sid_list_listener entry in the listener.ora file probably because the entry had been manually made. The person concerned himself found this out and fixed the issue. When the extra spaces were added in this line, the file parsed ok. So, there were no real issues with the EM11g Create Data Guard Standby database wizard which he was talking about (this is actually separate from EM11g Provisioning procedures). The EM Create Data Guard Standby database wizard works ok even with role separation with a grid user for the Grid Infrastructure home.