Oracle 10g Grid Control Installation On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (RHEL3)

In this article I'll describe the installation of Oracle 10g Grid Control on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (RHEL3). The article is based on a server installation with a minimum of 2G swap and the following package groups installed:

X Window System
GNOME Desktop Environment
Editors
Graphical Internet
Text-based Internet
Server Configuration Tools
Development Tools
Administration Tools
System Tools

The Oracle 10g Grid Control allows you to monitor all aspects of your infrastructure including database and application servers. Like the Oracle9i Management Server it replaces, the grid control requires a database repository. Oracle prefer you to consider the grid control as a separate product and as such advise you to install the Oracle 9.0.1 database it comes shipped with. The reason for this unusual server version is that the grid control is built using Oracle Application Server 10g components which still rely on the 9i database for a metadata repository. Version 10.1.0.3.0 of the grid control can use a 10g database as a repository, but for most platforms there is no natural install path directly to 10g so I think it's better to stick with the product as it is shipped.

The grid control uses agents on each server to enable monitoring and interaction. As a result, once the grid control is installed it is necessary to install an agent on each server you wish to monitor. The installation of an agent is described in it's owner section. All other tasks relate only to the grid control.

Download Software
Unpack Files
Hosts File
Set Kernel Parameters
Setup
Grid Control Installation
Starting and Stopping Grid Control Services
Agent Installation
Starting and Stopping Agent Services
Issues

Download Software

Download the following software:

For convenience you may want to download the agent distribution separately. If you are monitoring servers on different platforms the relevant agents must be downloaded.

Unpack Files

First unzip the grid control installation files:

gunzip linux_grid_control_10_1_0_2_Disk1.cpio.gz
gunzip linux_grid_control_10_1_0_2_Disk2.cpio.gz
gunzip linux_grid_control_10_1_0_2_Disk3.cpio.gz

Next unpack the contents of the files:

cpio -idmv < linux_grid_control_10_1_0_2_Disk1.cpio
cpio -idmv < linux_grid_control_10_1_0_2_Disk2.cpio
cpio -idmv < linux_grid_control_10_1_0_2_Disk3.cpio

You should now have four directories (Disk1, Disk2 & Disk3) containing installation files.

Next unzip the grid control patch:

unzip p3731593_10103_LINUX.zip

You should now see a directory called "3731593" which contains a Disk1 directory.

Hosts File

The /etc/hosts file must contain a fully qualified name for the server:

<IP-address>  <fully-qualified-machine-name>  <machine-name>

Set Kernel Parameters

Add the following lines to the /etc/sysctl.conf file:

kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 2147483648
kernel.shmmni = 4096
# semaphores: semmsl, semmns, semopm, semmni
kernel.sem = 256 32000 100 142
fs.file-max = 131072
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 20000 65000
kernel.msgmni = 2878 
kernel.msgmax = 8192 
kernel.msgmnb = 65535

Run the following command to change the current kernel parameters:

/sbin/sysctl -p

Add the following lines to the /etc/security/limits.conf file:

*               soft    nproc   16384
*               hard    nproc   16384
*               soft    nofile  65536
*               hard    nofile  65536

Add the following line to the /etc/pam.d/login file, if it does not already exist:

session    required     /lib/security/pam_limits.so

Setup

Install the following packages:

# From RedHat AS3 Disk 2
cd /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS
rpm -Uvh setarch-1.3-1.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh sysstat-4.0.7-4.i386.rpm

# From RedHat AS3 Disk 3
cd /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS
rpm -Uvh openmotif21-2.1.30-8.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh ORBit-0.5.17-10.4.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh libpng10-1.0.13-8.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh gnome-libs-1.4.1.2.90-34.1.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh compat-glibc-7.x-2.2.4.32.5.i386.rpm 
         compat-gcc-7.3-2.96.122.i386.rpm 
         compat-gcc-c++-7.3-2.96.122.i386.rpm 
         compat-libstdc++-7.3-2.96.122.i386.rpm 
         compat-libstdc++-devel-7.3-2.96.122.i386.rpm

Put gcc296 and g++296 first in $PATH variable by creating the following symbolic links:

mv /usr/bin/gcc /usr/bin/gcc323
mv /usr/bin/g++ /usr/bin/g++323
ln -s /usr/bin/gcc296 /usr/bin/gcc
ln -s /usr/bin/g++296 /usr/bin/g++

Create the new groups and users:

groupadd oinstall
groupadd dba
groupadd oper

useradd -g oinstall -G dba -s /bin/ksh oracle
passwd oracle

Create the directories in which the Oracle software will be installed:

mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/oms
mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/agent
chown -R oracle.oinstall /u01

xhost +<machine-name>

# Oracle Settings
TMP=/tmp; export TMP
TMPDIR=$TMP; export TMPDIR

ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle; export ORACLE_BASE
ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/product/10.1.0/oms; export ORACLE_HOME
ORACLE_TERM=xterm; export ORACLE_TERM
PATH=/usr/sbin:/opt/IBMJava2-131/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH; export PATH
PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/dcm/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin; export PATH
PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/bin; export PATH

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/lib:/usr/lib; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
CLASSPATH=$ORACLE_HOME/JRE:$ORACLE_HOME/jlib:$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/jlib; export CLASSPATH

if [ $USER = "oracle" ]; then
  if [ $SHELL = "/bin/ksh" ]; then
    ulimit -p 16384
    ulimit -n 16384
  else
    ulimit -u 16384 -n 16384
  fi
fi

PS1="`hostname`> "
set -o emacs
set filec

Grid Control Installation

Log into the oracle user. If you are using X emulation then set the DISPLAY environmental variable:

DISPLAY=<machine-name>:0.0; export DISPLAY

Start the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) by issuing the following command in the Disk1 directory:

./runInstaller

During the installation select the appropriate ORACLE_HOME for the grid control (oms) and select the new database option. The installation will automatically install an agent in the agent home.

Once the installation is complete stop the grid control and the agent using the following commands:

/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/agent/bin/emctl stop agent
/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/oms/opmn/bin/opmnctl stopall
/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/oms/bin/emctl stop agent

Then issue the following command from the "./3731593/Disk1" directory:

./runInstaller

During the patch installation select the same ORACLE_HOME for the grid control (oms). Once complete make sure the grid control is up using the following commands:

/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/oms/bin/emctl start agent
/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/oms/opmn/bin/opmnctl startall
/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/agent/bin/emctl start agent

On completion the grid control will be available via a browser using the following style of URL:

http://<server-name>:<port>/em

The server name and port should be adjusted to the values specified in the $ORACLE_HOME/sysman/setupinfo.txt files.

Starting and Stopping Grid Control Services

To start the grid control you must start the agent and the web components in the oms home along with the agent in the agent home:

# Start everything
/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/oms/bin/emctl start agent
/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/oms/opmn/bin/opmnctl startall
/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/agent/bin/emctl start agent

# Stop everything
/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/agent/bin/emctl stop agent
/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/oms/opmn/bin/opmnctl stopall
/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/oms/bin/emctl stop agent

Agent Installation

This agent installation assumes you are using a doing an installation on a Linux machine which already has a database or application server installed. As such there are no prerequisites as they should match those of the original product installation.

First, unzip the agent installation and patch set:

gunzip linux_grid_control_agentdwn_10_1_0_2.cpio.gz
cpio -idmv < linux_grid_control_agentdwn_10_1_0_2.cpio
unzip p3731593_10103_LINUX.zip

Make an appropriate directory for the agent software to be loaded into, like:

mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/agent
chown oracle.oinstall /u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/agent

Log into the oracle user. If you are using X emulation then set the DISPLAY environmental variable:

DISPLAY=<machine-name>:0.0; export DISPLAY

Start the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) by issuing the following command in the "./linux/agent" directory:

./runInstaller

During the installation select the appropriate ORACLE_HOME for the agent (agent) and enter the machine name of the grid control server.

Once the installation is complete stop the agent using the following command:

/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/agent/bin/emctl stop agent

Then issue the following command from the "./3731593/Disk1" directory:

./runInstaller

During the patch installation select the same ORACLE_HOME for the agent (agent). Once complete make sure the agent is up using the following command:

/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/agent/bin/emctl start agent

With the installation complete the server should now be visible on the grid controls list of targets.

Starting and Stopping Agent Services

The following commands can be used to start and stop the agent:

# Start Agent
/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/agent/bin/emctl start agent

# Stop Agent
/u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.0/agent/bin/emctl stop agent

Issues

At the time of writing I noticed a few issues relating to the grid control:

As explained earlier, the grid control requires an Oracle9i (9.0.1) database. I think this is really poor since the old OMS was not subject to this restriction. I understand the reasons for this, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.
The agents can sometimes take up a considerable amount of CPU and memory. The amusing thing is they actually alert the grid control about this. I've seen this happen with agents running on both Linux and Tru64 which implies to me that there is something dodgy going on somewhere.
The normal Enterprise Manager products must be running on each server for administration to be done. By this I mean that the iasconsole and dbconsole must be running on application servers and database servers respectively. As a result you have both the agent and the local enterprise manager product using memory on each server. This can be a massive drain on server resources.

For more information see:

Enterprise Manager Grid Control Installation and Basic Configuration

Hope this helps. Regards Tim...

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