Oracle FAQ Your Portal to the Oracle Knowledge Grid
HOME | ASK QUESTION | ADD INFO | SEARCH | E-MAIL US
 

Home -> Community -> Usenet -> c.d.o.server -> Enterprise Manager/Rman Install

Enterprise Manager/Rman Install

From: Daniel Lewis <dlewis_at_voicenet.com>
Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 20:01:29 GMT
Message-ID: <tojb1.345$_3.2391673@news2.voicenet.com>


I recently installed the combination of Enterprise Manager and Rman
(Oracle Backup Manager using "rman" with a repository) as an online backup
solution in a small to medium Oracle 8 environemt. Since there were a few wrinkles in the install, I thought I would post the results.

I was looking for an online backup solution and didn't want to introduce alot of complexitiy into our environment (SunOS 5.5.1, Oracle 8.0.3.2.0, Net 80). I evalutated several solutions, ranging from scripts to the Enterprise Manager/Rman solution. Briefly, the scripts that were simple enough to be maintainable were very weak on the recovery side, and the scripts with more complexity were overlarge for my tastes.

I settled on Enterprise Manager/Rman, and while the install was fairly complex, it appears to be very stable and performs recovery quite well.

The install involved:

  1. Install Oracle 8 Enterprise Manager on a client machine (in my case, Win95)
  2. Build repositories for Enterprise Manager and Rman in an Oracle 8 instance. I had to build the Enterprise Manager repository manually, although you do have the option of building the repository right from the client. The manual build procedure is in the "Hints" section of the Enterprise Manager Adminstrator's guide. You must run "catproc.sql" on this instance since it creates the dbsnmp schema (needed for Oracle Intelligent Agent) and some procedures needed for backup.(catproc.sql calls dbmsrman.sql and dbsnmp.sql as well as other scripts)
  3. Create users for the Enterprise Manager and Rman (recovery catalog owner) account. The rman user must have the "recovery_catalog_owner" grant and must run the catrman.sql script.
  4. Set up the database for remote privileges by creating an Oracle password file (orapwd file=filename password=password entries=10) in the dbs directory. In the file initSID.ora, add the line "remote_login_passwordfile = exclusive". Shutdown the database and restart.
  5. Install SNMP on the Sun. With SunOs 5.6 the agents are included, with 5.5 you need to go to Sun's website and retrieve them
    (www.sun.com/solstice/products/ent.agents), they are a free
    download.Install using the standard Sun 'pkgadd' tool.
  6. Install Oracle Intelligent Agent on the Sun. Modify the files in $ORACLE_HOME/product/8.0.3/network/snmp/peer; the mods consist mostly of puting the machine's hostname in CONFIG.master and in the file start_peer, point to the proper location of the snmpdx (SNMPD=/usr/lib/snmp/snmpdx) and conf files (SNMPD_CONFIG=/etc/snmp/conf/snmpd.conf). There is documentation in the start_peer script and in the CONFIG.* files. There is also some documentation in $ORACLE_HOME/product/8.0.3/network/doc
    (README.oemagent).
  7. Start all agents in the proper order. Run the script 'start_peer' as root, it will start "master_peer", "encap_peer", and finally the system snmpdx. Then, start the oracle agent with "lsnrctl dbsnmp_start". This last must be done as oracle. Of course, this must be put in the system boot or database startup scripts. Note that the 'dbsnmp' agent maintains a connection to each database on the system, you must do a "lsnrctl dbsnmp_stop" before a "shutdown normal" will succeed.
  8. Now you are ready to use the Enterprise Manager client. In order to use the Oracle Backup Manager you must connect using a dedicated server process. If you are running MTS on your server (multi-threaded server) you can create an tnsnames entry for the target database (i.e. the database you are going to back up) with the specifyer (SERVER=DEDICATED) on your client PC. This will guarantee a dedicated server process, otherwise the backup utility will complain. Also, the username you are going to use in the target database must have the SYSDBA grant (requires the orapwd file and remote_login_passwordfile = exclusive as indicated above).
  9. Try a few simple jobs from Enterprise Manager, such as an OS command like 'date' or a SQL script like 'select sysdate from dual'. If you see the job become scheduled, then move to the job history tab as completed, you are pretty well done. If it fails, the error messages can be somewhat cryptic and unhelpful.
  10. BTW, the Sun system must be able to resolve your hostname and IP address, even if your Win95 machine gets its IP address dynamically. This is a little strange, I had to use a reserved address in DHCP for my Win95 machine and then add this to our DNS server. If you don't do this, the job is scheduled but never progresses. Actually the job completes but when the SNMP agent tries to send it back to your PC it cannot find your address. I discovered this after about a day of trying to figure it out, by turning on debug in the snmp agent (modify the snmp_rw.ora file according to the notes in $ORACLE_HOME/product/8.0.3/network/doc/README.oemagent).
  11. You will need to create a user account on the UNIX machine and register this username/password in the Enterprise Manager "Preferences" window. Also, you must register usernames/passwords for the databases you are submitting jobs to.

If you need to do an export, for example, the user account on the UNIX box must have write permission in the destination directory of the expdat.dmp file. If the user does not have write permission, the error messages are very cryptic, as I recall they say 'Failed to authenticate user'.

  1. In order to back up to tape, you need a MML library (media management library) for your architecture. Our local Sun rep had never heard of any such product. In order to backup to disk (as I am doing) you don't need any special drivers. (If anyone knows where to get a MML for Sun, please let me know).

Thats it, 12 easy steps, once installed it works great! I was able to delete datafiles from a running (throw-away) instance and upon shutdown & startup, Enterprise Manager and Backup Utility recovered with no problems. I have an ordinary Unix cron job that archives the backup directory to tape (since I am backing up to disk).

I would appreciate any comments on these install notes; also I should add that I am available for short or longer-term contracting assignments in the Philadelphia area.

thanks,
Dan Lewis (dlewis_at_voicenet.com) Received on Thu May 28 1998 - 15:01:29 CDT

Original text of this message

HOME | ASK QUESTION | ADD INFO | SEARCH | E-MAIL US