Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Comparisons
EM12c provides deep transparency to security configurations in that they can be reported, monitored, and even
compared with each other using concepts, such as
diff db1_configuration db2_configuration
Therefore the DBA could have one baseline install and compare what is different between that baseline and a
target system. This is useful because a new baseline could be provably working in a QA environment and the effects
can be monitored from that before automatically deploying the same configuration to production through EM.
As well as performing bulk comparisons, an auditor can search for a specific configuration with a specific
parameter using wildcards.
SQL user-defined reporting allows direct PL/SQL against the repository DB by a user with EM interface access,
and the reports can then run automatically using invoker's or definer's rights of the report owner. Alternatively there
are a number of pre-canned reports included.
Additionally the client configuration checker uses Activex in IE and Java to read the software installs on client
workstations. I have not used this much, and it is dependent on a supporting browser.
More interestingly, EMC12 is able to use root privilege at the OS level as well as on the DB and application server,
so it is a very powerful admin tool.
The EM data is by default refreshed on a 24-hour basis so it is usually looking at old data. A manual upload of new
data from hosts and databases can be invoked using the following command:
./emctl upload agent
emctl status agent
Remember to start OMS
after
the listener and OMR database. This is a hard dependency as the OMS will not start
if the other two components are not available.
EM's primary function originates from monitoring for both performance and security. EM12c can compare on
the basis of these metrics as well as by the configurations that are set in the target DBs being compared.
Comparing Configurations
To compare the configurations of two separate target databases, as shown in Figure
17-2
, carry out the following:
Global menu > Targets > choose targetA > Host submenu > configuration > compare
