Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 7
Diagnosing the Oracle Database
Appliance
The Oracle Database Appliance (ODA) is a self-sufficient device, and care has been taken to provide a variety of
checks and balances to allow for optimal operation of the appliance, as well as the databases that reside on it. It is very
important to understand the diagnostic capabilities built into the Appliance itself and apply them as needed to solve
various trivial and nontrivial activities.
The ODA now has had two hardware iterations and multiple software iterations to improve and add various
features. The ODA software updates have brought together many diagnostic capabilities. Some have been added
to the standard Oracle Appliance Kit (OAK) command set, whereas others are accessible via preinstalled tools and
through capabilities available in the hardware and the operating system. We will be looking at bare-metal appliance
install diagnostics in this chapter. Virtualization diagnostics will be covered in Chapter 10.
ODA diagnostics can be looked at in two ways:
•
Proactively
•
Reactively
This chapter will look at various techniques available to the ODA admin team to understand and debug various
issues. Database-related diagnosis is not in the scope of this topic, and all standard database monitoring and
diagnostics techniques still apply to a database running on the ODA.
Proactive Diagnostics
An ODA is a server, and as such it is very important that care be taken in handling and performing various functions
on the device. There are multiple ways to proactively ensure that the ODA is performing to the satisfaction of the
customer. Oracle provides a set of one-button utilities that are embedded in the OAK framework. OAK provides a
complete set of utilities to allow users to perform various activities, from deployment to diagnostics. It is discussed in
detail in various chapters of this topic.
Validation
The first set of diagnostics that we will look at is validation. The ODA comes with prebuilt validation functionality
that has evolved with each version of the software. Validation is the first step in proactive diagnostics and should
be executed at install, and then again after every software patch or change to ensure that the system is performing
as expected. A baseline should be established and maintained to ensure consistency is there. Depending on the
workload and the version of software on the ODA, there might be additional validation built into the utility as the
platform matures.
