Setting up the Monitoring Environment Oracle Application Server Tips by Burleson Consulting

Because the bulk of Oracle9iAS systems run in a UNIX environment, this section will focus on establishing a server monitoring environment in UNIX. We will begin by learning how to establish a standard Oracle9iAS server environment and then look at capturing Oracle9iAS server performance data.

Establishing a Standard Oracle UNIX User Environment

Because an Oracle9iAS enterprise may consist of dozens of servers, it is important to the Oracle9iAS administrator to establish a common environment for the oracle user on each server.  The oracle user is the owner of all of the Oracle9iAS software and has full privileges to all Oracle9iAS command-line utilities. When each server has a common prompt, common aliases and common shell and editing settings, the management of Oracle9iAS is greatly simplified.

In UNIX, the environment is established by the login file.  The /etc/passwd file contains the location of the login file and the default shell for the user.  The default location for the login file is the default directory for the oracle user.  The name of the login file depends upon the shell specified in the /etc/passwd file.  If the default shell is Korn Shell (ksh) them the login file is called .profile.  If you specify the C shell (csh), then your login file is called .cshrc.

The columns in /etc./passwd are separated with a colon (:) and include:

• User name - In our case we are interested in the oracle user

• Password ? This is an encrypted value, and is often stored in a shadow file in /etc/shadow

• User number ? This is a distinct number for each UNIX user

• User group ? The oracle user is kept in the dba group

• Name ? This is the name of the user

• Home directory ? This is the home directory for the Oracle user, and you will be placed into this directory at login time

• Default shell ? This is the shell that will determine the name of your login file

Here is a sample /etc/passwd file.

root> cat /etc/passwd|grep oracle

oracle:KChstVXg:110:20:Oracle9ias software owner:/u01/app/oracle:/bin/ksh

Here we see that the oracle user is user ID 110, and that the dba group is group 20.  The home directory is /u01/app/oracle and the shell is Korn Shell (ksh), indicating that the login file is /u01/app/oracle/.profile. Now that we know the name of the login file, let?s examine a standard login file for the oracle user.

A standard login file for Oracle users

Here is a good sample login file for Korn shell Oracle9iAS systems.  Note that this login file sets all of the PATH and ORACLE_HOME locations, sets default editor and display values, and sets handy alias names.

.profile.ksh
#!/bin/ksh

#***********************************************************
#  DO NOT customize this .profile script.
#  The directive below will allow to you add customizations
#  to the .kshrc file.  All host-specific profile customizations
#  should be placed in the .kshrc file.
#***********************************************************
umask 022

DBABRV=ora; export DBABRV

ORACLE_TERM=vt100; export ORACLE_TERM

TERM=vt100; export TERM

wout=`who am i`

#DISPLAY=`expr "$wout" : ".*(\([0-9]*\.[0-9]*\.[0-9]*\.[0-9]*\))"`
DISPLAY="${DISPLAY}:0"; export DISPLAY

ORAENV_ASK=NO; export ORAENV_ASK

export EDITOR=vi

NLS_LANG='english_united kingdom.we8iso8859p1'; export NLS_LANG 

ORA_NLS33=$ORACLE_HOME/ocommon/nls/admin/data; export ORA_NLS33

JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/jre; export JAVA_HOME

ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/9.2.0; export ORACLE_HOME

PATH=.:$PATH:.;$ORACLE_HOME/dcm/bin/:$ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/home/:$ORACLE_HOME/ldap/bin/
:$ORACLE_HOME/ldap/odi/admin/:$ORACLE_HOME/oca/bin/:$ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin/:$ORACLE_HOME/
portal/admin/plsql/sso/:$ORACLE_HOME/sso/lib/:$ORACLE_HOME/uddi/lib/:$ORACLE_HOME/
upgrade/:$ORACLE_HOME/wireless/bin/

#*****************************************************************
# Keyboard
#*****************************************************************
stty erase ^?
set -o vi
#*****************************************************************
# Standard UNIX Prompt
#*****************************************************************
ORACLE_SID=iasdb; export ORACLE_SID
PS1="
`hostname`*\${ORACLE_SID}-\${PWD}
>"
export PS1

#*****************************************************************
# Aliases
#*****************************************************************

# Oracle database aliases
alias alert='tail -100 $DBA/$ORACLE_SID/bdump/alert_$ORACLE_SID.log|more'
alias arch='cd $DBA/$ORACLE_SID/arch'
alias bdump='cd $DBA/$ORACLE_SID/bdump'
alias cdump='cd $DBA/$ORACLE_SID/cdump'
alias pfile='cd $DBA/$ORACLE_SID/pfile'
alias udump='cd $DBA/$ORACLE_SID/udump'
alias rm='rm -i'
alias sid='env|grep -i sid'
alias admin='cd $DBA/admin'
alias logbook='/u01/app/oracle/admin/$ORACLE_SID/logbook'
# Oracle9iAS aliases
alias dcmlib=?$ORACLE_HOME/dcm/bin/?
alias j2eelib=?$ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/home/?
alias ldaplib=?$ORACLE_HOME/ldap/bin/?
alias odilib=?$ORACLE_HOME/ldap/odi/admin/?
alias ocalib=?$ORACLE_HOME/oca/bin/?
alias opmnlib=?$ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin/?
alias ssolib=?$ORACLE_HOME/portal/admin/plsql/sso/:$ORACLE_HOME/sso/lib/?
alias uddilib=?$ORACLE_HOME/uddi/lib/?
alias upgradelib=?$ORACLE_HOME/upgrade/?
alias wirelesslib=?$ORACLE_HOME/wireless/bin/?

Note that the UNIX PS1 variable determines the UNIX prompt.  Let?s take a closer look.

Create a uniform UNIX prompt

Placing the following code snippet in your oracle user login file will give you a standard UNIX prompt that identifies your current server name, the database name you?re environment is set for (i.e. the value of your $ORACLE_SID UNIX variable), and your current working directory. This standard prompt makes it very easy to know where you are when navigating UNIX, and it also ensures that you know where you are located at all times.

unix_prompt.ksh
#*****************************************************************
# Standard UNIX Prompt
#*****************************************************************
PS1="
`hostname`*\${ORACLE_SID}-\${PWD}
>"

This standardized Oracle UNIX prompt has the advantage of displaying the server name, the ORACLE_SID and the current directory.  The best feature of the standard command prompt is that it also places the command prompt on the next line so you can have a full 80 characters to type UNIX commands:

cheops*CCPRO-/home/oracle
>pwd

/home/oracle

cheops*CCPRO-/home/oracle
>cd /u01/oradata/CPRO

cheops*CCPRO-/u01/oaradata/CPRO
> 

This is an excerpt from "Oracle 10g Application Server Administration Handbook" by Don Burleson and John Garmany.