Many of us would have come across RDA (Remote Diagnostic Agent) while working on a ticket with Oracle support. In case you have not heard about it, I would recommend to go through Metalink Note:314422.1 – Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA) 4 – Getting Started
RDA captures System Information such as OS,Hardware Details (like number of CPU and amount of RAM),OS error log,OS Monitoring tool output (like vmstat,TOP,etc). This can be handy in case you do not know the command or the location of the OS logs.Similary you can find Database version,Database Patch inventory,Database Alert log and trace files.
This can help save lot of time as you need not remember all OS commands to capture the information.
Similarly RDA also collects Database Performance Statistics like OS Statistics (CPU,Memory and Disk I/O Stats) along with TOP SQL, Locking and Latch statistics. In case of 10g, it generates AWR Report (60 mins) and ADDM report based on captured Snapshots. All this information can be helpful for diagnosing a Performance Problem.
There is one more use of RDA which not many people are aware of. i.e RDA Health Check / Validation Engine (HCVE). HCVE Engine can be used to perform Pre-Install checks for Oracle Database and Oracle Application server on Unix system (At time of writing this article, this functionality is not available on windows)
To run this , you need to execute rda.sh -T hcve e.g I need to validate if I can install Oracle 10gR2 on my OEL4 (Linux x86).
$ ./rda.sh -T hcve Processing HCVE tests ... Available Pre-Installation Rule Sets: 1. Oracle Database 10g R1 (10.1.0) PreInstall (Linux-x86) 2. Oracle Database 10g R1 (10.1.0) PreInstall (Linux AMD64) 3. Oracle Database 10g R1 (10.1.0) PreInstall (IA-64 Linux) 4. Oracle Database 10g R2 (10.2.0) PreInstall (Linux AMD64) 5. Oracle Database 10g R2 (10.2.0) PreInstall (IA-64 Linux) 6. Oracle Database 10g R2 (10.2.0) PreInstall (Linux-x86) 7. Oracle Database 11g R1 (11.1.0) PreInstall (Linux AMD64) 8. Oracle Database 11g R1 (11.1.0) PreInstall (Linux-x86) 9. Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4) PreInstall (Linux) 10. Oracle Application Server 10g R2 (10.1.2) PreInstall (Linux) 11. Oracle Application Server 10g R3 (10.1.3) PreInstall (Linux AMD64) 12. Oracle Application Server 10g R3 (10.1.3) PreInstall (IA-64 Linux) 13. Oracle Application Server 10g R3 (10.1.3) PreInstall (Linux-x86) 14. Oracle Portal PreInstall (Generic) Available Post-Installation Rule Sets: 15. Oracle Portal PostInstall (generic) 16. RAC 10G DB and OS Best Practices (Linux) 17. Data Guard PostInstall (Generic) Enter the HCVE rule set number Hit 'Return' to accept the default (1) <strong>> 6</strong> Enter value for < Planned ORACLE_HOME location or if set > Hit 'Return' to accept the default ($ORACLE_HOME) <strong>> /u01/app/oracle</strong> Test "Oracle Database 10g R2 (10.2.0) PreInstall (Linux-x86)" executed at Wed Aug 27 15:12:18 2008 Test Results ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ID NAME RESULT VALUE ===== ==================== ====== ======================================== 10 OS Certified? PASSED Adequate 20 User in /etc/passwd? PASSED userOK 30 Group in /etc/group? PASSED GroupOK 40 Input ORACLE_HOME RECORD /u01/app/oracle 50 ORACLE_HOME Valid? PASSED OHexists 60 O_H Permissions OK? PASSED CorrectPerms 70 Umask Set to 022? PASSED UmaskOK 80 LDLIBRARYPATH Unset? FAILED IsSet 100 Other O_Hs in PATH? FAILED OratabEntryInPath 110 oraInventory Permiss PASSED oraInventoryOK 120 /tmp Adequate? PASSED TempSpaceOK 130 Swap (in MB) RECORD 1051 140 RAM (in MB) FAILED 1001 150 Swap OK? FAILED InsufficientSwap 160 Disk Space OK? PASSED DiskSpaceOK 170 Kernel Parameters OK PASSED KernelOK 180 Got ld,nm,ar,make? PASSED ld_nm_ar_make_found 190 ulimits OK? FAILED StackTooSmall MaxLockMemTooSmall 200 EL4 RPMs OK? PASSED EL4rpmsOK 204 RHEL3 RPMs OK? PASSED NotRedHat 205 RHEL4 RPMs OK? PASSED NotRedHat 209 SUSE SLES9 RPMs OK? PASSED NotSuSE 212 Patch 3006854 Instal PASSED NotRHEL3 214 ip_local_port_range PASSED ip_local_port_rangeOK 220 Tainted Kernel? PASSED NotVerifiable 230 Other OUI Up? PASSED NoOtherOUI Result file: /home/oracle/rda/output/RDA_HCVE_A201DB10R2_lnx_res.htm
I also tried out option “RAC 10G DB and OS Best Practices (Linux)” which is part of Post Install but for some reason some of the components failed.
Enter the HCVE rule set number Hit 'Return' to accept the default (1) > 16 Enter the password for 'SYSTEM': Please re-enter it to confirm: Test "RAC 10G DB and OS Best Practices (Linux)" executed at Wed Aug 27 17:26:33 2008 Test Results ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ID NAME RESULT VALUE ===== ==================== ====== ======================================== 10 ORA_CRS_HOME RECORD /u01/app/crs 100 Database Name RECORD orcl 102 Database Version RECORD 10.2.0.4.0 104 Interconnect Network RECORD 106 DB Block Size RECORD 8192 108 DB File Multiblock R RECORD 16 120 Max Commit Propagati PASSED 0 130 SYS.AUDSES$ Cache Si PASSED 10000 132 SYS.IDGEN1$ Cache Si FAILED 20 <strong> 140 Parallel Execution M FAILED 2148</strong> 150 Min Parallel Servers RECORD 1 152 Min Parallel Servers FAILED 0 200 $ORA_CRS_HOME Define PASSED Found 210 Remote Access PASSED All loaded <strong> 220 _USR_ORA_DEBUG / CRS FAILED blrraclnx1:? blrraclnx2:? 230 _USR_ORA_DEBUG / ORA FAILED blrraclnx1:? blrraclnx2:?</strong> 240 rmem_max PASSED OK 250 UDP Buffer Size PASSED OK 260 wmem_max PASSED OK 270 rmem_default PASSED OK 280 wmem_default PASSED OK 290 Sysrq Magic Keys PASSED OK 300 Oracle Executable Li PASSED linked <strong> 310 hangcheck-timer FAILED blrraclnx1:Unknown blrraclnx2:Unknown 320 aio-max-size Setting FAILED blrraclnx1:Unknown blrraclnx2:Unknown</strong> 330 Memory (32-bit) PASSED OK <strong> 340 Swap (32-bit) FAILED [blrraclnx1:]Swap<2RAM [blrraclnx2:]S..></strong> 350 Swap (64-bit) PASSED OK 360 Patch List PASSED Complete Result file: /home/oracle/rda/output/RDA_HCVE_P400RAC_lnx_res.htm
We can find details about prescribed values at
https://metalink.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/docs/HCVE_P400RAC_lnx.htm
e.g To fix SYS.IDGEN1$ Cache Size, we need to set cache size for sequence SYS.IDGEN1$ greater than or equal to 10,000.
SQL> alter sequence SYS.IDGEN1$ cache 10200; Sequence altered.
Now we see that SYS.IDGEN1$ requirement is passed
<strong>132 SYS.IDGEN1$ Cache Si PASSED 10200</strong>
Refer Note:250262.1 – RDA 4 – Health Check / Validation Engine Guide for more information on HCVE.