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Oracle® Enterprise Manager Concepts 10g Release 2 (10.2) Part Number B16241-01 |
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# 15 Host and Third-Party Target Management

Today's IT infrastructure has evolved to include a variety of server platforms from different vendors such as Red Hat, SUSE, Sun, IBM, HP, and Windows. A typical enterprise also contains hardware components and applications from a number of vendors to run services, provide storage, perform load balancing, and control IP traffic.

Out-of-box, Enterprise Manager Grid Control allows you to centrally manage more than just your Oracle infrastructure:

- Monitor and maintain the operating system and hardware for the hosts running your Oracle software.

- Monitor IBM and BEA application servers and clusters, F5 Server Load Balancers, Network Appliance Filers.

This chapter contains the following major sections:

- Host Management

- Third-Party Target Management

## Host Management

With the array of available server platforms, it becomes more and more difficult for system administrators to maintain the operating systems and hardware for the server, or host, on which Oracle software runs. With Grid Control, as soon as a Management Agent is deployed to the host, Grid Control automatically starts monitoring alert and configuration information for that machine. System administrators—and anyone who requires host information, such as DBAs managing databases on those hosts—benefit from Grid Control's host management feature.

Note: To access the host management pages in Grid Control, do the following: Click the Targets tab. Click the Hosts subtab. This will display all the monitored hosts in your enterprise. Click the Help link on any page to access the Grid Control online help system.

Host management allows users to:

- Analyze performance trends for host hardware to predict future performance

- Measure service levels by monitoring host performance in real-time

- Validate software and hardware configuration across the enterprise

### Monitoring Hosts

Like for other managed targets, Grid Control's full suite of monitoring features, including alerts, custom notifications, blackouts, corrective actions, monitoring templates, and more, are available for hosts.

See Also: Chapter 4, "System Monitoring" for a complete description of Grid Control's monitoring features

#### Host Home Page

The Host Home page provides an overview of the status and vital statistics for each host that is part of the Grid Control environment.

Grid Control consolidates the relevant host information into a convenient single-screen Host Home page. You can see the availability, key configuration information, and outstanding alerts, as well as other pertinent information about the host. Convenient links allow you to view all the metrics collected for the host, change the thresholds as appropriate, or directly log in to the host to perform administrative actions.

Using the Host Home page, you can do the following:

- Drill down to view detailed metrics

- View operating system, hardware, and other configuration information for the host

- View policy violations and alerts for the host

- Analyze the job activity

- Determine whether there are outstanding patch advisories

- Determine the last security evaluation of the host

- Navigate to other pages to help you investigate the health of the host

Figure 15-1 Host Home Page

#### Host Performance Page

The Host Performance page provides an overview of the utilization statistics (CPU, Memory, Disk I/O, and Program Resource Utilization) for an individual host. Choose one of these options from the View menu. With this information, system administrators can determine whether resources need to be added or redistributed. You can also view the top processes consuming the most CPU or Memory and take appropriate action.

The performance metrics that are collected out-of-box for the host span several different categories: CPU Usage (including idle, wait, and user times), Disk Activity (including Average Disk I/O rate), and Network Interface Activity, among others. You can also view real-time metrics such as buffer activity.

Using the Performance page, you can:

- View various utilization charts by selecting an option in the View menu. Related metrics are also displayed under the charts. Click a metric link to view the metric in more detail.

- View the processes that are using the most CPU or memory resources.

- View performance data in real-time, or historical data over defined periods.

Figure 15-2 Host Performance Page

#### Host Configuration Page

The Host Configuration page lists not only operating system and hardware configuration information, but all Oracle software and operating-system registered software on the host as well. You can also compare configurations for single or multiple hosts.

See Also: "Hardware and Software Configurations" in Chapter 6, "Managing Deployments"

#### Operating System Details

Enterprise Manager Grid Control surfaces key operating system-level information for hosts. You can obtain general information about the operating system, such as the distributor and the version. You can also drill-down for specific information such as system properties, file systems, and operating system-level packages. This information helps when troubleshooting performance problems that arise because of configuration issues.

Note: To access the Operating System Details page: From the Hosts subtab, select a host target. From the Host Home page, click the Operating System link under Configuration.

Figure 15-3 Host Operating System Details Page

The File Systems page includes information about the various mount points for the host, type of mount point, time of the mount, and the directory where the file system is mounted.

The Packages page lists all of the operating system packages installed on the host.

#### Hardware Details

The Hardware Details page allows you to view the CPU, I/O, and Network Interfaces associated with the host. It also helps the user keep track of the hardware changes that occur over time. The type of operation (INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE) and the category of the hardware that is updated are reflected on this page.

Note: To access the Hardware Details page: From the Hosts subtab, select a host target. From the Host Home page, click the Hardware Platform link under Configuration.

Figure 15-4 Host Hardware Details Page

#### Log File Monitoring

Grid Control monitors the log files for the occurrence of operator-specified patterns. Use this facility to monitor abnormal conditions recorded in the log files present on the host.

Log files are periodically scanned for the occurrence of desired patterns and an alert is raised when the pattern occurs during a given scan. During a scan, new content created since the last scan is searched for the occurrence of the desired patterns. Use this page to view, clear, and purge open alerts generated during log file monitoring.

Note: To access the Log File Alerts page: From the Hosts subtab, select a host target. From the Host Home page, click the Log File Alerts link under Related Links.

See Also: "Configuring Generic Log File Monitoring Criteria" in Grid Control online help

#### Program Resource Utilization Monitoring

Enterprise Manager allows you to track resource use for programs and users. For example, you can track CPU usage by user, by program, or a combination of the two.

The Program Resource Utilization page provides a quick glimpse of the programs being monitored on this host. With this information, you can see trends in resource usage for:

- A specific program or set of programs

- A specific user or set of users

- A combination of programs and users

Note: To access the Program Resource Utilization page: From the Hosts subtab, select a host target. From the Host Home page, go to the Performance page. From the Host Performance page, select Program Resource Utilization from the View menu. You can also access the page from the All Metrics page for that host.

See Also: "Configuring Program Resource Utilization Monitoring Criteria" in Grid Control online help

#### File and Directory Monitoring

Enterprise Manager monitors the files and directories for the operator-specified criteria on hosts running various versions of the UNIX operating system. The operator should configure the criteria for monitoring the desired files and directories.

Note: To access the File Directory Monitoring page: From the Hosts subtab, select a host target. From the Host Home page, click the All Metrics link under Related Links. From the All Metrics page, select File and Directory from the list of metrics.

See Also: "Configuring File and Directory Monitoring Criteria" in Grid Control online help

#### Hardware Monitoring for Dell PowerEdge Systems

Hardware-specific monitoring is available out-of-box for Dell PowerEdge Linux hosts with Enterprise Manager. The following hardware health statistics can be monitored as part of the Dell PowerEdge Linux host target:

- Processor Status

- Memory Status

- PCI Device Status

- Power Supply Status

- System BIOS Status

- Fan Status

- Remote Access Card Status

- Temperature Probe Status

Note: To access the Hardware Monitoring page for Dell PowerEdge Systems: From the Hosts subtab, select a host target. From the Host Home page, click the All Metrics link under Related Links. From the All Metrics page, select the metric you want to monitor from the list of metrics.

See Also: "Enabling Hardware Monitoring for Dell PowerEdge Linux Hosts" in Grid Control online help

### Storage Resource Tracking

Tracking the storage resource allocation and usage is essential to large IT departments. Unallocated and underutilized storage can be put to better use. Historical trends at a business entity-level enable you to plan for future growth.

Storage Details are relevant to Enterprise Manager targets that are associated with one or more hosts. In particular:

- Summary attributes presented are rolled up for one or multiple associated hosts.

- Storage Details helps in tracking storage resource allocation and usage for one host or a group of hosts, and tracks historical usage trends.

- A host is associated with a group either through explicit membership, or implicit membership inherited through a group member target.

Note: To access the Storage Details page: From the Hosts subtab, select a host target. From the Host Home page, click the Storage Details link under Related Links.

The Storage Details page displays the following charts:

- Overall Utilization: Shows summary attributes that provide a system-level view of storage resource utilization.

- Provisioning Summary: Shows allocation-related summary attributes for File Systems, ASM, Volumes, and Disks for the associated hosts.

- Consumption: Shows usage-related summary attributes for Databases and File Systems.

  The Disks option on the Storage Details page shows the allocated and unallocated storage for all the disks and disk partitions on a host. All disks are listed, including virtual disks from external storage systems such as EMC Storage Array.

Figure 15-5 Host Storage Details Page

### Host Administration

In addition to the general Grid Control features and tools described in Part I, "General Grid Control Features" you can administer your hosts using Grid Control's tools designed for host management.

#### Execute Host Command

With the appropriate privileges, you can execute non-interactive host commands remotely over the network, as well as view and edit text files. The Execute Host Command page enables you to type operating system commands against one or more hosts, or all the hosts in a group, enabling you to perform multiple administrative operations at the same time.

Note: To access the Execute Host Command page: From the Hosts subtab, select a host target. From the Host Home page, click the Execute Host Command link under Related Links.

#### Job System

You can leverage the Job System to run operating system commands for your host. From the Execute Host Command page, use the "Load from Job Library" option to search the Job Library for existing jobs that you can reuse.

From the Load from Job Library page, click the icon in the Load column of any row to return to the Execute Host Command page, loading the complete context of the library job in that row. The complete context includes the host command, OS script, targets, and credentials.

See Also: Chapter 8, "Job System"

Note: To access the Load from Job Library page: From the Execute Host Command page, click the Switch to Multiple Target Mode link. Click the Load from Job Library button.

#### Remote File Editor

The Remote File Editor page enables you to view, edit, copy, and save text files present on the remote host target. For example, using this utility, you can update the contents of configuration files on the remote host.

Note: To access the Remote File Editor page: From the Hosts subtab, select a host target. From the Host Home page, click the Remote File Editor link under Related Links.

#### Managing Host Deployments

Use Grid Control's deployment management tools to:

- View and compare host configurations

- Perform automated patching for your hosts

- Deploy new hosts using the provisioning facility

See Also: "Linux Host Patching" and "Provisioning the Operating System" in Chapter 6, "Managing Deployments"

## Third-Party Target Management

Grid Control enables you to manage hardware and software from certain third-party vendors out-of-box. Most tools, functions, and features available for monitoring and administering Oracle targets can be used to manage other targets in your data center.

See Also: Chapter 4, "System Monitoring"

Note: Use Grid Control to manage your complete data center by developing Management Plug-ins for your managed targets. Refer to "Developing Management Plug-ins" in Chapter 9, "Extending Enterprise Manager" for more information.

### Support for BEA WebLogic and IBM WebSphere

With tools and features similar to managing Oracle Application Server targets, Grid Control allows you to monitor the following third-party application server targets, as well as the applications deployed on the servers:

- BEA WebLogic Domains, Clusters, and Managed Servers

- IBM WebSphere Cells, Clusters, and Application Servers

WebLogic Domains and WebSphere Cells represent logically-related groups of application server resources. All the resources in a Domain are centrally managed by the WebLogic Administration Server; Cell resources are managed by the Deployment Manager. Clusters for both products provide a high-availability application server environment. WebLogic Managed Servers and WebSphere Application Servers are used to deploy applications, EJBs, and other resources.

Grid Control monitors Domains and Cells as composite targets, containing rolled-up information on the member targets that make up the group. BEA WebLogic Managed Servers and IBM WebSphere Application Servers are monitored as individual targets, much like Oracle Application Servers.

JMX fetchlets specific to each product environment communicate with the BEA WebLogic Administration Server or IBM WebSphere Deployment Manager to collect the metric information for the individual application servers that make up the Domain or Cell, respectively. There is no need to deploy Oracle Management Agents to each application server node; as long as an agent is locally or remotely deployed to the host on which the Administration Server or Deployment Manager resides, Grid Control can manage those targets.

Some of the features available for BEA and IBM application server targets are as follows:

- Robust monitoring. Automatic performance and availability monitoring with Oracle recommended settings, out-of-box notifications for critical alerts, J2EE application monitoring for clusters, historical collections, blackouts, monitoring of application-defined MBeans, and more.

- Service management. Transaction performance monitoring, end-user performance monitoring, system monitoring, dashboards, Root Cause Analysis, and more.

- Group management. Group-level roll-ups for monitoring and task automation, monitoring templates.

- Reporting. Out-of-box and user-defined reports.

- Policy violations. Out-of-box and user-defined policies.

- Administration. Process control for start, stop, and restart.

See Also: "Managing BEA WebLogic Servers" and "Managing IBM WebSphere Application Servers" helpsets in Grid Control online help

### Network Appliance Filer

When you use Oracle Enterprise Manager to manage your Oracle environment, you can monitor not only your databases and application servers, but also supporting hardware, such as IP traffic controllers and storage devices.

Network Appliance Filers configured to use the ONTAP operating software (release 6.0 or later) are one type of storage device that can be managed out of the box. Network storage devices can be an important part of your Oracle environment. Use them to store and access large amounts of database and application data.

Similar to other managed targets, Grid Control's full suite of monitoring features are available for Network Appliance Filers. Key aspects of Network Appliance Filer monitoring are displayed as part of the Network Appliance-specific target pages, and include the following:

- Availability

  - Filer Target

  - Cluster Filer's Partner Status

- Storage Space Allocation and Usage Monitoring

  - Traditional Volumes

  - Flexible Volumes

  - Aggregates

  - Qtrees

  - Snapshots

  - System Level Storage Capacity Summaries

- Performance Monitoring

  - CPU Utilization

  - NFS/CIFS Calls

  - Disk I/O

  - Network I/O

  - Network Interface I/O

  - NFS Statistics

- Health Monitoring

  - Power Supplies

  - Fans

  - Temperature

  - NVRAM Batteries

  - Cluster Partner/Interconnect Status

  - Network Interface Status/Errors/Discards

  - Disk Failures

  - NFS/CIFS Bad Calls

  - Spare Disks

See Also: "Overview of Adding a Network Appliance Filer" in Grid Control online help

### F5 Load Balancer Switches

In addition to monitoring the performance of your database, the effectiveness of your mid-tier applications, and the response time of your Web pages, Grid Control helps you monitor load balancer switches. Load balancer switches are an important part of any complex Web application environment, because they distribute user requests to the Web servers.

F5 BIG-IP Load Balancers from F5 Networks running OS version 4.2 PTF-06, or later, can be managed out of the box from Grid Control. The user interface allows you to navigate through the relationships that exist among the entities present in the switch.

As with other managed targets, Grid Control's full suite of monitoring features are available for F5 Load Balancer Switches. Key aspects of F5 Load Balancer Switch monitoring are displayed on the Load Balancer Switch-specific target pages, and include the following:

- Availability

  - Load Balancer Switch Target

  - Virtual Server Status

  - Real Server Status

- Performance Monitoring

  - Switch Level

    - CPU Utilization

    - Memory Utilization

  - Switch, Virtual Server, Server Group and Real Server Level

    - Bits In Rate

    - Bits Out Rate

    - Connections Per Second

  - Physical Interface Level

    - Bits In Rate

    - Bits Out Rate

See Also: "Overview of Adding a Load Balancer Switch" in Grid Control online help