Configuring EM Database Control when database is running on different IP

Question

OS Solaris
DB Oracle 10.2.0.2
The have the following situation:
We have a veritas active/passive cluster. This is not RAC. Server name is abc. But the database is running on VIP xyz. How do I configure database control to run on vip xyz. whenever I run emca -config dbconsole db, it always sees the server name as abc.
I also tried emca -config dbconsole db -HOST xyz but finally it always shows the hostname as abc.
I was able to get EM to see the targets (database, listener) properly on the vip xyz by manually editing the targets.xml file. So now the situation is, on the home page it shows that the datbaase is up and the listener is up, but it complains that it cannot connect to the database.
I really appreciate any help in this.
-Nags

Answer 1

DBConsole installs requiring different hostnames (virtual) than the physical hostname, simply set ORACLE_HOSTNAME variable to the new virtual hostname and run emca.
in detail please read this note , it might help you
Configure DB Control 10.2 for use in Active/Passive High Availability Environments
Overview and Requirements:
In order for the DB Control to service a database instance after failing over to a different host in the cluster, the following conditions must be met:
1. Install on a shared disk/volume which holds the binaries, the configuration and the runtime data (including the database). Installations on non-shared devices are not supported.
2. Configuration data and metadata must also failover to the surviving node
3. Inventory location must failover to the surviving node
4. Software owner and timezone parameters must be the same on all cluster member nodes that will host this database
Installation and Configuration:
• In order to override the physical hostname of the cluster member with a virtual hostname, you must use the parameter ORACLE_HOSTNAME to configure DBConsole
• For inventory pointer, software must be installed using the commandline parameter ‘-invPtrLoc’ to point to the shared inventory location file, which includes the path to the shared inventory location.
• The database software, the configuration of the database and DB Control is done on a shared volume.
Note: The use of OCFS V1 to install shared Oracle binaries is currently not supported.
If you are using an NFS mounted volume for the installation, please ensure that you specify rsize and wsize in your mount command to prevent running into I/O issues.
See Metalink Note <279393.1>
Example:
lxdb.acme.com:/u01/app/share1 /u01/app/share1 nfs rw,bg,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,hard,nointr,tcp,noac,vers=3,timeo=600 0 0
A. Setup the alias for the virtual hostname/virtual IP address
You can do this by either allowing the clusterware to set it up, or manually before installation and startup of Oracle services. This virtual hostname must be static and resolveable consistently on the network: All nodes participating in the setup must resolve the virtual IP address to the same hostname. Standard TCP tools like nslookup and traceroute can be used to verify.
B. Setup shared storage
This can be storage managed by the clusterware that is in use or, you can use any shared file system (FS) volume as long as it is not an unsupported type, such as OCFS V1. The most common shared FS is NFS.
C. Setup the environment:
Some OS versions require specific OS patches to be applied prior to installing 10gR2. The user installing and using the 10gR2 software must also have sufficient kernel resources available. Refer to the installation guide for more details.
Before you launch the installer, certain environment variables need to be verified. Each of these variables must be set identical for the account installing the software on ALL machines participating in the cluster:
• OS variable TZ
Timezone setting. Recommended to unset this prior to the installation
• PERL variables
Variables like PERL5LIB should be unset to prevent the install (OUI) and DB Control to pick up the wrong set of PERL libraries
• Paths used for dynamic libraries
Based on the OS, the variables can be LD_LIBRARY_PATH, LIBPATH, SHLIB_PATH or DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH. These variables should ONLY point to directories, which will be visible and usable on each node of the cluster.
D. Ensure that oracle user name, ID and group name and ID are in sync on all cluster members
The user and group of the software owner should be defined identically on all nodes of the cluster. This can be verified using the ‘id’ command:
$ id -a
uid=1234(oracle) gid=5678(dba) groups=5678(dba)
E. Ensure that inventory files are on the shared storage
1. Create your new ORACLE_HOME directory.
2. Create the Oracle Inventory directory under the new oracle home
cd <shared oracle home>
mkdir oraInventory
3. Create the oraInst.loc file. This file contains the Inventory directory path information needed by the Universal Installer.
a. vi oraInst.loc
b. Enter the path information to the Oracle Inventory directory, and specify the group of the software owner as the dba user:
Example:
inventory_loc=/app/oracle/product/10.2/oraInventory
inst_group=dba
F. Start the installer:
You need to point to the inventory location file oraInst.loc (under the ORACLE_BASE in this case), as well as specifying the hostname of the virtual group. Debug parameter is optional.
runInstaller -invPtrLoc /app/oracle/share1/oraInst.loc ORACLE_HOSTNAME=lxdb.acme.com –debug
G. Update the SPFILE and tnsnames.ora file
Add an listener entry to the spfile file that points to an entry in the tnsnames file calling the virtual IP directly. As an example, set a tnsnames.ora entry that points to the virtual host name:
LISTENER_DBC =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = lxdb.acme.com)(PORT = 1521))
Then update the spfile parameter local_listener to point to the new tnsnames.ora entry:
SQL> alter system set local_listener='LISTENER_DBC';
SQL> show parameter local
NAME TYPE VALUE
local_listener string LISTENER_DBC
H. Startup of services:
Ensure that you start your services in the proper order:
- establish IP address on the active node
- start the TNS listener
- start the database
- start dbconsole
- test functionality
In case of failure…
- Establish IP on failover box
- start TNS listener lsnrctl start
- start the database dbstart
- start dbconsole emctl start dbconsole
- test functionality
If you want to manually stop or shutdown a service:
Stop the application
Stop DB Control emctl stop dbconsole
Stop TNS listener lsnrctl stop
Stop DB dbshut
Stop IP