B Contacting Oracle Support Services

This appendix discusses the following topics:

• Reporting a Problem

• Finding Your Version Information

• Tracing Oracle Fail Safe Problems

• Locating Trace and Alert Files

B.1 Reporting a Problem

Some messages recommend calling Oracle to report a problem. When you call your Oracle Support representative, have the following information available:

• The hardware, operating system, and release number of the operating system on which the Oracle software is running

• The complete release number of Oracle and other product software

• All Oracle programs (with release numbers) in use when the error occurred

• If you encountered one or more error codes or messages, then have the exact code numbers and message texts, in the order that they were displayed

• Provide the exact text of Oracle Fail Safe messages (if any) that were written to the Windows application event log

• The problem severity, according to the following codes:

1 = Program not usable. Critical impact on operations.

2 = Program usable. Operations severely restricted.

3 = Program usable with limited functions. Not critical to overall operations.

4 = Program circumvented by customer. Minimal effect, if any, on operations.

• Your personal and company information:

  • Name

  • Company name

  • Company Oracle Support ID Number

  • Phone number

• In some cases, Oracle Support Services will request a trace file.

  See Section B.3 for information about using the trace function to log error output to a file.

B.2 Finding Your Version Information

You can find the version of software that you run in the Oracle Fail Safe Manager help menu. Select Help, then select About Oracle Fail Safe Manager. Version information for Oracle products that are integrated with Oracle Fail Safe is displayed in the output window for the Verify Cluster command.

B.3 Tracing Oracle Fail Safe Problems

Tracing is available to help you track, report, and examine errors that you receive in Oracle Fail Safe by dumping information about the errors to a log file.

You enable tracing for each node.

Follow these steps to enable tracing and set tracing flags on the cluster server nodes:

1. Run the Windows registry editor.

2. Select the following from the Registry tree:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then SOFTWARE, then ORACLE, then FailSafe, and finally, Tracing

3. From the Registry Editor menu bar, select Edit, then select Add Value to open the Add String dialog box.

4. In the Value Name field, enter an Oracle Services for MSCS value from Table B-1.

5. In the Data Type field, enter REG_SZ.

6. Click OK to open the String Editor dialog box.

7. In the String field, enter one or more of the Oracle Services for MSCS strings shown in Table B-1. Separate multiple entries with commas.

8. Repeat steps 3 through 7 to set additional Oracle Services for MSCS trace flags.

9. Using MSCS Cluster Administrator, shut down Oracle Services for MSCS.

10. In the Windows control panel, select Services and stop the Oracle Services for MSCS on each cluster node.

11. Using MSCS Cluster Administrator, restart Oracle Services for MSCS to begin tracing.

Repeat these steps on each cluster node to ensure that tracing is enabled across the cluster.

Table B-1  Trace Flags for Cluster Server Nodes

Value	String	Description
FSR_TRACE_OUTPUT	A path and file name	Specifies the path and file name for the file to which you want tracing information about the Oracle Fail Safe resource DLL to be written. For example: C:\fsr_tracelog
FSS_TRACE_OUTPUT	A path and file name	Specifies the path and file name for the file to which you want tracing information about the Oracle Services for MSCS to be written. For example: C:\fss_tracelog
FSS_TRACE_FLAGS	AGENT	Logs information related to Oracle Management Agent activity.
	ALL	Enables logging of all Oracle Fail Safe trace messages. Typically this is the most convenient flag to use. If this flag is enabled, then expect trace files to potentially grow large.
	COM	Logs activity related to the Microsoft DCOM interface.
	COMMAND_RESULT	Logs information related to spawned commands.
	COMMON	Logs information that would be common to all Oracle Fail Safe components, such as error logging or work item processing.
	CREATE_SA	Logs information related to the creation of standalone resources, such as a sample database.
	CR_RES	Logs information related to the creation of cluster resources.
	CLUSTER_MGR	Logs information related to the MSCS cluster interface.
	DB_RES	Logs information related to database access by the server or resource monitor DLL.
	DEL_RES	Logs information related to the deletion of a cluster resource.
	DELETE_SA	Logs information related to the deletion of a standalone resource, such as a sample database.
	HOME	Logs information related to the processing of Oracle homes.
	LOCAL_TRACE	Enables local tracing, which specifies that trace output for a given cluster node be written to the FSS_TRACE_OUTPUT file for that node. If this flag is not specified, then trace output for all cluster nodes is written to the FSS_TRACE_OUTPUT file on the node where Oracle Services for MSCS is running (the node where the Cluster Group resides). You must specify one or more additional FSS_TRACE_FLAG strings to specify the type of information that you want to have traced. If you specify only the LOCAL_TRACE string, then no trace output is produced.
	SQLNET	Generates detailed internal information related to the Oracle Net configuration performed by Oracle Services for MSCS. Information is logged whenever an operation is performed that requires a change to the Oracle Net configuration. This includes creating and deleting a sample database, or adding and removing a database from a group.
	VERIFY_CLUSTER	Logs information about the VERIFY CLUSTER operation.
	VERIFY_GR	Logs information about the Verify Group operation.
	VERIFY_SA	Logs information regarding verification of standalone resources.
	VERIFY_DB	Logs information about the Verify Standalone Database operation.
	XML	Logs activity related to the exchange of XML messages between Oracle Fail Safe components.
FSU_TRACE_OUTPUT	A path and file name	Specifies the path and file name for the file to which you want tracing information about the Oracle Services for MSCS surrogate to be written. For example: C:\fsu_tracelog.log Note: FSU_TRACE_OUTPUT file is always appended to and never overwritten. It means the file will continually grow until the file is deleted, or until the FSU_TRACE_OUPUT registry entry is deleted or redefined. Oracle recommends that the file be monitored to ensure that it does not grow too large and that tracing be enabled only for short periods of time.

B.4 Locating Trace and Alert Files

Oracle Fail Safe trace files must be directed to a private disk.

Database trace and alert files can be located on either a cluster disk or a private disk:

• If you use a cluster disk, then trace and alert files contain complete information about the operation. However, information about the node hosting the database is not recorded. The cluster disk used for these files must be one of the disks used for the archive log files or the database data files (where Create Sample Database places them, for example); otherwise, they will not be added to the group.

• If you use a private disk, then trace and alert files each contain node-specific information about the operation. However, you must view files from each cluster node at the same time to obtain complete chronological information if the database has failed over or been moved. Use a path name that is valid on each node so that data can be written to these files correctly. Files on private disks are never added to a group.