This chapter provides an overview of the concepts of profiles, policies, and plans. Detailed information is covered in the corresponding feature chapters.
The following information is included:
Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center uses a combination of profiles and plans to reduce complexity and increase consistency when you perform standard management and operational activities. Templates are available in the Plan Management section of the UI. You use templates to create customized profiles and plans for your environment.
The software uses profiles and plans to create a reusable set of procedures to perform tasks, such as provisioning and updating. You create, manage, and access all profiles and plans in the Plan Management section of the user interface.
A profile defines how a task is performed and enables you to define what is allowed, and not allowed, to be installed on a system. A plan provides the steps to complete an operation, defines the targets upon which the tasks are performed, and enables you to deploy the profile to the targets. Together, plans and the associated profiles enable you to define operations. You create your own profiles and plans from a set of templates.
Plan Management contains three basic components:
Operational Profiles and Plans: Perform one or more operational activities, such as scripts and utilities to fix common problems, monitoring rule configurations and thresholds, and a knowledge base that you can create based on the incidents that occur in your environment.
Profiles and Policies: Profiles define the configuration of components for a specific type of system and task, such as the naming schema and configuration options to use when creating a new Oracle Solaris 10 zone. Update policies define the level of interaction you want when applying patches and packages.
Deployment Plans: Perform standard management activities, such as provisioning and creating Oracle Solaris Zones.
To see all profiles and plans, expand Plan Management in the Navigation pane. Select the profile or plan to see the available actions. For each plan, you can define the course of action to take when a step cannot be completed on a target. You can choose to stop the job at the first failure, or attempt to complete as much as possible.
Deployment plans are all based on a set of pre-defined templates. You can use the available templates to create customized profiles and plans for your data center. Some templates are designed for simple tasks and other, more complex plans, are designed to perform a series of functions. You can build complex plans by combining existing plans, for example, adding an operational profile and plan to the end of a deployment plan.
The following table lists the tasks and the role required to complete the task. Contact your administrator if you do not have the necessary role or privilege to complete a task. See the Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center Administration Guide for information about the different roles and the permissions they grant.
Table 8-1 Plan Management Roles and Permissions
| Task | Role |
|---|---|
|
View a profile or plan |
Read |
|
Create a profile or plan |
Profile Plan Administrator |
|
Edit a profile or plan |
Profile Plan Administrator |
|
Copy a profile or plan |
Profile Plan Administrator |
|
Delete a profile or plan |
Profile Plan Administrator |
|
Create a profile or plan |
Profile Plan Administrator |
After you create a profile and plan, you can perform the following actions:
Editing a profile enables you to change the profile configuration. Changing values other than the name or description will create a new version. When a profile is referenced by one or more deployment plans, the default action is to update the referring plans to the new version.
Perform the following steps to edit a profile:
Expand Plan Management in the Navigation pane.
Expand the Profiles and Policies navigation tree, then select a profile.
Click Edit Profile.
Complete the changes, then click Finish.
You can edit the deployment plan details, alter the plan configuration by skipping steps in the plan, change the profile or plan bound to each step, or save the plan under a different name to create a new plan.
Note:
When you edit a deployment plan that is referred to by another plan, for example, in a nested plan, the referring plan is not automatically updated to refer to the edited plan's version. You must manually modify the referring plan if you want it to use the modified version.Perform the following steps to edit a plan:
Select Plan Management from the Navigation pane.
Use one of the following methods to select the Edit Deployment Plan option:
Method 1: Select the deployment type from the tree and select a plan from the list to enable the icon. Click the Edit Deployment Plan icon.
Method 2: Expand the selected deployment type and select a plan from the list. The plan details appear. Select Edit Deployment Plan from the Actions pane.
Edit the following details of the plan:
Plan Name: Edit the name to create a new plan. You create a new plan when you modify the plan name.
Description: Provide a description of the plan.
Failure Policy: Select whether you want the plan execution to stop at failure or complete as much as possible.
Configure a step of the plan by setting or changing the associated profile, or by creating a new profile.
(Optional) Edit the plan by replicating the steps and associate targets depending on the type of plan selected.
Click Save to save any changes made to the plan. When you have changed the name, a new plan is saved with the version v1.
You can copy an existing deployment plan, rename it, and create a new plan.
Perform the following steps to copy a plan:
Select Plan Management from the Navigation pane.
Use one of the following methods to select Copy Deployment Plan:
Method 1: Select the deployment type from the tree and select a plan from the list to enable the Copy Deployment Plan icon. Click the Copy Deployment Plan icon.
Method 2: Expand the selected deployment type and select a plan from the list. Select Copy Deployment Plan from the Actions pane.
Edit the following details of the plan:
Description: Provide a description of the plan.
Plan Name: By default, the plan name is Copy of <plan name>. For example, Copy of Firmware Update. You can modify the name.
Failure Policy: Select whether the plan execution is to stop at failure or complete as much as possible.
Configure a step of the plan by setting or changing the associated profile or by creating a new profile.
Edit the plan by replicating the steps and associate targets, depending on the type of plan selected.
Click Save the new plan. A new plan is saved with the version v1.
When you deploy a plan, you select the target assets against which the plan is executed. After you select the targets, you have the option to temporarily override the profile configuration for specific assets before you deploy the plan.
Many actions use deployment plans. See the How To library at http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E27363_01/nav/howto.htm for end-to-end examples.
You can delete a deployment plan or only a version of the plan. When the selected deployment plan is not referenced by any other plans, you can confirm deleting the plan or its version. When the plan is used in other plans, the Delete Deployment Plan option is not enabled.
Perform the following steps to delete a plan:
Select Plan Management from the Navigation pane.
Use one of the following methods to select Delete Deployment Plan option:
Method 1: Select the deployment type from the tree. The plans of that type are listed in the center pane. Select a plan from the list. The Delete Deployment Plan and Delete Version icon is enabled. Click Delete Deployment Plan or Delete Version.
Method 2: Expand the selected deployment type and select a plan from the list. Select Delete Deployment Plan or Delete Version from the Actions pane.
Click Delete to confirm the delete action.
Table 8-2 Location of Profile and Plan Information in the UI
| Object | Location |
|---|---|
|
Operational Plans |
Expand the Plan Management section of the Navigation pane, then scroll down to Operational Plans. |
|
Operational Profiles |
Expand the Plan Management section of the Navigation pane, then scroll down to Operational Plans. Operational Profiles are in the Operational Plans section. Click Operational Profiles for a list of available profiles. |
|
Deployment Plans |
Expand the Plan Management section of the Navigation pane, then scroll down to Deployment Plans. Click Deployment Plans for a list of existing plans. To locate a specific plan, expand the folder for the plan you want, such as Configure RAID. |
|
Profiles |
Expand the Plan Management section of the Navigation pane, then scroll down to Profiles and Policies. Click Profiles and Policies for a list of existing profiles. Expand the folder for the type of profile you want, such as RAID Controller. |
Profiles and plans versions are numbered sequentially. When you create a profile or plan, the version number is one. When you edit a profile or plan, you create a version that is referenced by a new number.
When you create a version, you have the option to automatically change the related plan during the update. When you do not choose that option, the operational and deployment plans that are using the profile are not updated with the new version. For example, you have a firmware profile that is using firmware image A, the profile version is one. You want to update the profile to use the latest firmware image, B. When you update the profile to change the image to B, version two of the profile is created. When you have five plans that are using version one of the firmware profile, all of those plans continue to use version one and image A. When you want the plans to use image B, you must manually update the plans to reference version two of the profile.
The same is true for plans. When you edit a deployment plan that is referred to by another plan in a complex plan, the referring plan is not automatically updated to refer to the edited plan's version unless you choose the option when you edit the plan.
You can view version details by highlighting the plan, then clicking the View Version Details icon. Use the arrows to view the different versions. When you want a plan to use the new version of the profile, edit the plan and associate it with the correct version of the profile. You can edit the following fields in an Operational Plan: Description, Failure Policy, and Associated Profile. You cannot edit the name of a profile or plan. When you want a different name, you must copy or create a profile and plan.
You can delete a version of a profile or plan. When you delete a version and more than one version exists, the previous version becomes the default. When only one version of the plan exists, both the profile and plan are deleted. When the plan is used in other plans, then the Delete Deployment Plan option is not enabled.
Operational profiles are designed to assist you in the day-to-day operation of your data center.
An Operational Profile performs one or more tasks needed to operate your environment. The profile contains a single shell script and can include asset attributes as environmental variables. For each profile, you can choose one of the following types of shell scripts:
EC Shell: The script runs only on the Enterprise Controller and is executed with the logged-in user's credentials.
Remote Shell: The script can run on any managed system that contains a remote agent and is executed with root permissions.
You have the option of adding two types of variables to operational profiles:
System defined variables: Use these variables to define specific information in the script. The following are software-specific variables:
$OC_TARGET_NAME
$OC_JOB_ID
$OC_SASL_FILE
$OC_UFN
$OC_TARGET_TYPE
Additional Variables: Use these variables to add information to the script and enable users to change that information when they execute the operational plan. Additional variables are user-defined.
A list of supported asset attributes is available in Appendix A, "Asset Attributes".
You must have an Operational Plan to execute an Operational Profile. When you create an Operational Profile, the default action also creates an Operational Plan. You use the plan to execute the profile on a managed resource or group of resources, such as performing state changing actions.
You can create a simple plan, such as disabling print capabilities, and deploy the plan across a group of resources in your data center. A more sophisticated example is to create several Operational Plans and add them as steps in a complex type Deployment Plan. For example, you can create an Operational Plan to shut down all logical domains and another Operational Plan to shut down an Oracle VM Server for SPARC. You can then add these plans as steps in a complex Deployment Plan.
You can perform the following actions, depending on the role:
An Operational Plan defines how an Operational Profile is deployed, and against which targets. By default, creating a profile also creates an Operational Plan.
You can save a shell script on the Enterprise Controller and download it into the plan, or you can enter the script in a field when you create the plan. Both types of shell scripts are executed by the user. They differ in the location, either on the Enterprise Controller or on the remote Agent, and the user credentials needed to execute the profile.
An operational plan defines the targets and failure policy for an operational profile. The profile defines one or more operations that are to be performed on a managed resource or group of resources. For example, deploying thresholds onto a managed resource, or performing state changing actions such as shutting down all logical domains and then shutting down an Oracle VM Server for SPARC.
The profile uses a shell script to define the operations. When you do not have an operational profile, you can create a profile when you create the plan. When you create the profile, either download a shell script that is on the Enterprise Controller (EC Shell script), or enter the shell script (Remote Shell script) in the profile. The EC Shell and Remote Shell are both shell scripts that are executed by the user. They differ in the location (on the Enterprise Controller or on the remote Agent) and manner (user credentials) of the execution. The EC Shell is executed with the credentials of the user that is logged in. The Remote Shell can run on any managed system that contains a remote agent and is executed with root permissions.
Perform the following steps to create an operational profile and plan:
Expand Plan Management in the Navigation pane, then click Operational Profiles.
Click Create Profile.
Name the new profile and add a description. Select a subtype from the list to identify the type of target for this profile. Click Next.
Define the script, then click Next.
Define the type, either EC Shell or Remote Shell.
Define the time out parameters.
Enter the script in the Script field, or click Load if you are loading an EC Shell script that is saved on the Enterprise Controller. Click View System Variables to see the available software-specific variables.
(Optional) Add user-defined variables in the Specify Additional Variables page. Click Next.
Review, then click Finish.
When you edit a profile or plan, you create a version. When you create a version, you have the option to automatically change the related plans during the update. See Overview of Version Control for how versions are maintained.
You can view version details by highlighting the plan, then clicking the View Version Details icon. Use the arrows to view the different versions. When you want a plan to use the new version of the profile, edit the plan and associate it with the correct version of the profile. You can edit the following fields in an Operational Plan: Description, Failure Policy, and Associated Profile. You cannot edit the name of an Operational profile or plan. When you want a different name, you must copy or create a Operational Profile and Plan.
You can copy an existing operational profile, rename it, and create a new profile and plan.
Expand Plan Management in the Navigation pane, then click Operational Profiles.
Select the profile in the center pane that you want to copy, then click the Copy Profile icon. Or you can double-click the profile in the center pane to display actions in the Actions pane.
Rename the new profile you are creating and revise the description, then click Next.
(Optional) Edit the script. Click Next.
(Optional) Edit the variables in the Specify Additional Variables page. Click Next.
Review, then click Finish.
You can copy an existing operational plan, rename it, and create a new profile and plan.
Expand Plan Management in the Navigation pane, then click Operational Plans.
Select the plan in the center pane that you want to copy, then click the Copy Plan icon. Alternatively, double-click the plan in the center pane to display actions in the Actions pane.
Rename the new plan you are creating and revise the description. You can choose to change the Failure Policy for the new plan and change the Operational Plan steps. You can change the associated profile or plan for each step. To change the profile or plan, click the associated profile or plan to select from a list of available options. To add additional steps, click the Replicate Step icon, then select the profile or plan from the list to associate with that step. Click Save.
(Optional) Edit the script. Click Next.
(Optional) Edit the variables in the Specify Additional Variables page. Click Next.
Review, then click Finish.
You can delete a version of a profile, or you can delete all versions of the profile and the associated plan.
You cannot delete a version of an operational plan version unless you created the version. Deleting a version of a plan might impact the Incident Knowledge Base or deployment plans that reference the version. Before deleting a version, verify that the version is not being used.
Note:
When you delete a version and more than one version exists, the previous version becomes the default. When only one version of the plan exists, the operational profile and plan are deleted.Profiles and policies define how a job is performed and the level of interaction.
Policies are lists of actions that are explicitly approved or denied. Policies are specific to OS update and define the amount of user interaction you want when applying OS patches and packages. For example, you might want to automate applying fixes without user interaction, but you might want to pause a job and require user approval before performing a downgrade or uninstall. You can also deny certain actions, such as installing uncertified patches or packages.
Policy settings are hierarchical. When you have not defined a policy for a component, the policy for that component's parent applies. For example, it is possible to create a policy that allows the system to install a given component, but prohibits installing specific versions of that component.
For more information about update policies, see "Creating Update Policies".
Profiles define how a standard management tasks are performed. With the help of wizards, you create a customized set of profiles. Once created, authorized users can use the profiles to perform tasks, such as discovery and provisioning. The software has pre-defined profiles for some common OS tasks, such as reboot and check for installed security patches. You can choose to use the pre-defined profiles for those actions or create your own.
Profiles are organized in the UI by category. The profiles are discussed in more detail in various sections of the documentation. The following are the profile categories and where you can find more specific information about that task and profile:
Discovery: See Chapter 2, "Asset Management"
Service Processor: See Chapter 11, "Hardware"
RAID Controller: See Chapter 11, "Hardware"
Firmware: See Chapter 11, "Hardware"
Dynamic System Domain: See Chapter 11, "Hardware"
OS Provisioning: See Chapter 12, "Operating Systems"
Logical Domain: See Chapter 15, "Oracle VM Server for SPARC"
Solaris Zone: See Chapter 14, "Oracle Solaris Zones"
Virtual Machine: See Chapter 16, "Oracle VM Server for x86"
BIOS Configuration: See Chapter 11, "Hardware"
Boot Environment: See Chapter 12, "Operating Systems"
Storage Appliance Update: See Chapter 11, "Hardware"
Update Policies: See Chapter 13, "Operating System Updates"
Update Profiles: See Chapter 13, "Operating System Updates"
With the exception of the Discovery profile, these types of management profiles require a deployment plan to execute the tasks on specific targets. When you create a profile, the default setting is to create a corresponding deployment plan. See Deployment Plans for more information on these types of plans.
Deployment Plans use profiles to perform standard management activities in a consistent and repeatable manner. A deployment plan defines the sequence of operations or steps that must be carried out on an asset to deploy it together with the specification or profile that each step applies and the resources that are required to apply it such as network addresses and system names.
A comprehensive set of deployment templates is available for you to use to create a variety of deployment plans. Each template is an unbound deployment plan which defines the steps of execution, but not the profiles and assets. A deployment template enable you to define a task and the associated resources (such as images and network addresses), that are needed to complete the task.
The software provides several plans that contain more than one step. In some cases, you can associate steps in a plan with another plan. The associated plan is referred to as a nested plan. You can use nested plans as shared building blocks, much in the same way as profiles are used. Configuring a single nested plan once and reusing it in many other plans reduces the number of individual operations that you must complete in the UI. The templates appear in the user interface in alphabetical order, not by type. However, it is useful to categorize the plans as simple, multi-step, and complex. See the different categories for a description of the plans.
The following lists the plans that are located in each category:
Configure RAID
Configure Service Processor
Provision OS
Update Firmware
Update BIOS Configuration
Update Storage Appliances
Create Oracle Solaris Zones
Create Virtual Machines
About Multi-Step Deployment Plans
Install Server
Create Dynamic System Domain
Create Logical Domains
Software Deployment/Update
Update Solaris 11 OS
Create Boot Environment
Update Firmware and Install Oracle VM Server for SPARC
About Complex Deployment Plans
Configure M-Series Hardware, Create, and Install Domain
Configure Server Hardware and Install OS
Configure and Install Dynamic System Domain
Configure and Install Logical Domains
Configure and Install Oracle Solaris Zones
Configure and Install Virtual Machines
Use the templates to create your own deployment plans and configure the plans using profiles. The settings and values in the profiles bound to each step are defaults. You can modify the plan before it is actually applied. You can further constrain the profile settings and values by the target systems to which the plan is applied.
With the exception of complex plans, the templates do not allow you to add steps to a plan. You can use only those steps that are defined in the template from which the plan is derived. Complex plans enable you to add one or more deployment and operational plans inside a complex type plan.
The software provides you with the ability to create, configure, manage and execute deployment plans which drive the hardware, firmware and software provisioning activities in a repeatable fashion.
You create plans from defined templates. Each plan defines the sequence of steps that must be carried out for configuration or provisioning of a system. Plans might contain a single step or a sequence of multi-steps. Each step in the plan is configured by associating a profile or another plan.
A simple plan contains a single step with a single image. You can define the image used by the plan, but you cannot add more than one image or add steps.
The following plans are simple deployment plans:
Configure RAID: Use this plan to configure the RAID controller on a server. See Configuring a RAID Controller for how to use the profile and plan.
Configure Service Processor: Use this plan to configure the service processor on a chassis. See Configuring the Service Processor for how to use the profile and plan.
Provision OS: Use this plan to provision an operating system. See Provisioning Operating Systems for how to use the profile and plan.
Update Firmware: Use this plan to update firmware. See Firmware Provisioning for how to use the profile and plan.
Update BIOS Configuration: Use this plan to update the BIOS configuration of servers. See Creating a BIOS Configuration Profile and Plan for how to use the profile and plan.
Update Storage Appliances: Use this plan to update storage appliance software. See Storage Libraries for how to use the profile and plan.
Create Oracle Solaris Zones: Use this plan to create zones. See Creating a Zone Profile and Creating and Deploying Zone Plans for how to use the profile and plan.
Create Virtual Machines: Use this plan to create virtual machines for Oracle VM Server for x86. See Create Virtual Machines and Deploying Virtual Machine Plan for how to use the profile and plan.
Create Dynamic System Domain: Use this plan to create dynamic system domains. See Configuring a Dynamic System Domain for how to use the profile and plan.
Create Logical Domains: Use this plan to create logical domains. See Creating a Logical Domain Profile for how to use the profile and plan.
In most cases, when you create a profile, the default action also creates a simple deployment plan.
Several deployment templates with multi-step sequences are available. These plans are designed to provide you with a customized and repeatable way to perform common operations with a single click.
The following plans are multi-step deployment plans:
Install Server: Use this plan to provision the server and update the OS.
Software Deployment and Update: Use this plan to apply script based update profiles. See Updating an Operating System From a Deployment Plan for how to use the profile and plan.
Update Solaris 11 OS: Use this plan to update Oracle Solaris 11 operating systems. See Updating Oracle Solaris 11 for how to use the profile and plan.
Create Boot Environment: Use this plan to create Oracle Solaris boot environments. See Creating an Oracle Solaris 11 Boot Environment and Creating an Oracle Solaris 10 Boot Environment for how to use the profile and plan.
Update Firmware and Install Oracle VM Server for SPARC: Use this plan to update firmware and then install Oracle VM Server for SPARC on the system. See Installing Oracle VM Server for SPARC for how to use the profile and plan.
The steps in a multi-step plan are defined in the template. You cannot skip steps or add steps.
You can use a combination of profiles, deployment plans, and operational plans to create a complex deployment plan that enables you to automate a variety of detailed workflows into a single plan. Complex plans provide flexibility to structure plans that meet your local requirements, increasing consistency and allowing for a greater level of automation.
When you create complex deployment plans, you can choose to skip a step in the plan. Skipped steps are not processed when the plan is applied. You can replicate certain steps to perform the same operation but using a different profile or plan. You can also add one or more deployment plans and operational plans.
The following plans are complex deployment plans:
Configure M-Series Hardware, Create and Install Domain: Use this plan to configure an M-Series server, create dynamic system domains, provision OS on the domains, and update the domains.
Configure Server Hardware and Install OS: Use this plan to configure a service processor or a chassis, provision OS and update the OS.
Configure and Install Dynamic System Domain: Use this plan to create dynamic system domains, provision and update OS on the domains.
Configure and Install Logical Domains: Use this plan to create logical domains and provision OS on the logical domains.
For profile and plan details, and how to use individual profiles and plans, go to one of the following resources.
For end-to-end examples, see the How To library at http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E27363_01/nav/howto.htm.