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Introducing Oracle Enterprise Manager

Oracle Enterprise Manager is a system management tool which provides an integrated solution for centrally managing your heterogeneous environment. Oracle Enterprise Manager combines a graphical Console, Oracle Management Servers, Oracle Intelligent Agents, common services, and tools to provide an integrated, comprehensive systems management platform for managing Oracle products.

This introduction discusses the topics listed below:

Oracle Enterprise Manager's Architecture

Oracle Enterprise Manager has a three-tiered architecture. The first tier, the client, consists of a Java-based Console and integrated applications. The second tier is the Management Server or designated group of Management Servers which provides centralized intelligence and distributed control between clients and targets. The third tier is comprised of targets, such as databases, nodes, or other managed services. An Intelligent Agent resides on each target and monitors the services in the target for registered events (potential problem occurrences) and executes jobs sent by the Console via the Oracle Management Server(s).

Only one agent can exist per machine, regardless of the number of services on that machine.

Oracle Enterprise Manager's three main components are listed below:

Component Function

Console

The Console gives you a central point of control for the Oracle environment through an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) that provides powerful and robust system management.

Management Server

The Oracle Management Server provides centralized intelligence and distributed control between the Console and the managed nodes. It processes system management tasks sent by the Console and administers the distribution of these tasks across the enterprise. The Oracle Management Server stores all system data, application data, and information about the state of managed nodes in a repository, which is a set of tables stored in a database. The Management Server in charge of a job or event stores all the information about the status of the job or event (whether it is scheduled, waiting for a response from the Intelligent Agent, waiting to notify the Console, and so on.) High performance and scalability is ensured because the workload is automatically shared and balanced when there are multiple Management Servers.

Intelligent Agent

The Intelligent Agent is a process that runs on managed nodes in the network. It functions as the executor of jobs and events sent by the Console via the Management Servers.

Component	Function
Console	The Console gives you a central point of control for the Oracle environment through an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) that provides powerful and robust system management.
Management Server	The Oracle Management Server provides centralized intelligence and distributed control between the Console and the managed nodes. It processes system management tasks sent by the Console and administers the distribution of these tasks across the enterprise. The Oracle Management Server stores all system data, application data, and information about the state of managed nodes in a repository, which is a set of tables stored in a database. The Management Server in charge of a job or event stores all the information about the status of the job or event (whether it is scheduled, waiting for a response from the Intelligent Agent, waiting to notify the Console, and so on.) High performance and scalability is ensured because the workload is automatically shared and balanced when there are multiple Management Servers.
Intelligent Agent	The Intelligent Agent is a process that runs on managed nodes in the network. It functions as the executor of jobs and events sent by the Console via the Management Servers.

For further details regarding the architecture of Oracle Enterprise Manager Release 2.1, refer to chapter 1 of the Oracle Enterprise Manager Concepts Guide.

Oracle Enterprise Manager System and Hardware Requirements

You can run Oracle Enterprise Manager components in any configuration depending on your management environment. For example, you can run each tier on separate machines or run all three tiers on one machine.

Running Enterprise Manager components on separate machines requires the following:

Machine running only the Console and DBA Management Pack:

Pentium I 266 MHz or SPARC 20
64 MB RAM
190 MB available hard disk space

Note: Running the Enterprise Manager Console from a web browser requires 64 MB RAM. Running the web site and Oracle Application Server Listener requires 102 MB.

Note: The integrated applications require an additional 18 MB.

Machine running only the Management Server:

Pentium II 300 MHz or SPARC Ultra 1
64 MB RAM
190 MB available hard disk space (If you turn Tracing on, you should allocate an additional 50 MB for Trace logs.)

Running the entire Enterprise Manager bundle (Console, DBA Management Pack, Oracle Management Server and database repository) from a single machine requires the following:

Pentium II 400 MHz or SPARC Ultra 1
128 MB RAM
190 MB available hard disk space (Includes 6-26 MB for configuring the Repository. Refer to Appendix D, "Repository Sizing" for information on how much you can expect your repository to grow. In addition, if you turn Tracing on, you should allocate an additional 50 MB for Trace logs.)

Note: The requirements outlined above assume that a database for the Enterprise Manager Repository already exists. If a database has not already been installed, you must install one. For recommended system and hardware requirements for an Oracle database, refer to the installation guide provided with that database release.

The default Enterprise Manager package (using a single Oracle Management Server in your environment) is tuned to best support an environment with the following characteristics:

40-50 different machines
A total of 80-100 managed database instances or other managed targets (up to 10 managed targets on any one node)
Up to 12-15 Consoles actively being used at one time or unlimited Consoles being used for intermittent/passive work
10 jobs running per node per day
10 events triggering per node per day

To improve performance when the number of managed nodes increases, Oracle recommends either (1) adding one Management Server per 50 nodes managed or (2) increasing CPU capacity on the Management Server machine/s.

To improve performance when the number of Consoles, jobs or events increases, Oracle recommends increasing resource capacity on the Repository database machine.

Basic Terminology

Refer to the Oracle Enterprise Manager Concepts Guide and the Oracle Enterprise Manager Administrator's Guide for detailed information about the terms listed below.

What is a repository?

A repository is a set of tables in a database containing state information for the managed environment and information about the management packs. It is used as a back-end store by the Oracle Management Servers, providing distributed control between clients and managed nodes.

What is a repository owner?

An Enterprise Manager repository is owned by a database user. During repository creation a repository's user name is entered that will be used to create this database user. If the repository user name and encrypted password are saved during repository creation, the Management Server uses them to login to the repository; if they are not saved, the Management Server prompts the user for a user name and password before it starts up.

What is an administrative user?

Oracle Enterprise Manager is installed with a default super administrator account which can be used for the initial login. The super administrator account is sysman and the initial password is oem_temp. The password must be changed after the initial login. Using this account you can create other super administrators, as needed. Administrative data stored in the repository is filtered based on administrator permissions. Preferences, such as preferred credentials, login password, and notification schedules, must be set for each administrator.

The Oracle Enterprise Manager Release 2.1 credentials should not be confused with the username and password of an individual database user account (which is different from an Oracle Enterprise Manager administrator account or the repository credentials).

What is a Console?

The Console, a graphical interface for administrators, is a Java-based application that can be run as either a "thin" or "fat" client. Thin clients use a web browser to connect to a server where Console files are installed, whereas fat clients require Console files to be installed locally.

However you run the Console, it relies on the Oracle Management Server and the Oracle Intelligent Agent to perform system management tasks.

What is an Oracle Management Server?

Management Servers provide centralized intelligence and distributed control between clients and managed nodes, and process system management tasks.

As the number of nodes and managed services in your network increases or if the current Management Server is overloaded, you can add more Oracle Management Servers to the middle tier to share and balance the workload. These additional Management Servers provide fault-tolerance in the case where one Management Server becomes unavailable.

All Management Servers administering the same set of managed nodes share a single Repository, which stores all system data, application data, and the state of managed nodes throughout the environment.

What is the Oracle Intelligent Agent?

An Oracle Intelligent Agent is installed on each node to run jobs and monitor events sent by the Management Server. Intelligent Agents function independently of the database or services they support, as well as being independent of the Management Server and Console clients.

What is service discovery?

When you use the Discovery Wizard in the Console, the Management Server contacts the Intelligent Agent installed on that node to discover the Oracle services installed on the node.

The Management Server then places the new information in the repository, and updates the Console Navigator, displaying a view of all nodes and their respective services.

Service discovery allows administrators to run jobs and monitor for events on those nodes and allows the information to be centrally managed by the Consoles.

What are preferred credentials?

This section contains information about:

preferred credential saved through the Oracle Enterprise Manager Console
local preferred credentials saved through DBA Studio

Preferred Credentials Saved Through the Oracle Enterprise Manager Console

Each administrator can set up specific usernames, passwords, and roles (NORMAL, SYSOPER, or SYSDBA) for nodes, listeners, databases, and other services that you administer in the network.

After you set up preferred credentials, you are no longer prompted for credentials when connecting to the managed targets.

The Preferred credentials you set up through the Console also allow you to use the job and event system for targets where credentials are required. All login credentials set up through the Console are encrypted in the repository.

Local Preferred Credentials Saved Through DBA Studio

DBA Studio stores a list of databases that are displayed in the DBA Studio navigator tree. If preferred credentials are specified for any of these databases, the username, encrypted password, and role are added to a local file.

Saving or editing preferred credentials is an option which enables you to store login information, such as username, password, and role (NORMAL, SYSOPER, or SYSDBA). Passwords are always stored in encrypted format. This login information is used when a connection is established for the database instead of having to type a username and password each time.

Configuring Oracle Enterprise Manager Overview

In order to configure Oracle Enterprise Manager, you need to perform the following steps.

Some of the steps are optional depending on which features you intend to use.

Procedure Required or Optional See

Install an Oracle database and install Oracle Enterprise Manager.

Required

Refer to the installation guide provided with the database release.

Run the Enterprise Manager Configuration Assistant to create a repository if you do not have one. During the Oracle Enterprise Manager installation, you will be asked if you want to use an existing repository or create a new one.
If you need to upgrade your repository from Release 2.0 to Release 2.1, see "Upgrade a Release 2.0 Repository to a Release 2.1 Repository" on page B-2.

Required

"Creating a Release 2.1 Repository" on page 2-1.

Run the Migration Assistant to migrate data you are using in your V1.x environment from one or multiple private repositories into a specific user in your new Release 2.1 repository

Optional
If you do not have a Version 1 repository, skip this step.

"Migrating a Release 1.x Repository to a Release 2.1 Repository" on page 7-1.

Add additional Management Servers

Optional
If you do not need to add additional Management Servers, skip this step. Many environments will require just one Management Server.

"Adding Additional Management Servers" on page 4-1.

Start Intelligent Agent

Required

"Starting the Intelligent Agent" on page 5-1.

Start Management Servers

Required
Starting and configuring at least one Management Server is required.

"Controlling the Management Server" on page 3-1.

Start Console

Required

"Starting the Enterprise Manager Console" on page 6-2.

Discover services

Required
You must identify the network services so that these services, such as databases and listeners, can be administered with Enterprise Manager components.

"Discovering Services" on page 6-4.

Create administrator accounts

Required
Creating accounts gives administrators the ability to customize their own Console views and share and secure management data between administrators

"Creating Administrator Accounts" on page 6-5.

Install the web browser, install the Oracle Enterprise Manager web site, and install and configure a webserver (if you have not installed the Oracle Application Server Listener) to run Oracle Enterprise Manager from a web browser.

Optional
If you do not want to run Oracle Enterprise Manager from a web browser, skip this section.

"Running Oracle Enterprise Manager from a Web Browser" on page 6-6.

Create Windows NT user account with privileges to submit jobs

Required
In order for the Intelligent Agent to execute jobs on a managed node, an appropriate NT user account must exist.

"Creating a Windows NT User Account for Running Jobs" on page 6-12.

Set up Preferred Credentials on nodes

Required
In order for the Intelligent Agent to execute jobs on a managed node, the preferred credentials for the node must be set for each administrator.

"Setting Up Preferred Credentials for Managed Services" on page 6-16.

Set up email notification

Optional
Setting up email notifications enables you to receive notifications for jobs or events via email.

"Setting Up Email Notification" on page 6-17.

Set up paging service

Optional
One paging service installation per network is required if you want to receive notifications for jobs or events via pagers.

"Configuring and Starting the Paging Service" on page 6-20.

Configure a remote database for backup or SYSDBA administration

Required if not already set
Before using one of the backup management wizards or starting up or shutting down a database through Oracle Enterprise Manager, your database must be set up for remote sysdba management.
You may need to configure both the server and client if they have not been configured already through the Database Configuration Assistant.

"Configuring a Remote Database for Backup or SYSDBA Administration" on page 6-38.

Set up DBA Studio.

Optional
Configure DBA Studio if you want to access database administration features and manage multiple databases from one tool

"Setting Up DBA Studio" on page 8-1.

Procedure	Required or Optional	See
Install an Oracle database and install Oracle Enterprise Manager.	Required	Refer to the installation guide provided with the database release.
Run the Enterprise Manager Configuration Assistant to create a repository if you do not have one. During the Oracle Enterprise Manager installation, you will be asked if you want to use an existing repository or create a new one. If you need to upgrade your repository from Release 2.0 to Release 2.1, see "Upgrade a Release 2.0 Repository to a Release 2.1 Repository" on page B-2.	Required	"Creating a Release 2.1 Repository" on page 2-1.
Run the Migration Assistant to migrate data you are using in your V1.x environment from one or multiple private repositories into a specific user in your new Release 2.1 repository	Optional If you do not have a Version 1 repository, skip this step.	"Migrating a Release 1.x Repository to a Release 2.1 Repository" on page 7-1.
Add additional Management Servers	Optional If you do not need to add additional Management Servers, skip this step. Many environments will require just one Management Server.	"Adding Additional Management Servers" on page 4-1.
Start Intelligent Agent	Required	"Starting the Intelligent Agent" on page 5-1.
Start Management Servers	Required Starting and configuring at least one Management Server is required.	"Controlling the Management Server" on page 3-1.
Start Console	Required	"Starting the Enterprise Manager Console" on page 6-2.
Discover services	Required You must identify the network services so that these services, such as databases and listeners, can be administered with Enterprise Manager components.	"Discovering Services" on page 6-4.
Create administrator accounts	Required Creating accounts gives administrators the ability to customize their own Console views and share and secure management data between administrators	"Creating Administrator Accounts" on page 6-5.
Install the web browser, install the Oracle Enterprise Manager web site, and install and configure a webserver (if you have not installed the Oracle Application Server Listener) to run Oracle Enterprise Manager from a web browser.	Optional If you do not want to run Oracle Enterprise Manager from a web browser, skip this section.	"Running Oracle Enterprise Manager from a Web Browser" on page 6-6.
Create Windows NT user account with privileges to submit jobs	Required In order for the Intelligent Agent to execute jobs on a managed node, an appropriate NT user account must exist.	"Creating a Windows NT User Account for Running Jobs" on page 6-12.
Set up Preferred Credentials on nodes	Required In order for the Intelligent Agent to execute jobs on a managed node, the preferred credentials for the node must be set for each administrator.	"Setting Up Preferred Credentials for Managed Services" on page 6-16.
Set up email notification	Optional Setting up email notifications enables you to receive notifications for jobs or events via email.	"Setting Up Email Notification" on page 6-17.
Set up paging service	Optional One paging service installation per network is required if you want to receive notifications for jobs or events via pagers.	"Configuring and Starting the Paging Service" on page 6-20.
Configure a remote database for backup or SYSDBA administration	Required if not already set Before using one of the backup management wizards or starting up or shutting down a database through Oracle Enterprise Manager, your database must be set up for remote sysdba management. You may need to configure both the server and client if they have not been configured already through the Database Configuration Assistant.	"Configuring a Remote Database for Backup or SYSDBA Administration" on page 6-38.
Set up DBA Studio.	Optional Configure DBA Studio if you want to access database administration features and manage multiple databases from one tool	"Setting Up DBA Studio" on page 8-1.

1 Introducing Oracle Enterprise Manager