Chapter 1 Frequently Asked Questions

This document provides answers to question about Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool.

About the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool

• What is the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

• Why was the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool created?

• On what architecture or machines does the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool run?

• Is the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool supported on Solaris and Fujitsu (SPARC 64)?

• What is the version of Oracle Explorer Data Collector required to collect Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool data ?

• What has changed between this and the pre-release version of Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

• Why is Configuration and Service Tracker (CST) being decommissioned?

Downloading and Installing Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool

• How do I obtain the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

• How do I run Oracle Services Tools Bundle (STB) for Sun Systems?

• To update with the latest version of STB and Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool do I have to delete and re-install the existing Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

• Is there a way to install only the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

• Can Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool be installed on zones?

• Can Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool be installed directly on a non-global zone?

• Can Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool be installed on non-global zones that are in 'installed' state?

• Sometimes, when I try to install Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 3.1 on a solaris 10 system, why do I get the following error message:

  /var/sadm/pkg/SUNWlwact/install/preinstall: /usr/bin/zonename: not found /var/sadm/pkg/SUNWlwact/install/preinstall: /usr/sbin/zoneadm: not found Usage: grep -hblcnsviw pattern file . . . /var/sadm/pkg/SUNWlwact/install/preinstall: test: unknown operator 0

Using the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool

• What is the default option for the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool installer?

• Does the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool support command-line arguments?

• Are there any pre-requisite packages for the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

• How do the cause codes work with the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool? When using the Configuration Service Tracker (CST), a user could apply cause codes to multiple systems at once, is this a feature of the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

• Does the upgrade from the Oracle Lightweight availability Collection Tool 2.x to 3.0 or higher version preserve the old availability data?

• Can Lightweight Availability Collection Tool track hostname changes on the installed host?

• Why do I see negative values in my availability report?

• How does Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool know about the system serial number that it collects in its availability datagram?

Contact Information

• How do I obtain support for the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

About the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool

What is the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

The Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool is what its name implies, a lightweight standalone availability collection solution that utilizes the existing Oracle Explorer Data Collector transport for transporting availability data back to Oracle. It is installed on each Solaris operating system instance and is enabled for SPARC x86 containers and zones. It replaces the Configuration and Service Tracker (CST) and the Oracle backend support architecture. This lightweight solution is less customer impacting than the average CST deployment. The Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool allows the user to track system availability, such as boot, panic and halt events.

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Why was the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool created?

The Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool was created to augment or replace Oracle's previou availability collection tools to accommodate the customer's unique site requirements and add additional hardware model support.

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On what architecture or machines does the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool run?

The Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool currently runs on Solaris™ SPARC, and Solaris x86 architectures. It supports zones and containers.

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Is the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool supported on Solaris and Fujitsu (SPARC 64)?

Yes, it is the common code base that is compiled for SPARC and x64 platforms, thus the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool does work on both 32 and 64 bit processors.

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What is the version of Oracle Explorer Data Collector required to collect Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool data ?

Oracle Explorer Data Collector 6.0 or higher is required to collect the datagrams of Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 3.0 or higher. Although, the previous versions of Oracle Explorer Data Collector & Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool may work, but it is recommended that Explorer 6.0 or higher is used to collect the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 3.0 (or higher) datagrams, otherwise Oracle may not be able to provide availability analysis based on older version Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool datagrams.

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Why is Configuration and Service Tracker (CST) being decommissioned?

Voice of the Customer (VOC) indicates that CST is costly for both the customer and Oracle to manage and operate. Because of this, the adoption rate is very low and in some cases it is required by contract.

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Downloading and Installing Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool

How do I obtain the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

The Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool is distributed on the Oracle Services Tools Bundle (STB) for Sun Systems and is made available via its download link.

Use the following procedure to download the latest STB:

1. Go to the STB site at: http://www.sun.com/service/stb/index.jsp and click the Software Download and Documentation link in the Resources section.

2. In the drop-down lists, select the appropriate Platform and Language for your download.

3. Review the STB License Agreement and mark the I agree check box to proceed with downloading.

   The Sun Download Center might require you to log in before proceeding.

4. Click install_stb.sh to download the installer.

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How do I run Oracle Services Tools Bundle (STB) for Sun Systems?

Consult the help option for usage; type: ./install_stb.sh -help

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To update with the latest version of STB and the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool do I have to delete and re-install the existing Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

No, STB installer will help you uninstall the existing version if you choose yes to the upgrade option.

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Is there a way to install only the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

No. The Oracle Services Tools Bundle (STB) for Sun Systems no longer supports selective installation of components. The Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool requires Oracle Explorer Data Collector 6.0 or above and an Oracle Serial Number in EEPROM to be present on the system. STB takes care of all prerequisites and installs all components on the system.

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Can Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool be installed on zones?

Yes, Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool can be installed on zones.

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Can Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool be installed directly on a non-global zone?

No, Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool can be installed on non-global zones only via the global zone. If direct installation on non-global zone is attempted, it exits the installation giving out appropriate error message.

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Can Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool be installed on non-global zones that are in 'installed' state?

No, Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool does not install on non-global zones that are in 'installed' state. Installation will exit throwing out relevant warning message.

Since the installation exits prematurely on such 'installed' zones, package would be in partially installed state. User can manually execute 'pkgrm' to clean it up.

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Sometimes, when I try to install Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 3.1 on a Solaris 10 system, why do I get the following error message:

/var/sadm/pkg/SUNWlwact/install/preinstall: /usr/bin/zonename: not found
/var/sadm/pkg/SUNWlwact/install/preinstall: /usr/sbin/zoneadm: not found
Usage: grep -hblcnsviw pattern file . . .
/var/sadm/pkg/SUNWlwact/install/preinstall: test: unknown operator 0

It is highly likely that you are attempting to install Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool on a Solaris 10 (or higher version) system where the zone related packages SUNWzoneu and SUNWzoner are removed. In such cases, Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 3.1 installation does not skip installation on non-global zones and thus causes the error.

This issue has been resolved with the LWACT 3.2 release. You can install the latest version of LWACT by downloading and installing STB.

Using Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool

What is the default option for the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool installer?

Within the STB install, the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool default option is yes.

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Does the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool support command-line arguments?

Yes. The Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool utilities logtime and ltreport support command-line options. Please refer to respective man page of these utilities for more information.

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Are there any pre-requisite packages for the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

No, there are no pre-requisite packages that need to be installed; however, if the Availability Reports are to be generated at the Oracle backend, then Oracle Explorer Data Collector 6.0 or higher version packages should be installed on the same host.

Similarly, to ensure proper collection of a valid serial number in the availability diagram, it is recommended that SNEEP is installed on the same host. This functional dependency on the recommended packages is automatically resolved when you install the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool from STB.

Please refer to the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool User Guide for further information.

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How do the cause codes work with the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool? When using the Configuration Service Tracker (CST), a user could apply cause codes to multiple systems at once, is this a feature of the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

The Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 3.0 and higher version provides various methods to set cause codes to the outage events:

• lwact.update — Users can set a common cause code to single and multiple hosts for the last occurred outage using the lwact.update file option. This file contains the cause code entry that is to be set for the outage and is placed into the path defined by the configurable parameter, UPDATE. As the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool runs, it detects this file and updates the cause code for the last occurred outage with the entry listed in the file. Users can push this file into single or multiple hosts to update the cause code to the outage as required. For more information, see the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool User Guide and the Man pages.

• L1CC, L2CC, L3CC — The Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool also facilitates configurable parameters to set default cause codes (up to three levels) for outage events. Values to these parameters can be defined in the /etc/default/lwact file. For more information, see the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool User Guide and the Man pages.

• logtime — This is a command line interface (CLI) provided by the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool to set or modify the cause codes for outage events. For more information, see the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool User Guide and the Man pages.

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Does the upgrade from the Oracle Lightweight availability Collection Tool 2.x to 3.0 or higher version preserve the old availability data?

Yes, upgrade from any Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 2.1.16 (or greater) will retain the old availability data as long as it is not corrupted. It is recommended that you do a backup of the file prior to upgrading the application.

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How do I obtain support for the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool?

To obtain support for the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool, go to http://sunsolve.sun.comand search for the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool. If you are unable to resolve the problem and have a SunSpectrum support contract, contact the Customer Care Centerand request support for the Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool.

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Can Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool track hostname changes on the installed host?

Yes, Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 3.1 and higher will detect hostname changes on the monitored host and will update the availability datagram xml with appropriate values.

Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool will detect such system configuration changes only on a 'boot' event.

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Why do I see negative values in my availability report?

The availability datagram can reflect negative elapsed time and negative availability if the system had undergone a sudden fall back in time. Check the syslog for finding the exact time during which the fall back occurred and correct the system time as required.

How does Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool know about the system serial number that it collects in its availability datagram?

Pre 3.2 versions of Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool packages had a defect in the way in which serial number information was collected from the system. This defect is rectified in the 3.2 release. Oracle Lightweight Availability Collection Tool 3.2 and higher uses the same logic as followed by other STB components while collecting system serial number. This common standard algorithm is reliable and should get proper serial number data from most of the hardware.