D Collecting OCM Data Using Oracle Harvester

My Oracle Support provides a key set of features and functionality that greatly enhance the customer's interaction with Oracle Support. My Oracle Support streamlines the Service Request submission process by providing in-context information specific to a customer's configurations, as well as proactive support. To enable these features within My Oracle Support, the customer's configuration information must be uploaded to Oracle. When the configuration data is uploaded on a regular basis, customer support representatives can analyze this data and provide better service to customers.

The following mechanisms are provided to customers for collecting and uploading configuration data to Oracle.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Harvester (Oracle Harvester)
Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM)

In particular:

When installing any product, the first screen asks for My Oracle Support credentials. THIS IS A PIVOTAL SCREEN in the installation. The user name and password that you provide are the credentials against which the configuration data is uploaded to Oracle.
Configuration collections run and the configuration data is uploaded to Oracle every 24 hours.
Once the data is uploaded, it can be viewed by logging into My Oracle Support (https://support.oracle.com) using the same credentials supplied during product installation.

Note: If you use Enterprise Manager to manage your applications, we recommend that you use Oracle Harvester to upload your configurations to Oracle. Otherwise, use OCM.

Oracle Harvester

Oracle Harvester only harvests data for targets that are managed by Enterprise Manager. Because Oracle Harvester has the same OCM dependencies, Oracle Harvester enables the gathering of target configuration data by leveraging Enterprise Manager collection methods thus precluding the need to install OCM on target homes managed by Oracle Harvester.

Highlights of Oracle Harvester

The following are highlights of Oracle Harvester:

Data is uploaded by default against the same credentials with which OCM in the Oracle Management Service (OMS) home is configured.
Requires OCM to be configured and running in the OMS home for Enterprise Manager.
Gathers target configuration data from the Management Repository
Automatically runs periodically so no user intervention is required

Oracle Harvester and OCM

When you install Enterprise Manager, Oracle Harvester and Oracle Configuration Manager are automatically installed as are all the necessary subcomponents. The Oracle Harvester will run as long as the OCM in the OMS home is configured and running.

OCM must be enabled in the Oracle Home of the OMS and configured (and running in connected mode) in the Instance Home of the OMS. The reason is that the Oracle OMS target will not be discovered by the OCM collector if ORACLE_CONFIG_HOME is not set.

Perform the following steps to ensure the Oracle OMS target is discovered:

Locate the OMS instance home.

In the $ORACLE_HOME/sysman/config/emInstanceMapping.properties file (where ORACLE_HOME is the Oracle Home of the OMS), there is an entry referencing a file called emgc.properties.

The directory in which the emgc.properties file is located is the "instance home" of the OMS. In the following example, /u01/app/oracle/product/gc_inst/em/EMGC_OMS1 is the instance home of the OMS:

EMGC_OMS1=/u01/app/oracle/product/gc_inst/em/EMGC_OMS1/emgc.properties
Set the environment variable ORACLE_CONFIG_HOME to the directory of this emgc.properties file.

Example:$export ORACLE_CONFIG_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/gc_inst/em/EMGC_OMS1
Configure OCM.

New For Enterprise Manager Release 12.1

By default, all targets are uploaded using the credentials used to register Oracle Configuration Manager in the OMS Home. In Enterprise Manager release 12.1, you have the option of assigning a Customer Support Identifier (CSI) to each target home.

The Oracle Harvester supports uploading configuration data to different CSIs for each different Oracle Home.

The steps include:

Ensuring that the Oracle Harvester has run. This job runs automatically. The status of the run can be monitored from the Support Identifier Assignment page. To access this page from the Enterprise Manager home page, select Setup, then select My Oracle Support. From the menu, select Support Identifier Assignment.
Setting My Oracle Support preferred credentials. From the Enterprise Manager home page, select Setup, then select My Oracle Support. From the menu, select Set credentials and supply any valid My Oracle Support credentials.
Assigning the Support Identifier.
1. From the Enterprise Manager home page, select Setup, then select My Oracle Support. Select Support Identifier Assignment and provide the correct user name and password. Select Set credentials.
2. Select Home. Click Assign button. Select CSI and click OK.

Ensuring the message displays indicating the assignment was successful. The message reads:

Support Identifier has been assigned for 1 Oracle homes. The changes in the Customer Support Identifiers will be reflected in My Oracle Support after the next Harvester run.

Viewing CSIs in Enterprise Manager

You can see the CSI associated with a target by viewing the target property or by doing a configuration search with CSI set as the search criteria. Any user with operator privilege on all targets for a given Oracle Home can assign a CSI for that Oracle Home.

Refer to the help in the Enterprise Manager interface on how to access this information.

Supported Targets in Oracle Harvester

Oracle Harvester collects configuration data from Enterprise Manager for the same set of targets collected by OCM. See Table D-1 for the list of targets.

Table D-1 Supported Targets in Enterprise Manager 12c

Target
Host
Oracle Application Server
Oracle Database
Oracle Home
Oracle Exadata Storage Server
Oracle Virtual Manager
Oracle WebLogic Server
Management Agent
Management Repository
Oracle Database Machine
Oracle Fusion Applications
Oracle Fusion Middleware
Oracle Management Service
Oracle SOA Suite

Configuration Data Not Available in My Oracle Support

In previous versions of Enterprise Manager, Oracle Harvester configuration data was only uploaded to My Oracle Support when 30 days had passed since the last upload of data by a standalone OCM Collector if such data already existed in My Oracle Support.

This restriction has been lifted in Enterprise Manager 12c. Configuration data for targets collected from Oracle Harvester running in Enterprise Manager release 12c displays in My Oracle Support immediately, regardless of how recently data was uploaded by a standalone OCM Collector.

Oracle Configuration Manager

Oracle Configuration Manager is installed and configured automatically when you install an Oracle product. It is installed in the product Home and collects configuration data for all targets installed in that Home.

The OCM setup requires specifying the My Oracle Support account and password, or My Oracle Support account and Customer Support Identifier (CSI). Configuration data will be uploaded using this information and can be viewed by logging in to My Oracle Support using the same credentials.

OCM must be installed in every Oracle Home from which you want to upload configuration data to Oracle. In addition to being part of the product installation, OCM can also be downloaded from My Oracle Support. The Mass Deployment tool is available to help with deploying OCM across data centers. The OCM kit is available from the Collector tab on My Oracle Support.

Once OCM is installed, no additional work is required. By default, automatic updates are enabled and you are encouraged to use this feature to ensure you are always running the latest version of OCM. This feature can be disabled if required, for example, for security reasons. If you disable the feature, you can turn it on by executing the following command:

<ocm_install_root>/ccr/bin/emCCR automatic_update on

Additional Information

To find additional information about My Oracle Support, see:

https://support.oracle.com

To find more information about OCM, perform the following steps:

Log into My Oracle Support at https://support.oracle.com
Access the Collector tab. The What, Why, How, Using It, and Additional Resources sections all contain useful information.

Troubleshooting Configuration Data Collection Tools

The following sections describe how to resolve issues with the configuration data collections.

In Enterprise Manager release 12.1.0.2, ensure that collection data is uploaded to Oracle by using the emccr status command. Look at the last uploaded date and time.

Note: This emccr status command shows that collected data was uploaded, but does not ensure the Oracle Harvester collections were successful and uploaded.

Location of error logs:

Oracle Harvester error logs:

For Harvester Job errors, look at:
```
INSTANCE_HOME/sysman/log/emoms_pbs.trc
```

UI errors, for example CSI Assignment errors, look at:

INSTANCE_HOME/sysman/log/emoms.trc

for example: /gc_inst/user_projects/domains/GCDomain/servers/EMGC_OMS1/sysman/log/emoms.trc

Oracle Configuration Manager log is located at:
```
ccr/hosts/<hostname>/log/collector.log
```

Oracle Harvester Collection Fails If the state/upload/external Directory Is Missing

If the Oracle Harvester collection fails with the following error, the required directory named external is missing.

[JobWorker 75210:Thread-61] ERROR gcharvester.GcCollectionMgr initOcm.? - GC OCM
Harvester: Caught GC Harvester exception from GCInit.init(): The installed version
of Oracle Configuration Manager in the ORACLE_HOME
(/scratch/aime/work/midlwre8937/oms11g) is prior to 10.3.1. The Grid Control
Configuration harvesting requires at a minimum, 10.3.1

To resolve this issue, create the external directory:

$ORACLE_INSTANCE_HOME/ccr/state/upload/external

(Bug 12795503)

Oracle Configuration Manager Is Not Running

When OCM is not running, you may see the following error:

2011-08-29 16:34:20,709 [JobWorker 97285:Thread-60] WARN
gcharvester.HarvesterJobUtils performOCMCollections.? - GC OCM Harvester: OCM was
stopped and is not running

To resolve this issue, verify that the OCM was installed and configured in the appropriate directories (execute emCCR status).

In particular, OCM must be installed in the OMS Oracle Home and configured (and running in connected mode) in the OMS Instance Home.

Configuration Data Not Available in My Oracle Support

When you look at My Oracle Support and do not find configuration data, it could be that the Oracle Harvester collection did not run.

To resolve this issue, verify that the OCM was installed and configured in the appropriate directories (execute emCCR status). In particular, OCM must be installed in the OMS Oracle Home and configured (and running in connected mode) in the OMS Instance Home.

To verify that OCM is running, perform the following steps:

Set ORACLE_CONFIG_HOME to the INSTANCE HOME
Execute $ORACLE_HOME/ccr/bin/emCCR status