A Contacting Oracle Support Services

This appendix discusses the following topics:

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.

  • 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 Tracing Oracle Fail Safe Problems for information about using the trace function to log error output to a file.

Finding the Version of Oracle Software

To find the version of software that you run in the Oracle Fail Safe Manager help menu, select Help in the menu bar, 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.

Viewing Error Information

Oracle Fail Safe Manager error messages are saved in three ways. They are as follows:

  • Progress Window: This window displays the error messages to the user. Select Save As button to save the contents of the output window to a file that has more details, such as error numbers, timestamps, and version information.

  • Windows Application Event Log: Oracle Fail Safe resource monitor -- the cluster component that starts, stops, and monitors Oracle cluster resources -- posts error information in the Windows Application Event Log. Check that log if errors are encountered related to starting, stopping, or Is Alive polling of Oracle cluster resources.

  • Oracle Fail Safe trace files: Oracle Fail Safe logs more detailed information in these files that may provide clues to help determine the cause of errors.

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.

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 Fail Safe value from Table A-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 Fail Safe strings shown in Table A-1. Separate multiple entries with commas.
  8. Repeat steps 3 through 7 to set additional Oracle Fail Safe trace flags.
  9. Restart the Cluster Service on each node if you set the FSR_TRACE_OUTPUT value. Note that, stopping the Cluster Service will cause all cluster resources to fail over to another node in the cluster. Restart Oracle Fail Safe cluster resource if you set the FSS_TRACE_OUTPUT value.

Table A-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. Oracle Fail Safe resource DLL starts, stops, and monitors Oracle resources in a cluster. For example:

C:\ORACLE_BASE\diag\FailSafe\fsr_trace.log

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 Fail Safe server. Server errors that occur when executing commands sent by the Oracle Fail Safe Manager client are written to this file. For example:

C:\ORACLE_BASE\diag\FailSafe\fss_trace.log

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

AGENT

Logs information related to Oracle Management Agent activity.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

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.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

COM

Logs activity related to the Microsoft DCOM interface.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

COMMAND_RESULT

Logs information related to spawned commands.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

COMMON

Logs information that would be common to all Oracle Fail Safe components, such as error logging or work item processing.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

CREATE_SA

Logs information related to the creation of standalone resources, such as a sample database.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

CR_RES

Logs information related to the creation of cluster resources.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

CLUSTER_MGR

Logs information related to the Microsoft Windows Failover Clusters cluster interface.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

DB_RES

Logs information related to database access by the server or resource monitor DLL.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

DEL_RES

Logs information related to the deletion of a cluster resource.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

DELETE_SA

Logs information related to the deletion of a standalone resource, such as a sample database.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

HOME

Logs information related to the processing of Oracle homes.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

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 Fail Safe is running (the node where the Cluster Group resides).

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.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

SQLNET

Generates detailed internal information related to the Oracle Net configuration performed by Oracle Fail Safe. 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.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

VERIFY_CLUSTER

Logs information about the VERIFY CLUSTER operation.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

VERIFY_GR

Logs information about the Verify Group operation.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

VERIFY_SA

Logs information regarding verification of standalone resources.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

VERIFY_DB

Logs information about the Validate operation.

FSS_TRACE_FLAGS

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 Fail Safe surrogate to be written. Server errors that occur when executing commands sent by the Oracle Fail Safe Manager client are written to this file. This file is used on the nodes that do not own the Cluster Group. For example:

C:\ORACLE_BASE\diag\FailSafe\fsu_trace.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.

Note:

Oracle recommends using ALL for FSS_TRACE_FLAGS.

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.