Review all best practices before installing STA to optimize the performance of the STA server, database, and application.
Follow planning guidelines to ensure a smooth STA installation.
To ensure optimal performance and functionality of the STA application, STA must be installed on a dedicated server (called the STA server). There should be no other applications running on the server. Oracle Service can provide support only if these conditions are met.
Contact your Oracle sales representative for assistance with sizing your STA server. Your sales representative can use the STA Server Sizing Tool to provide you with best sizing recommendations to meet your site's current needs and expected growth. See Server Requirements.
For optimal performance and functionality of the STA application, plan your STA file system layout and space allocations carefully. The file system is configured during Linux installation. See Review STA File System Layout.
Follow Linux installation guidelines to ensure STA installs on the server.
Starting with STA 2.3.0, the iptables firewall service must be running. Before beginning an STA installation, you must enable iptables so the installer can set up required port configurations. Once STA is installed, iptables must remain running to support internal port forwarding for SNMP traps. See Enable the Linux Firewall iptables.
Use yum to install Linux RPM packages. yum greatly simplifies the package installation process by automatically searching RPM package repositories for the latest package versions and their dependencies. See Setup yum (optional).
The mariadb packages (an alternative to MySQL) must not be installed on the STA server. The package will cause the MySQL installation of STA to fail.
Follow STA installation guidelines to ensure STA installs on the server.
For best system performance and the most robust analytics and reporting, always upgrade to the latest version of STA. See Install STA.
Beginning with STA 2.1.0, the STA installer uses the Oracle central inventory location, which is a convention common to many Oracle products. After completing STA installation, you should register the Oracle central inventory location on the STA server by running the provided registration script. Registering the location will facilitate the installation of future STA upgrades. See Register the Oracle Central Inventory Location.
For optimal STA server performance, you should not run a browser on the STA server to access the STA user interface or for any other purpose. Run browsers on platforms separate from the STA server. See Ensure Local Browser Functionality (optional).
Follow library configuration guidelines to ensure the tape libraries send data to STA.
To ensure richer library and drive data, use the most current library and drive firmware levels. See Library Requirements and Tape Drive Requirements.
To ensure complete compatibility with STA, you must set some library parameters to specific values. Make the following changes before configuring the library connection to STA.
For SL8500 libraries, make sure the complex ID is unique for each monitored SL8500 complex. See Ensure the Correct Library Complex ID (SL8500 only).
For SL150 and SL500 libraries, ensure the volume label format is set correctly. See Set the Volume Label Format (SL500 only) and Set Label Format and Element Addressing Mode (SL150 only).
You should stop all activity on a library before changing any library parameters. In addition, tape applications and hosts may require configuration changes after updating the library parameters.
Because all history for a particular piece of media is tied to its volume serial number (volser), you should avoid duplicate volsers in your tape library environment. See Avoid Duplicate Volume Serial Numbers.
Follow SNMP guidelines to ensure that the tape libraries send data to STA.
For communication between STA and the monitored libraries, Oracle recommends the more secure SNMP v3 protocol rather than v2c. However, v2c is available to support older library firmware levels. The authentication, encryption, and message integrity features in v3 provide a secure mechanism for sending library data. v3 is also required for STA media validation.
Oracle recommends creating a new, unique SNMP v3 user on the libraries for STA communications.
Follow data collection guidelines to verify the STA is receiving up-to-date library data.
Certain activities performed in STA or on a monitored library may cause the SNMP connection to drop. To minimize the dropped connection time and prevent the loss of large amounts of SNMP data, perform a connection test at the following times:
After the initial SNMP connection between STA and a library has been configured
After any STA SNMP client settings have been modified
After any SNMP settings for a monitored library have been modified
After a monitored library has been rebooted or experienced a Redundant Electronics switch
Any time the library engine ID field is blank on the SNMP Connections – Monitored Libraries screen
After STA has been upgraded
After configuring STA, you should perform a manual library data collection on each library configured to the STA server. It is recommended that you perform these initial data collections while library activity is low or stopped.
STA relies on automatic daily library data collections to gather key information for processing exchanges and evaluating the state of the library. Ideally, the daily data collections should be scheduled for times when the library is less busy. It is recommended that you choose the best time for your organization.
For STA to receive SNMP data from a library, you must perform a manual data collection at the following times:
After a new library connection has been configured
After SNMP settings in STA and on the library have been modified
After a Redundant Electronics switch has occurred
After there have been any hardware configuration changes to the library, including moving drives
Follow best practices when using STA services to help manage the database.
You should configure a remote backup server for STA database backups. See the STA Administration Guide for instructions.
It is the customer's responsibility to manage space on the STA remote backup server. You should periodically check the amount of space consumed by the STA database backups and take appropriate action when space is running low.
To assist with management of the STA server, you can define high water marks for disk and memory usage, and the Resource Monitor will alert you if these are exceeded. See the STA Administration Guide for instructions.
Follow database tuning guidelines to maximize the performance of the database.
If you have significant library exchanges per hour rates (that is, greater than 300) with multiple libraries attached to a single STA server and a long history with STA, you might need to make adjustments to two InnoDB buffer pool parameters in the MySQL configuration file, /etc/my.cnf. To change these parameters, first stop STA, then modify the my.cnf file, and then restart STA to activate the new values.
The key parameters that may need adjusting based on your server configuration are as follows.
innodb_buffer_pool_size — 24GB or greater. The value should be 70–80 percent of the STA server's physical memory.
innodb_buffer_pool_instances — 8 minium. More buffer pools improve concurrent processing.