1 Microsoft Active Directory Overview and Prerequisites

This chapter provides an overview description of the Oracle system monitoring plug-in for Microsoft Active Directory and summarizes the prerequisites required before configuration.

The following topics are provided:

1.1 Microsoft Active Directory Overview

The System Monitoring Plug-in for Microsoft Active Directory extends Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control to add support for managing the Microsoft Active Directory instances. By deploying the plug-in within your Cloud Control environment, you gain the following management features:

  • Monitor availability and performance.

  • Perform trend analysis on collected performance information.

  • View and compare configuration data, as well as track configuration changes.

  • Receive e-mail and/or page notification concerning potential problems surrounding availability, performance, and/or configuration data.

  • Gain access to rich out-of-box reports.

  • Support monitoring by a local or remote Oracle Management Agent (Agent). Local Agent is an agent running on the same host as the Microsoft Active Directory. Remote Agent is an agent running on a host that is different from the host where Microsoft Active Directory is running.

1.2 Supported Versions

This plug-in supports the following versions of products:

  • Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 13c Release 1 (13.1.0.1.0) and later

  • Oracle Management Agent 13c Release 1 or higher for Microsoft Windows

  • Microsoft Windows 2003 Active Directory and Microsoft Windows 2008 Active Directory

  • Microsoft Active Directory running on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or Microsoft Windows Server 2008 operating systems (see note below).

Note:

For information on the editions (such as Enterprise, Standard, and so forth) and versions of Windows operating systems that this Microsoft product is supported to run on, refer to the Microsoft Web site and/or documentation.

1.3 Microsoft Active Directory Plug-in Prerequisites

The following prerequisites must be met before you can deploy the plug-in:

  1. Microsoft Windows 2003 Active Directory or Microsoft Windows 2008 Active Directory is installed.
  2. The following components of Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 13c Release 1 or higher are installed:
    • Oracle Management Service with Oracle Management Repository.
    • Oracle Management Agent for Windows. You can install the Agent on the same computer as Active Directory (referred to as local Agent monitoring), or you can install the Agent on a different computer from Active Directory (referred to as remote Agent monitoring).
  3. Ensure that the Windows Management Instrumentation Service is up and running.
  4. For remote Agent monitoring, a remote Agent must be properly configured. See Configuring a Remote Agent for the procedure.
  5. User privileges for the Job system of Enterprise Manager. For the procedure, refer to "Setting Credentials for the Job System to Work with Enterprise Manager" in Database Installation Guide for Microsoft Windows (E24186-04):

    This guide is listed in the Installing and Upgrading section of the Oracle Database Documentation Library at:

    http://www.oracle.com/pls/db112/homepage

    Note:

    If you do not assign the correct privileges for users, the deployment will fail.

  6. If you want to use version 12.1.0.1.0 of the Microsoft Active Directory plug-in, then install this version on Oracle Management Agent 12c Release 1 for Microsoft Windows.

1.4 Downloading the Plug-in

You can download plug-ins in online or offline mode. Online mode refers to an environment where you have Internet connectivity, and can download the plug-in directly through Enterprise Manager from My Oracle Support. Offline mode refers to an environment where you do not have Internet connectivity, or where the plug-in is not available from My Oracle Support.

See the Managing Plug-ins chapter in the Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Administrator's Guide for details on downloading the plug-in in either mode.

1.5 Deploying the Plug-in

You can deploy the plug-in to an Oracle Management Service instance using the Enterprise Manager Cloud Control console, or using the EM Command Line Interface (EMCLI). While the console enables you to deploy one plug-in at a time, the command line interface mode enables you to deploy multiple plug-ins at a time, thus saving plug-in deployment time and downtime, if applicable.

See the Managing Plug-ins chapter in the Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Administrator's Guide for instructions on deploying the plug-in.

1.6 Upgrading the Plug-in

The Self Update feature allows you to expand Enterprise Manager's capabilities by updating Enterprise Manager components whenever new or updated features become available. Updated plug-ins are made available via the Enterprise Manager Store, an external site that is periodically checked by Enterprise Manager Cloud Control to obtain information about updates ready for download. See the Updating Cloud Control chapter in the Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Administrator's Guide for steps to update the plug-in.

1.7 Undeploying the Plug-in

See the Managing Plug-ins chapter in the Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Administrator's Guide for steps to undeploy the plug-in.