AHF Release 23.1

New Status in Oracle Orachk/Oracle Exachk Report

In release 23.1, a new check status of Undetermined has been introduced into the Oracle Orachk/Oracle Exachk reports.

Previously, if a check failed for an unexpected reason, such as permission denied or unable to find a resource, it would be marked as failed. This led to false negatives. These types of check failures now result in the check status being marked as Undetermined. Note that Undetermined checks carry the same weight in the Health Score Calculation as skipped checks.

Compare Configuration Across Two Different systems

Starting in release 23.1, you can compare configuration across two different systems.

For example:
  • Primary vs Standby
  • Test vs Production
  • Heathy vs Unhealthy system
Run Oracle Orachk/Oracle Exachk on both systems and then pass both resulting zip to the -diff option to show configuration sections:
  1. Different values for same configuration/parameter
  2. Unique values found only in first system
  3. Unique values found only in second system
  4. Common values in both systems
Use the new configuration comparison as follows:
orachk -diff {compliance collection zip1} {compliance collection zip2} -force -showallcomparison
exachk -diff {compliance collection zip1} {compliance collection zip2} -force -showallcomparison

-showallcomparison: Use this option to generate comparisons for all targets across different configurations, including database servers, storage servers, switches, ASM, patches, and more. Without this argument, the command compares only one target of each type, for example, one database server, one storage server, one switch, and so on.

Note:

This option can only be used with the -force option in the -diff command.

Machine Readable Output Option for AHFCTL Commands

In release 23.1, JSON output option has been added to a number of AHFCTL commands to allow other software to easily integrate with AHF.

For example:
  • ahfctl switch -status -json
  • ahfctl statusahf -json
  • ahfctl upgradehistory -json
  • ahfctl queryupdate -json

AHF SQLAgent Connection Pooling

The SQL Agent reduces the number of connections AHF makes to the database.

Previously, when TFAC ran an SQL query to gather metrics and health data, an SQL*Plus sub-process was created. This sub-process allocated resources to establish a database connection, which was then used to execute one single SQL query. Upon completion of the SQL query, the connection was closed and the sub-process was terminated.

The new SQL Agent creates a sub-process that keeps the database connections open through the life-time of AHF. A communication channel is opened between AHF and the SQL Agent, so the database connections can be reused and serve all SQL query execution requests from AHF.

By reducing the number of connections, resource consumption such as CPU and Memory are decreased along with the number of audit connection logs.

New Oracle Orachk and Oracle Exachk Best Practice Checks

Release 23.1 includes the following new Oracle Orachk and Oracle Exachk best practice checks.

Best Practice Checks Common to Both Oracle Orachk and Oracle Exachk

  • EM Status
  • Verify important bug fixes on long term recent releases

Oracle Orachk Specific Best Practice Checks

  • Validate password file sharing

Oracle Exachk Specific Best Practice Checks

  • AHF CPU oversubscription check
  • Verify CPU configuration across all virtual machines in a cluster
  • Check file system usage in cloud environments
  • Verify the status of dbcs-agent and dbcs-admin processes

All checks can be explored in more detail via the Health Check Catalogs: