Oracle Health Check Collections Manager Application Features

Familiarize yourself with the features of Oracle Health Check Collections Manager Application.

Global Select Lists

Oracle Health Check Collections Manager provides global select lists that enable you to filter the information displayed throughout the application.

The select lists are available at the beginning of each applicable tab. When you select a value, the application displays data based on the selected criteria.

The following global select lists are available:

Business Unit - Filters the displayed data by Business Unit (BU).
System - Filters the displayed data by system.
Data Interval - Filters the displayed data for a selected period of time.

Home Tab

The Home tab provides an overview of system health and recent activity for the systems that you have permission to access.

System status is displayed graphically and uses color-coded indicators based on health check results:

Green - Passed
Orange - Warning
Red - Failed

Use the global select lists to filter the information displayed on the Home tab by:

Business Unit (BU)
Data interval

You can also filter Most Failed Checks, Most Warned Checks, and Recent Collections by system name.

Most Failed Checks

The Most Failed Checks region displays the checks that failed most frequently across collections for the selected time period, Business Unit, or system.

The information includes:

Check name
Failure count

The Most Warned Checks region provides similar information for checks that generated warnings.

Recent Collections

The Recent Collections region provides a summary of recently uploaded collections based on the selected time period.

The information includes:

Overall health score
Number of failed checks
Number of warning checks
Number of passed checks
Status indicator

When a previous collection exists for the same system, Oracle Health Check Collections Manager automatically compares the most recent collection with the previous collection.

The status indicator summarizes the comparison:

Green - There is no difference between the collections, one or more findings improved from WARNING or FAIL to PASS, or no previous collection is available for comparison.
Orange - One or more findings regressed between the previous and most recent collections, such as a change from PASS to WARNING.
Red - One or more findings regressed to a failed state between the previous and most recent collections, such as a change from PASS to FAIL.

Recent Activity

The Recent Activity region displays recent user activity across collections according to the access role assigned to the logged-in user.

The information available depends on the user's role:

DBA - Can view activity associated with systems assigned to them.
DBA Manager - Can view activity within their assigned Business Units and systems.
Admin - Can view activity across all available collection data in the application.

Collections Tab

The Collections tab displays available health check collections, incident information, and collection scores based on the results of individual checks.

The collections displayed depend on the access permissions associated with your assigned role.

Use the available filters to refine the list of collections by:

Business Unit (BU)
System
Status

Incident Information

The Delta (Δ) indicator displays the incident status associated with a collection. The indicator is color-coded according to the status of the incident ticket:

Red - No incident ticket exists: Click the Delta (Δ) indicator to create an incident ticket for the collection or for individual checks.
Blue - An open incident ticket exists: Click the Delta (Δ) indicator to open and edit the existing incident ticket.
Green - A closed incident ticket exists: Click the Delta (Δ) indicator to view the closed incident ticket.

Collection Score

The collection score is calculated from the number and status of failed, warning, informational, and passed checks.

Each check starts with 10 points. Points are deducted according to the check status:

Check Status	Points Deducted
FAIL	10
WARNING	5
INFO	3
PASS	0

When an incident ticket created for an entire collection is closed after all associated issues are resolved, Oracle Health Check Collections Manager changes the collection score to 100%.

When an incident ticket associated with an individual check is closed after the finding is resolved, Oracle Health Check Collections Manager changes the status of that check to PASS and recalculates the collection score.

Manually Uploaded Collections

A More Info link next to a collection indicates that the collection was uploaded manually to Oracle Health Check Collections Manager.

View Collection Details

Click the linked collection name to open the collection in the Browse tab and view its details.

Collections > Browse Sub Tab

The Browse subtab enables you to view individual health checks for a collection and refine the displayed checks by applying filters.

Use the Browse subtab to:

Apply filters to the list of checks.
Create or update incident tickets for individual audit check findings.
Ignore selected checks at different levels.
Restore checks that were previously ignored.

Filter Checks

After the list of checks is displayed, apply filters to narrow the results and locate specific findings.

Manage Incident Tickets

Create or update incident tickets for individual audit check findings. Incident tickets for individual checks work in the same way as the incident tickets available from the Collections tab.

Ignore Checks

You can exclude selected failed checks from consideration when appropriate.

To ignore a check:

Select the check box next to the audit check.
Click Ignore Selected.
Select the level at which you want to ignore the check:
- Ignore from collection - Ignores the check for the selected collection.
- Ignore from system - Ignores the check for the selected system.
- Ignore from a business unit - Ignores the check for the selected Business Unit (BU).
- Ignore from all business units - Ignores the check across all applicable BUs.

Oracle Health Check Collections Manager applies the ignored status at the selected level and marks the check as FAIL-IGNORED, indicating that the check failed but has been intentionally ignored.

Note:

The scope within which you can ignore checks is determined by the role assigned to your user account.

All ignored checks are available from the Ignored Checks tab.

Undo Ignored Checks

You can restore a previously ignored check when you want it to be evaluated normally again.

Select the appropriate undo option based on the level at which the check was ignored:

Undo ignore from collection
Undo ignore from system
Undo ignore from business unit
Undo ignore from all business units

Note:

The scope within which you can undo ignored checks is determined by the role assigned to your user account.

Collections > Compare Sub Tab

The Compare subtab enables you to compare audit check results and Oracle patch results between two collections.

You can compare collections from the same system or from different systems.

Compare Audit Check Results

Use Compare Audit Check Results to identify differences in audit check findings between two collections.

You can filter the collections available for comparison by:

Business Unit (BU)
System
Database version
Platform

The collections available for comparison are limited by the filters you select.

Use the comparison to:

Compare audit check findings between two collections.
Identify changes in check results over time.
Compare collections from the same system.
Compare collections from different systems.

Compare Patch Results

Use Compare Patch Results to compare installed Oracle patches between two collections.

The comparison identifies differences in patch results between the selected collections and helps you determine whether the patch configurations differ between systems or collection periods.

Note:

A highlighted row indicates that a patch is recommended but is not installed in either of the selected collections.

Report View Tab

The Report View tab provides a graphical summary of health check results for a system collection.

Use the Report View tab to:

View a graphical summary of the system collection.
Display separate graphical summaries for database checks, instance checks, and home path checks.
Analyze checks by check type and status within the collection.
Review system health check details by check type and status.
Use the printable view to print the graphical summary of the system collection.

Upload Collections Sub Tab

The Upload Collections subtab provides an interface for manually uploading health check collections to Oracle Health Check Collections Manager. It also displays information about previously uploaded collections and their associated files.

When you manually upload a collection, Oracle Health Check Collections Manager extracts the collection and imports its data into the application in the same way as a collection uploaded automatically when the health check tool runs.

Manual upload is useful when Oracle Orachk or Oracle Exachk is not configured to upload collections automatically to Oracle Health Check Collections Manager.

Use the Upload Collections subtab to:

Manually upload a health check collection.
View collections that were previously uploaded.
Review information about uploaded files.
Import collection data when automatic upload is not configured.

Note:

You can automate the process of uploading collections to the database that hosts Oracle Health Check Collections Manager by using the appropriate database tables and environment variables.

Tracking Support Incidents

The Incidents tab provides a system for creating, managing, and tracking support incidents associated with health check collections and individual findings.

Before using incident tracking, administrators can configure information used when creating incident tickets, including:

Customer contact details
Products
Categories
Status codes
Severity levels
Urgency levels

Create and Manage Incidents

You can create an incident ticket from either the Collections tab or the Browse subtab:

Use the Collections tab to create a single incident ticket for an entire collection.
Use the Browse subtab to create an incident ticket for an individual health check finding.

Click the Delta (Δ) indicator to create or access an incident ticket. The Delta indicator is available in the Collections and Browse tabs.

The color of the Delta indicator represents the current incident status:

Red - No incident ticket exists: Click the Delta indicator to create a new incident ticket for the collection or individual check.
Blue - An open incident ticket exists: Click the Delta indicator to open and edit the incident ticket.
Green - A closed incident ticket exists: Click the Delta indicator to view the closed incident ticket.

Track Incident Progress

Use an incident ticket to:

Record updates as the incident progresses.
Add notes.
Attach files.
Add links to related information.
Update the incident status.
Classify incidents using tags.

Tags can also be used to create a tag cloud for reporting and analysis.

Access to incidents and the actions that users can perform are determined by their assigned access control roles.

Incident Tracking Features

The incident tracking system provides:

Search capabilities
Incident ticket tracking and analysis
Configurable incident statuses
Reporting
Links, notes, and file attachments
Tag-based classification
Role-based access control for readers, contributors, and administrators

Note:

The Incident Tracking feature is a basic standalone incident management system. It is not designed to integrate with commercial enterprise-level trouble ticketing systems.

Incidents Tab

Use the Incidents tab to create and manage incident tickets for individual health check findings or entire collections.

The Delta (Δ) indicator uses different colors to represent the status of an incident ticket. Click the indicator to perform the appropriate action.

Red - No incident ticket exists. Click to create a ticket.
Blue - An open incident ticket exists. Click to open the ticket.
Green - A closed incident ticket exists. Click to view the closed ticket.

Creating Incident Tickets

Create an incident ticket for an individual health check finding or an entire collection.

Click the red Delta (Δ) indicator.
Enter the required ticket details.
Click Next.
Select the Product and Product Version.
Click Next.
Select the Urgency.
Select the Severity.
Select the Status.
Select the Category.
Enter a summary and description of the incident.
Click Create Ticket.

Editing Incident Tickets

You can modify the details of an existing incident ticket.

Click the Incidents tab.
Click Open Tickets.
Select the ticket that you want to modify.
Click Edit Ticket.
Modify the required information.
Click Apply Changes.

Note:

You can also access an existing incident ticket by clicking its Delta (Δ) indicator in the Collections or Browse tab. The color of the indicator reflects the current status of the ticket.

Authoring User-Defined Checks

User-defined checks are custom health checks that you create for requirements specific to your environment.

Oracle provides and supports the framework for creating and running user-defined checks. You are responsible for the logic of your custom checks, including authoring, testing, verifying, maintaining, and supporting them.

Oracle Orachk and Oracle Exachk run user-defined checks at runtime and display their results in the User Defined Checks section of the HTML report.

User-defined checks are stored in the Oracle Health Check Collections Manager schema and exported to a user_defined_checks.xml file. Place this XML file in the same directory as Oracle Orachk or Oracle Exachk.

Starting with Oracle Orachk 12.1.0.2.5, Oracle Orachk checks for the user_defined_checks.xml file when it runs. If the file is present, Oracle Orachk runs the user-defined checks contained in the file and includes their results in the standard HTML report.

To create and run user-defined checks:

Click Analytics > User Defined Checks.
Alternatively, click Administration > Add New User Defined Checks to go directly to creating a new check.
Click Add New Check.
For Audit Check Type, select one of the following:
- OS Check - Runs an operating system command to determine the status of the check.
- SQL Check - Runs a SQL statement to determine the status of the check.
The fields displayed in Oracle Health Check Collections Manager change based on the selected audit check type.

Click the question mark next to a field at any time while authoring a check to view help specific to that field.

Note:
OS and SQL checks are supported. Running user-defined checks as root is not supported.

After you create a check, it appears in the Available Audit Checks section. Use the available filters to find and manage checks.
After creating and validating the required checks, click Generate XML.
Oracle Health Check Collections Manager generates a user_defined_checks.xml file and provides a link to download it.

The generated XML file includes all authored checks that are not placed on hold.

Use the hold functionality to temporarily exclude a check from the generated XML file. For example, place a check on hold if you discover a problem with its logic or if it is not yet ready for production use. Remove the hold when the check is ready to be included in the next generated XML file.
Download user_defined_checks.xml and save it in the same directory as the Oracle Orachk or Oracle Exachk tool.
Oracle Orachk and Oracle Exachk detect the XML file and run the user-defined checks during subsequent health checks.

To run only user-defined checks, specify the user_defined_checks profile.

For Oracle Orachk:

orachk -profile user_defined_checks

For Oracle Exachk:

exachk -profile user_defined_checks

When you specify this profile, only user-defined checks are run, and the resulting report contains results in the User Defined Checks section.

To exclude user-defined checks from a health check, specify the -excludeprofile option.

For Oracle Orachk:

orachk -excludeprofile user_defined_checks

For Oracle Exachk:

exachk -excludeprofile user_defined_checks