1. Cloud Control Database Lifecycle Management Administrator's Guide
  2. Manage Configuration, Compliance and Change Management
  3. Manage Configuration Information
  4. Configuration History

Configuration History

Configuration history is a log of changes to a managed entity (target) recorded over a period of one year. The recorded history includes changes both to configurations and to relationships. Relationships are the associations that exist among managed entities.

Configuration history is a powerful tool for monitoring change activity across the enterprise. Consider these use cases:

  • You have noticed that an Oracle RAC system has been underperforming for the past month. As an administrator it would be useful to know what changes have occurred during that time. Have members been added or removed? Have there been configuration changes to the system itself?

  • The daytime administrator notices that detected changes are the result of a patch having been applied and adds an annotation to that effect. The overnight administrator is alerted to the changes and sees the annotation upon follow-up.

  • A hardware memory change to production hosts has been detected. The administrator wants to keep the IT group posted on any future changes in this area. The administrator schedules a recurring job to check history specifically for changes to hardware memory on production hosts and to notify the IT group of such changes.

While viewing a configuration history, you can:

  • Track changes to targets over time by specifying and refining search criteria.

  • View change history and manipulate how the information is presented.

  • Annotate change records with comments that become part of the change history. Annotations have a timestamp and an owner.

  • Schedule a history search to capture future changes based on the same criteria.

  • View the status of scheduled history jobs.

  • Notify others of future change detection.

  • Save change history details to a file.

This section covers the following topics:

Accessing Configuration History

Use any of the following methods to access configuration history:

  • From the Enterprise menu, select Configuration, then select History. Proceed with a configuration history search.

  • Perform a search of all targets. Right-click in a row of returned targets and select Configuration, then select History in the popup menu. View the results for the selected target, identified by type and name in the respective search criteria fields; change the filtering criteria to see a different result. Select a specific configuration item, for example, or change the date range.

  • On a target home page, select Configuration, then select History in the target type-specific menu (top left corner). View the results for the target, identified by type and name in the respective search criteria fields; change the filtering criteria to see a different result. Select a specific configuration item, for example, or change the date range.

Working with Configuration History

The Configuration History Perform the following tasks within configuration history:

  • Drill down within configuration change history

  • Enter annotations and comments

  • Schedule a recurring history search and send the results

  • Save a change history to a file

  • Save configuration history

  • Create a search using SQL

Searching History

To search configuration history, follow these steps:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Configuration, and then select History.
  2. In the New Search section, select the target type. The Include Member Target Changes check box is active only if you select a composite target type (system or group).
  3. Select and specify the search criteria for the target name.
  4. Click the Add link to add configuration items to the search.

    In the Apply Configuration Items dialog box, you can search for configuration items in the left panel, and then refine the configuration items using the right panel. Once you have selected the configuration items that you want to apply to the configuration search, click Apply. Else, click Reset to obtain the previous configuration items, or Cancel.

  5. Limit the scope of the search to a specific type of change, such as Change, Deleted Item, or New Item. All types of change is selected by default.
  6. Specify the number of days for which you want the changes to be discovered. The default time is the last 7 days.
  7. For a more refined search, click Advance, and do the following:

    • Add Relationship Items by clicking the Add link. Select a relationship type in the dialog box and click OK. This link is only enabled if a specific target type has been selected and if the Include Member Target Changes checkbox is not selected.

    • Choose whether to show all criteria-based history records or group them by timestamp and target. The default is Grouped.

    • You can refine the time and date range of the changes discovered by specifying the Before and After time ranges.

    • Specify search criteria for Annotation, On Host, and Member Of options.

  8. Click Search using SQL, select Configuration Changes or Relationship Changes.
  9. In the Configuration History Modeler page, click Search to trigger the operation. A progress indicator verifies ongoing search activity. Results appear in the table at the bottom.

Note:

One search strategy to consider is perform a gross-level search to see the volume of changes, then go back and refine the search by adding filters.

Working with History Search Results
Each row represents a target satisfying the search criteria in which a change was detected, where a change constitutes something that was added, deleted, or modified. Numbers in parentheses on the tabs reflect the number of respective configuration and relationship changes detected. A search on target name for relationships returns matches on all source targets, destination targets, and targets that contain the target name.

  • Click See Real-Time Observations to search actions monitored by compliance rules. Observations are the actions that users have taken on a host or target that were configured to be monitored through real-time monitoring rules.

  • Click Export to save the search results to a CSV file such as a spreadsheet. The value in each column represents a comma-separated value.

  • Click the number in the History Records column to display the changes detected for the selected target.

In the change details table, select a table row and do any of the following:

  • Click Details to see the change details in a pop-up window, including old and new values, and the specifics of any annotations. The Change link in the Type of Change column pops up the same window.

  • Click See Real-Time Observations to search actions monitored by compliance rules. Observations are the actions that users have taken on a host or target that were configured to be monitored through real-time monitoring rules.

  • Click Add Annotation to enter a comment about the change.

  • Click Export to save the search results to a CSV file such as a spreadsheet. The value in each column represents a comma-separated value.

Annotating Configuration Changes

To view annotiation history:

  1. Select a row in the change details table and click Details.
  2. In the window that pops up, click Annotation Details.

To annotate configuration changes:

  1. Select the change row. To add the same annotation to multiple lines, use the multiselect feature (Ctrl+click or Shift+click).
  2. Click Add Annotation.
  3. In the window that pops up, type your comment and click OK. Your comment appears in the designated column. Your login name and a timestamp are associated with your comment and available in the pop-up window that opens when you view the change details.

Note that you can also remove an annotation, provided you are the one who entered the comment (or have super administrator privileges). Select the row that contains the annotation and click the Remove Annotation button. Confirm the removal in the popup message that opens.

Scheduling a History Search and Creating a Notification List

You can schedule the change history search to run as a background job (click the Schedule and Notify button). The search can be run once-only or on a recurring basis. Run the search immediately or at some later date. You also can supply e-mail addresses to which to send a link to the search results.

Use a scheduled history search as a tracking mechanism to generate alerts when changes occur.

  1. Specify the job schedule:

    • If not now, when. Click Later to activate the calendar widget where you can select a date and time.

    • How often. Select report frequency in the drop-down list. Default is once-only.

    • Wait how long. If the job fails to run as scheduled, cancel within a specified time frame.

    • Keep going. Maintain the job schedule for the specified period.

  2. Enter the e-mail addresses of those to be directed to the change history search results. Use a comma to separate addresses.
  3. Click OK to schedule the job.

Saving History to a File

You can capture the snapshot of change history you have culled for further review and to share with a wider audience, by saving the change details to a CSV file. Click Export and follow instructions in the export dialog.

Saving Configuration History

You can save your configuration history search, by clicking on the Save As button on the Configuration History page. In the Configuration History - Oracle Enterprise Manager dialog box that appears, specify a name for the saved configuration history.

Click OK.

Your configuration history search gets stored in the Configuration Search Library. To navigate to the Configuration Search Library, from the Enterprise menu, select Configuration, and then click Search.

You can select your saved configuration history and perform tasks such as edit, delete, and run.

Creating a Search Using SQL

Sometimes, despite all the filtering criteria, search results still fall short. To refine the search even further, on the Configuration History page, click Search Using SQL, and then select Configuration Changes or Relationship Changes.

On the Search Using SQL page, you can edit the SQL Query statement to extend search expressions and rerun the search. Note that you use views in this case; you cannot access the underlying tables.

Click Search.

You can also save the SQL search by clicking Save As. In the Create Configuration Search dialog box that appears, specify a name for the SQL search, and click OK.

Your SQL search gets stored in the Configuration Search Library. To navigate to the Configuration Search Library, from the Enterprise menu, select Configuration, and then click Search.

You can select your saved configuration history and perform tasks such as edit, delete, and run.

Viewing History Job Activity

View a list of all current and past history searches. Use search criteria to filter the list of history jobs (click the History Job Activity button). For example, show all scheduled history searches started over the past 24 hours; or, show all successful history searches involving hosts started over the past 31 days. The jobs engine purges history jobs older than 31 days.

The history jobs you can view beyond your own depend on your role and access level granted.

Select a table row and click View Result to go to the Jobs page that reports the history search. From there you can drill down to the changes the history search detected. The job name is a hyperlink that takes you to the same place. Use the bread crumb on the Jobs page to navigate back to the list.

If you are the job owner or otherwise have the proper access level, you can perform list maintenance by deleting history jobs that no longer have relevance.