Server Control Utility

October 21,  2003
Don Burleson
 

To manage the RAC database and its instances, Oracle has provided a new utility called the Server Control Utility (SRVCTL). This replaces the earlier utility ‘opsctl’ which was used in the parallel server.

The Server Control Utility is a single point of control between the Oracle Intelligent agent and each node in the RAC system. The SRVCTL communicates with the global daemon service (GSD) and resides on each of the nodes. The SRVCTL gathers information from the database and instances and acts as an intermediary between nodes and the Oracle Intelligent agent.

When you use the SRVCTL to perform configuration operations on your cluster, the SRVCTL stores configuration data in the Server Management (SRVM) configuration repository. The SRVM includes all the components of Enterprise Manager such as the Intelligent Agent, the Server Control Utility (SRVCTL), and the Global Services Daemon. Thus, the SRVCTL is one of the SRVM Instance Management Utilities. The SRVCTL uses SQL*Plus internally to perform stop and start activities on each node.

For the SRVCTL to function, the Global Services Daemon (GSD) should be running on the node. The SRVCTL performs mainly two types of administrative tasks: Cluster Database Tasks and Cluster Database Configuration Tasks.

SRVCTL Cluster Database tasks include:

·        Starts and stops cluster databases.

·        Starts and stops cluster database instances.

·        Starts and stops listeners associated with a cluster database instance.

·        Obtains the status of a cluster database instance.

·        Obtains the status of listeners associated with a cluster database.

 SRVCTL Cluster Database Configuration tasks include:

·        Adds and deletes cluster database configuration information.

·        Adds an instance to, or deletes an instance from a cluster database.

·        Renames an instance name within a cluster database configuration.

·        Moves instances in a cluster database configuration.

·        Sets and unsets the environment variable for an instance in a cluster database configuration.

·        Sets and unsets the environment variable for an entire cluster in a cluster database configuration.

To manage the RAC environment, first you need to build a configuration profile and optionally save it. You can build the configuration by commands such as add and setenv. It is a good practice to build configuration profiles and export them to ASCII files.

SRVCTL syntax has the following components:

> srvctl verb noun options

Where:

·        srvctl is the SRVCTL command.

·        verb is an action word such as start, stop, or remove.

·        noun is an object upon which SRVCTL performs the action verb, such as a database or instance. Alternatively, you can use abbreviations, which in this case are db and inst respectively.

·        options extends the use of preceding verb-noun combinations.

To see the online command syntax and options for each SRVCTL command, enter:

> srvctl verb noun -h

The table below shows the common srvctl verbs.

The next table shows the common srvctl nouns.

Finally, here are the common srvctl command options.

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