New Feature for Oracle 11g: Using Help on Specific Topics for ADR

Debugging Oracle 11g Applications
by Ben Prusinski

New Feature for Oracle 11g: Using Help on Specific Topics for ADR

ADR is basically the alert monitoring on steroids. It further allows for the packaging of incidents and reports to be sent to Oracle customer support for analysis and problem resolution. To view the alert log reports in ADR, we can issue the show alert command:

adrci> show alert

Choose the alert log from the following homes to view:

1: diag/rdbms/ora11g/ora11g

2: diag/rdbms/ora11g/ORA11G

3: diag/rdbms/default/ORA11G

4: diag/rdbms/unknown/ORA11G

5: diag/rdbms/stdby1/stdby1

6: diag/clients/user_oracle/host_3681296775_11

7: diag/clients/user_unknown/host_411310321_11

8: diag/tnslsnr/raclinux1/listener

9: diag/tnslsnr/raclinux1/listener1

10: diag/tnslsnr/raclinux1/listener_stdby1

Q: to quit

Please select option: 1

Output the results to file: /tmp/alert_30297_3086_ora11g_1.ado
2008-05-18 18:54:11.768000 -04:00
Starting ORACLE instance (normal)
2008-05-18 18:54:12.946000 -04:00
LICENSE_MAX_SESSION = 0
LICENSE_SESSIONS_WARNING = 0
Shared memory segment for instance monitoring created
Picked latch-free SCN scheme 2
2008-05-18 18:54:14.823000 -04:00
Using LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_1 parameter default value as
"/tmp/alert_30297_3086_ora11g_1.ado" 1274L, 53223C

Figure 1.24: Viewing the alert.log file with ADR tools for Oracle 11g

The ADR monitoring system can also be understood in terms of examination of the following V$ views:

V$HM_CHECK
V$HM_CHECK_PARAM
V$HM_FINDING
V$HM_INFO
V$HM_RECOMMENDATION
V$HM_RUN

Now that we have discussed the basic monitoring functions available with the ADR tools for Oracle 11g, let’s review how ADR manages incidents with Oracle 11g. Incidents refer to critical database errors that usually generate core dump files. In particular, ADR will automatically generate an incident report for most internal error conditions such as those for ORA-00600, ORA-00700, and ORA-07445. When such internal errors occur, an incident package can be assembled with ADR to send to Oracle internal support for analysis and resolution. The ability to create and package incidents is a robust feature provided by ADR that quickly assists the busy DBA to send diagnostic files to Oracle support during crisis situations.

The following example will illustrate how to use the incident feature with ADR for sending critical diagnostic information to Oracle Support.

The first step is to set the ADR home directory since the ips create package command supports only a single ADR home at one time.

adrci> set homepath diag/rdbms/ora11g/ora11g
adrci> show homes
ADR Homes:
diag/rdbms/ora11g/ora11g

adrci> show incident

ADR Home = /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/ora11g/ora11g:
*************************************************************************

0 rows fetched

adrci> ips create package

Created package 1 without any contents, correlation level typical

Figure 1.25: Using ADR to create package for incidents with Oracle 11g

Once we have our new incident package created as in the previous figure example, we are ready to add outstanding incidents to the package.

The following ADR commands are used to add the incident and create the necessary zip files to send to Oracle support for analysis.

ips add incident <incident_id> package <package_id>
ips generate package <package_id> in <directory>

The ADR configuration settings for the incident package creation can be viewed with the ips show command:

adrci> ips show configuration

**********************************************************

IPS CONFIGURATION PARAMETER

**********************************************************

----------------------------------------------------------

PARAMETER INFORMATION:

   PARAMETER_ID                   1
   NAME                           CUTOFF_TIME
   DESCRIPTION                    Maximum age for an incident to be
                                  considered for inclusion
   UNIT                           Days
   VALUE                          90
   DEFAULT_VALUE                  90

----------------------------------------------------------
**********************************************************
IPS CONFIGURATION PARAMETER
**********************************************************

----------------------------------------------------------
PARAMETER INFORMATION:
   PARAMETER_ID                   2
   NAME                           NUM_EARLY_INCIDENTS
   DESCRIPTION                    How many incidents to get in the early
                                  part of the range
   UNIT                           Number
   VALUE                          3
   DEFAULT_VALUE                  3

----------------------------------------------------------
PARAMETER INFORMATION:
   PARAMETER_ID                   3
   NAME                           NUM_LATE_INCIDENTS
   DESCRIPTION                    How many incidents to get in the late
                                  part of the range
   UNIT                           Number
   VALUE                          3
   DEFAULT_VALUE                  3

----------------------------------------------------------
PARAMETER INFORMATION:
   PARAMETER_ID                   4
   NAME                           INCIDENT_TIME_WINDOW
   DESCRIPTION                    Incidents this close to each other are
                                  considered correlated
   UNIT                           Minutes
   VALUE                          5
   DEFAULT_VALUE                  5

----------------------------------------------------------
PARAMETER INFORMATION:
   PARAMETER_ID                   5
   NAME                           PACKAGE_TIME_WINDOW
   DESCRIPTION                    Time window for content inclusion is
                                  from x hours before first included                                       incident to x hours after last
                                  incident
   UNIT                           Hours
   VALUE                          24
   DEFAULT_VALUE                  24

----------------------------------------------------------
PARAMETER INFORMATION:
   PARAMETER_ID                   6
   NAME                           DEFAULT_CORRELATION_LEVEL
   DESCRIPTION                    Default correlation level for packages
   UNIT                           Number
   VALUE                          2
   DEFAULT_VALUE                  2

----------------------------------------------------------
PARAMETER INFORMATION:
   PARAMETER_ID                   7
   NAME                           PURGE_ENABLED
   DESCRIPTION                    If automatic purging is allowed for the
                                  IPS schema
   UNIT                           Number
   VALUE                          1
   DEFAULT_VALUE                  1

----------------------------------------------------------
adrci>

Figure 1.26: Viewing ips settings for packages with ADR and Oracle 11g

The zipped files can then be uploaded to Metalink for coordination with Oracle customer support.

In addition to the ADR command line, Enterprise Manager provides a facility called the EM Support Workbench that can be used for managing incidents and reports to send to Oracle internal customer support.

Due to the vast array of commands and functions available with the powerful new ADR monitoring tools for Oracle 11g, we recommend that you consult the Oracle 11g documentation for the comprehensive syntax and list of functions available for more details on this robust new tool for Oracle 11g monitoring.