My Oracle Support Mobile

Oracle has released My Oracle Support Mobile – which offers users access to My Oracle Support through mobile.

My Oracle Support mobile is not an exact equivalent of the My Oracle Support.

In this release, we can access fewer but still useful features namely viewing and updating Service Requests (SRs).

How to access it from mobile?

1. Open web browser in your mobile.
2. Type in the https://support.oracle.mobi URL and enter. Guess what !!!!! you will get the login page.

Here you go.

Configure Enterprise Manager DB Console for Oracle Applications RAC database

When you use EMCA to configure Database Control for Oracle RAC, you configure the Database Control for each instance in the cluster. However, by default, the Database Control Console will only start on the local node. On every other node of the cluster, only the Enterprise Manager agent will start.

The Database Control Console is only started on the local node. On every other node, the commands emctl start dbconsole and emctl stop dbconsole only start and stop the agent. Each of the remote agents will upload their respective data to the console running on the local node, from where you can monitor and manage all the targets in the cluster. On each instance of the RAC database, the following subdirectories will be created:

$ORACLE_HOME/hostname1.domainname_SID1
$ORACLE_HOME/hostname2.domainname_SID2


Use the operating system command line to configure Database Control.

cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin
./emca -config dbcontrol db -repos create -cluster

Note: When you configure Database Control using EMCA, the database may become unavailable and users may not be able to connect to the database or perform operations on the database.


To configure Enterprise Manager for a newly added node of a cluster, enter the following command:

$ emca -addNode db


Unlock the SYSMAN and DBSNMP accounts.

Change the password of DBSNMP accounts.

To change the password of the user DBSNMP you must strictly follow the steps below, otherwise the 10g or 11g DB Control used to manage your database will not function properly.

Note: For DB Control Release 10.2.0.3 and higher installed on Windows 2008 / Vista, emctl commands may fail with the error "Permission Denied". Please consult the note below to fix this error:
Document 1164293.1 -  Executing Any EMCTL Command on Windows 2008 / Vista Returns "Permission denied" Error

Stop the standalone dbconsole
   
    $ export ORACLE_SID=
    $ emctl stop dbconsole

On Unix - DB Control Release 11.2.x and higher

    $ export ORACLE_SID=
    $ export ORACLE_UNQNAME=
    $ emctl stop dbconsole

   
    Check that the DB Control is stopped
    On Unix

    $ emctl status dbconsole

Connect to the database as a user with DBA privilege with SQL*Plus and execute

    SQL> alter user dbsnmp identified by ;

    Check the new password

    SQL> connect dbsnmp/[@database_alias]

    Go to $ORACLE_HOME/host_sid/sysman/emd
        Save the file targets.xml to targets.xml.orig
        Edit the file targets.xml with your favorite text editor
            Search for the line:
           
            Replace the encrypted value by the new password value
            Replace TRUE by FALSE
        Restart the standalone dbconsole
       
On Unix - DB Control Release up to 11.1.x

        $ export ORACLE_SID=
        $ emctl start dbconsole

On Unix - DB Control Release 11.2.x and higher

        $ export ORACLE_SID=
        $ export ORACLE_UNQNAME=
        $ emctl start dbconsole

Check that the password has been encrypted
        Edit the file targets.xml
        Search for the line:
        Check that the password VALUE is encrypted
        Check that the value of ENCRYPTED is TRUE


Note: In case of RAC DB, the dbsnmp password should be changed in targets.xml not only for instances(oracle_database), but also for rac_database target.
The file targets.xml needs to be updated on all the RAC Cluster nodes.





Check the status of agent in each nodes:
  $ emctl status agent




Now try to login to the Enterprise Manager console URL using DBSNMP user. For example:

http://hostname.domain:1150/em/console

Reference:
How to Change DBSNMP Password in Database 10g and 11g Monitored by DB Control [ID 259387.1]
How To Change the Password of the Database User Sysman (DB Control Repository Schema) [ID 259379.1]

Very Basic Practices - Oracle Apps DBA

Today I have taken a topic of very basic tips and practices to be followed by an Oracle Apps DBA in day to day support. It might look like a silly topic but it makes sense to put these points in the list of DBA practices.

First and foremost thing a DBA must take care is to change the default passwords of all accounts, after installation or cloning. When I say all accounts, it does mean ALL. In most cases, the  accounts like ap, ar, etc..accounts will be missing in their change password list. And especially sys will have the default password.
For more details refer metalink note ID: 419475.1.

Second tip is to avoid entering the apps password or any password on the bash shell prompt while running any commands or scripts. It can easily be traced from bash_history if any technical/admin have OS privileges. Oracle has implemented the hide password option for all scripts almost now.

Third even if someone forgets not to enter the password on the command prompt, one must remember not to send the screenshot of the session where you entered password to the functional/technical/client after completing the task :).

This list will continue....