Configuring the agent on Windows® systems

You can configure the agent on Windows® operating systems by using the IBM Performance Management window. After you update the configuration values, start the agent to apply the updated values.

Procedure

  1. Click Start > All Programs > IBM Monitoring agents > Monitoring.
  2. In the IBM Performance Management window, right-click the Monitoring Agent for Oracle Database template, and then click Configure agent.

    Remember: After you configure an agent instance for the first time, the Configure agent option is not available. To configure the agent instance again, right-click on it and then click Reconfigure.

  3. In the Monitoring Agent for Oracle Database window, complete the following steps, enter a unique instance name for the Monitoring Agent for Oracle Database instance, and click OK.

  4. On the Default Database Configuration pane of the Configure ITCAM Extended Agent for Oracle Database window, follow the steps:

    1. Enter the Default Username. It is the default database user ID for database connections.

      This user ID is the ID that the agent uses to access the monitored database instance. This user ID must have select privileges on the dynamic performance views and tables that are required by the agent.

    2. Enter the Default Password. It is the password that is associated with the specified default database user ID.
    3. Enter the Oracle JDBC Jar File. It is the full path to the Oracle JDBC driver jar file used to communicate with the Oracle database.

      The Oracle Java® Database Connectivity (JDBC) driver that supports the Oracle database versions that are monitored by the Oracle agent must be available on the agent computer.

    4. If you need to set advanced configuration options, check Show advanced options. Otherwise, proceed to step 5.

    5. Leave the Net Configuration Files Directories blank and the default directory is used. Only one directory is supported.

      This setting contains the Oracle database net configuration file or files. The directory is defined by the TNS_ADMIN environment variable for each Oracle database instance. The default directory is %ORACLE_HOME%\NETWORK\ADMIN. If this item is not configured, the default directory is used. To disable the use of the default directory, set the following agent environment variable to false: KRZ_LOAD_ORACLE_NET=false.

    6. Leave the Customized SQL definition file name blank. It is not used.

    7. Choose whether the default dynamic listener is configured at this workstation.

      The default dynamic listener is (PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=localhost)(PORT=1521). If the default dynamic listener is configured at this workstation, set this value to Yes.

    8. Click Next.

  5. On the Instance configuration pane of the Configure ITCAM Extended Agent for Oracle Database window, follow the steps:

    It's where the actual database connection instances are defined. You need to add at least one. It's also where you edit and delete database connection instances. If multiple database connection instance configurations exist, use the Database connections option to choose the instance to edit or delete.

    1. Press New in the Database connections section.
    2. Enter a Database Connection Name as an alias for the connection to the database.

      This alias can be anything that you choose to represent the database connection with the following restrictions. Only letters from the Latin alphabet (a-z, A-Z), Arabic numerals (0-9), the underline character (_), and the hyphen-minus character (-) can be used in the connection name. The maximum length of a connection name is 25 characters.

    3. Choose a Connection Type.

      • (Optional) Basic

        The default and most common connection type is Basic. If you are unsure which connection type you need, it is suggested that you choose this connection type.

        1. Select the Basic connection type when the target monitored database is a single instance, such as a standard file system instance or an ASM single instance.
        2. Enter the Hostname as the hostname or IP address for the database.
        3. Enter the Port number that is used by the database.
        4. Select either Service Name or SID.

          1. When Service Name is selected, enter the name of the service that is a logical representation of a database, a string that is the global database service name.

            A service name is a logical representation of a database, which is the way that a database is presented to clients. A database can be presented as multiple services and a service can be implemented as multiple database instances. The service name is a string that is the global database name, that is, a name composed of the database name and domain name, entered during installation or database creation. If you are not sure what the global database name is, then you can obtain it from the value of the SERVICE_NAMES parameter in the initialization parameter file.

          2. When SID is selected, enter the Oracle System Identifier that identifies a specific instance of a running database.

            It is the Oracle System Identifier that identifies a specific instance of a database.

            Proceed to step 5.4.

      • (Optional) TNS

        1. Select the TNS connection type if the ORACLE_HOME system environment variable is set and the TNS alias for the target monitored database is defined in the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora file.
        2. Enter the TNS alias name.

          Proceed to step 5.4.

      • (Optional) Advanced

        1. Select the Advanced connection type when there is more than one Oracle Instance across multiple physical nodes for the target monitored database. For example, an ASM with Real Applications Cluster (RAC) database.
        2. Enter the Oracle Connection String.

          This attribute supports all Oracle Net naming methods as follows:

          • SQL Connect URL string of the form://host:port/service name. For example, //dlsun242:1521/bjava21.
          • Oracle Net keyword-value pair. For example,

            (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp) (HOST=dlsun242) (PORT=1521)) 
            (CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=bjava21)))
            
          • TNSNAMES entries, such as inst1, with the TNS_ADMIN or ORACLE_HOME environment variable set and the configuration files configured.

            Proceed to step 5.4.

    4. Check Use a different user name and password for this connection to use different credentials than the default credentials that you set in step 4.1 and step 4.2. Otherwise, proceed to step 5.7.

    5. Enter the Database Username for this connection. This user ID is the ID that the agent uses to access the monitored database instance. This user ID must have select privileges on the dynamic performance views and tables that are required by the agent.

    6. Enter the Database Password. The password that is associated with the specified database user ID.

    7. Select a Role that matches the permissions that are granted to the database connection's credentials. The role is the set of privileges to be associated with the connection. For a user that was granted the SYSDBA system privilege, specify a role that includes that privilege. For ASM instances, use the SYSDBA or SYSASM role.
    8. Check Show remote log monitoring options if you monitor remote Oracle alert logs from this agent instance, otherwise proceed to step 5.11.
    9. Enter a path or use Browse to select the Oracle Alert log file paths. The absolute file paths of mapped alert log files for remote database instances in this database connection. The agent monitors alert logs by reading these files. Usually found at $ORACLE_BASE/diag/rdbms/DB_NAME/SID/trace/alert_SID.log. For example, if the DB_NAME and SID are both db11g and ORACLE_BASE is /home/dbowner/app/oracle, then the alert log would be found at /home/dbowner/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/db11g/db11g/trace/alert_db11g.log.

      For Windows®, if the Oracle Database agent runs and reads the alert log files through the network, the remote file path must follow the universal naming convention for Windows® systems. For example, \\tivx015\path\alert_orcl.log.

      Important: For Windows®, enter the path and alert log file name together. A mapped network driver is not supported for the alert log path.

      For Linux®/UNIX®, if the Oracle Database agent is on a remote server, a locally mounted file system is required to monitor its remote alert logs.

      For Windows®, multiple files are separated by a semicolon (;).

      For Linux®/UNIX®, multiple files are separated by a colon (:).

      Each file is matched to a database instance by using the alert_instance.log file name pattern or if it is unmatched, it is ignored.

      Local database instance alert log files are discovered automatically.

    10. Select or enter the Oracle Alert Log File Charset. It is the code page of the mapped alert log files. If this parameter is blank, the system's current locale setting is used, for example:

      • ISO8859_1, ISO 8859-1 Western European encoding
      • UTF-8, UTF-8 encoding of Unicode
      • GB18030, Simplified Chinese GB18030 encoding
      • CP950, Traditional Chinese encoding
      • EUC_JP, Japanese encoding
      • EUC_KR, Korean encoding

      For the full list of all the supported code pages, see ICU supported code pages.

    11. Click Apply to save this database connection instance's settings in the Database connections section.

    12. (Optional) Test the new database connection.

      1. Select the new database connection in the Database connections section.
      2. Click Test connection.
      3. Observe the results in the Test connection result window.

        • Example successful Test Result:

          Testing connection config1 ...
          Success
          
        • Example unsuccessful Test Result:

          Testing connection config1 ...
          KBB_RAS1_LOG; Set MAXFILES to 1
          ORA-12514: TNS:listener does not currently know of service requested in connect descriptor 
          Failed
          
      4. Click Next.

  6. Read the information on the Summary pane of the Configure ITCAM Extended Agent for Oracle Database window, then click OK to finish configuration of the agent instance.

  7. In the IBM Performance Management window, right-click Monitoring Agent for Oracle Database, and then click Start.

What to do next

Log in to the IBM Cloud Pak console to see monitoring data.