Managing Database Control in an Oracle RAC Environment

Verifying that Database Control is Running in an Oracle RAC Environment

To verify that Database Control has been started in your new Oracle RAC environment:

1. Ensure that the ORACLE_UNQNAME environment variable is set to the unique name of the database to which you want to connect, for example orcl. Also make sure the ORACLE_HOME environment variable is set to the location of the installed Oracle Database software, for example:

   $ export ORACLE_UNQNAME=orcl
   $ echo $ORACLE_HOME
   /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1
    
   $ echo $ORACLE_UNQNAME
   orcl
   

2. Go to the $ORACLE_HOME/bin directory.

3. Run the following command as the oracle user:

   ./emctl status dbconsole
   

   The Enterprise Manager Control (EMCTL) utility displays the current status of the Database Control console on the current node, for example:

   Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Database Control Release 11.2.0.1.0
   Copyright (c) 1996, 2009 Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.
   https://racnode1.example.com:1158/em/console/aboutApplication
   Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g is running.
   ------------------------------------------------------------------
   Logs are generated in directory /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/racnode1_orcl/sysman/log
   

4. If the EMCTL utility reports that Database Control is not started, use the following command to start it:

   $ ./emctl start dbconsole
   

   Following a typical installation, Database Control serves console pages from the node where the database was created. The console also monitors agents on all nodes of the cluster. However, you can configure Enterprise Manager to have multiple Database Control consoles within a cluster using EMCA.

Backing Up the emkey.ora File

During the installation, the Database Control management repository is placed in secure mode. All Enterprise Manager data is encrypted using the encryption key stored in the file emkey.ora. If this file is damaged or lost, and cannot be restored from a backup, you will no longer be able to use the existing Enterprise Manager repository.

The emkey.ora file is located in the $ORACLE_HOME/node_name_Database_name/sysman/config directory. For example, on the racnode2 server, the encryption key file for the orcl.example.com database is located at /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/racnode2_orcl/sysman/config/emkey.ora.