Oracle RAC Datafile Activity Test

This test indicates the level of read/write activity on each datafile in the shared cluster storage.

Target of the test : Oracle Cluster

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every datafile in the shared cluster storage monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
TEST PERIOD - How often should the test be executed Host – The host for which the test is to be configured Port - The port on which the server is listening SCAN Name - SCAN stands for Single Client Access Name, it is a feature used in Oracle RAC environments that provide a single name for clients to access any Oracle Database running in the cluster. You can provide SCAN as an alternative to IP/Host Name. If this parameter value is provided, it will be used for connectivity otherwise IP/Hostname will be used. orasid - The variable name of the oracle instance service name - A ServiceName exists for the entire Oracle RAC system. When clients connect to an Oracle cluster using the ServiceName, then the cluster routes the request to any available database instance in the cluster. By default, the service name is set to none. In this case, the test connects to the cluster using the orasid and pulls out the metrics from that database instance which corresponds to that orasid. If a valid service name is specified instead, then, the test will connect to the cluster using that service name, and will be able to pull out metrics from any available database instance in the cluster. To know the ServiceName of a cluster, execute the following query on any node in the target cluster: select name, value from v$parameter where name =’service_names’ User – In order to monitor an Oracle RAC, a special database user account has to be User – In order to monitor an Oracle database server, a special database user account has to be created in every Oracle database instance that requires monitoring. A Click here hyperlink is available in the test configuration page, using which a new oracle database user can be created. Alternatively, you can manually create the special database user. When doing so, ensure that this user is vested with the select_catalog_role and create session privileges. The sample script we recommend for user creation (in Oracle database server versions before 12c) for eG monitoring is: create user oraeg identified by oraeg create role oratest; grant create session to oratest; grant select_catalog_role to oratest; grant oratest to oraeg; The sample script we recommend for user creation (in Oracle database server 12c) for eG monitoring is: alter session set container=<Oracle_service_name>; create user <user_name>identified by <user_password> container=current default tablespace <name_of_default_tablespace> temporary tablespace <name_of_temporary_tablespace>; Grant create session to <user_name>; Grant select_catalog_role to <user_name>; The name of this user has to be specified here. Password – Password of the specified database user Confirm password – Confirm the password by retyping it here. show datafile path- This test reports a set of results for each datafile on the target Oracle database server. This means that every datafile is a descriptor of this test. By default, while displaying the descriptors of this test, the eG monitoring console does not prefix the datafile names with the full path to the datafiles. This is why, the show datafile path flag is set to No by default. If you want the data file names to be prefixed by the full path to the data files, then, set the show datafile path flag to Yes SSL- By default, this flag is set to No, as the target Oracle cluster is not SSL-enabled by default. If the target cluster is SSL-enabled, then set this flag to Yes. SSL Cipher-This parameter is applicable only if the target Oracle Cluster is SSL-enabled, if not, set this parameter to none. A cipher suite is a set of cryptographic algorithms that are used before a client application and server exchange information over an SSL/TLS connection. It consist of sets of instructions on how to secure a network through SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security). In this text box, provide a comma-seperated list of cipher suites that are allowed for SSL/TLS connection to the target cluster. By default, this parameter is set to none. TRUSTSTORE FILE- This parameter is applicable only if the target Oracle Cluster is SSL-enabled, if not, set this parameter to none. TrustStore is used to store certificates from Certified Authorities (CA) that verify and authenticate the certificate presented by the server in an SSL connection. Therefore, the eG agent should have access to the truststore where the certificates are stored to authenticate and connect with the target cluster and collect metrics. For this, first import the certificates into the following default location <eG_INSTALL_DIR>/lib/security/mytruststore.jks. To know how to import the certificate into the truststore, refer toPre-requisites for monitoring Oracle Cluster. Then, provide the truststore file name in this text box. For example: mytruststore.jks. By default, none is specified against this text box. TRUSTSTORE TYPE-This parameter is applicable only if the target Oracle Cluster is SSL-enabled, if not, set this parameter to none.Specify the type of truststore that contains the certificates for server authentication in this text box. For eg.,JKS. By default, this parameter is set to the value none. TRUSSTORE PASSWORD-This parameter is applicable only if the target Oracle Cluster is SSL-enabled, if not, set this parameter to none. If a Truststore File name is provided, then, in this text box, provide the password that is used to obtain the associated certificate details from the Truststore File. By default, this parameter is set to none.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Physical block read rate:	Indicates the rate at which disk blocks are being read from this datafile.	Blocks/Sec	A scenario in which more than 50% of blocks are being read from a single datafile could signify a problem.
Physical block write rate:	Indicates the rate at which disk blocks are being written to this datafile.	Blocks/Sec	A scenario in which more than 50% of blocks are being written to a single datafile could signify a problem. Too much activity to a specific datafile can result in reduced database performance. To improve performance, consider balancing I/O across disks, and reorganize tables across tablespaces to reduce activity to a specific datafile.
Percent total I/O:	Indicates the percentage of total I/O operations on the database server that were handled by this data file.	Percent	Disk reads and writes are expensive operations and all I/Os should be balanced across the different data files of an Oracle database for optimal performance. This metric reports the percentage of all I/O of an Oracle database that are happening on each of the data files of the Oracle database. This metric allows an Oracle administrator to determine which is/are the hot data file(s) (e.g., which data file is handling 80% of the total I/O).