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Using ORAchk With the Oracle Database Appliance

Phil Stephenson
Sr . Principal Product Manager

The Oracle Autonomous Health Framework, (AHF), contains Oracle ORAchk, Oracle EXAchk, and Oracle Trace File Analyzer. For ODA we are interested in ORAchk, a configuration audit tool that validates your ODA Oracle environment. Now ORAchk can audit other products and features, specifically ODA.

ORAchk has been enhanced to include audit checks and identification of Known Issues specifically related to ODA on ongoing and regular bases so that ORAchk will be up-to-date for as many new ODA issues as possible. This is a continuous improvement process that involves our development and support teams providing the latest issue information to ORAchk for ODA. The new capabilities for ORAchk provide ODA customers greater insights into the health of their ODA system for upgrade patching readiness.

ORAchk helps ODA customers identify and reduce the risk associated with known problems such as:

  • Oracle Database
  • Grid Infrastructure & RAC
  • Upgrade Readiness Validation
  • Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA) Validation

ORAchk is included in ODA’s bundle patches but the version provided becomes outdated over time. The most current version of ORAchk will contain newer Known Issues, checks, and pre-checks when they are discovered by Development, Support, and customers.

ORAchk Development will produce a new version of ORAchk that will include newer ODA Known Issues on a quarterly basis maintaining backward compatibility for older releases of ODA patch bundles.

As a best practice, ODA customers should always download and install the current version of ORAchk on their ODA systems and use it to create an Oracle Database Appliance Assessment Report for ODA before patching. 

The advantage of running ORAchk before patching is that it allows ODA administrators to discover issues before patching in an environment and time other than off-shift or a weekend test window and allows administrators additional time to make the corrections before they patch. ORAchk is a non-intrusive utility that can be run at any time without interfering with the system under validation.

Let’s look at the steps necessary to download, install and run ORAchk on ODA.

First, we need to download the current version of ORAchk for ODA.

To download ORAchk for ODA navigate to My Oracle Support  - (Autonomous Health Framework (AHF) - Including TFA and ORAchk/EXAChk (Doc ID 2550798.1)

On this My Oracle Support page, select the 'Download TFA & ORAchk' button as depicted below:

 

You'll arrive at the download options below. Be certain that you download the Linux version, TFA & ORAchk/EXAchk for Linux.

Upgrade Instructions for ODA Releases 18.8 or greater

If your system is bare metal and at the ODA software Release 18.8 or later, after downloading the AHF zip file, please follow these steps to upgrade AHF on your ODA node(s):


1.    If the zip file doesn't exist on your ODA node, please use SCP to copy the AHF .zip file you downloaded above to the ODA.
       #scp /Users/ID/Downloads/AHF-LINUX_v20.1.1.zip root@yourmachine:/root/

2.    Unzip the AHF.zip file to a temp location (e.g. /tmp/ahfinstall)
       #cd /tmp
       #mkdir ahfinstall
       #cd ahfinstall/
       #pwd
       #cd /tmp/ahfinstall
       #unzip /root/AHF-LINUX_v20.1.1.zip

Archive:  /root/AHF-LINUX_v20.1.1.zip
inflating: README.txt             
nflating: ahf_setup

3.    You must be root user to start the upgrade installation.


4.    Run the ahf_setup cmd to install AHF
                   #./ahf_setup


5.    After the installation starts the installer will display the current version of AHF installed and ask you if you want to upgrade.
Reply ‘Yes’

6. After you complete the install on your 18.8 level system, you’re ready to run ORAchk from the Browser User Interface or Linux command line as root. 

Please note: For existing 18.8 ODA OVM systems the installer will detect the existing path:
                            /opt/oracle/dcs/oracle.ahf 

Detection of this path will cause the upgrade installation to fail and it will be necessary to first remove the ODA OVM AHF installation. 
Please uninstall AHF from your system using instruction at the end of this BLOG - Instructions to Uninstall ODA Release 18.8 OVM Systems

Customers using the ODA (OVM) virtualized platform should disable TFA using the command, running as root:

                          run /etc/init.d/init.tfa stop

Please refer to the 18.8 documentation for Known Issues When Managing Oracle Database Appliance

 

Upgrade Instructions for ODA Releases pre-18.8 

1. If your system is at a release level less than ODA 18.8, download this file to a temporary location and unzip AHF-LINUX_v20.1.1.zip

       Two files will be unzipped: README, and ahf_setup

2. Once you've unzipped the files it will be necessary to run ahf_setup to extract and install ORAchk on the ODA node by executing the following as root user:

/root/ahf_setup_1932_x -ahf_loc /opt/oracle.SupportTools/orachk -data_dir /opt/oracle.SupportTools/orachk -local -silent -extract orachk

3. You now have the current version of ORAchk installed on the ODA node.

4. Repeat this process for each ODA node you intend to patch.

5. After you complete the install on your system, you’re ready to run ORAchk from the Browser User Interface or ODA command-line interface.
 
 
If your system is at a lower level than ODA 18.8 you can run orachk from the Linux command-line as root as shown below:
 
 

When all checks are finished, a detailed report is available. The output displays the location of the report in an HTML format and the location of a zip file if you want to upload the report.

Review the Oracle Database Appliance Assessment Report and system health to troubleshoot any issues that are identified. 


Here is an example of the report:

The report also includes a summary and filters that enable you to focus on specific areas. For example, you can choose the filter to show failed checks only, show checks with a Fail, Warning, Info, or Pass status, or any combination.

This is a bit more detail of the checks that will be performed and a listing of the status of those tests.

To see more detail, it’s possible to drill down into a particular check like the SQL Check above using the View link.
 
There are even recommendations and discussion of risks. 


Follow this link to view a sample report from a healthy ODA system.

With a more ODA aware ORAchk, we strongly recommended that ODA customers always visit the MOS ORAchk page and find the current version of ORAchk before patching to help identify problems that have been discovered after the release of their current ODA software version.

Using ORAchk with ODA before patching will help identify the most recent Known Issues and ensure more successful patching.

 

Instructions to Uninstall ODA Release 18.8 OVM Systems

Follow these steps to de-install AHF from the existing 18.8 OVM ODA node.
1). First, verify under /opt/oracle/dcs path, there is only ONE folder that exists as "oracle.ahf" 
              # ls /opt/oracle/dcs/
                         oracle.ahf

2). Run the following cmd to decide whether "oracle-ahf" rpm is installed
                 [root@Yourmachine ahfinstall]

                # rpm -q oracle-ahf
                 oracle-ahf-####.x86_64
If the cmd returns a file, then run the following cmd to deinstall oracle-ahf RPM
               #rpm -e oracle-ahf
Otherwise, run the following cmd to uninstall instead.
               #tfactl uninstall -local -deleterepo

3). After de-installation,  verify that neither TFACTL and OAchk no longer exist and that oracle-ahf rpm is no longer installed
              # rpm -q oracle-ahf
                  package oracle-ahf is not installed
 
             # tfactl status
               -bash: /usr/bin/tfactl: No such file or directory
 
            # orachk
               -bash: /usr/bin/orachk: No such file or directory

4). Delete "/opt/oracle/dcs/oracle.ahf" path
             #[root@Yourmachine ahfinstall]# rm -rf /opt/oracle/dcs/

5). Rerun "ahf_setup" 
             #[root@Yourmachine ahfinstall]# ./ahf_setup
 
You'll see the following exchange:


AHF Installer for Platform Linux Architecture x86_64
AHF Installation Log : /tmp/ahf_install_96502_2020_03_23-16_01_48.l
Starting Autonomous Health Framework (AHF) Installati
AHF Version: 20.1.1.0.0 Build Date: 202003170925
 
Default AHF Location : /opt/oracle.ahf
 
Do you want to install AHF at [/opt/oracle.ahf] ? [Y]|N : Y
AHF Data Directory stores diagnostic collections and metadata.
AHF Data Directory requires at least 5GB (Recommended 10GB) of free space.

Choose Data Directory from below options :

1. /u01/app/grid [Free Space : 66547 MB] // why it doesn't go to /opt/oracle.ahf/data by default
2. Enter a different Location

Choose Option [1 - 2] : 2
 
Please Enter AHF Data Directory : /opt/oracle.ahf
 
AHF Data Directory : /opt/oracle.ahf/data
AHF will also be installed/upgraded on these Cluster Nodes :
 
1. node1
 
The AHF Location and AHF Data Directory must exist on the above nodes
AHF Location : /opt/oracle.ahf
AHF Data Directory : /opt/oracle.ahf/data
 
Do you want to install/upgrade AHF on Cluster Nodes ? [Y]|N : N
Not performing install/upgrade on Cluster Nodes
 
Extracting AHF to /opt/oracle.ahf
Configuring TFA Services

Discovering Nodes and Oracle Resources
Not generating certificates as GI discovered
 
Starting TFA Services
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/oracle-tfa.service to /etc/systemd/system/oracle-tfa.service.
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/graphical.target.wants/oracle-tfa.service to /etc/systemd/system/oracle-tfa.service.
 
.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Host              | Status of TFA  | PID           | Port  | Version              | Build ID                                 |
+---------------+-----------------+-------+---------+--------+----------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Yourmachine |     RUNNING       | 99757 | 5000  | 20.1.1.0.0           | 20110020200317092524 |   |
'------------=---+----------------+-------+-------+-----------+---------------------+---------------------------------------'
Running TFA Inventory...
Adding default users to TFA Access list...
 
.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
|                Summary of AHF Configuration                                |
+-----------==------+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Parameter         |         Value                                                    |
+---------------------+------------------------------------------------==------+
| AHF Location     | /opt/oracle.ahf                                             |
| TFA Location      | /opt/oracle.ahf/tfa                                        |
| Orachk Location | /opt/oracle.ahf/orachk                                 |
| Data Directory     | /opt/oracle.ahf/data                                    |
| Repository          | /opt/oracle.ahf/data/repository                    |
| Diag Directory     | /opt/oracle.ahf/data/rwsoda605c1n1/diag  |
'-----------------+---------------------------------------------------------------'
Starting orachk daemon from AHF ...
AHF binaries are available in /opt/oracle.ahf/bin
AHF is successfully installed

Moving /tmp/ahf_install_96502_2020_03_23-16_01_48.log to /opt/oracle.ahf/data/rwsoda605c1n1/diag/ahf/
6. verify AHF installation path is correct
[root@Yourmachine ahfinstall]# ls /opt/oracle.ahf/
ahf  analyzer  bin  common  data  install.properties  jre  orachk  python  tfa
7 Verify AHF rpm is installed & both TFACTL & orachk cmds can work
[root@Yourmachine ahfinstall]# rpm -q oracle-ahf
oracle-ahf-####.x86_64
 
[root@Yourmachine ahfinstall]# tfactl -version
TFA Version : 201100
TFA Build ID : 20200317092524
 
[root@Yourmachine ahfinstall]# orachk -v
ORACHK  VERSION: 20.1.1_20200317


 

 

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