Grid Control Agent Cloning

Agent Cloning in Grid Control 10.2.0.5 – Finally Oracle came up with a simple elegant solution for deploying GC agents!

By far the biggest challenge with Oracle Management Server is implementing the agent- push, pull, manual installs/upgrades/migrations and the cloning method (new in 10.2.0.5).

Overview of Common Known Issues Associated with the Agent Push Installation Method Doc ID: 376355.1

How to Deploy the Agent Using the Agent Push Installation Method  Doc ID: 376262.1

How to Clone a Management Agent And Known Issues Doc ID:  579156.1 

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/readmes.102/b28832/toc.htm#sthref2

agent cloning – new in 10.2.0.5

• Zip an already installed 10.2.0.5 agent home. (I personally used tar and gzip)
• Scp or ftp to standalone host you want it installed on, uncompress in the same location. (at this point I uninstalled the older agent, removed any leftover files, unzipped, untarred new agent in the same directory).
• $AGENT_HOME/oui/bin/runInstaller -clone -forceClone ORACLE_HOME=<full path of Oracle home> ORACLE_HOME_NAME=<Oracle home name> -noconfig -silent
• $AGENT_ORACLE_HOME/bin/agentca –f  (configures the agent)
• $AGENT_ORACLE_HOME/root.sh (as root)
• Results are as follows:

unixaccount@host:/u01/app/oracle/product[EA]
> acle/product/agent10g ORACLE_HOME_NAME=agent10g -noconfig -silent           <
Starting Oracle Universal Installer…

No pre-requisite checks found in oraparam.ini, no system pre-requisite checks wll be executed.
Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2009-05-27_0-43-15AM. Please wait …unixaccount@host:/u01/app/oracle/product[EA]
> Oracle Universal Installer, Version 10.2.0.5.0 Production
Copyright (C) 1999, 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

You can find a log of this install session at:
 /u01/app/oracle/oraInventory/logs/cloneActions2009-05-27_08-43-15AM.log
……………………………………………………………………………………… 100% Done.

 

Installation in progress (Wednesday, May 27, 2009 8:43:25 AM MDT)
…………………………………………………………                                                             66% Done.
Install successful

Linking in progress (Wednesday, May 27, 2009 8:43:27 AM MDT)
.                                                                67% Done.
Link successful

Setup in progress (Wednesday, May 27, 2009 8:43:36 AM MDT)
………………..                                            100% Done.
Setup successful

End of install phases.(Wednesday, May 27, 2009 8:43:38 AM MDT)
WARNING:
The following configuration scripts need to be executed as the “root” user.
#!/bin/sh
#Root script to run
/u01/app/oracle/product/agent10g/root.sh
To execute the configuration scripts:
    1. Open a terminal window
    2. Log in as “root”
    3. Run the scripts

Starting to execute configuration assistants
The following configuration assistants have not been run. This can happen for fllowing reasons – either root.sh is to be run before config or Oracle UniversalInstaller was invoked with the -noConfig option.
————————————–
The “/u01/app/oracle/product/agent10g/cfgtoollogs/configToolFailedCommands” scrpt contains all commands that failed, were skipped or were cancelled. This filemay be used to run these configuration assistants outside of OUI. Note that youmay have to update this script with passwords (if any) before executing the sam.
The “/u01/app/oracle/product/agent10g/cfgtoollogs/configToolAllCommands” scriptcontains all commands to be executed by the configuration assistants. This filemay be used to run the configuration assistants outside of OUI. Note that you my have to update this script with passwords (if any) before executing the same.

————————————–
The cloning of agent10g was successful.
Please check ‘/u01/app/oracle/oraInventory/logs/cloneActions2009-05-27_08-43-15M.log’ for more details.

unixaccount@host:/u01/app/oracle/product[EA]
> $ORACLE_HOME/bin/agentca -f

Stopping the agent using /u01/app/oracle/product/agent10g/bin/emctl  stop agent
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 5 Grid Control 10.2.0.5.0.
Copyright (c) 1996, 2009 Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.
Running agentca using /u01/app/oracle/product/agent10g/oui/bin/runConfig.sh ORALE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/agent10g ACTION=Configure MODE=Perform RESPONSEFILE=/u01/app/oracle/product/agent10g/response_file RERUN=TRUE INV_PTR_LOC=/u01app/oracle/product/agent10g/oraInst.loc COMPONENT_XML={oracle.sysman.top.agent.0_2_0_1_0.xml}
Perform – mode is starting for action: Configure
Perform – mode finished for action: Configure

You can see the log file: /u01/app/oracle/product/agent10g/cfgtoollogs/oui/confgActions2009-05-27_08-44-07-AM.log
unixaccount@host:/u01/app/oracle/product[EA]
>
unixaccount@host:/u01/app/oracle/product[EA]
> emctl upload agent
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Release 5 Grid Control 10.2.0.5.0.
Copyright (c) 1996, 2009 Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.
—————————————————————
EMD upload completed successfully

 

Other Methods of Installation

     

Push Method

• Entire set of binaries transferred to all target hosts. 
• Mounted location common to all hosts.
• For a limited number of hosts.
• Deployments tab of OMS, patch agent link, patch number, platform and release.

Pull Method

• Only a script is transferred and patch installed over HTTP.
• Large number of target hosts

 

Default agent installed with OMS install is not at that the latest version and will need to be upgraded and maintained.

MAA practices for the Agent component of OMS include a front-end load balancer for the OMS servers so that if they go down no need to reconfigure and also helps to create pools of node targets.

 http://webiv.oraclecorp.com/cgi-bin/webiv/do.pl/Get?WwwID=note:353074.1  Metalink Note: 353074.1

10gR2 Management Agent Deployment Best Practices – White Paper, July 2006, see URL section for OTN – Architecture