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Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA) for Unix


Important Note: If you experience difficulties or receive errors please do not call Oracle Support or log an iTAR for this issue. Review the Troubleshooting Steps section below for instructions on reporting problems.
 
 

Contents

 

Purpose

Platforms Supported

At this time, the scripts are supported on the following Unix platforms:
  The scripts can be run on other platforms, however, we recommend testing them on a non production server first as their performance is unpredictable. For example, errors will be signaled for utilities and commands not supported on those platforms.

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Products Supported

RDA collects information useful for corrective issues related to the following products Additional products will be supported in future releases.

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Versions Supported

RDA supports all supported versions of the above Oracle products. In most cases it will also run on desupported versions as well, although the information collected may not be as extensive.

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When is RDA useful for Oracle Support Services?

@ Support Analysts: see <Note:168022.1> "RDA (Remote Diagnostic Agent) FAQ"
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Download

Current Unix Version: 3.10, November 25, 2002

Click here to download the file (change the filename to   rda.tar   when saving).

For a list of all available RDA versions on other platforms for Systems Technologies, please see <Note:175853.1>

If a file download dialog box does not appear when clicking on the above link, you may need to clear your web browser's cache and/or restart your web browser. If you are still unable to download the file, you may request that we email you a copy: mailto:st-automation_ww@oracle.com%20?SUBJECT=UnixRDA Request:

If you would like to be notified when a new release of RDA is available, send an email to mailto:st-automation_ww@oracle.com?SUBJECT=RDA notification request: and let us know what platforms you use.

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Installation Instructions

Installing RDA is quite simple and straightforward:

Execution Instructions

It is impossible to tell how long RDA will take to execute as it depends on so many variables, such as system activity, the options chosen, network settings etc... On an average system RDA will take just a few minutes to run. The scripts are designed so that most commands that could potentially not complete (e.g. a lsnrctl status command if the listener is hung) will be stopped if they do not finish within thirty seconds. It is not unusual for RDA to take 15 minutes or more on a very busy server, especially if there are many Oracle listener processes active.
  1. Log on as the Unix user that owns the Oracle installation.
    On some operating systems this user will not have the necessary permissions to run all of the commands and utilities called by RDA (e.g. sar, top, vmstat, etc...). If you are running RDA to assist in resolving a tar, the analyst will most likely need the information pertaining to the Oracle owner. The exception to this rule, is if you are running RDA to assist in a performance related issue. In this case, we recommend that you log on as the Unix user that owns the Oracle software, then issue

    su root or su privileged_user

    Do not use su - as that will reset the environment.
     

  2. Run setup.sh to configure RDA for the options to be collected 
    % ./setup.sh
  Setup for the Oracle rda.sh Version 3.10 parameters

  Enter the Prefix for all the Files Generated
  Hit Return to Accept Default: RDA
  ============================>
    [More prompts continue...] 
    At this time, you should be able to run the rda script
##############################################################################
1) Make sure it is executable: $ chmod +x rda.sh
2) At this point, $ORACLE_SID should be set and you
   should be able to connect to sqlplus with the userid you entered
3) The screen will indicate various iterations of files being collected.
   Once it has completed, you will be able to send the
   resulting /rda309/RDA_Output/RDA.<pid>.rda.tar.Z file to Oracle.
   <pid> will be the process id from the execution of rda.sh that created
   the file.
4) If this file was generated to assist in resolving a TAR, please send
   /rda309/RDA_Output/RDA.<pid>.rda.tar.Z to Oracle Support
   using the 'upload to support' link in the Tar Update section of Metalink.
    will be the process id from the execution of rda.sh that created
   the file.
##############################################################################


    Special notes on userids and passwords

    Starting with version 3.03 of RDA, the default option is not to store the password in plain text in the setup.txt file, but to prompt the user for the password when RDA is started. If you are currently executing RDA at regularly scheduled intervals via cron, you may need to adjust your cron jobs accordingly. You still have the option of storing the password as plain text in the setup.txt file, should you so desire.

    Starting with version 3.03 of RDA, you may now indicate if the userid provided is a SYSDBA user. However, RDA does not support specifying / as the username.

  3. Review setup.txt (optional)
     

    After setup.sh completes you can optionally view the setup.txt file and make any changes manually.
     

  4. Run rda.sh (do not specify the shell when running rda.sh or you will receive various "is not an identifier" errors). 
    % ./rda.sh
  RDA Started Sun Nov 12 12:11:08 EDT 2002
  RDA Starting Version 3.10, please wait..
    [More output is displayed...]
  5. Review the output (start with RDA__START.htm)
     

    The simplest way of reviewing the output files is to launch a web browser on the same machine where rda.sh is run and open the file RDA__START.htm located in the RDA_Output directory.

    Alternatively, you may ftp the <prefix>.<pid>.rda.tar.Z output file, created in the RDA_Output directory, in binary mode to a Windows client machine. Most Windows compression utilities, such as WinZip version 8.0+, can read Unix compressed files.

    A third option would be to access the RDA__START.htm file from a browser using the ftp (instead of http) protocol. The URL will look similar to ftp://username@hostname.domain/home/rda_dir/RDA_Output//RDA__START.htm. Note that this option may not work with all browsers or servers.
     

  6. Upload the <prefix>.<pid>.rda.tar.Z file to Oracle Support
     

    RDA will produce a compressed tar file called <prefix>.<pid>.rda.tar.Z. Please do not rename the file as it will help Oracle Support to quickly identify that RDA output is attached to the iTAR. After you log the iTAR, upload the file using the 'upload to support' link when updating the iTAR via MetaLink. Remember to transfer this file in binary mode!

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Output

The output is a set of HTML and text files located in the RDA output directory (RDA_Output by default). The files are also archived and compressed into <prefix>.<pid>.rda.tar.Z to transfer easily. Remember to transfer this file in binary mode!
@ Click
here to download a sample output from Oracle Files Online.
@Support Analysts: see <Note:168022.1> "RDA (Remote Diagnostic Agent) FAQ"
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New Features

Troubleshooting Steps

Important Note: If you experience difficulties or receive errors please do not call Oracle Support or log an iTAR for this issue. Instead, send feedback to mailto:st-automation_ww@oracle.com?SUBJECT=Unix RDA Problem report: so that we can correct the problem.
  1. If you are unable to extract the contents of the rda.tar file:
    • Verify that rda.tar was transferred in binary mode when using ftp.
       
    • Verify that the size of the rda.tar file matches the size displayed in the Installation Instructions above.
  2. If you are unable to run setup.sh or receive a "Command not found" error:
    • Ensure that the .sh files have execute privileges
      chmod +x *.sh
       
    • Do not extract the contents of rda.tar on your Windows client first. Otherwise you will need to remove the ^M characters from the end of each line in all of the scripts in order for them to run.
       
  3. Do not specify the shell to use or you will receive various "is not an identifier" errors.
    Wrong:    /usr/bin/sh rda.sh
    Right:     ./rda.sh
     
  4. If RDA is unable to connect to the database, check the following:
    • If you answered Y to specify that the user is a SYSDBA user when running setup.sh, ensure that you can connect with that user using AS SYSDBA. For example, if you specified SYSTEM as the username RDA should use, then ensure that you can connect with the following command in sqlplus:
      connect system AS SYSDBA

      If you cannot, then run setup.sh again and answer N to this question or edit setup.txt and set SYSDBA_USER=N
       

    • If you are using su to connect to root or a privileged user, do not use su - as the minus resets the environment.
       
    • There is an open bug where RDA is unable to connect to the database if the login.sql or glogin.sql files, located in $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/admin, contain user prompts. The only workaround is to temporarily rename these files while running RDA.
       
  5. For any other problems with RDA:
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Reporting Feedback

If you encounter problems running RDA, please follow the Troubleshooting Steps above and send us the information indicated. For any other comments or feedback about RDA, including enhancement requests, please send email to mailto:st-automation_ww@oracle.com%20?SUBJECT=UnixRDA Feedback:
@ ORACLE EMPLOYEES: Please send general feedback to 
as well.

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