Database Support Blog. If so, you probably also know how time consuming and complex this task can be. Well, do you know that there is a tool that can do this task for you? It is called Trace File Analyzer Collector or short TFA and it is applicable to both RAC and non- RAC databases. As systems supporting today\'s complex IT environments become larger, more complex and numerous, it can be difficult and time consuming for those managing these systems to know which diagnostics to collect. Hence, when an issue occurs, it may take several attempts and iterations before all relevant diagnostics files are uploaded to Oracle Support for troubleshooting. Before we go into the details of TFA, let\'s have a look at a traditional diagnostic lifecycle: Trace File Analyzer Collector (TFA) addresses exactly this issue.
It is designed to solve these problems by providing a simple, efficient and thorough mechanism for collecting ALL relevant first failure diagnostic data in one pass as well as useful interactive diagnostic analytics. TFA is started once and collects data from all nodes in the TFA configuration. The collection will include Oracle Clusterware, Oracle Automatic Storage Management and Oracle Database diagnostic data as well as patch inventory listings and operating system metrics. Business Drivers for Implementing TFAFour key business drivers should be considered in a decision to implement Trace File Analyzer Collector. Reduced Costs. Any problem that leads or may lead to service interruption costs money and binds resources.
Oracle Database 12.1.0.2 Standard Edition (SE2) available for download By Mike Dietrich-Oracle on Sep 01, 2015. Some information is already available in the Oracle Database Licensing Information. And you\'ll find more here: https://www.oracle.com/database. Formerly known as https://registry.hub.docker.com/u/wscherphof/oracle-12c/ Docker image with Oracle database server on Oracle Linux. Formerly known as https. Oct 09 Oracle Database 12c Licensing Trivia! Was reading the licensing doc, and this is a note to self. Couple of things not changed.
Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control, the oldest and arguably the best-known release, aims to manage Oracle databases. In November 2011 Oracle Corporation announced Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c, which included the cloud-oriented Oracle. Management packs pdf
Spending time on collecting and uploading diagnostic data over and over again due to the lack of knowledge about what data is needed or because of time pressure, the resolution cycle is lengthened. In moments of distress collecting the relevant data is often replaced by collecting all, which also includes unnecessary diagnostic data. Analyzing unnecessary data means extra circles to determine what was provided. TFA helps eliminate those extra cycles by providing a standardized way of collecting the relevant diagnostic data across all Oracle environments, supporting nearly all configurations.
A convenient command line interface is provided for invoking those tools. Using TFA’s one file per host transfer accelerates root cause analysis by avoiding multiple communications between Oracle Support and the customer. Improved Agility. Using Trace File Analyzer Collector means not having to worry about what data to collect. Once setup and configured it can either be run on a automated event driven basis or on demand, leaving enough time for IT personnel to focus on more productive tasks. TFA enables first level production support personnel to upload diagnostic data just as efficiently and as precisely as senior support staff .
TFA Architecture and Configuration Basics. TFA is implemented by way of a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that is installed on and runs as a daemon on each host in the TFA configuration. Oracle Clusterware, ASM and Database are 1. If using any other version, TFA must be downloaded and installed separately following the instructions in My Oracle Support Note 1. Supported platforms (as of Sept. Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP- UXSupported Engineered Systems (Sept.
Exadata, Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance (ZDLRA) and the Oracle Database Appliance (ODA). Here’s an example which would perform a cluster- wide collection for the last 4 hours for all supported components: $ tfactl diagcollect The initiating host’s JVM communicates the collection requirement to peer JVMs on other hosts if files are needed from other hosts in the configuration.
All collections across the configuration are run concurrently and copied back to the TFA repository on the initiating node. In case a shared file system is used, the collection result of each host’s collection is stored in specific subdirectories as soon as the collection is complete. For example, adding or removing nodes to or from the TFA configuration after initial install is simple and only required as configuration such as the cluster topology changes. All the user has to know is the approximate time of the problem which can then be provided using a time modifier in the CLI. The simplest and most thorough form of collection is for the default time period which is for the last 4 hours. Example #1 : $ tfactl diagcollect Alternatively, if a more precise time is known, for example a problem which occurred within the last hour.
Example #2: $ tfactl diacollect - since 1h. The command shown in Example #1 above initiates a TFA run collecting all the relevant diagnostic data for an issue that occurred within the last four hours. In addition, TFA will collect other relevant files and configuration data such as patch inventories. Similarly the command shown in Example #2 would collect all the files modified within the last hour, most likely resulting in a smaller and more targeted collection. Reducing the data to collect is not as efficient as being precise about the time of the incident.
The more precisely the time of the problem can be specified the smaller the collection will be. Likewise, the more specifically a problem can be narrowed down the more targeted a collection can be in terms of nodes and components. The TFA inherent pruning of larger files by skipping data from traces and logs that is outside of the time specified is another approach to make data collection as well as analysis more efficient. Again, the more precisely the time can be specified the more the files can be pruned. The design goal of TFA is to make the collections as complete, as relevant and as small as possible to save time in collecting, copying, uploading and transferring files for both the customer and for Oracle Support, following a simple yet very efficient approach; a file that was not modified around the time of the incident is unlikely to be relevant. When diagnostic collections are taken the first step taken automatically is a .
In the case of a pre- collection inventory only files for the specified databases and/or components are inventoried. TFA can be configured to take collections automatically when registered events occur and store them in the repository. Examples of registered events would be node evictions and ORA- 0. TFA User Guide. There is a built- in flood control mechanism for the auto- collection feature to prevent a rash of duplicate errors or events from triggering multiple duplicate collections. Should the repository reach its configurable maximum size TFA will suspend taking collections until space is cleared in the repository using the purge command. Example #3: # tfactl purge - older 3.
In example #3 any collections older than 3. Note that the purge command must be run by root or under sudo control. TFA Analytics. TFA has built- in analytics enabling the user to summarize the results from Database, ASM and Clusterware alert logs, system message files and OS Watcher performance metrics across the configuration.
Errors, warnings and search patterns can be summarized for any given time period for the entire configuration without needing to access the files on each node of the configuration. In a similar way, OS Watcher data can also be summarized for the entire configuration for any given time period. Further Information. For further information, please refer to. For any help and support with TFA, please come and chat to us via the RAC Community.