Home  >  Oracle Database Administration (DBA)  >  10g DB - New Features  >  Oracle 10g: Grid Control

1. What is Oracle 10g Grid Control ?

Oracle says "Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control delivers centralized management functionality for the complete Oracle IT infrastructure, including systems running Oracle and non-Oracle technologies. With a broad set of administration, configuration management, provisioning, end-to-end monitoring, and security capabilities, Oracle Grid Control reduces the cost and complexity of managing grid computing environments. Robust service level management functionality within Oracle Grid Control dramatically improves service levels through rich transaction and end-user performance monitoring and deep diagnostics for multi-tier Internet applications. Oracle Grid Control also offers a comprehensive extensibility framework for management of custom applications and integration with other management tools. These capabilities allow companies to deliver superior performance for their systems and applications, while continually reducing management complexity and costs." ( Here is the link. )

2. Installing Oracle Grid Control

The Oracle Grid installation is a common Oracle Software installation. Once runInstaller start the GUI we will have to answer to some questions in the following windows:

Specifiy Installation Type 
Specifiy Installation Location 
Specify Inventory directory and credentials 
Unsupported language message 
Product-Specific Prerequisite Checks 
Prerequisite Check warning message 
Specify Configuration 
Specify Optional Configuration 
Specify Security Options 
Summary 
Install - OEM Repository Database 
Install - OEM Grid Console 
Install - OEM Management Agent 
Execute Configuration scripts 
Configuration Assistants 
Configuration Assistants :Database Configuration Assistant 
End of Installation 

During the installation we will have the option to create the OEM Repository Database in a new or existing database. 

Once the installation is completed the grid control could be accessed at

http://<server-name>:<port>/em  (the port number is in general 4889. If not, see  

                                                           $ORACLE_HOME/sysman/setupinfo.txt)

Here are the commands to start the Grid Control: 

<Parent_Directory>/db10g/bin/dbstart
<Parent_Directory>/oms10g/opmn/bin/opmnctl startall
<Parent_Directory>/agent10g/bin/emctl start agent

Here are the commands to stop the Grid Control: 

<Parent_Directory>/agent10g/bin/emctl stop agent
<Parent_Directory>/oms10g/opmn/bin/opmnctl stopall
<Parent_Directory>/db10g/bin/dbshut

NOTE: The dbstart and dbshut commands require the "/etc/oratab" file to be editied to allow auto startup/shutdown.

3. Installing Oracle Agent (for Grid Control)

After you install the Management Service, your next step is to install the Management Agent on each host computer that you want to manage. Oracle provides 2 installation methods:

• On each host computer download and install the Oracle Management Agent (The step-by-step installation is provided with the Oracle Management Agent binary files).

• Use the agentDownload script to install Management Agents. This method is preferred for environments with multiple hosts or if the targets are not set up with the required packages for an interactive installation. This script was not available for Microsoft Windows platforms in the version 10.1. This installation is done from the Oracle Grid Control host. 

NOTE: The hosts, databases, etc cannot be added/ discovered by the OMS (Oracle Management Services) like in OEM 9i, but by the Agents. 

Here are the commands to start the Management Agent:

<Parent_Directory>/agent10g/bin/emctl start agent 

Here are the commands to stop the Management Agent:

<Parent_Directory>/agent10g/bin/emctl stop agent 

Here are the commands to see the status of the Management Agent:

<Parent_Directory>/agent10g/bin/emctl status agent 

More information about  this subject ( Oracle 10g: Grid Control ) you can get from  www.in-oracle.com