Using the Monitoring Agent

You can use a Monitoring Agent to manage and monitor VxFS file systems, Oracle tablespaces, and datafile space usage.

The Monitoring Agent monitors the file system space, and when the space usage reaches a configured threshold value, a predefined action script grows the file system automatically.

The agent can be enabled at boot-time. Each file system monitored has three settings that the Monitoring Agent needs to know about:

• Warning Threshold is a percent value (% of file system used) that determines when the agent begins warning the administrator of space shortage
• Grow Threshold is a percent value (% of file system used) that determines when the agent is to attempt to grow the file system (when space usage is at a critical level)
• Amount is either a percentage or a value in megabytes by which to grow file systems when the Grow Threshold is reached or exceeded

The VxDBA Monitoring Agent operations are driven from the following files:

• /opt/VRTSdbed/lib/dbed_mon_config.base
• /etc/vx/vxdba/$ORACLE_SID/dbed_mon_config.$ORACLE_SID
• /etc/vx/vxdba/$ORACLE_SID/dbed_mon_fslist.$ORACLE_SID
• /etc/vx/vxdba/$ORACLE_SID/dbed_mon_oralist.$ORACLE_SID
• /etc/vx/vxdba/$ORACLE_SID/include

Understanding the Monitoring Agent Files

The /opt/VRTSdbed/lib/dbed_mon_config.base file contains the site-level configuration settings for monitoring all file systems and databases recognized. This configuration file specifies how often to check for file system and database configuration changes, how often to check the file space usage, where space usage information gets logged, and the thresholds for warning and automatically growing the file system.

For example, if you are monitoring a database named PROD, the database-specific file would be /etc/vx/vxdba/PROD/dbed_mon_config.PROD. This is the first file opened when the agent is started and contains the default settings for monitoring file systems at the database level. The Monitoring Agent cannot start without this file. Modify this configuration file if you want to change the preconfigured settings carried over from the dbed_mon_config.base file to maintain a different set of settings at the database level.

The files /etc/vx/vxdba/$ORACLE_SID/dbed_mon_fslist.$ORACLE_SID and /etc/vx/vxdba/$ORACLE_SID/dbed_mon_oralist.$ORACLE_SID are created and are used for restarting the Monitoring Agent. These files specify the status of the database. The files also specify the space monitoring and alarm information for each file system, tablespace, and datafile. You can edit these files manually to change settings, and then restart the Monitoring Agent.

The Monitoring Agent uses the /etc/vx/vxdba/$ORACLE_SID/include file to check that all files are up-to-date and are being monitored. This file is created by VERITAS Storage Foundation for Oracle and should not be edited.

Occasionally, Monitoring Agents ignore Storage Checkpoints. This happens when a Storage Checkpoint is not owned by the current Oracle instance. These Storage Checkpoints will not be used to calculate thresholds and potential removal candidates. Storage Checkpoints that are not considered part of the current database instance's data set are logged as such in the file /var/log/dbed_mon/dbed_mon.prune_ckpt_log.$ORACLE_SID when the Monitoring Agent is looking for potential removal candidates. A Storage Checkpoint must have an entry in the /etc/vx/vxdba/$ORACLE_SID/checkpoint_dir directory before it is considered owned by the database. This is done automatically by the provided VxDBA(1M) and dbed_ckptcreate(1M) utilities and ensures that, if multiple databases share the same file system(s), the policy for one database does not affect another.

Starting a Monitoring Agent

Prerequisites

• The dbed_update command must be run at least once before you can use the monitoring agent utility.
• Make sure you are logged on as root to perform Monitoring Agent operations.

  To start a Monitoring Agent

1. Click the Monitoring Agent icon in the object tree. (You may need to expand the tree view to find the icon.)
2. Select one of the following methods to start the Monitoring Agent.
   • From the menu bar, select Monitoring Agent > Start Agent.

   or

   • Right click the Monitoring Agent to bring up a pop-up menu. Then click Start Agent.

   You will see a message prompting you for your root password.

3. Enter your root password. Then click OK.

   If the Monitoring Agent was successfully started, you will receive a confirmation message. Click OK to continue.

Enable / Disable the Monitoring Agent at Boot-Time

4. Optionally, if you would like to set up the Monitoring Agent to become enabled at boot-time, right click the Monitoring Agent in the object tree and select Enabled at Boot Time.

   or

   If you would like to set up the Monitoring Agent to become disabled at boot-time, right click the Monitoring Agent in the object tree and select Disabled at Boot Time.

5. Enter your root password. Then click OK.

   If the Monitoring Agent was successfully changed to be either enabled or disabled at boot time, you will receive a confirmation message. Click OK to continue.

   You will receive a confirmation message that the agent will either be enabled or disabled when you boot the system.

6. Click OK to continue.

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     Note    To change the default Monitoring Agent values, see Viewing or Changing Monitoring Agent Values.

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Stopping a Monitoring Agent

Prerequisites

• The dbed_update command must be run at least once before you can use the monitoring agent utility.
• Make sure you are logged on as root to perform Monitoring Agent operations.

  To stop a monitoring agent

1. Click the Monitoring Agent icon in the object tree. (You may need to expand the tree view to find the icon.)
2. Select one of the following methods to stop the Monitoring Agent.
   • From the menu bar, select Monitoring Agent > Stop Agent.

   or

   • Right click the Monitoring Agent to bring up a pop-up menu. Then click Stop Agent.

   You will then see a message prompting you for your root password.

3. Enter your root password. Then click OK.

   If the Monitoring Agent was successfully stopped, you will receive a confirmation message. Click OK to continue.

Viewing or Changing Monitoring Agent Values

You can view the settings of your active Monitoring Agent. You also have the option to change the default values of the Monitoring Agent, if needed.

Prerequisites

• The dbed_update command must be run at least once before you can use the monitoring agent utility.
• Make sure you are logged on as root to perform Monitoring Agent operations.

  To view the Monitoring Agent values

Click the Monitoring Agent icon in the object tree. (You may need to expand the tree view to find the icon.)

The values associated with the Monitoring Agent are displayed on the screen.

  To change the Monitoring Agent values

1. Click the Monitoring Agent icon in the object tree. (You may need to expand the tree view to find the icon.) The Monitoring Agent values appear on the right side of the screen.
2. On the right side of the screen, double-click the field you want to change and enter a new value. You may continue to double-click the fields you want to change and enter new values.
3. Click Save to save your changes.