HP OPENVIEW
Smart Plug-ins for Databases RELEASE A.06.02 This document contains important information about the Smart Plug-ins for Databases and supplements the Configuration Guide and reference manuals. Copyright Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., 2003
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Announcements
Chapter 2: Enhancements to this Version (summary)
Chapter 3: Enhancements/Fixes (details)
Chapter 4: Known Problems/Limitations and Workarounds
Chapter 5: Compatibility and Installation Requirements
Chapter 6: Software Availability in Native Languages
Chapter 1: ANNOUNCEMENTS Version A.06.02 of the Smart Plug-ins for Databases includes enhancements and defect repairs. Refer to chapters 2 and 3 of these release notes for more information. For installing and using the product, please refer to the HP OpenView Smart Plug-in for Databases Configuration Guide , A.06.02, and the reference manual for the specific database type.
DOCUMENTATION All the following documentation is contained on the CD-ROM:
HP OpenView Smart Plug-in for Databases: Configuration Guide
HP OpenView Smart Plug-in for Databases: Oracle Reference file name: oracle_ref.pdf
HP OpenView Smart Plug-in for Databases: Informix Reference file name: informix_ref.pdf
HP OpenView Smart Plug-in for Databases Sybase Reference file name: sybase_ref.pdf
HP OpenView Smart Plug-in for Databases: Microsoft SQL Server Reference file name: mssql_ref.pdf mssql_ref.pdf
Chapter 2: Enhancements to this Version (summary) Version A.06.02 The latest version does not include any major enhancements. Please see Chapter 3 for descriptions of the minor enhancements added to A.06.02.
Version A.06.00 enhancements:
Improved Oracle Cluster Awareness/Support For Oracle 9, the Database SPI now detects clustered databases and automatically implements implements metric collections that take this configuration into account. To monitor a 9i clustered environment, the Database SPI implements both shared (global) and individual metric collections. For Oracle 8. x and earlier, users can manually implement the same metric collections. Please see the Configuration Guide , “Chapter 7: Special Configurations,” for details.
Tru64 support for Oracle The Database SPI now supports environments that use Oracle running on a Tru64 platform.
Support for Oracle on some raw devices Metric monitoring of Oracle running on some raw devices is now supported. Please see the Configuration Guide , Appendix C for details.
Support for Microsoft SQL Server User Defined Metrics The Database SPI now supports user-defined metrics for Microsoft SQL Server. Please see the Configuration Guide, Chapter 6 for detailed instructions.
Application that creates an MS SQL Server user not needing system admin capability The Database SPI connection to the MS SQL Server can now b e configured with limited capability, ensuring database security.
Improved MS SQL Server logfile monitoring Ten new conditions have been added to catch common problems.
Additional MS SQL Server metrics (3035, 3233 and 3234) New metrics for MS SQL SQ L Server provide increased DB-SPI monitoring capabilities as follows : returning information on the longest running transactions for MS SQL; warnings for when the MS SQL Server database or database log has not been backed up recently.
Chapter 3: Enhancement and Fixes In this Version (detail) The first section of this chapter covers details of product enhancements. The second section covers product defects that have been fixed.
A.06.02 ENHANCEMENTS CR NUMBER
DESCRIPTIONSOF A.06.02 ENHANCEMENTS
JAGAE65033
Data in report for Oracle metric 6 now sorted by "Percent Free" ascending order. General Topic Area: Oracle Metric Reports Background: In previous versions, the report for Oracle metric 6 was sorted
alphabetically. This made it difficult to find the tablespaces that were most severely short in space. Benefits of the Enhancement: Ease of Use Description of the Enhancement: In B.06, the report is sorted ascending by "Percent
Free" so that the tablespace that has the smallest percentage free is listed at the top. Steps Necessary to Use/Implement the Enhancement: None
ROSMM18194
Enhanced Reporter integration to build tables on install. General Topic Area: Reporter Integration
Background: In the past, when the DB-SPI Reporter integration installation packages were installed on the Reporter system or on the OVO for Windows system (with OVO for Windows an embedded reporting component is installed automatically through the common installer), the tables necessary for the DB-SPI reports were not immediately created. As a result, if reports were generated before any data was gathered for the DBSPI reports (which would occur 2 AM the following morning), errors would be reported both by Reporter and by OVO Windows (embedded reporting component). Benefits of the Enhancement: Ease of Use Description of the Enhancement: The report integration packages that are
automatically installed with OVO Windows 7.2 or installed on a separate Reporter system now automatically create the necessary tables. As a result, no errors are reported. As always, the reports remain empty until the following day. Steps Necessary to Use/Implement the Enhancement: For the OVO for Windows
integrated reports, no action is needed. For a separate Reporter installation, uninstall the old report integration packages and install the new packages as described in the Smart Plug-in for Databases Configuration Guide, Chapter 5.
ROSMM21243
Exclude cache segments for calculation in Oracle metrics 3/16 General Topic Area: Space Metrics Background: Oracle metrics 3/203 and 16/216 have always included cache segments in
their calculations, resulting in undesired alarms on the segments. Benefits of the Enhancement: Increased usability Description of the Enhancement: Metrics 3/203 and 16/216 no longer alarm on cache
segments. Steps Necessary to Use/Implement the Enhancement: None
CR NUMBER
DESCRIPTIONSOF A.06.02 ENHANCEMENTS
ROSMM27958
Improvement for MSSQL metric 3025 on system with multiple CPUs. General Topic Area: MS SQL Metrics Background: In prior versions, metric 3025 for MS SQL Server did not report the
number of CPUs on the system, so it was difficult to interpret the metric. Benefits of the Enhancement: Increased Functionality Description of the Enhancement: The metric now returns the number of CPUs being
used by MS SQL Server and the total percentage taken for all CPUs (the value is still between 0% and 100%); for example: "DBSPI-3025.1: % CPU time used by SQL Server (90% of 3 CPU(s)) too high (>=80%) for ros51340tst\OVOPS." Steps Necessary to Use/Implement the Enhancement: Deploy the new template
DBSPI-3025 to the necessary nodes to implement the new message text.
ROSMM28222
Added automatic action report for Oracle metrics 64 and 65 like 62 General Topic Area: Oracle Metric Reports Background: The automatic action annotation report for Oracle metric 62, which is
"Percentage of space used on Oracle background dump device" showed the file system name, total K bytes, K bytes used, K bytes available, percentage used and the directory mount point. This allowed the admin to know which mount point to add space to when the alarm occurred. Metrics 64 and 65 are "Percentage of space used on user dump device" and "Percentage of space used on core dump device". These metrics could benefit from the same report. Benefits of the Enhancement: Increased Functionality Description of the Enhancement: Automatic action annotation reports have been
added to Oracle metrics 64 and 65, "Percentage of space used on user dump device" and "Percentage of space used on core dump device". Steps Necessary to Use/Implement the Enhancement: You must deploy the new
version 6.0 Measurement Threshold policies DBSPI-0064 and DB SPI-0065.
ROSMM28799
Added new MS SQL Server availability metric General Topic Area: MS SQL Server Availability Metrics Background: Prior to B.06, when an MS SQL Server instance was down, DB-SPI
would report: DBSPI10-21: Unable to connect to database 'rosspi8\OVOPS.master' as 'Integrated Security' [Unable to connect: SQL Server is unavailable or does not exist]. Benefits of the Enhancement: Ease of Use Description of the Enhancement: Starting with B.06, a new metric has been added,
3030, which will report that the instance was down. This is a standard metric and has a monitor policy of DBSPI-3030. Steps Necessary to Use/Implement the Enhancement: Deploy the new templates
DBSPI-MSS-05min and DBSPI-3030. DBSPI-MSS-05min will now run metric 30.
A.06.00 ENHANCEMENTS CR NUMBER
DESCRIPTIONS.OF A.06.00 ENHANCEMENTS
ROSMM25011
Support raw disks for Oracle metric 3/203, 6/206, 16/216 General Topic Area: Oracle space metrics Background: Previous versions of DB-SPI did not support any raw disk formats. If an
Oracle data file resided on a raw disk, an error would occur when DB-SPI attempted to determine the amount of disk space left on the drive. Benefits of the Enhancement: Increased functionality Description of the Enhancement: With A.06.00, DB-SPI supports a limited number of
raw disks. This means that the space metrics 3/203, 6/206 and 16/216 return correct results. See the Configuration Guide for details on specific raw disks are supported. Steps Necessary to Use/Implement the Enhancement: None
ROSMM22653
Improved support of Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) General Topic Area: Oracle RAC Background: Previous versions of DB-SPI had no special support for RAC. Benefits of the Enhancement: Easier to use Description of the Enhancement: DB-SPI now automatically chooses one system in a
RAC cluster to be the global system where all metrics are run. All other systems are considered secondary systems and other, non-global metrics are run on these system. This configuration eliminates duplicate messages from the space metrics. In addition, this configuration has meant that the old "OPS" templates could be eliminated because they are no longer needed. Steps Necessary to Use/Implement the Enhancement: None
ROSMM26351
Enhance Oracle 216 to generate a more revealing message. General Topic Area: Oracle Space Metrics Background: Previous versions of DB-SPI had a simple message for metric 216 Benefits of the Enhancement: Functionality Description of the Enhancement: The metric has been enhanced to generate the
following message: TEXT "DBSPI-0216.1: Number of extents (<$VALUE>) left for <$OPTION (segment_name)> in tablespace <$OPTION(tablespace_name)> too low (\\<=<$THRESHOLD> and \\<=<$OPTION(cli_threshold)>) for database <$OPTION(dbname)>. <$OPTION(reason)>" Reason will be set to: Case 1: Hitting max extents reason="Max extents reached. Max extents = ####. Current extents = #####." Case 2: Auto-extend limit. reason="Reached auto-extend limit. Next extent size is
MB." Case 3: Found out-of-space condition w/ auto-extend. reason="Additional space needed. Next extent is MB." Case 4: Found can't extend condition w/o auto-extend. reason="Additional space needed and auto-extend is not enabled. Next extent is MB." is the size of the extent that we would need to get one more extent. This size varies for each extent, but we must already know this size to determine the failure. Steps Necessary to Use/Implement the Enhancement: None. Make sure Performance Agent is running." Benefits of the Enhancement: Ease of use. Description of the Enhancement: An automatic action has been added to the messages is still running. DB-SPI collector causes an overlap in metric - terminating this collector. Steps Necessary to Use/Implement the Enhancement: None; however, if for some. 'Left({@MSG_TEXT}+{@TextOnly}+{@Instance Name}, 48) ' A string can be at most 254 characters long." Cause: The data type in the report was incorrect..dat file Problem: DB-SPI would fail to write graphing data to MeasureWare when a value of >.dat file andALRT.log" but now it is "alert_/< password >@<$ORACLE_SID>” EXAMPLE: CONNECT 