In prior articles, installing Oracle Enterprise Manager, database preparation and installation of the middleware (Oracle WebLogic Server) were addressed. In this article, the installation of Grid Control is covered. My Oracle Support (MOSC) note 1067438.1, Master Note for Grid Control 11.1.0.1 Installation and Upgrade can be used as a starting point, and from there, other MOSC notes for your platform of interest can be referenced for more detail. Since my example is based on Windows 2003 Server, the platform specific note is 1091325.1.

One additional prerequisite for the database setup includes an optional step, which is applying a patch to fix a couple of bugs. The database version here is 11.2.0.1, so bugs 9002336 and 9067282 can be addressed.  Bug 9002336 (document ID 9002336.8 as of this writing) is related to subquery factoring (i.e., using the SQL WITH clause). The workaround is to set an undocumented parameter. This parameter can be dynamically modified (no need to bounce the instance).

alter system set “_optimizer_distinct_agg_transform”=true scope=both;

The second bug (document ID 9067282.8 as of this writing) can be addressed by applying one of two patches: the 11.2.0.1.2 Patch Set Update or the 11.2.0.1 Patch 2 on Windows Platforms (Patch 9736835). Since not everyone reading this has access to My Oracle Support, I’ll forego the patch installation for this bug. Indications of hitting this bug are an ORA-00600 error (ORA-600 [kksfbc-wrong-kkscsflgs]). Just as a quick overview though, you’ll need the 11.2 version of OPatch and while patching on Windows, ensure the SID service is stopped as well as the listener service. If all goes well, you’ll see this at the end:

Verifying the update...
Inventory check OK: Patch ID 9736835 is registered in Oracle Home inventory with proper meta-data.
Files check OK: Files from Patch ID 9736835 are present in Oracle Home.
Execution of 'cmd /C "C:\TEMP\p9736835_112010_WINNT\9736835\custom\scripts\post.bat" 
(line return added here for formatting)
-apply 9736835 ':

Return Code = 0

The local system has been patched and can be restarted.

OPatch succeeded.

Once the three zipped files for Grid Control have been downloaded, unzip them into the same folder. Files 1_of_3 through 3_of_3 were unzipped into my GridControl_11.1.0.1.0_Win32 folder.

Unzipped files from the OTN download

At this point, we’re ready to run setup.exe. From this point on, it is a matter of following along Section 2.4 of the Grid Control Basic Installation Guide. Given that you’ve already installed Oracle database 11g, you’ll be familiar with the new look of the Oracle Universal Installer.

For the installation type, you’ll see the note under creating a new system that the installation is going into a WebLogic Server (as a new domain), and will be using a database for the repository. To install into a domain, it would also help to have WLS running, which isn’t explicitly stated anywhere.

In Check Prerequisites, you may see warnings regarding the hostname and physical memory. Don’t rely on using localhost. My system has 4GB allocated to Windows in its VM environment. The actual value that is reported is 4095MB instead of an expected 4096MB. A 1MB difference here is hardly cause for alarm and the 4GB requirement within the installer is double what the installation guide shows.

The installer will raise an error dialog window if parameters have not been set correctly. As an example:

After correcting the settings (some work with scope=both, a couple are scope=spfile, so a bounce of the instance is required), the next step will prompt you for a password for SYSMAN. You will also see where the three datafiles are created for the three new tablespaces.

You’ll definitely want to capture the port numbers shown in the Customize Ports section.

After checking the summary/review page (note the 6GB disk space requirement), the next step is to watch the installation progress for a good while.

A series of large green check marks along the top middle of the window is a good sign things are going well.

Once the management service, management agent and web tier steps are complete, the next part of the installation is similar to what you’ve seen in numerous other installations or assistants.

Once all the configuration tasks are completed, note the URL shown at the end – that’s what’ll you use to connect to Grid Control.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Installation Failure

The Enterprise Manager forum at Oracle Technology Network is rife with postings regarding failed installations. Many of the posts are related to the OMS Configuration step. The best thing that can be said about the overall installation experience is that patience and careful reading of the installation guide are essential. The instructions are pretty clear about using WebLogic Server 10.1.3.2, but for whatever reasons, people try using 10.1.3.3. That is a self-inflicted wound. Trust me, there are plenty of opportunities for errors or problems even when you carefully follow the instructions.

A general outline of the cleanup process is to drop the SYSMAN and SYSMAN_MDS schemas, drop the MGMT* tablespaces and datafiles, drop a public synonym (MGMT_AVAILABILITY, and there are hundreds of others, but this one causes a problem during a re-install), and to remove or clean out several directories (“homes”) under the Middleware home (oms11g, agent11g, oracle_common, and Oracle_WT). When an operation fails, the dialog text on the installer window directs you to check logs under whatever directory, and in quite a few cases, the logs are borderline useless as they don’t show any error.

To remove the four “homes” under Middleware, start the installer from the command line, and pass in the “-deinstall” option. When OUI is started this way, the “Remove” button becomes enabled on the Installed Products window. If you get an error about a directory already existing within the inventory (and the installer won’t let you continue), look for the offending home in the inventory.xml file and delete the entry (and adjust the index position as necessary).

Some observations

At this point, it should be painfully obvious that the installation steps or differences between Database Control and Grid Control are quite significant. The configuration and creation of Database Control is extremely simple when compared to the numerous steps you have to go through to get Grid Control up and running.

Although the degree of difficulty is ramped up a bit, look at what you get exposed to (and learn) in this process:

1. Installation of Oracle 11g (if not done already) and exposure to the new look and feel of Oracle Universal Installer

2. Installation of WebLogic Server and the use of Oracle Smart Update

3. Installation of Grid Control

As mentioned in a prior article, getting a handle on WebLogic Server is going to have a good return on investment. Many of Oracle’s tools and applications are using WebLogic Server now. The list includes Grid Control, OBIEE, and Application Express (APEX). Pretty much anything to do with “Fusion” is going to be based on WebLogic Server. Installing Grid Control is a convenient way of getting introduced to two of Oracle’s mainstream management tools for databases and everything else.

Related Articles

Installing Oracle Enterprise Manager (WebLogic Server Component)
The New and Improved Oracle Enterprise Manager

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