Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA) - Getting Started (Doc ID 314422.1)

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RDA Getting Started

In This Document

RDA Overview

Overview

Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA) is a command-line diagnostic tool that is executed by an engine written in the Perl programming language. RDA provides a unified package of support diagnostics tools and preventive solutions. The data captured provides Oracle Support with a comprehensive picture of the customer's environment which aids in problem diagnosis.

Oracle Support encourages the use of RDA because it greatly reduces service request resolution time by minimizing the number of requests from Oracle Support for more information. RDA is designed to be as unobtrusive as possible; it does not modify systems in any way. It collects useful data for Oracle Support only and a security filter is provided if required.

This guide provides users with an overview of RDA, the download instructions, and general steps about how to execute RDA within a UNIX, Windows, and Mac OS X environment.

What's New in this RDA Release

See the RDA Release Notes for information about new features. The next release in RDA 8.x series is scheduled for release in Mid-March.

Platforms Supported

At this time, RDA has been successfully tested to run on the following Supported platforms:

• Apple Mac OS X/Darwin
• HP OpenVMS Alpha 7.3-2 and above
• HP OpenVMS Itanium
• HP Tru64 UNIX
• HP-UX Itanium
• HP-UX PA-RISC (32 and 64 bit)
• IBM AIX on POWER Systems(32 and 64 bit)
• IBM Dynix/Ptx
• IBM Linux on POWER
• IBM zSeries Based Linux
• Linux Itanium
• Linux x86 (32 and 64 bit)
• Microsoft Windows 7
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Workstation and Server
• Microsoft Windows 2003 Server
• Microsoft Windows 2008
• Microsoft Windows Vista
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional
• Sun Solaris Intel
• Sun Solaris SPARC (32 and 64 bit)

Following Platforms are NOT Supported:

• IBM Z/OS (OS/390)

You can run RDA also on other platforms that support Perl 5.005 and later. However, Oracle Support recommends testing on a non-production server first because the performance is unpredictable. For example, you will receive errors when RDA attempts to run utilities and commands that are not supported on these platforms.

Products Supported

RDA collects information that is useful for diagnosing issues related to the following Supported Oracle products

• OLAP Products (Express Server, Financial Analyzer, and Demand Planning Server)
• Oracle Application Server (iAS 1.0.2.x/9.0.x/10.1.2.x/10.1.3.x,10.1.4.x,WebLogic Server (WLS) Release 9.x and 10.x,11g (WLS), HTTP Server,WebCache,J2EE/OC4J)
• Oracle Billing and Revenue Management products
• Oracle BPEL Process Manager
• Oracle Collaboration Suite (Email Server,Calendar,Discussions,Content Services,Workspaces,WebClient,and Wireless)
• Oracle Data Integrator
• Oracle Developer (Forms and Reports)
• Oracle Ebusiness Suite 11i and 12
• Oracle Enterprise Content
• Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-on
• Oracle Enterprise performance management (Hyperion) products
• Oracle Guardian
• Oracle Identity Management products
• Oracle JDBC/PRO *C/ODBC and other development client related information
• Oracle Management Server and Intelligent Agent (Grid Server, Agent Server, DB Control)
• Oracle Networking products
• Oracle RAC Cluster (Single/Multiple Nodes, Automatic Storage Management, Oracle Cluster File System, Data Guard)
• Oracle RDBMS Server (Standard and Enterprise Editions)
• Oracle Retail (Retek)
• Oracle SQL*Plus/iSQL*Plus
• Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database
• Oracle Universal Archive (11g)
• PeopleSoft
• Siebel

Additional new Oracle products will be supported in future releases. We are constantly enhancing and refining RDA, so make sure you have the latest version! For more detailed information see the Knowledge 330760.1.

Versions Supported

RDA supports most supported versions of the Oracle products listed in Products Supported. In most cases, it runs on desupported versions as well, although the collected information may not be as extensive.

Why use RDA?

Oracle strongly encourages the use of Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA) diagnostics collections because it provides a comprehensive picture of the customer's environment. Providing RDA diagnostic output, especially when submitting a Service Request online, can minimize the requirement for follow up questions that may delay problem resolution. RDA collections are essential for the following types of service requests:

• Acquired company product issues
• Developer issues
• Installation/configuration issues
• ORA-600, ORA-7445, ORA-3113, and ORA-4031 errors
• Oracle Database issues
• Oracle Application Server/Fusion Middleware issues
• Oracle Collaboration products (Oracle Collaboration Suite and Oracle Beehive) issues
• Oracle Application issues
• Other corrective issues
• Performance issues
• Upgrade, migration, and linking issues

Oracle Configuration Manager

The Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM) is a data collector that collects key Oracle and system statistics of the system that it is running on. As a key component of Oracle Configuration Manager, the OCM collector (scheduler) optimizes the customer benefits of OCM by automating the configuration collections. OCM simplifies your ability to automate your configuration and diagnostics uploads to Oracle. Oracle Configuration Manager bundle provides the following benefits:

• HealthCheck recommendations based on Support best practices when using configuration auto-collection
• Improves Oracle's understanding of your business needs
• Personalized access to best practices and the Oracle Knowledge base
• Pro-active configuration-specific notification of Security and General Alerts
• Project cataloging of key milestones and contacts associated with your configurations
• Secure, automated configuration collection
• Simplified Service Request logging, tracking and reporting

For troubleshooting information or to learn more about Oracle Configuration Manager see the following Oracle Knowledge 369619.1.

Diagnostic Assistant

The Diagnostic Assistant (DA) tool provides a common, light-weight interface to multiple diagnostic collection tools (ADR, RDA, OCM, Explorer). To learn more about Diagnostic Assistant see the following Oracle Knowledge 201804.1.

For your benefit, Oracle created an RDA/OCM bundle. This bundle contains RDA, OCM, and DA software and it allows customers to install OCM and DA as part of the RDA data collection process.

Download

• click the zip file for your platform
• save it locally as rda.zip

Each file contains all of the required files so choose only one to download.

Note:If your platform is certified for OCM, the RDA zip file below is conveniently bundled with OCM.

Note: RDA is also shipped with multiple Oracle products, for instance: Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management, Oracle Configuration Manager, RAC and DB , Oracle  …

Installation Instructions

Instructions for UNIX/ZLinux Type Operating Systems

1. Choose or create a directory or area on your UNIX server. Make sure you have sufficient space for the RDA output (~150MB). It does not matter where you create this directory or what it is named, but the same user that runs RDA must own it. Do notuse a directory that contains an older version of RDA unless you have deleted the previous version of RDA first. If necessary, you can reuse prior setup files.

1. FTP the downloaded rda.zip file to your UNIX server in binary mode and place it in the directory chosen in step 1.
2. Extract the .zip archive contents into a new directory, preserving the directory structure of the archive. Do not extract into a directory that contains an older RDA version. For example:

unzip rda.zip

Make sure the RDA command (rda.sh and rda.pl) is executable. To verify, enter the following command:

chmod +x

1. You can verify the RDA installation using the following command:

./ -cv

Instructions for Microsoft Windows Based Operating Systems

1. Create a new directory or area on your Windows server. Make sure you have sufficient space for RDA output (~150MB). It does not matter where you create this directory or what it is named, but it should have access to the Oracle software installation. Donotuse a directory that contains an older version of RDA unless you have deleted the previous version of RDA first.

1. Transfer the downloaded rda.zip file to your Windows server and place it in the directory chosen in step 1. If transferring the zip file from one system to another using FTP, remember to transfer it in binary mode.
2. Extract the .zip archive contents into a new directory, preserving the directory structure of the archive. Do not extract into a directory that contains an older RDA version. For example:

unzip rda.zip

1. You can verify the RDA installation using the following command:

-cv

Instructions for HP OpenVMS Based Operating Systems

Due to the special nature of HP OpenVMS environment, Oracle created a separate document. See the RDA - OpenVMS Users Guide: Knowledge Article 171748.1.

Running RDA

Instructions for UNIX type operating systems (including ZLinux):

1. Before you begin: Log on as the UNIX user that owns the Oracle installation. On some operating systems, this user will not have the necessary permissions to run all of the commands and utilities called by RDA (e.g. sar, top, vmstat, etc). If you are running RDA to assist in resolving a service request, the analyst will most likely need the information pertaining to the Oracle owner. The exception to this rule is when RDA is used to assist in a performance related issue. In this case, Oracle support recommends that you run RDA as the UNIX user who owns the Oracle software.

1. Select the RDA command line script that you will be using. Choose one of the following:

rda.sh - Use this command if Perl is not available.

rda.pl - Use this command if Perl is available.

Use the following command to verify that Perl is installed and available in the path:

perl -V

Inspect the command output, checking that '.' (i.e. tells perl to look for libaries in current directory) is present in @INC section. Notice the last entry "." in the example below:

1. The data collection requires an initial setup to determine which information should be collected. Enter the following command to initiate the set up:

/ -S

After setup completes, you can review the setup file output.cfg by opening in a text editor such as vi. 
The output.cfg file is located in the directory that RDA was executed from. i.e. If RDA was installed in /rda and executed from /tmp directory, then the setup file is located in /tmp.

1. You can also choose to collect only specific data. For more details, view the command usage help by specifying the -h option, or complete manual page with the -M option.
2. Make sure you have ample space for RDA output (approximately 150 MB) in the output location you have chosen in STEP 6. Sometimes, depending on the size of your data files (alert.log, *.trc, install*.log, apache logs, networking logs, etc) of the Oracle installation the final size of your RDA collection may reach over 1000 MB in size.
3. At this point, you can collect diagnostic information. sqlplus should connect to the database with the userid that you specified during the setup. Start the data collection using the following command:

./ [-v]

The -v option is optional; it allows you to view the collection progression. Additionally, if you want to re-run the RDA collection, you can use the "-fv" option, for example, ./ -fv. For additional information read the RDA FAQ.

1. A more targeted way of executing RDA and a way to limit the number of setup questions asked is the use of Diagnostic profiles ( -p ), see RDA Profiles for list of various profiles or run -L profiles. e.g:. ./ -p DB10g

1. The output is a set of HTML files that are located in a directory created by RDA by default in the working directory that RDA was executed from. The default output directory is called output. You can review the data collected by using a Web Browser to open the following file located in:

/RDA__start.htm

1. The final output is also packaged in an archive located in the directory that RDA was executed from -- the packaged output file will have a .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, or .tar.Z extension. If the data collection was generated to assist in resolving a Service Request, send the report archive (for example, RDA_output_.tar) to Oracle Support by uploading the file via My Oracle Support. If FTP'ing the file, please be sure to FTP in BINARY format. Please do notrename the file, as the file name helps Oracle Support quickly identify that RDA output is attached to the service request or  bundle with other files such as trace or log files into a single or common archive file (.tar, .zip, .jar, etc.)

For more information or clarification please review the demonstration viewlets located in the Training document or please read the RDA FAQ. If you still have problems please follow Troubleshooting Steps.

Instructions for Microsoft Windows Based Operating Systems

1. Before you begin: Log on as the WINDOWS user that owns the Oracle installation. On some operating systems, this user will not have the necessary permissions to run all of the commands and utilities called by RDA (e.g. WinMsd utility, MSInfo32 on Windows 2000, Windows 2003) If you are running RDA to assist in resolving a service request, the analyst will most likely need the information pertaining to the Oracle owner. The exception to this rule is when RDA is used to assist in a performance related issue. In this case, Oracle support recommends that you run RDA as the user who owns the Oracle software.
2. Choose one RDA command line scriptthat you will be using, either:

rda.cmd Use this command if Perl is not available.

rda.pl Use this command if Perl is available in the path. To verify if Perl is available, enter the following command:

perl -V

In the command output, verify that '.' (i.e. the current directory) is present in @INC section.

The RDA command rda.cmd or rda.pl you choose is represented as in the rest of this procedure.

1. The data collection requires an initial setup to determine which information should be collected. Enter the following command from the Windows Command or DOS prompt to initiate the set up: REMEMBER:  means use either rda.cmd orrda.pl.

-S

After setup completes, you can review the setup file output.cfg by opening it a text editor like wordpad. The output.cfg file is located in the directory that RDA was executed from. i.e. If RDA was installed in \rda and executed from \temp directory, then the setup file is located in \temp.

You can also choose to collect only specific data. For more details, view the command usage help by specifying the -h option, or complete manual page with the -M option.

1. Make sure you have ample space for RDA output (approximately 150 MB) in the output location you have chosen. Sometimes, depending on the size of your data files (alert.log, *.trc, install*.log, apache logs, networking logs, etc) of the Oracle installation the final size of your RDA collection may reach over 1000 MB in size.
2. At this point, you can collect diagnostic information. Sqlplus should connect to the database with the userid that you specified during the setup. Start the data collection using the following command:

[-v]

The -v option is optional. It allows you to view the collection progression. Additionally, if you want to rerun RDA collection again, you can use the "-fv" option like  -fv . For additional information, read the RDA FAQ.

1. A more targeted way of executing RDA and a way to limit the number of setup questions asked is the use of Diagnostic profiles ( -p), see RDA Profiles for list of various profiles. e.g:  -p DB10g
2. The output is a set of HTML files that are located in a directory created by RDA by default in the working directory that RDA was executed from. The default output directory is called output. You can review the data collected by using a Web Browser to open the following file located in:

/RDA__start.htm

1. The final output is also packaged in an archive located in the directory that RDA was executed from -- the packaged output file will have a .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, or .tar.Z extension. If the data collection was generated to assist in resolving a Service Request, send the report archive (for example, RDA_output_.zip) to Oracle Support by uploading the file via My Oracle Support. If FTP'ing the file, please be sure to FTP in BINARY format. Do not rename the file, as the file name helps Oracle Support quickly identify that RDA output is attached to the service request.

The final output may not generate an archive file (.zip, .tar, .tar.gz, or .tar.Z). If the archive is missing, please archive all the files in the manually and send them to Oracle Support. You can use a packaging/archive utility program such as 

1. When you send/upload an RDA report in a compressed file (such as .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, or .tar.Z), please do so in a separate file and start is named with 'RDA'; this ensures our internal tools and users can find and analyze it correctly. 
   
   When sending RDA output to Oracle Support via a My Oracle Support Service Request, we highly recommend that you attached the output file as a single file.  Do not bundle with other files such as trace or log files into a single or common archive file (.tar, .zip, .jar, etc.)

For more information or clarification please review the demonstration viewlets located in the Training document or read the RDA FAQ. If you still have problems please follow Troubleshooting Steps.

Instructions for Oracle RAC Cluster or Multi-Node Environment

Due to the special nature of Oracle RAC Cluster environment a separate document was created. Please refer to RDA - RAC Cluster/Multi-Node Users Guide - 359395.1

Instructions for HP OpenVMS Based Operating Systems:

Due to the special nature of HP OpenVMS environment a separate document was created. Please refer to RDA - OpenVMS Users Guide - Knowledge 171748.1

Upgrading RDA

Use the following procedure to manually upgrade the RDA:

1. Delete the rda directory and all it's contents. If you want to use the same output.cfg file again, move it to another location first. Also, move any output files you wish to save.
2. Download the new version of RDA from this Download RDA.
3. Extract the files in the directory you want to install RDA. It will recreate the rda directory for you.

Remember that the directory structure in the archive is important; don't move any RDA files.

Automated update of RDA

As of March 28, 2011, RDA is automatically upgraded in the following scenario:
OCM is installed and configured in "Connect" mode. OCM auto-update will now
upgrade RDA as part of its normal deployment procedure. 
For finer control of the RDA upgrade see README_upgrade.txt

Special Notes On Userids And Passwords

As a means of providing higher security when using RDA, passwords are no longer stored in plain text in the setup.txt file. As result, RDA prompts for the required passwords when collecting the data.

If the Perl implementation installed on your operating system supports it, RDA will suppress the character echo during password requests. When the character echo is suppressed, the password is requested twice for verification. If both entered passwords do not match after three attempts, the request is cancelled.

RDA can perform OS authentication, which eliminates having to enter a password for database information gathering. It also accepts "/" as a username to avoid entering a password when RDA is gathering database information.

For executing RDA at regularly scheduled intervals via cron, passwords can be encoded inside the setup file. For instance, to encode the system password, use the following command:

-A system

The password will be requested interactively.

Special Note on the Output Directory

To limit security vulnerabilities, the permissions of the RDA output directory should be set as restrictive as possible. The output directory could contain sensitive configuration information and, when no other mechanism is available, temporary data collection files.

Viewing RDA Report Output Files

RDA output is not encrypted and can be viewed by anyone. You can view the RDA report files using almost any web browser by opening the /output/RDA__start.htm.

We recommend using  1.x ( or Higher), Netscape 4.x (or higher), or Internet Explorer 4.x (or higher).

Special Note on Security Filters

The following table is a snapshot of the 'System Settings' section of the end report to demonstrate exactly what Filtering does. The result below is dependent on the system configuration.

The host names (machine names), are substituted by ''. Similarly, user names are substituted by '' instead of 'oracle'. The group of the software owner is 'dba', which is not substituted by the default filter.

Note that the above report was run as the owner of the Oracle home directory, which was different from 'oracle'. This is the reason why we see '' instead of 'oracle'. The group of the Oracle software owner is 'dba', which is not substituted by the default filter.

The RDA filter substitutes sensitive information (such as user names) using something like in the reports. As shown later in this document, you can customize what information RDA filters out and how RDA substitutes this information.

RDA provides you with a default filter, which currently filters out the information in the list below.

• Domain names
• Group names
• Host names
• IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
• LDAP domain components
• Network masks
• User names

Using Security Filters

RDA allows you to remove sensitive data from RDA reports. The security profile can be used to turn on filtering and can be combined with other profiles. For example:

-S -p DB10g-Security 

This will do the RDA setup for the DB10g profile and turn on filtering through the Security profile. If you want to enable the filtering for an existing setup:

-X Filter enable

When the filter is not yet defined, this command will also generate the default filter configuration, based on the system configuration.

Reporting Problems or Feedback

If you have issues with the Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA), you can file an Non-Technical SR in My Oracle Support. Subject line "Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA) Issue"  and complete the SR.

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