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SCALABLE ENTERPRISEbe automated by writing custom scripts that are invoked by thecritical patch advisory feature during patch deployment.Monitoring of applications and service-level management. Inaddition to the database, Grid Control monitors mid-tier softwareand applications. The tool provides a holistic view of the systems onwhich the management agents are running, which helps administratorsproactively monitor systems and anticipate any major issues.Grid Control also provides features that allow administrators tomonitor and record critical application-specific business transactionsthat may be relevant for system tuning.The Policy Manager feature in Grid Control enables administratorsto set an enterprise-wide set of policies to be enforced on alldatabase instances. Some examples of policies include:• Disabling initialization parameters on undocumented ordeprecated systems• Enabling the use of an OS password file for authenticationGrid Control also enables administrators to create a systembaseline. After setting up the system and ensuring that the behaviorof the system is optimal, administrators can record a set of baselinemetrics for the system. These baseline metrics can be used to determinethe optimal values for various system thresholds (such as CPUand memory utilization, available file system space, and responsetime). An alert displays on the Grid Control management consoleif the system reaches any of these thresholds. Administrators canalert appropriate IT personnel by configuring relevant notificationmechanisms using SMTP traps, e-mail, or user-defined scripts.Automation for effective, scalable database managementDatabase administrators generally manage multiple databases, anddatabase deployment consumes much of their available time. OracleEnterprise Manager Grid Control is advanced software that providesfeatures to help manage and deploy multiple database instances andOracle RAC clusters. Enterprise Manager Grid Control can help automateand schedule many of the routine activities involved in databasemanagement, enabling database administrators to manage and scaleout to a large number of database instances efficiently.CLONING A DATABASE WITH GRID CONTROLIn this example scenario, an administrator has configured four Dell PowerEdge servers running an Oracle9i i RAC database. The administratorhas purchased two new PowerEdge servers and plans to scale out theexisting infrastructure in response to an increase in workload.Using Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control, the administrator canmigrate the existing Oracle RAC database to the new nodes with just a fewclicks. After installing the operating system and Oracle9iiRAC database onthe two additional server nodes, the administrator installs the Grid Controlagent on both nodes. Once the two nodes start communicating with theserver running Grid Control, the administrator performs the following sixsimple steps:1. Select the source database. On the Grid Control home pageDeployments tab, click “Clone Database.” Then select the runninginstance of the database to clone.2. Supply the credentials. Enter the username, password, role, andOracle user credentials to log in to the target database.3. Select the destination. Supply the global database name of thedestination host and the destination host name.4. Create the schedule. Determine a schedule to run the databaseclone job. This job can be scheduled immediately or can be scheduledto run later.5. Review.After all the necessary parameters have been supplied,Grid Control displays a summary of the job (see Figure A).6. Submit. After reviewing the job settings in the preceding step,submit the job for execution. The job will start executing at thestart time set in step 4. Administrators can monitor a running jobby viewing the Status column on the Jobs tab.Rudramuni B is an engineering manager for the Enterprise Solutions and OS Engineeringteams in the Dell Product Group in Bangalore, India. He has an M.Tech. in Systems Analysis andComputer Applications from Karnataka Regional Engineering College in Surathkal, India.C.S. Prasanna Nanda is an engineering analyst on the Dell Database and Applicationsteam in the Dell Product Group. He has a B.E. in Computer Science from the Birla Instituteof Technology and Science in Pilani, India.Uday Datta Shet is a senior engineering analyst on the Dell Database and Applicationsteam in the Dell Product Group. He has a B.E. in Computer Science and is also an OracleCertified Professional (OCP).Figure A. Database cloningwww.dell.com/powersolutions Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, February 2005. Copyright © 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. POWER SOLUTIONS 97