Oracle® Enterprise Manager

Description

The System Monitoring Plug-in for the Microsoft SQL Server extends Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control to add support for managing Microsoft SQL Server instances. By deploying the plug-in within your Grid Control environment, you gain the following management features:

• Monitor SQL Server instances.

• Gather configuration data and tracks configuration changes for SQL Server instances.

• Raise alerts and violations based on thresholds set on monitoring and configuration data.

• Provide rich out-of-box reports for the user interface based on the gathered data.

• Support monitoring by a remote Agent. For remote monitoring, the Agent does not need to be on the same computer as the SQL Server.

Versions Supported

This plug-in supports the following versions of products:

• Enterprise Manager Grid Control 10g Release 2 or higher Management Service

• Enterprise Manager Grid Control 10g Release 2 or higher Agent for Windows

• Standard, Enterprise, and Workgroup editions of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 as detailed below:

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (32-bit)

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (32-bit)

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (64-bit) running on x64 or Itanium-based servers

Prerequisites

The following prerequisites must be met before you can deploy the plug-in:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is installed.

• The following components of Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control release 10.2.0.1 or higher are installed and running:

  • Oracle Management Service with Oracle Management Repository 10.2.0.1 or higher

  • Oracle Management Agent for Windows

    You can install the Agent on the same computer as SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005 (referred to as local Agent monitoring), or you can install the Agent on a different computer from SQL Server (referred to as remote Agent monitoring).

• (For SQL Server 2000) Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) provider of the SQL Server are installed and enabled. Enable support by running the setup.exe file located in the SQL Server Installation CD:

  <CD_Drive>/x86/other/wmi

• Microsoft JDBC driver for the SQL Server is installed on the Monitoring Agent node. See "Setting up the JDBC Driver" for the procedure.

• Windows Management Instrumentation Service is up and running.

• Preferred credentials are set on all Agents where you want to deploy the plug-in.

• OS privileges for the user (set in the Preferred Credentials for the Agent) should meet the requirements documented in "Setting Credentials for the Job System to Work with Enterprise Manager" in one of the following installation guides:

  • Oracle Database Installation Guide 10g Release 2 (10.2) for Microsoft Windows (32-Bit) — B14316-01

  • Oracle Database Installation Guide 10g Release 2 (10.2) for Microsoft Windows (64-Bit) on Intel Itanium — B14317-02

  • Oracle Database Installation Guide 10g Release 2 (10.2) for Microsoft Windows (x64) — B15681-02

  These guides are listed in the Installation Guides section of the Oracle Database Documentation Library at the following location:

  http://www.oracle.com/pls/db102/homepage

  Note:

  If you do not assign the correct privileges for users, the deployment will fail.

• Ensure that you do one of the following:

  • Install this version on Oracle Enterprise Manager Windows Agent version 10.2.0.3.

    or

  • Apply a one-off patch on Oracle Enterprise Manager Windows Agent version 10.2.0.2. Refer to Metalink and Oracle bug #5587980 for more information.

    or

  • Apply a one-off patch on Oracle Enterprise Manager Windows Agent version 10.2.0.1. Refer to Metalink and Oracle bug #5587980 for more information.

• TCP/IP is enabled for the SQL Server instance. For details, see "TCP/IP Port Information" .

Deploying the Plug-in

After you ensure that the prerequisites are met, follow these steps to deploy the plug-in:

1. Download the SQL Server Plug-in archive to your desktop or computer on which the browser is launched. You can download the archive from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

2. Log into Enterprise Manager Grid Control as a Super Administrator.

3. Click the Setup link in the upper right corner of the Grid Control Home page, then click the Management Plug-ins link on the left side of the Setup page.

4. Click Import.

5. Click Browse and select the plug-in archive.

6. Click List Archive.

7. Select the plug-in and click OK.

8. Verify that you have set preferred credentials on all Agents where you want to deploy the plug-in.

9. In the Management Plug-ins page, click the icon in the Deploy column for the SQL Server plug-in. The Deploy Management Plug-in wizard appears.

10. Click Add Agents, then select one or more Agents to which you want to deploy the plug-in. The wizard reappears and displays the Agent you selected.

11. Click Next, then click Finish.

    If you see an error message stating that the preferred credential is not set up, go to the Preferences page and add the preferred credentials for the Agent target type.

12. To check the deployment status, go to Related Links and click the link Deployment Status.

Setting up the JDBC Driver

If the JDBC Driver is accessed from Microsoft Download Center, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Driver for JDBC consists of three .jar files that the Agent should be able to access. The Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Driver for JDBC consists of a single .jar file that the Agent should be able to access.

The following table provides details of the files, driver class, and the URL string.

Follow the steps below if the Microsoft JDBC driver is not installed.

1. Place the files in an appropriate directory. It is recommended that you create a jdbcdriver directory under agent/sysman/.

2. Add the location of each individual driver .jar file to the classpath.lst file under the $ORACLE_HOME/sysman/config directory if the Agent is installed on a standalone system.

3. If the Agent is installed on a system that is part of an OS cluster, you need to edit the classpath.lst file under the $ORACLE_HOME/<node_name>/sysman/config directory, where node_name is the name of the clustered node where the agent is running.

   If the classpath.lst file does not exist, create the file.

   The classpath.lst file in a Windows environment might appear as shown in the following examples:

   Example 1 For Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Driver for JDBC

   C:\ms\jdbcdriver\msbase.jar

   C:\ms\jdbcdriver\mssqlserver.jar

   C:\ms\jdbcdriver\msutil.jar

   Example 2 For Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Driver for JDBC

   C:\ms\jdbcdriver\sqljdbc.jar

4. Restart the Agent by executing the following commands at prompt:

   $ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl stop agent 
           $ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl start agent
   
   

   The modification of classpath.lst takes effect.

TCP/IP Port Information

The following sections provide information you require to enable the TCP/IP port and to find the TCP/IP port for a particular SQL server instance.

Adding Instances for Monitoring

After successfully deploying the plug-in, follow these steps to add the plug-in target to Grid Control for central monitoring and management:

1. From the Agent home page where the plug-in was deployed, select the Microsoft SQL Server target type from the Add drop-down list, then click Go. The Add Microsoft SQL Server page appears.

2. Provide the following information for the properties:

   • Name — Unique target name across all the Grid Control targets, such as SqlServer2k_Hostname. This is the display name in the Grid Control. It represents this SQL Server target across all user interfaces within Grid Control.

   • JDBC URL — URL for JDBC. The default port is 1433. For details, see "URL String" in Table 1, " Microsoft SQL Server Driver for JDBC Details".

   • JDBC Driver — SQLServerDriver JDBC driver class name. For details, see "Driver Class" in Table 1, " Microsoft SQL Server Driver for JDBC Details".

   • Database Username — Valid user for the database in sysadmin fixed server role.

   • Password for the Database User — Corresponding password for the database user

   • System Username — Valid host user name. Required only for remote Agent monitoring. See "Configuring a Remote Connection" for details of the required configurations.

   • System Password — Password for the Username. Required only for remote Agent monitoring.

   • Role — (Optional)

3. Click Test Connection to make sure the parameters you entered are correct.

4. Reenter the encrypted parameters from step 2 if the connection test was successful, then click OK.

After you deploy and configure the plug-in to monitor one or more targets in the environment, you can customize the monitoring settings of the plug-in. This alters the collection intervals and threshold settings of the metrics to meet the particular needs of your environment. If you decide to disable one or more metric collections, this could impact the reports that the metric is a part of.

Verifying and Validating the Plug-in

After waiting a few minutes for the plug-in to start collecting data, use the following steps to verify and validate that Enterprise Manager is properly monitoring the plug-in target:

1. Click the SQL Server target link from the Agent home page Monitored Targets table. The Microsoft SQL Server home page appears.

2. Verify that no metric collection errors are reported in the Metrics table.

3. Ensure that reports can be seen and no errors are reported by clicking the Reports property page.

4. Ensure that configuration data can be seen by clicking the View Configuration link in the Configuration section. If configuration data does not immediately appear, click Refresh in the View Configuration page.

Upgrading the Plug-in

Follow these steps to upgrade the plug-in:

1. Download the SQL Server Plug-in archive to your desktop or computer on which the browser is launched. You can download the archive from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

2. Log into Enterprise Manager Grid Control as a Super Administrator.

3. Click the Setup link in the upper right corner of the Grid Control Home page, then click the Management Plug-ins link on the left side of the Setup page.

4. Click Import.

5. Click Browse and select the plug-in archive that you have downloaded for upgrading.

6. Click List Archive.

7. Select the plug-in and click OK.

8. Verify that preferred credentials are set on all Agents to which you want to deploy the plug-in.

9. Blackout the Microsoft SQL Server targets for agents to which you want to deploy higher version of the plug-in. Ensure that you select immediate blackout.

10. In the Management Plug-ins page, click the icon in the Deploy column for the SQL Server plug-in. The Deploy Management Plug-in wizard appears.

11. Click Add Agents, then select one or more Agents to which you want to deploy the plug-in. The wizard reappears and displays the Agent you selected.

12. Click Next, then click Finish.

    If you see an error message stating that the preferred credential is not set up, go to the Preferences page and add the preferred credentials for the Agent target type.

13. Remove blackout for the targets (required only if Step 9 applies).

Undeploying the Plug-in

Follow these steps to undeploy the plug-in from an Agent:

1. Log in to Enterprise Manager Grid Control as a Super Administrator.

2. Select the Targets tab, then the All Targets subtab. The All Targets page appears.

3. Select the Microsoft SQL Server Plug-in target and click Remove. You must do this step for all targets of the plug-in.

4. Make sure that the preferred credentials are set on the Agents where the plug-in is deployed.

5. Click the Setup link in the upper right corner of the All Targets page, then click the Management Plug-ins link on the left side of the Setup page. The Management Plug-ins page appears.

6. Click the icon in the Undeploy column for the Microsoft SQL Server Plug-in. The Undeploy Management Plug-in page appears.

7. Check all the Agents that are currently deployed with the Microsoft SQL Server Plug-in and click OK.

   You must undeploy the plug-in from every Agent in the system to completely remove it from the enterprise.

8. Select the Microsoft SQL Server Plug-in on the Management Plug-in page and click Delete.

Configuring a Remote Connection

In the case of remote Agent monitoring, Oracle recommends that you do the following security configurations on every system where SQL Server target resides.

• Set WMI namespace security

• Restrict access to the registry from a remote computer

• Set DCOM Security to allow user to access a computer remotely

For configuration details, refer the following:

• Microsoft Help and Support Web site.

  To access the Web site, go to the following URL:

  http://support.microsoft.com

• Oracle Enterprise Manager Oracle Enterprise Manager System Monitoring Plug-in Troubleshooting Guide

• Document 367797.1 on Oracle Metalink .

  To locate document 367797.1:

  1. Go to the following URL:

     http://metalink.oracle.com

  2. Click Advanced at the top of the Oracle Metalink page.

  3. Enter 367797.1 in the Document ID field and click Submit.

Troubleshooting the Plug-In

To resolve various issues that you might encounter while using the plug-in, see the Oracle Enterprise Manager Oracle Enterprise Manager System Monitoring Plug-in Troubleshooting Guide available at the following URL:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/oem.html

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