4 Installing Oracle Management Agent Using Agent Deployment Wizard

Overview

Agent Deployment Wizard, as the name suggests, is an application that enables you to install Management Agents. Agent Deployment Wizard is built into Enterprise Manager Grid Control, and it offers GUI-rich, interactive screens that guide you through the entire installation process.

Although the Agent Deployment Wizard can be used for installing one, single Management Agent, the wizard is best suited for installing multiple Management Agents, as a mass deployment, and is particularly useful when you want to perform remote installations across your organization.

The Agent Deployment Wizard gives you the flexibility to specify multiple hosts on which the Management Agent needs to be installed. This helps you when you want to install the Management Agent on several hosts, in one attempt.

The wizard connects to Oracle Management Service (OMS) where the Management Agent software is located and copies all the required files and scripts from there to the specified hosts, and then runs them to install a Management Agent.

The connectivity between OMS and the specified hosts is established using SSH protocol. For Linux operating systems, it is assumed that SSH daemon runs on the destination hosts by default. However, for Microsoft Windows operating systems, in order to facilitate communication on SSH protocol, you have to install the Cygwin suite. For information about installing Cygwin suite, see Appendix D, "Setting Up SSH Connectivity".

Before You Begin

Before you begin, keep these points in mind:

• If you want to view the status of an installation session that was previously run, then click Agent Installation Status on the Deployments page. However, do not attempt to view the installation status until the installation is complete. If you do, you will see an error.

• On Microsoft Windows, do not open the agentpush.properties file using Microsoft Word software. Open it using other text editors such as VIM or Notepad.

• For accessing the Enterprise Manager Grid Control console, ensure that you use only certified browsers as mentioned in My Oracle Support note 412431.1.

• Agent Deployment Wizard expects an SSH connectivity between Oracle Management Service (OMS) and the remote hosts where you want to install the Management Agents.

  • If there is no SSH connectivity between the OMS and the remote hosts, then the Agent Deployment Wizard automatically sets up the connectivity by generating keys in the ~/.ssh directory . Once the deployment is complete, the Agent Deployment Wizard automatically drops the connectivity and removes keys.

  • If there is already an SSH connectivity between the OMS and the remote hosts, then the existing connectivity itself is used, and no keys are generated in the ~/.ssh directory. Once the deployment is complete, the Agent Deployment Wizard does not drop the connectivity because the connectivity already existed and it was not created by the Agent Deployment Wizard.

Prerequisites

Before installing the Management Agent, ensure that you meet the following prerequisites.

If you want, you can print out this section and write 'Yes' or 'No' against each prerequisite. This will help you to track the prerequisites you have met and the prerequisites you have not met.

Installation Procedure

To install a Management Agent, follow these steps:

1. In Grid Control, click Deployments.

2. On the Deployments page, from the Agent Installation section, click Install Agent.

3. On the following page, click Fresh Install.

4. On the Installation Details page, in the Source Software section, do the following:

   
   

   1. Select Default, from Management Server location if the Management Agent software is available in the default directory that exists within the OMS.

      For example, <OMS_HOME>/sysman/agent_download/<version>/<platform>

   2. Select Another Location if the Management Agent software is available in a non-default or custom location. Specify the full path to that location, and ensure that the path you specify leads up to the product.xml file. Also ensure that this location (shared or non-shared) is accessible from all the remote hosts and you have read permission on it.

      For example, /shared/products/shiphomes/linux/agent/stage/products.xml.

5. In the Version section, select the version of the Management Agent that you want to install. The values available in this list depend on the software staged on the OMS host.

   
   

6. In the Hosts section, do the following:

   1. From the Platform list, select the operating system on which you want to install the Management Agent.

      
      

   2. For Provide Host List, specify the host names or IP addresses of the hosts on which you want to install the Management Agent.You can use a comma (,) or a white space as a separator when specifying multiple hosts.

      
      

      Alternatively, if you already have a list maintained in a file, then click Get Host Names From File and select that file. The recommended format of the /etc/hosts file is <ip> <fully_qualified_host_name> <short_host_name>.

      For example,

      141.81.5.71 host1.foo.com host1

   3. Select Allow local hostname to override provided hostname if the host names specified in Provide Host List are virtual host names and not physical host names.

      For example, if a host name is mypc.server.com but the virtual name given to it is host1, then you can specify host1 in the Provide Host List text box, but select this check box to indicate that the specified host name is a virtual host name. The application internally interprets the virtual host name specified and maps to its real, physical host name in the network.

7. In the OS Credentials section, do the following:

   
   

   1. Specify the appropriate operating system user credentials. The operating system credentials you specify here must be the same for all the selected hosts.

   2. Select Run root.sh (for UNIX) if you want the application to run this script. The script runs after the configuration assistants are run and before the postinstallation scripts (if any) are run.

      To run this script, you must have SUDO privileges. If you do not have SUDO privileges and if you do NOT want to run the script yourself at the time of installation, then deselect this option now. After the installation ends, request your Administrator who has SUDO privileges to manually run the scripts as described in After You Install.

8. In the Destination section, specify the full path to the Installation Base Directory. This directory is created on all the specified hosts, and the Oracle home of the Management Agent is created as a subdirectory under this directory.

   
   

   For information about installation base directory, see the Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Advanced Installation and Configuration Guide available at:

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

9. In the Port section, specify the port on which the Management Agent will communicate. The default port is 3872. Ensure that the port you specify is not busy, otherwise the prerequisite check fails.

   
   

   If you are not sure, leave this field blank. The application automatically picks up the first available free port within the range of 1830 - 1849.

10. In the Load Balancer Host and Port section, specify the name of the host and port where the Server Load Balancer is set up so that communication between the Management Agent and the host running the Server Load Balancer can be enabled. This is required only if you are deploying the Management Agent in an environment that has multiple OMSes managed by a Server Load Balancer.

    
    

    Note:

    If your Server Load Balancer is not functional for some reason, then you can optionally specify the host name and port of the OMS that is being managed by the Server Load Balancer. This is however not recommended, so use this option only if your Server Load Balancer has a problem.

11. In the Additional Parameters section, specify any additional parameters that you want to pass during installation.

    
    

    The additional parameters you specify here depend on the software source location that you have selected in Step (4).

    • If you selected Default, from Management Server location, then specify the additional parameters listed in Table F-1.

    • If you selected Another Location, then specify the additional parameters listed in Table F-2.

    Oracle recommends you to specify only those parameters that you want to run in addition to the general parameters you have already provided on this page for installation. For example, in Step (8), you are specifying the installation base directory. Therefore, for Additional Parameters, try to avoid specifying the installation base directory again. If you still do so, then the value you specified in Step (8) will be ignored and the value you specified here will be used instead.

    And note that if you are specifying more than one parameter, then separate them with a white space. For example, -i /etc/oraInst.loc -p /home/config/staticports.ini.

12. In the Management Server Security section, specify a password that can be used for authenticating new Management Agents that join the Enterprise Manager Grid Control system, and for permitting only secure Management Agents to communicate with the OMS, which is in locked state, via HTTPS protocol.

    
    

    Alternatively, after the installation is complete, the super administrator can approve the addition of new Management Agents to the Enterprise Manager Grid Control system.

    Note:

    For security reasons, Oracle strongly recommends you to change the OMS password specified here After the installation is complete.

13. In the Additional Scripts section, do the following:

    1. Specify any preinstallation and/or postinstallation scripts that you want to run. The preinstallation and/or postinstallation scripts that you specify must be available on all the hosts. These files are not copied onto the hosts from the software source location during installation.

    2. Select Run as Superuser if you want to run these scripts as root.

14. Click Continue.

15. On the My Oracle Support Details page, do the following:

    • If the host where the Management Agent is being installed has a direct connection to the Internet, then specify an e-mail address and My Oracle Support password.

      An e-mail address is required so that security updates and install updates can be sent. You can specify any e-mail address, but Oracle recommends you to specify the My Oracle Support user name. For example, john.mathew@xyz.com.

    • If the host where the Management Agent is being installed has an indirect connection to the Internet, that is, through a proxy server, then specify an e-mail address and My Oracle Support password, and then in the Connection Details section, specify the proxy server details.

      Note:

      You can change the proxy server settings any time after the installation or patching process ends. To do so, run the configCCR command from the ccr/bin directory within the Oracle home of the Management Agent.

    • If the host where the Management Agent is being installed does not have a direct or indirect connection to the Internet, then specify the e-mail address and leave the other fields blank.

      In this case, after you complete the installation process, manually collect the configuration information and upload it to My Oracle Support.

      Note:

      If you see any errors on this page, then check whether you (the user installing the Management Agent) have write permission on crontab. If you do not, then create an entry for your user account in the cron.allow file.

    For information about Oracle Configuration Manager, see the Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Advanced Installation and Configuration Guide available at:

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

    To understand how you can manually collect and upload configuration information, see the Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Advanced Installation and Configuration Guide available at:

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

16. Click Continue.

    As part of this process, the Agent Deployment Wizard performs some prerequisite checks before proceeding with the installation. When all the prerequisite checks are complete, the wizard displays the results. You can choose to either retry the prerequisite check on all those failed hosts, or ignore the result and proceed to install the Management Agent.

    Note:

    If you see the following error messages on the Prerequisite Details page, ignore them and click Continue to proceed with the installation:

    Some or all Agent home locations(Install base dir/agent10g or Install Base Dir/agent11g) provided are not empty directories
    
    The Agent Oracle Home ( InstallBaseDir/agent10g or InstallBaseDir/agent11g), is already registered with the inventory
    
    An agent home exists in the hosts
    

After You Install

After you install the Management Agent, follow these steps:

1. Verify the installation:

   1. Navigate to the Oracle home of the Management Agent and run the following command to see a message that confirms that the Management Agent is up and running:

      $<ORACLE_HOME>/bin/emctl status agent

      Note:

      If the status of the Management Agent is down for some reason, then manually start the Management Agent by running the following command from its Oracle home:

      $<ORACLE_HOME>/bin/emctl start agent

   2. Navigate to the Oracle home of the Management Agent and run the following command to see a message that confirms that EMD upload completed successfully:

      $<ORACLE_HOME>/bin/emctl upload

   Note:

   (For UNIX operating systems) Before running the emctl command to start the Management Agent, ensure that the environment variable NLS_LANG is set with a value that is compatible with the operating system default locale setting and the character set of the Oracle Database, which houses the Management Repository.

2. (Only for UNIX Operating Systems) If you had NOT selected Run Root.sh in the OS Credentials section of the Deployment Inputs page as described in Step (7), then manually run the following scripts as a root user from each of the hosts where the installation was done. If you do not have SUDO privileges, then request your Administrator who has the privileges to run these scripts.

   • If this is the first Oracle product you just installed on the host, then run the oraInstroot.sh script from the inventory location specified in the oraInst.loc file that is available in the Oracle home of the Management Agent.

     For example, if the inventory location specified in the oraInst.loc file is $HOME/oraInventory, then run the following command:

     $HOME/oraInventory/oraInstRoot.sh

     If you are not a root user, then use SUDO to change to a root user. For example, run the following command:

     /usr/local/bin/sudo $HOME/oraInventory/oraInstRoot.sh

   • Run the root.sh script from the Oracle home of the Management Agent:

     $<ORACLE_HOME>/root.sh

     If you are not a root user, then use SUDO to change to a root user. For example, run the following command:

     /usr/local/bin/sudo /scratch/OracleHomes//root.sh

3. If you have not secured the communications between the Management Agent and the OMS, then secure it by running the following command from the Oracle home of the Management Agent:

   $<ORACLE_HOME>/bin/emctl secure agent

   Note:

   Even after securing the Management Agent, some data might still be transferred over the network without being encrypted.

4. (Optional) If you want to discover the newly installed targets, if you want to convert the standalone Management Agent to a cluster-based Management Agent, if you want to discover the targets on the new nodes of the cluster, or if you want to reconfigure the cluster-based Management Agent, you must run the agentca script to reconfigure and discover all new targets. For information about the agentca script and to know how you can reconfigure the Management Agent and discovering all new targets, see Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Advanced Installation and Configuration Guide available at:

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

5. (Optional) If you want to enable the Request Monitoring feature for tracing transaction requests in WLS, you need JVM Diagnostics as well as Application Dependency and Performance (ADP) managers and agents configured against the target to be monitored.

   For information about installing JVM Diagnostics and enabling the Request Monitoring feature, refer to the Oracle Enterprise Manager Administration Guide.

   For information about enabling the ADP feature in Enterprise Manager Grid Control, refer to the Oracle Enterprise Manager Getting Started with Management Pack Plus for SOA.

   Both these guides are available at:

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