1
Introduction

This chapter describes key concepts and requirements associated with deploying Oracle Enterprise Manager and its separately licensable Management Packs:

• Product Architecture

• Deployment Options

• Certifications

• System and Hardware Requirements

Product Architecture

Oracle Enterprise Manager is Oracle's single, integrated solution for administering and monitoring global enterprises. Enterprise Manager is based upon a lightweight, three-tier architecture that offers flexible deployment options, round-the-clock reliability, and unparalleled scalability.

The product's three-tier architecture is comprised of the following:

• Consoles, integrated applications and Management Packs

• Management Server(s) and database repository

• Intelligent Agents

This architecture, which underlies the Enterprise Manager framework, is described in more detail below.

Figure 1-1 Three-Tier Architecture

Text description of the illustration three_ti.gif

First Tier: Centralized Consoles

The primary responsibility of first-tier Enterprise Manager clients is to present the user interface to administrators for all their management tasks.

Depending on what has been installed and licensed, first tier clients could consist of the following components:

• Consoles

• Integrated management applications including:
  • Oracle Forms Server Manager

  • Oracle Policy Manager

  • OLAP Services

  • Oracle Cube Viewer

  • Oracle Directory Manager

  • Oracle Net Manager

  • Oracle Spatial Index Advisor

  • Oracle Data Guard Manager

  • Oracle LogMiner Viewer

  • SQL*Plus Worksheet

  • Oracle Text Manager

• Applications from the following Management Packs:
  • Oracle Diagnostics Pack
    • Oracle Performance Manager

    • Oracle Capacity Planner

    • Oracle TopSessions

    • Oracle Trace

  • Oracle Tuning Pack
    • Oracle Expert

    • Oracle Index Tuning Wizard

    • Oracle SQL Analyze

    • Oracle Tablespace Map

    • Reorg Wizard

    • Outline Editor

    • Outline Management

  • Oracle Change Management Pack
    • Oracle Change Manager

  • Oracle Standard Management Pack
    • Oracle Performance Manager

    • Oracle Index Tuning Wizard

    • Oracle Create Baseline

    • Oracle Compare Database Objects

    • Oracle Advanced Database and Node Events

  • Oracle Management Pack for Oracle Applications
    • Oracle Performance Manager

    • Oracle Capacity Planner

    • Concurrent Processing Tuning Assistant

    • Oracle Applications Advanced Events

  • Oracle Management Pack for SAP R/3
    • Oracle Performance Manager

    • Oracle Capacity Planner

    • Oracle Advanced Events

The Oracle Enterprise Manager Console is designed to reduce the complexity of managing your Oracle Database Server, as well as the network components, software, and hardware that support the database.

Because these first-tier Consoles and applications depend upon the second-tier Management Server(s) for the bulk of their application logic, these clients are able to run without the overhead and processing burden of housing critical management services.

With Oracle9iAS Release 2, Oracle introduces the Oracle Enterprise Manager Web site, which is designed specifically to help you manage the Oracle9i Application Server. Together, the Oracle Enterprise Manager Console and the Oracle Enterprise Manager Web site provide a complete set of efficient tools to reduce the cost and complexity of managing your enterprise. For information on the Oracle Enterprise Manager Web site, refer to Chapter 6, "Using the Oracle Enterprise Manager Web Site".

Second Tier: Central, Scalable and Reliable Oracle Management Servers

The second-tier component of Oracle Enterprise Manager, the Management Server, is the framework engine. The Management Server maintains centralized intelligence and distributed control between clients and managed nodes. It is responsible for all back-end application logic and critical services (i.e. event system, paging and e-mail notifications, reporting, job system, etc.) for maintaining an enterprise.

This middle tier processes requests from first-tier clients, stores the information in a database repository, and distributes tasks for third-tier Intelligent Agents to perform.

The repository also serves as a persistent back-end store where it maintains system data, application data, and the state of managed targets distributed throughout the environment. Data stored in the repository can be shared between any number of administrators accessing one or more Management Servers connected to a single repository.

Third Tier: Managed Targets and Autonomous Intelligent Agents

The third tier in the Enterprise Manager framework consists of managed targets and Intelligent Agents. Managed targets (for example, nodes, databases, web servers, application servers, applications, and others) rely on Intelligent Agents to execute tasks given by the Management Server. Once tasks are assigned, autonomous Intelligent Agents will perform the work as scheduled regardless of the state of the managed targets, Management Server, or clients. Examples of such tasks include executing SQL scripts, monitoring available space in a tablespace, performing weekly database backups, monitoring the real-time database physical I/O rate, or monitoring the availability of the application server.

Architectural Extensibility

To offer vital framework functionality the Enterprise Manager architecture can be easily extended on each tier. The first tier allows any number of clients to access one or more second-tier Management Servers. Deploying additional Management Servers provides increased scalability and reliability as well as a choice between grouping the Management Servers together with one repository or dividing them into smaller sets, each set with its own repository. The former configuration allows all administrators to share data contained in the single repository, while the latter offers autonomous units which never interact with each other. Lastly, the number of third-tier managed services and Intelligent Agents can increase with business demands.

Figure 1-2 Architectural Extensibility

Text description of the illustration extensib.gif

Across all three-tiers, the Enterprise Manager architecture establishes the foundation for the robust Enterprise Manager framework.

Deployment Options

Enterprise Manager's three tier architecture enables the highest level of reliability and scalability. However, not all enterprises need to implement Enterprise Manager as a three tier system. That is, not all businesses need to deploy each of the three tiers, nor need all companies deploy each tier on a separate machine. Because of the flexibility of Enterprise Manager's architecture, many deployment options are available. Through analyzing your environment, determining your general administrative needs, and careful planning, you can effectively choose the deployment option best suited for your enterprise.

Identified below are the available deployment options.

Client/Server Deployment

A client/server deployment is one where only the Console and management applications are deployed. Neither the middle tier Management Server nor the Intelligent Agent are installed and used. In this standalone configuration, the client connects directly to the managed target and performs administration tasks.

You should use this type of deployment model if the following conditions apply:

• Only Oracle databases need to be administered.

• Sharing of administrative data across multiple administrators is not a requirement.

• Being proactively notified of potential problems is not a requirement.

• Automating repetitive administrative tasks is not a requirement.

• Running the client from within a web browser is not a requirement.

Three Tier Deployment

A three tier deployment involves the installation and configuration of the entire Enterprise Manager framework: Console, Management Server/Repository, and Intelligent Agent.

You should use this type of deployment model when you require the following features:

• Management of several different target types (for example, database, web server, application server, applications, and others)

• Sharing of administrative data across multiple administrators

• Proactive notification of potential problems

• Automation of repetitive administrative tasks

• Running the client from within a web browser

For optimal performance with a three tier deployment of Enterprise Manager, follow these guidelines:

• Avoid cases where the Management Server machine runs out of CPU or RAM for prolonged periods of time. A good strategy for protecting against such resource starvation is to run the Management Server on a machine that is dedicated solely to the Management Server and/or database repository. Thus, competition with other concurrently running applications is not a factor.

• Install the Management Server(s) in the same Local Area Network (LAN) as most of the Enterprise Manager administrators who will be connecting to it. Otherwise, excessive network traffic may occur which could have a significant impact on performance.

• Install a Management Server for every 70 managed nodes in your enterprise that combined contain up to 400 targets. This recommendation is applicable when the Management Server is on a machine which meets the recommended hardware requirements documented. The number of nodes and targets that a single Management Server can manage could change based upon the type of machine on which the Management Server runs. For instance, if the machine on which the Management Server is installed exceeds the specified hardware requirements, then the number of recommended managed nodes and targets could increase.

• Deploy at least two Management Servers in order to provide fault tolerance and load balancing among the Management Servers.

• Define Management Regions for large, global deployments or deployments which span a series of WANs and LANs. Management Regions will ensure that cross regional or cross network communication does not occur. In addition, Management Regions allow for mapping nodes across firewall boundaries.

Note: For information on defining Management Regions, a feature introduced with Enterprise Manager release 9i, refer to the Oracle Enterprise Manager Administrator's Guide.

Certifications

Regardless of the deployment method selected, the following operating system certifications apply to the various components of Oracle Enterprise Manager Release 9.0.2:

Table 1-1 Operating System Support

	Console	Integrated Applications1	Management Pack for SAP R/3	Management Server	Intelligent Agent2	Paging Server
Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6a, includes: Workstation Server Enterprise Edition Terminal Server	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2, includes3: Professional Server Advanced Server Terminal Server	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Windows 98 First Edition	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Windows XP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sun SPARC Solaris, includes: 2.6 2.7 2.8	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Intel Solaris	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
HP-UX 64-bit 11.0	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
IBM AIX 64-bit 4.3.3	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Compaq Tru64 5.0a, 5.1	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Intel Linux 32-bit SuSe 7.1, Kernal 2.4, glib 2.2	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No

¹ Integrated applications for Release 9i include the following: Oracle Forms Server Manager, Oracle Policy Manager , OLAP Services, Oracle Cube Viewer, and Oracle Directory Manager

² The Intelligent Agent runs on the same Operating Systems as the RDBMS.

³ Windows 2000 Datacenter is not a certified/supported operating system for any Enterprise Manager Oracle9i component.

If you choose to run Enterprise Manager from a browser, then the following certifications also apply.

Table 1-2 Operating System Support for Web-Enabled Enterprise Manager

	Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6a	Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2	Windows XP	Windows 98	Sun SPARC Solaris 2.6, 2.7, 2.8
Thin Client (Oracle HTTP Server 1.3.12)	x	x	x	x
Apache 1.3.9 and higher	x	x	x		x
Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 and higher	x	x	x
Netscape Navigator® 4.7 and higher	x	x	x	x
Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher	x	x	x	x
Web Site	x	x	x

System and Hardware Requirements

After determining how to deploy Enterprise Manager and verifying certifications, ensure that the following system and hardware requirements are satisfied prior to installation and configuration.

For hardware and system requirements for other platforms (for example, Intel Solaris, HP-UX, and others) refer to the corresponding installation guides.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Client

Requirements are listed below for a machine running only the Enterprise Manager Client (Console, Management Packs and integrated applications):

Table 1-3 Console, Management Packs, and Integrated Applications

	Minimal	Recommended
Available Hard Disk Space	625 MB	N/A
Processor and RAM	Pentium 166 MHz with 128 MB RAM or SPARC 20 166 MHz with 128 MB RAM	Pentium 1 266 MHz with 256 MB RAM or SPARC Ultra 1 266 MHz with 256 MB RAM

Management Server or Management Server and Client

Requirements are listed below for a machine running only the Management Server Release or for an Oracle Management Server machine which also runs the Enterprise Manager Client:

Table 1-4 Management Server or Management Server and Client

	Minimal	Recommended
Available Hard Disk Space	730 MB	N/A
Processor and RAM	Pentium III 866 MHz with 128 MB RAM or SPARC Ultra 1 266 MHz with 256 MB RAM	Pentium III 1GHz with 256 MB RAM or SPARC Ultra 1 300 MHz with 512 MB RAM

Enterprise Manager Web Site

Requirements are listed below for a machine running only the Enterprise Manager Web Site (which also includes the preconfigured Oracle HTTP Server):

Table 1-5 Enterprise Manager Web Site

	Minimal	Recommended
Available Hard Disk Space	820 MB	N/A
Processor and RAM	depends upon webserver	depends upon webserver

Java Runtime Environment (JRE)

Enterprise Manager has been certified on the following versions of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE):

• JRE Release 1.1.8_12 for Sun SPARC Solaris

• JRE Release 1.1.8.10 for Windows NT