Wed Feb 10 10:58:12 CET [nas1b: scsitarget.fcp.dump.warning:warning]: FCP target SRAM dump disabled for adapter 0b, isp2400fct_process_ctio: Invalid CTIO Status: S_ID: 10600, OX_ID: 4F, Status 0x8 (INVALID_RX), Cmdblk 0x0000000012620a00, state Wed Feb 10 10:58:12 CET [nas1b: scsitarget.ispfct.errorReset:CRITICAL]: Error processing target scsi command on Fibre Channel target adapter 0b. Resetting the adapter to clear INVALID_RX condition.
Wed Feb 10 10:58:12 CET [nas1b: scsitarget.ispfct.reset:notice]: Resetting Fibre Channel target adapter 0b.

This for all four paths. A complete resets. Obviously VMWare didn’t understand the situation and from its own side reported lost connectivity to the datastore. Which was the problem? Vmware lost some opened files. Worse. Some files and directories were corrupted. Also was not prossibile to remove them due to a filesystem inconsistency.

We’ve called VMWare that confirmed us that there’s no way to solve the issue. We had to remove datastore and create a new one. VMFS does not provide, publicly, a way to make a consistency check. Also, VMFS  and VMWare technology does not commit data always, so in case of connectivity lost many files will result opened and not corrupted.

Looking around there’s a feature, available with argv -R, that should check a VMFS. But reading more, this works only to unlock locked files after a crash of an ESX server. Does not repair consistency problem. Since VMFS is a proprietary filesystem I’m not able, and maybe there’s not, a document describing itself to understand how and why you may find it corrupted.

First if you ask for an Oracle database high availabilty solution and your DBA or your consultat answer saying “RAC” please fight him.
RAC, Real Application Cluster, as acronymous is not a normal cluster but a particular database configuration and structure that only in some case may provide an high availabilty service. Usually many RAC are configured doubling the same hardware that many times is not good for an instance at all and using a low performance storage and a not efficient interconnect network.

The big attention should be paid to the application. An application that was built for a standalone single Oracle instance does not work obviously in a RAC environment. Today I think that only few application may run on a RAC gaining performance. Too many times let a normal application run on a RAC generate only a performance problem and also expose your database to some new, and sometimes interesting, wait events. I’ve to say that to take full advantage of the particular high availability services in a RAC enviroment few special considerations are to be checked with application and the TAF (Transparent Application Failover) protocol.

RAC can solve problem only if the whole environment is Oracle RAC friendly, otherwise you will face with many problems. Don’t trust a DBA that propose without any care a RAC solutions. You will only pay more to get less.

select instance_number instance, snap_id, time, parameter_name, old_value, new_value from (
select a.snap_id,to_char(end_interval_time,'DD-MON-YY HH24:MI') TIME,  a.instance_number, parameter_name, value new_value,
lag(parameter_name,1) over (partition by parameter_name, a.instance_number order by a.snap_id) old_pname,
lag(value,1) over (partition by parameter_name, a.instance_number  order by a.snap_id) old_value ,
decode(substr(parameter_name,1,2),'__',2,1) calc_flag
from dba_hist_parameter a, dba_Hist_snapshot b , v$instance v
where a.snap_id=b.snap_id
and a.instance_number=b.instance_number
and parameter_name like nvl('&parameter_name',parameter_name)
and a.instance_number like nvl('&instance_number',v.instance_number)
)
where
new_value != old_value
and calc_flag not in (decode('&show_calculated','Y',3,2))
order by 1,2
/

Original query (by Kerry Osborne) is available here. For the whole explaination check the trackback.

select 	ksppinm "Parameter Name",
		ksppstvl "Value",
		ksppstdf "Default",
from	x$ksppi x, x$ksppcv y
where	x.indx = y.indx
and		ksppinm like '/_%trace%' escape '/' ;

Note that Oracle 9i has about 26 parameters (if I remember right). Oracle 10g has 35 parameters. Not yet test on 11g, I’ll do it. Also some parameters are only RAC related as _ges_trace (for GES/GCS trace)

[oracle@oratest03 scripts]$ emctl start dbconsole
Environment variable ORACLE_UNQNAME not defined. Please set ORACLE_UNQNAME to database unique name.
[oracle@oratest03 scripts]$
[oracle@oratest03 scripts]$ export ORACLE_UNQNAME=T11R2
[oracle@oratest03 scripts]$ emctl start dbconsole
OC4J Configuration issue. /app/oracle/product/11.2.0.1/oc4j/j2ee/OC4J_DBConsole_oratest03_T11R2 not found.

This is due to a misconfiguration of dbconsole during database setup. The fastest solution is usually to recreate repository and configuration.

First, deconfigure dbconsole:

[oracle@oratest03 bin]$ ./emca -deconfig dbcontrol db -repos drop

STARTED EMCA at Dec 28, 2009 12:15:33 PM
EM Configuration Assistant, Version 11.2.0.0.2 Production
Copyright (c) 2003, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Enter the following information:
Database SID: T11R2
Listener port number: 1521
Password for SYS user:
Password for SYSMAN user:  

Do you wish to continue? [yes(Y)/no(N)]: Y
Dec 28, 2009 12:15:44 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMConfig perform
INFO: This operation is being logged at /app/oracle/cfgtoollogs/emca/T11R2/emca_2009_12_28_12_15_32.log.
Dec 28, 2009 12:15:44 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMDBPreConfig performDeconfiguration
WARNING: EM is not configured for this database. No EM-specific actions can be performed.
Dec 28, 2009 12:15:45 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMReposConfig invoke
INFO: Dropping the EM repository (this may take a while) ...
Dec 28, 2009 12:17:33 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMReposConfig invoke
INFO: Repository successfully dropped
Enterprise Manager configuration completed successfully
FINISHED EMCA at Dec 28, 2009 12:17:33 PM

Now, let’s configure it again

[oracle@oratest03 bin]$ ./emca -config dbcontrol db -repos create                                          

STARTED EMCA at Dec 28, 2009 12:17:43 PM
EM Configuration Assistant, Version 11.2.0.0.2 Production
Copyright (c) 2003, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Enter the following information:
Database SID: T11R2
Listener port number: 1521
Listener ORACLE_HOME [ /app/oracle/product/11.2.0.1 ]:
Password for SYS user:
Password for DBSNMP user:
Password for SYSMAN user:
Email address for notifications (optional):
Outgoing Mail (SMTP) server for notifications (optional):
-----------------------------------------------------------------

You have specified the following settings

Database ORACLE_HOME ................ /app/oracle/product/11.2.0.1

Local hostname ................ oratest03
Listener ORACLE_HOME ................ /app/oracle/product/11.2.0.1
Listener port number ................ 1521
Database SID ................ T11R2
Email address for notifications ...............
Outgoing Mail (SMTP) server for notifications ............... 

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Do you wish to continue? [yes(Y)/no(N)]: Y
Dec 28, 2009 12:17:58 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMConfig perform
INFO: This operation is being logged at /app/oracle/cfgtoollogs/emca/T11R2/emca_2009_12_28_12_17_43.log.
Dec 28, 2009 12:17:59 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMReposConfig createRepository
INFO: Creating the EM repository (this may take a while) ...
Dec 28, 2009 12:23:44 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMReposConfig invoke
INFO: Repository successfully created
Dec 28, 2009 12:23:47 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMReposConfig uploadConfigDataToRepository
INFO: Uploading configuration data to EM repository (this may take a while) ...
Dec 28, 2009 12:24:41 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMReposConfig invoke
INFO: Uploaded configuration data successfully
Dec 28, 2009 12:24:43 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.util.DBControlUtil configureSoftwareLib
INFO: Software library configured successfully.
Dec 28, 2009 12:24:43 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMDBPostConfig configureSoftwareLibrary
INFO: Deploying Provisioning archives ...
Dec 28, 2009 12:25:13 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMDBPostConfig configureSoftwareLibrary
INFO: Provisioning archives deployed successfully.
Dec 28, 2009 12:25:13 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.util.DBControlUtil secureDBConsole
INFO: Securing Database Control (this may take a while) ...
Dec 28, 2009 12:25:54 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.util.DBControlUtil secureDBConsole
INFO: Database Control secured successfully.
Dec 28, 2009 12:25:54 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.util.DBControlUtil startOMS
INFO: Starting Database Control (this may take a while) ...
Dec 28, 2009 12:26:19 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMDBPostConfig performConfiguration
INFO: Database Control started successfully
Dec 28, 2009 12:26:19 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMDBPostConfig performConfiguration
INFO: >>>>>>>>>>> The Database Control URL is https://oratest03:1158/em <<<<<<<<<<<
Dec 28, 2009 12:26:25 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMDBPostConfig invoke
WARNING:
************************  WARNING  ************************

Management Repository has been placed in secure mode wherein Enterprise Manager data will be encrypted.  The encryption key has been placed in the file: /app/oracle/product/11.2.0.1/oratest03_T11R2/sysman/config/emkey.ora.   Please ensure this file is backed up as the encrypted data will become unusable if this file is lost. 

***********************************************************
Enterprise Manager configuration completed successfully
FINISHED EMCA at Dec 28, 2009 12:26:25 PM

That’s all. Remember, if you want or need, to backup you encryption key.

oracle@aixsrv:/app/oracle>cpio -idmv < 10gr2_aix5l64_client.cpio

cpio: 0511-903 Out of phase!
cpio attempting to continue...

cpio: 0511-904 skipping 642010 bytes to get back in phase!
One or more files lost and the previous file is possibly corrupt!

Segmentation fault

That’s bad. The solution is to use the option -idcmv

oracle@aixsrv:/app/oracle>cpio -idcmv < 10gr2_aix5l64_client.cpio

This simply because Oracle Corp. had cpioed installer with -c argument that’s, from manpage, “Reads and writes header information in ASCII character form. If a cpio archive was created using the c flag, it must be extracted with c flag.”

• Servomuto (e non mi interessa che sia FoppaPedretti!)
• Un paio di camicie (chi è interessato mi chieda come..BTW ricorda che vesto solo classico, il colore dell’anno è viola, tessuto modello poplin anche senza righe e magari un monogramma)
• Miscelatore per la cucina
• Contributo riparazione parafango auto
• Contributo tagliando auto
• Macchina fotografica (da vedere quale…)
• Gatto (preferibilmente un certosino)

Solo su alcuni regali, seri, posso ammettere che si cumulino per Natale e compleanno

I’ve already attended the related course in Oracle and now it’s time to take the exam. Any information is needed. I’ve already taken SelfTest software but is not similar to topics covered in my course. Maybe the only way to study is to use Oracle books from course and Oracle official book for this exam. Anything to suggest?

Follow up – 7/8 – I’ve discovered that test center was closed for holidays. Maybe somebody forgot to close online reservation! Damn