Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA)

Overview

RDA is a set of command line diagnostic scripts created in Perl by Oracle. RDA is used to gather detailed information about an Oracle environment. The data gathered can be used to diagnose problems and see the overall system configuration.

The output is a set of HTML files that are located in the RDA output directory which you specify at setup. You can review the data collected in the directory: \__start.htm. The final output is also packaged in a .zip file.

It is impossible to tell how long RDA will take to execute. It depends on many variables, such as system activity, the options chosen, network settings, etc. On an average system, RDA takes just a few minutes to run. Most scripts are designed to stop if for some reason they cannot finish or execute within 30 seconds (for example, the lsnrctl status command will stop if the listener is hung). It is not unusual for RDA to take 15 minutes or more on a very busy server, especially if there are many Oracle listener processes active.

To Download RDA see: Doc ID 314422.1

Installation

 su - oracle
 1. Download the RDA from Oracle to: /u01/orasw.
 2. unzip p21769913_20120121_Linux-x86-64.zip
    An rda sub directory will be corrected.

• Change p21769913_20120121_Linux-x86-64.zip with the file you download.
• If RAC node su - grid instead of oracle account.

RDA Quick Reference

1. Verify the RDA Installation
   su - oracle
   cd /u01/orasw/rda
   rda.sh -cv
2. Run Configuration
   This will present a series of prompts used to create configuration file (setup.cfg) for running RDA. In most cases the default values should be used.
   rda.sh -S
3. Run RDA
   rda.sh -v
   This is the standard command to run RDA process that generates HTML report files.
   The above creates file: RDA_output_<HOSTNAME>.zip

If RAC node su - grid instead of oracle account.

setup.cfg - SQL_LOGIN

Example entries

SQL_LOGIN='/'
SQL_LOGIN='scott'

setup.cfg

Connect as sysdba Flag
SQL_SYSDBA=n [1=yes,0=no]

Comments

• As a means of providing higher security when using RDA, passwords are no longer stored in plain text in the setup.txt file. As result, RDA prompts for the required passwords when collecting the data.
• If the Perl implementation installed on your operating system supports it, RDA will suppress the character echo during password requests. When the character echo is suppressed, the password is requested twice for verification. If both entered passwords do not match after three attempts, the request is cancelled.
• RDA can perform OS authentication, which eliminates having to enter a password for database information gathering. It also accepts "/" as a username to avoid entering a password when RDA is gathering database information.
  
  For executing RDA at regularly scheduled intervals via cron, passwords can be encoded inside the setup file. For instance, to encode the system password, use the following command: rda.cmd -A system
  
  The password will be requested interactively.

RDA Quick Reference: Windows

RDA Commands To Use

• rda.cmd - Use this command if Perl is not available. The rda.cmd used is used in these examples.
• rda.pl - Use this command if Perl is installed and available in the path (to verify: perl -V).

1. Verify the RDA Installation
   rda.cmd -cv
2. Run Configuration
   This will present a series of prompts used to create configuration file (setup.cfg) for running RDA. In most cases the default values should be used.
   rda.cmd -S
3. Run RDA
   rda.cmd -v
   This is the standard command to run RDA process that generates HTML report files.

setup.cfg - SQL_LOGIN

Example entries

SQL_LOGIN='/'
SQL_LOGIN='scott'

<- TroubleShooting