Oracle DBA Checklist

Posted by Oracle ACE - 2007/05/17 01:11

_____________________________________

Daily Procedures

A.Verify all instances are up

Make sure the database is available. Log into each instance and run daily reports or test scripts. Some sites may wish
to automate this.
Optional implementation: use Oracle Enterprise Manager's 'probe' event.
B.Look for any new alert log entries
•Connect to each managed system.
•Use 'telnet' or comparable program.
•For each managed instance, go to the background dump destination, usually $ORACLE_BASE/<SID>/bdump. Make
sure to look under each managed database's SID.
•At the prompt, use the Unix ‘tail’ command to see the alert_<SID>.log, or otherwise examine the most recent entries in
the file.
•If any ORA-errors have appeared since the previous time you looked, note them in the Database Recovery Log and
investigate each one. The recovery log is in <file>.
C.Verify DBSNMP is running
1.Log on to each managed machine to check for the 'dbsnmp' process.
For Unix: at the command line, type ps –ef | grep dbsnmp. There should be two dbsnmp processes running. If not,
restart DBSNMP. (Some sites have this disabled on purpose; if this is the case, remove this item from your list, or
change it to "verify that DBSNMP is NOT running".)
D.Verify success of database backup
E.Verify success of database archiving to tape
F.Verify enough resources for acceptable performance
1.Verify free space in tablespaces.
For each instance, verify that enough free space exists in each tablespace to handle the day’s expected growth. As of
<date>, the minimum free space for <repeat for each tablespace>: . When incoming data is stable, and average daily
growth can be calculated, then the minimum free space should be at least <time to order, get, and install more disks>
days’ data growth.
a)Go to each instance, run free.sql to check free mb in tablespaces.
Compare to the minimum free MB for that tablespace. Note any low-space conditions and correct.
b)Go to each instance, run space.sql to check percentage free in tablespaces.
Compare to the minimum percent free for that tablespace. Note any low-space conditions and correct.
2.Verify rollback segment.
Status should be ONLINE, not OFFLINE or FULL, except in some cases you may have a special rollback segment for
large batch jobs whose normal status is OFFLINE.
a)Optional: each database may have a list of rollback segment names and their expected statuses.
b)For current status of each ONLINE or FULL rollback segment (by ID not by name), query on V$ROLLSTAT.
c)For storage parameters and names of ALL rollback segment, query on DBA_ROLLBACK_SEGS. That view’s STATUS
field is less accurate than V$ROLLSTAT, however, as it lacks the PENDING OFFLINE and FULL statuses, showing
these as OFFLINE and ONLINE respectively.
3.Identify bad growth projections.
Look for segments in the database that are running out of resources (e.g. extents) or growing at an excessive rate. The
storage parameters of these segments may need to be adjusted. For example, if any object reached 200 as the number
of current extents, AND it's an object that is supposed to get large, upgrade the max_extents to unlimited.
a)To gather daily sizing information, run analyze5pct.sql. If you are collecting nightly volumetrics, skip this step.
b)To check current extents, run nr_extents.sql
c)Query current table sizing information
d)Query current index sizing information
e)Query growth trends
4.Identify space-bound objects.
Space-bound objects’ next_extents are bigger than the largest extent that the tablespace can offer. Space-bound objects
can harm database operation. If we get such object, first need to investigate the situation. Then we can use ALTER
TABLESPACE <tablespace> COALESCE. Or add another datafile.
a)Run spacebound.sql. If all is well, zero rows will be returned.
5. Processes to review contention for CPU, memory, network or disk resources.
a)To check CPU utilization, go to x:\web\phase2\default.htm =>system metrics=>CPU utilization page. 400 is the
maximum CPU utilization because there are 4 CPUs on phxdev and phxprd machine. We need to investigate if CPU
utilization keeps above 350 for a while.

G.Copy Archived Logs to Standby Database and Roll Forward

If you have a Standby Database, copy the appropriate Archived Logs to the expected location on the standby machine
and apply those logs (roll forward the changes) to the standby database. This keeps the standby database up-to-date.
FireBoard-Forum - BBFog - Connecting and Sharing on The Go fireboard Forum Component version: 1.0.0 Generated: 14 January, 2011, 16:51
The copying of logs, the applying of them, or both, can in some cases be automated. If you have automated them, then
your daily task should be to confirm that this happened correctly each day.
H.Read DBA manuals for one hour
Nothing is more valuable in the long run than that the DBA be as widely experienced, and as widely read, as possible.
Readings should include DBA manuals, trade journals, and possibly newsgroups or mailing lists.

Nightly Procedures

Most production databases (and many development and test databases) will benefit from having certain nightly batch
processes run.
A.Collect volumetric data
This example collects table row counts. This can easily be extended to other objects such as indexes, and other data
such as average row sizes.
1.Analyze Schemas and Collect Data.
The idea here is to use the more time consuming and more accurate ANALYZE COMPUTE command and save the
results, which show up in the data dictionary, to a more permanent store.
a)If you havent' yet, create the volumetrics table with mk_volfact.sql
b)To gather nightly sizing information, run analyze_comp.sql.
c)To collect the resulting statistics, run pop_vol.sql
d)Examine the data at your leisure, probably weekly or monthly.
I use MS Excel and an ODBC connection to examine and graph data growth.

Weekly Procedures

A.Look for objects that break rules

For each object-creation policy (naming convention, storage parameters, etc.) have an automated check to verify that the
policy is being followed.
1.Every object in a given tablespace should have the exact same size for NEXT_EXTENT, which should match the
tablespace default for NEXT_EXTENT. As of 12/14/98, default NEXT_EXTENT for DATAHI is 1 gig (1048576 kbytes),
DATALO is 500 mb (524288 kbytes), and INDEXES is 256 mb (262144 kbytes).
a)To check settings for NEXT_EXTENT, run nextext.sql.
b)To check existing extents, run existext.sql

2.All tables should have unique primary keys.

a)To check missing PK, run no_pk.sql.
b)To check disabled PK, run disPK.sql.
c)All primary key indexes should be unique. Run nonuPK.sql to check.

3.All indexes should use INDEXES tablespace. Run mkrebuild_idx.sql.

4.Schemas should look identical between environments, especially test and production.
a)To check data type consistency, run datatype.sql.
b)To check other object consistency, run obj_coord.sql.
c)Better yet, use a tool like Quest Software's Schema Manager.
B.Look for security policy violations
C.Look in SQL*Net logs for errors, issues
1.Client side logs
2.Server side logs
D.Archive all Alert Logs to history

E.Visit home pages of key vendors

1.Oracle Corporation
http://www.oracle.com
http://technet.oracle.com
http://www.oracle.com/support
http://www.oramag.com
2.Quest Software
http://www.quests.com
3.Sun Microsystems
http://www.sun.com

Monthly Procedures

A.Look for Harmful Growth Rates

1.Review changes in segment growth when compared to previous reports to identify segments with a harmful growth rate.
FireBoard-Forum - BBFog - Connecting and Sharing on The Go fireboard Forum Component version: 1.0.0 Generated: 14 January, 2011, 16:51
B.Review Tuning Opportunities
1.Review common Oracle tuning points such as cache hit ratio, latch contention, and other points dealing with memory
management. Compare with past reports to identify harmful trends or determine impact of recent tuning adjustments.
C.Look for I/O Contention
1.Review database file activity. Compare to past output to identify trends that could lead to possible contention.
D.Review Fragmentation
1.Investigate fragmentation (e.g. row chaining, etc.).
E.Project Performance into the Future
1.Compare reports on CPU, memory, network, and disk utilization from both Oracle and the operating system to identify
trends that could lead to contention for any one of these resources in the near future.
2. Compare performance trends to Service Level Agreement to see when the system will go out of bounds
F.Perform Tuning and Maintenance
1.Make the adjustments necessary to avoid contention for system resources. This may include scheduled down time or
request for additional resources.
============================================================================

FireBoard-Forum - BBFog - Connecting and Sharing on The Go fireboard Forum Component version: 1.0.0 Generated: 14 January, 2011, 16:51