Register an Oracle database instance

DPA monitors all databases within the instance. If more than one instance exists on the server, you must register each instance separately in DPA.

Oracle database instances have three connection options:

• Direct Connect
• Transparent Network Substrate (TNS) Connect Descriptor
• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or TNS Name

Direct Connect

Enter the Service Name or System Identifier (SID), host name or IP address, and port. The default port is 1521.

TNS Connect Descriptor

The Connect Descriptor value contains everything after NAME= in the tnsnames.ora file. The beginning (DESCRIPTION= is necessary. For example:

(DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS_LIST = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = demo.confio.com)(PORT = 1521)))(CONNECT_DATA =(SERVICE_NAME = demo)))

LDAP or TNS Name

To use this option, Oracle Name Resolution must be configured. For instructions, see Connect to Oracle using name resolution.

After you configure Oracle Name Resolution, you can use the LDAP/TNS Name when registering additional monitored database instances.

DPA uses the Oracle network configuration .ora files to connect to the database instance.

If connection information other than the name has changed, update the .ora files. DPA detects changes to these files automatically. You do not have to update the connection information through this wizard.

If the name has changed, update the .ora files. Then select the check box next to LDAP/TNS Name, and update the value.

RAC instances

For an Oracle RAC (Real Application Cluster), register every physical instance in the cluster. Do not register the virtual IP that distributes load across the RAC instances.

If you choose to register the virtual IP load balancing listener, or to monitor only a subset of instances in the cluster, DPA will not have complete and consistent data. This will affect DPA's tuning and resource analysis.

For more information, see DPA registration and licensing options for clustered environments.

DBA user

Enter DBA credentials for DPA to register the database instance.

Create or specify the account that DPA will use to gather information. To ensure that the account has the required permissions, SolarWinds recommends creating a new account.

To create a new account:

1. Next to Create Monitoring User, click Yes.
2. Enter the user name and password.
3. Select a Tablespace and Temp Tablespace on the monitored database. This is primarily used for gathering Explain Plan data for monitored queries.

To specify an existing account:

1. Next to Create Monitoring User, click No.
2. Enter the user name and password.

If you create the user manually, DPA uses the default Tablespaces for that user.

If you are registering multiple Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) nodes, you may receive an error that the user already exists. You can create a different monitoring user or clear the Create a New Monitoring User check box and continue.

If the monitored instance contains the Oracle E-Business Suite, DPA can collect additional information about the suite.

DPA can capture Oracle E-Business data to identify the screens, modules, and users generating the database requests. This gives you increased visibility into the causes of performance problems in the Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Oracle Applications environments.

The SYS password is requested only if remote login as SYS is enabled on the monitored Oracle instance. This option is not available for Amazon RDS instances.

If you do not have remote SYS access to the computer, click the link to open the Manual Steps for Monitored Database Instance Registration.

You can run a script to run on the monitored instance to install a utility package for DPA that grants Execute permissions for that package to the monitoring user.

To register the monitored database instance manually:

1. Click Register the monitored database instance manually.
2. Click Select All, copy the script, and paste it into a text file.
3. As an Oracle Administrator, log in as SYS to the database instance to be monitored.
4. Access the text file.
5. Execute the script.

If your repository database is not Oracle, the wizard skips this step.

Choose the tablespace in the repository database to store DPA performance data for this monitored instance.

By default, the performance data is stored in the default tablespace of the repository user. However, data for monitored instances can be stored in separate tablespaces.

If you have no Alert Groups set up, or if this new database instance does not match the database type of the Alert Group, the wizard skips this step.

Alert Groups simplify alert configuration and help make alerting more consistent across the monitored database instances.

Select the Alert Groups you want the new database instance to join.