Configuring Oracle databases

This section describes the steps to configure your Oracle database before you install BMC Remedy Action Request (AR) System or any application in the BMC Remedy IT Service Management (ITSM) Suite.

Typically, Oracle database administrators create instances, directories, and groups, and they install the Oracle database and Oracle client before proceeding with the BMC Remedy AR System installation.

To prepare your Oracle database

1. As a database administrator, install at least one instance of the Oracle database.
   You can install it on the same computer as the one on which BMC Remedy AR System is installed, or on a remote server that is networked to the computer on which you plan to install BMC Remedy AR System.

2. You are not required to install Oracle clients on the computer where BMC Remedy AR System server is installed. BMC Remedy AR System Server now uses JDBC to connect to remote\local database ( and does not refers to tnsnames.ora ).

3. Enable TCP/IP for the database.
4. Confirm connection to your Oracle database.
   Contact your database administrator for more information.

5. Set the BMC Remedy AR System data file size to at least 2 GB.

   Note

   For each additional product, add at least 2 GB to the data file size.

6. Ensure that the database parameters listed in the following table and those described in Tuning the Oracle database server are specified.
   
   

   Note:

   The following settings and size estimates must be used as a starting point. You should conduct benchmarks in your environment because sizing will vary depending on your workload mix, data volumes, and data composition. 

   Parameter	Suggested value
   cursor_space_for_time	False
   db_block_checking	False
   db_file_multiblock_read_count	0 (or do not set)
   LOG_BUFFER	10485760
   OPEN_CURSORS	500
   optimizer_dynamic_sampling	2
   session_cached_cursors	100
   statistics_level	Typical
   timed_statistics	True
   UNDO_RETENTION	14400
   workarea_size_policy	auto
   REDO log files	Three (at least 1 GB each)
   NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS	BYTE
   NLS_CHARACTERSET	AL32UTF8

7. To prevent BMC Remedy AR System from reaching the size limit of the database, set your tablespaces with the AUTOEXTEND parameter to ON, by executing the following SQL statement as the system user:

   ALTER DATABASE DATAFILE '<OracleHome>/DATABASE/ARSYS' AUTOEXTEND ON NEXT 100M MAXSIZE UNLIMITED;

8. Set the tablespace and temporary tablespace to at least the following minimum settings:

   Parameter	Suggested value
   arsys	2000 MB
   artmpf	500 MB

   The tablespace names might be different for your environment.

9. To avoid timeout errors during installation, set the System Global Area (SGA) minimum size to at least 1 GB (small database), 3 GB (medium database), or 6 GB (large database). For Oracle 11g, set the maximum SGA size and enable the database to automatically manage the internal memory structures of the SGA. For example, to change the SGA size to 1 GB, use the alter system set sga_target=1G scope=both command.

10. Verify or set the following environment variables:

    Environment variable	Description
    NLS_LANG (Windows)	Set NLS_LANG as a system environment variable value as per your database character set . For information about NLS_LANG and its usage, see the following notes from Oracle: 144808.1, 227330.1, 260192.1.
    LANG (UNIX)	Specifies globalization settings.
    ORACLE_SID	Set the length of this variable to 8c.

11. Ensure that the Oracle listener is running and is configured correctly for the database.

12. Set the value of the Oracle CLOB option to inrow.
    For more information, see  Using Oracle CLOBs with BMC Remedy AR System  in BMC Remedy AR System documentation.

13. (Oracle 12c Release 2 only) Add the following parameters and values to sqlnet.ora:

    Parameter and value	Purpose
    SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES = (NTS)	Required by Oracle 12.2 to enable the AR System server to run on Windows with the database on Windows.
    SQLNET.ALLOWED_LOGON_VERSION_SERVER = 10	Required by Oracle 12.2 to connect the database to AR Systems clients, which contain version 10 of the Oracle client library.

To create a tablespace and its associated user for BMC Remedy AR System

For a BMC Remedy AR System server, you can use a tablespace that you previously created in Oracle.

Perform the following steps to create a tablespace, user, role, set privileges for the role, and grant the role to the created user:

create tablespace ARSYSTEM
datafile 'C:\DB-DATA\SSIORA12\DATA\ARSYS.dbf' size 1024M reuse;
create temporary tablespace ARSTMPSPC tempfile 'C:\DB-DATA\SSIORA12\DATA\ARTEMP.dbf' size 512M reuse;

create user <user> identified by <password>
default tablespace ARSYSTEM
temporary tablespace ARSTMPSPC
quota unlimited on ARSYSTEM;

create role ARole_arsys not identified;

grant alter session, create cluster, create 
database link, create sequence, create session, create synonym, create 
table, create view, create procedure, create trigger, query rewrite to 
ARole_arsys;

grant ARole_arsys to <user>;

Considerations for an Oracle 12c or 18c database

If you have an Oracle 12c or 18c database, consider the following:

• Consult your Oracle DB administrator to understand the architectural changes in Oracle 12c and 18c.  For more information, refer to Oracle documentation. 
• The following options are available when you choose to use the Oracle 12c or 18c database: 
  • If want to use a non multi-tenant database, you must create a non-Container Database (CDB) database.
  • If you want to use a multi-tenant database, you must create a CDB with Pluggable Database (PDB) inside it.

• If you are using non-CDB, no specific settings are required.
• If you are using the CDB with Pluggable Database (PDB) inside it, perform the following steps before installing BMC Remedy AR System:
  1. Create the PDB. For example you could create a database called REMPDB. For more information, see Oracle documentation for Multitenant architecture.

  2. Register the PDB as service to the listener. For more information, see Oracle documentation for Multitenant architecture. 

     Note

     During installation choose Oracle service name option in the AR System Server User and Database Information panel. 

Cursor sharing

Set the value of cursor_sharing to EXACT. For more information, see Cursor sharing.

Configuring Oracle Data Guard

Beginning with the BMC Remedy AR System 9.1.02, BMC supports Oracle Data Guard. Oracle Data Guard is a technology that helps in recovering from DB failures across the geographical sites. Clients can failover to the next available database in the Oracle Real Applications Cluster (RAC) setup. For more information, see  Oracle Data Guard .

Configuring BMC Remedy AR System to support Oracle Data Guard

After your BMC Remedy AR System is installed and you have configured it to support Oracle Data Guard, you can log in as AR Admin to verify the configuration.

To configure BMC Remedy AR System to support Oracle Data Guard

1. On the AR System Server User and Database panel of the BMC Remedy AR System installer, configure a service that has the same name for the primary and standby database. For example, ORADG.BMC.COM.

2. In the ar.cfg (Windows) or ar.conf (UNIX), set the Oracle-JDBC-URL parameter to the specified syntax:

   Oracle-JDBC-URL: jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION=(LOAD_BALANCE=OFF)(FAILOVER=ON)(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=primarydb_host)(PORT=primarydb_port))(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=standbydb_host)(PORT=standbydb_port)))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=ORADG.BMC.COM)(SERVER=DEDICATED)))

3. Save the file.
4. Restart the AR System server.

When the primary database is down and the standby database does not take over as the primary database, the following error occurs:

ORA-12514, TNS: listener does not currently know of service requested in connect descriptor (ARERR 552).

Related topics

Preparing to install on a Unicode database

ar.cfg or ar.conf options C-D  for information about adding the Db-Case-Insensitive option to perform case-insensitive queries on Run-If qualifications for active links, filters, and escalations.