8.7.00 enhancements
This section contains information about enhancements in BMC Database Automation (BDA) 8.7.00.
SQL Server AlwaysOn
SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups is a new high availability replication technology for SQL Server clustered instances that enables you to duplicate databases across instances in a Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC). An Availability Group maximizes the availability of a set of user databases, known as availability databases, that fail over together. An Availability Group supports a set of read-write primary databases and one to four sets (in SQL Server 2012) or one to eight sets (in SQL Server 2014) of corresponding secondary databases. Optionally, secondary databases can be made available for read-only access or some backup operations.
SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups can be administered by BDA in one of two ways:
- By discovering an existing Availability Group and approving it for use in BDA. For a walkthrough, see Walkthrough-Discovering-and-approving-SQL-Server-Availability-Groups.
- By provisioning a new Availability Group from SQL Server Instances that are already administered by BDA. For more information about creating Availability Groups, see Creating-a-SQL-Server-Availability-Group.
Once they have either been created or discovered, SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups appear in the BDA GUI as a double-database icon (
). You can perform many of the provisioning and management tasks that you would typically do with SQL Server clustered instances. A new Mssql Availability Group scope has been added to enable you to target Actions against SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups during SQL Server provisioning operations.
For information about all the available provisioning activities you can perform with SQL Server, see Provisioning-new-databases and click the SQL Server tab on the page.
BDA 8.7 is certified with the following Server/OS combinations:
- Windows Server 2012/MS SQL Server 2014
- Windows Server 2012/MS SQL Server 2012
- Windows Server 2008R2/MS SQL Server 2012
Oracle Multitenant architecture
BDA 8.7 supports a new multitenant architectural option from Oracle for 12c standalone databases. Multitenant architecture enables Oracle databases to be split into two portions: the Oracle software and the user data. The Oracle metadata becomes part of a Container Database (CDB), which can shared among multiple Pluggable Databases (PDBs). Each of the original databases (non-CDBs) corresponds to one of the PDBs.
A single copy of the Oracle software is associated with the CDB and shared by all of the PDBs. In the BDA GUI, there is a new Container Database section in the Configuration page of the Create Oracle Database wizard (there is not a separate wizard for configuring CDBs).
A new Create Pluggable Database wizard is available which can be used to provision one or more PDBs in a CDB. Additionally, an Oracle Pluggable Database scope has been added to enable you to target Actions against PDBs. For more information about Actions, see Creating-an-Action.
Beginning with BDA 8.7.00.01, PDBs are supported on the following platforms:
- HPUX Itanium
- RHEL7
- AIX 7.1
- OEL7
For information about all the available provisioning and management activities you can perform with Oracle, see Provisioning-new-databases and click the Oracle tab on the page.
Oracle RAC One Node
Beginning with BDA 8.7, you can create a RAC One Node database on all the nodes that are part of a cluster. Oracle RAC One Node differs from an Oracle RAC database in that a full RAC database operates as an Active-Active solution where all the nodes in the cluster are active and can accept connections as a single unit. RAC One Node, on the other hand, works as an Active-Passive solution where only one node can be active at a time, and the other nodes are available to accept the workload of the first node should it go down.
Most of the properties of the RAC One Database are similar to those of a typical RAC database. One of the differences is the ability to configure candidate servers, which are nodes on which you can relocate a RAC One Node database.
In the BDA GUI, Oracle RAC One Node databases appear as a database icon appended with a '1' (
). Once BDA discovers RAC One Node databases and you approve them for use in BDA, you can perform the provisioning tasks that you would typically do with Oracle databases. In the BDA GUI, there is a new RAC Database Type field in the Configuration page of the Create Oracle Database wizard (there is not a separate wizard for configuring RAC One Node databases).
For more information, see For information about all the available provisioning and management activities you can perform with Oracle, see Provisioning-new-databases and click the Oracle tab on the page.
For a walkthrough, see Walkthrough-Setting-up-Oracle-RAC-One-Node.
Editing manual compliance checks
Certain compliance standards contain manual checks related to specific physical conditions in the environment being checked for compliance. For example, these checks can relate to security systems or separate server rooms.
In BDA 8.7, you can update the results of these manual checks, upon physical verification or approval, and designate them as Manual Compliant or Manual Non-compliant. The Compliance % calculation, which can be used for compliance auditing purposes, will then reflect the results accordingly.
Use the Edit Results button on the results page after running a compliance standard to leverage this feature, which is controlled by a new RBAC security capability, Edit Compliance Results.
For more information, see Editing the results of a compliance check.
Megamesh Search
Unlike previous versions of BDA which limited searches on individual Satellite Managers in a Multi-Manager environment, this version enables you to also perform mesh-wide searches on Content Managers. This minimizes the amount of navigation and clicking through the tree required to find specific objects. For example, performing a Node search via the Content Manager, and clicking on a host that displays from the search results, links you directly to that object on the Satellite Manager (in a different browser tab), and displays its configuration page in the Workspace.
Search functionality correlates to the user permissions at login. For example, a user with sysadmin privileges might be able to search across the estate, but a user who only has access to a part of the estate will be limited to that area for the search.
For more information about search functionality, see Searching-for-objects-in-the-Context-Frame.
Database support
BDA 8.7.00 adds the following support:
- Agent Support for Redhat Enterprise Linux 7
- Agent Support for Oracle Linux 7
For more information about supported databases and OS in BMC Database Automation 8.7.00, see Databases supported.
Oracle Exadata support
BDA 8.7.00 is certified for use on Oracle Exadata systems.
The following versions are supported:
- Oracle 11.2 and 12.1 using Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) 5.10 on X3-2 and X4-2 Exadata systems
The following use cases are supported:
- Provisioning operations
- Create database
- Remove database
- Add instance
- Remove instance
- Management operations
- Stop/start instance
- Start instance
- Apply/rollback patch (DB patches only)
- Run action (script and SQL)
- Miscellaneous operations
- Reports
Performance improvements
This version of BDA includes performance improvements in search results for large scale BDA deployments.
UI improvements
The following improvements were made to the latest version of BDA.
Additional sorting capabilities
In the Hosts Pending Approval page, you can sort the list by clicking on any heading link of any of the columns. For example, in the following screen the list is sorted such that the host names are displayed in numerical descending order.
Additionally, when running an Action, you can now sort the list of servers in the Candidates list to make it easier to find the server, or type a string in the Find Candidates field and click Find.
Pending Approval objects listed by vendor
The Pending Approval section in the Context Frame has been reorganized by vendor rather than object type, to account for the increasing number of disparate object types that are being grouped together because they have similar names (such as Oracle databases and SQL Server databases). The new listing type makes it easier to find object discovered by BMC Database Automation and provides a more natural categorization.
Rebranding
BDA 8.7 adopts BMC’s new branding and appearance including a new UI color palette, new fonts, standardized login screen, and a top menu that has features common across BMC products.