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.

Recommendation

Review Performance-tuning-for-Remedy in preparation for performing this upgrade.

Note

For information on Oracle case-insensitivity, see Oracle case-insensitivity.

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.

Note

If you are using a RAC or ASM Oracle database, you must create tablespaces before you install BMC Remedy AR System. For more information about creating tablespaces in RAC or ASM Oracle databases, refer to your Oracle documentation.

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

Step

Operation

Query

1.

Create an AR System tablespace and a temporary tablespace

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;

2.

Create a user

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

3.

Create a role for the user created in the preceding step

create role ARole_arsys not identified;

4.

Set privileges for the role

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;

5.

Grant the role to the user

grant ARole_arsys to <user>;

The query rewrite parameter is required only if you use materialized views. The Remedy AR System does not use materialized views in its schema.

Considerations for an Oracle 12C database

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

  • Consult your Oracle DB administrator to understand the architectural changes in Oracle 12c.  For more information, refer to Oracle documentation. 
  • The following options are available when you choose to use the Oracle 12c 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.

orcaleDataGuard.png

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 you specify the Oracle-JDBC-URL parameter, the BMC Remedy AR System server ignores the following parameters:

  • Oracle-Service 
  • Db-Host-Name
  • Db-Server-Port
  • Oracle-SID
  • Db-Custom-Conn-Props
  • SQL-Secure-Connection

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.

 

 

 

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