DBCollect/Install

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Summary

Installing DBCollect is pretty simple: download the latest dbcollect zipapp, put it somewhere in $PATH, and make it executable. Ideally PATH should be /usr/local/bin or $HOME/bin

On Linux this usually just works, on UNIX it may require some additional steps.

Easy Install

If your system has internet (https) access, see dbcollect install for an easy way to install dbcollect

# One-liner (root)
curl https://loadmaster.dirty-cache.com/download -L --output /usr/local/bin/dbcollect && chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/dbcollect

# One-liner (non-root)
curl https://loadmaster.dirty-cache.com/download -L --output $HOME/bin/dbcollect && chmod 755 $HOME/bin/dbcollect

# Test if Python works
python -V

# If you get "Command 'python' not found" on RHEL:
# RHEL - set 'python' to version 3
alternatives --set python /usr/bin/python3

# Debian based (Ubuntu/Mint) - set 'python' to version 3
apt install python-is-python3

# Check if dbcollect works (and show help)
dbcollect -h

# If you get an error like /usr/bin/env: ‘python’: No such file or directory
# and you cannot use the above methods but Python is available: run dbcollect with the correct 'python'
/usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/dbcollect -h

# Update if older version (requires http access)
dbcollect --update

# Run dbcollect
dbcollect
# or (to overwrite older DBCollect ZIP files)
dbcollect -o

Requirements

Operating Systems

• Linux

Enterprise Linux 6 (EL6) or higher (RHEL, OEL, CentOS, Rocky Linux)

• SPARC/Solaris
• IBM AIX

Python

DBCollect is a Python ZIP app. This means Python needs to be available in the environment to run dbcollect. Some systems do not have this by default.

• Requires Python (2.6+ or 3.x)
  • On Linux (EL6+) works out of the box
  • On AIX/HP-UX, need to install Python first, Windows not supported
  • On Solaris (and AIX) Python may be a very old version that is not supported

A Python ZipApp is a standard ZIP file with an additional "shebang" prepended: #!/usr/bin/env python

• This causes dbcollect to be called with whatever ‘python’ version is in $PATH
• If this does not work, manually run python: /usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/dbcollect <options>
• Executable can be inspected with unzip –v /usr/local/bin/dbcollect
• Run simply as root or as ‘oracle’ user/owner

On UNIX (AIX, Solaris) you may have to create a symbolic link or run dbcollect like this:

python3 /usr/local/bin/dbcollect

If all else fails, you can run dbcollect from python directly:

python /usr/local/bin/dbcollect
# or
/usr/bin/python /usr/local/bin/dbcollect
# or
python2 /usr/local/bin/dbcollect

Oracle

• Oracle RDBMS 11g or higher (optional)

If the system is not an Oracle database server, only OS config and performance data will be collected

• Diagnostics pack license OR statspack configured on the database(s)
• Access to the 'oracle' special user or dba privileges ('root' not required)
• Database instances up and running (opened read/write required for AWR/Statspack)
• SYS credentials (hence the 'oracle' or dba user requirement)

Other Prerequisites

• Some free space in /tmp (or elsewhere, use --tempdir)

Linux

On Linux (EL7+) both Python 2 and 3 may be installed. To set the preferred version globally on the system, use alternatives

alternatives --set python /usr/bin/python3

AIX

On IBM AIX, you need to install Python first. You can get python for AIX from AIX Toolbox (IBM)

Make sure it is executable and available in $PATH.

Simply running python should work.

SAR/Sysstat is usually available on AIX but not enabled by default. In that case there will be no OS performance (SAR) data. dbcollect can use NMON data as well with some caveats, see TBD.

Solaris

On Solaris, Python should be already available. It may be an older version. Make sure you can run python from the command line.

SAR/Sysstat is usually available on Solaris (like AIX) but not enabled by default. In that case there will be no OS performance (SAR) data. dbcollect can use NMON data as well with some caveats, see TBD.

HP-UX

HP-UX has experimental support. Some OS commands require sudo access, run dbcollect --sudoers to install the sudoers file before proceeding. This will allow dbcollect to pick up required stuff like CPU model, disk capacities and more. sudo must be installed for this to work.

Windows

dbcollect does not yet support Windows. Let me know if you need it.

Installation

Downloading DBcollect

• Via Quick Install Guide
• Direct download: DBCollect Download (application page, not always working) is a direct link to the latest version.
• Via Github Releases: DBcollect releases (GitHub) On the Github releases page, go to the latest release, open Assets and download dbcollect.

The latest release is always available on the releases page.

Warning

• DBCollect location

Do NOT put dbcollect in non-standard locations such as /tmp, /root etc. The user dbcollect runs as (usually oracle) needs to have access to the dbcollect file (hence it does not work in /root). It also may not work on mounted paths that have execute disabled (/tmp, /var/tmp, ...)

• Cloning Git Repository

Do NOT clone the git repository and run it from there (it will result in an error). This to prevent tampering, and weird problems (the zipapp package ensures all required files are contained in a predictable location).

Test working

• Run dbcollect -h to see the help page

If this works, dbcollect is installed correctly

• Run dbcollect --version to show version information
• Run dbcollect --update to update to the latest version

Optional, requires internet access