Oracle RAC Temp Tablespaces Test

A temporary tablespace, contrary to what the name might indicate, does exist on a permanent basis as do other tablespaces, such as the System and Sysaux tablespaces. However the data in a temporary tablespace is of a temporary nature, which persists only for the length of a user session. Oracle uses temporary tablespaces as work areas for tasks such as sort operations for users and sorting during index creation. Oracle does not allow users to create objects in a temporary tablespace. By definintion, the temporary tablespace holds data only for the duration of the user’s session, and the data can be shared by all users.

Sufficient free space should be available in the temporary tablespace, as critical operations such as sorting and execution of hash-intensive queries may otherwise fail. Periodically checking the space usage in the temporary tablespaces will provide you with early warning signals of potential space contentions. The RAC Temp Tablespaces test monitors the usage of the temporary tablespace in each instance of the Oracle RAC, and proactively reports which temporary tablespace is running dangerously low on free space. Moreover, the test also reports the usage of the temporary tablespace across instances.

Target of the test : Oracle RAC

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the temporary tablespace of each instance managed by the monitored Oracle RAC

Configurable parameters for the test
TEST PERIOD - How often should the test be executed. Host – The host for which the test is to be configured. Port - The port on which the server is listening. SCAN Name - SCAN stands for Single Client Access Name, it is a feature used in Oracle RAC environments that provide a single name for clients to access any Oracle Database running in the cluster. You can provide SCAN as an alternative to IP/Host Name. If this parameter value is provided, it will be used for connectivity otherwise IP/Hostname will be used. orasid - The variable name of the oracle instance. service name - A ServiceName exists for the entire Oracle RAC system. When clients connect to an Oracle cluster using the ServiceName, then the cluster routes the request to any available database instance in the cluster. By default, the service name is set to none. In this case, the test connects to the cluster using the orasid and pulls out the metrics from that database instance which corresponds to that orasid. If a valid service name is specified instead, then, the test will connect to the cluster using that service name, and will be able to pull out metrics from any available database instance in the cluster. To know the ServiceName of a cluster, execute the following query on any node in the target cluster: select name, value from v$parameter where name =’service_names’ User – In order to monitor an Oracle database server, a special database user account has to be created in every Oracle database instance that requires monitoring. A Click here hyperlink is available in the test configuration page, using which a new oracle database user can be created. Alternatively, you can manually create the special database user. When doing so, ensure that this user is vested with the select_catalog_role and create session privileges. The sample script we recommend for user creation (in Oracle database server versions before 12c) for eG monitoring is: create user oraeg identified by oraeg ; create role oratest; grant create session to oratest; grant select_catalog_role to oratest; grant oratest to oraeg; The sample script we recommend for user creation (in Oracle database server 12c) for eG monitoring is: alter session set container=<Oracle_service_name>; create user <user_name>identified by <user_password> container=current default tablespace <name_of_default_tablespace> temporary tablespace <name_of_temporary_tablespace>; Grant create session to <user_name>; Grant select_catalog_role to <user_name>; The name of this user has to be specified here. Password – Password of the specified database user Confirm password – Confirm the password by retyping it here. SSL- By default, this flag is set to No, as the target Oracle cluster is not SSL-enabled by default. If the target cluster is SSL-enabled, then set this flag to Yes. SSL Cipher-This parameter is applicable only if the target Oracle Cluster is SSL-enabled, if not, set this parameter to none. A cipher suite is a set of cryptographic algorithms that are used before a client application and server exchange information over an SSL/TLS connection. It consist of sets of instructions on how to secure a network through SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security). In this text box, provide a comma-seperated list of cipher suites that are allowed for SSL/TLS connection to the target cluster. By default, this parameter is set to none. TRUSTSTORE FILE- This parameter is applicable only if the target Oracle Cluster is SSL-enabled, if not, set this parameter to none. TrustStore is used to store certificates from Certified Authorities (CA) that verify and authenticate the certificate presented by the server in an SSL connection. Therefore, the eG agent should have access to the truststore where the certificates are stored to authenticate and connect with the target cluster and collect metrics. For this, first import the certificates into the following default location <eG_INSTALL_DIR>/lib/security/mytruststore.jks. To know how to import the certificate into the truststore, refer toPre-requisites for monitoring Oracle Cluster. Then, provide the truststore file name in this text box. For example: mytruststore.jks. By default, none is specified against this text box. TRUSTSTORE TYPE-This parameter is applicable only if the target Oracle Cluster is SSL-enabled, if not, set this parameter to none.Specify the type of truststore that contains the certificates for server authentication in this text box. For eg.,JKS. By default, this parameter is set to the value none. TRUSSTORE PASSWORD-This parameter is applicable only if the target Oracle Cluster is SSL-enabled, if not, set this parameter to none. If a Truststore File name is provided, then, in this text box, provide the password that is used to obtain the associated certificate details from the Truststore File. By default, this parameter is set to none.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Used space:	Indicates the space used by this temporary tablespace.	MB	If this value is very high, then it indicates that the memory of this tablespace is almost full.
Free space:	Indicates the amount of unused space in this temporary tablespace.	MB	If this value is very low, then it indicates over-utilization of the tablespace.
Total space:	Indicates the total amount of space allocated for this temporary tablespace.	MB
Max space:	Indicates the maximum extent up to which this temporary tablespace can grow.	MB
Used percentage:	Indicates the percentage of space used in this temporary tablespace.	Percent	If this value is very high, then it indicates over-utilization of the tablespace.
Free percentage:	Indicates the space available for overall growth expressed as a ratio of Free space with respect to the Max space of this temporary tablespace. The formula used is: Free_space/Max_bytes*100	Percent	If this value is very low, it indicates that more space needs to be allotted to this tablespace to ensure that critical operations do not fail.