Oracle Scheduler in 11gR2 - p2 schagent

In the previous post about Oracle Scheduler in 11gR2 I already mentioned that the Scheduler Agent now is part of the client installation. Here we will see how to install it.

The Installation

The installation is straight forward, download the client installer, unzip it and navigate to the client directory, where you will find the runInstaller, as usual. Start the installer

./runInstaller

, select the custom installation. and proceed to the next page to choose the desired language. In the next page specify the ORACLE_HOME location of your choice. and proceed to the next page where you can select the tool to install, in this case the Scheduler Agent. Here you specify the current hostname and a port number. Don't worry, they only appear in the $ORACLE_HOME/schagent.conf and can easily be changed afterwards. In the summary screen hit Finish to start the actual installation. After a while the request to run the root.sh pops up, as usual. Run the root.sh, connected as root and the installation is ready.

Configuration

The configuration of the agent as described in my book remains valid. There just are a few new items in the schagent.conf to tweek.

get/put file

Using DISABLE_PUT_FILE we can make the agent to reject put_file requests and with DISABLE_GET_FILE we can also make the agent to reject get_file requests.

job execution

Surprisingly we can also make the agent reject job executions using the DISABLE_JOB_EXECUTION flag. This may look add for a Job Scheduler Agent but it is not. It could very well be that the Schagent in question is to be used as a FileWatcher only.

secure database

In 11gR1 only the credentials were exchanged encrypted. With the SECURE_DATABASES_ONLY flag, the agent only accepts only registered databases and also transmits the job executions results encrypted. This requires a 11gR2 database to be able to use it.

Default Database

The Remote Scheduler Agent now can also be used to run pl/sql jobs on a remote database. Remote, as seen from the database that sends the job to the agent. For the agent this database will be a local database for which ORACLE_SID and ORACLE_HOME can be used. For a job that contains no connect info, the default database will be used.

finalizing

This brand new agent again shows that Oracle is working hard to make their Oracle Scheduler the best Job Scheduler of the planet. In a later post I will show how to use the new options of the Oracle Scheduler Agent.

Ronald.