ORAchk Collection Manager Application

User Guide

Contents
ORAchk Collection Manager Application ...................................................................................................... 1
User Guide .................................................................................................................................................... 1
Preface .......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Audience: .............................................................................................................................................. 4
Documentation Accessibility:................................................................................................................ 4
Related Documents: .............................................................................................................................. 4
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 5
ORAchk Collection Manager Application Installation ................................................................................... 6
Step #1 Configuring ApEx and Create a Workspace.............................................................................. 6
Step #2 Log in to the Workspace ......................................................................................................... 13
Application Express User Accounts ..................................................................................................... 14
Step #3 Install ORAchk Collection Manager Application ..................................................................... 16
Step #4 Log in to ORAchk Collection Manager Application ................................................................. 22
Upgrading Collection Manager Application ................................................................................................ 24
Getting Started............................................................................................................................................ 29
Incident Ticket System Lookup Lists and Seed Data ............................................................................... 29
Access Control System ............................................................................................................................ 30
ORAchk Collection Manager Application Administration ....................................................................... 31
Email Notification System ....................................................................................................................... 36
ORAchk Collection Manager Application Features ..................................................................................... 41
Global Select Lists ................................................................................................................................... 41
Home tab ................................................................................................................................................ 41
2

Collections tab ........................................................................................................................................ 42

Browse tab .............................................................................................................................................. 44
Compare tab ........................................................................................................................................... 47
Report View tab ...................................................................................................................................... 49
Upload Collections tab ............................................................................................................................ 50
Upload ORAchk Collections using ORAchk tool ...................................................................................... 51
Incident Tracking System ........................................................................................................................ 52
Authoring User Defined Checks .................................................................................................................. 54
ORAchk Collection Manager Application De-installation ........................................................................... 59
De - installation Steps: ....................................................................................................................... 59

Step #1 ........................................................................................................................................ 59

Step #2 ........................................................................................................................................ 61

Step #3 ........................................................................................................................................ 62

What's New By Version:.............................................................................................................................. 63

12.1.0.2.6 ................................................................................................................................................ 63
12.1.0.2.5 ................................................................................................................................................ 63
12.1.0.2.2 ................................................................................................................................................ 63
12.1.0.2.1 ................................................................................................................................................ 63
Troubleshooting Section ............................................................................................................................. 64

Preface
This Guide explains how to install and configure ORAchk Collection Manager
Application.
This Preface contains these topics:

Audience

Documentation Accessibility

Related Documents

Audience:
ORAchk Collection Manager Application Users Guide is intended for anyone responsible
for installing ORAchk Collection Manager Application, Managing and tracking ORAchk
collection data.

Documentation Accessibility:
For information about Oracle's commitment to accessibility, visit the Oracle Accessibility
Program website at
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/accessibility/index.html

Access to Oracle Support

Oracle customers have access to electronic support through My Oracle Support. For
information, visit
http://www.oracle.com/us/support/contact-068555.html or visit
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/accessibility/support/index.html if you are
hearing impaired.

Related Documents:
4

For more information, see these Oracle resources:

RACcheck Users Guide

Oracle Application Express Administration Guide.

Introduction

ORAchk Collection Manager is a companion application to ORAchk and Exachk configuration

audit tool and gives you a complete system for managing and tracking ORAchk collection data
uploaded to tables in a database.
When customers have many systems for which they use ORAchk to periodically check their
configurations it is difficult to manage these on a system by system basis. ORAchk has long had
the ability to upload the results of its audit checks into a database automatically at run time.
However, it was up to the customer to create a custom front-end to that data for reporting
purposes and trend analysis. Now, with ORAchk Collection Manager Oracle provides this
Application Express (APEX) application to be used as a dashboard in which they can track their
ORAchk, RACcheck and Exachk collection data in one easy to use interface.
Please consult the ORAchk User Guide for the details of how to automate and upload data from
the ORAchk collections for use with ORAchk Collection Manager Application. This functionality
is very useful if you are doing ORAchk collections from many systems.
Please see the following MOS Note for downloading application and more details.
ORAchk - Health Checks for the Oracle Stack Document: 1268927.2
Please note that ORAchk Collection Manager Application can be used just as easily as described
here with EXAchk for the Exadata Database Machine or the other Oracle engineered systems.
Collections from non-engineered systems and engineered systems can be tracked and managed
within the same easy to use framework provided by this application. ORAchk Collection
Manager Application displays collection data in an easy to use, multi-functional web console
based on Business Units & different period-s of time including all collections.
The ORAchk Collection Manager is installed on a single system but serves as a enterprise-wide
repository of all ORAchk collections. The ORAchk collections can be configured to upload to the
repository automatically. Refer to the ORAchk User Guide for details on how to configure the
automatic upload of ORAchk collections.
5

ORAchk Collection Manager Application Installation

ORAchk Collection Manager Application is designed using Oracle Application Express (ApEx) 4.2,
application and is fully supported through Oracle Support Services on all Editions (SE1, SE, and EE) of the
Oracle database, 11.1.0.7 or higher with a valid Oracle Database Technical Support agreement. Oracle
Application Express 4.2 can also be used with Oracle Database 11gR1, 11gR2 and 12cR1 Express Edition
(XE) which is only supported via the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) discussion forums and not
through Oracle Support Services.
Oracle Application Express is a rapid web application development tool for the Oracle Database.
Through wizards or direct input, developers can assemble an HTML interface (or application) on top of
database objects. Each application is a collection of linked pages using tabs, buttons, or hypertext links.
By creating an application, users can manage, manipulate, and display data in the Oracle Database.
Prerequisites:

Oracle Database 11.1.0.7.0 or Above

Oracle ApEx 4.2.0 or Above

Note:
If the ApEx 4.2 component is already installed & configured on your
database environment, you can directly go to Installation Step #2.

Step #1 Configuring ApEx and Create a Workspace

We recommend using Non-critical system & Single Instance database to deploy

ApEx 4.2 & installing Collection Manager Application.

Please follow below links to Install and configuring Application Express 4.2.0 or
Above
Check the latest ApEx version and download using below link:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/downloads/index.html
6

Use Oracle Application Express installation Guide to install and configure ApEx.
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E37097_01/doc/index.htm
After installing & configuring ApEx in your environment, follow below steps
Note - 1:
The URLs used for accessing the ORAchk Collection Manager Apex
application will depend on how Apex was deployed initially.
If Apex is configured using the Oracle HTTP Server with mod_plsql, then the
Apex URL would be of the format:.
http://host:port/pls/apex/apex_admin
If Apex is configured using the Oracle XML DB HTTP listener with the embedded
PL/SQL gateway, then the Apex URL would be of the format:.
http://host:port/apex/apex_admin

Creating a Workspace
Log in to Oracle Application Express Administration Services (based on type of
setup you used to configure ApEx.
http://hostname:port/apex/apex_admin
http://hostname:port/pls/apex/apex_admin
eg., http://dbserver.domain.com:8080/apex/apex_admin
ADMIN is the default schema (user) for ApEx administration services in Oracle
Database.
Password is the one you gave at the time of configuring ApEx component in
Oracle Database,
Enter Username and Password details to login Oracle ApEx Administration
Services.

Image 1

After getting in, you will see an ApEx Admin home page, similar screen like
below,

Image 2

Click Manage Workspaces.

Under Workspace Actions, Click Create Workspace. The Create Workspace

Wizard appears.

For Identify Workspace, enter the following:

1. Workspace Name - Enter a unique workspace name (eg., ORAchk_ws
..etc)
8

2. Workspace ID - Leave Workspace ID blank to have the new Workspace

ID automatically generated. A Workspace ID must be a positive integer
greater than 100000.
3. Workspace Description - Enter a workspace description.
4. Click Next.

Image 3

Note: A workspace needs to be associated with a database schema

For Identify Schema,

1. Specify whether you are re-using an existing schema or creating a new
one. This will depend upon whether or not you already have ORAchk
configured to upload data to a schema in the database. If you do then
you would specify that existing schema. If not, the schema name you
would want to create should be the one you intend to use for uploading
the ORAchk data once configured.
2. If you choose an existing schema in the database, it should not be an
ApEx administration schema (admin).
Note:
ORAchk/EXAchk audit checks results can be optionally uploaded into database
tables in the specified schema for use with this application. Alternatively
ORAchk collections can be manually uploaded into this application. Both
methods for loading data into the application can also be used. For more
information please refer ORAchk/EXAchk User Guide.

If you are using an existing schema:

9

1. For Re-use existing schema, select YES.

2. Select a schema from the list.
3. Click Next.

Image 4

If you are creating a new schema:

1.
2.
3.
4.

For Re-use existing schema, select NO.

Enter a schema name and password. (eg., ORAchk_admin etc)
Specify a space quota.
Click Next.

Image 5

Note:
Make sure schema space quota (MB) should be 100 (minimum) to prevent
application import failures.

For Identify Administrator,

10

New Workspace administrator username & Password

Enter Personal details
click next

Image 6

Confirm your selections and click Create Workspace.

Image 7

Workspace creation will takes few seconds , please wait

Verify the details and click on done
11

Image 8

Your workspace has been created

Click Manage Workspaces.

Under Workspace Reports, Click Existing Workspaces, you will see

newly created workspace information

Image 9

To edit Workspace information, just click on Workspace name, able to

see all the information and edit required details and click on apply
changes.
Logout from Oracle Application Express Administration services .

12

Step #2 Log in to the Workspace

Login to Apex Workspace Admin User (Based on your ApEx Configuration )

http://hostname:port/apex
http://hostname:port/pls/apex/
eg., http://dbserver.domain.com:8080/apex/
Enter Workspace Name, Workspace Username and Password details to login
ApEx Workspace Administration Services , click on Login.

Image 10

For the first time login to the workspace admin, it will ask user to reset his/her
password and click on apply changes.

Image 11

Click on Return.

Image 12

Re-login to the ApEx Workspace Administration services using new password.

13

Application Express User Accounts

o

Application Express provides for 3 types of users,

Workspace administrators

Developers

End users

Workspace administrators can additionally create and edit user accounts, manage groups,
manage development services.

Developers can create and modify applications and database objects.

End users (non-administrative) have no development privileges and can only access
applications that do not use an external authentication scheme. For the ORAchk Collection
Manager application, almost all of the users will fall into this category, ie., the application user
(a special role within the ORAchk Collection Manager application), DBA Managers and the DBAs
they manage all of whom will want to use the application.
o

To grant access to the ORAchk Collection Manager Application for non-administrative

users (End users) you must login to the Workspace as an Admin User

Login to Apex Workspace Admin User (Based on your ApEx Configuration )

http://hostname:port/apex
http://hostname:port/pls/apex/

eg., http://dbserver.domain.com:8080/apex/

Click on Administration tab

Click on Manage Users and Groups

Click Create User button

o

These users will typically be the application Admin user(s), DBA

Managers and DBAs and the accounts being set up here will be for
them to use to authenticate to the application and manage their
collections

Fill in the user details

14

Use a naming convention for user names for the sake of consistency. A
reasonable naming convention might be firstname.lastname. Whatever
naming convention is used the names should be unique.

Image 13

For non-admin users be sure to use the default No for User is a developer and
User is a Workspace Administrator radio groups.

Assign a temporary password for each user and communicate that password to
the end user. They will be prompted to change this password the first time
they log into the application.

Click Create User (End User)

15

Step #3 Install ORAchk Collection Manager Application

Importing ORAchk Collection Manager Application into Workspace.

First verify that the Workspace Admin Schema owner and the owner of
the Schema being used for import of the ORAchk Collection Manager
Application have grants for Create Job and execute on the database
package DBMS_RLS & UTL_SMTP which are owned by the SYS user. The
ORAchk Collection Manager application is distributed as a SQL script.
That script should be staged on the workstation being used for
installing the application.

Execute on the database package UTL_SMTP privilege only required if

you want to use ORAchk Collection Manager Email Notification System
Feature. We are using UTL_SMTP package on one of the object
(RAC13_EMAIL) , so it may created with Compilation Error if you fail to
grant EXECUTE ON UTL_SMTP privilege to workspace owner, this
information can be seen in Installation Summary and can be safely
ignorable if you are not using ORAchk Collection Manager Email
Notification System Feature.
eg : Verify whether you have required privileges
select GRANTEE,TABLE_NAME,PRIVILEGE
USER_TAB_PRIVS;
GRANTEE

TABLE_NAME

from

PRIVILEGE

CM_USER

DBMS_RLS

EXECUTE

CM_USER

UTL_SMTP

EXECUTE

select USERNAME,PRIVILEGE from USER_SYS_PRIVS;

USERNAME

PRIVILEGE

CM_USER

CREATE JOB

Login to the ApEx workspace administration services.

16

After Login, Click on Application Builder on Home page.

Image 14

Image 15

Click on Import button,

Click on Choose import file, select the ORAchk Collection Manager

Application SQL script from the location where it was staged as
described previously.

File type - Choose default (Database Application, page or Component

Export)

File Character Set - Choose default (Unicode UTF-8)

Click Next
17

Image 16

Importing file will take some time, please wait.

Here you will see the export file has been imported successfully, but
the application file needs to be installed, so click on Install Application.

Image 17

Click Next.

For Parsing Schema, choose the schema specified for the workspace.

18

Note:
As mentioned previously, make sure DBMS_RLS & UTL_SMTP packages
execution permission & create job sys privilege are granted to
parsing schema owner before starting the import of the application to
prevent database support object creation failures which would prevent
the proper installation of the application.

Build Status - Choose default (Run and Build Application)

Install As Application

Select any one option based on your requirement or if possible

use the same application id as it will be easy to upgrade the
application in future, But Application Id should be unique &
Application ID should not be used by any other application and
any other Workspaces admins with in Oracle ApEx
Administration Server.

Image 18

Click on Install Application

Installing Application will take some time, please wait.

Verify Application Name & Parsing schema, Free space allocated for
Application and Install supporting Objects (always should be Yes ).
19

Image 19

Please grant the required privileges to Workspace owner.

Image 20
Note:
Execute privilege on the database package UTL_SMTP privilege
is only required if you want to use the ORAchk Collection Manager Email
Notification System Feature. The UTL_SMTP package is called from one
an application package (RAC13_EMAIL) , so it may created with a
compilation error if you fail to grant the EXECUTE ON UTL_SMTP
privilege to the workspace owner. This compilation error can be seen in
the Installation Summary and can be safely ignored if you are not
planning on using the ORAchk Collection Manager Email Notification
System Feature.

20

Click Next.

Image 21

Click Install.

Installing Supporting Objects will take some time.

You should see Application installed successfully and click on Run

Application.

Image 22

You can see Installation summary for any error or Installation of

database objects and seed data has failed.

Capture the application ID generated for the application from the

dialog upon successful installation of the application. This application
ID is used in the URLs for accessing the application and youll want to
distribute the correct URL to the eventual users of the application

Click on Run Application.

21

Step #4 Log in to ORAchk Collection Manager Application

Login to ORAchk Collection Manager Application

http://hostname:port/apex/f?p=ApplicationID
http://hostname:port/pls/apex/f?p=ApplicationID
eg., http://dbserver.domain.com:8080/apex/f?p=103
NOTE: The application ID is the one captured at the end of step #2.
Enter user name and password details to login to the ORAchk Collection
Manager Application, click Login.
Note:
Login credentials for user which was created as part of step #2 (Application
Express User Accounts)

Image 23

Image 24

22

After successful login, you are all set to use ORAchk Collection Manager
Application app and its features.

By default the ORAchk Collection Manager Application app is deployed with

some default sample data for the purpose of acclimating new users to the
application. In the Home page you will see displayed some collection info and
data based on time frame and other sample data. Sample data will be hidden
automatically once your own data which will start streaming into the app as
you establish the automation and upload functionality of the tool as described
in the ORAchk User Guide. If you are already using the upload functionality and
have your audit check results data in the database tables, that data will replace
sample data.

Once ACL enable, Application accessible users initially will see sample data until
they assign to any one of the ACL Functional Roles.

Login to ORAchk Collection Manager Application as End user:

The end user is not an Administrator, end users will have only limited access to
the application. Non-administrator users cannot do any administrative access
unless granted administrator or developer privileges.

End User accounts should exist in Workspace where application is installed.

To login into the application, end user just needs an application URL & Login
Credentials. Provide the end users with one of the following URLs (they are
interchangeable) and the temporary password that was assigned for them.
http://hostname:port/apex/f?p=ApplicationID
http://hostname:port/pls/apex/f?p=ApplicationID)
eg., http://dbserver.domain.com:8080/apex/f?p=103

23

Upgrading Collection Manager Application

Upgrading the ORAchk Collection Manager Application is as simple as a fresh Application
Installation. If already running on a lower version of the Collection Manager Application please upgrade
the application and supporting objects to the latest version.
Please use the following steps to upgrade application & supporting objects.
Steps:

Please obtain the latest version of the application from the following MOS
Note.
Collection Manager for ORAchk, RACcheck and Exachk (Doc ID 1602329.1)
Note:
For fresh Application Installation and Upgrading the existing application we
provide the same SQL script.

Login to Apex Workspace where existing ORAchk Collection Manager App

installed.

Image 25

Click on Application Builder

24

Image 26

Click on Collection Manager Edit Button and also note down Application ID
number.

Image 27

Click on Export/Import Button

Image 28

Click on Import Button

Click on Choose import file and select the previously downloaded new
Collection Manager Application SQL script from the location where it was
staged.
25

File type - Choose default (Database Application, page or Component Export)

File Character Set - Choose default (Unicode UTF-8)

Click Next

Image 29

File has exported to Apex repository. Click on Next

For Parsing Schema, choose the schema specified for the workspace.
o

NOTE: As mentioned previously, make sure DBMS_RLS & UTL_SMTP

packages execution permission & create job sys privilege are granted
to parsing schema owner before starting the import of the application
to prevent database support object creation failures which would
prevent the proper installation of the application.

Build Status - Choose default (Run and Build Application)

Install As Application Select option Change Application ID if your existing Application ID is not
2310 else select Reuse Application ID 2310
New Application ID - Please enter your existing Collection Manager Application
ID as noted earlier, and please make sure you have entered the same number
that your Application is running.
Note :
We always release Collection Manager Application with Application ID
2310, so at the time of fresh install we recommend to use the same application
id as it will make it easier to upgrade the application in the future. In any case If
26

you have used different Application Id, Please enter that ID number as New
Application.

Click on Install Application Button.

Image 30

If you have used same application Id, please click on Replace Existing
Application 2310

Image 31
Note:
Before replacing an application consider creating a backup.

Verify Application Name & Parsing schema, Free space allocated for Application
and Install supporting Objects (always should be Yes ). Click on Next

27

Image 32

Please grant the required privileges to Workspace Owner

Image 33
Note:
Execute privilege on the database package UTL_SMTP privilege is only
required if you want to use the ORAchk Collection Manager Email
Notification System Feature. The UTL_SMTP package is called from one
an application package (RAC13_EMAIL) , so it may created with a
compilation error if you fail to grant the EXECUTE ON UTL_SMTP
privilege to the workspace owner. This compilation error can be seen in
the Installation Summary and can be safely ignored if you are not
planning on using the ORAchk Collection Manager Email Notification
System Feature

Click on Install

28

Image 34

Installing Supporting Objects will take some time. Please be patient.

You should see Application installed successfully and click on Run Application.

Image 35

Examine the Installation summary for any errors or if Installation of database

objects and seed data has failed.

Image 36

Please resolve the issues and rerun the failed sql statements manually by
connecting database from SQL Prompt.

Capture the application ID generated for the application(eg, 2310) from the
dialog upon successful installation of the application. This application ID is used
in the URLs for accessing the application and youll want to distribute the
correct URL to the eventual users of the application

Click on Run Application.

Getting Started
Incident Ticket System Lookup Lists and Seed Data

29

The ORAchk Collection Manager application provides a basic Incident Ticket system and is
deployed with seed data for the lookup lists used for data entry for incident tickets:

Products

Category

Customers

Customer Contacts

Notifications

Status Codes

Incident Severity

Incident Urgency

The seed data provided are reasonable values that might be commonly used but each organization may
have additional values that they will want to add or perhaps even change some of the seed data
provided with the application. This data is managed by only Admin role privileged user and using the
Administration tab accessed by clicking the gear icon in the upper right corner
Some thought should be given to the requirements of the organization and the lookup lists should be
configured appropriately before beginning to utilize the incident ticket system.

Access Control System

Functional Roles
By default the Access Control System is disabled. Access Control Disable means that all application
features are available to any user who can authenticate. Disabling Access Control makes all
authenticated users administrators with Admin user privileges. If Access Controls are enabled in the
Administration tab end users with accounts can be assigned one or more roles. There are three
functional roles within the ORAchk Collection Manager application that can be enabled.

Admin
o

Admin role user may or may not be a Workspace Administrator for the
application depending upon the role separation requirements of the customer.
30

DBA Manager

DBA

Once the users are configured they should be assigned roles before accessing the system.

ORAchk Collection Manager Application Administration

Admin

Any end user granted an Admin role by the Workspace Administrator will have an Admin User
privileges within the ORAchk Collection Manager application.

Login to ORAchk Collection Manager Application via a URL like below.

http://hostname:port/apex/f?p=ApplicationID
http://hostname:port/pls/apex/f?p=ApplicationID)

eg., http://dbserver.domain.com:8080/apex/f?p=103
Once logged in to the application the Admin User should see an Administration menu choice
(gear icon) in the upper right of the application. Clicking this icon should navigate to the
Administration page pictured below.

Privileges included for an Admin role are

o

add/revoke Admin privilege for other users

define Business Units (BU) to the configuration

assign DBA Manager role to users

assign DBA Managers to one or more Bus

assign systems to Bus (a system can belong to one BU)

assign DBAs to DBA Managers

assign systems to DBAs

ignore any check on a collection, BU or system level basis

31

create and assign incidents to any user

manage all incidents

Image 37

Only Admin role users can have privilege to edit any section under the Administration menu.

As mentioned earlier, Admin role users need to configure data based on their requirements
under the administration menu in order to prepare for the wider usage of the application. This
is a one-time setup task but the configuration can be changed over time to suit the needs of the
organization. Examples of the configuration data that needs to be set up are:
o

Products

Customers (internal designations for workgroups)

Categories

Notifications

Status codes

Manage Email Server & Job details

Manage Notifications

Incident Severity
32

Urgency

Manage User Roles and Assign systems to users

Business Units (BUs)

Assign systems to BUs

DBA Manager

Any user granted the DBA Manager by an admin.

Login to ORAchk Collection Manager Application via a URL like below.

http://hostname:port/apex/f?p=ApplicationID
http://hostname:port/pls/apex/f?p=ApplicationID)
Upon logging in to the application DBA Managers should see an Administration
menu choice (gear icon) in the upper right of the application. Clicking on it will
access the following page.

Image 38
Click on Manage User Roles,

Image 39

33

In above sample screen, User (Murali) has a DBA Manager Role to Finance BU,
DBA Manager can edit user roles or assign systems in his BU to other users
belongs to his BU.

Privileges included for the DBA Manager role are

o

The scope of a DBA Manager is an entire BU, or multiple Bus

assign DBAs to BUs the manager manages

assign DBAs to one or more systems (according to the BUs the Manager
is assigned to)

ignore any check on a collection, BU or system level basis within the BUs
and systems they manage

create incidents for any system they manage

assign incidents to DBAs that manage the systems in their Business

Units

Manage any incidents for systems within their assigned Business Units

DBAs

Any user granted the DBA.

Login to ORAchk Collection Manager Application via a URL like below.

http://hostname:port/apex/f?p=ApplicationID
http://hostname:port/pls/apex/f?p=ApplicationID)

Upon logging in to the application the DBA should see an Administration menu
choice (gear icon) in the upper right of the application. Clicking the icon will
access the following page.

Any end user granted an Admin role by the Workspace Administrator will have
an Admin User privileges within the ORAchk Collection Manager application.

34

Image 40
Click on Manage User Roles, DBA user will only have read access.

Image 41
In above sample screen, user (Murali) has a DBA Role to hpi214-clust system
under Manufacturing BU, but he cannot edit user roles and cannot assign
system to other users.

Privileges included in the DBA role are

o
o
o
o

No access to Access Control List management.

Can be assigned to manage systems within one or more BUs by DBA
Managers from those Bus
Ignore any check on a collection or system level basis within the systems
they manage.
manage any incidents assigned to them

35

Email Notification System

The ORAchk Collection Manager application provides an Email Notification system that users can
subscribe to. The setup involves (i) configuring Email Server, its port, and frequency of email
notifications and (ii) Registering the email address.
Note: Only Admin role users can have the privilege to manage Email Notification Server and Job
details.
Steps Involved:
a. After login to the ORAchk Collection Manager, click on Administration Icon on the right hand
corner. It brings up the following page:

Image 42

b. Under Administration section, click on Manage Email Server & Job Details. This brings up the
following page:

36

Image 43
Here, you need to input:
-

A valid Email Server Name & its Port Number. Then click on Set My Email Server Settings.

You may change Email Notification Frequency as per your needs.

On same page you can see Notification Job Run status details.

37

Image 44

c. Now, go back to Administration page, and click on Manage Notifications. This brings up:

Image 45

38

On this page, perform the following:

-

If this is first time, please enter your valid email address. Subsequent access to Manage
Notifications page will show your email address automatically.

By default, Subscribe/Unsubscribe My Mail Notifications is checked (selected).

Under Collection Notifications section, choose the type of collections for which you want
to receive notifications.

You can also select to receive notification when the available space in ORAchk CM
Tablespace falls below 100MB.

You may validate the notification delivery by clicking on Test button under Test your
email settings.
If the configuration is correct, you will receive an email. If you dont receive an email please
check with admin.
A sample is provided below:
From: username@domainname.com
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2016 12:21 PM
To: username@domainname.com
Subject: Test Mail From Collection Manager
Testing Collection Manager Email Notification System

Finally, click Submit.

Note 1: Manage Notifications section will be available for all users irrespective of the role under
the Administration menu.
Note 2: If the ACL system is enabled, registered users will receive notifications for the systems
that they have access to, otherwise if no ACLs are configured all registered users will receive all
notifications.

Depending upon the selection(s) you made under Collection Notifications section, you will receive an
email with Subject: Collection Manager Notifications containing application URL with results.

39

For Example:

Under Comments column, you will notice Click here for details. When you click on respective URL, it will
request for authentication and then will show respective comparision report. A sample report is shown
below:

40

ORAchk Collection Manager Application Features

Global Select Lists

ORAchk Collection Manager Application has an option to display the data based on select
lists like Business Units, Systems & Data for last periods of time. All these select lists are
global within the application and options available on starting of each tab.

Business Unit

System

Data Interval

Home tab
o

Displays Systems & Their Status in graphs with color coded green, orange and red based on
check results (passed, warning & failed).

The Home tab has an option to display the data based on select lists like Business Units &
Data for last periods of time. There is also an option to filter the most failed/warned checks
& recent collections based on system name.

The Most Failed Checks region displays information for the most frequently failed checks for
all collections for the time period, Business Unit or System selected and displays the check
name, fail count. There is a similar region for Most warned checks

The Recent Collections region displays brief information about recently uploaded collections
based on time frame, Overall score with Fail, Warning and Pass counts and a Status flag.
Recent collections are automatically compared to the last collection from the same system,
whenever it occurred, if there is one.

Status Flags are color-coded green, orange or red based on the comparison between
the recent collection and the last collection, if any.
1. GREEN: There is no difference at all between the two collections or one or
more findings from the last collection improved from WARNING or FAIL to PASS
or there was no earlier collection to compare with.

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2. ORANGE: There were one or more regressions between the last collection and
the most recent on a given system. In other words some findings transitioned in
a negative way, eg., PASS to WARNING.
3.

RED: There were one or more regressions between the last collection and the
most recent on a given system. In other words some findings transitioned in a
negative way, eg., PASS to FAIL

Recent Activity (In User Range) shows recent activities by all users across all collections
specific to the access role granted the user. Different types of user roles are
1. DBA role user able to see everything within his/her systems which he/she
assigned.
2. DBA Manager role user able to see everything within his/her Business Unit &
Systems which he /she assigned.
3.

Admin role user can see everything When you have a collection data uploaded
in to app

Below you can see a Home Page tab sample screen shot.

Image 48

Collections tab
o

Displays all collections and allows the user to filter the list of collections based on
Business units and System. The user may also filter based on Status Flag by clicking on
the flag buttons across the top of the page. The list is also inherently filtered to those
collections the user has access to, based on their assigned role.
42

The Collections tab displays incident info for each collection indicated by Delta () color
coded Red, Blue & Green based on ticket status, by clicking the delta symbol the user can
raise a new ticket or alter the ticket for an entire collection.
1. RED (No Incident ticket exists): Clicking the red triangle initiates the process to
create a new Incident Ticket for the collection or Individual checks.
2. BLUE (An open Incident ticket exists): Clicking the blue triangle opens the Incident
ticket for editing.
3. GREEN (A closed Incident ticket exists): Clicking the green triangle opens the closed
Incident ticket for viewing.

Collection Score is calculated based on failed, warning & passed checks. If a user raised a
ticket for the collection, resolved the issues and the ticket is closed signifying the issues have
all been resolved then that collection score will be changed to 100%. If a user raised a ticket
for an individual check and if it is closed signifying that the finding has been resolved, then
the status of the check will be PASS and collection score will be recalculated based on that
one finding having been resolved.
Collection Score is derived using following formula.
Every check has 10 points
Failure will deduct 10 points
Warning will deduct 5 points
Info will deduct 3 points

A More Info link next to a collection indicates the collection was manually uploaded into the
application. In those cases there is more information available for the collections and the
user can browse that information
Clicking the linked collection name in the list loads that collection in the Browse Tab
Below you can see a Collections tab sample screen shots.

o
o

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Image 49

Browse tab
o

Allows the user to list individual checks according to various selectable filters.

Once a list of checks has been created the user may perform various selectable filters

Users may create and alter Incident tickets for individual audit check findings similar to
as described in the Collections tab.

Users may also select checks to ignore and to undo previously ignored checks. If a user
reviews failed audit checks and feels some of them can be ignored for some reason,
then the user may select the checkbox beside the audit check and click on the Ignore
Selected button. Those checks will be marked as FAIL-IGNORED, indicating the check
had failed but is being ignored.

Depending upon the level selected for ignoring the checks will be ignored for the
entire level.

To ignore selected failed checks , you must choose the ignore type from the
following list,
1. Ignore from collection
2. Ignore from system
3. Ignore from business unit
4. Ignore from all business units
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Note: The domain for ignoring checks is within the role assigned to the user.

All Ignored checks will be listed under the Ignored Checks tab, if needed user can do
undo ignore as well.

To undo selected Ignored checks, you must consider the type from the
following list,
1. Type Undo-Ignore from collection
2. Undo-Ignore from system
3. Undo-Ignore from business unit
4. Undo-Ignore from all business units

Note:
The domain for undoing ignored checks is within the role assigned to
the user.
o

Below you can see a Browse tab & Ignored Check sample screen shots.

Image 50
45

Image 51

Image 52

46

Image 53

Compare tab
o

contains two different functionalities,

Compare Audit check Results

Compare Auditcheck Results allows users to compare the audit check

findings from two different collections based on Business Unit, System,
DB Version & Platform. The collections available for comparison will be
limited based on those selection filters.

Collections from the same or different systems may be compared

Compare Patch Results

Compare Patch Results allows users to compare installed Oracle patches

from two different collections. The comparison displays the difference
between the two collections based on patch results.

Below you can see a Compare tab sample screen shots.

Image 54

47

Image 55

Image 56
Note:
Row highlighted with blue color tells, patch is recommended but not installed in one of
the collections.

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Report View tab

o

Report View is a graphical summary of collection.

Report View has Printable view option to print the graphical summary of system collection.

Displays separate graphical summary view for Database server checks, Instance checks and
Home path checks breakup based on check type and check status in collection.

Displays System Health check details based on status and check type in collection.

Image 57

Image 58
49

Upload Collections tab

o

Provides an interface for manually uploading a collection into ORAchk Collection Manager
Application and provides a list of uploaded collections and file details. These manually uploaded
collections are unzipped and their data imported into the framework just as if they had been
uploaded at runtime when the tool was run. So even if the tool isnt configured for automatic
upload into the ORAchk Collection Manager Application they can always be uploaded manually.
NOTE:
Collections can be automatically uploaded into the database hosting the
ORAchk Collection Manager Application at runtime using a combination of
tables and environment variables. These requirements are documented in the
ORAchk User Guide. Please refer to the ORAchk User Guide Appendix entitled
Uploading ORAchk Results and Patches to a Database for Reporting.

Below you can see Upload Collections tab sample screen shots

Image 59

50

Upload ORAchk Collections using ORAchk tool

o

Starting with ORAchk 2.2.4 Oracle now provides the ORAchk Collection Manager application for
viewing and managing this data from a single repository in order to provide an enterprise-wide
view of ORAchk findings.

For customers who have a large number of systems and databases it would be useful to upload
the results of the audit checks done by the tool and/or the list of installed patches into database
tables for use as a source of data for reporting.

In order to support this feature a number of environment variables need to be set in the ORAchk
execution environment. Please consult the ORAchk User Guide for more details
Environment variables (with example settings):
export RAT_UPLOAD_TABLE=auditcheck_result
export RAT_PATCH_UPLOAD_TABLE=auditcheck_patch_result
export RAT_ZIP_UPLOAD_TABLE=rca13_docs
export RAT_UPLOAD_USER=auditcheck (owner of the table created)
export RAT_UPLOAD_PASSWORD=Auditcheck (password for the owner)
export RAT_UPLOAD_CONNECT_STRING="(DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS =
(PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = bonanza)(PORT = 1521))(LOAD_BALANCE =
yes)(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVER= DEDICATED)(SERVICE_NAME = orcl)))"
export RAT_UPLOAD_ORACLE_HOME=<path of database home> (optional)

Note:
Use the fully qualified address (as in the example above) for the connect string rather
than an alias from the tnsnames.ora file so that it is not necessary to rely on tnsnames.ora file
name resolution on all the servers where the tool might be run. The double quotes should be
included.
o

When the first five above environment variables are set in the execution environment the tool
will assume that the intent is to upload the data into the tables and at the end of the process it
will attempt to upload the data. This process relies upon the environment being properly set, i.e.
the connect string must be reachable, the username and password must be correct and the
table name must be correct. If the tool is unable to connect to the database a message to that
effect will be written to the log. If the RAT_UPLOAD_ORACLE_HOME variable is set the tool will
invoke sqlplus from that home rather than attempting to invoke sqlplus from the current
$ORACLE_HOME derived by the tool. If any of the first four environment variables are not set
then the tool will not attempt to upload the data.

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Incident Tracking System

The Incidents tab gives you a complete system for tracking support incidents
The Incident tracking system allow you to enter customers and multiple contacts for
each customer, specify products and categories and set up values to limit status codes,
severity and urgency attributes for an incident.
Users can only raise a new ticket by clicking the Delta () symbol, this symbol can be
seen only in Collections & Browse tabs.
The Browse tab allows the user to create a new ticket on individual checks.
The Collections tab allows the user to create a single ticket for entire collection.
Delta () symbol is color coded Red; Blue & Green based on ticket status, by clicking the
delta symbol the user can raise a new ticket or alter the ticket.

RED (No Incident ticket exists): Clicking the red triangle initiates the process to
create a new Incident Ticket for the collection or Individual checks.

BLUE (An open Incident ticket exists): Clicking the blue triangle opens the
Incident ticket for editing.

GREEN (A closed Incident ticket exists): Clicking the green triangle opens the
closed Incident ticket for viewing.

Once a ticket is entered into the system, you can track the progress of the ticket in an
update area of the ticket, or add attachments and links to the incident. You can also use
tags to further classify incidents and use the resulting tag cloud in your reports. Getting
Started
Incident access and management can happen only within user's access control range.
Note that the Incident Tracking Feature of ORAchk Collection Manager Application is a
basic stand-alone system and is not designed for integration with other commercial
enterprise level trouble ticketing systems

Below you can see Upload Collections tab sample screen shots

52

Image 60

Creating Incident Tickets

Click on the Delta () symbol colored RED

Add your ticket details
Click the Next button
Select the Product and Product Version
Click the Next button
Select the Urgency of the ticket
Select the Severity of the ticket
Select the Status of the ticket
Select the Category of the ticket
Enter a summary and description of the incident
Click Create Ticket

Editing Incident Tickets

Click the Incident tab

Click the Open Tickets button
Click on top of the ticket
Click Edit Ticket button
Alter required details
Click Apply Changes

Note:
By clicking Delta () symbol colored GREEN in the Collections and Browse
tabs are the alternative ways of editing Incident tickets.
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Incident Tracking Features:

Search option available.

Track and Analyze Incident Tickets
Flexible and updateable incident status
Robust Reporting
Link, Note, and File Attachments
Flexible Access Control (reader, contributor, administrator model)

Authoring User Defined Checks

As of version 12.1.0.2.5 ORAchk now supports User Defined Checks. These are checks written, tested,
verified and maintained by you, which are specific to your environment. Oracle will support the
framework for the creation and running of these user defined checks but not the logic of the checks
themselves. It is your responsibility to test, verify, author, maintain and support the checks. The checks
will be executed at runtime by the ORAchk script and the results of the user defined checks will be
displayed in a User Defined Checks section of the html report.
The user defined checks are stored in the ORAchk Collection Manager schema and output to an XML file
which is then co-located with the ORAchk script. When ORAchk 12.1.0.2.5 and above runs on your
system it checks for the presence of this XML file by name and if it finds one by default it will run the
checks contained therein and include the results in the standard HTML report.
Step 1
To create a new User Defined Check, click the User Defined Checks tab in the Collection Manager,
then chose Add New Check:

54

Step 2
On the next screen choose the Audit Check Type, either OS Check or SQL Check, this choice
decides how your check logic will be coded. OS Checks use a system command to determine check
status, SQL checks run an SQL statement to determine check status.

55

Step 3
Once you have selected an Audit Check Type, the screen will update with the applicable fields. What you
see here will depend on your choice of Audit Check Type.
Any time during authoring click the title of a field to see help documentation specific to that field.
OS and SQL commands are supported. Running user defined checks as root is NOT supported.

56

Step 4
Once a check is created it will show in the Available Audit Checks section.
Further checks can be created and each can be filtered using the filters on this page.

57

Step 5
Click the Generate XML button, on the right you will then see a link to download the generated
user_defined_checks.xml.
All the checks that have been authored and which have not been placed on hold will be included in the
XML file when generated. Placing checks on hold is equivalent to a logical delete. If a problem is
discovered with a check or the logic has not been perfected it can be placed on hold to keep it from
being included in the XML file until such time that it is production ready and the hold can be removed
to include it in the XML file next time it is generated.
Download the user_defined_checks.xml and save it into the same directory as the orachk script. ORAchk
will execute the user defined checks next time it runs.

Alternatively, if it is desirable to run ONLY the user defined checks that is accomplished using the built-in
profile user_defined_checks as an argument in the command line. When this option is used then the
user defined checks will be the only checks run and User Defined Checks section will be the only one
with results displayed in the report.
./orachk profile user_defined_checks

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If it is desirable to omit the user defined checks at runtime that can be accomplished using the
excludeprofile argument
./orachk excludeprofile user_defined_checks

ORAchk Collection Manager Application De-installation

De - installation Steps:

Step #1.

Deleting ORAchk Collection Manager Application.

Login to Apex Workspace Admin User (Based on your ApEx Configuration )

http://hostname:port/apex
http://hostname:port/pls/apex/
eg., http://dbserver.domain.com:8080/apex/

Enter Workspace Name, Workspace Username and Password details to login

ApEx Workspace Administration Services , click on Login.

Image 61
59

Click on Application Builder

Choose ORAchk Collection Manager Application, Click on Edit

Click on Edit Application Page

Image 62

Click on Delete.

Image 63

You must choose Deinstallation Options

Remove Application Definition & Deinstall Supporting Objects.

Click on Deinstall.

Image 64
60

Image 65

Deinstall successful. Application definition & app supporting objects deleted

from the hosting database.

Step #2.

Deleting Workspace Admin

Login to Oracle Application Express (Based on your ApEx Configuration )

http://hostname:port/apex/apex_admin
http://hostname:port/pls/apex/apex_admin
eg., http://dbserver.domain.com:8080/apex/apex_admin

Click on Manage Workspaces

Under Workspace Reports, Click Existing Workspaces, check Workspace name

and click on delete under action.

Image 66
61

Select the check box to confirm that you wish to proceed with the removal &
Click Next.

Image 67

Click on Remove Workspace.

Image 68

You will see a message Workspace has been successfully removed.

Step #3.

Deinstall ApEx component.

Use Oracle Application Express installation/Deinstall Guide to Deinstall ApEx.

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E37097_01/doc/index.htm

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What's New By Version:

12.1.0.2.6

Added ability to subscribe or unsubscribe to email notifications of automated collection

results, comparisons and ORAchk Collection Manager tablespace free space warnings
New user defined comment field on user defined checks, which applies only to the GUI
and doesn't appear anywhere in the xmlgeneration/html report. This can be used as an
audit trail.

12.1.0.2.5

Added the ability to Create User Defined Checks

12.1.0.2.2

Implemented Horizontal scrollbar to Systems Graph in Home tab.

Showing Patch Comparison results in more intuitive format.

Added an option to filter collections based on profile run in Collections tab.

Report view with graphical summary and colors are proportional to the number of
passes and failures.

Other/Misc

Fixed an issue related to Patch Results Diff Button.

12.1.0.2.1

Made BU, Systems and Data Interval as Global Items. That is set once and applies to all
pages.

Showing Profiles against to collections, if collections run for profiles.

Added 2 new columns target_type and target_value to audit check result table, these
make queries faster and easier to classify checks uniquely.

Report view with graphical summary and breakup based on check type.

Another format of diff report almost similar to diff report generated by collections diff
script.

One more level navigation of system graphs in Home page.

63

Ability to ignore Warning checks.

Show graphs labels horizontally and vertically based on no of entries.

Other/Misc

Changing Application release version to 12.1.0.2.1.

Troubleshooting Section

If you see any error like error at line 13: PLS-00201: identifier 'UTL_SMTP' must be
declared in Installation Summary, please grant execute on UTL_SMTP privilege to
Parsing schema or Workspace owner.

If there is a requirement or a desire to download files from within the ORAchk Collection
Manager app then here are two additional steps that will be required. Note these steps
are NOT required to upload files into ORAchk Collection Manager only to download
them FROM the app.
Prior to installing the ORAchk Collection Manager app you will want to run the
below DDL to re-create the Application Express built-in function
WWV_FLOW_EPG_INCLUDE_MOD_LOCAL in the APEX_XXXXX or
FLOW_XXXXXX schema (whichever is appropriate to your environment) as
described below, i.e., the function should return TRUE. After re-creating the
function make sure it is in a VALID state..
CREATE OR replace FUNCTION Wwv_flow_epg_include_mod_l
ocal(
procedure_name IN VARCHAR2)
RETURN BOOLEAN
IS
BEGIN
RETURN TRUE; ----- It should be always RETURN
TRUE
IF Upper(procedure_name) IN ( '' ) THEN
RETURN TRUE;
ELSE
RETURN FALSE;
END IF;
END Wwv_flow_epg_include_mod_local;

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Then once the ORAchk Collection Manager app has been

installed there will be a new procedure in the schema
defined for the ORAchk Collection Manager app named
RCA13_GET_DOC. You will need to execute the following
grant in order to enable file downloads
SQL> grant execute on RCA13_GET_DOC to public;

Both of these steps can be deferred until such time as the file download
capability is determined to be needed and are not required for the basic
installation and functionality of the application.

Make sure ApEx component has installed Successfully and if you have revoked any
default system privileges from default ApEx users, please grant it back.

Make sure all below ApEx related users should be unlocked and unexpired.
alter user ANONYMOUS account unlock;
alter user XDB account unlock;
alter user APEX_PUBLIC_USER account unlock;
alter user FLOWS_FILES account unlock;

If you see any issues in setting up Email notifications, please cross verify your ACL
permissions and privileges to application schema on SMTP mail server.
Example: To create ACL system and grant privileges to Application schema
BEGIN
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.CREATE_ACL(acl

=> 'apex1.xml',

description => 'APEX ACL',

principal => 'ORACHK CM USERNAME',
is_grant => true,
privilege => 'connect');
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ADD_PRIVILEGE(acl

=> 'apex1.xml',

principal => 'ORACHK CM USERNAME',

is_grant => true,
privilege => 'resolve');
DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.ASSIGN_ACL(acl => 'apex1.xml',
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host => 'mailservername.com',lower_port=>10,upper_port=>1000);

END;
/
COMMIT;

If you see any uploaded collection processing is not started or collection status is NEW
for long time, please verify database scheduler jobs (RCA13_PROCESS_DATA &
RCA13_COLLECTION_3718) status and make sure jobs are enabled and running fine.
select * from user_scheduler_jobs where job_name like 'RCA13_13%';
select * from user_scheduler_running_jobs where job_name like 'RCA13_%'
select * from user_scheduler_job_run_details where job_name like 'RCA13_%' order by
log_date desc;

If you see collection process is failed that could be a lack of space in APEX tablespace
and application schema tablespace, so please increase the tablespace sizes as much as
needed.

66