Oracle Database Appliance - Steps to Generate a Key via MOS to change your CORE Count and apply this Core Key

Asset ID:	1-71-1447093.1
Update Date:	2012-09-13
Keywords:

Solution Type Technical Instruction Sure

Solution 1447093.1 : Oracle Database Appliance - Steps to Generate a Key via MOS to change your CORE Count and apply this Core Key

Applies to:

Oracle Appliance Kit - Version 2.1.0.3 to 2.3.0.0 [Release 2.1 to 2.3]
Oracle Database Appliance - Version Not Applicable and later
Linux x86-64
..

Goal

Configuring the Oracle Database Appliance CPU Core Count

This document discusses how to configure the Oracle Database Appliance CPU core count. The CPU core count is the number of enabled CPU cores per server.

Oracle Database Appliance contains two servers. Each server has 12 CPU cores.

By default, Oracle Database Appliance is shipped with a CPU core count of 12 per server, that is:

All 12 CPU cores are enabled on each of the two servers
This results in a total of 24 enabled CPU cores on the appliance

You can use the default CPU core count of 12 per server, or you can change the CPU core count by following the procedure in "Changing the CPU Core Count". For example, if you change the CPU core count to 8 per server, then:

8 CPU cores are enabled on each of the two servers
This results in a total of 16 enabled CPU cores on the appliance

This note will walk you through steps using the graphic interface via MOS to change the CPU Core Count for your Oracle Database Appliance ( ODA )

- This requires

CSI
Serial number for the ODA box*
Steps via MOS to find your Asset (using the serial # for the ODA box
Choose your Core count to be set for the first time OR to increase your core count from an existing value

* The serial number should be associated with a single CSI.
   You can have more than one product under a single CSI, but the Key Generation is unique to each ODA box and based on the serial# .
    The Core count key generated is not interchangeable with other ODA boxes
    The CSI and associated serial number should be registered during purchase.

Note: Due to a bug in MOS, the Generate Key may not be enabled. The workaround is to click on the serial number in the Asset table one more time from Manage Asset page. The details are provided below,

Login as the user. Click on Systems Tab.
Click on the Serial Number to go to Manage Asset Page
Click on Manage Key from Asset Detail section and you will notice a pop-up with all the fields blank including Serial Number. This suggest that some how serial number did not get passed, so the detail are not shown about the asset and hence the Generate key is disabled.
To workaround the issue, you just have to click on the same serial number again in the asset list
Now when you click on Manage Key, it should populate all the details for the asset properly and you should be able to generate the key.

Fix

Rules and Restrictions for Changing the CPU Core Count

You can change the CPU core count to 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 per server.
If you change the CPU core count, then you can subsequently only increase the CPU core count.

For example, if you change the CPU core count to 6, then you can subsequently change the CPU core count to 8, 10, or 12. If you later change the CPU core count to 8, then you can subsequently change the CPU core count to 10 or 12.

If your desired CPU core count is 12 per server, then use the default configuration. Do not follow the procedure in "Changing the CPU Core Count" to set the CPU core count to 12. Using the default configuration will allow you to later change the CPU core count to a number less than 12, if desired.

Note:
If you mistakenly followed the procedure to set your CPU core count to 12, thereby preventing you from subsequently decreasing your CPU core count, and the error is caught immediately, then contact Oracle Support to remedy the situation.

Changing the CPU Core Count

If you change the core count after the initial deployment, be aware that changing the core count causes both servers to restart. After the initial deployment, plan and carry out the core count change at a suitable time where the availability impact is minimized.

To change the CPU core count:

Log in to the My Oracle Support at: https://myoraclesupport.com
Click the Settings tab and select Assets from the submenu.
Search for the serial number of the appliance in the asset list. (If you cannot locate the serial number, then contact Oracle Support.)
Select the serial number of the appliance and click on "Core Configuration"in the Asset Details Screen
Select Manage Key... from the available actions.
In the Manage Cores Configuration Key dialog box, you can view the serial number of the appliance. If a key was previously generated, then you can view the current configuration.
1. In the Cores Per Server list, select the desired number of enabled CPU cores per server. The value you select will apply to both servers on the appliance. Initially, you can select 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12.
  
  Subsequently, you can only select a number that is greater than the current number.
2. Click Generate Key to generate the key.
3. Click Copy Key to Clipboard to copy the key to the clipboard.
Paste the key into an empty text file and save the file to a location on the Oracle Database Appliance.
Log in to the first node of the servers on the Oracle Database Appliance as root.

Note:
• Customer should not attempt editing the generated key using any tools
• Customer could move the key to the Appliance using scp in binary mode.
• Open a Terminal session or xterm and Login as root
• Execute the oakcli apply core_config_key command as root
The command in this step will reboot the server to complete the reconfiguration.

Run the following command:

# /opt/oracle/oak/bin/oakcli apply core_config_key key_file_location

Where key_file_location is the full path name of the text file that you created in Step 6.

For example:

# /opt/oracle/oak/bin/oakcli apply core_config_key /tmp/dis/core_key4
After the system restarts, Oracle Database Appliance will be reconfigured and both servers will be running with the specified CPU core count.

# /opt/oracle/oak/bin/oakcli show core_config_key
Host's serialnumber = 01234AB56C7
Configured Cores = 20

Note: The CPU’s in the Database Appliance are hyper threaded, so when verifying the number of CPU cores with the cpuinfo command, you will see two times (2X) the number of cores configured pre server. For example, In this note we configured 10 cores per server, for a total of 20 cores for the appliance, so the cpuinfo command will return the following:

# cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -i processor
processor : 0
processor : 1
processor : 2
processor : 3
processor : 4
processor : 5
processor : 6
processor : 7
processor : 8
processor : 9
processor : 10
processor : 11
processor : 12
processor : 13
processor : 14
processor : 15
processor : 16
processor : 17
processor : 18
processor : 19

WARNING! Changing your Core count per CPU has a few IMPORTANT rules

The Core Count is not registered when your ODA arrives: This will default to 24 Cores which is the maximum
You need to register your Core Count at some point if you are not using all 24 cores:
You register via MOS using your CSI
Once in MOS you will need to have your product Serial Number which will be registered and viewable to ONLY the CSI admin or their designated agents -
If you do not find the Asset Serial Number listed in MOS you may not have the proper privileges or the serial number may be under a different CSI -- please check
Once registered using the MOS key generation tool to set your Core count per server, you CANNOT go back to a lower number of Cores - This HWM is set in the motherboard and cannot be decreased
You must use Cores in sets of 2: your options therefore include 2,4,6,8,10 or the maximum of 12 Cores per Server.

Keep in mind that ODA is an architected box:

ODA is not just Oracle 11.2.0.x EE installed on Server hardware that you can buy off the shelf. There are very strict rules regarding configuration: Matching Core counts, consistent disk configuration and One-Command patching are qualities of ODA which are not optional.

FOR SUPPORT and SALES
----------------------------------
Ravishankar suggests the following as a good practice

1. Customer Admin needs to add the Hardware CSI into the MOS Profile and choose the correct Company name [ For Global Organization] and then Click - Request Access-

2. Under Accounts and Privileges: The CSI Status turns to - Pending Oracle Approval -

   [ The support SLA is from 2 hours to 24 hours]

    a. Support checks that the CSI admin user email id has the same domain as the Company.
       That means the Partners would not be able to generate the core key for their
   customers using their email id.
    b. It may be a good idea to call the Support Hotline and follow up on the status and advice

3. An email is sent to the Admin giving the details of the CSI Request and if it is Approved ?

4. If not logging out of the MOS , then remember to REFRESH the page

5. Once the CSI shows the status as -Approved- you are ready to generate the Core key

There has been a transition from MOS using FLASH vs. HTML. During the transition several users experienced problems altering the CORE COUNT using HTML. This problem has been corrected so it is no longer a problem creating the CORE COUNT KEY using HTML. Please report any new Core Key Count generation problems using HTML to the ODA email list

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