Linux Tips and Tricks for Oracle

Introduction:

Oracle committed to Linux in 1998, with its first database released on Linux. Now Oracle claims its database software is number one on Linux with a market share of more than 75%. Though Oracle provides low-cost deployment of Linux solutions, many skeptics still hesitate to deploy mission-critical databases on Linux. As a DBA, whenever you change a job, the employer first asks about your experience on Linux. In this article, I would like to discuss some of my favorite Linux commands and tricks that we should be familiar with.

Assign an IP address and configure bonding to your Linux Server:

Many DBAs that are working with Linux for some time are probably familiar with the list of TCP/IP network files involved.

a) File /etc/resolv.conf is the hostname resolver configuration file. This file tells which DNS server will be resolving domain names into an IP Addresses. An example of the file is below:

[root@linuxhost mail]# more /etc/resolv.conf

domain mycompany.com --- Name of your domain or ISP's domain if using their name server

nameserver 11.65.31.100 --- IP address of primary name server

nameserver 11.102.100.100 --- IP address of secondary name server

b) /etc/hosts – file is locally resolve node names to IP addresses. This informs your Linux server of local systems on the network which are not handled by the DNS server or for all systems in your LAN if you are not using DNS. File looks similar to what is displayed below. I do not have any servers added but you can see the columns.

[root@linuxhost mail]# more /etc/hosts

# Do not remove the following line, or various programs # that require network functionality will fail. 127.0.0.1 dbq11ykf hostname localhost.localdomain localhost