UNIX/Linux Commands for Oracle DBAs

DBA TEAM
Revision History
Date
13/05/013

Revision
1.0

Name
VikramGrg

Reviewer
Ashish Man. Baisyet

Basic File Navigation

df command in Linux provides disk space usage information of your file systems.
$ df h (in human readable format)
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ df -h
Filesystem

Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/sda2

30G 19G 8.6G 69% /

/dev/sda1

99M 9.9M 84M 11% /boot

tmpfs

2.0G 295M 1.8G 15% /dev/shm

du command
Display how much disk space is being used by directories.
[oracle@asmdb asmsoft]$ du -ak /softwares/asmsoft/
-a - Shows counts for all files encountered, not only directories.
-k - Use 1024 byte blocks instead of the default 512.
Basic File Navigation
Head command prints the first N number of data of the given input. By default, it prints first 10
lines of each given file.
tail
Show last lines of a file.
$tail -500 alert.log
man

#Print only the last 500 lines of the alert log file.

The Linux command "man" is used at the command line to explain the functions and definitions
of other commands commonly used within Linux. The term "man" is short for manual pages
and gives you a very in-depth explanation of the said command which you are referring to.
$ man ls
$ man chown
"pwd" command displays the present working directory.
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ pwd
/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1
The "ls" command lists all files and directories in the specified directory. If no location is defined
it acts on the current directory.
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ ls
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ ls /u01
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ ls al
$ ls l or ll (Listing in long format).
The "-a" flag lists hidden "." files.
The "-l" flag lists file details (Listing in long format).
"cd" command -> change directories.
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ cd /u01/app/oracle
[oracle@asmdb oracle]$ pwd
/u01/app/oracle
"touch" -> create a new empty file.
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ touch my.log
vi Editor
The default editor that comes with the UNIX/Linux operating system is called vi (visual editor)

[oracle@asmdb ~]$ vi filename.txt

The vi editor has three modes, command mode, insert mode and command line mode.
1. Command mode: letters or sequence of letters interactively command vi. Commands
are case sensitive. The ESC key can end a command.
2. Insert mode: Text is inserted. The ESC key ends insert mode and returns you to
command mode. One can enter insert mode with the "i" (insert), "a" (insert after), "A"
(insert at end of line), "o" (open new line after current line) or "O" (Open line above
current line) commands.
3. Command line mode: One enters this mode by typing ":" which puts the command line
entry at the foot of the screen.
To Exit vi
Usually the new or modified file is saved when you leave vi. However, it is also possible
to quit vi without saving the file.
* :x<Return>

Save and quit vi.

:wq<Return> Write and quit vi .

:q<Return>

quit (or exit) vi .

* :q!<Return> quit vi even though latest changes have not been saved for this vi call
cat ->Display one or more files contents.
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ cat pfile1.ora
"rm" command -> to delete files and directories.
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ rm my.log
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ rm -rf /softwares/asmsoft1
Recursively(-r) deletes directories and subdirectories with contents forcefully(-f) without
prompt.
"mv" command -> move/rename files and directories.
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ mv myfile.log myfile_bk.log
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ mv * /softwares/asmsoft/
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ mv /archive/arch_bk/* .

"." -> represents current directory.

"cp" command -> copy files and directories.
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ cp myfile.log myfile_bk.log
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ cp * /softwares/asmsoft/
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ cp /archive/arch_bk/* .
"mkdir" command -> create new directories.
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ mkdir archive
[root@asmdb ~]# mkdir -p /u01/app/oracle
"which" command -> to get location of an executable you are using.
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ which sqlplus
chggrp
Change group of the named file or directory.
Example:
$ su - root
#s itch to root accou t or use su o ly .
$ chgrp oracle test.txt
#Change the group ownership of the test file.
$ ls l test
#Display again the test file information using the long list
format (-l)

File Permissions
Linux Files, Directories and Permissions.
"umask" command -> read or set default file permissions for the current user.
[root@asmdb ~]# umask 022
The default umask value is 0022, which decides the default permission for a new file or
directory. Default permission for a directory is 0777, for files the permissions are 0666 from
which the default umask value 0022 is deducted to get the newly created files or directory
permission.

Note:- The umask value is subtracted from the default file permissions (666) to give the final
permission.
666 : Default permission
022 : - umask value
644 : final permission
Final default permission for a file is calculated as shown below:
Default file permission: 666
Default umask : 022
Final default file permission: 644
Final default permission for a directory is calculated as shown below:
Default directory permission: 777
Default umask: 022
Final default directory permission: 755
"chmod" command -> alter file/folder permissions.
chmod stands for change mode.
[root@asmdb ~]# chmod -R 775 /softwares/
Character eqivalents can be used in the chmod command.
[root@asmdb ~]# chmod o+rwx *.log
[root@asmdb ~]# chmod g+r softwares
[root@asmdb ~]# chmod -Rx *.log
Here u-> user, g-group, o-other
Permission Equivalence
Value

Permission

read (r)

write (w)

execute (x)

"chown" command -> reset/change the ownership of files/directories.

[root@asmdb ~]# chown -R oracle.oinstall /u01
-R" -> recurse through any subdirectories.

OS Users Management
"useradd" command to add OS users.
[root@asmdb ~]# useradd -g oinstall -G asmadmin,asmdba,asmoper -d /home/grid -s
/bin/bash grid
"-g " specifies the primary group.
"-G " specifies secondary groups.
"-d" specifies the default directory.
"-s" specifies the default shell.
-u, --uid UID
The numerical value of the user as ID. This value must be unique, unless the -o option is
used.
usermod" command is used to modify the user settings.
[root@asmdb ~]# usermod -g oinstall -G dba,oper,asmdba oracle
"userdel" command is used to delete existing users.
[root@asmdb ~]# userdel -r npuser
Delete the specified user recursively (deleting its home directory also).
groupadd
Creates a new group account.
[root@asmdb ~]# groupadd dba
Make sure it is created successfully.

[root@asmdb ~]# cat /etc/group | grep dba

dba:x:502:oracle,grid
If you want to create a group with a specific group id, do the following.
# groupadd -g 9090 apache

"passwd" command is used to set/change the users login password.

[root@asmdb ~]# passwd vikramgrg
"who" command -> to list all users who have OS connections.
[root@asmdb ~]# who
[root@asmdb ~]# who | grep -i ora
[root@asmdb ~]# who | wc -l
"grep -i ora" command restricts the output to lines containing "ora".
"wc -l" command returns the number of lines from "who", and hence the number of
connected users.
Process Management
Linux Process Management (ps, top, kill).
"ps" command lists current process information.
[root@asmdb ~]# ps
[root@asmdb ~]# ps -ef | grep pmon
Specific processes can be killed by specifying the process id in the kill command.
[root@asmdb ~]# kill -9 12345
The "uname" and "hostname" commands can be used to get information about the host.

[oracle@asmdb ~]$ uname -a

Linux asmdb.nepasoft.com.np 2.6.18-8.el5 #1 SMP Fri Jan 26 14:15:21 EST 2007 i686 i686 i386
GNU/Linux
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ hostname
asmdb.nepasoft.com.np
*Error Lines in Files
You can return the error lines in a file using.
[oracle@asmdb ~]$ more alert_nepasoft.log | grep -i ORAMore is a filter for paging through text one screenful at a time.
"-i" flag makes the comparison case insensitive.

Linux Archive Tools (tar, star, gzip, bzip2, zip, cpio).

In order to save space on the file system you may wish to compress files such as archived redo
logs. This can be using either the gzip or compress commands or Other Compression methods.
gzip myfile
gunzip myfile.gz
free -m
Reports the current memory usage(in MB).
Install RPM(Red Hat Package Manager) packages(.rpm)

The RPM Package Manager (RPM) is an open packaging system, which runs on Red Hat
Enterprise Linux as well as other Linux and UNIX systems. Red Hat, Inc. encourages other
vendors to use RPM for their own products. RPM is distributed under the terms of the GPL.

[root@asmdb ~]# rpm -ivh oracleasm-2.6.18-8.el5-2.0.4-1.el5.i686.rpm

[root@asmdb ~]# rpm -Uvh oracleasm-2.6.18-8.el5-2.0.4-1.el5.i686.rpm
{-i -> install , -v -> verbose output, -h -> print hash marks, -U -> Upgrade }

Install RPM(Red Hat Package Manager) Using Yum

yum (Yellowdog Updater Modified) is an interactive, rpm based, package manager. perform
installation of new packages, removal of old packages and perform queries on the installed
and/or available packages among many other commands/services.
[root@asmdb ~]# yum install sysstat*.rpm
CRON jobs
CRON : Scheduling Tasks on Linux.
"crontab -e" option to edit the crontab file directly.
The entries have the following elements.
field
allowed values
-----------------minute
0-59
hour
0-23
day of month 1-31
month
1-12
day of week 0-7 (both 0 and 7 are Sunday)
command
Valid command or script.
Example:Execute every Friday 1AM
So if we want to schedule the script to run at 1AM every Friday, we would need the following
cronjob:
[oracle@asmdb asmsoft]$ crontab -e
0 1 * * 5 /bin/execute/this/script.sh

Mount
The following examples illustrate typical uses of the command mount for attaching the file
directory of a device or partition to the file directory tree of the Linux system.
# mkdir /cdmount
# mount /dev/cdrom /cdmount

View all Mount points

# mount

Append the mount point as following entry to the "/etc/fstab" file( if required) (for making
permanent mount point).
nfs-server-name:/u04/backup

/backup

nfs rw,bg,intr 0 0

Finally, mount the fileset.

mount /backup

Useful Files
Here are some files (system administration files) that may be of use.
Path

Contents

/etc/passwd

User settings

/etc/group

Group settings for users.

/etc/hosts

Hostname lookup information.

/etc/system

Kernel parameters for Solaris.

/etc/sysconfigtab Kernel parameters for Tru64.

/etc/sysctl.conf

Kernel parameters for Linux.

Process, IO Monitoring and Swap Recommendations

1) The top program provides a dynamic real-time view of a running system i.e. actual
process activity.
$ top c
how much CPU each job uses.

The ps (i.e., process status) command is used to provide information about the currently
running processes.
$ ps -ef | grep pmon
ps aux | grep oracle
$ ps -aux | more

-a :

list the processes of all users.

-u :

detailed information about each process.

-x :

option adds to the list processes that have no controlling terminal, such as daemons.

2) Linux Performance Monitoring:a. iostat reports CPU, disk I/O, and NFS statistics.
b. vmstat reports virtual memory statistics.
c. mpstat reports processors statistics.
a) iostat
:- The iostat command is used for monitoring system input/output device loading by
observing the time the devices are active in relation to their average transfer rates
b) vmstat
:- Report virtual memory statistics:- is a tool that collects and reports data about your
system's memory, swap, and processor resource utilization in real time.
It can be used to determine the root cause of performance and issues related to memory use.

The following example illustrates an interval of one (2) second twenty (10) times:
[oracle@npsoftdb ~]$ vmstat 2 10

Here: 'r' the run queue ,

'b' the wait queue
In the default operation, vmstat displays memory statistics in kilobytes.
Note:- If the sum of columns id (Idle) and wa (Wait IO) is almost 100,this means there are
some configuration problems.
Because the machine is seem it does not doing anything but disk IO operations.
[oracle@npsoftdb ~]$ iostat -d x
-d : Display the disk device utilization report.
-x : Display extended statistics including disk utilization

How do We interpret the output result for optimization?

The average service time (svctm)
Percentage of CPU time during which I/O requests were issued (%util)
See if a hard disk reports consistently high reads/writes (r/s and w/s)
If any one of these are high, we need to take respective action to resolve the issue

[oracle@npsoftdb ~]$ iostat

dm-(0-1) logical volumes

c) mpstat displays CPU statistics.

$ mpstat
Tmpfs on Linux:-

Using ramfs or tmpfs you can allocate part of the physical memory to be used as a partition.
tmpfs:- shm / shmfs is also known as tmpfs, which is a common name for a temporary file
storage facility on many Unix-like operating systems. It is intended to appear as a mounted file
system, but one which uses virtual memory instead of a persistent storage device.
tmpfs size should be 75% of your physical RAM as per recommendation
tmpfs will use swap space when necessary. If you don't specify the tmpfs size, it'll be
half of your physical RAM without swap.

Swap partition
swap file or swap partition used by operating systems (Linux/UNIX/Windows) to provide
virtual memory.
Total of swap and physical memory is the virtual memory.
Note:- You can use /dev/shm to improve the performance of application software such as
Oracle or overall Linux system performance.
On heavily loaded system, it can make tons of difference.

. Recommended Swap Space Requirements for Oracle Database

Oracle Recommends setting the maximum number of shared-memory segments to 4096

# vi /etc/sysctl.conf
Kernel.shmmni=4096
Virtual Memory
The following values are recommended to control the rate at which virtual memory
is reclaimed. Add the following to /etc/sysctl.conf:
# What: oracle database: tune shared memory size
# When: 12/12/2011
# Who: J. B. Admin, jba@localhost
vm.swappiness=0
vm.dirty_background_ratio=3
vm.dirty_ratio=15
vm.dirty_expire_centisecs=500
vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs=100
To see all shared memory segments that are allocated on the system, execute:

$ ipcs -m

nattch is the number of currently attached processes

If counter is greater than 0, then the resource is available, and if the counter is 0 or less, then
that resource is busy or being used by someone else. This simple mechanism helps in
synchronizing multithreaded and multiprocess based applications
(Semaphores can be thought of as simple counters that indicate the status of a resource)
[root@npsoftdb ~]# df -h
How to mount and edit Tmpfs size.
# mkdir -p /mnt/tmp
# mount -t tmpfs -o size=1G tmpfs /mnt/tmp
Or edit an existing value in /etc/fstab something like this

# mount -o remount /dev/shm

# df h
Use a Hard Drive Partition for Additional Swap Space
# mkswap /dev/sda5
# swapon /dev/sda5

To make this swap space partition available even after the reboot, add the following line to the
/etc/fstab file.
# vi /etc/fstab
/dev/ sda5

swap

swap defaults

00

Verify whether the newly created swap area is available for your use.
# swapon s
# free m
If you do t ha e a y additio al disks, you ca create a file so e here o your filesyste
dd command), and use that file for swap space.

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