collect various diagnostic related files, such as the Database alert log, trace files using ADRCI

Oracle's Automatic Diagnostic Repository (ADR) is a location on the file system used to collect various diagnostic related files, such as the Database alert log, trace files, and the new 11g HealthMonitor report files. The ADR location is not limited just to the Oracle Database it can be used as the diagnostic repository for other Oracle products. The command line tool used to 'manage' the diagnostic data is ADRCI.

Two terms that help 'understand' the adrci tool are Problem and Incident.

Problem – The critical error.

Incident – A single occurrence of the error. Diagnostic data (eg trace files etc) are collected and related to an incident.


To Start the ADRCI command line tool:
adrci

To end an adrci session use either exit or quit:
adrci>exit
adrci>quit

To see the list of available commands:
adrci>help
adrci>help <command name>
eg
adrci>help set home


Setting the Home
The structure of the ADR allows it to be the repository for many database instances, each instance having its own sub-directories within ADR base directory. The default behaviour for the adrci tool to 'act' on all the 'homes' within the ADR. You can also 'set' the home to limit the source of diagnostic data to manage.

View the current homes
adrci> show homes;

adrci> show homes;
ADR Homes:
diag/rdbms/orcl2/orcl2
diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl
diag/tnslsnr/oln/listener


Notice the multiple homes(orcl2, orcl ....) listed within the ADR, and that the path information is display as 'relative' paths.  You can use the relative path when setting the adrci home.

- To set a single home path:
adrci>set homepath diag/rdbms/orcl2/orcl2

or in a shorten form dropping the diag/rdbms

adrci>set homepath orcl2

The adric>show homes command indicates the current home is orcl2;

adrci> show homes
ADR Homes:
diag/rdbms/orcl2/orcl2



Viewing the the Alert Log.
Use the adrci>show alert command to view the contents of the alert log.

adrci>show alert
or
adrci>show alert -tail
or
adrci>show alert -tail -f


Viewing Problems.
The adrci>show problem command will by default list the last 50 problems. There are various filter and sort options to control the output. The basic adrci>show problem syntax is

adrci>show problem [-p "predicate_string"]

Where the "predicate_string" is 1 of many predicate values. Use the
adrci>help show problem for the full list. Below are some examples.

adrci>show problem
or
adrci> show problem -p "problem_id=2"
or
adrci>show problem -orderby lastinc_time
or
adrci>show problem -p "problem_id > 500"


Here is sample of the adrci>show problem command

adrci> show problem -p "problem_id=2"
ADR Home = /u01/app/diag/rdbms/orcl/orcl:
*************************************************************************
PROBLEM_ID      PROBLEM_KEY                  LAST_INCIDENT    
--------------- ---------------------------  --------------------
2                ORA 600 [kebm_mmon_main_1]  7489  
1 rows fetched


Viewing Incidents.
To view the incidents of the current ADR home use the adrci>show incident command. Two arguments that control the output are the -p “predicate string” and the -mode {BASIC | BRIEF | DETAIL} indicator. For example:

adrci>show incident
or
adrci>show incident -p “incident_id=7489”
or
adrci>show incident -p “incident_id=7489” -mode detail

The show incident -p “incident_id=7489” -mode detail will include in the output the location of the related trace files for the selected incident.


Viewing Trace Files
To display a list of trace files within the currently set Home use adrci> show tracefile. Two useful methods to control the tracefile output are -i <incident_id> and the use of % wildcard. Use the -i <incident_id> to list tracefiles related to the incident.  Use the %wildcard to limit the tracefiles to those that match a particular filename. For example:

adrci> show tracefile
or
adrci> show tracefile %dw00%
or
adrci> show tracefile -i 7489


Packing it (For Oracle Support or for yourself)
There are multiple ways to achieve this, here I am creating an empty 'package' and adding incident data to it.  The steps are
1. Create a package (A logical container for the diagnostic data)
2. Add diagnostic data into the package (from an incident or manually by adding trace files)
3. Generate a 'physical' package (file on the filesystem)
4. Finalize the package


Step 1.
adrci> ips create package
Created package 3 without any contents, correlation level typical

Step 2.
adrci>ips add incident 32578 package 3;
Added incident 32578 to package 3

To manually add a tracefile into the package
adrci ips add file <path to tracefile> package 3

Step 3.
adrci>ips generate package 3 in /u01/support
Generated package 3 in file /u01/support/IPSPKG_<datestamp>_COM_1.zip, mode complete

Step 4.
adrci> ips finalize package 3


When reviewing a database incident, even if you may not forward it on to Oracle Support it is helpful to generate the package zip file then unzipping if for your own review.


Oracle Docs: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b28319/adrci.htm