Validating host environments with HostChecker

Overview

Before registering an environment in DCT, you can validate host readiness using the HostChecker utility. HostChecker verifies the connectivity and configuration between the environment (host) and the CD engine — not the DCT instance itself. This utility contains standardized checks for source, staging, and target hosts. These checks generally fall into two buckets:

• OS and Host permissions/access

• DB-specific functionality

Currently, the host checker utility is implemented for two types of data sources:

1. IBM DB2

2. Oracle EBS

OS and host permissions/access can (and should) be performed before adding the environment to the CD engine to ensure smooth deployment and virtualization workflows.

Procedure

1. Download the HostChecker tarball for the engine from the Delphix download site, located in the Delphix Product Releases > Continuous Data Connectors > Host Checker for External Connectors > 1.1.0 directory.

2. Extract the HostChecker files from the HostChecker tarball.

   [ dlpxqa@stagehost:~ ]$ tar -xvf hostchecker-for-connectors-1.1.0.tar

3. Grant execution permissions and run the shell script main.sh to initiate the Host checker utility.

   [ dlpxqa@stagehost:~/hostchecker-for-connectors-1.1.0 ]$ chmod +x main.sh
   [ dlpxqa@stagehost:~/hostchecker-for-connectors-1.1.0 ]$ ./main.sh

   Do not run the HostChecker as root. This will cause misleading or incorrect results from many of the checks.

4. Since Host checker is designed to run on different types of databases such as IBM Db2 and Oracle EBS, the user needs to select the type of dataset before starting the host checker. 

   [ dlpxqa@stagehost:~/hostchecker-for-connectors-1.1.0 ]$ ./main.sh 
   ===============================================================================
   Delphix  Host Checker  Utility
   ===============================================================================
   Please select the type of dataset you want to run the host checker on:
   
   1. DB2
   2. Oracle EBS
   Enter your choice (Default: 1): 1
   
   Dataset type selected: DB2
   
   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Starting host checker for DB2
   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. The utility prints the output of the various checks that it performs and also logs the details in a specific log directory under the utility’s root directory. For example, IBM Db2 dataset environment logs are written under the DB2-hostchecker-logs directory.

6. When the script is running, the discovered issues or conflicts (text colored red) are always accompanied by the corresponding documentation URL for the customers to verify and fix the issues raised by the utility. However, if there are no accompanied documentation URLs, please forward them to Delphix Support along with the logs.

7. Repeat steps 3-7 until all the checks return no errors or warnings.

On successful completion, the scanned host can be registered in DCT and used as a staging or target environment for ingesting or provisioning datasets.