Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Express

Amazon RDS supports Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Express (EM Express) through the use of the OEM option. Amazon RDS supports EM Express for Oracle Database 19c using the CDB or non-CDB architecture.

EM Express is a web-based database management tool included in your database and is only available when it is open. It supports key performance management and basic database administration functions. For more information, see Introduction to Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Express in the Oracle Database documentation.

Note

EM Express isn't supported on the db.t3.small DB instance class. For more information about DB instance classes, see RDS for Oracle DB instance classes.

OEM option settings

Amazon RDS supports the following settings for the OEM option.

Option setting	Valid values	Description
Port	An integer value	The port on the RDS for Oracle DB instance that listens for EM Express. The default is 5500.
Security Groups	—	A security group that has access to Port.

Step 1: Adding the OEM option

The general process for adding the OEM option to a DB instance is the following:

1. Create a new option group, or copy or modify an existing option group.

2. Add the option to the option group.

3. Associate the option group with your DB instance.

When you add the OEM option, a brief outage occurs while your DB instance is automatically restarted.

To add the OEM option to a DB instance

1. Determine the option group you want to use. You can create a new option group or use an existing option group. If you want to use an existing option group, skip to the next step. Otherwise, create a custom DB option group with the following settings:

   1. For Engine choose the oracle edition for your DB instance.

   2. For Major engine version choose the version of your DB instance.

   For more information, see Creating an option group.

2. Add the OEM option to the option group, and configure the option settings. For more information about adding options, see Adding an option to an option group. For more information about each setting, see OEM option settings.

   Note

   If you add the OEM option to an existing option group that is already attached to one or more DB instances, a brief outage occurs while all the DB instances are automatically restarted.

3. Apply the option group to a new or existing DB instance:

   • For a new DB instance, apply the option group when you launch the instance. For more information, see Creating an Amazon RDS DB instance.

   • For an existing DB instance, apply the option group by modifying the instance and attaching the new option group. When you add the OEM option, a brief outage occurs while your DB instance is automatically restarted. For more information, see Modifying an Amazon RDS DB instance.

Note

You can also use the AWS CLI to add the OEM option. For examples, see Adding an option to an option group.

Step 2: (CDB only) Unlocking the DBSNMP user account

If your DB instance uses the CDB architecture, you must log in to EM Express as DBSNMP. in a CDB, DBSNMP is a common user. By default, this account is locked. If your DB instance doesn't use the CDB architecture, skip this step.

To unlock the DBSNMP user account in a CDB instance

1. In SQL*Plus or another Oracle SQL application, log in to your DB instance as your master user.

2. Run the following stored procedure to unlock the DBSNMP account:

   EXEC rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.reset_oem_agent_password('new_password');

   If you receive an error stating that the procedure doesn't exist, reboot your CDB instance to install it automatically. For more information, see Rebooting a DB instance.

Step 3: Accessing EM Express through your browser

When you access EM Express from your web browser, a login window appears that prompts you for a user name and password.

To access EM Express through your browser

1. Identify the endpoint and EM Express port for your Amazon RDS DB instance. For information about finding the endpoint for your Amazon RDS DB instance, see Finding the endpoint of your RDS for Oracle DB instance.

2. Enter a URL in your browser locator bar using the following format.

   https://endpoint.rds.amazonaws.com:port/em

   For example, if the endpoint for your Amazon RDS DB instance is mydb.a1bcde234fgh.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com, and your EM Express port is 1158, then use the following URL to access EM Express.

   https://mydb.f9rbfa893tft.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com:1158/em

3. When prompted for your login details, do one of the following actions, depending on your database architecture:

   Your database is a non-CDB.

   Type the master user name and master password for your DB instance.

   Your database is a CDB.

   Enter DBSNMP for the user and the DBSNMP password. Leave the Container field empty.

Modifying OEM Database settings

After you enable OEM Database, you can modify the Security Groups setting for the option.

You can't modify the OEM port number after you have associated the option group with a DB instance. To change the OEM port number for a DB instance, do the following:

1. Create a new option group.

2. Add the OEM option with the new port number to the new option group.

3. Remove the existing option group from the DB instance.

4. Add the new option group to the DB instance.

For more information about how to modify option settings, see Modifying an option setting. For more information about each setting, see OEM option settings.

Running OEM Database Express tasks

You can use Amazon RDS procedures to run certain OEM Database Express tasks. By running these procedures, you can do the tasks listed following.

Note

OEM Database Express tasks run asynchronously.

Switching the website front end for OEM Database Express to Adobe Flash

Note

This task is available only for Oracle Database 19c non-CDBs.

Starting with Oracle Database 19c, Oracle has deprecated the former OEM Database Express user interface, which was based on Adobe Flash. Instead, OEM Database Express now uses an interface built with Oracle JET. If you experience difficulties with the new interface, you can switch back to the deprecated Flash-based interface. Difficulties you might experience with the new interface include being stuck on a Loading screen after logging in to OEM Database Express. You might also miss certain features that were present in the Flash-based version of OEM Database Express.

To switch the OEM Database Express website front end to Adobe Flash, run the Amazon RDS procedure rdsadmin.rdsadmin_oem_tasks.em_express_frontend_to_flash. This procedure is equivalent to the execemx emx SQL command.

Security best practices discourage the use of Adobe Flash. Although you can revert to the Flash-based OEM Database Express, we recommend the use of the JET-based OEM Database Express websites if possible. If you revert to using Adobe Flash and want to switch back to using Oracle JET, use the rdsadmin.rdsadmin_oem_tasks.em_express_frontend_to_jet procedure. After an Oracle database upgrade, a newer version of Oracle JET might resolve JET-related issues in OEM Database Express. For more information about switching to Oracle JET, see Switching the website front end for OEM Database Express to Oracle JET.

Note

Running this task from the source DB instance for a read replica also causes the read replica to switch its OEM Database Express website front ends to Adobe Flash.

The following procedure invocation creates a task to switch the OEM Database Express website to Adobe Flash and returns the ID of the task.

SELECT rdsadmin.rdsadmin_oem_tasks.em_express_frontend_to_flash() as TASK_ID from DUAL;

You can view the result by displaying the task's output file.

SELECT text FROM table(rdsadmin.rds_file_util.read_text_file('BDUMP','dbtask-task-id.log'));

Replace task-id with the task ID returned by the procedure. For more information about the Amazon RDS procedure rdsadmin.rds_file_util.read_text_file, see Reading files in a DB instance directory

You can also view the contents of the task's output file in the AWS Management Console by searching the log entries in the Logs & events section for the task-id.

Switching the website front end for OEM Database Express to Oracle JET

Note

This task is available only for Oracle Database 19c non-CDBs.

To switch the OEM Database Express website front end to Oracle JET, run the Amazon RDS procedure rdsadmin.rdsadmin_oem_tasks.em_express_frontend_to_jet. This procedure is equivalent to the execemx omx SQL command.

By default, the OEM Database Express websites for Oracle DB instances running 19c or later use Oracle JET. If you used the rdsadmin.rdsadmin_oem_tasks.em_express_frontend_to_flash procedure to switch the OEM Database Express website front end to Adobe Flash, you can switch back to Oracle JET. To do this, use the rdsadmin.rdsadmin_oem_tasks.em_express_frontend_to_jet procedure. For more information about switching to Adobe Flash, see Switching the website front end for OEM Database Express to Adobe Flash.

Note

Running this task from the source DB instance for a read replica also causes the read replica to switch its OEM Database Express website front ends to Oracle JET.

The following procedure invocation creates a task to switch the OEM Database Express website to Oracle JET and returns the ID of the task.

SELECT rdsadmin.rdsadmin_oem_tasks.em_express_frontend_to_jet() as TASK_ID from DUAL;

You can view the result by displaying the task's output file.

SELECT text FROM table(rdsadmin.rds_file_util.read_text_file('BDUMP','dbtask-task-id.log'));

Replace task-id with the task ID returned by the procedure. For more information about the Amazon RDS procedure rdsadmin.rds_file_util.read_text_file, see Reading files in a DB instance directory

You can also view the contents of the task's output file in the AWS Management Console by searching the log entries in the Logs & events section for the task-id.

Removing the OEM Database option

You can remove the OEM option from a DB instance. When you remove the OEM option, a brief outage occurs while your instance is automatically restarted. Therefore, after you remove the OEM option, you don't need to restart your DB instance.

To remove the OEM option from a DB instance, do one of the following:

• Remove the OEM option from the option group it belongs to. This change affects all DB instances that use the option group. For more information, see Removing an option from an option group.

• Modify the DB instance and specify a different option group that doesn't include the OEM option. This change affects a single DB instance. You can specify the default (empty) option group, or a different custom option group. For more information, see Modifying an Amazon RDS DB instance.