rwloadsim

Installation and creation of repository

There are three types of binary distributions available at github releases:

Using complete binaries

Complete binaries distributed in a file such rwloadsim-linux-x86_64-bin-3.1.2.tgz can be used as is, i.e. without getting a clone or pull from github. It should be used if you simply want a full run time environment and it contains the following directories:

Directory Contents
bin Executables
man/man1rwl The reference documentation in the form of manual pages
man/man2rwl The reference documentation for samples and oltp workload
admin Primarily scripts to create the repository database
demo All demonstrations named in the guide you are reading now
public A set of publicly available rwl scripts
doc The users guide as md files; you should normally read these directly on git
oltp Files implementing the “oltp” workload

If you prefer to have access to source code, but avoid building the executables, you can clone or pull from github (which would allow you to potentially compile rwloadsim yourself), and then use a file like rwloadsim-linux-x86_64-binonly-3.1.2.tgz. This file contains little more than the compiled binaries of the rwloadsim program, and you can simply un-tar this file directly into your cloned or pulled directory; the result will be as if you had been compiling yourself.

Prerequisites

Full installation without source code

On the system where you are going to run rwloadsim, create a (possibly shared) directory where you simply use a command like

tar -zxvf rwloadsim-linux-x86_64-bin-3.1.2.tgz

One install can be shared between several users as long as all have access to the directory. If appropriate, you can put the directory on an NFS (or some other) share and make it available to multiple systems. There is no requirement for which login user and group owns the software. Note that none of these files potentially shared between users or systems contain any passwords or other sensitive information.

In addition to the rwloadsim distribution itself, you must also have an Oracle Client. In the expanded bin directory, you will see executables named rwloadsimNN, where NN can be any of 11, 12, 18, 19, 21, 23; the number refers to the client version that was used to compile the software. The client version you install much be the same as one of these, preferably the latest. You can use Oracle Instant Client or a full client (or even server) install.

Binary only install on top of clone or pull from github

Start by doing a pull or clone of the sources from github as if you would do your own compile, and then use a command like

tar -zxvf rwloadsim-linux-x86_64-binonly-3.1.2.tgz

to extract little more than the compiled rwloadsim binaries into your already existing pull or clone.

Missing required libraries

On some platforms (Ubuntu is one such example), you may get an error like

rwloadsim19: error while loading shared libraries: libaio.so.1

if that is the case, you need to install the library by doing:

sudo apt install libaio1

On Oracle Linux 8, you may get an error like

rwloadsim19: error while loading shared libraries: libnsl.so.1:
cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

if that is the case, you need to install the library by doing:

sudo yum install libnsl

If you experience other platforms where certain libraries may be missing, please create a github issue such that these instructions can be updated.

Environment variables

For all users that are going to use rwloadsim, the following environment variables must be configured:

You can simply execute

rwloadsim --version

to make sure environment is properly setup.

Enable vim coloring

To enable vim use coloring for rwl files, all users need to un-tar the vim.tar file found in the admin directory into their HOME directory. Note that if you are using the source distribution, the vim.tar file does not exist until you have been running make.

Creating the repository

While rwloadsim can be used for various scripting without a repository, a repository is needed for any real simulations. The workload on the repository database is normally relatively low and most SQL is executed at the finish of rwloadsim, as all statistics about the execution will be flushed. One repository database can very well be shared between multiple otherwise unrelated projects; this is in fact the suggested approach. The repository database should be created by the same user who installs the rwloadsim software and is done using the files in the admin directory. You must modify a few of these files to fit your actual environment for things like passwords and tablespace names. Always use private copies of these files for this purpose.

The following files handle the repository:

file usage
rwlschema.sql Template for the create user command that creates the repository schema
rwloadsim.sql All create table commands
rwlviews.sql All create view commands
rwlgrants.sql Necessary grant commands that can be used if you want the repository to be available for a secondary schema with less privileges
rwlsynonyms.sql Necessary create synonym commands for a secondary schema
rwldrop.sql All drop commands to remove all tables

To create the repository, follow these steps:

If you want a secondary schema, follow these steps:

If you are sharing the repository between many different users/projects, having the secondary user is recommended as the grants are set to only allow the needed access to the various repository tables. For most tables, this is insert and select.

Updating the repostitory to version 3.1.2

In version 3.1.2, there is a new column added to oltpxc and any existing repository need to be updated to reflect this. If you have an existing repository created earlier than version 3.1.2 and you are upgrading to a version 3.1.2 or later, you must execute the file rwl312.sql logged in using sqlplus to your primary repository schema. The rwl312.sql file is found in the admin directory of your distribution.

There are similarly updates to rwlviews.sql which must be executed against your primary and possibly secondary repository schema.

Updating the repository to version 3.0.6

In version 3.0.6, there are new columns added to the ashdata table, and any existing repository need to be updated to reflect this. This update must be done before you attempt using the new rwloadsim executable, as you will otherwise get ORA- errors during execution of the oltpworkload.

If you have an existing repository created earlier than version 3.0.6 and you are upgrading to a version 3.0.6 or later (including 3.1.2), you must execute the file rwl306.sql (which includes an update to the persec table) logged in using sqlplus to your primary repository schema. The rwl306.sql file is found in the admin directory of your distribution.

The rwlviews.sql file is updated to reflect this change and you also need to execute this file against your repository and potentially secondary schema.

Updating the repository to version 3.0.4

In version 3.0.4, there are new columns added to the persec table, and any existing repository need to be updated to reflect this. This update must be done before you attempt using the new rwloadsim executable, as you will otherwise get ORA- errors during flush of the per second statistics.

If you have an existing repository created earlier than version 3.0.4 and you are upgrading to a version 3.0.4 or later, you must execute the file rwl304.sql (which includes an update to the persec table) logged in using sqlplus to your primary repository schema. The rwl304.sql file is found in the admin directory of your distribution.

The rwlviews.sql file is updated to reflect this change and you also need to execute this file against your repository and potentially secondary schema.

Updating the repository to version 2.3.4

In version 2.3.4, there are a few auxiliary attribute columns added to the rwlrun table, so any existing repository need to be updated to reflect this.

If you have an existing repository created earlier than version 2.3.4 and you are upgrading to a version 2.3.4 or later (including 3.0), you must execute the file rwl234.sql (which includes an update to the rwlrun table) logged in using sqlplus to your primary repository schema. The rwl234.sql file is found in the admin directory of your distribution.

If you a using a secondary schema, you must also repeat the step above involving the rwlgrants.sql file.

Stand-alone generated binaries

If your only interest is to use utilities such as ociping or awrreport, you can get these completely stand-alone. This does not include the complete rwloadsim, and does not allow you to create any rwl programs yourself. The file such as generated-linux-x8664-bin-3.1.2.tgz _only contains binaries that you simply put into any directory, typically one in your PATH. The only other requirement is an Oracle client environment as explained above.