Installing the Oracle Management Agent on Remote Servers

The Oracle Management Agent (OMA) is the host-side process in Oracle Enterprise Manager that monitors a target and reports to the middle-tier Oracle Management Service (OMS). On Oracle AI Database 26ai, that role is unchanged from earlier releases: the agent discovers the database, collects metrics and configuration data, runs jobs, and uploads results to the OMS.

It is not the same thing as 26ai's in-database AI agents, Select AI Agent, Private Agent Factory, and related agentic frameworks, covered in Module 3 Lesson 1. Those live inside the database itself; OMA is the Enterprise Manager collector that sits on or next to the database host.

Clarifying the Terminology

OMA	Stands for Oracle Management Agent, commonly used in community discussions and training materials.
Management Agent	The official term Oracle uses in its own Enterprise Manager documentation.
OEM Agent	Sometimes used interchangeably with "Management Agent," referring to its role within Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM).

While OMA isn't an official Oracle acronym, it's widely used shorthand across the Oracle DBA community for Oracle Management Agent.

• Monitoring and metrics collection: gathers performance metrics, configuration data, and health status of managed targets, databases, hosts, listeners, and middleware, in real time.
• Event and alert management: detects issues against configured thresholds, generates alerts, and notifies administrators of critical events.
• Job execution: runs automated tasks, backups, patching, scripts, scheduled through Enterprise Manager, locally on the target.
• Configuration management: tracks configuration changes and helps ensure compliance with defined standards.
• Data relay to the OMS: securely uploads collected data for centralized storage, analysis, and visualization.
• Plug-in support: extends functionality to manage diverse Oracle and non-Oracle technologies.

Communication is agent-to-OMS over HTTPS, with the agent also listening on its own port for callbacks and job dispatch from the OMS, covered in the previous lesson.

Current published Management Agent/OMS pairings tighten considerably as releases advance. For example, on Amazon RDS with the OEM_AGENT option:

• Oracle AI Database 26ai targets require Management Agent version 24.1.0.0.v1 specifically, paired with OMS 24.1.
• Restricted TLS cipher suites apply, including TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256, TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384, TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, and TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384.

In short: OMA is still the same OEM monitoring agent it's always been; what 26ai actually changes is which agent and OMS versions, and which TLS cipher suites, are supported. Always check the current Enterprise Manager Certification Matrix on My Oracle Support before planning a real deployment, these pairings are revised with each release update.

To manage remote databases and clustered environments, the Management Agent must be installed on each remote server. Installation Steps

1. Use the Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Agent Deployment Wizard, or deploy silently using response files.
2. Agent binaries are part of the Enterprise Manager installation and must be deployed to each node.
3. Configure the agent's own properties, ensure secure HTTPS communication with the OMS, and verify the correct hostname and IP in the agent's configuration.

RAC Configuration Example
Assume a two-node RAC cluster running Oracle AI Database 26ai:

1. Nodes: RAC1 and RAC2
2. db_name=PRODDB
3. service_name=PRODDB.acme.com

Ensure /etc/oratab exists on each node with a matching entry:

PRODDB:/u01/app/oracle/product/26.0.0/dbhome_1:N

Validate cluster node configuration with:

$ olsnodes -n

Update listener.ora on each node, and configure local_listener in the SPFILE. On RAC1:

local_listener = '(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=RAC1)(PORT=1521))'

On RAC2:

local_listener = '(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=RAC2)(PORT=1521))'

TNS Configuration
Configure tnsnames.ora identically on all nodes:

PRODDB.ACME.COM =
  (DESCRIPTION=
    (LOAD_BALANCE=ON)
    (FAILOVER=ON)
    (ADDRESS_LIST=
      (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=RAC1.ACME.COM)(PORT=1521))
      (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=RAC2.ACME.COM)(PORT=1521)))
    (CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=PRODDB.ACME.COM)))

Once the agent is deployed and running, started with emctl start agent, the only current command for this, Enterprise Manager automatically detects and discovers targets such as databases and RAC instances. Verify successful discovery in the console:

- Databases folder > PRODDB.acme.com
  - Subfolder: Cluster Database Instances
    - Instances: PRODDB1.acme.com, PRODDB2.acme.com

In clustered environments with a shared ORACLE_HOME, each RAC node should have a separate Management Agent installation to avoid state-directory conflicts between nodes. Consult the current Enterprise Manager Installation Guide for the specific isolation approach appropriate to your platform and cluster configuration; the right mechanism can differ meaningfully by OS.
Summary: the Oracle Management Agent remains the Enterprise Manager collector responsible for secure, automated monitoring across Oracle AI Database 26ai deployments. Deployment in RAC environments requires attention to node-specific configuration and shared-home isolation; always confirm current agent, OMS, and TLS requirements against the Enterprise Manager Certification Matrix before deploying.

Before moving on to the next lesson, click the Quiz link below to test your mastery of OEM concepts.
Installing OEM - Quiz