Privacy concerns with Oracle Configuration Manager Oracle Tips by Burleson Consulting

 

The Oracle data sheet for Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM) says that Oracle Configuration Manager is an automated tool that collects configuration information (configuration settings and parameters) and sends it back to Oracle via a secure connection. 

 

Source:  Oracle Blogs

Also see the Oracle 11g automated Healthchecks service, a premium Metalink service which uses OCM to provide configuration advise.

 

One of the blessings (or curses) of the Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM) is that this intelligent software will automatically survey your production environment and report directly to Oracle Technical Support, avoiding confusion and mistakes and streamlining the process of doing a Service Request (SR) with Oracle MetaLink:

"the information exchange between your systems and Oracle’s support engineers is accelerated, leading to faster problem diagnosis and reduced time to resolution."

Here is the official documentation on Oracle Configuration Manager and a webcast of Oracle Configuration Manager features.
 

Privacy concerns with Oracle Configuration Manager

 

Getting correct values for configuration and initialization parameter values is critical to effective technical support from Oracle, even though Oracle transmots the data over a secure connection, that is not the source of the privacy concern issue:

 

Source:  Oracle Blogs
 

The privacy issue is not with third party disclosure, but with disclosure between the customer and Oracle, and a remote DBA provider has raised the issue of privacy in the context of being unable to conceal facts from Oracle Technical Support.

For example, one foreign remote DBA provider says that full-disclosure with Oracle support might be embarrassing for companies that are running illegitimate copies of Oracle:

"I can understand how a person could comfortably conceal the fact that their test environment runs a binary compatible clone of a supported operating system, rather than the (much more expensive) commercial release.

In situations like that, Oracle Support could (okay, maybe legitimately) deny that person service"

They go on to note that Oracle Configuration Manager makes it impossible to lie and withhold details from MetaLink support:

“Well, in all honesty, I do find myself telling Oracle support occasional “little white lie”. By nature, I am a very truthful person, but I can imagine legitimate (or at least justifiable) reasons to withhold certain details from Oracle Support.”

So, does the use of Oracle Configuration Manager constitute a privacy concern for Oracle shops?  In todays society our every move is tracked, from our Google searches to our movements on the streets.  Some may think that Oracle Configuration Manager is Orwellian, but facilitating the fast sharing of accurate information is OK with me . . .