Oracle Linux - Installing dtrace

When checking the description of dtrace for Oracle Linux on the Oracle website we can read the following: "DTrace is a comprehensive, advanced tracing tool for troubleshooting systematic problems in real time.  Originally developed for Oracle Solaris and later ported to Oracle Linux, it allows administrators, integrators and developers to dynamically and safely observe live systems for performance issues in both applications and the operating system itself.  DTrace allows you to explore your system to understand how it works, track down problems across many layers of software, and locate the cause of any aberrant behavior.  DTrace gives the operational insights that have long been missing in the data center, such as memory consumption, CPU time or what specific function calls are being made."

Which sounds great, and to be honest using dtrace helps enormously in finding and debugging issues on your Oracle Linux system in cases you need to go one level deeper than you would normally go to find an issue.

Downloading dtrace
If you want to install dtrace one way you can do this is by downloading the files from the oracle website, you can find the two RPM's at this location.

Installing dtrace
when installing dtrace you might run into some dependency issues that are not that obvious to resolve. Firstly they have a dependency on each other. This means you will have to install the RPM files in the right order. You can see this below;

[root@ce vagrant]# rpm -ivh dtrace-utils-0.5.1-3.el6.x86_64.rpm 
error: Failed dependencies:
 cpp is needed by dtrace-utils-0.5.1-3.el6.x86_64
 dtrace-modules-shared-headers is needed by dtrace-utils-0.5.1-3.el6.x86_64
 libdtrace-ctf is needed by dtrace-utils-0.5.1-3.el6.x86_64
 libdtrace-ctf.so.1()(64bit) is needed by dtrace-utils-0.5.1-3.el6.x86_64
 libdtrace-ctf.so.1(LIBDTRACE_CTF_1.0)(64bit) is needed by dtrace-utils-0.5.1-3.el6.x86_64
[root@ce vagrant]# rpm -ivh dtrace-utils-devel-0.5.1-3.el6.x86_64.rpm 
error: Failed dependencies:
 dtrace-modules-shared-headers is needed by dtrace-utils-devel-0.5.1-3.el6.x86_64
 dtrace-utils(x86-64) = 0.5.1-3.el6 is needed by dtrace-utils-devel-0.5.1-3.el6.x86_64
 libdtrace-ctf-devel > 0.4.0 is needed by dtrace-utils-devel-0.5.1-3.el6.x86_64
 libdtrace-ctf.so.1()(64bit) is needed by dtrace-utils-devel-0.5.1-3.el6.x86_64
 libdtrace.so.0()(64bit) is needed by dtrace-utils-devel-0.5.1-3.el6.x86_64
 libdtrace.so.0(LIBDTRACE_PRIVATE)(64bit) is needed by dtrace-utils-devel-0.5.1-3.el6.x86_64
[root@ce vagrant]# 

As you can see, you also have a number of other dependencies. The most easy way to resolve this is to simply use YUM to install both RPM's from your local machine and leverage the power of YUM to install the rest of the dependencies. For this we will use the yum localinstall dtrace-utils-* command.

Now we can quickly check if dtrace is indeed installed by executing the dtrace command without any specific option. You should see the below on your terminal:

[root@ce vagrant]# dtrace
Usage: dtrace [-32|-64] [-aACeFGhHlqSvVwZ] [-b bufsz] [-c cmd] [-D name[=def]]
 [-I path] [-L path] [-o output] [-p pid] [-s script] [-U name]
 [-x opt[=val]] [-X a|c|s|t]

 [-P provider [[ predicate ] action ]]
 [-m [ provider: ] module [[ predicate ] action ]]
 [-f [[ provider: ] module: ] func [[ predicate ] action ]]
 [-n [[[ provider: ] module: ] func: ] name [[ predicate ] action ]]
 [-i probe-id [[ predicate ] action ]] [ args ... ]

 predicate -> '/' D-expression '/'
    action -> '{' D-statements '}'

 -32 generate 32-bit D programs and ELF files
 -64 generate 64-bit D programs and ELF files

 -a  claim anonymous tracing state
 -A  generate driver.conf(4) directives for anonymous tracing
 -b  set trace buffer size
 -c  run specified command and exit upon its completion
 -C  run cpp(1) preprocessor on script files
 -D  define symbol when invoking preprocessor
 -e  exit after compiling request but prior to enabling probes
 -f  enable or list probes matching the specified function name
 -F  coalesce trace output by function
 -G  generate an ELF file containing embedded dtrace program
 -h  generate a header file with definitions for static probes
 -H  print included files when invoking preprocessor
 -i  enable or list probes matching the specified probe id
 -I  add include directory to preprocessor search path
 -l  list probes matching specified criteria
 -L  add library directory to library search path
 -m  enable or list probes matching the specified module name
 -n  enable or list probes matching the specified probe name
 -o  set output file
 -p  grab specified process-ID and cache its symbol tables
 -P  enable or list probes matching the specified provider name
 -q  set quiet mode (only output explicitly traced data)
 -s  enable or list probes according to the specified D script
 -S  print D compiler intermediate code
 -U  undefine symbol when invoking preprocessor
 -v  set verbose mode (report stability attributes, arguments)
 -V  report DTrace API version
 -w  permit destructive actions
 -x  enable or modify compiler and tracing options
 -X  specify ISO C conformance settings for preprocessor
 -Z  permit probe descriptions that match zero probes
[root@ce vagrant]# 

All ready and set to start with dtrace on your Oracle Linux instance. As an addition, you will also have to install the below mentioned packages for your specific machine:

yum install dtrace-modules-`uname -r`