When you install an 11g RAC database without Grid Control respectively Cloud Control present, this is what the DBCA will give you:

There is one Database Control OC4J Container only, running on host01. Should host01 go down, the Enterprise Manager is no longer available now. We could make that a resource, known to the clusterware and let it failover in that case. But also – and even easier – we can start a second OC4J Container to run on host02 simultaneously like this:

Let’s see how to implement that:

[oracle@host01 ~]$ emca -reconfig dbcontrol -cluster -EM_NODE host02 -EM_NODE_LIST host02

STARTED EMCA at May 14, 2014 5:16:14 PM
EM Configuration Assistant, Version 11.2.0.3.0 Production
Copyright (c) 2003, 2011, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Enter the following information:
Database unique name: orcl
Service name: orcl
Do you wish to continue? [yes(Y)/no(N)]: yes
May 14, 2014 5:16:26 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMConfig perform
INFO: This operation is being logged at /u01/app/oracle/cfgtoollogs/emca/orcl/emca_2014_05_14_17_16_14.log.
May 14, 2014 5:16:29 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.util.DBControlUtil stopOMS
INFO: Stopping Database Control (this may take a while) ...
May 14, 2014 5:16:34 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMAgentConfig performDbcReconfiguration
INFO: Propagating /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/host02_orcl/sysman/config/emd.properties to remote nodes ...
May 14, 2014 5:16:34 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.util.DBControlUtil startOMS
INFO: Starting Database Control (this may take a while) ...
May 14, 2014 5:17:33 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMDBPostConfig performDbcReconfiguration
INFO: Database Control started successfully
May 14, 2014 5:17:34 PM oracle.sysman.emcp.EMDBPostConfig showClusterDBCAgentMessage
INFO:
****************  Current Configuration  ****************
 INSTANCE            NODE           DBCONTROL_UPLOAD_HOST
----------        ----------        ---------------------

orcl              host01              host01.example.com
orcl              host02              host02.example.com

Enterprise Manager configuration completed successfully
FINISHED EMCA at May 14, 2014 5:17:34 PM
[oracle@host01 ~]$ emctl status dbconsole
Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Database Control Release 11.2.0.3.0
Copyright (c) 1996, 2011 Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.
https://host01.example.com:1158/em/console/aboutApplication
Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g is running.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Logs are generated in directory /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/host01_orcl/sysman/log

Not only can I access Database Control at host01 as usual, I can also get it at host02 now:

[oracle@host01 ~]$ ssh host02
Last login: Wed May 14 10:50:32 2014 from host01.example.com
[oracle@host02 ~]$ emctl status dbconsole
Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Database Control Release 11.2.0.3.0
Copyright (c) 1996, 2011 Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.
https://host02.example.com:1158/em/console/aboutApplication
Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g is running.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Logs are generated in directory /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/host02_orcl/sysman/log

All this is of course not new, but you won’t find it easy in the docs. That is something from my RAC accelerated course last week in Reading, by the way. Even seasoned RAC DBAs are sometimes not aware of that option, so I thought it might be helpful to publish it here briefly 🙂