Database Monitoring   «Prev  Next»
Lesson 1

Routine database monitoring

Once you have a database running and in production, one of the best things you can do for yourself is to monitor proactively and routinely for potential problems. This is like doing preventative maintenance on a car. You can chose just to drive your car, never checking anything, until you find yourself stalled by the side of the road because something stopped working, or you can check under the hood every so often to see if something's about to break. It's obviously easier and less disruptive to detect and prevent problems than it is to experience them. That is true with both cars and databases. In this module, you will learn how to:
  1. Monitor and rename the alert log
  2. Check license compliance
  3. Monitor free space
  4. Check for objects that have no room left for growth
  5. Monitor the efficiency of the buffer cache
  6. Monitor the efficiency of the shared pool
  7. Collect statistics for your database
  8. Monitor input and output (I/O)
  9. Check for redo log buffer contention

How do I conduct Oracle Database Monitoring

There are several ways to monitor an Oracle database, including using:
  1. The Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) console: OEM is a graphical user interface that you can use to manage and monitor your Oracle database. It provides a range of features for monitoring the performance, availability, and other features of your database.
  2. SQL*Plus: This is a command-line interface that you can use to connect to your Oracle database and run SQL queries and commands. You can use it to run queries that return information about the status and performance of your database, such as queries that return the current sessions, active transactions, and wait events.
  3. Oracle Data Dictionary Views: The Oracle data dictionary contains a set of tables and views that provide information about the structure and contents of the database. You can query these views to get a wide range of information about your database, including information about the tables, indexes, users, and other database objects.
  4. Operating system tools: You can use tools provided by your operating system, such as top, vmstat, and iostat, to monitor the performance of your database server. These tools can provide information about the CPU, memory, and I/O usage of your database server.
  5. Custom scripts and tools: You can also develop custom scripts and tools to monitor your Oracle database. For example, you could write a script that connects to your database and runs a set of queries on a regular basis, and then sends an email notification if any issues are detected.
The lessons in this module will highlight the most important metrics that you should be looking at regularly. Don't be the database administrator (DBA) who gets stranded by the side of the road. Monitor your database regularly. Don't let problems happen--prevent them.
In the next lesson, you will learn about items to monitor on a regular basis.