eG Monitoring
 
The Oracle Application Dashboard

In order to ascertain how well an application is/has been performing, analysis of the performance of the System and Network layers of that application alone might not suffice. A closer look at the health of the Application Layers is also necessary, so as to promptly detect instantaneous operational issues with the target application, and also proactively identify persistent problems or a consistent performance degradation experienced by the application. To provide administrators with such in-depth insights into overall application performance and to enable them to accurately isolate the root-cause of any application-level slowdown, eG Enterprise offers the Application Dashboard. Each of the critical applications monitored by eG Enterprise is accompanied by an exclusive application dashboard. The contents of the dashboard will therefore primarily vary depending upon the application being monitored.

In addition, like the System and Network dashboards, the contents of the Application dashboard too are further governed by the Subsystem chosen from Application Dashboard. By default, the Overview option is chosen from the Subsystem list. If need be, you can change this default setting by picking a different option from the Subsystem list. The sections that follow will discuss each of the Subsystems of the Oracle application dashboard.

  1. Overview

    The Overview dashboard of an Oracle application provides an all-round view of the health of the Oracle application being monitored, and helps administrators pinpoint the problem areas. Using this dashboard therefore, you can determine the following quickly and easily:

    • Has the application encountered any issue currently? If so, what is the issue and how critical is it?
    • How problem-prone has the application been during the last 24 hours? Which application layer has been badly hit?
    • Has the administrative staff been able to resolve all past issues? On an average, how long do the administrative personnel take to resolve an issue?
    • Are all the key performance parameters of the application operating normally?
    • What is the Application configuration of the Oracle application?
    • What is the Database Usage? What is the Data space and how much Unused space is available in the Oracle application with respect to each Tablespace?
    • How effective is the Tablespace Usage? What is the Transaction rate of each Tablespace? Are the transactions for each Tablespace behaving normally or is there any abnormal transactional behavior that has been reported during a particular time period?

    The contents of the Overview Dashboard have been elaborated on hereunder:

    1. The Current Application Alerts section reveals the number and type of issues currently affecting the performance of the Oracle application that is being monitored. To know more about the current issues, click on any cell against Distribution that represents the problem priority of interest to you; the details of the current problems of that priority will then appear in a pop up window.

      2. If the pop-up window of current application alerts of a particular priority reveals too many problems, you can use the Search text boxes that have been provided at the end of the Description, Layer, and StartTime columns to run quick searches on the contents of these columns, so that the alarm of your interest can be easily located. For instance, to find the alarm with a specific description, you can provide the whole/part of the alarm description in the text box at the end of the Description column; this will result in the automatic display of all the alarms with descriptions that contain the specified search string.

      To zoom into the exact layer, test, and measure that reported any of the listed problems, click on a particular alarm in the Alarms window. Doing so will introduce an Alarm Details section into the Alarms window, which provides the complete information related to the problem clicked on. These details include the Site affected by the problem for which the alarm was raised, the test that reported the problem, and the last measure that was reported will be reported in the Last Measures.

      While the list of current issues faced by the application serves as a good indicator of the current state of the application, to know how healthy/otherwise the application has been over time, a look at the problem history of the application is essential. Therefore, the dashboard provides the History of Events section; this section presents a bar chart, where every bar indicates the number of problems of a particular severity, which was experienced by the Oracle application during the last 1 hour (by default). Clicking on a bar here will lead you to the History of Alarms page which provides a detailed history of problems of that priority. Alongside the bar chart, you will also find a table displaying the average and maximum duration for problem resolution; this table helps you determine the efficiency of your administrative staff.

      If required, you can override the default time period of 1 hour of the event history, by following the steps below:

      • Click the button at the top of the dashboard to invoke the Dashboard Settings window.
      • Select the Event History option from the Default timeline for list.
      • Set a different default timeline by selecting an option from the Timeline list.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

    2. Back in the dashboard, you will find that the History of Events section is followed by an At-A-Glance section; this section, using pie charts, digital displays and gauge charts, reveals, at a single glance, the current status of some of the critical metrics and key components of the Oracle application. For instance, the Current Application Health pie chart indicates the current health of the application by representing the number of application-related metrics that are in various states. Clicking on a slice here will take you to problem history of the target application that provides a detailed problem history.

    3. The dial and digital graphs that follow provide you with quick updates on the status of a pre-configured set of resource usage-related metrics pertaining to the Oracle application. If required, you can configure the dial graphs to display the threshold values of the corresponding measures along with their actual values, so that deviations can be easily detected. For this purpose, do the following:

      • Click the button at the top of the dashboard to invoke the Dashboard Settings window.
      • Set the Show Thresholds flag in the window to Yes.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

      You can customize the At-A-Glance tab page further by overriding the default measure list for which dial/digital graphs are being displayed in that tab. To achieve this, do the following:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard. In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Application from the Module list, and Overview from the Sub-System list.
      • To add measures for the dial graph, pick the Dial Graph option from the Add/Delete Measures for list. Upon selection of the Dial Graph option, the pre-configured measures for the dial graph will appear in the Existing Value(s) list. Similarly, to add a measure to the digital display, pick the Digital Graph option from the Add/Delete Measures for list. In this case, the Existing Value(s) list box will display all those measures for which digital displays pre-exist.
      • Next, select the Test that reports the said measure, pick the measure of interest from the Measures list, provide a Display name for the measure, and click the Add button to add the chosen measure to the Existing Value(s) list. Note that while configuring measures for a dial graph the ‘Measures’ list will display only those measures that report percentage values.
      • If you want to delete one/more measures from the dial/digital graphs, then, as soon as you choose the Dial Graph or Digital Graph option from the Add/Delete Measures for list, pick any of the displayed measures from the Existing Value(s) list, and click the Delete button.
      • Finally, click the Update button to register the changes.

      Note:

      Only users with Admin or Supermonitor privileges can enable/disable the system, network, and application dashboards, or can customize the contents of such dashboards using the Dashboard Settings window. Therefore, whenever a user without Admin or Supermonitor privileges logs into the monitoring console, the button will not appear.

      Clicking on a dial/digital graph will lead you to the layer model page of the Oracle application; this page will display the exact layer-test combination that reports the measure represented by the dial/digital graph.

      If your eG license enables the Configuration Management capability, then, an Application Configuration section will appear here providing the basic configuration of the application. You can configure the type of configuration data that is to be displayed in this section by following the steps below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard. In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Application from the Module list, and Overview from the Sub-System list.
      • To add more configuration information to this section, first, pick the Application Configuration option from the Add/Delete Measures for list. Upon selection of this option, all the configuration measures that pre-exist in the Configuration Management section will appear in the Existing Value(s) list.
      • Next, select the config Test that reports the said measure, pick the measure of interest from the Measures list, provide a Display name for the measure, and click the Add button to add the chosen measure to the Existing Value(s) list.
      • If you want to delete one/more measures from this section, then, as soon as you choose the Application Configuration option from the Add/Delete Measures for list, pick any of the displayed measures from the Existing Value(s) list, and click the Delete button.
      • Finally, click the Update button to register the changes.

    4. Next to this section, you will find a pre-configured list of Key Performance Indicators of the Oracle application. Besides indicating the current state of and current values reported by a default set of resource usage metrics, this section also reveals ‘miniature’ graphs of each measure, so that you can instantly study how that measure has behaved during the last 1 hour (by default) and thus determine whether the change in state of the measure was triggered by a sudden dip in performance or a consistent one. Clicking on a measure here will lead you to the layer model of the target Oracle Application, which displays the layer and test that reports the measure.

      5. You can, if required, override the default measure list in the Key Performance Indicators section by adding more critical measures to the list or by removing one/more existing ones from the list. For this, do the following:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard. In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Application from the Module list, and Overview from the Sub-System list.
      • To add more metrics to the Key Performance Indicators section, first, pick the Performance Indicator option from the Add/Delete Measures for list. Upon selection of this option, all the measures that pre-exist in the Key Performance Indicators section will appear in the Existing Value(s) list.
      • Next, select the Test that reports the said measure, pick the measure of interest from the Measures list, provide a Display name for the measure, and click the Add button to add the chosen measure to the Existing Value(s) list.
      • If you want to delete one/more measures from this section, then, as soon as you choose the Key Performance Indicators option from the Add/Delete Measures for list, pick any of the displayed measures from the Existing Value(s) list, and click the Delete button.
      • Finally, click the Update button to register the changes.

      Clicking on a ‘miniature’ graph that corresponds to a key performance indicator will enlarge the graph, so that you can view and analyze the measure behavior more clearly, and can also alter the Timeline and dimension (3D/ 2D) of the graph, if need be.

      This way, the first few sections of the At-A-Glance tab page help understand what issues are currently affecting the application health, and when they actually originated. To diagnose the root-cause of these issues however, you would have to take help from the remaining sections of the At-A-Glance tab page. For instance, the Key Performance Indicators section may indicate a sudden/steady increase in the number of Inactive Connections of a user who is connected to the Oracle database. However, to determine whether the sudden rise in the number of Inactive Connections is due to the lack of availability of the Oracle database, you need to focus on the Oracle Availability section.

    5. This Oracle Availability section for starters reveals the availability of the Oracle database and the other measures related to the availability of the Oracle database. With the help of this section, you can quickly figure out the following:

      • The response time taken by the database for a typical request;
      • How well the data is transmitted from the database,
      • The rate at which the data is received by the database, etc.,

      Using this Oracle Availability section, you can instantly identify the availability of the Oracle database and how well the database is performing at present.

      You can, if required, override the default measure list in the Oracle Availability section by adding more critical measures to the list or by removing one/more existing ones from the list. For this, do the following:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard. In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Application from the Module list, and Overview from the Sub-System list.
      • To add more metrics to the Oracle Availability section, first, pick the Performance Indicator option from the Add/Delete Measures for list. Upon selection of this option, all the measures that pre-exist in the Oracle Availability section will appear in the Existing Value(s) list.
      • Next, select the Test that reports the said measure, pick the measure of interest from the Measures list, provide a Display name for the measure, and click the Add button to add the chosen measure to the Existing Value(s) list.
      • If you want to delete one/more measures from this section, then, as soon as you choose the Oracle Availability option from the Add/Delete Measures for list, pick any of the displayed measures from the Existing Value(s) list, and click the Delete button.
      • Finally, click the Update button to register the changes.

    6. The next section that is discussed in this Subsystem is the Oracle SGA. The Oracle SGA is the most important memory structure in Oracle. The System Global Area (SGA) stores several different components of memory usage that are designed to execute processes to obtain data for user queries as quickly as possible while also maximizing the number of concurrent users that can access the Oracle instance. The main components of the SGA are - the buffer cache and the shared pool. In this section you will be viewing the following:

      • The library cache hit ratio that indicates the percentage of shared SQL statements being parsed;
      • The data buffer cache hit ratio that indicates the percentage of time the database server is able to satisfy a request with information that is already available in the memory;
      • The dictionary cache hit ratio that indicates the percentage of data dictionary information pertaining to the database;
      • The redo log buffer misses indicating the percentage of requests that had to wait before the redo log buffer is allocated and
      • The percentage of sorts that is happening on the secondary storage disk.

      Using this section you can easily identify the level of activity on the main components of the SGA and which are the measures that are affecting the performance of the Oracle database.

      You can, if required, override the default measure list in the Oracle SGA section by adding more critical measures to the list or by removing one/more existing ones from the list. For this, do the following:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard. In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Application from the Module list, and Overview from the Sub-System list.
      • To add more metrics to the Oracle SGA section, first, pick the Performance Indicator option from the Add/Delete Measures for list. Upon selection of this option, all the measures that pre-exist in the Oracle SGA section will appear in the Existing Value(s) list.
      • Next, select the Test that reports the said measure, pick the measure of interest from the Measures list, provide a Display name for the measure, and click the Add button to add the chosen measure to the Existing Value(s) list.
      • If you want to delete one/more measures from this section, then, as soon as you choose the Oracle SGA option from the Add/Delete Measures for list, pick any of the displayed measures from the Existing Value(s) list, and click the Delete button.
      • Finally, click the Update button to register the changes.

    7. The Oracle User Connections section reveals on how well a user is connected to the target Oracle database. For every user, this section reveals the number of connections currently established, the number of connections that are currently active, the number of sessions that are currently lying idle, etc. This way, you can easily identify whether there is any consumption of critical resources due to idle sessions which denies access to the users to perform important tasks.

      By default, the User list provided by this section is sorted in the alphabetical order of the names of the users. If need be, you can change the sort order so that the users are arranged in, say, the descending order of values displayed in the Total connections column - this column displays the total number of connections for each user. To achieve this, simply click on the column heading Total connections. Doing so tags the Total connections label with a down arrow icon - this icon indicates that the Oracle User Connections table is currently sorted in the descending order of the total number of connections of the user. To change the sort order to ‘ascending’, all you need to do is just click again on the Total connections label or the down arrow icon. Similarly, you can sort the table based on any column available in it.

      8. You can, if required, override the default measure list in the Oracle SGA section by adding more critical measures to the list or by removing one/more existing ones from the list. For this, do the following:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard. In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Application from the Module list, and Overview from the Sub-System list.
      • To add more metrics to the Oracle User Connections section, first, pick the Performance Indicator option from the Add/Delete Measures for list. Upon selection of this option, all the measures that pre-exist in the Oracle User Connections section will appear in the Existing Value(s) list.
      • Next, select the Test that reports the said measure, pick the measure of interest from the Measures list, provide a Display name for the measure, and click the Add button to add the chosen measure to the Existing Value(s) list.
      • If you want to delete one/more measures from this section, then, as soon as you choose the Oracle User Connections option from the Add/Delete Measures for list, pick any of the displayed measures from the Existing Value(s) list, and click the Delete button.
      • Finally, click the Update button to register the changes.

    8. The next section in this Subsystem is the Oracle Tablespaces. A tablespace is a logical database structure that is designed to store other logical database structures. The objects that may be stored in a tablespace include tables, indexes, rollback segments, etc. This section provides an insight view of the activities happening in each of the tablespace of the target Oracle database. Using this section you can easily identify the following in each tablespace:

      • The current actual usage of the tablespace;
      • The rate of physical reads happening on the tablespace;
      • The rate of physical writes happening on the tablespace;
      • Whether the tablespace has the capability to grow automatically?
      • The maximum extent upto which the tablespace can grow;
      • The amount of unused space in the tablespace;
      • The size of the biggest extent in the tablespace, etc;

      By default, the User list provided by this section is sorted in the alphabetical order of the names of the users. If need be, you can change the sort order so that the users are arranged in, say, the descending order of values displayed in the Total connections column - this column displays the total number of connections for each user. To achieve this, simply click on the column heading Total connections. Doing so tags the Total connections label with a down arrow icon - this icon indicates that the Oracle User Connections table is currently sorted in the descending order of the total number of connections of the user. To change the sort order to ‘ascending’, all you need to do is just click again on the Total connections label or the down arrow icon. Similarly, you can sort the table based on any column available in it.

      You can, if required, override the default measure list in the Oracle Tablespaces section by adding more critical measures to the list or by removing one/more existing ones from the list. For this, do the following:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard. In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Application from the Module list, and Overview from the Sub-System list.
      • To add more metrics to the Oracle Tablespaces section, first, pick the Performance Indicator option from the Add/Delete Measures for list. Upon selection of this option, all the measures that pre-exist in the Oracle Tablespaces section will appear in the Existing Value(s) list.
      • Next, select the Test that reports the said measure, pick the measure of interest from the Measures list, provide a Display name for the measure, and click the Add button to add the chosen measure to the Existing Value(s) list.
      • If you want to delete one/more measures from this section, then, as soon as you choose the Oracle Tablespaces option from the Add/Delete Measures for list, pick any of the displayed measures from the Existing Value(s) list, and click the Delete button.
      • Finally, click the Update button to register the changes.

    9. The Oracle DataFiles section reveals the level of activity that is happening on each of the datafile in the target Oracle database. The datafiles are a major component of the Oracle database that contains the user data and the data dictionary. With the help of this section, you can figure out the following in each datafile:

      • The rate at which the disk blocks are read;
      • The rate at which the disk blocks are written;
      • The percentage of total I/O operations of the target Oracle database that is handled by the datafile;

      You can, if required, override the default measure list in the Oracle DataFiles section by adding more critical measures to the list or by removing one/more existing ones from the list. For this, do the following:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard. In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Application from the Module list, and Overview from the Sub-System list.
      • To add more metrics to the Oracle DataFiles section, first, pick the Performance Indicator option from the Add/Delete Measures for list. Upon selection of this option, all the measures that pre-exist in the Oracle DataFiles section will appear in the Existing Value(s) list.
      • Next, select the Test that reports the said measure, pick the measure of interest from the Measures list, provide a Display name for the measure, and click the Add button to add the chosen measure to the Existing Value(s) list.
      • If you want to delete one/more measures from this section, then, as soon as you choose the Oracle Tablespaces option from the Add/Delete Measures for list, pick any of the displayed measures from the Existing Value(s) list, and click the Delete button.
      • Finally, click the Update button to register the changes.

    10. While the At-A-Glance tab page reveals the current state of the Oracle database and the overall performance of the Oracle application, to perform additional diagnosis on problem conditions highlighted by the At-A-Glance tab page and to accurately pinpoint their root-cause, you need to switch to the Details tab page by clicking on it. For instance, the At-A-Glance tab page may indicate the number of inactive connections in the target Oracle database, but to know which connections were inactive for the longest time, you will have to use the Details tab page.

    11. The Details tab page comprises of a default set of comparison bar graphs using which you can accurately determine the following:

      • How many users are active in the Oracle database?
      • How many users are inactive for a longer period in the target Oracle database?
      • The top tablespaces that are categorized based on the current size.
      • The top tablespaces that are being utilized at present by the target applications.
      • How much of free space is available in each of the tablespace of the target Oracle database?

      12. If required, you can configure the Details tab page to include comparison graphs for more measures, or can even remove one/more existing graphs by removing the corresponding measures. To achieve this, do the following:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard. In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Application from the Module list, and Overview from the Sub-System list.
      • To add measures for comparison graphs, first, pick the Comparison Graph option from the Add/Delete Measures for list. Upon selection of this option, the pre-configured measures for comparison graphs will appear in the Existing Value(s) list.
      • Next, select the Test that reports the said measure, pick the measure of interest from the Measures list, provide a Display name for the measure, and click the Add button to add the chosen measure to the Existing Value(s) list.
      • If you want to delete one/more measures for which comparison graphs pre-exist in the details tab page, then, as soon as you choose the Comparison Graph option from the Add/Delete Measures for list, pick any of the displayed measures from the Existing Value(s) list, and click the Delete button.
      • Finally, click the Update button to register the changes.

      Note:

      Only users with Admin or Supermonitor privileges can enable/disable the system, network, and application dashboards, or can customize the contents of such dashboards using the Dashboard Settings window. Therefore, whenever a user without Admin or Supermonitor privileges logs into the monitoring console, the button will not appear.

      By default, the comparison bar graphs list the current usage of the top-10 tablespaces only. To view the complete list of tablespaces, simply click on the corresponding graph from the Details tab page to view an enlarged graph.

      Though the enlarged graph lists all the databases in this case by default, you can customize the enlarged graph to display the details of only a few of the highest/lowest used tablespaces by picking a TOP-N or LAST-N option from the Show list.

      Another default aspect of the enlarged graph is that it pertains to the current period only. Sometimes however, you might want to know what occurred during a point of time in the past; for instance, while trying to understand the reason behind a sudden increase or decrease in the current usage of the tablespace on a particular day last week, you might want to first determine the tablespace whose usage has abnormally increased / decreased on the same day. To figure this out, the enlarged graph allows you to compare the historical performance of the databases. For this purpose, click on the Compare History link and select the TimeLine of your choice.

      Where detailed diagnosis is applicable, you can quickly view the detailed measures that correspond to a comparison graph by clicking on the icon at the right, top corner of the enlarged graph. This will invoke the a pop up window listing the detailed diagnosis of the measure, using which you can arrive at the root-cause of a problem.

    12. For detailed time-of-day / trend analysis of the historical performance of a target Oracle database, use the History tab page. By default, this tab page provides time-of-day graphs of critical measures extracted from the target Oracle database, using which you can understand how performance has varied during the default period of 24 hours. In the event of a problem, these graphs will help you determine whether the problem occurred suddenly or grew with time. To alter the timeline of all the graphs simultaneously, click on the Timeline link at the right, top corner of the History tab of the enlarged graph.

      You can even override the default timeline (of 24 hours) of the measure graphs, by following the steps below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select History Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

      You can click on any of the graphs to enlarge it, and can change the Timeline of that graph in the enlarged mode.

      In case of tests that support descriptors, the enlarged graph will, by default, plot the values for the TOP-10 descriptors alone. To configure the graph to plot the values of more or less number of descriptors, select a different TOP-N / LAST-N option from the Show list of the enlarged graph.

    13. If you want to quickly perform service level audits on the target Oracle application, then summary graphs may be more appropriate than the default measure graphs. For instance, a summary graph might come in handy if you want to determine the variation of Total size of a tablespace with respect to the percentage of time during the last 24 hours. Using such a graph, you can determine whether the tablespace size has been constant or varied, and if not, how frequently the application faltered in this regard. To invoke such summary graphs, click on the icon at the right, top corner of the History tab page. An enlarged summary graph of the Oracle Application will then appear.

      14. You can alter the timeline of all the summary graphs at one shot by clicking the Timeline link at the right, top corner of the History tab page. You can even alter the default timeline (of 24 hours) for these graphs, by following the steps given below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Summary Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

      To change the timeline of a particular graph, click on it; this will enlarge the graph. In the enlarged mode, you can alter the Timeline of the graph. Also, though the graph plots hourly summary values by default, you can pick a different Duration for the graph in the enlarged mode, so that daily/monthly performance summaries can be analyzed.

      To perform effective analysis of the past trends in performance, and to accurately predict future measure behavior, click on the icon at the right, top corner of the History tab page. These trend graphs shows how well and how badly a measure has performed every hour during the last 24 hours (by default). For instance, the Total size trend graph of each tablespace of an Oracle application will help you figure out the total size of the tablespace that was available in the application every hour during the last 24 hours. If the gap between the minimum and maximum values is marginal, you can conclude that the size of the database has been more or less constant during the designated period; this implies that the size of the database has neither increased nor decreased steeply during the said timeline. On the other hand, a wide gap between the maximum and minimum values is indicative of an erratic change in the size of the database, and may necessitate further investigation.

      To analyze trends over a broader time scale, click on the Timeline link at the right, top corner of the History tab page, and edit the Timeline of the trend graphs. Clicking on any of the miniature graphs in this tab page will enlarge that graph, so that you can view the plotted data more clearly and even change its Timeline.

      To override the default timeline (of 24 hours) of the trend graphs, do the following:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Trend Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

      Besides the timeline, you can even change the Duration of the trend graph in the enlarged mode. By default, Hourly trends are plotted in the trend graph. By picking a different option from the Duration list, you can ensure that Daily or Monthly trends are plotted in the graph instead.

      Also, by default, the trend graph only plots the minimum and maximum values registered by a measure. Accordingly, the Graph type is set to Min/Max in the enlarged mode. If need be, you can change the Graph type to Avg, so that the average trend values of a measure are plotted for the given Timeline. For instance, if an average trend graph is plotted for the Total size measure, then the resulting graph will enable administrators to ascertain whether the size of a particular database has been constant during a specified timeline.

      Likewise, you can also choose Sum as the Graph type to view a trend graph that plots the sum of the values of a chosen measure for a specified timeline. For instance, if you plot a ‘sum of trends’ graph for the measure that reports the Total size of a tablespace available in the Oracle application, then, the resulting graph will enable you to analyze, on an hourly/daily/monthly basis (depending upon the Duration chosen), whether there was any change in the size of the tablespace.

      Note:

      In case of descriptor-based tests, the Summary and Trend graphs displayed in the History tab page typically plot the values for a single descriptor alone. To view the graph for another descriptor, pick a descriptor from the drop-down list made available above the corresponding summary/trend graph.

      At any point in time, you can switch to the measure graphs by clicking on the button.
      Typically, the History tab page displays measure, summary, and trend graphs for a default set of measures. If you want to add graphs for more measures to this tab page or remove one/more measures for which graphs pre-exist in this tab page, then, do the following:

      • Click the button at the top of the dashboard.
      • The Dashboard Settings window then appears. From the Module list, pick Application, choose Overview as the Sub-System, and then, select History Graph from the Add/Delete Measures for list.
      • The measures for which graphs pre-exist in the History tab page will be automatically displayed in the Existing Value(s) list. To delete a measure, and in effect, its corresponding graph as well, select the measure from the Existing Value(s) list, click the Delete button, and then click the Update button.
      • To add a new graph, first, pick the Test that reports the measure for which a graph is to be generated.
      • Next, select the Measure of interest.
      • Provide a Display name for the measure. Then, click the Add button to add the measure to the Existing Values(s) list. Finally, click the Update button.
      • This will add a new measure, summary, and trend graph for the chosen measure, to the History tab page.

      Note:

      Only users with Admin or Supermonitor privileges can enable/disable the system, network, and application dashboards, or can customize the contents of such dashboards using the Dashboard Settings window. Therefore, whenever a user without Admin or Supermonitor privileges logs into the monitoring console, the button will not appear.

  2. Memory Structures

    If you want to assess the health of the SGA, the lock structures and the rollback segments in detail and thus promptly detect the server related discrepancies, select the Memory Structures option from the Subsystem list.

    The contents of the Memory Structures Subsystem that then appears are as follows:

    1. The dashboard begins with a dial and digital graphs section, which enables you to visually track the changes that are happening in the measures related to the Oracle database. For instance, the number of locks that are held by the oracle database can be viewed at a single glance. Clicking on a dial/digital graph will lead you to the layer model page of the Oracle database; this page will display the exact layer-test combination that reports the measure represented by the dial/digital graph.

    2. The Comparison tab page displays a default set of comparison bar graphs using which you can accurately determine the following:

      • The average time for which the sessions were waiting for the lock.
      • The number of lock waits.
      • The ratio of the waits to gets in the rollback segment of the Oracle database.

      If required, you can configure the Comparison tab page to include comparison graphs for more measures, or can even remove one/more existing graphs by removing the corresponding measures. To achieve this, do the following:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard. In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Application from the Module list, and Overview from the Sub-System list.
      • To add measures for comparison graphs, first, pick the Comparison Graph option from the Add/Delete Measures for list. Upon selection of this option, the pre-configured measures for comparison graphs will appear in the Existing Value(s) list.
      • Next, select the Test that reports the said measure, pick the measure of interest from the Measures list, provide a Display name for the measure, and click the Add button to add the chosen measure to the Existing Value(s) list.
      • If you want to delete one/more measures for which comparison graphs pre-exist in the details tab page, then, as soon as you choose the Comparison Graph option from the Add/Delete Measures for list, pick any of the displayed measures from the Existing Value(s) list, and click the Delete button.
      • Finally, click the Update button to register the changes.

      Note:

      Only users with Admin or Supermonitor privileges can enable/disable the system, network, and application dashboards, or can customize the contents of such dashboards using the Dashboard Settings window. Therefore, whenever a user without Admin or Supermonitor privileges logs into the monitoring console, the button will not appear.

      By default, the comparison bar graphs list the top-10 databases only. To view the complete list of databases, simply click on the corresponding graph to view the enlarged graph.

      Though the enlarged graph lists all the tablespaces in this case by default, you can customize the enlarged graph to display the details of only a few of the larger/smaller tablespaces by picking a TOP-N or LAST-N option from the Show list of the enlarged graph.

      Another default aspect of the enlarged graph is that it pertains to the current period only. Sometimes however, you might want to know what occurred during a point of time in the past; for instance, while trying to understand the reason behind a sudden increase or decrease in the current hit ratio of the rollback segments (i.e., the ratio of waits to gets) on a particular day last week, you might want to first determine during which time period the current hit ratio has abnormally increased / decreased on the same day. To figure this out, the enlarged graph allows you to compare the historical performance of the rollback segments. For this purpose, click on the Compare History link and select the TimeLine of your choice.

      Where detailed diagnosis is applicable, you can quickly view the detailed measures that correspond to a comparison graph by clicking on the icon at the right, top corner of the enlarged graph. This will invoke the pop up window showing the detailed diagnosis of the measure, using which you can arrive at the root-cause of a problem.

    3. Next to the Comparison tab, you will find the History tab that depicts how the server related measures such as the average lock time has been varying over time. In the event of any retaliation in the measures, this time-bound analysis will help you to easily differentiate between a normal lock time and a sudden rise in the same.

      By default, these historical graphs track the time-of-day variations in memory usage during the last 24 hours. You can override this default timeline by following the steps discussed below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select History Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

    4. To change the timeline of all the measure graphs at one shot, just click on the Timeline link at the right, top corner of the History tab page. To alter the timeline for a single graph, just click on that graph - this will enlarge the graph. You can change the Timeline of the graph in the enlarged mode.

    5. Instead of these measure graphs, you can, if required, view summary graphs of the memory-related measures in the History tab page. For this, click on the icon at the right, top corner of the History tab page. Summary graphs help you figure out the percentage of time during the last 24 hours (by default) the Oracle application was hogged by the server-related issues. While monitoring mission-critical applications that are governed by rigid service level agreements, summary graphs will help you determine whether the lock has been released within the specified time limit, and if not, how often the locks took too long to be released.
      6. You can override the default timeline (of 24 hours) of the summary graphs by following the steps discussed below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Summary Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

    6. Here again, you can change the Timeline of all the summary graphs by clicking on the Timeline link, or click on a graph, enlarge it, and change its Timeline in the enlarged mode. Also, though the graph plots hourly summary values by default, you can pick a different Duration for the graph in the enlarged mode, so that daily/monthly performance summaries can be analyzed.

    7. You can click on the icon at the right, top corner of the History tab page to view trend graphs of the lock and segment-related measures. By default, these trend graphs plot the maximum and minimum values for every hour of the last 24 hours (by default).i.e., for e.g., the maximum and minimum value for which the lock has been held will be plotted in this graph. The default timeline of 24 hours can be overridden by following the steps discussed below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Trend Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

      Using these trend graphs, you can understand the variations that happened while the lock has been held in the Oracle database during the last 24 hours (by default), deduce the future lock trends, and accordingly recommend changes to the Oracle database.

      Here again, you can change the Timeline of all the trend graphs by clicking on the Timeline link, or click on a graph, enlarge it, and change its Timeline in the enlarged mode. Also, though the graph plots hourly trend values by default, you can pick a different Duration for the graph in the enlarged mode, so that daily/monthly performance trends can be analyzed.

      Also, by default, the trend graph only plots the minimum and maximum values registered by a measure. Accordingly, the Graph type is set to Min/Max in the enlarged mode. If need be, you can change the Graph type to Avg, so that the average trend values of a measure are plotted for the given Timeline. Such a graph will enable you to assess whether the memory resources were utilized effectively or not, over time.

      Likewise, you can also choose Sum as the Graph type to view a trend graph that plots the sum of the values of a chosen measure for a specified timeline. For instance, a ‘sum of trends’ Avg Lock Wait will enable you to analyze, on an hourly/daily/monthly basis (depending upon the Duration chosen), how the locks have been held during the specified timeline.

      Note:

      In case of descriptor-based tests, the Summary and Trend graphs displayed in the History tab page typically plot the values for a single descriptor alone. To view the graph for another descriptor, pick a descriptor from the drop-down list made available above the corresponding summary/trend graph.

      At any point in time, you can switch to the measure graphs by clicking on the button.
      Typically, the History tab page displays measure, summary, and trend graphs for a default set of measures. If you want to add graphs for more measures to this tab page or remove one/more measures for which graphs pre-exist in this tab page, then, do the following:

      • Click the button at the top of the dashboard.
      • The Dashboard Settings window then appears. From the Module list, pick Application, choose Memory Struct ures as the Sub-System, and then, select History Graph from the Add/Delete Measures for list.
      • The measures for which graphs pre-exist in the History tab page will be automatically displayed in the Existing Value(s) list. To delete a measure, and in effect, its corresponding graph as well, select the measure from the Existing Value(s) list, click the Delete button, and then click the Update button.
      • To add a new graph, first, pick the Test that reports the measure for which a graph is to be generated.
      • Next, select the Measure of interest.
      • Provide a Display name for the measure. Then, click the Add button to add the measure to the Existing Values(s) list. Finally, click the Update button.
      • This will add a new measure, summary, and trend graph for the chosen measure to the History tab page.

      8. Note:

      Only users with Admin or Supermonitor privileges can enable/disable the system, network, and application dashboards, or can customize the contents of such dashboards using the Dashboard Settings window. Therefore, whenever a user without Admin or Supermonitor privileges logs into the monitoring console, the button will not appear.

  3. Tablespaces

    If you want to assess how well each of the tablespace is utilized in the target Oracle database, and thus promptly detect issues related to the usage of the tablespaces, select the Tablespaces option from the Subsystem list.

    The contents of this dashboard are discussed hereunder:

    1. The dashboard begins with a dial and digital graphs section, which enables you to visually track the changes that are happening in the measures related to the size and usage of the tablespaces available in the Oracle application. For instance, the Current usage of the tablespace you wish to view can be viewed at a single glance. Clicking on a dial/digital graph will lead you to the layer model page of the Oracle database; this page will display the exact layer-test combination that reports the measure represented by the dial/digital graph.

    2. The At-A-Glance tab page displays critical usage related measures of each of the tablespace available in the Oracle database. This page is divided into two panels - a left panel and a right panel separated by a left arrow button. The left panel provides a tree structure of the Oracle Tablespaces present in the target Oracle database. Upon clicking a tablespace from the tree, the half-dial/digital graphs that are configured for that particular tablespace will be displayed in the right panel. Clicking on a half dial/digital graph that displays the measures will lead you to the layer model page of the Oracle database; this page will now display the exact layer-test combination that reports the measure represented by the half dial/digital graph. To view the half-dial/digital graphs more clearly, simply click on the left arrow button which will hide the left panel and provide a more detailed view of the half-dial and digital graphs

    3. The Comparison tab page displays a default set of comparison bar graphs using which you can accurately determine the following:

      • The average current usage of each tablespace in the Oracle database.
      • The maximum size of the tablespace.
      • The amount of free space left in the tablespace.
      • The rate of physical reads and writes happening in the tablespace.

      If required, you can configure the Comparison tab page to include comparison graphs for more measures, or can even remove one/more existing graphs by removing the corresponding measures. To achieve this, do the following:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard. In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Application from the Module list, and Tablespaces from the Sub-System list.
      • To add measures for comparison graphs, first, pick the Comparison Graph option from the Add/Delete Measures for list. Upon selection of this option, the pre-configured measures for comparison graphs will appear in the Existing Value(s) list.
      • Next, select the Test that reports the said measure, pick the measure of interest from the Measures list, provide a Display name for the measure, and click the Add button to add the chosen measure to the Existing Value(s) list.
      • If you want to delete one/more measures for which comparison graphs pre-exist in the details tab page, then, as soon as you choose the Comparison Graph option from the Add/Delete Measures for list, pick any of the displayed measures from the Existing Value(s) list, and click the Delete button.
      • Finally, click the Update button to register the changes.

      Note:

      Only users with Admin or Supermonitor privileges can enable/disable the system, network, and application dashboards, or can customize the contents of such dashboards using the Dashboard Settings window. Therefore, whenever a user without Admin or Supermonitor privileges logs into the monitoring console, the button will not appear.

      By default, the comparison bar graphs list the top-10 tablespaces only. To view the complete list of tablespaces, simply click on the corresponding graph to view an enlarged graph.

      Though the enlarged graph lists all the tablespaces in this case by default, you can customize the enlarged graph to display the details of only a few of the larger/smaller tablespaces by picking a TOP-N or LAST-N option from the Show list.

      Another default aspect of the enlarged graph is that it pertains to the current period only. Sometimes however, you might want to know what occurred during a point of time in the past; for instance, while trying to understand the reason behind a sudden increase or decrease in the current hit ratio of the rollback segments (i.e., the ratio of waits to gets) on a particular day last week, you might want to first determine during which time period the current hit ratio has abnormally increased / decreased on the same day. To figure this out, the enlarged graph allows you to compare the historical performance of the tablespaces. For this purpose, click on the Compare History link and select the TimeLine of your choice.

      Where detailed diagnosis is applicable, you can quickly view the detailed measures that correspond to a comparison graph by clicking on the icon at the right, top corner of the enlarged graph. This will invoke the pop up window showing the detailed diagnosis of the measure, using which you can arrive at the root-cause of a problem.

    4. The History tab page displays time-of-day graphs for all the memory-related measures for a default time duration of 24 hours. You can override this default timeline (of 24 hours) by following the steps below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select History Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

      Say, you suddenly notice that the Physical Writes measure has increased; in such a case, you can use these measure graphs to figure out when during the last 24 hours there was an increase in the number of writes per sec in the tablespace. If required, you can even look beyond the last 24 hours - i.e., you can find out whether the anomaly originated much earlier. For this, you just need to click on the graph of interest to you. This will enlarge the graph; in the enlarged mode, you can alter the graph Timeline, so that the performance of that measure can be analyzed over a broader time window. In this mode, you can even change the graph dimension from 3D to 2D, or vice-versa.

      To view summary graphs of these memory-related measures instead of the default measure graphs, just click on the icon at the right, top corner of the History tab page. The summary graphs will then appear revealing the percentage of time during the last 24 hours (by default) the tablespace of the Oracle database has been affected by usage related issues, and the type of issues (whether critical/major/minor) the application was experiencing. These graphs help determine whether the assured service levels were delivered or not.

      The default duration (of 24 hours) of the summary graphs can be overridden by following the procedure discussed below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Summary Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

      Use the Timeline link at the right, top corner of the tab page to change the timeline of all the summary graphs at one shot. For altering the timeline of a single graph, click on it; this will enlarge the graph. In the enlarged mode, you can change the Timeline of the summary graph and modify the dimension (3D/2D) of the graph. Also, by default, hourly summaries are plotted in the summary graph; you can configure these graphs to plot daily/monthly summaries instead by picking the relevant option from the Duration list in the enlarged mode.

      If you want to view the past trends in the usage of the tablespace, click on the icon at the right, top corner of the History tab page. Using the trend graph, you can better assess the current capacity of your tablespace and can accordingly plan its future capacity. By default, these trend graphs plot the maximum and minimum values registered by every tablespace-related measure during every hour of the last 24 hours. From this data, you can clearly figure out when during the last 24 hours the tablespace utilization has peaked and when it has been below-normal.

      The default duration (of 24 hours) of the trend graphs can be overridden by following the procedure discussed below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Trend Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

      Use the Timeline link at the right, top corner of the tab page to change the timeline of all the trend graphs at one shot. For altering the timeline of a single graph, click on it; this will enlarge the graph. In the enlarged mode, you can change the Timeline of the trend graph and modify the dimension (3D/2D) of the graph. Also, by default, hourly trends are plotted in the trend graph; you can configure these graphs to plot daily/monthly trend values instead by picking the relevant option from the Duration list in the enlarged mode. Moreover, by default, the trend graphs plot only the minimum and maximum values registered by a measure during the specified timeline - this graph will enable you to isolate those times at which performance of that measure had peaked and the times it had fared poorly. If need be, you can select the Avg option from the Graph type list in the enlarged mode to make sure that the trend graph plots the average trend values for the specified timeline. Alternatively, you can select the Sum option from the Graph type list to have the trend graph plot the sum of trends for the specified timeline.

      Note:

      In case of descriptor-based tests, the Summary and Trend graphs displayed in the History tab page typically plot the values for a single descriptor alone. To view the graph for another descriptor, pick a descriptor from the drop-down list made available above the corresponding summary/trend graph.

      At any point in time, you can switch to the measure graphs by clicking on the button.
      Typically, the History tab page displays measure, summary, and trend graphs for a default set of measures. If you want to add graphs for more measures to this tab page or remove one/more measures for which graphs pre-exist in this tab page, then, do the following:

      • Click the button at the top of the dashboard.
      • The Dashboard Settings window then appears. From the Module list, pick Application, choose Tablespaces as the Sub-System, and then, select History Graph from the Add/Delete Measures for list.
      • The measures for which graphs pre-exist in the History tab page will be automatically displayed in the Existing Value(s) list. To delete a measure, and in effect, its corresponding graph as well, select the measure from the Existing Value(s) list, click the Delete button, and then click the Update button.
      • To add a new graph, first, pick the Test that reports the measure for which a graph is to be generated.
      • Next, select the Measure of interest.
      • Provide a Display name for the measure. Then, click the Add button to add the measure to the Existing Values(s) list. Finally, click the Update button.
      • This will add a new measure, summary, and trend graph for the chosen measure to the History tab page.

      Note:

      Only users with Admin or Supermonitor privileges can enable/disable the system, network, and application dashboards, or can customize the contents of such dashboards using the Dashboard Settings window. Therefore, whenever a user without Admin or Supermonitor privileges logs into the monitoring console, the button will not appear.

  4. Datafiles

    Select the Datafiles option from the Subsystem list to know how efficiently the information stored in the datafiles of the Oracle database is accessed.

    The contents of this Subsystem are as follows:

    1. The Comparison tab page provides a series of top 10 charts, using which you can identify the top datafiles of the Oracle database based on their I/O related activities. This default list of measures for top-n chart generation can be overridden by following the steps discussed below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard. In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Application from the Module list, and Datafiles from the Sub-System list.
      • To add new measures for which top-n graphs are to be displayed in the Comparison tab page, first, pick the Comparison Graph option from the Add/Delete Measures for list. Upon selection of this option, the pre-configured measures for comparison graphs will appear in the Existing Value(s) list.
      • Next, select the Test that reports the said measure, pick the measure of interest from the Measures list, provide a Display name for the measure, and click the Add button to add the chosen measure to the Existing Value(s) list.
      • If you want to delete one/more measures for which comparison graphs pre-exist in the Comparison tab page, then, as soon as you choose the Comparison Graph option from the Add/Delete Measures for list, pick any of the displayed measures from the Existing Value(s) list, and click the Delete button.
      • Finally, click the Update button to register the changes.

      Note:

      Only users with Admin or Supermonitor privileges can enable/disable the system, network, and application dashboards, or can customize the contents of such dashboards using the Dashboard Settings window. Therefore, whenever a user without Admin or Supermonitor privileges logs into the monitoring console, the button will not appear.

    2. To view the complete list of datafiles available in the Oracle database, simply click on the corresponding graph to view an enlarged graph.

    3. Though the enlarged graph lists all the datafiles, by default, you can customize the enlarged graph to display the details of only a few of the best/worst-utilized datafiles by picking a TOP-N or LAST-N option from the Show list.

    4. Another default aspect of the enlarged graph is that it pertains to the current period only. Sometimes however, you might want to know what occurred during a point of time in the past; for instance, while trying to understand the reason behind an abnormal activity in the total I/O of a particular datafile on a particular day last week, you might want to first determine which datafile has behaved abnormally on the same day. To figure this out, the enlarged graph allows you to compare the historical performance of the datafiles. For this purpose, click on the Compare History link and select the TimeLine of your choice.

    5. The History tab page below, by default, provides a series of measure graphs that reveal how the well the I/O related activity has been happening in each datafile over the default duration of the last 24 hours. If there is a sudden slowdown in the I/O related activity, it could indicate that the Oracle database is experiencing issues with the blocks of the datafiles. In such a case, a look at these measure graphs will help you figure out when exactly the bottleneck surfaced - did it happen suddenly or is it a condition that has become worse with time?

      6. The default duration of 24 hours can be overridden using the procedure discussed below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select History Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

      Note:

      Only users with Admin or Supermonitor privileges can enable/disable the system, network, and application dashboards, or can customize the contents of such dashboards using the Dashboard Settings window. Therefore, whenever a user without Admin or Supermonitor privileges logs into the monitoring console, the button will not appear.

    6. If need be, you can even alter the timeline of all these measure graphs so that you can analyze performance across days and weeks; for this, simply click the Timeline link at the right, top corner of the History tab page and change the timeline for the graphs using the calendar that pops out. To change the timeline of a single graph alone, simply click on that graph to enlarge it, and then modify the Timeline of the graph in the enlarged mode. In the enlarged mode, you can even change the dimension of the measure graph (3D / 2D).

    7. To determine the service level achievements / slippages happened in each of the datafile, you need to view summary graphs of the measures and not the default measure graphs. For this, just click on the icon at the right, top corner of the History tab page.

    8. The summary graphs reveal the percentage of time the datafile experienced problems in the database. Besides revealing the efficiency of your administrative staff in recognizing bottlenecks and mitigating them, these summary graphs also indicate whether the datafile has been able to maintain the assured performance levels during the default duration of 24 hours.

      To override this default duration, follow the steps below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Summary Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

      In case of the summary graphs too, you can change the Timeline of all graphs by clicking on the Timeline link at the right, top corner of the History tab page. To alter the timeline of a single graph, here again, you will have to click on that graph, enlarge it, and modify the timeline. Also, by default, hourly summaries are plotted in the summary graph; you can configure these graphs to plot daily/monthly summaries instead by picking the relevant option from the Duration list in the enlarged mode.

      To analyze past trends in the behavior of the datafiles, click on the icon at the right, top corner of the History tab page. These trend graphs, by default, plot the minimum and maximum values that every measure registered during each hour of the last 24 hours (by default). By carefully observing these past trends, you can effectively analyze the workload of the datafile, predict future workloads accordingly, and suggest measures to enhance the efficiency of the datafile. Here again, you can change the timeline of all graphs using the Timeline link, or just a particular graph by clicking on it and enlarging it.

      For changing the default duration (of 24 hours) of the trend graphs, do the following:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Trend Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

      In addition, when a trend graph is enlarged, it is not just the Timeline that you can modify. The Duration of the graph can also be altered. By default, trend graphs reveal only the hourly trends in performance. By picking the relevant option from the Duration list, you can ensure that the trend graph in question plots daily/monthly trend values instead. Also, in the enlarged mode, the Graph type can also be modified. Since the default Graph type is Min/Max, the trend graph, by default, reveals the minimum and maximum values registered by a measure. If need be, you can select the Avg or Sum option from the Graph type list to plot average trend values of a measure or sum of trends (as the case may be) in the graph.

      Note:

      In case of descriptor-based tests, the Summary and Trend graphs displayed in the History tab page typically plot the values for a single descriptor alone. To view the graph for another descriptor, pick a descriptor from the drop-down list made available above the corresponding summary/trend graph.

      At any point in time, you can switch to the measure graphs by clicking on the button.

      Typically, the History tab page displays measure, summary, and trend graphs for a default set of measures. If you want to add graphs for more measures to this tab page or remove one/more measures for which graphs pre-exist in this tab page, then, do the following:

      • Click the button at the top of the dashboard.
      • The Dashboard Settings window then appears. From the Module list, pick Application, choose Datafiles as the Sub-System, and then, select History Graph from the Add/Delete Measures for list.
      • The measures for which graphs pre-exist in the History tab page will be automatically displayed in the Existing Value(s) list. To delete a measure, and in effect, its corresponding graph as well, select the measure from the Existing Value(s) list, click the Delete button, and then click the Update button.
      • To add a new graph, first, pick the Test that reports the measure for which a graph is to be generated.
      • Next, select the Measure of interest.
      • Provide a Display name for the measure. Then, click the Add button to add the measure to the Existing Values(s) list. Finally, click the Update button.
      • This will add a new measure, summary, and trend graph for the chosen measure to the History tab page.

      Note:

      Only users with Admin or Supermonitor privileges can enable/disable the system, network, and application dashboards, or can customize the contents of such dashboards using the Dashboard Settings window. Therefore, whenever a user without Admin or Supermonitor privileges logs into the monitoring console, the button will not appear.

  5. Database access

    Select the Database access option from the Subsystem list to know how well the Oracle database has been responding to the service request from the client applications.

    The contents of this Subsystem are as follows:

    1. The dashboard begins with a dial and digital graphs section, which enables you to visually track the changes that are happening in the measures related to the availability of the database and responsiveness of the database to SQL queries. For instance, the Active Sessions of the database user you wish to view can be viewed at a single glance. Clicking on a dial/digital graph will lead you to the layer model page of the Oracle database; this page will display the exact layer-test combination that reports the measure represented by the dial/digital graph

    2. The At-A-Glance tab page provides user related statistics pertaining to the Oracle database in a more elaborate manner. This way you could better be aware of each minute data related to the Oracle database. This tab page is divided into two sections - the left panel and the right panel separated by a left arrow button. The left panel lists out all the Database Users who are authorized to carry on transactions with the Oracle dashboard, in a tree format. Upon selecting a user from the tree structure, the context sensitive right panel will display a pie chart that provides a single glance view regarding the state of the user connections and the user sessions of the Oracle database. You can also view the locks that are held for each user in a tabular format in the Oracle Lock - Summary section of the right panel. To get a more clear view of the right panel, just click on the left arrow button. Doing so will hide the Database Users tree structure i.e., the left panel. By default, All Users option will be selected from the Database Users tree structure. Therefore, the Oracle Lock - Summary section will list out the overall details of the locks that were held for all users in the table. This section is by default sorted out in the ascending order of the User column. If need be, you can change the sort order so that the locks are arranged in, say, the descending order displayed in the User column. To achieve this, simply click on the column heading - User. Doing so tags the User label with a down arrow icon - this icon indicates that the User list is currently sorted in the descending order of locks held. To change the sort order to ‘ascending’, all you need to do is just click again on the User label or the down arrow icon. Similarly, you can sort the lock list based on any column available in the Oracle Lock - Summary section.

    3. The Top Queries tab page that follows the At-A-Glance tab page displays the Oracle High resource utilizing Queries section which provides the details of the Top 10 queries that were executed for the users of the target Oracle database. This section provides a detailed report on the execution time, the number of rows that were processed to execute the query, the total number of disk reads, the exact SQL query, etc. This section by default provides the details of the top 10 queries executed for all users. If you want to view the top 10 queries for a chosen user, then choose a user from the Database Users tree in the left panel of the At-A-Glance tab page and navigate to the Top Queries tab page to figure out the top 10 queries for that user. This section is by default sorted in the ascending order of the User column. If need be you can sort the User column in descending order of the name of the users. Doing so will tag the User label with a down arrow icon - this icon indicates that the User list is currently sorted in the descending order of the user names. To change the sort order to ‘ascending’, all you need to do is just click again on the User label or the down arrow icon. Similarly, you can sort the Top queries table based on any column available in the Top Queries section.

    4. The Comparison tab page that follows the Top Queries tab page provides a series of top-10 charts, using which you can isolate the users and sessions that are leading the lot in the following fields: total connections, active connections, average wait time of the session etc.,. This default list of fields (i.e., measures) for top-n chart generation can be overridden by following the steps discussed below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard. In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Application from the Module list, and Database access from the Sub-System list.
      • To add new measures for which top-n graphs are to be displayed in the Comparison tab page, first, pick the Comparison Graph option from the Add/Delete Measures for list. Upon selection of this option, the pre-configured measures for comparison graphs will appear in the Existing Value(s) list.
      • Next, select the Test that reports the said measure, pick the measure of interest from the Measures list, provide a Display name for the measure, and click the Add button to add the chosen measure to the Existing Value(s) list.
      • If you want to delete one/more measures for which comparison graphs pre-exist in the Comparison tab page, then, as soon as you choose the Comparison Graph option from the Add/Delete Measures for list, pick any of the displayed measures from the Existing Value(s) list, and click the Delete button.
      • Finally, click the Update button to register the changes.

      5. Note:

      Only users with Admin or Supermonitor privileges can enable/disable the system, network, and application dashboards, or can customize the contents of such dashboards using the Dashboard Settings window. Therefore, whenever a user without Admin or Supermonitor privileges logs into the monitoring console, the button will not appear.

    5. For example, to view the top users who possess active connections, simply click on the corresponding graph to view an enlarged graph.

    6. Though the enlarged graph lists all the databases by default, you can customize the enlarged graph to display the details of only a few of the best/worst-performing databases by picking a TOP-N or LAST-N option from the Show list.

    7. Another default aspect of the enlarged graph is that it pertains to the current period only. Sometimes however, you might want to know what occurred during a point of time in the past; for instance, while trying to understand the reason behind a sudden decrease in the number of active connections of the chosen user on a particular day last week, you might want to first determine what was the cause for this abnormal behavior on the same day. To figure this out, the enlarged graph allows you to compare the historical performance of users. For this purpose, click on the Compare History link and select the TimeLine of your choice.

    8. The History tab page below, by default, provides a series of measure graphs that reveal for example, how well the users are connected to the Oracle database over the default duration of the last 24 hours. If there is a sudden decrease in the number of active connections, it could indicate that there is some performance issue with the connectivity of the oracle database. In such a case, a look at these measure graphs will help you figure out when exactly the bottleneck surfaced - did it happen suddenly or is it a condition that has become worse with time?

      9. The default duration of 24 hours can be overridden using the procedure discussed below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select History Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

      Note:

      Only users with Admin or Supermonitor privileges can enable/disable the system, network, and application dashboards, or can customize the contents of such dashboards using the Dashboard Settings window. Therefore, whenever a user without Admin or Supermonitor privileges logs into the monitoring console, the button will not appear.

      If need be, you can even alter the timeline of all these measure graphs so that you can analyze performance across days and weeks; for this, simply click the Timeline link at the right, top corner of the History tab page and change the timeline for the graphs using the calendar that pops out. To change the timeline of a single graph alone, simply click on that graph to enlarge it, and then modify the Timeline of the graph in the enlarged mode. Though the enlarged graph lists all the databases by default, you can customize the enlarged graph to display the details of only a few of the best/worst-performing databases by picking a TOP-N or LAST-N option from the Show list. In the enlarged mode, you can even change the dimension of the measure graph (3D / 2D).

    9. To determine the service level achievements of the user and session related activity of the Oracle database, you need to view summary graphs of the measures and not the default measure graphs. For this, just click on the icon at the right, top corner of the History tab page.

      10. The summary graphs displayed reveals the percentage of time the oracle database experienced problems with user connections and session related activities. Besides revealing the efficiency of your administrative staff in recognizing bottlenecks and mitigating them, these summary graphs also indicate whether the users were able to maintain the assured performance levels with the database during the default duration of 24 hours.

      To override this default duration, follow the steps below:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Summary Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

      In case of the summary graphs too, you can change the Timeline of all graphs by clicking on the Timeline link at the right, top corner of the History tab page. To alter the timeline of a single graph, here again, you will have to click on that graph, enlarge it, and modify the timeline. Also, by default, hourly summaries are plotted in the summary graph; you can configure these graphs to plot daily/monthly summaries instead by picking the relevant option from the Duration list in the enlarged mode.

      To analyze past trends in the performance of the databases, click on the icon at the right, top corner of the History tab page.

      These trend graphs, by default, plot the minimum and maximum values that every measure registered during each hour of the last 24 hours (by default). Using such graphs, you can accurately point to the time windows during which there was a lull in the active connections for the chosen user in the Oracle database. Here again, you can change the timeline of all graphs using the Timeline link, or just a particular graph by clicking on it and enlarging it.

      For changing the default duration (of 24 hours) of the trend graphs, do the following:

      • Click on the icon at the top of the Application Dashboard.
      • In the Dashboard Settings window that appears, select Trend Graph from the Default Timeline for list.
      • Then, choose a Timeline for the graph.
      • Finally, click the Update button.

      In addition, when a trend graph is enlarged, it is not just the Timeline that you can modify. The Duration of the graph can also be altered. By default, trend graphs reveal only the hourly trends in performance. By picking the relevant option from the Duration list, you can ensure that the trend graph in question plots daily/monthly trend values instead. Also, in the enlarged mode, the Graph type can also be modified. Since the default Graph type is Min/Max, the trend graph, by default, reveals the minimum and maximum values registered by a measure. If need be, you can select the Avg or Sum option from the Graph type list to plot average trend values of a measure or sum of trends (as the case may be) in the graph.

      Note:

      In case of descriptor-based tests, the Summary and Trend graphs displayed in the History tab page typically plot the values for a single descriptor alone. To view the graph for another descriptor, pick a descriptor from the drop-down list made available above the corresponding summary/trend graph.

      At any point in time, you can switch to the measure graphs by clicking on the button.

      Typically, the History tab page displays measure, summary, and trend graphs for a default set of measures. If you want to add graphs for more measures to this tab page or remove one/more measures for which graphs pre-exist in this tab page, then, do the following:

      • Click the button at the top of the dashboard.
      • The Dashboard Settings window then appears. From the Module list, pick Application, choose Database access as the Sub-System, and then, select History Graph from the Add/Delete Measures for list.
      • The measures for which graphs pre-exist in the History tab page will be automatically displayed in the Existing Value(s) list. To delete a measure, and in effect, its corresponding graph as well, select the measure from the Existing Value(s) list, click the Delete button, and then click the Update button.
      • To add a new graph, first, pick the Test that reports the measure for which a graph is to be generated.
      • Next, select the Measure of interest.
      • Provide a Display name for the measure. Then, click the Add button to add the measure to the Existing Values(s) list. Finally, click the Update button.
      • This will add a new measure, summary, and trend graph for the chosen measure to the History tab page.

      Note:

      Only users with Admin or Supermonitor privileges can enable/disable the system, network, and application dashboards, or can customize the contents of such dashboards using the Dashboard Settings window. Therefore, whenever a user without Admin or Supermonitor privileges logs into the monitoring console, the button will not appear.