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Please advise me on any good performance monitoring softwares for Oracle Database. Budget is no issue.

I want to find and fix performance bottlenecks in Oracle Database (Oracle 9i Rel2), as well as generate graphs on statistics collected over a period of time.

At present I am evaluating:

1) Spotlight® on Oracle from Quest Software
2) DB Tools for Oracle from SoftTree Technologies


A typical performance monitoring tool has:


System Monitoring Specification
General Server Metrics
Availability
Physical Reads
Physical Reads per Minute
Logical Reads
Logical Reads per Minute
Physical Writes
Physical Writes per Minute
User Calls
User Calls per Minute
User Commits
User Commits per Minute
User Rollbacks
User Rollbacks per Minute
Connections Cumulative
Connections Cumulative per Minute
Connections Current
Bytes Sent via SQL*Net
Bytes Sent via SQL*Net per Minute
Bytes Received via SQL*Net
Bytes Received via SQL*Net per Minute
Client Roundtrips
Client Roundtrips per Minute
Opened Cursors Cumulative
Opened Cursors Cumulative per Minute
Opened Cursors Current
CPU Time Total
CPU Time Total per Minute
CPU Time Recursive
CPU Time Recursive per Minute
CPU Time Parse
CPU Time Parse per Minute
Cache Hit Ratio
Up Time
Block Changes
Block Changes per Minute
Redo Size Generated
Redo Size Generated per Minute
Redo Log Size
Session PGA Memory
Session UGA Memory
Parse Count (total)
Parse Count (total) per Minute
Parse Count (hard)
Parse Count (hard) per Minute
Sorts Disk
Sorts Disk per Minute
Sorts Memory
Sorts Memory per Minute
Sorts Rows
Sorts Rows per Minute
Table Scans (long)
Table Scans (long) per Minute
Table Scans (short)
Table Scans (short) per Minute
Execute Count
Execute Count per Minute
Instance Used Space
Instance Free Space


Thanks.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by br_astronut

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For Oracle 9i Release 2 your first technical requirement is compatibility: 9i predates AWR/ASH, so the reliable way to collect historical DB metrics on 9i is Statspack snapshots (not AWR). Confirm any vendor can either ingest Statspack reports or poll the V$ views directly before spending time testing UI features. (docs.oracle.com)

I agree with that Quest’s Spotlight is a strong real‑time diagnostic tool; Spotlight excels at visual, session‑level drilldowns. If long‑term, cross‑instance analytics and adaptive baselines are a priority, evaluate Quest’s Foglight (more enterprise‑scale). When trialing, validate SQL‑level drilldowns, wait‑event analysis, how the collector runs (agent vs agentless), and whether Statspack import is supported. (support.quest.com)

Other sensible trials given “budget no issue”:

  • SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer — very capable for cross‑platform, query‑centric diagnostics and tuning advice. (solarwinds.com)
  • IDERA/DBArtisan — good for multi‑platform DBA workflows and lightweight diagnostics. (idera.com)
  • If you want low‑cost/DIY graphing: Nagios + the community check_oracle_health plugin or Zabbix Oracle templates give solid baseline metrics and graphing but need more setup. (exchange.nagios.org)

Quick practical checklist for a 2–3 day proof‑of‑concept:

  • Take a Statspack snapshot and confirm the tool can import/plot it.
  • Confirm real‑time drilldown to SQL, waits, and blocking.
  • Measure collector CPU/IO overhead.
  • Verify retention, export formats (CSV/JSON), and alerting rules.
  • Confirm licensing needs (Oracle Diagnostics/Tuning packs are separate for AWR/ASH functionality). (docs.oracle.com)

Quick test command (run as PERFSTAT or SYS where appropriate):

SQL> CONNECT perfstat/<pwd>
SQL> EXECUTE statspack.snap;

If a candidate cannot work with Statspack, do not rely on it for 9i — plan either a Statspack‑based workflow or an upgrade to 10g+ to leverage AWR/ASH. (docs.oracle.com)

Member Avatar for br_astronut

I am both a certified Oracle and MS SQLServer DBA.

I have been using Quest tools for several years and have found them to be excellent. I have used Spotlight on Oracle for production server monitoring and found it to be very useful and effective. Quest has a suite of tools that not only allow you to monitor the database but also diagnose the cause of problems.

I highly recommend the Quest tools.

Edited by br_astronut because: n/a
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