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back to article Performing an Oracle database health check? We have a little list

Everyone needs a checkup from time to time, and your Oracle database is no exception. A periodic medical can keep it running smoothly, and avoid more serious conditions from developing later. Here is a guide to help ensure optimal performance, with a series of checkpoints that can form the basis for a regular database review …

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  1. Amorous Cowherder
    Facepalm

    "Periodic medical"?

    If companies didn't cut costs and actually higher technicians to do the jobs properly, be it Oracle, Sybase, SQL Server, DB2, etc then you wouldn't be doing "periodic medicals"! A good administrator is always on his game, has the right monitoring tools in place to ensure they're aware of how a system is performing and they can be proactive and predict a problem before it happens or at worst jump on it before it becomes a serious downtime risk.

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  2. jerehada

    so use toad

    That's about it.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: so use toad

      Except of course when Toad, or any other tool does not show in front of your face what is wrong. Then, as always, use your common sense.

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  3. AOD

    And now for a word from our sponsors...

    This does read like a thinly veiled plug for TOAD doesn't it or is it just me?

    Personally I have nothing bad to say about it having used it for development purposes (better than Pl/SQL Developer in my experience and light years ahead of the standard Oracle offerings) but come on folks. Could it have been maybe a bit less gushing?

    What about offering some guidance to folks that have to live with SQL Server or Sybase instead?

    As another reg commenter pointed out, a good DBA should have proactive monitoring in place already for which there are several excellent tools. Which ones to look at I shall leave as an exercise for the reader.

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    1. Down not across
      Reply Icon

      Re: And now for a word from our sponsors...

      What about offering some guidance to folks that have to live with SQL Server or Sybase instead?

      Have to? On the contrary are lucky enough to (well, perhaps not SQL server as it runs on Windows). Be happy you're not running something clearly designed to keep DBAs in jobs.

      Anyway, the basic principles are the same with any RDBMS. You monitor the logs. You keep tabs on metrics (details of which vary between RDBMS somewhat) on the RDBMS and the host.

      It will never be a one size fits all anyway, as every application will be different and thus its impact on the database (and hence how it affects various metrics) will be different. Tuning and critical metrics will vary depending on the workload. So the thresholds at which to start worrying can be quite different with different applications. (I know, I'm stating the bleeding obvious here...)

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  4. Down not across

    Why not label just as Advertisement rather than "Workshop"

    There is a distinct pattern here: Use toad, use toad, use toad.

    Ok I get the picture. Small print says about workshops by Dell. Ah, I see Dell is re-selling Toad now...

    Don't get me wrong, toad was (to some extent still is) was very good and miles ahead of anything provided by Oracle. However, these days Oracle Enterprise Manager is actually very capable for monitoring and to an extent managing Oracle database. It allows very configurable thresholds and actions on thresholds. You can write your own plugins if a suitable one does not exist. On the management side I have to give credit that you can preview what SQL it would run and either then run it or cut & paste and modify to suit.

    Disclaimer: I don't personally like it as I'm old school and prefer various homegrown scripts running from cron. Not to mention, although it has improved over versions, its navigation is rather horrendous.

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