Enhanced Oracle Database Monitoring Metrics

Hi,

As a customer migrating to Instana, we require comprehensive monitoring coverage for Oracle Database. While Instana provides some Oracle monitoring capabilities, critical metrics are missing and must be delivered to enable complete database observability.

The following Oracle Database metrics are not available in Instana at the moment and are required:

Topology and Status Metrics:

• Cluster topology - A state metric whose dimensions represent all Oracle clusters and their linked instances and hosts

• Database topology - A state metric whose dimensions represent all Oracle instances and their linked databases

• Database status - A state metric representing details of the connected Oracle database

Datafile Metrics:

• Datafile status - State metric representing the status of Datafiles and Tempfiles across containers (database and any PDBs)

• Datafile number of corrupted blocks - Metric representing the number of corrupted blocks reported by V$DATABASE_BLOCK_CORRUPTION for each Datafile

Data Guard Metrics:

• Data Guard severe events - Counts the number of fatal and severe Data Guard events occurred in the last day

• NOLOGGING activity - Counts the number of files which contain NOLOGGING activity in the last day

• Archive destination status - Counts the number of invalid or errored statuses of archive destinations

• Sequence difference - Tracks the difference in sequence number between the latest archived and applied redo log

CPU Metrics:

• Background CPU usage (per second) - CPU usage of background processes in centi seconds per second

• Foreground CPU usage (per second) - CPU usage of foreground processes in centi seconds per second

ASM Detailed Metrics:

• Free space - Free disk space available on Oracle ASM Disk

• Total space - Total disk space available on Oracle ASM Disk

• Used space - Percentage of disk space used on Oracle ASM Disk

• Reads - Number of reads from Oracle ASM Disk

• Writes - Number of writes to Oracle ASM Disk

ASM Disk Group Metrics:

• Free space - Free disk space available on Oracle ASM Disk Group

• Total space - Total disk space available on Oracle ASM Disk Group

• Used space - Percentage of disk space used on Oracle ASM Disk Group

I/O Metrics:

• Physical bytes read - Total size in bytes of disk reads by all database instance activity

• Physical bytes written - Total size in bytes of all disk writes for the database instance

• Total wait time - Total time spent in all wait states except for Idle class

Limits Metrics:

• Processes utilization - Utilization of processes on the instance as percentage of current utilization relative to the limit

Fast Recovery Area (FRA) Metrics:

• FRA Usage - The percentage disk utilization in the fast recovery area

• FRA limit - Maximum amount of disk space that the database can use for the fast recovery area

• FRA used - Amount of disk space used by fast recovery area files

• FRA reclaimable - Total amount of disk space that can be created by deleting obsolete files from the fast recovery area

Backup Job Metrics:

• Input bytes - Sum of all input file sizes backed up

• Output bytes - Output size of all pieces generated

• Elapsed seconds - Number of elapsed seconds

• Compression ratio - Compression ratio

• Input bytes per second - Input read-rate-per-second

• Output bytes per second - Output write-rate-per-second

• Auto-backup count - Number of autobackups performed by this job

• Backup state - A state metric representing the details of a Backup Job

• Time since last backup - The time elapsed since the last backup completed successfully

Query Performance Metrics:

• Connection management time - Time spent on performing session connect and disconnect calls

• PL/SQL exec time - Time spent on running the PL/SQL interpreter

Memory Metrics:

• PGA aggregate limit - Limit on the aggregate PGA memory consumed by the instance

• PGA aggregate target - Target aggregate PGA memory available to all server processes

• PGA memory used - PGA memory consumed by work areas

• Allocated PGA - Current amount of PGA memory allocated by the instance

• Redo log space wait time - Total elapsed time of waiting for redo log space request

• Redo size increase - Total amount of redo generated in bytes

• Redo write time - Total elapsed time of the write from the redo log buffer to the current redo log file

• Physical reads direct - Number of reads directly from disk, bypassing the buffer cache

• Sorts in memory - Number of sort operations performed completely in memory

• Sorts on disk - Number of sort operations that required at least one disk write

• DB Block gets from cache - Number of times a consistent read was requested for a block from the buffer cache

• Physical reads into cache - Total number of data blocks read from disk into buffer cache

• Consistent gets from cache - Number of times a CURRENT block was requested from the buffer cache

Multitenancy Metrics:

• Total size - Disk space used by the PDB, including both data and temp files

• Block size - The current block size for the PDB

• Diagnostic size - Current disk space usage of the diagnostic traces generated in the PDB

• Audit files size - Current disk space usage by Unified Audit files in the current PDB

• Max size - Maximum amount of disk space that can be used by data and temp files in the PDB

• Max diagnostic size - Maximum amount of disk space that can be used by diagnostic traces in the PDB

• Max audit size - Maximum amount of disk space that can be used by Unified Audit files in the PDB

RAC Metrics:

• Instance ping - Current inter-instance ping of 8K messages

• Interconnects - RAC interconnect metrics

Sessions Metrics:

• Deadlocks - Total number of deadlocks

Wait Events Detailed Metrics:

• Number of wait events - Total number of waits by wait event, excluding 'Idle' events (top 20 most time consuming)

• Seconds waited - Total amount of time waited by wait event, excluding 'Idle' events (top 20 most time consuming)

Wait Events by Class Metrics:

• Number of wait events by wait class - Total number of waits by wait class, excluding 'Idle' events

Tablespace Metrics:

• Allocated space - Total space in use within the tablespace, in bytes.

Without these metrics, we cannot:

• Monitor Oracle RAC cluster topology and health

• Track database and datafile status across containers

• Detect data corruption and corrupted blocks proactively

• Monitor Data Guard replication health and events

• Track ASM storage utilization and performance

• Monitor backup job performance and state

• Analyze query performance and memory allocation

• Identify wait events causing performance issues

• Maintain comprehensive observability for Oracle database environments

This creates a critical monitoring gap for our Oracle database infrastructure during migration to Instana.

Value Proposition

• Migration Enablement: Enable successful migration to Instana with complete Oracle monitoring coverage

• Complete Observability: Monitor RAC clusters, Data Guard replication, ASM storage, and backup operations

• Data Integrity: Detect corrupted blocks, datafile issues, and NOLOGGING activity proactively

• Performance Optimization: Track wait events, query performance, and memory allocation patterns

• Risk Reduction: Prevent data loss and performance degradation through comprehensive monitoring

Many thanks and best regards,

Rainer