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What tools do you use? What are your favorites and why? As someone who has been working Oracle performance tools for the last 15 years, I’m always interested in what the best tools are.
For the past 4 blog posts I’ve reviewed some tools I like such as Method-R tools, Confio, Lab128 and EMlite.
There are other tools that I especially like and are totally free such as Tanel Poder’s Moats and snapper which are two important tools for a DBA to know about.
Here is my list of tools that I’m aware of (what other tools are out there?)
pricewould I use it ?db perfmulti-dbsql tunenotesSpecialty10046.plfreeyesxsql trace 10046 parserorasrpfreeyesxsql trace analyzer10053 Viewerfreeyesxreplace .doc with .zip and unzipsqltxplainfreeyesx215187.1: SQLT (SQLTXPLAIN) – Enhanced Explain Plan and related diagnostic information for one SQLxplanfreeyesxextend explain plan info from Alberto Dell Eraxtracefreeyesxjava trace file viewer from Alberto Dell EralatchproffreeyesxTanel’s latch collection querywaitproffreeyesxTanel’s wait collection querytvdxstatfreeyesxTrivadis Extended Tracefile Analysis Toolspviewerfreeyesxthis looks interesting for statspack/AWR viewing and comparisonawr formatterfreeyesxchrome plugin for AWR browsing – seescreencastperfmon.shfreeyesxscript to combine top with top session in same outputsnapperfreeyesxTanel’s command line performance analysismoatsfreeyesxcharacter mode top activity screen !Method-R tools (Cary Millsap)??yesxsql trace analyzer, other stuff,mrkew, mrkew examplesI’ve never had access to these tools but from what I can gather they should be awesomeDBAemlitefree/$256yesxsuper cool lite weight tool that replace OEM – ie DBA info in a web browserAshviewerfreeyesxcollects ASH data itself or uses v$active_session_history – pretty coolASHMonfreeyesxreads ASH data (requires license) unlessSASH is installed and pointed toSee BASH as wellMyOrafreexxNever tried it. Looks fast and covers broad functionalitybut UI looks busyMumbaifreeyesxintegrates snapper and orasrptorafreeyesxseems like a cool tool – haven’t really used it myself but it’s been around a whileRichmonfreexLab128$500/seatyesxxDB Optimizer$1500/seatyesxxvisual sql tuning diagramsQuest Spotlight$1000/cpuxxxQuest SQL Optimizer$1690/seatx Lightly $2000/seat yes x x looks cool, haven’t personally triedEnterpriseQuestFoglight /Performance Analyzer$3000/cpuyesxxOracle Diag Pack$5000/cpuyesxxOracle SQL Tuning Pack$5000/cpuxxConfio ignite$1500/core? xxxPrecise Indepth I3$2000/cpu?xxMonicle??other stufffourth elephantDBtuna
Some of the prices I got off of programmers paradise, others are word of mouth, so any clarifications on prices would be appreciated. The tools marked “yes” are ones that I use or would use. I would use Quest’s Performance Analyzer given the chance. I’ve never used it but from the demos of the tool, I like what I see. I have never used Mumbai, but plan to and like again what I see in the demos. All the other tools marked “yes” I use. All the tools except “other stuff”, I consider reasonable tools for one job or another. Some are better than others in different ways. The “other stuff” tools I don’t see much point in. I generally consider OEM with diagnostic pack too expensive and slow, but hey, if customers have it, I’ll use it ! Plus diag pack comes with v$active_session_history and all of AWR which I can query directly with OEM.
On Enterprise tools I like this quote form http://www.infoworld.com/d/data-management/can-quest-foglight-hang-big-boys-601. It’s 5 years old but not a lot has changed since then:
The lack of decent tools to manage your databases on an enterprise level is just staggering. It’s hard to believe that nobody can cross the finish line on delivering a monitoring solution.
This looks interesting :http://windows.podnova.com/trends/oracle_performance_trace.html
Tracefile analyzer tools: http://ba6.us/node/177
this looks quite cool: http://jagjeet.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/sql-dashboard-v2/
another tool to check out http://dbspeed.com/product.html
Link from Yong Huang on sql command tools like Toad: http://yong321.freeshell.org/oranotes/ToadAndAlternatives.html
Tools that come with Oracle support: http://blogs.oracle.com/Support/entry/support_tools_for_performance
Tools – LTOM, OS Watcher, & HangFG
Scripts – SlqTExplain, TracAnalyzer, PL/SQL Profiler
Login to My Oracle Support, Click the Knowledge Tab, On the left, Tools/training > Diagnostics
Image from Robertson@dba_emc2
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