Tracing multi-tier apps

I'm having difficulty visualizing how tracing would work when dealing with compiled applications. Using some command-line interface I can figure out, but how would I enabled it outside an application?

We've been having some "connection issues" on the production floor and I would like to track down the cause. There are 2 different cases:

1. A Visual Basic 6 exe that logs in to the database via a dll (OO4O wrapper). This one I think can be solved but not without recompiling every app I would want to trace.
2. PLCs on the floor that communicate TCPIP to a (Rockwell Software?) RSSQL server (OPC server which ties a "tag" in the PLC to a field, procedure, etc in the database), which then translates that request and does the communication with Oracle via ODBC I think.

Clients are 8i/9i and database is now 10g. Some perceive there may be an increase in these issues since the 10g upgrade, but it cannot be quantified.

It seems a long time ago I did some SQL*Net tracing in 8i by setting a parameter or two in the sqlnet.ora (?) file. I'm not sure if that will give me all I need (I also recall it didn't trace reliably), but it won't help much with case #2 anyway, which is the more pressing one. Perhaps a network (packet) sniffer is the only way to solve it?

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Sincerely,
Michael Ray
Topshot Systems LLC
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http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l Received on Wed Jul 05 2006 - 10:07:39 CDT