Re: OEM "standard": What's included ???

Bib Endum wrote:

> Sorry for the repost, but the subject of my previous post probably did not
> ring a bell for anyone. I am pretty convicend a lot of experienced DBA out
> there are very familiar with OEM and I need to know if it's really worth it,
> and if I need to buy licences for specific needs, or if it's included in the
> basic product. Oracle's product features documentation is not really
> helpful.

If the 'Product Features' documentation and the Flash player demo & guided tours don't give you enough information, you may want to look through the product documentation. (All this is available at http://otn.oracle.com)

For Oracle9i Release 2, you might find the following docco useful. (http://docs.oracle.com)    

Enterprise Manager Administrator's Guide Enterprise Manager Concepts Guide
Enterprise Manager Configuration Guide
Enterprise Manager Event Test Reference Manual Enterprise Manager Messages Manual

In particular, the Concepts Guide might help you understand the concepts.

<irrelevant rant snipped>

>
> We never really took the time to install and play with OEM in the past. It
> was quite buggy at times, and now that it matured, we might be interested in
> playing with it. I already use DBA studio and I also have the OEM 2.2
> repository and can successfully use the OEM console.

IMO, OEM 1.x and 2.x are useless. Go straight to OEM with the Oracle9i database. It can monitor older versions.

>
> We use the standard version of the database.

That's nice.

>
> What is included in the basic package of OEM ? (Eg: Is there a lock manager)
>
> Is OEM the same package with the STD or enterprise edition of the database ?
> I mean, do you have more options in OEM that you can use free of charge,
> depending on the edition ot the RDBMS you're running ?

Oracle Enterprise Manager consists of

- console
- OEM server (optional, but recommended)
- "Intelligent" Agents
- Applications that fit into the OEM framework

A number of applications are bundled into Packs. Several Packs come with the Oracle products you buy. Some Packs are additional cost - as far as I can tell, this is because the pack's functionality exists elsewhere (or exists manually) and purchasing the pack simply makes the job easier or faster.

If you care to look at the Oracle Store under the database section, you will notice which packs (products/features/options) are separately priced. Click on any of 'Diagnostics Pack', 'Configuration Management Pack', 'Tuning Pack', or 'Change Management Pack' and you get a summary of the key features/benefits of these optional (added-price) packs.

Aside from that, the 'initialization (startup/shutdown/param changes)', 'security, LDAP & user admin', 'backup/recovery', 'workspace management', 'resource management', 'job scheduling', 'event monitoring', 'SMTP/paging', etc. "packs" are included with the database license.

So - direct answer:

1. OEM is the same regardless whether you use Personal / Standard / Enterprise Edition of the database, or the Java / Standard / Enterprise edition of the Application Server, or any of Oracle's tools or even their E-Business Suite.
2. Applications that work in the OEM framework (eg: are started using oemapp) vary according to the database/appserver/application you've purchased. Most OEM apps are included in the license of the product that OEM can manage/monitor.
3. Database related OEM-apps called 'Diagnostics', 'Tuning', 'Configuration Management', and 'Change Management' packs cost extra. Some people like them, others prefer their hand-rolled utilities.

>
> It looks like you need to install aditional OEM modules to get something
> like a good lock manager or some nice performance monitoring but I don't
> know if you need a licence for that. If I look at the basic OEM console, I
> don't see much more options than I have in the much simpler DBA studio stand
> alone application.

Sorry for my confusion - I have no idea what a 'lock manager' is in context of Oracle. Almost sounds like you are dragging in some non-Oracle blocking issues.

>
> Savant has a really good lock manager where it is really easy to see who
> blocks who and identify the problem. For performance monitoring, it is
> really good at spotting current problems. But it has gone too big.

Are you trying to detect deadlocks? Or SQL Server-style locks (which really don't happen here).

> I am looking at a cheap (ideally free) solution. I don't think OEM basic
> package has enough features. It's really hard from oracle store or
> oracle.com to find what is included in a particular product. Also, I really
> don't understand why performance/monitoring packages are not part of the
> database. You should not have to pay for them.

That has the sounds of some trolling. And lack of reading skills (which is not difficult with the volume of Oracle documentation).

Suggestion - get used to the free part of OEM in any case - within a version or two you will not be able to do any Oracle administration without using OEM. Once you've become used to OEM, you will be able to determine whether the for-money options are worth it.

/Hans
As usual, you are encouraged to verify the above directly from Oracle. (And note that I am not an Oracle employee.) Received on Mon Mar 15 2004 - 21:19:31 CST