Oracle Stats

We're basically running some Oracle utility: awrrpt. It gives us the largest report we've even seen. At any rate, most of the stats are basically hard to understand. Is there someplace that explains what all these items are?

We do not understand all these stats and if a large or small number is good.

For example:

Operating System Statistics DB/Inst: NI00/NI00 Snaps: 13017-13041

Statistic                                       Total
-------------------------------- --------------------
BUSY_TIME                                  14,954,028
IDLE_TIME                                 121,666,971
NICE_TIME                                           0
SYS_TIME                                    6,017,299
USER_TIME                                   8,936,729
LOAD                                                3
RSRC_MGR_CPU_WAIT_TIME                              0
PHYSICAL_MEMORY_BYTES                          77,192
NUM_CPUS                                           16
NUM_CPU_SOCKETS                                     4

What is NICE_TIME? What is BUSY_TIME? Is a high number good? How about this section?

                                                                   Avg
                                             %Time  Total Wait
wait     Waits
Event                                 Waits  -outs    Time (s)
(ms)      /txn
---------------------------- -------------- ------ ----------- -------
---------
log file parallel write           9,039,920     .0       3,179
0       1.8
control file parallel write          89,669     .0         381
4       0.0
events in waitclass Other            73,885     .0          48
1       0.0
Log archive I/O                      15,517     .0          30
2       0.0
latch: shared pool                    3,565     .0          22
6       0.0
log file sequential read             16,071     .0          17
1       0.0
latch: library cache                  3,521     .0          16
5       0.0
os thread startup                        89     .0           5
51       0.0
control file sequential read        115,717     .0           3
0       0.0
db file sequential read               1,220     .0           1
1       0.0
buffer busy waits                       912     .0           1
1       0.0
log file single write                 1,021     .0           1
1       0.0
log file switch completion                4     .0           0
81       0.0
latch: redo writing                     496     .0           0
0       0.0
direct path read                      6,177     .0           0
0       0.0
direct path write                     6,177     .0           0
0       0.0
latch: cache buffers chains             153     .0           0
0       0.0
latch: row cache objects                 23     .0           0
0       0.0
latch: library cache pin                  8     .0           0
0       0.0
latch: library cache lock                 3     .0           0
0       0.0
rdbms ipc message                 9,152,530    3.3     987,184
108       1.8
pmon timer                           30,226  100.0      84,327
2790       0.0
Streams AQ: qmn slave idle w          3,085     .0      84,122
27268       0.0
Streams AQ: qmn coordinator           6,171   50.0      84,115
13631       0.0
smon timer                            2,911     .8      83,197
28580       0.0
Streams AQ: waiting for time             20  100.0      37,354
#######       0.0
SGA: MMAN sleep for componen          1,036   94.8          11
10       0.0
 
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