Re: Oracle Enterprise Manager

From: Michael Santoianni <msanto_at_duke.edu>
Date: 1997/07/30
Message-ID: <33dfa731.591186200_at_news.duke.edu>#1/1


Dan Wities <Dan_Wities_at_scitex.com> wrote:

>Until recently I have managed our multiple corporate Oracle databases
>using my own homegrown Unix and Sql*Plus scripts. Now I am evaluating
>the Enterprise Manager as a possible replacement. Does anyone have
>experience using this tool in a production environment, particularly the
>job and event management features?

We recently looked into using OEM as our management tool and chose not to use it for a number of reasons (in no particular order):

  1. It is console based. If your PC goes down you will no longer be managing your databases.
  2. We spent WAY too long trying to get it set up. It's documentation is not sufficient and we spent hours with tech support since R1.2.0 (it's now up to 1.4.0). Each new relase would fix a series of problems and add features but would break something else.
  3. The DBSNMP agent that runs on the NT Console continuously grabbed more memory (as of R1.3.5). Every 2 days or so the PC had to be rebooted.
  4. The basic OEM was free but Oracle charges way too much for the performance pack (it's based on per db user, not per DBA). DBA tools by any other vendor would be less expensive based on need and our site license with Oracle.
  5. You can't create new events that are not shipped with OEM, i.e. It can't monitor a UNIX daemon running on the server. (I won't swear to this)
  6. Jobs can't send email notifications (I think you may be able to code it into the job itself).
  7. It's monitoring, escalation, and reporting capabilities are generally inferior to products like BCM Patrol & Platinum DBVision.
  8. OEM will only allow 1 console at a time into a single repository. If you have 2 DBA's sharing responsibility for a system, only one can be logged in.

The basic tool kit (schema manager, security manager, etc) are very convenient. But you can use these even if you don't use the OEM management piece.
Since Oracle created it, eventually they should get it into shape so that these problems get resolved. In the mean time, we've recommended BMC Patrol to our management.

Michael Santoianni
Database Administrator
Duke University
msanto_at_duke.edu Received on Wed Jul 30 1997 - 00:00:00 CEST

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