Re: dba tools

mannj_at_ibm.net (Jeffrey Mann) wrote the following:

>harshan9_at_news-server (harshan9) wrote:
 

>>Hi,
>> I would like to know you guys opinion about tools available in the market.
 ...
>You should look at EcoTools from Compuware (http://www.compuware.com). It has
>versions for Oracle, Sybase and some others I can't remember now.

i would also check out patrol from bmc s/w it is a competitor to the eco tools. i've evaled both, they have about a 60-80% overlap in functionality. i found the eco to be able to provide greater transaction detail (in the version i used. patrol indicated that was in development with their product at the time, 8 or so months ago) but part of my eval was to configure and use the tools for 2 weeks then don't touch the tool and shut down and associated bg deamons. wait for 2 weeks then, sans manual, restart the tools, reconfigure, and begin utilizing them again. i found the patrol s/w to be far more intuitive than the eco tool and far easier to restart (ie steep learning curve, learn alot in a short time, as opposed to the eco tool shallow learning curve, learn a little with a lot of time invested) both tools provided hooks to network monitors (ie netview, etc) both showed me (different) problems with my network; both triggered false alarms (mostly due to aix having dynamic data structures and the tools telling me i was running low of critical resources). both tools provided methods of changing limits, or deactivating alarm functions. both provided the ability to add on homegrown scripts, C, or kernel calls. it seems likely both could be configured identical the difference being which came out of the box configured for your environment. in short you really NEED to eval them BOTH if you are serious about either tool. i preferred the patrol tool as it was intuitive enough to had to someone with the instruction to watch for any color but green; drill down till you find the specific problem then follow the instructions there (you may need to tune the messages to match your environment).

the patrol s/w came in a box i installed it and had it functional in less than a couple of hours. the eco tools came with a asles rep and 2 systems engineers we spend 2 hours installing with me driving and them pointing out what to do. just an observation. my guess is that an unassisted install would have been a mostly all day project.

i'd really would have liked both tools, patrol for the day-to-day and eco for trouble shooting.

FWIW i evalled these products 3/4 yr ago i would expect then to be different today! both companies spend days with me garnering feedback about what was good and what was not so good re user interaction/configuration/level of skill required to use. i expect they integrated that feedback into the tools (what portion they had not already identified and had been working on at the time.)

but again you need to eval for yourself. are you a full time dba with multiple machines/instances/$$$ per unit of downtime? can you will you be using a tool for a significant portion of your day ie are you in operations? then you could afford to spend the time to learn eco tools. or are you also the sysadmin in addition to being a dba? then i'll bet you don't have time to spend all day looking at a tool screen. i'll bet you get to creat accounts and fix network problems and writ scripts and, and, and .......... then i'd go with patrol it was much faster to pick up and put down.

both products provided value for the $$ spent, both products are in the not cheep category. both products scale (within the limits i could test at the time) with corresponding $$. both products could well let you take a day off every now and then maybe even a vacation =8-O

thank you for your time for this apparent ad but i can assure you if it 'tern't true i'da toasted either company.

i have no ties etc, etc, etc..... either company

bill pocinegel
sr dba
dbintellect an EDS company Received on Fri Sep 29 1995 - 00:00:00 CET