Oracle Object Growth Test

Periodic monitoring of the usage of the database is essential to ensure that the database is always adequately sized to handle current and future loads. It is also essential to monitor the size of the objects within a database too. If the growth of any object is uncontrollable, then other objects in the database may be deprived of space to store critical data. The Oracle Object Growth test helps administrators in figuring out the exact objects that have been growing beyond a pre-configured size. Using this test administrators can isolate the objects that have been growing uncontrollably and analyze if those objects need to be resized.

This test monitors the objects in the target Oracle Database server and reports the count of objects that have been growing beyond a pre-configured size. This test also reveals the maximum size up to which the objects can grow.

This test is disabled by default. To enable the test, go to the enable / disable tests page using the menu sequence : Agents -> Tests -> Enable/Disable, pick Oracle Database as the Component type, Performance as the Test type, choose this test from the disabled tests list, and click on the << button to move the test to the ENABLED TESTS list. Finally, click the Update button.

Note:

This test will not report metrics for an Oracle 12c CDB server.

Target of the test : An Oracle server

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every SID monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
TEST PERIOD - How often should the test be executed Host – The host for which the test is to be configured Port - The port on which the server is listening User – In order to monitor an Oracle database server, a special database user account has to be created in every Oracle database instance that requires monitoring. A Click here hyperlink is available in the test configuration page, using which a new oracle database user can be created. Alternatively, you can manually create the special database user. When doing so, ensure that this user is vested with the select_catalog_role and create session privileges. The sample script we recommend for user creation (in Oracle database server versions before 12c) for eG monitoring is: create user oraeg identified by oraeg create role oratest; grant create session to oratest; grant select_catalog_role to oratest; grant oratest to oraeg; The sample script we recommend for user creation (in Oracle database server 12c) for eG monitoring is: alter session set container=<Oracle_service_name>; create user <user_name>identified by <user_password> container=current default tablespace <name_of_default_tablespace> temporary tablespace <name_of_temporary_tablespace>; Grant create session to <user_name>; Grant select_catalog_role to <user_name>; The name of this user has to be specified here. Password – Password of the specified database user This login information is required to query Oracle’s internal dynamic views, so as to fetch the current status / health of the various database components. Confirm password – Confirm the password by retyping it here. OBJECT SIZE GB – Specify the size limit (in GB) for the objects against the OBJECT SIZE GB text box beyond which the objects are termed as large objects. The default value is set to 1. Accordingly, objects of a size greater than 1 GB are classified as large objects. DD ROW COUNT - By default, this parameter is set to 10. This means that by default, the detailed diagnosis of this test will only list the top-10 objects in terms of the percentage growth in size. If you want more or less number of records to be displayed in the detailed diagnosis, then you can override this default setting. EXCLUDE OWNER - By default, this test does not monitor objects owned by SYS and SYSTEM owners. If you want to exclude more owners from the monitoring scope of this test, then append the names of those owners to the default list using the comma (,) as a separator. EXCLUDE OBJECT TYPE - By default, this parameter is set to none. This implies that the test monitors objects of all types by default. If you want to exclude specific object types from monitoring, then specify those types as a comma-separated list - for instance, your specification can be: index,table,table partition,index partition SSL- By default, this flag is set to No, as the target Oracle database is not SSL-enabled by default. If the target database is SSL-enabled, then set this flag to Yes. SSL Cipher-This parameter is applicable only if the target Oracle database is SSL-enabled, if not, set this parameter to none. A cipher suite is a set of cryptographic algorithms that are used before a client application and server exchange information over an SSL/TLS connection. It consist of sets of instructions on how to secure a network through SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security). In this text box, provide a comma-seperated list of cipher suites that are allowed for SSL/TLS connection to the target database. By default, this parameter is set to none. TRUSTSTORE FILE- This parameter is applicable only if the target Oracle database is SSL-enabled, if not, set this parameter to none. TrustStore is used to store certificates from Certified Authorities (CA) that verify and authenticate the certificate presented by the server in an SSL connection. Therefore, the eG agent should have access to the truststore where the certificates are stored to authenticate and connect with the target database and collect metrics. For this, first import the certificates into the following default location <eG_INSTALL_DIR>/lib/security/mytruststore.jks. To know how to import the certificate into the truststore, refer toPre-requisites for monitoring Oracle Cluster. Then, provide the truststore file name in this text box. For example: mytruststore.jks. By default, none is specified against this text box. TRUSTSTORE TYPE-This parameter is applicable only if the target Oracle database is SSL-enabled, if not, set this parameter to none.Specify the type of truststore that contains the certificates for server authentication in this text box. For eg.,JKS. By default, this parameter is set to the value none. TRUSSTORE PASSWORD-This parameter is applicable only if the target Oracle database is SSL-enabled, if not, set this parameter to none. If a Truststore File name is provided, then, in this text box, provide the password that is used to obtain the associated certificate details from the Truststore File. By default, this parameter is set to none. DETAILED DIAGNOSIS – To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option. The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled: The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0. ISPASSIVE – If the value chosen is yes, then the Oracle server under consideration is a passive server in an Oracle cluster. No alerts will be generated if the server is not running. Measures will be reported as “Not applicable'' by the agent if the server is not up.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Large objects	Indicates the total number of objects that have grown beyond the limit specified against the OBJECT GROWTH SIZE parameter.	Number
Max object growth size	Indicates the maximum size up to which the objects continued to grow during the last measurement period.	MB	The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the objects that continued to grow and the size of the objects.
Max object growth	Indicates the maximum growth of an object in terms of percentage.	Percent	Use the detailed diagnosis to figure out the objects that recorded the maximum growth.