Oracle Redo Logs Test

Redo logs are applied during the roll forward phase of the recovery process. These logs hold information about the changes made to the database and whether they were committed. Each change is recorded in a redo record, which has information like the SCN of the change, changed data, commit flag, and information about which data block is changed. The Oracle Redo Logs test monitors key performance metrics pertaining to the redo log buffer in an Oracle server instance.

Note:

This test will not report metrics on 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. 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. 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.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Redo buffer entries:	This indicates the number of attempts to allocate space in the redo buffer. A value other then 0 indicates that the redo writer is falling behind. This could be caused by log switches or checkpoints.	Number	By adjusting the LOG_CHECKPOINT_INTERVAL and LOG_CHECKPOINT_TIMEOUT parameters in the init.ora, you will be able to minimize the number of checkpoints. From Oracle 9i onwards however, the LOG_CHECKPOINT_INTERVAL parameter is supported only for ensuring backward compatability with previous versions of Oracle. The recommended equivalent in case of Oracle 9i therefore is FAST_START_MTTR_TARGET. You can also increase the number of LGWR writers. These parameters are new in Oracle 8 and are defined in the init.ora parameters LGWR_IO_SLAVES and ARCH_IO_SLAVES. However, note that both these parameters are obsolete from Oracle 8i onwards.
Redo log space requests:	The active log file is full and Oracle is waiting for disk space to be allocated for the redo log entries. Space is created by performing a log switch.	Number	Small Log files in relation to the size of the SGA or the commit rate of the work load can cause problems. When the log switch occurs, Oracle must ensure that all committed dirty buffers are written to disk before switching to a new log file. If you have a large SGA full of dirty buffers and small redo log files, a log switch must wait for DBWR to write dirty buffers to disk before continuing.
Redo entries:	This statistic increments each time redo entries are copied into the redo log buffer. (ie. The number of attempts to allocate space in the redo)	Number
Log space requests:	This indicates the percentage of log space requests.	Percentage	If the number is greater than 1%, you should increase the size of the Redo Log buffer. I would also check the checkpoint and size of the online redo log file.
Log space waits:	This measure indicates the number of times wait has happened to acquire a log buffer.	Number	If the Log Buffer space waits exist, consider increasing the size of the redo log. Also I would check the speed of the disk that the Online Redo Log files are in.
Redo no wait:	Indicates the percentage of redo entries for which there was space immediately available in the redo log.	Percent	A high value is typically desired for this measure. A low value indicates that many redo entries are waiting for space to become available in the redo logs. Frequent, or slow log switches may be contributing to waits for redo log space. If you are switching logs frequently (e.g. more than once every 15 minutes) this may be improved by increasing the size of the online redo logs. If the log switches are not frequent, check the disks the redo logs reside on to see if log switches are taking a long time due to a slow I/O system. If the I/O system is overloaded, either move the redo logs to disks with less activity, place the logs on dedicated disks or faster devices.