10G Grid Control R2 Reports
10G Grid Control R2 provides over 110 reports for us to choose from. What really impresses me the most about the reports is not the depth of the reports but the breadth. The scope of these reports is much broader, covering virtually all of the components involved in a database application environment. I certainly can't cover every report that 10G Grid Control R2 provides, but I think it is important to highlight some of the interesting categories and individual reports.

Deployment and Configuration - 10G Grid Control R2 provides a wealth of information on the infrastructure that supports the Oracle application environment. We are able to view hardware configurations as well as operating system, database and application server releases and patches. In addition, we are also able to generate reports on Oracle database and application configuration information. The benefits that this category of reports provides cannot be understated.

Instead of us having to log on to the individual targets to retrieve Oracle database and application server configuration data or being forced to ask those pesky operating system administrators to provide us with the O/S and hardware configuration information, we can just log on to 10G Grid Control R2 and retrieve all of the data we need with a few quick points and clicks. I like it!

Monitoring - One of my favorite report categories of all time and the category that I firmly believe has the most potential. What I find exciting is all of the performance measurement reports in this category. The measurement information ranges the spectrum, providing everything from application web pages that are experiencing poor performance to beacon service tests.

I think that out of all of the performance enhancements available in 10G R2, I am most excited about the potential that Oracle beacons offer. A beacon is owned by the 10G Grid Control central agent and shows up as a separate target type. Here's the cool part. A beacon's job is to run pre-recorded transactions that monitors:

Availability and performance of all network devices including host computers and IP traffic controllers

Availability and performance of web pages and web applications

We are rapidly becoming a very large Oracle application server shop. Although I haven't had a chance to perform any in-depth evaluations on beacons yet, I have run a simple test or two. Rest assured I intend to provide you with a few blogs on beacons because I am very interested in learning more about beacons and the potential benefits they may provide.

10G Grid Control R2 provides a beacon report page that provides performance information for each hop starting from the client desktop to the connection's final destination (usually an Oracle database). Each leg of the journey is displayed along with the amount of time it took to complete the hop. This will allow administrators to quickly identify which component is the cause of the performance/availability problem in complex, multi-tier environments.

Security - 10G Grid Control R2 provides a wealth of security reports. With today's security concerns, they are definitely needed. Take a look at the various security reports, I think you'll find that 10G Grid Control R2 is an excellent first step in providing administrators with the security information they need to protect and secure corporate database assets.

Storage Reports - Two of my favorites are the Row Chain and Reclaimable Space reports. Another beneficial report is the Monthly Space Usage reports that allow administrators to track database growth historically. Tracking growth historically allows administrators to predict future space requirements. Looks like I will be able to finally retire my Chris Foot special Space Tracker reports.