Server Manageability

Oracle Database is a sophisticated self-managing database that automatically monitors, adapts, and repairs itself. It automates routine DBA tasks and reduces the complexity of space, memory, and resource administration. Several advisors are provided to help you analyze specific objects. The advisors report on a variety of aspects of the object and describe recommended actions. Oracle Database proactively sends alerts when a problem is anticipated or when any of the user-selected metrics.

In addition to its self-managing features, Oracle Database provides utilities to help you move data in and out of the database.

This section describes these server manageability topics:

Automatic Manageability Features

Data Utilities

Automatic Manageability Features

Oracle Database has a self-management infrastructure that allows the database to learn about itself and use this information to adapt to workload variations and to automatically remedy any potential problem. This section discusses the automatic manageability features of Oracle Database.

Automatic Workload Repository

Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) is a built-in repository in every Oracle Database. At regular intervals, the database makes a snapshot of all its vital statistics and workload information and stores them in AWR. By default, the snapshots are made every 60 minutes, but you can change this frequency. The snapshots are stored in the AWR for a period of time (seven days by default) after which they are automatically purged.

See Also:

Oracle Database Concepts and Oracle Database 2 Day DBA for overviews of the Automatic Workload Repository

Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide for details on using Automatic Workload Repository for statistics collection

Automatic Maintenance Tasks

Oracle Database uses the information stored in AWR to identify the need to perform routine maintenance tasks, such as optimizer statistics refresh and rebuilding indexes. Then the database uses the Scheduler to run such tasks in a predefined maintenance window.

See Also:

Oracle Database Concepts for an overview of the maintenance window

Chapter 23, "Managing Automatic System Tasks Using the Maintenance Window" for detailed information on using the predefined maintenance window

Server-Generated Alerts

Some problems cannot be resolved automatically and require the database administrator's attention. For these problems, such as space shortage, Oracle Database provides server-generated alerts to notify you when then problem arises. The alerts also provide recommendations on how to resolve the problem.

See Also:"Server-Generated Alerts" in this book for detailed information on using APIs to administer server-generated alerts

Advisors

Oracle Database provides advisors to help you optimize a number of subsystems in the database. An advisory framework ensures consistency in the way in which advisors are invoked and results are reported. The advisors are use primarily by the database to optimize its own performance. However, they can also be invoked by administrators to get more insight into the functioning of a particular subcomponent.

See Also:
Oracle Database Concepts for an overview of the advisors

Oracle Database 2 Day DBA for more detailed information on using the advisors

Data Utilities

Several utilities are available to help you maintain the data in your Oracle Database. This section introduces two of these utilities:

SQL*Loader

Export and Import Utilities

See Also:

Oracle Database Utilities for detailed information about these utilities

SQL*Loader

SQL*Loader is used both by database administrators and by other users of Oracle Database. It loads data from standard operating system files (such as, files in text or C data format) into database tables.

Export and Import Utilities

Oracle export and import utilities enable you to move existing data in Oracle format between one Oracle Database and another. For example, export files can archive database data or move data among different databases that run on the same or different operating systems.

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