Lab128. Features.

Below is a brief summary of Lab128 features. For more information, see Lab128 Overview.
To see Lab128 screenshots: Lab128 Screenshots.

Response time-based and system-wide tuning are both supported by using high-resolution data collection from Oracle performance views. The information is aggregated and assembled into graphical and tabulated charts, providing intuitive and comprehensive insight into Oracle functioning, both current and historical;
The performance data from more than 1000 Oracle statistics is collected automatically with 6 seconds time resolution and hours or days long history. This data is immediately available for analysis, helping to troubleshoot the most difficult Oracle performance problems;
The Active Session History (ASH) functionality is implemented in the application, providing collection of active session wait data, capturing SQL text and other relevant data to support Response time-based tuning. Oracle versions 8, 9, 10 are supported. Oracle 10g ASH can be optionally used to pre-populate data;
The most important Oracle performance data is conveniently presented in the Instance Main window, helping to asses the instance state at a glance. This data can be drilled down to the detailed info with one mouse click;
The Activity Explorer window provides powerful insight into Oracle activity, current and historical. It quickly displays performance bottlenecks and identifies resources and individual SQL statements responsible for delays in server response at any current or historical period;
The snapshots of v$sql are collected providing top SQL statements for any choosen time period. It also provides basis for individual SQL statement tracking and charting;
The SQL Explorer uses collected SQL statistics, allowing for SQL statistics-based tuning. This is a revolutionary new technique which complements ASH-based tuning;
The Sessions Details window provides the following info: session OS PID, session's current wait, list of opened cursors and their SQL text, selected session statistics values (either cumulative or delta), number of locked objects, progress of long operations and much more;
Explain Plan form conviniently called with a single click from many windows and provides sophisticated view of execution plan with selected detail level including cost, distribution, predicates, projections and SQL plan statistics;
The Oracle latches data is presented in a graphical and tabular form in the Latch Details window;
Tablespaces / Datafiles data along with I/O data are shown in Tablespaces and Datafiles window;
The Locks and Locked Objects window helps to troubleshoot the lock contention;
Segments, segments' statistics and Extents map are show in the Segments and Extents window;
Block Buffers distribution by objects, object type, tablespace/datafile, owner, status, etc. can be seen in Block Buffers Explorer window. Changes in the distribution between snapshots are shown too;
The SQL Area window helps to identify top resource consuming SQL statements;
Transactions and corresponding Undo / Rollback segments presented in the Transaction window help to tune and troubleshot transactions;
Long operations with the progress bar are shown in Session Longops window;
Temporary tablespaces usage is presented in the Temp Segments window;
Each performance statistic can be shown in the detailed chart window and can be combined with other statistics to form user-defined charts;
Data from charts can be exported into the clipboard or comma-separated file for the analysis in third party tools;
The charts can be copied into the clipboard as a picture in a bitmap format;
The statistics Correlation analysis can be performed by drawing two statistics, one against the other in the Correlation charts;
The set of measurement queries against Oracle instance can be extended with user-defined queries;
The ratios and derived statistics set can be extended with user-defined ratios and derived statistics;
The Instances Overview window lists all connected Oracle instances providing critical information about each instance and helping to monitor the status of several instances;
The broken connection to the Oracle is automatically detected, reported and recovered;
The impact on the monitored system is very low because Lab128 uses simple queries against Oracle and does joins and aggregations internally in the application;
Lab128 is very simple to install - just copy executable and run it. There are no agents or stored database objects needed for Lab128;
Lab128 is lighting fast. It is written on C/C++ and has very small footprint for the application of this class.

Lab128. Concept.

Data Collection.

The data collection engine provides automatic querying of performance data (over 1000 statistics) at an adjustable (default 6 sec) rate, storing data in-memory with 64-bit precision using lossless compression. An open and highly customizable architecture allows for the expansion of measurement queries with user-defined queries. The engine provides random-access to the stored data. Collected data is normalized (interpolated to the standard moment in time) and differentiated, if necessary. Data in the in-memory database is available through the access engine using a query language that deals with the time series domain. The access engine supports time series arithmetic allowing for the definition of complex statistics. The set of statistics can be expanded with user-defined statistics using query expressions.

How Lab128 stores the collected performance data.

Lab128 uses an in-memory ring buffer to store performance data. When the ring buffer is full, its memory space is reused. Therefore, Lab128 maintaines data history in a moving time window. The buffer size affects the history length: on average, it takes about 0.5 MB to store 1 hour. This unparalleled efficiency makes it possible and practical to store data history ranging from a few hours to a few days.

The in-memory ring buffer can be mirrored to the disk. In this mode, Lab128 incrementally updates the data file several times a minute. If the aplication is closed and then restarted, the buffer data is restored from the mirrored copy. As a separate option, the user can save performance data into the file and later open it for analysis. This feature can be useful for Oracle performance consultants. The consultant can ask his/her client to collect data using Lab128, then save the collected data into a file and transfer it back for analysis. Finally, the Auto Save option can be used to save performance data at a regular time interval, generating a set of snapshots and providing continuous time coverage.

Data Exploration and Analysis.

The rendering engine presents time series in the form of graphs. The user can choose statistics forming user-defined charts. All type of statistics, including user-defined statistics built on user-defined queries, can be combined in the charts. The charts provide a high degree of convenience in exploring and analyzing data. The correlation analysis is available using charts with one statistic shown as a function of another.

Instance Real-Time Monitoring.

The snapshots of important Oracle views are stored in-memory. Data in the snapshots is compressed, allowing for the storage of very large datasets. The snapshots are aggregated and joined internally in the application, offloading the Oracle server. The snapshots are refreshed automatically at an adjustable rate; the changes propagate automatically through the joins and aggregations. This dynamic and constantly changing system of datasets forms a foundation for the number of monitoring forms and views, presenting convenient insight into Oracle instance internals. A great deal of attention was paid to the ergonomics and usability of the forms and views. Efficiency and performance have been recognized as part of usability; these areas had a high priority during the design and implementation of this application.

Lab128 is a multithreaded, high-performance application. It constantly monitors the status of Oracle connections, detecting problems and automatically re-establishing lost connections. The Instances Overview screen provides status and critical statistics for each instance that can be viewed at a glance. A built-in SQL editor with a repository for SQL queries provides additional flexibility and convenience.

To see new features history: Lab128. New Features History.
To see Lab128 screenshots: Lab128 Screenshots.
To download a free trial version: Lab128 Download.