BMC Patrol, Candle Omegamon (survey)

Do you have an opinion of this software? Love it or hate it? Heard of it? I could really use your help. I'm working on a master's thesis, and have put together a survey asking how DBA's monitor database performance. Your input would be very helpful. Thanks to those of you who have responded already. The survey is below, after a privacy statement required by my university. Please email any responses directly to me. I greatly appreciate your time and comments, and will post a summary of my findings to the group. Thanks in advance -- Lisa Crenshaw Information Science crenl@ils.unc.edu ____________________________________________________________ This research study will measure the usage of types of database management tools, and will be used to complete a masters thesis at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Your privacy will be maintained, and no information that will associate you with your responses will be recorded. Your submission of this survey will indicate your willingness to participate in the study. Completion should take about 10 minutes of your time. If you wish to have a copy of the results of this survey, or have further questions, please contact me, Lisa Crenshaw, at crenl@ils.unc.edu or (919)677-8000 x6415 or my faculty advisor, Dr. Stephanie Haas at stephani@ils.unc.edu or (919) 962-8360. You may contact the UNC-CH Academic Affairs Institutional Review Board at the following address and telephone number at any time during this study if you have questions or concerns about your rights as a research participant: Academic Affairs Institutional Review Board David A. Eckerman, Chair CB# 4100, 201 Bynum Hall The Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-4100 (919) 962-7761, or Email: aa-irb@unc.edu ____________________________________________________________ Database Performance Monitoring: Use of Software tools and Traditional Processes. As the database computing environment has become more complex, more tools have evolved for database performance measurement. These tools assist in the prediction, monitoring, and measurement of demand on the database system. I wish to see if these performance monitoring tools are actually used by database administrators, and why or why not. Following are questions designed to measure the use of database performance management tools. I have created categories of tools and processes used to measure the performance of a database. They may be purchased programs/software, homegrown programs and scripts, or information gathered by the DBA through whatever means on a regular basis. These categories are not all inclusive-- some tools and certainly many processes exist that perform other necessary functions. 1. How many years and/or months have you performed the following functions of a DBA? months, years ------------- _____ ______ installations & upgrades, _____ ______ backup/recovery, _____ ______ performance monitoring and tuning, _____ ______ physical database design, _____ ______ user administration _____ ______ database applications administration or authoring _____ ______ capacity planning _____ ______ new product/ release evaluation 2. How large are the systems you have worked with in the past 5 years? Please list the number of each element. If you have worked with more than one system in the past 5 years, please fill out a column for each system. current other other system system system _____ _____ _____ users _____ _____ _____ software clients _____ _____ _____ DBMS platforms _____ _____ _____ Gigabytes of data in database(s) _____ _____ _____ data stores Please rate your use of the following kinds of tools. You will see the general category name and description, and examples of tools of this type that have been mentioned in computing magazines and journals. Please indicate whether you use tools of the given type, or not. If you do use tools of this type, please indicate how often. If you do *not* use tools of this type, please indicate reason(s) why not. If there is a particular tool you have in mind when making your choice, please feel free to list it in the "opinions" box. Also give any opinions you have of tools of this type, or of this categorization. 3. Consoles Programs that provide information on immediate operation of database in *real time*. Examples: Tivoli systems TME 10 Platinum Enterprise Performance Management Suite DB2 performance monitor Oracle Enterprise Manager Softtree Technologies' Oracle Monitor Suite Candle OMEGAMON II for DB2 ___ Use please indicate how often __ Daily __ Weekly __ Monthly __ On redesign __ When I have time ___ Don't Use please indicate reason or reasons why not. __ poor system quality __ information is unusable __ information is not useful to me __ Cost __ No time (to learn or use system) __ Unfamiliar with tools of this type Your opinion of tools of this type (optional): 4. Contextual While Consoles provide information about the operating system and the DBMS, Contextual tools should monitor the performance of (or the DBMS's interaction with) other related elements like the network or the web server. Many of the examples listed are tool suites. Tools of this type claim to integrate context management with database performance management. Examples: Platinum Wiretap Patrol KM for Internet Servers Compuware's EcoTools Landmark's PerformanceWorks ___ Use please indicate how often __ Daily __ Weekly __ Monthly __ On redesign __ When I have time ___ Don't Use please indicate reason or reasons why not. __ poor system quality __ information is unusable __ information is not useful to me __ Cost __ No time (to learn or use system) __ Unfamiliar with tools of this type Your opinion of tools of this type (optional): 5. Predictors Tools that predict data growth and user demand of system resources. Examples: DB2 estimator, Oracle capacity planner Oracle tuning pack BMC Patrol Knowledge Modules ___ Use please indicate how often __ Daily __ Weekly __ Monthly __ On redesign __ When I have time ___ Don't Use please indicate reason or reasons why not. __ poor system quality __ information is unusable __ information is not useful to me __ Cost __ No time (to learn or use system) __ Unfamiliar with tools of this type Your opinion of tools of this type (optional): 6. Tweaking Describes the manpulation of the operating system and hardware to better work with the database. Examples: increasing disk space or memory increase amount of disk space allotted to swapping installing higher throughput network cards. ___ Use please indicate how often __ Daily __ Weekly __ M