Oninit® iWatch
Oninit® iWatch is a best-of-breed SQL query-level performance monitor for the world's leading relational and document databases. It captures every SQL transaction directly off the wire and stores the resulting records in a purpose-built repository designed to cope with very large volumes of performance data.
iWatch is built around three principles: it is non-intrusive, adding no measurable load to production database servers; it measures performance from the end-user perspective, not the operating-system perspective; and it speaks the same operational language across every database it supports, so a single console covers Informix, Db2, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, SAP ASE, SAP IQ, and HCL OneDB.
Non-intrusive operation
iWatch is based on a passive network capture model. It does not require configuration changes to the database, does not connect to the database as a client, and does not depend on server-side traces, event sessions, extended events, audit logs, or any other instrumented path. There is nothing inside the database engine to enable, tune, or turn off.
In the most common deployment — iWatch installed directly on the database host — overhead is typically 1% to 2% of one CPU core. Where lower overhead is required, iWatch can be deployed on a separate host or a dedicated appliance with a SPAN/mirror port; in that mode the overhead on the database host is effectively zero.
This is a stark contrast with traditional database-level performance tools, which typically consume 10–15% CPU on the database host and which often consume materially more when operators ask them for detail.
Measured from the end-user perspective
Traditional OS-level and DB-level performance tools deliver IT-centric metrics — disk I/O, buffer hit ratios, CPU utilisation — that have little obvious correlation to end-user experience. iWatch measures every SQL transaction directly from the perspective of the application that issued it, removing guesswork and allowing scarce performance-tuning effort to be focused precisely where it will yield the most dramatic improvements in user-perceived response time.
This is a decisive advantage in complex, distributed environments, where critical time is otherwise wasted simply determining which area of the IT organisation should own a given issue.
At a glance
| Topic | Detail |
|---|---|
| What it does | Captures and times every SQL transaction at wire level; stores the result in a searchable repository. |
| Where it sits | Passive network capture — on the DB host, on a separate host, or on a dedicated appliance. |
| What it sees | Every prepare, execute, fetch, commit and rollback, with full SQL text, bind values, row counts and response times. |
| Coverage | Informix, IBM Db2 LUW, Db2 z/OS DDF, HCL OneDB, SAP ASE, SAP IQ, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MongoDB. |
| Overhead (DB host install) | 1–2% of one CPU core, typical. |
| Overhead (separate host / appliance) | Effectively zero on the database host. |
| Repository | Purpose-built for very large volumes of per-transaction performance data; SQL-searchable. |
| Multi-DB licensing | One iWatch instance can be licensed to monitor multiple database types and multiple instances. |
| Read-only | iWatch never modifies traffic in either direction. It can only observe. |
Why use it
Operating-system tools show you a busy host. Database-level tools show you a busy database. Neither tells you which application’s users are waiting, and why. iWatch shows you the SQL the user actually issued, how long the database actually took to answer it, and how that time was spent — for every transaction, for every database, in one place.
The result: faster triage, less finger-pointing between application and database teams, and a much shorter path from a user complaint to the line of SQL that caused it.