Re: OEM vs Foglight
- From: kyle Hailey <kylelf@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Joel.Patterson@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2011 14:41:24 -0700
First, if you have the slightest interest in a desktop tool such as
Spotlight I recommend DB Optimizer which I feel is much more powerful and
modern. I'm biased as I worked on DB Optimizer at EMBT 2008-2010 but am no
longer at EMBT thus can say with a clear conscious that DB Optimizer is
awesome. I also worked at Quest on Spotlight. Spotlight was awesome 10
years ago when it came out but now outdated - it drives me crazy when it's
the only tool customers have. I tried to modernize Spotlight immediately in
2001 <https://sites.google.com/site/youvisualize/active-session-history>when
I worked at Quest. Quest wasn't interested and we quickly parted ways.
I then went to Oracle in 2002 and worked on a complete redesign of the
performance graphics, for example Top
Activity<https://sites.google.com/site/youvisualize/oem-10g-performance-pages---before-and-after>screen.
I found Oracle frustratingly slow and bloated at times so I went to
Embarcadero to work on a smaller faster product DB Optimizer. DB Optimizer
was a challenge as it had to work on not only Oracle but DB2, SQL Server and
Sybase in the same interface but it takes performance monitoring even
farther, runs faster and is a sinch to install. I think it came out awesome
not to mention the Visual SQL
Tuning<http://dboptimizer.com/2011/07/08/woohoo-vst-takes-the-next-step/>stuff.
DB Optimizer is primarily a desktop tool. DB Optimizer can be made
to collect into a shared repository 24x7 but that isn't it's forte. The
realm of 24x7 mutli-target monitoring is the forte of Enterprise tools.
Enterprise tools for databases are either OEM, Foglight, Confio or Indepth.
Of these OEM and Foglight seem like the best. I've never used Foglight but
from the demo's I've seen on Quest's website it looks good and looks like
they understand the domain and have designed well for it. The biggest
obstacle I've heard is that Quest requires a binary to run on each target
and the binary depends on OS type, OS version and Oracle version so it can
be quite a management challenge. Quest bought Foglight back in 2001 time
frame and was basically boondoggled AFAIU. Quest then invested enormous
resources to structure Foglight into something usable. How far they have
come I don't know. The part I like is the Quest Performance Analyzer for
Oracle. Quest had cool videos on Perf Analyzer for Oracle online but I
can't find them anymore - strange.
I don't think there is a perfect enterprise Oracle monitoring solution. OEM
is nice - of course I like things which makes sense as I design parts, but
other parts drive me crazy and all parts tend to be slow and granular and
the framework is bloated. If I were a customer I'd definitely want to do a
trial run with Foglight on my systems.
Unfortunately the enterprise monitoring space is drying up and companies
like Quest and Embarcadero are cutting development resources back to a
minimum. Just found this link that echos this
sentimentshttp://www.infoworld.com/d/data-management/can-quest-foglight-hang-big-boys-601from
5 years ago (take the comments about Foglight with a grain of salt as
the article is old)
The lack of decent tools to manage your databases on an enterprise level is
> just staggering. It's hard to believe that nobody can cross the finish line
> on delivering a monitoring solution.
>
I would love to create a better enterprise solution if I could find the
funding! :)
- Kyle
http://dboptimizer.com
On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 8:01 AM, <Joel.Patterson@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> IMHO,****
>
> ** **
>
> OEM is “oracle’s”, so my analogy goes something like this: Its like
> gravity; you can’t resist, and oracle will put more a more into OEM sooner
> or later – akin to Microsoft. (eg. You wanted to use WordPerfect and
> Lotus123, but in the end there was only so much you can invest, and…
> eventually caved under the weight created by Microsoft. That most people
> do not wish to learn multiple programs, and thus it turns out that everyone
> else uses Word and Excel – ipso facto, doesn’t matter if one is better than
> another, Microsoft floated to the top). I think that eventually, like
> this analogy, oracle is going to make it a reality somehow that you want or
> wish you had OEM in house.****
>
> ** **
>
> So, to continue, since Foglight for oracle is not cheap, having both is not
> practical. Spend some extra money on DBOptimizer to go with the
> monitoring tool.****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> Joel Patterson
> Database Administrator
> 904 727-2546 ****
> ------------------------------
>
> *From:* oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:
> oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Guillermo Alan Bort
> *Sent:* Wednesday, July 13, 2011 10:36 AM
> *To:* oracle-l-freelists
> *Subject:* OEM vs Foglight****
>
> ** **
>
> So, today we had a very boring and long presentation by Quest about
> foglight... I must admit I spaced out 10 minutes in, so I honestly don't
> know what they are offering... they are saying that their product is the
> best and I think it's a lot cheaper that OEM... so my question goes out
> there to you, the community whose opinion I respect. If you had the choice
> of staying with OEM or implementing foglight, what would you do? why?
>
> my curiosity tells me to go with spotlight just because it's something I
> don't know... and I like to challenge myself... my lazy side is telling me
> to stick with OEM which I know how to break and sometimes even how to fix...
>
>
> My obsessive side is gathering all the information it can to make an
> informed recommendation to management... so... here I am.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Alan.-****
>
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