Very true Jared, my scripts are configured very similarly to yours - I only get alerted when there is a problem. Informational and warning messages only go to email while critical alerts go to email + SMS to the cell phone of the DBA on-call - both email & SMS destinations are easily configurable via forwarding rules on a centralized public folder in MS Exchange where all the scripts send their output. I also get a handful of informational scripts daily for things like backups that require an active check to confirm they ran successfully rather than only an alert upon failure, which could fail to alert us if there is a failure with the monitoring script itself. Gus, it sounds like maybe you got stuck with some poorly designed scripts, but you shouldn't knock them all because of that. I've heard many complaints from people using Grid Control that they get overwhelmed with the out of the box alerts as well, so whether you use Grid Control or custom scripts, or some other 3rd party monitoring tool, some work is going to be needed to configure the alerts, adjust thresholds, troubleshoot issues, etc. With custom scripts you have maximum flexibility - that's the main reason I prefer them. I also find them to be more reliable, but that depends on who is doing your scripting. Regards, Brandon From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jared Still IMO there some elements of using monitoring scripts that must be done correctly to be useful. ________________________________ Privileged/Confidential Information may be contained in this message or attachments hereto. Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of this company shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it.