Capabilities

The following summarizes DTrace’s capabilities on the database server.

• DTrace provides custom, high-level observability. Information such as query counts and user connections can be traced, and you can decide how to present the results. Although similar information is usually available via other database tools, DTrace provides data-processing features such as frequency counts, distribution plots, and predicates, which can improve how this data is presented and understood.

• DTrace can measure behavior across the entire software stack. This can reveal issues with the disk devices, kernel drivers, user-level locks, and any other system component, which might be missed when performing analysis from the database only. Systemic bottlenecks can be identified and eliminated.

• DTrace can monitor system events in database context. System events such as disk and network I/O can be analyzed in terms of database users and queries.

• DTrace can provide a deep view of internal database operations, going far beyond shipped metrics and standard analyzers.