Before you start monitoring your Oracle database, make sure you understand some of the
behind-the-scenes issues of using Oracle monitoring.
DBAs used to lean heavily on a set of scripts called BSTAT & ESTAT. Originally run by hand, these two scripts birthed a revolution of historical statistic collections for an Oracle database. Over the years BSTAT & ESTAT evolved into what Oracle calls Statspack; an improved set of SQL, PL/SQL, and SQL*Plus scripts that allow for the automated collection, storage, and viewing of performance data.
Fast forward to Oracle 11g. Statspack, while still available, has been replaced by the Automatic Workload Repository (AWR). Oracle notes in the documentation, that if your site does not have Automatic Workload Repository and Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor features then you should/can use Statspack to gather Oracle instance statistics.
However, if you search the Net for installation of Statspack on an Oracle 11g instance you will soon find that Statspack has a few minor errors that crop into your ability to gather these statistics-clearly indicating that Oracle is not as ambitious to keep Statspack working as new versions of Oracle become available.
DBAs and management need to be aware that the Oracle Diagnostic Pack is a separately licensed product and you should be aware of what constitutes a breach in your current license. The best place for finding this information; at least currently, for Oracle 11g would be within the Oracle Database Licensing Information 11g Release 1 (11.1) book, for the diagnostic pack.
Within the Diagnostic Pack section, you will soon find out that there are a lot of features, packages, tables, views, etc. included that you just might be using without a valid license.
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