Chapter 37. Monitoring Database Activity

Table of Contents

37.1. EnterpriseDB DBA Management Server

37.2.1. Statistics Collection Configuration
37.2.2. Viewing Collected Statistics

A database administrator frequently wonders, "What is the system doing right now?" This chapter discusses how to find that out.

Several tools are available for monitoring database activity and analyzing performance. Most of this chapter is devoted to describing EnterpriseDB's statistics collector, but one should not neglect regular Unix monitoring programs such as ps and top. Also, once one has identified a poorly-performing query, further investigation may be needed using EnterpriseDB's EXPLAIN command. Section 13.2 discusses EXPLAIN and other methods for understanding the behavior of an individual query.

37.1. EnterpriseDB DBA Management Server

The EnterpriseDB DBA Management Server is the ideal tool to use for monitoring all sorts of database activity and viewing all sorts of statistics relevent to your database. Following are just some of the features that EnterpriseDB DBA Management Server comes packed with:

Tracking down your slowest and most frequently executing queries via Query Profiler
Monitoring user activity and lock status in real time via the Monitoring reports
Browsing through your database log files on local as well as remote database servers via View DB Logs
Modifying and viewing various runtime configuration parameters via Show Settings
Viewing detailed table, index and column statistics through the Statistics reports

EnterpriseDB DBA Management Server can be configured for an unlimited number of EnterpriseDB and/or PostgreSQL database servers. The application also renders richly formatted reports in both HTML and PDF formats.

For more details on EnterpriseDB DBA Management Server please refer to Chapter 20.