ACADEMIA

Oracle today announced a new Plug-In for systems management support of IBM DB2 Universal Database (IBM DB2), further reducing the complexity and cost of managing information technology (IT) environments where IBM and Oracle co-exist. Generally available today, the Plug-In extends the capabilities of Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control (Oracle Grid Control), enabling joint customers to monitor their applications and services more efficiently through a single, integrated management solution. The Plug-In enables Oracle Grid Control to monitor IBM DB2 (version 8.1.9 and higher) instances, gather configuration data and track configuration changes for IBM DB2 instances, raise alerts and violations based on thresholds set on monitoring and configuration data, and run pre-built reports. With improved insight into the performance of IBM DB2, Oracle Grid Control allows administrators to deliver higher quality of service by detecting and resolving issues in diverse IT environments quickly and effectively. In conjunction with the Plug-In for IBM WebSphere released in October 2005, Oracle Grid Control provides a view of the complete topology of applications and performs comprehensive root cause analysis, helping administrators reduce the cost of managing applications that use a mix of IBM and Oracle technologies. "Oracle Grid Control helps customers monitor the health of their IT systems, enabling them to identify and fix the critical problems they face daily, including the potential of unplanned downtime, performance problems and data loss," said Jay Rossiter, vice president of System Management Products, Oracle. "Oracle is committed to providing its customers with the ability to manage key sets of technology components found in an application environment. From performance to configuration, Oracle Grid Control helps users collect, analyze and rollup the information they need to manage their applications that rely upon IBM DB2 or IBM WebSphere." Administrators working in a joint IBM DB2 and Oracle environment can use Oracle Grid Control to: -- Collect and monitor over 250 pre-packaged availability and performance metrics, including key indicators of status, memory, cache, CPU statistics, locks and processes, database backups, database storage, agents, connections, and SQL statements; -- Model IBM DB2 in Oracle Grid Control's systems and services views for complete application performance management without requiring installation an agent on the computer hosting the IBM DB2 instance; -- Receive immediate notification of issues stemming from metric violation of pre-defined thresholds; Gather comprehensive configuration data to track changes, and provide historical trending, reporting and comparisons for compliance and root-cause analysis; and, -- Utilize 17 pre-defined reports on DB2 systems configuration, applications performance, database health, tablespace health, and numerous other statistics. The new Plug-In takes advantage of Oracle Grid Control's application and service level management, configuration management, grid computing automation, and reporting capabilities to help administrators streamline processes, automate manual tasks and better align IT resources with business objectives. Additionally, the Plug-In automatically benefits from Oracle Grid Control's broad set of monitoring and service level management features, including alerts, lights-out monitoring, automatic performance data collection and trending, end-to-end transaction monitoring, blackout windows, and templates. Together these rich features provide complete system-service monitoring and significantly improve service delivery. Partner Offering Enables Broader Systems Management Launched in October 2005, the Oracle Enterprise Manager Partner offering provides participating partners with instant access to a wide range of services to help them deliver the best value to joint customers of enterprise grids comprised of Oracle and non-Oracle systems. Partners engage with Oracle to develop an extensive set of Plug-Ins and Management Connectors, increasing the value of Oracle's management product suite and reducing the cost and complexity of managing enterprise systems for customers. Additional details and requirements can be found via the Oracle PartnerNetwork Product Area Focus for Oracle Enterprise Manager at: its Web site . Availability and Pricing A developer version of the Plug-In for IBM DB2 Universal Database (version 8.1.9 and higher) is available for download via the Oracle Technology Network atits Web site. Oracle Grid Control's System Monitoring Plug-Ins for IBM DB2 and IBM WebSphere (version 5.0 and above) are priced at $1,500 per CPU.