Insider FAQ
I don't have an Oracle client installed on my workstation. Can I still use Insider to monitor my Oracle databases
Yes! Select Tools>Settings>Oracle and switch to using Oracle thin driver. Oracle thin driver does not require Oracle client software to be installed on the machine
I am trying to add an Oracle database however my tnsnames.ora file is not found (TNS names list is not populated)
Press Locate tnsnames button next to TNS names combo and navigate to your tnsnames file, then press OK
Can Insider support 100+ databases?
Yes. Insider requires about 2Mb per database connection so if you have 100 databases you need approximately 200Mb RAM. To lower CPU utilization you may want to turn off alert pop-up notifications (Tools>Settings>General>Alert). Lower refresh rate to avoid excessive load on the network.
Why am I getting Parse To Execute Ratio greater than 100% alert?
Please see Why Parse count is higher than execute count in V$SYSSTAT Metalink Note 220617.1. This behaviour is observed on Oracle 8i only
I can see OS related data for Windows servers when Insider is running on Windows, but when Insider is running on Unix it seems that OS data (CPU, Memory etc) for Windows servers is not available.
Currently Insider collects OS specific metrics for Windows only when running on Windows. We are considering different approaches as to how to solve this problem.
Why is Insider unable to get my alert.log file?
There are certain limitations to Oracle alert log support. Currently only UNIX platforms are supported. If your server is on UNIX and Insider is still unable to retrieve your alert.log file try entering the path to it directly by clicking on Alert.Log icon. You should enter the path local to the server Oracle is on e.g. "/u01/oracle/admin/mydb/mybdump/alert_mydb.log"
I am getting lots of login messages in UNIX system log
Select Use Shell option when you specify operating system connection parameters
I am using Use Shell option and keep getting error messages
Use Shell option does not work with variables within UNIX command prompt like e.g. date/time etc. Try removing variables from UNIX command prompt or switch off Use Shell option
I am getting an "Not enough priviliges to read alert log" alert
When choosing an operating system user account make sure it has correct priviliges to read from Oracle alert log file. If these priviliges are missing Analyze alert log feature will be disabled and you will receive "Not enough priviliges to read alert log" alert
I am trying to connect to my physical standby however Insider keeps telling me ORA-12520: TNS:listener could not find available handler for requested type of server or similar error?
To connect to a physical standby or any database in mounted or down state what you should do is:
- make sure you are using Oracle OCI driver. You cannot connect to mounted or down databases with the thin driver
- connect as sysdba
- use SERVICE_NAME rather than SID in your tnsnames.ora file
- make sure the database is configured STATICALLY with the listener. It means lines like
(SID_DESC = (GLOBAL_DBNAME = mydb) (ORACLE_HOME = /u01/app/oracle/product/9.2.0.5.0) (SID_NAME = mysid)should be added to your listener.ora
Every time I'm trying to connect to our DB the application crashes (sometimes after connecting)
The reason of all those crashes is in the native oracle driver. The good news is that there is a way to work without this native driver (so called thick driver). All you need to do is to go to database properties (right click on a database on enterprise view) and change connection method to thin driver and reenter all the connection settings for this database.
After an upgrade to the next version 2.1.9 we got the following error on some items from window hosts:
login failed: null
login failed:no jawin in java.library.path
Please check the following:
- you have jawin.dll in
/bin - jawin.dll has Execute permission
- you start Insider using insider.exe, not via java -jar boot.jar
I don't get any text on the tabs in the GUI. It's just replacement characters (squares)
To fix the problem you need to go to "C:\Documents and Settings\Your User Name\.Insider\" and edit file settings.xml
Navigate to the very end of the file and add the following two strings just before the last line:
<tableHeaderFont>Tahoma, plain, 11</tableHeaderFont>
<viewTabFont>Tahoma, plain, 11</viewTabFont>
the end of the file should look like the following:
<tableHeaderFont>Tahoma, plain, 11</tableHeaderFont>
<viewTabFont>Tahoma, plain, 11</viewTabFont>
</globalSettings>
Then save the file and start Insider. The problem should hopefully go away. You may play with viewTabFont settings and change font size to 12 if it appears too small.