USE CASES

• Whether for internal checks or external audits (e.g., CIS auditing) - with DB-Harbour you can check if your databases are configured in accordance with security requirements and automatically receive a permanent overview and historization: - Are the database users in the correct profiles, and what password versions do the users have? - Are there users who have never logged in or who need to be deleted? - Reading, central storage, and evaluation of the auditing views (e.g., fine-grained auditing or unified auditing) - Preparing audits and permanently ensuring security requirements (e.g., checking for public database links or ANY grants) - Further testing of your own security standards (e.g., configuration of database vault or TTS encryption)

  	Whether for internal checks or external audits (e.g., CIS auditing) - with DB-Harbour you can check if your databases are configured in accordance with security requirements and automatically receive a permanent overview and historization: - Are the database users in the correct profiles, and what password versions do the users have? - Are there users who have never logged in or who need to be deleted? - Reading, central storage and evaluation of the auditing views (e.g., fine-grained auditing or unified auditing) - Preparing audits and permanently ensuring security requirements (e.g., checking for public database links or ANY grants) - Further testing of your own security standards (e.g., configuration of database vault or TTS encryption)

• In contrast to monitoring tools, DB-Harbor can be used to carry out a more in-depth backup analysis, which can be used to avoid future problems in advance. With the help of DB-Harbour, many questions about the backup of Oracle databases can be answered quickly, conveniently, and permanently: - Are there new datafiles or PDBs that have never been backed up? - What is the status and timestamp of datafile copies? - Free space within the Flash Recovery Area and in ASM disk groups - Did any backups fail? - How have the backup volume and backup durations developed over the last few years? - Does changing the backup strategy make sense, and can space be saved?

  	In contrast to monitoring tools, DB-Harbor can be used to carry out a more in-depth backup analysis, which can be used to avoid future problems in advance. With the help of DB-Harbour, many questions about the backup of Oracle databases can be answered quickly, conveniently, and permanently: - Are there new datafiles or PDBs that have never been backed up? - What is the status and timestamp of datafile copies? - Free space within the Flash Recovery Area and in ASM disk groups - Did any backups fail? - How have the backup volume and backup durations developed over the last few years? - Does changing the backup strategy make sense, and can space be saved?

• If you do not use an Enterprise Edition or the Performance & Tuning Pack, performance evaluation is less convenient because the use of Cloud Control or AWR reports is not possible. By setting up appropriate rules in DB-Harbour, a lot of performance information can be queried and visualized: - Display of waits (e.g., per class and/or event) - Top SQL statements (e.g., per number of executions or per IO/CPU load) - Are there longer blocking sessions, deadlocks, or other “long runners”? - Have execution plans of statements changed? - How have the number of processes and sessions changed recently? - Further queries for individual cases (e.g., monitoring of rollback operations or refreshes of materialized views)

  	If you do not use an Enterprise Edition or the Performance & Tuning Pack, performance evaluation is less convenient because the use of Cloud Control or AWR reports is not possible. By setting up appropriate rules in DB-Harbour, a lot of performance information can be queried and visualized: - Display of waits (e.g., per class and/or event) - Top SQL statements (e.g., per number of executions or per IO/CPU load) - Are there longer blocking sessions, deadlocks, or other “long runners”? - Have execution plans of statements changed? - How have the number of processes and sessions changed recently? - Further queries for individual cases (e.g., monitoring of rollback operations or refreshes of materialized views)

• For large database environments, homogenization and standardization make sense wherever possible. This makes it easier to automate tasks and reduces complexity and susceptibility to errors. Using DB-Harbour, many properties of the database can be queried and permanently checked through comparisons: - Are all Redolog groups created uniformly, and is there any indication that an adjustment makes sense? - Which database parameters are set or have been changed? - Are all tablespaces created correctly (e.g., size, autoextend, etc.)? - Do all databases have the same patch level? - How is the distribution of PDBs to CDBs, and can optimizations be made here?

  	For large database environments, homogenization and standardization make sense wherever possible. This makes it easier to automate tasks and reduces complexity and susceptibility to errors. Using DB-Harbour, many properties of the database can be queried and permanently checked through comparisons: - Are all Redolog groups created uniformly, and is there any indication that an adjustment makes sense? - Which database parameters are set or have been changed? - Are all tablespaces created correctly (e.g., size, autoextend, etc.)? - Do all databases have the same patch level? - How is the distribution of PDBs to CDBs, and can optimizations be made here?

• In addition to database metadata (classic queries from the V$- or DBA_-views), there is usually also application-specific information that can be evaluated with DB-Harbour. Here are some use cases that can be implemented on the tables or views using your own rules and corresponding select privileges: - Checking and historizing runtimes or results of batch runs (e.g., in your DWH environment). - Collecting and evaluating application-specific log tables. - Are there problems in application schemas of the databases (e.g., invalid objects, blocked users, or "broken" jobs)? - All other information that is of interest and can be queried via a select statement.

  	In addition to database metadata (classic queries from the V$- or DBA_-views), there is usually also application-specific information that can be evaluated with DB-Harbour. Here are some use cases that can be implemented on the tables or views using your own rules and corresponding select privileges: - Checking and historizing runtimes or results of batch runs (e.g., in your DWH environment). - Collecting and evaluating application-specific log tables. - Are there problems in application schemas of the databases (e.g., invalid objects, blocked users, or "broken" jobs)? - All other information that is of interest and can be queried via a select statement.

Core Features

 

• Create new rules (select queries) or use predefined rules, assign them to a subset or all databases, and let them be executed in customizable intervals. It is possible to create multiple different select queries per rule. Additionally, you are able to restrict select queries on database version, database role, or cluster type. Beyond this, you have the opportunity to select values from CBD only and map the result set to PDBs in the DB-Harbour repository. All tables created by your rules can be browsed, filtered, sorted, and customized (column format type / visibility) according to your wishes.

  	Create new rules (select queries) or use predefined rules, assign them to a subset or all databases, and let them be executed in customizable intervals. It is possible to create multiple different select queries per rule. Additionally, you are able to restrict select queries on database version, database role, or cluster type. Beyond this, you have the opportunity to select values from CBD only and map the result set to PDBs in the DB-Harbour repository. All tables created by your rules can be browsed, filtered, sorted, and customized (column format type / visibility) according to your wishes.

• Before new data will be queried, old results can be deleted or archived. You have the choice between differential archiving (only values changed since the last run) or complete archiving (all values for a certain date/time). Depending on which interval was chosen for the rule, archiving can lead to massive data growth. Because of this, it is also possible to compress archived values using customizable compression windows and aggregation functions for each result column of your query. So you can compress data without losing the information that matters for each individual rule.

  	Before new data will be queried, old results can be deleted or archived. You have the choice between differential archiving (only values changed since the last run) or complete archiving (all values for a certain date/time). Depending on which interval was chosen for the rule, archiving can lead to massive data growth. Because of this, it is also possible to compress archived values using customizable compression windows and aggregation functions for each result column of your query. So you can compress data without losing the information that matters for each individual rule.

• Once a rule is executed and results are loaded, it is possible to transport all or a subset of values to a basedata table with the same structure. After the transfer, the values can be adjusted and mapped to environments or applications. Based on this data, you are now able to control which columns should be compared in what manner. This feature allows you to rapidly set up conformity management for every rule you want this for. With the help of this, you can create a User-Management to check profiles and default tablespaces or a Parameter-Management to check database parameters, for example.

  	Once a rule is executed and results are loaded, it is possible to transport all or a subset of values to a basedata table with the same structure. After the transfer, the values can be adjusted and mapped to environments or applications. Based on this data, you are now able to control which columns should be compared in what manner. This feature allows you to rapidly set up conformity management for every rule you want this for. With the help of this, you can create a User-Management to check profiles and default tablespaces or a Parameter-Management to check database parameters, for example.

• With DB-Harbour, you can create graphs that are based on your basedata or dynamic data (created by rules). It is also possible to create graphs out of archived & compressed data. DB-Harbour allows you to create views in order to combine data from different rules or basedata. Besides all common graph types such as bar, area, pie, etc., a gauge type is also available for faster compliance checks of your comparison results. The look of graphs (colors, fonts, etc.) is adaptable with the help of custom styles. On top of that, logarithmic presentation of values or stacked value graphs are achievable. The graphs are interactive and provide features such as timeline zooming or deselection/selection of values, for example.

  	With DB-Harbour, you can create graphs that are based on your basedata or dynamic data (created by rules). It is also possible to create graphs out of archived & compressed data. DB-Harbour allows you to to create views in order to combine data from different rules or basedata. Besides all common graph types such as bar, area, pie, etc., a gauge type is also available for faster compliance checks of your comparison results. The look of graphs (colors, fonts, etc.) is adaptable with the help of custom styles. On top of that, logarithmic presentation of values or stacked value graphs are achievable. The graphs are interactive and provide features such as timeline zooming or deselection/selection of values, for example.

• Finally, you can use your graphs and gathered data to create dashboards, PDF reports, and slideshows. In addition, contexts (groups of databases) or context groups can be defined. Contexts allow you to create dashboards, which automatically perform a refresh and iterate through the defined context. The content of tables and graphs on the dashboard is only shown for the current context. Also, PDF reports can use the advantage of database contexts, of course. With the help of slideshows, multiple dashboards can be shown successively.

  	Finally, you can use your graphs and gathered data to create dashboards, PDF reports, and slideshows. In addition, contexts (groups of databases) or context groups can be defined. Contexts allow you to create dashboards, which automatically perform a refresh and iterate through the defined context. The content of tables and graphs on the dashboard is only shown for the current context. Also, PDF reports can use the advantage of database contexts, of course. With the help of slideshows, multiple dashboards can be shown successively.

Additional Features