Analyzing database problems with the Database tier

The Database tier provides a visual indication about the database performance and availability compared to the set Warning and Critical thresholds (as described in the "Database metrics" section of the Application server metrics topic). This topic describes how to use the Database tier to identify performance and availability problems in your application databases.

To analyze database problems with the Database tier

The following steps describe how to analyze database problems from the Application View.

1. Click the Database tier box to display the databases that were queried in the selected five-minute period.
   Databases associated with the selected time are displayed in the Tier Members section of the Application View.
2. Click one or more databases to examine the metrics.
   Performance and availability details are displayed below the list of databases.
3. View the associated business transactions by selecting Business Transactions View from the database shortcut menu.
4. Examine the report of the 10 slowest queries to the database or databases during the selected five-minute period, and then click Metrics to example graphs.

The following image maps the steps to their location in the Application View.

Mapping of the steps to analyze database problems

Database tier and member description

The following table describes the meaning of the values and colors for the Database tier and each database member.

Database tier description

Example Database tier

For the five-minute period reflected in the example, the Database tier shows that the average latency of all database queries is 4326 ms, and that 20% of the database queries completed without latency violations or errors.

Select the Database tier to examine its members.

Example Database tier members

For the five-minute period reflected in the example, the Database member shows the following information:

• Operations Rate—one database operation occurred per second
• Success Rate—50% of the operations completed without latency violation, error violations, or both
• Latency Violations—none of the operations exceeded the latency threshold
• Error Violations—50% of of the operations had errors

From the shortcut menu, you can drill down to business transactions, filtered for the set time in the Application View.

Slowest database queries

Select one or more Database tier members to analyze the slowest database queries. A database can show no problems, or no latency violations, yet you can still examine the slowest queries.

The Top 10 slowest queries lists the ten slowest queries for the selected database member or members, for the selected five-minute period. No matter how many databases are selected, only ten queries are listed, sorted according the the maximum latency. The slow queries list provides the following information for each query:

• Query name
• Number of slow requests, that is, the number of requests that exceeded a performance threshold
• Total number of requests
• Average latency, in milliseconds
• Maximum latency, in milliseconds
• Minimum latency, in milliseconds
• Database server name

Database metrics

To view metrics about a specific database, select the database member and click Metrics (below the Members Tier). Metrics graphs for the selected database are displayed. For details about the metrics, see the "Database metrics" section in Application server metrics. Click more than one database to compare  metrics on the same graphs.

Related topics

Analyzing web page problems with the User tier

Analyzing application server problems with the Web, App, and Business tiers

Troubleshooting: Same database instances appears twice in Application View