Monitoring problem users

You can set thresholds to determine when a user or user session becomes a problem user. Problem users are sessions that exhibit one of the following performance behaviors:

• waiting too long to obtain a lock.
• blocking other sessions by holding a block too long.
• doing nothing.
• running too long without returning any data
• using too much CPU as a percentage of total CPU use

If a user or user session exceeds the threshold, the ProblemUsers parameter goes into an alarm state. The parameter displays the name of the user or user session and the threshold that the user exceeded.

Setting problem user thresholds

You can set the minimum and maximum values to use for each threshold setting.

From the USERS menu, choose User Monitoring > Problem User Settings Config, and enter the minimum and maximum values you want to use for the threshold ranges.

After you have configured the threshold ranges, you can set the actual thresholds.

From the USERS menu, choose User Monitoring> Problem User Settings, and move the slider to set the thresholds.

The following table lists the thresholds that you can set.

Problem User Settings dialog box

Excluding users from problem user monitoring

Some Oracle users, such as applications or department users, regularly exceed the thresholds you want to set for most users. If you do not want to have some users appear as problem users, you can exclude those users from problem user monitoring.

To exclude a user from problem user monitoring, choose User Monitoring > Problem User Exclusion from the USERS menu, and select the users you want to exclude.

After you exclude the problem user, the user does not appear as a problem user even if the user exceeds a problem user threshold. You can still monitor the user with the User Monitoring function, however, and the user continues to appear on the user reports.