Zephyrus Software Inc. - AlertView FAQ

AlertView™ FAQ

1. What is AlertView™?

AlertView™™ is a viewer for Oracle alert logs. It parses an alert log and breaks it into discreet events, such as starting the database or executing a DDL command. The events are categorized by type and displayed in a tree view. Clicking on an event in the left hand tree window displays the event text in the right hand window.

The user can select:

What types of alerts to display
The time period to display
What information to display in the tree

The user can also refresh the display at any time to look for new alerts.

AlertView™ is written in Java, so it will run on any system that has a Java virtual machine (Windows, Solaris, HP/UX, AIX, Linux, several other versions of Unix, OS/2, etc.).

2. What does it cost?

AlertView™ is free. I think it is a useful product and hope others will also.

3. Why is it free?

AlertView™ is being distributed for free as a way to market Zephyrus Software. If you like the software, please give us an opportunity to speak with you about out Oracle database administration services and Java software development services.

4. Can I install AlertView™ on multiple computers?

Yes.

5. Can I give copies of AlertView™ to friends and associates?

Yes. You can give it away freely as long as you adhere to the included licensing agreement. This is mainly to ensure that no one modifies the software or claims ownership.

6. What platforms are supported?

AlertView™ will run on any system that has a Java version 1.1 runtime environment, 1.1.7 or above. This includes almost all flavors of Unix (including Linux), Windows 95/98/NT, Windows NT Alpha, OS/2, OS/390, OS/400 and Netware.

AlertView will not run on Java2 (version 1.2).

7. My operating system has the JDK (Java Development Kit) available, but not the JRE (Java Runtime Environment). What should I do?

Install the JDK for your platform. It includes the runtime environment.

8. The latest version of Java for my environment is below 1.1.7. Will AlertView™ still run?

Probably, but there may be some quirks related to the screen display. See the installation documentation for how to do a generic installation.

9. Where do I install AlertView™? On the Oracle server or on a client?

AlertView™ can be installed on an Oracle server or any client machine. It must be able to read the alert log file (alert_SID.log). It can either read a local file or read a remote file through an FTP connection.

Possible configurations include:

Install AlertView™ on a Windows 95/98/NT client. You can open local alert log files, remote NT alert logs (using shared directories) and remote Unix log files (using ftp).
Install AlertView™ on a Unix client or server. You can open local alert log files and remote Unix alert logs (using mounted directories). You cannot access remote NT alert logs without using a third party solution, such as Samba.

10. Will AlertView™ run over a dial-up connection?

Yes. Keep in mind that scanning a large alert log over a slow connection will be slow.

11. Will AlertView™ run over the internet?

Yes. It has been tested over a VPN (Virtual private network) connection on the internet.

12. Will AlertView™ always parse the Alert log properly?

I have run AlertView™ against large alert logs from several Oracle instances. It handles several quirks in the way Oracle creates the logs.

However, there may be some special cases that I have not encountered. If you have a log file that is not being parsed correctly, please send the log file (or at least the part that is not parsed correctly) to bugs@zephyrus.com.

13. Are there any known bugs?

The following bugs exist in the application.

The 'details' button in the 'File Open' or 'Default Directory' dialog boxes does not work. It has not been implemented in the Java runtime environment.
The 'Windows' look and feel does not work on Solaris.
In a dialog box, if the data entry fields are larger than the space allowed in the dialog box, they disappear. This is due to different fonts being used on different system. It works properly on several tested systems. If the data entry fields do not display, expand the size of the dialog box and they will reappear.
You can select more than one file in the 'File...Open Local' dialog box. Only the first file in the list will be processed.

14. It is taking a long time to parse the alert file. What is wrong? Is there anything I can do to improve performance?

To improve performance, you can either:

display alerts for a shorter time span (previous day or three days instead of all alerts).
Only display certain types of alerts. For example don't display the log switches.

It's not so much the size of the alert log that affects performance, but the number of alerts that are in the specified time period and of the specified type.

15. I'm running AlertView on Windows and when I select the AlertView icon, nothing happens.

Make sure the location of the java executable (jre.exe, jrew.exe, java.exe or javaw.exe) is in your path.