Using SQL Monitor for Oracle

Key features.....................................................................................................................................1
Monitoring applications...................................................................................................................2
Main window toolbar.......................................................................................................................2
Output window toolbar....................................................................................................................3
Output options.................................................................................................................................3
Troubleshooting...............................................................................................................................4

Key features
 Works on Windows NT/2000/XP
 Displays SQL statements that come from processes in real-time, eliminating the necessity
to turn on tracing and look into poorly formatted trace file
 Allows monitoring NT services
 Displays logon attempts, both successful and unsuccessful (username, password, tns
alias, success)
 Performs syntax highlighting
 Displays values of bind variables for SQL statements
 Shows even statements that fail to execute. Displays Oracle error code and message for
those statements.
 Allows to copy and paste statements from the output to one of your SQL analyzing tools
(TOAD, SQL Navigator, or even SQL*Plus)
 Monitors applications like Import/Export, SQLoader, Server Manager (svrmgrl.exe), as
well as applications written with Oracle Forms or Pro*C
 Supports Oracle clients starting with version 7.3
Monitoring applications
The main window of the program consists of two parts: a list of processes that have one of
Oracle client DLLs loaded and the output pane:

To start monitoring, put a checkmark onto the process you are interested in. Another option, if
you wish to monitor the application from the very beginning, push the button on the toolbar
or press Ctrl + I.

Main window toolbar

The main window toolbar has the following buttons:
 - Launch an application. Allows you to spawn a process and submit command-line
parameters
 - Refresh list of processes. Applications do not automatically appear in the list after
they are launched. If the application you wish to monitor is running but is not shown in
the list, this button will update the list.
 - Output options. See the corresponding section of this document.
 - Remove output pages for inactive applications. If some applications were shut down,
and you are no longer interested in looking at the output they produced, this button
allows you to remove output pages for those applications, thus saving space for new
ones.
 - Stay on top. Depressing this button will make the program “stay on top” of other
windows.
Output window toolbar
The output page toolbar has the following buttons:
 - Clear the output. All the contents of the output page will be wiped out.
 - Save the output to a file
 - Copy selected text to Clipboard
 - Pause the output. If you want to work with the output already produced, and at the
same time the application still sends statements to the output window, depressing this
button will suppress new statements’ appearance. To continue monitoring, press the
button again so it is shown as “not pressed down”, like it initially was.
 - Convert OEM to ANSI. If you are monitoring a console application, like sqlplus.exe,
imp.exe, exp.exe or svrmgrl.exe, and use national characters in the statements or bind
variables’ values, this button needs to be depressed in order to display those characters
correctly.
 - Find a substring in the output.

Output options
You can customize the way SQL statements are displayed in the output by pressing the button
on the main window’s toolbar. The following window will appear:

The options are pretty self-explanatory. The Formatter Plus checkbox will only take effect if you
have Formatter Plus installed on your computer (stand-alone or a part of another product, e.g.
TOAD).
Troubleshooting
 If your application does not appear in the list of processes.
o Try refreshing the list of processes by pressing the button on the main
window’s toolbar or hitting F5.
o If is still did not appear, make sure your application is logged on to Oracle. Some
applications do not load Oracle Client DLLs until logon.
o If that didn’t help either, there is a chance that you are using a client SQL Monitor
is not aware of (earlier 7.2, for instance), or using Java thin client instead of Net8.
 How to report a bug.
o Turn on the logging facility. There is a file called ocimonitor.cfg in the same
directory as the program. Add (or replace) the following two lines into it:
[DllSettings]
WriteLog = 1
then uncheck the checkbox for the application in the list of processes and check
again. A log file will be generated, the name of the file will be
<Application.exe> (Date and time).log
o Continue monitoring your application to the point the Monitor misbehaves.
o Once done, save the generated log file and include it with the description of the
bug and any other information you think might be helpful (OS version,
application type, etc).
o Turn off the logging facility when you no longer need it in order not to produce
any more log files (WriteLog = 0 will do it).