Andrea Trespidi - PeerSpot reviewer
Storage & Backup Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Reseller
Good product for Oracle management and monitoring
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the monitoring because it's very useful for checking and troubleshooting compared with other products, like Nagios for example, that have some interaction with Oracle."
  • "The interface could be more friendly for basic users."

What is our primary use case?

It's a good product for Oracle management and monitoring. This solution is deployed on-premises, and we are using the latest version.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the monitoring because it's very useful for checking and troubleshooting compared with other products, like Nagios for example, that have some interaction with Oracle. Enterprise Manager is good for a DB administrator to troubleshoot and check monitoring.

What needs improvement?

The interface could be more friendly for basic users.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for one year. 

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Oracle Enterprise Manager
April 2024
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How are customer service and support?

I haven't used Oracle technical support for this product. But we have used them for other products, like Oracle Server or Oracle Appliance, for example. For Oracle Appliance, I don't have good feedback because recently we had some issues with Exadata, and they were taking too much time with giving us a solution, so the case was still open for weeks.

Technical support is responsive, but the problem is that there are some other customers that we are managing, and there is not good feedback because every now and then, there are issues for which we open a case, and the same issues are continuously appearing. We are experiencing issues with the same hardware, and we never get a fix.

This is for Oracle Private Cloud Appliance and for Oracle Exadata. For Oracle software, we have good feedback about the quality of the support. But as far as the hardware, I cannot say the same.

How was the initial setup?

Setup wasn't very complex, but usually Oracle products are not easy to install. It's normal for there to be some complexity because Oracle products are not "plug and play" like other products.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

For monitoring issues, I compared Oracle Enterprise Manager to Nagios. There was a monitoring need that Nagios could not provide but Enterprise Manager could.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution 8 out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
it_user522195 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Oracle DBA at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Vendor
You can plug into the solution and you can perform any sort of operation with one click of a button.

What is most valuable?

This is a very good Oracle tool which enables us to incorporate all the databases throughout our environment, set up several rules and even monitor from there. We can perform a lot of operations. If you have small databases you can plug into the OEM, and you can perform any sort of operation with one click of a button. That makes it more convenient and makes life easier than logging into each database separately.

You can set the rules so that every time you have several maintenance activities you don't need to go to each database and do the same work again and again. Instead you can create jobs in the OEM and you can also create groups, like production, development, performance and environment. All these environments you can club together so that you can perform several operations based on environment-specific criteria.

When you need to perform activities like purging and archiving, this can be done easily and you can even do backups which is a tedious activity. If you have the right description monitor, just click on the buttons in the OEM so that you can fire up the backups everyday at a specific time. It can even alert us by email if by any chance the backup fails and you can just log in to a particular mission and check why it failed.

It's a very easy way of maintaining all the databases instead of wasting time on the regular day to day tasks. You can use your time productively, instead of investing time on these mundane tasks. That way it helps us a lot.

What needs improvement?

It could improve in some areas like the screen. It's not so clear for the novice, when a new person looks at the screen he/she may not really understand where to start first. They could make that process a little easier, so that even a novice who starts using it can at least have the basic idea what to do.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the product for almost six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable of course, it's from Oracle.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's scalable depending on the way you build it. From the base configuration itself the server capacity and the installation, you have a number of targets, say 0-10, 10-250, 250-1000. Based on your company's requirement you have to install and configure those so that it will be scalable throughout that time period. You will also require enough memory, CPU cards for supporting those targets.

How is customer service and technical support?

I would rate the support as 8/10. Once they start responding on the tickets, they'll definitely take you to the solution.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend it. There are a lot of people who like to write scripts and stuff. If they are comfortable writing scripts then definitely they could use it. But many things can be done which cannot be done through scripting. I would recommend you give it a try. Definitely once you give it a try you will like using it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Oracle Enterprise Manager
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Oracle Enterprise Manager. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
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it_user522081 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Application Manager at HDR inc
Vendor
We are able to track our engineers' time correctly. The methodology for pulling data together is complex.

What is most valuable?

It basically provides a transformation for the company to go into the product line application. It gives better and faster data to the management in order to review the data quickly.

How has it helped my organization?

Using this product, we have improved our process for generating revenue and sending out invoices to our customers. It also enables us to track our engineers' time correctly.

What needs improvement?

We are expecting new functionality in the billing aspect. In respect to the engineering sector, there is a need to include the performance part in the management side.

Still, there are lot of improvements that need to take place. For example, we are expecting basically a vertical solution for the engineering industry in terms of federal and department transportation solutions. We are expecting this in the product. Right now, there is no such type of product with which you can generate this solution.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This product is around 80 percent stable; 20 percent we are working on enhancing the product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the level of this product’s scalability at a 8/10.

It basically avails of a wide range of data, which it can pull together in one dashboard and present this data to the management in a quicker manner. This is the only scalable aspect in the product.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have used Oracle Advanced Customer Service and found them to be helpful. They supported our product.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are transmitting from one ERP to another ERP, so the people need to be supported. Basically, Oracle advised us since it is the same product.

After which, we moved to EBS for future data support. They created a custom solution since we are unable to apply the patches or anything, so then we moved to this product.

How was the initial setup?

It is a complex product, in its methodology of how to pull the data together and then how to copy it. The other reason is the process as to how we need to send it to our customers, for timely invoicing without any backlogs.

What other advice do I have?

The reason why we chose this vendor is because they were familiar with the product now, and they gave a better judgement of the product itself.

Oracle is more flexible and you can convert it as per your business. That is why we have this solution. Whereas in other ERP products like SAP, we cannot customize the product and we need to use what exactly they provide.

We are going to see how it is helping the organization. That is the way we are going to do research.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PatrickKuria - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise Systems Engineer at Sybyl
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Granular, insightful, and easy to implement
Pros and Cons
  • "It's easy to implement as it's made by Oracle for Oracle."
  • "Technical support could be faster."

What is our primary use case?

I've used the solution for monitoring. It looks at if something is slow, which processes are taking the most resources, if it's up or if it's down, et cetera. 

What is most valuable?

I like how you can drill down to a problem, like which specific query is causing the most workloads, which user has issued that query, what's taking up the most resources, et cetera. 

It's easy to implement as it's made by Oracle for Oracle. Yeah. It's very insightful when it comes to what you can check healthwise on a database. 

What needs improvement?

Technical support could be faster. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's fairly stable. It doesn't disappoint. There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is scalable in terms of how much better business you can monitor. You can really just keep adding them.

I know of six users of the solution in our organization. That said, I am sure we can add more if we need others. If we add new employees, we will increase usage. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is good. That said, they take a lot of time before they start acting upon an issue. 

How was the initial setup?

I did not handle the initial setup of the solution. 

That said, I understand that it is simple to implement. 

I can't speak to the deployment or how long it took. 

What about the implementation team?

The entire implementation was done in-house. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is a license that is required, however, I cannot speak to the exact cost.

What other advice do I have?

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. We are quite satisfied with its capabilities. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Akin Temel - PeerSpot reviewer
Database Manager at Gantek
Real User
Good graphical user interface and good monitoring but does not scale
Pros and Cons
  • "Due to the infrastructure's size, the introduction they offer is very, very useful. It helps with an overall understanding of the product."
  • "The solution has a very large resource system. It's too big. There are too many items."

What is most valuable?

The solution's most valuable aspect is the fact that it is embedded with the Oracle database and Oracle's engineering system, its extra data, and analytics. 

They have plug-ins that are very helpful. 

Due to the infrastructure's size, the introduction they offer is very, very useful. It helps with an overall understanding of the product.

They have a very nice graphical user interface.

The monitoring is good.

We can capture the SQL tune from us. With Oracle Enterprise Managers, we can see the rich performance tuning. 

What needs improvement?

Oracle has made a pretty complex system, which has made us want to explore other options.

The solution has a very large resource system. It's too big. There are too many items.

The solution has too many licenses. If you want to monitor the MSS or the other tasks, they want you to use their license. However, it's a very expensive license. Oracle is a very big company. The database is the number one product in Oracle, and in the world. They don't need to charge for the adjusted monitoring tool. They already are making so much on licensing elsewhere. I don't like it.

The initial setup is rather difficult.

It would be ideal if Oracle offered something that was open-source. They don't yet offer an open-source database. We would like to have the freedom to monitor in-house.

The solution does not scale at all.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for about five or six years at this point. It's been a while so far.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable product. For the most part, they have quite a stable system. However, there are at times difficulties with the project server. They have a very big container program in their project server as Enterprise Manager is running in the project server. The old configuration was more difficult, and, in any case, users need to be precise with their configurations to ensure stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is not scalable at all. You would not choose this solution in order to expand on it later.

How are customer service and technical support?

I can't say that I have experience with technical support. I cannot comment on it.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not straightforward. It's quite complex, or, rather, not very easy. You really have to concentrate on the tasks. You must first install the database before we can use our SQL server or our SQL database. Now, you must do the record database first. You must install the database before the server. I don't understand why. Then, you have to try to install the Enterprise Cloud Control Manager. 

It's important that whoever installs the solution has specific Oracle knowledge, otherwise they will run into problems.

What other advice do I have?

We are partners with Oracle. We have a business relationship with the company.

I have more than 20 years in the IT sector. I am a database engineer.

We tend to use the latest version of the solution, however, we have clients on older versions. We have one client, for example, on version 12.

I would rate the solution at a seven out of ten, overall. We're mostly satisfied with the product.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Kopano  Ramaphoi - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at SmartCloud
Real User
Top 10
Good user interface and very interactive but difficult to adjust to for first-time users
Pros and Cons
  • "There are a number of different user interfaces you can choose from."
  • "There's a lot of documentation to go through as a new user."

What is our primary use case?

I was previously using it for my own personal use.

I didn't need much. I was using it to connect a database. I connected the database, and then the Linux host. I also wanted to test various remote hosts. Unfortunately, since I was installing on a machine that didn't have enough resources, I was not able to connect it to deploy those agents. For me to have done that, I needed a platform that had adequate resources like RAM and storage. After installing it, it just consumed everything that I had. I only have 16GB RAM. It was not enough for me to try others. I was basically using it to test how it would be able to run. I managed to run it by deploying the database that I was using it to run the EM. That is the only thing that I managed to acquire.

What is most valuable?

It's more effective to use command-line interface than using the GO setup.

One of the great things about that EM is that you are able to connect to Oracle Support. This will make your work easier due to the fact that it will help you identify if your database is to be upgraded or if you are experiencing any issues. It can help you quickly identify issues instead of having to raise them in a service report. It's much more efficient.

There are a number of different user interfaces you can choose from.

The solution is pretty interactive and user-friendly.

What needs improvement?

Sometimes the solution can be quite difficult in terms of when you want to deploy agents. 

You need to go through the Oracle documentation in order for you to be able to deploy an agent. Sometimes it just takes a long time, however, the thing is there is the overall concept of deploying. I don't think it is a problem, for the most part. 

That said, for someone who is starting to use the product, it takes quite a long while for you to get to know and understand the actions. The issue is the solution has got so many items and products for you to use. You just need to basically get to what you want.

There's a lot of documentation to go through as a new user.

It takes a while for a new user to get the hang of the product.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for the past month. Previously, I used its environment (for the past 12 months or so) for opportunity yield. I hadn't been using it in a production environment. It's now installed on my machine.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

When I was administering the database using that EM, it was quite amazing. However, in terms of usability and other things, I can't say much because I haven't used it yet in a production line. So far, I haven't had issues with stability, but it's still too soon to tell.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I haven't had time to really judge the scalability. It's still too early to tell. I need more experience with the product before making any assumptions.

How are customer service and technical support?

I can't say much about technical support due to the fact that I haven't done much using the EM. Since I haven't interacted with them too much, there isn't anything really to say about how I find their service. I simply haven't used it.

How was the initial setup?

The setup is quite straightforward, depending on what you want to use. I started with the GO setup or the interactive pack. I also use silent mode, whereby you just run the command, and then you see the information inside those parameters. I preferred the silent mode installation, whereby you have to make sure that you have set your parameters accordingly. 

That said, the installation I conducted wasn't difficult for me to install. The only thing that I noticed was that it's a big file. It's quite a big software or application to be deployed, so when you do, you need to deploy it where there are enough resources for you to install everything.

In my case, the deployment took about five hours to complete.

What about the implementation team?

I handled the implementation on my own. I did not need the assistance of any consultants or integrators.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I'm not aware of how much the product costs, so I can't speak to the pricing.

What other advice do I have?

We're just a customer. We have no relationship with the vendor.

There is a more up to date version, 18.42, however, I have not started using it yet as it requires some patching. Currently, I'm on version 18.4, which is quite stable.

I would recommend the solution to others. In fact, I've already met many people in which I have done just that. It's only been a month using the product and already I've noticed that it is quite effective.

Since I haven't done quite a lot in terms of production learning, I will just rate it at seven out of ten at this time.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Brian Imambaks - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder at Technovate
Real User
Top 5
Great for monitoring and reporting; does not crash
Pros and Cons
  • "I have found the uptime of all of our systems to be most valuable with this solution. This is important because we need to guarantee specific uptime and preventive maintenance. We need to know upfront if there are going to be any issues on the database so we can proactively solve those."
  • "My opinion is that this solution needs to improve consolidation. That is what our business needs the most right now."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case for this solution is for monitoring and reporting and emailing those back to the client.

How has it helped my organization?

When it comes to Enterprise Manager, we use single instances and price management. We install these in every installation of Oracle and then we manage them specifically for individual databases. We are looking to consolidate everything. 

What is most valuable?

I have found the uptime of all of our systems to be most valuable with this solution. This is important because we need to guarantee specific uptime and preventive maintenance. We need to know upfront if there are going to be any issues on the database so we can proactively solve those.

What needs improvement?

My opinion is that this solution needs to improve consolidation. That is what our business needs the most right now.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for more than 15 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

My impression is that the stability of this solution is quite good. We've never had any issues and we've been doing prevention maintenance. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability of this solution a seven, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Our business is doing consultancy for different types of companies and I was looking for an RMM system to manage all of these systems.

How was the initial setup?

My impression is that the initial setup is quite straightforward and easy. However, I have more than 15 years of experience with Oracle.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate this solution a nine, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user83460 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Effective monitoring solution that offers a one-stop shop for scaling into other areas such as jobs, reporting & cloud

What is most valuable?

Monitoring, EM Jobs and IP/BIP Reports

How has it helped my organization?

My company either is outsourced DBA or secondary DBA support. I am able to use EM12c to standardize what would be an almost unattainable goal without the product. With standardized monitoring templates and incident rule sets, we are able to consistently monitor, manage and alert all DBAs in each group to the same level SLA for our customer's needs.

What needs improvement?

We would love to see a migration utility for EM jobs. I've been a proponent for consolidating all database tasks from outside schedulers into Enterprise Manager Jobs. The challenge is if there is an upgrade to EM12c, this must be migrated manually and the interface is almost exactly the same as we had back in EM10g. Some improvements would be greatly appreciated.

For how long have I used the solution?

1 year and 3 months

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

I do have a number of clients who's primary OS environment is Windows. They have virtualized with this OS and release 3 build of EM12c experienced serious java failures and I had to change the project sign off to release 2. It was a huge "hit" to the initial credibility of EM12c when having to return to two different clients and ask to downgrade to the previous release.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the product is excellent. It is sensitive to network issues, but the problem lies in the network, not EM12c.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

High heap usage is a common complaint during top EM job utilization. This is a tuning issue over a scalability issue, but it is impacting to the one receiving the incident notifications.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: 2 out of 5. I often choose to open an SR as a last resort. My clients just don't have the time it requires to go through an SR process.Technical Support: I would give it a 3 out of 5. There are some service reps that are very helpful and know the product. There are others that I feel I'm wasting my time with and my clients only have me for a set hours per month, so I don't have time to waste.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Some of my customers had either customer scripts scheduled through cron schedulers or Windows schedulers. Having all jobs running within the EM12c eases management for any DBA who might not be familiar with my coding style or know where jobs are scheduled. All they need to know is how to log into the EM12c for that client and they are able to mange the environment when I'm unavailable.

How was the initial setup?

Very simple and well documented.

What about the implementation team?

In house- I was the one who implemented.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

As this was for clients and I have 12 that I've implemented, I don't have those costs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No

What other advice do I have?

Consider EM12c over third party products. This is built to be very transparent to the Oracle database environment. Other's, such as Spotlight, Foglight, etc. are a secondary layer and this is using the ASH/AWR data, which is less impacting to anything in the database.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Oracle Enterprise Manager Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Oracle Enterprise Manager Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.