Release Notes (all editions)

Standard Edition, Version 6.1
Professional Edition, Version 6.1
Spotlight on Oracle RAC, Version 6.1
Xpert Edition, Version 6.1

Welcome to Spotlight on Oracle

Spotlight is a powerful diagnostic and resolution tool for Oracle databases. Its unique user interface provides you with an intuitive, visual representation of the activity on your database. Graphical flows illustrate the rate at which data is moving between database components. Icons display the value of key statistics and metrics.

This set of release notes applies to ALL the editions of Spotlight on Oracle that are currently available:

Standard edition

The base edition of Spotlight on Oracle, the Standard edition, is delivered with the TOAD DBA Suite, and is used to diagnose the performance of Oracle instances running on individual host machines. This edition incorporates the use of Knowledge Xpert for Oracle Administration.

Professional edition

This edition extends the Standard edition to include the following Quest products:

Spotlight on Oracle RAC

Spotlight on Oracle RAC is an optional add-on to either the Standard or Professional edition. It enables the diagnosis of Oracle databases on multiple host machines under the Real Application Clusters (RAC) architecture.

Spotlight on Oracle Xpert

Spotlight on Oracle Xpert is a suite of Quest products for use in an enterprise environment. It includes the following products:

New in This Release

New Features in Spotlight on Oracle 6.1 (Standard edition)

New Features in Spotlight on Oracle RAC 6.1

Resolved Issues and Enhancements

The following is a list of issues addressed and minor enhancements implemented in this release of Spotlight on Oracle.

Known Issues

The following is a list of issues known to exist at the time of Spotlight on Oracle release.

Category	Known Issue
General issues
	All Editions
	Spotlight error when Alert Log page is opened immediately after connection: Spotlight may fail to display the Alert Log page in the Configuration & Memory drilldown when you open a Spotlight connection to a database and then go immediately to the Alert Log page via the Back button, a Favorites shortcut, or manual navigation. When this happens, close and re-open the Spotlight connection to the database to view the Alert Log page correctly.
	Limitations with automatic reconnection to Oracle systems: Connection lost during initial connection: Spotlight will not reconnect if the connection is lost while Spotlight is initializing its connection. Connection lost while viewing alert log: Spotlight will report a number of errors if the disconnection and reconnection occurs while the Alert Log drilldown is open.
	Changing column order may disable sub-pages in SQL Analyze Trace drilldown page: Changing the order in which columns are displayed in the Trace File Details grid of the Trace Files page may disable the Summary, SQL Statements, and SQL Statement Details tabs, limiting your access to the other pages within SQL Analyze Trace. To counter this problem, right-click the Trace File Details grid and choose Restore Default Settings from the shortcut menu.
	SQL Optimizer - Choose "Tuning Lab" for best results: To get the best results when launching SQL Optimizer from Spotlight on Oracle, you should select the "With the Tuning Lab" option from the Optimization Module Selector, not "Batch Optimizer".
	Spotlight data not displayed when overhead settings are restored to default values: In some cases, restoring Overhead Management settings on a Spotlight component may prevent the display of Spotlight data in one or more drilldown pages. To view the data, disconnect the original Spotlight connection and then reconnect.
	Queued Spotlight queries will complete despite changes to Overhead Management settings: When you use Spotlight's Overhead control to reduce or halt the collection of data from a connection, any existing queries that have been queued for execution will complete as if started under the previous overhead setting.
	Poor performance in Tablespace Utilization page for locally-managed tablespaces: The existing query that populates the Tablespace Utilization page of the Disk Storage drilldown has not been optimized to handle the increased use of locally-managed tablespaces in Oracle 9i and later. This will be corrected in a later release.
	Negative value for Shared Pool Used component: The Shared Pool Used component on the Spotlight on Oracle home page may display a negative value when Oracle is first started or when the shared pool is flushed out. This occurs when the value for "shared pool free memory" in v$sgastat is larger than the original shared pool size (Oracle bug 3288917). This affects all Oracle versions 9i (Release 2) and later.
	Requirements for creating and updating users: As Spotlight on Oracle queries SYS-owned performance views and dictionary views, to set up or update a user for Spotlight on Oracle, the parameter O7_DICTIONARY_ACCESSIBILITY needs to be TRUE, or users need to provide a DBA account which can be connected as SYSDBA. If O7_DICTIONARY_ACCESSIBILITY is FALSE, Spotlight on Oracle will prompt you for a SYSDBA password. Otherwise, you can change the O7_DICTIONARY_ACCESSIBILITY parameter as described in the following steps: Change O7_DICTIONARY_ACCESSIBILITY to TRUE. Restart Oracle. Install Spotlight on Oracle. Grant SELECT_CATALOG_ROLE, EXECUTE_CATALOG_ROLE to the Spotlight account. Change O7_DICTIONARY_ACCESSIBILITY to FALSE. Restart Oracle.
	SYSDBA privileges required when User Wizard installs read-only views in SYS schema: When you employ the Spotlight User Wizard to create or modify a Spotlight user, the User Wizard installs several read-only views into the SYS schema of the target database. Because of this, the DBA account that you use within the User Wizard should have SYSDBA privileges. If the account does not have these privileges, you will be asked to provide a valid SYS account and password.
	Registry keys when uninstalling: When Spotlight on Oracle is uninstalled, any registry keys created during installation will be removed, but registry keys created while using Spotlight on Oracle are not removed.
	Professional Edition / Xpert Edition
	Inaccurate value for Total RAM after network timeout error: After a network timeout error, Spotlight may display an inaccurate value for the Total RAM metric on the Spotlight on Oracle RAC home page. When this occurs, Spotlight's calculation of Total RAM has omitted data from one or more nodes in the cluster.
	Spotlight on Oracle connections: Spotlight on Oracle RAC automatically creates Spotlight on Oracle connections for each instance in the cluster. If, for example, you name your Spotlight on Oracle RAC connection "My cluster", and it has two instances with instance names of "CL1" and "CL2", then two Spotlight on Oracle connections named "My cluster CL1" and "My cluster CL2" will be created automatically when you first connect Spotlight on RAC to the cluster. If you already have Spotlight on Oracle connections with those names, the connection details will be overwritten by Spotlight on Oracle RAC. If you subsequently delete the Spotlight on Oracle RAC "My cluster" connection, you will need to delete the associated Spotlight on Oracle connections manually.
	Error when opening Predictive Diagnostics drilldown from Favorites list: If you have added a page in the Predictive Diagnostics drilldown to your list of Spotlight favorites, any attempt to open that page from the Favorites list BEFORE opening the relevant Spotlight on Oracle connection will cause an internal Spotlight error.
Installation issues	All Editions
	*Problem reinstalling Spotlight on Oracle after uninstalling via Add/Remove Programs:* If you use the Windows Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs utility to UNINSTALL Spotlight on Oracle, and later try to REINSTALL Spotlight via the TOAD DBA Suite or All Editions installer, the installer will state that Spotlight on Oracle is already installed. To resolve this problem, run the Quest Installer (Start Menu> All Programs> Quest Software> Quest Installer) and select to REMOVE Spotlight on Oracle. When you have done this, you can reinstall Spotlight successfully.
	Problems upgrading Spotlight in non-default location (MSI installer): If your previous version of Spotlight on Oracle or Spotlight on Oracle RAC was installed via the Spotlight MSI installer, and was installed into a non-default location, you may not be able to upgrade Spotlight directly to the latest version (Spotlight on Oracle 6.1 or Spotlight on Oracle [Professional edition] 6.1.) We recommend that you uninstall the previous version of Spotlight before installing the new version.
	Brackets not permitted in installation path names: The Oracle client does not support an installation path for Spotlight that contains the brackets "(" and ")".
Operating System issues
	All Editions
	Logging on as "root": For security purposes, Spotlight will NOT allow you to connect to a Unix host as the "root" user.
	Public-key cryptography available for SSH2 connections only: Spotlight can now use public-key cryptography (via DSA or RSA) to communicate securely with Unix-based Oracle systems, but this functionality is made available only under the SSH2 protocol.
	Avoid simultaneous REXEC and SSH connections: Spotlight supports both REXEC and SSH connections to Oracle servers, but raises an error when you try to open simultaneous REXEC and SSH connections to the same Oracle server.
	Installing and configuring DTrace scripts (Solaris 10 and later): DTrace, a dynamic analysis tool for Sun operating systems, was first introduced in Solaris version 10. You can enable and use Spotlight's DTrace drilldown to capture details about the interaction between Oracle and Solaris that would otherwise be unavailable. Before doing this, you must configure the Solaris server under investigation. To do so: Locate the SoO_DTrace_scripts.tar archive package in the Plug-ins\SoO sub-folder of the Spotlight installation folder. Unpack the contents of the archive to a directory on the server. Ensure that the unpacked files have execute permission. In the .profile of the account that will be used to run O/S commands from Spotlight, define a QUEST_SOO_HOME variable that points to that directory on the server. (In previous Spotlight versions, the variable was QUEST_HOME.) Provide that user with DTrace authority by adding the following line to /etc/user_attr: <<username>>::::defaultpriv=basic,dtrace_proc,dtrace_kernel For more information, see the DTrace User Guide.
	Unix monitoring requirements: When collecting O/S data from Unix servers, you should ensure that the Spotlight user can write to the /tmp directory, and that the /tmp directory has at least 64 kilobytes of space available.
	Password Authentication when using SSH to connect to Linux servers: To allow Spotlight to make SSH connections to Linux machines via username/password authentication, you may need to set the value of the PasswordAuthentication configuration item in /etc/ssh/sshd_config to yes.
	Failure to connect to a Windows XP (SP2) server through the XP firewall: If the XP firewall is enabled on a Windows XP (SP2) server under diagnosis, Spotlight may not be able to collect statistics on the target operating system. To resolve this problem, enable File and Print sharing through the firewall and allow the ORACLE and TNSLNSR executables specific access through the firewall.
	Connection to a Unix host: When you connect as an O/S user, make sure that the Unix account does not attempt to run a script on connection, as this may cause the Spotlight connection to fail.
	Avoid using Stealth Collect when creating a Spotlight on Oracle connection to a Linux host: When you create a Spotlight on Oracle connection to a Linux host, do NOT choose Stealth Collect as your method for collecting SQL statements and performance indicators.
	Page size for HP-UX: When diagnosing HP-UX, the Available Memory chart in the OS drilldown assumes a page size of 8 kilobytes. If the system being monitored has a page size of 4 kilobytes, the chart will show about twice the actual amount of free memory. To determine the page size, run the command getconf PAGE_SIZE on the server (this applies only to HP-UX).
	Enabling collection of Disk IO and OS Storage data for Windows 2000 systems: Spotlight does not display information in some of the charts in the Operating System drilldown if the database is running on Windows 2000. The following charts are affected: Disk IO OS Storage To enable data collection for the Disk IO chart and OS Storage chart on the database machine, type diskperf -yv at the command prompt and then restart the machine.
	REXEC and SSH protocols and Unix commands: Spotlight uses the REXEC or SSH protocols to submit various Unix commands (for example, netstat, vmstat, iostat, sar) to observe system activity. These commands must be accessible to an REXEC or SSH session for Spotlight to be able to observe Unix activity. If these commands are not located in the search path for REXEC or SSH sessions, Spotlight displays an error.
	Errors in performance counters and WMI: Spotlight on Oracle now reports fewer performance counter and WMI errors of the type "Error 80041010: Unknown IWbemLocator.ConnectServer error". It is impossible to eliminate these errors entirely if they are generated by the Windows server under diagnosis.
	Remote commands on Unix OS: When diagnosing a Unix OS with a user ID/password that exists on the machine, it is possible that remote commands will not work on the machine unless the user ID is added to the /etc/hosts.equiv file on that Unix machine.
	Operating system (OS) statistics not reported by Spotlight on Oracle: Differences between versions of operating systems mean that Spotlight is unable to collect all OS statistics in all environments. The following list shows statistics in the Operating System drilldown pages that are not reported by Spotlight on Oracle for each operating system. Windows "Waiting" graph within CPU Utilization chart is always zero for Windows systems. The "Waiting" graph in the CPU Utilization chart of the Operating System drilldown is included specifically to collect the relevant data from Unix systems. Windows systems do not provide the same information, and so the value of this metric is always zero for Windows systems. AIX Some Disk I/O and virtual memory statistics are not reported. These may include disk I/O dataflows on the home page, disk read and write statistics on the Activity Summary page of the Activity drilldown, and metrics such as % User, % Privileged, Work Set (MB), Page faults/s, Handles, Threads, Start Time, and % Processor. HP-UX Some Disk I/O and virtual memory statistics are not reported. These may include disk I/O dataflows on the home page, disk read and write statistics on the Activity Summary page of the Activity drilldown, and metrics such as % User, % Privileged, Work Set (MB), Page faults/s, Handles, Threads, Start Time, and % Processor. Abnormal CPU figures. In some cases on HP-UX Unix, CPU user time has been diagnosed at -1% to -2%, which pushes the idle time to 101% to 102%. This appears to be a bug in the HP-UX operating system, which will result in abnormal Processor Utilization figures in Spotlight on Oracle. Linux Specific implementations of Linux may limit Spotlight's ability to collect data. These include: SUSE Linux — virtual memory statistics. Statistics that may not be reported include % User, % Privileged, Work Set (MB), Page faults/s, Handles, Threads, Start Time, and % Processor. Red Hat Linux — invalid network metrics reported by some versions of Red Hat Linux (2.4 kernel). Because of a known formatting bug in the output for the Unix netstat command, Spotlight may report inaccurate values for metrics (Network flows and Network charts, for example) that rely on netstat. This problem will be addressed in a later version of Spotlight. Solaris No data for Paging and Scan Rates in Solaris 9 systems. When Spotlight returns no data in the Paging and Scan Rates chart of the OS Performance page in the Operating System drilldown for a Solaris 9 system, you should apply the patch 116543-01 to that system. Some virtual memory statistics are not reported. These include % User, % Privileged, Work Set (MB), Page faults/s, Handles, and Threads.
Oracle issues (general)
	All Editions
	Restarting Spotlight to change selected Oracle Home: Normally, you can change the Oracle Home setting for Spotlight on Oracle whenever the selected home is NOT being used for an active Spotlight connection. In certain circumstances, however, disconnecting from a database causes the termination of one or more executing queries. When this happens, you can select a new Oracle Home in a connection profile (or in the Spotlight on Oracle Options window) ONLY AFTER Spotlight itself has been restarted.
	Unable to create or open a Spotlight connection because of missing PATH entry for Oracle client: You cannot create a Spotlight on Oracle connection via a specified Oracle client if that client's home directory is not in the Windows PATH environment variable. Spotlight may not connect successfully to an Oracle database if the home directory for the specified Oracle client has been removed from the PATH variable (as can happen, for example, when the PATH entry has been removed by the Oracle Universal Installer).
	Error when connecting to Oracle 10g database on LDAP server: Spotlight may encounter access violation errors when attempting to connect to an Oracle 10g database on an LDAP 9.2.0.1 server via an Oracle 11g client. To resolve this problem, we recommend using an Oracle 10g client to connect to the 10g database.
	Spotlight requires 32-bit Oracle client on 64-bit Windows systems: Spotlight does run on 64-bit Windows systems, but requires a 32-bit Oracle client to do so. (You can safely install both 64-bit and 32-bit Oracle clients on the same system.) Spotlight will report if it cannot locate the required Oracle client.
	Oracle error ORA-1031 when connecting to an Oracle database: To resolve the error ORA-1031: insufficient privileges in table Parameter when you try to connect to an Oracle database, add the following entry into the SQLNET.ORA file on the Spotlight client machine: PC: SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES= (NONE) Note: This error is seen most often for the Parameter table, but can also occur for others.
	Read access required to analyze Oracle trace files: Before you can use Spotlight's SQL Analyze Trace facility to analyze trace files from a target Oracle database, the Spotlight OS User must have read access to the directory on the server specified by the Oracle parameter UserDumpDest.
	Spotlight not validated for UTF8 ASM instances: Spotlight's ASM functionality has not been validated for ASM instances set up to use the UTF8 character set.
	Changes to Program Global Area (PGA): The Memory Management page in the Tuning drilldown allows you to change the amount of memory allocated to memory processes under Oracle 9i and later, including changes to the PGA aggregate target size. However, since Oracle does not record when changes are made to the PGA, Spotlight cannot display the details of those changes. We recommend that you manually record such changes for auditing purposes.
	Open_cursors parameter: The open_cursors parameter for the database instance needs to be greater than 30 to allow Spotlight to diagnose the database instance correctly. The default value is 50.
	No support for Read Only databases: Spotlight on Oracle is not supported on Read Only databases.
	No support for Standby databases: Spotlight on Oracle is not supported on Standby (Logical or Physical) databases.
	Professional Edition / Xpert Edition
	Oracle error ORA-12154 when connecting to Predictive Diagnostics with Oracle Names Server: The known Oracle bug #2048583 may cause an ORA-12154 error to be raised when you navigate to the Predictive Diagnostics drilldown, preventing the display of the drilldown. A possible workaround is to upgrade your Oracle client to version 9.2.0.7 or later.
Oracle issues (archiving)
	All Editions
	Close and re-open Spotlight connections to detect new archive destinations: When you add a new archive destination to a monitored Oracle database, it may not be detected by Spotlight. Disconnect from the cluster and then reconnect to view the details of the new archive destination.
	Unreliable historical data for archive destinations: When viewed in History mode, the Spotlight connection may on occasion display incorrect data for archive log destinations.
	Spotlight support for Archive Log destinations: This version of Spotlight supports the collection of performance data from archive log destinations that are stored on: Local disks under Windows and Unix. The flashback Recovery Area (with the archive destination set to USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST). Archive logs under ASM (Automated Storage Management). Note: Spotlight also supports archive logs under ASM if the archive destination path is set within an ASM disk group (+DBGROUP\ARCHIVELOG, for example), but this is NOT recommended, as it may cause problems with RMAN, the Oracle Recovery Manager utility. Multiple destinations on local disks, ASM, and the Recovery Area. (Unix only) Archive destinations on mounted drives.
	Spotlight on Oracle RAC
	Information shown for a single node only in Alert Log and Archive Log diagnostics: In a clustered environment where the global_names parameter is set to TRUE, alert log and archive log diagnostics within Spotlight on Oracle RAC will display data for one node only. To work around this, add the entry alter session set global_names=FALSE to the SPOTLIGHT.ORA file in the Plug-ins\SoO sub-folder of the Spotlight installation folder. This will change the global_names parameter for the relevant Spotlight session.
	Limited support for Archive Destinations on mapped network drives (Windows): Spotlight does not as yet calculate or display Time to Failure estimates for Oracle RAC systems on Windows platforms whose archive destinations are not local drives.
Oracle issues (11g)	All Editions
Oracle issues (11g)	Spotlight support for Oracle 10g or 11g Instant Client: Spotlight on Oracle supports the use of the Oracle 10g or Oracle 11g Instant Client when it is the default Oracle client, but the Oracle Instant Client may not be available in the list of Oracle clients shown in the Spotlight connection profile or in the Home Selection item in the Spotlight on Oracle Options window.
Oracle issues (10g)	All Editions
	Asynchronous I/O failure in Oracle 10g (Release 2) on Linux: In some Linux implementations, Oracle 10G (Release 2) is not able to report I/O activity or events to the operating system while using asynchronous I/O. This problem can cause database writer contention in Oracle and cause Spotlight to raise database writer alarms. To correct the problem, you need to stop the database and relink the base Oracle binary with the option async_on. [For more information, see Document 365416.1* on the Oracle Metalink Web site (https://metalink.oracle.com/).*]
	Missing Flashback data in Recovery Area page: When used to diagnose Oracle 10g (Release 1) databases, Spotlight on Oracle populates only some of the charts and tables in the Recovery Area page of the Disk Storage drilldown. The cause is the absence of the dynamic performance view v$flash_recovery_area_usage, which is defined only in Oracle 10g (Release 2) and later. Flashback components in the Disk Storage panel on the home page (the Flashback container, and the Size and Used fields) will also be disabled.
	Oracle 10g bug may affect display of SGA data: A bug introduced in Oracle 10g may result in several Spotlight components – in particular, the SGA Current Size component on the home page, and various components on the SGA Utilization page of the Configuration & Memory drilldown – to display the message "*Unknown – Oracle Bug*". The bug responsible for causing this error has been fixed in Oracle release 10.2.0.3.
	Support for Oracle 10g Instant Client: Spotlight on Oracle can be used with Oracle 10g Instant Client systems to diagnose Oracle 9.2 databases and later. To connect to a target database, you can use connection details within the Instant Client TNSNAMES.ORA file, or you can type connection details (host_name:port/sid) directly into the Connection string field in the Connection Properties window for the Spotlight connection.
	Delay in showing changes to SGA target sizes: When you use the Memory Management page in the Tuning drilldown to change the target sizes for various SGA components, the new target value is not immediately adopted. The Oracle database must first coalesce the SGA memory used for that component.
	Missing data in Top Sessions, Blocking Locks, Waiting Events, Transactions, and I/O Sessions pages: Because of a bug (TAR 3763654.996) in Oracle 10g that affects v$sesstat, the information displayed in these drilldown pages is incomplete. The missing data is associated with the session that has the highest value SID.
Oracle issues (9.2)	All Editions
	Missing Flashback data in Recovery Area page: When used to diagnose Oracle databases prior to version 10g, Spotlight on Oracle does not populate ANY of the charts and tables in the Recovery Area page of the Disk Storage drilldown. The cause is the absence of the dynamic performance view v$flash_recovery_area_usage, which is defined only in Oracle 10g (Release 2) and later. Flashback components in the Disk Storage panel on the home page (the Flashback container, and the Size and Used fields) will also be disabled.
	Cursor leakage: The known Oracle bug #2624737 can trigger cursor leakage during extent queries in Oracle 9.2 databases, with the eventual result being the error ORA-01000. To avoid this problem, do one or more of the following: Increase the value of the open_cursors parameter. Do not leave Spotlight on Oracle open at the Tablespace Utilization page of the Disk Storage drilldown for an extended period. Do not collect historical data on the Tablespace Utilization page.
	Error in v$session_event: The known Oracle bugs #2429929 and #2027849 can cause v$session_event to report incorrect session data. Spotlight on Oracle avoids these bugs and reports the correct data. However, the incorrect data still may cause discrepancies between what Spotlight reports and what other applications (such as SQLPlus) report. A side-effect of these bugs is that Waiting Events* details cannot be shown for the session whose SID is 1 (most likely the pmon process). Spotlight on Oracle will show the incorrect information for this as well.
	Sessions waiting on the wrong events: The known Oracle bugs #2427522 and #2467314 may cause Spotlight on Oracle to report that a session is waiting on the wrong event (for example, a session may be shown as waiting on 'null event' when it should be waiting on 'SQL*Net message from the client'). This problem is still under investigation by Oracle.
Oracle issues (9i)	All Editions
Oracle issues (9i)	v$cache_transfer not defined: In the early release of Oracle 9i, v$cache_transfer is not defined in v$fixed_view_definition, which causes all queries against v$cache_transfer to fail. If you encounter this problem, contact Oracle for a script that will create v$cache_transfer on your platform.

Upgrade and Compatibility

If you have a current installation of Spotlight on Oracle 4.1 (Japanese-language version), you must uninstall the 4.1 version BEFORE installing Spotlight on Oracle 6.1.

Downloading Upgrades from the Internet

From time to time, Quest Software may make upgrades and patches available on the Internet. Upgrades will be made available from the Quest Software web site at http://www.quest.com/. Instructions for downloading and installing upgrades are provided on the web site.

System Requirements

Before installing Spotlight on Oracle, ensure your system meets the following minimum hardware and software requirements:

Global Operations

This section contains information about installing and operating this product in non-English configurations, such as those needed by customers outside of North America. This section does not replace the materials about supported platforms and configurations found elsewhere in the product documentation.

This release is Unicode-enabled and supports any character set. It supports simultaneous operation with multilingual data. This release is targeted to support operations in the following regions: North America, Western Europe and Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Far-East Asia, Japan.

This release has the following known capabilities or limitations: At this stage, there are no plans to re-localize this release into Japanese, as the revenue indicators do not justify this effort.

Getting Started

Contents of the Release Package

The Spotlight on Oracle (Standard Edition) release package contains the following products:

The Spotlight on Oracle (Professional Edition) release package contains the following products:

The Spotlight on Oracle Xpert release package contains the following products:

Installation Instructions

Refer to the Spotlight on Oracle Getting Started Guide for installation instructions.

For More Information

Contacting Quest Software:

Contacting Quest Support:

Quest Support is available to customers who have a trial version of a Quest product or who have purchased a commercial version and have a valid maintenance contract. Quest Support provides around the clock coverage with SupportLink, our web self-service. Visit SupportLink at http://support.quest.com/.

View the Global Support Guide for a detailed explanation of support programs, online services, contact information, and policy and procedures. The guide is available at: http://support.quest.com/pdfs/Global%20Support%20Guide.pdf. This guide is available only in English.

This guide contains proprietary information protected by copyright. The software described in this guide is furnished under a software license or nondisclosure agreement. This software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the applicable agreement. No part of this guide may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for any purpose other than the purchaser’s personal use without the written permission of Quest Software, Inc.

If you have any questions regarding your potential use of this material, contact:

Trademarks

Quest, Quest Software, the Quest Software logo, AccessManager, ActiveRoles, Aelita, Akonix, AppAssure, Benchmark Factory, Big Brother, BusinessInsight, ChangeAuditor, ChangeManager, DeployDirector, DirectoryAnalyzer, DirectoryTroubleshooter, DS Analyzer, DS Expert, ERDisk, Foglight, GPOADmin, Imceda, IntelliProfile, InTrust, Invirtus, iToken, I/Watch, JClass, Jint, JProbe, LeccoTech, LiteSpeed, LiveReorg, LogADmin, MessageStats, Monosphere, NBSpool, NetBase, NetControl, Npulse, NetPro, PassGo, PerformaSure, Quest Central, Quest vToolkit, Quest vWorkSpace, ReportADmin, RestoreADmin, SelfServiceADmin, SharePlex, Sitraka, SmartAlarm, Spotlight, SQL LiteSpeed, SQL Navigator, SQL Watch, SQLab, Stat, StealthCollect, Storage Horizon, Tag and Follow, Toad, T.O.A.D., Toad World, vAutomator, vControl, vConverter, vFoglight, vOptimizer Pro, vPackager, vRanger, vRanger Pro, vSpotlight, vStream, vToad, Vintela, Virtual DBA, VizionCore, Vizioncore vAutomation Suite, Vizioncore vBackup, Vizioncore vEssentials, Vizioncore vMigrator, Vizioncore vReplicator, Vizioncore vTraffic, Vizioncore vWorkflow, WebDefender, Webthority, Xaffire, and XRT are trademarks and registered trademarks of Quest Software, Inc in the United States of America and other countries. Other trademarks and registered trademarks used in this guide are property of their respective owners.

Third Party Contributions

Spotlight on Oracle contains some third-party components. Third-party components that require acknowledgment are listed below. Copies of their licenses may be found on our Web site at http://www.quest.com/legal/third-party-licenses.aspx

Disclaimer

The information in this document is provided in connection with Quest products. No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any intellectual property right is granted by this document or in connection with the sale of Quest products. EXCEPT AS SET FORTH IN QUEST'S TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS SPECIFIED IN THE LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR THIS PRODUCT, QUEST ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER AND DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY WARRANTY RELATING TO ITS PRODUCTS INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL QUEST BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, SPECIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR LOSS OF INFORMATION) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS DOCUMENT, EVEN IF QUEST HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. Quest makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this document and reserves the right to make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time without notice. Quest does not make any commitment to update the information contained in this document.

Feature	Resolved Issue / Enhancement	Change Request (if applicable)
Activity drilldown
Activity drilldown	Disabled history pages: The Active Session History and Active Workload History pages in the Activity drilldown are initially disabled. Licensed users of the Oracle Diagnostic Pack can enable these pages to view historical information on user sessions. To enable these drilldowns for a specific database, edit the text file DataBasesLicensedForDiagnosticsPack.txt (in the ..\Plug-ins\COP sub-folder of the Spotlight installation folder) according to the instructions supplied in the file.	CR5602
Spotlight Unix Adapter (SUA)	SUA configuration: Spotlight uses the Spotlight Unix Adapter (SUA) to collect operating-system metrics from target Unix systems via a single connection to the Unix host. It can do so by using: A Perl script (the default method), or A shell script (the "shell" method) when Spotlight detects that Perl is not available on the Unix host. (The "shell" method was used by previous versions of Spotlight.) If you choose to use the "shell" method for specified Unix hosts or for ALL Unix hosts, edit the file ScriptConfig.ini (in the ..\Plug-ins\DatasourceUNIX sub-folder of the Spotlight installation folder) according to the instructions supplied in the file. Note: when you use the Perl method, any previous restrictions on the default login shell for the Unix account (for example, prohibiting the use of csh) no longer apply.	n/a
Spotlight home page	SGA Memory calculation: We have corrected an error in the calculation of some SGA memory components where minimum values were set on these components.	CR5222
ASM drilldown	Column headings in Diskgroups page: We have corrected the labels on some column headings in the ASM Diskgroups page.	CR5297
TNSNAMES.ORA file	IFILE: The IFILE parameter in the Oracle TNSNAMES.ORA file is now parsed correctly.	CR5519
Disk Storage drilldown	Problems with destination names in Archive Destinations page: The Archive Destinations drilldown now handles destinations with long names correctly. We have resolved a problem where Unix destinations that contained special characters were not returning data, causing the Archive Destinations page to be blank. The Archive Destinations page now correctly parses destinations with embedded spaces in their names.	CR5526 CR5568 CR5569
Activity drilldown	Latch counts in Latches page: We have corrected an error where latch counts were being displayed as 1 for all latches on an Oracle 11g database.	CR5642
SQL & Application Workload drilldown	64-bit databases in Analyze Trace page: We have corrected a problem that occurs when executing an Analyze/Trace on a 64-bit database.	CR5657
Supporting scripts	Drop Scripts: The Spotlight installation now includes "drop scripts" that you can use to drop the objects created by the Spotlight User Wizard. The scripts are placed in the ..\Plug-ins\SoO\OracleScripts and ..\Plug-ins\PPCM\OracleScripts sub-folders of the Spotlight installation folder.	CR5880
Internal Explain Plan	Privileges error: We have fixed a problem where Spotlight was intermittently (and incorrectly) failing to run the internal Explain Plan because of an "Insufficient Privileges" error.	CR6036
Sequential Read Time alarm	Calibration problem: We have corrected an error in the calculation of the calibrated Sequential Read Time alarm that may have caused the alarm not to fire.	CR6101
Spotlight connection	Sort/Hash error: We have corrected a problem where a connection fails incorrectly with the message: "An error occurred while refreshing the table 'SortHash' in connection …"	CR6156
ASM drilldown	Service time in ASM Diskgroups page: We have fixed a problem that caused an incorrect value for the Average Service Time of a disk group.	CR6320
Getting Started Guide	Merged guides: The Spotlight on Oracle and Spotlight on Oracle RAC Getting Started Guides have been merged into a single document.	CR6420
Spotlight home page	Status for Auto Memory Management: The Auto On/Off indicator for automatic memory management (for Oracle 10g and 11g) has been enhanced to indicate whether it includes memory management for PGA (a feature of Oracle 11g).	CR6428
Administrator privileges	Removal of obsolete privileges: Privileges that were required by earlier versions of the product, but are now no longer required, have been removed from the Spotlight user. (Note: this change takes effect only when NEW users are created with version 6.1 – upgraded users do NOT have privileges removed.)	CR6542
OS Details drilldown (Linux)	Enhanced command strings for OS Processes page: For Linux servers, the OS Processes drilldown now displays the entire command string for each process; for Oracle processes this gives an improved indication of what service each process is performing.	CR6552

Platform	A Pentium-based or equivalent PC with: A 1.2 GHz Processor (recommended minimum). The required processing power will increase when Spotlight diagnoses Oracle RAC clusters with many instances. A monitor capable of supporting a resolution of 1280x1024 or larger. (You should also set the display to use the 64K color palette [65536 colors].) A CD-ROM drive or Internet connection. Spotlight can be downloaded from the Internet or installed from compact disc. The CD-ROM drive should be attached to the PC on which Spotlight is to be installed. A drive mapped to a network device could be used if a local CD-ROM is not available. A printer (optional). Spotlight reports can be printed on a laser or bubble jet printer. You can print graphs in color if your printer provides this capability. A sound card and speakers (optional). Spotlight can use sound to alert you when a threshold is reached. You must have a sound card and speakers installed on your PC for this feature to work.
Memory	512 megabytes of RAM (minimum). 512 megabytes is a minimum RAM requirement (assuming no other applications are running), but 1 gigabyte of RAM is recommended. Memory consumption will increase as the number of instances in an Oracle RAC cluster increases, and will also depend on the connection options chosen.
Hard Disk Space	150 megabytes of free disk space. This should exist on a local disk drive rather than a network drive. Extra disk space will be required if you choose to log historical snapshots from within Spotlight.
Client Operating System	Windows 2000, Windows 2003 Server, Windows XP Professional, or Windows Vista Business. The following specific requirements exist: Windows 2000: Service Pack 4 (or later) must be installed. Windows XP: Service Pack 1 (or later) must be installed.
Additional Software	*SQLNet 2.3.4 or later.** SQLNet enables a connection to be established to a database. The database may be local or remote. Before you start Spotlight you must have the SQLNet connection string for the database. Oracle Client. (Oracle 9.2, Oracle 10g [full client or instant client], or Oracle 11g). Spotlight also requires that the version of the Oracle client be the same or later than the version of any Oracle database being diagnosed. For example, to connect to an Oracle 10g cluster, you must use an Oracle 10g client or later.
Database Server	The following Oracle database servers are supported for database queries. (You must have the Database Administrator [DBA] user ID and password for the database you want to diagnose.) Oracle 9.2.0.4 or later Oracle 10g (Release 1 or Release 2) Oracle 11g (Release 1)
OS Server	The following server operating systems are supported for OS Server queries: Sun Solaris 8, 9, 10 HP-UX 11i, 11i v2, 11i v3 IBM AIX 5.2, 5.3, 6.1 Red Hat and SUSE operating systems running Linux 2.4 and 2.6 kernels Compaq 4.0f, 5.x Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP1, Windows 2003 Server, or Windows 2008 Server. Itanium server (HP-UX and Windows) Notes: Oracle connections ARE supported for Itanium operating systems, but OS commands are NOT. Spotlight on Oracle RAC does NOT support OS server queries for Compaq 4.0f, 5.x servers or Itanium servers.
Oracle RAC Servers	Spotlight on Oracle RAC supports up to 16 instances in a cluster, with a theoretical limit of 36 instances.

Email	info@quest.com
Mail	Quest Software, Inc. World Headquarters 5 Polaris Way Aliso Viejo, CA 92656 USA
Web	http://www.quest.com

Component type	Component	License or Acknowledgement
User Interface
User Interface	SynEdit 1.2	Mozilla Public License (MPL) 1.1
Encryption	Blowfish version 2	MIT 1.0

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