Users can group OS level processes by application. Or you can monitor the number of running processes with the same name, and generate an alert if too many processes of that name are running. Historical data is retained in named stores, which have user-specified time intervals and duration. In setting up the monitor, the DBA specifies how frequently the collections of statistics need to be sampled, what the rules of the environment are, and what alarms need to be published, should these rules be exceeded. In response to these alerts or alarms, the DBA may require further information before taking appropriate action.
Information is available from the global level right down to the detail session level.
A special blocked process tree is made available graphically, in the event one process is blocking other processes from executing. Even the currently executed SQL code is available for review. This feature makes implementation of new functions extremely easy because the architecture is flexible enough to support other server functions as well. The communication channel between the monitor and its target servers is implemented using a reliable UDP messaging protocol. If a monitored server fails to transmit its messages at the expected time intervals, the monitoring station can generate alarms, or initiate other pre-configured alerting procedures to notify the system administrators or DBAs.