Tools to monitor Oracle Database Performance on Standard Edition

As @ik_zelf mentioned, your PATH variable will need to include the "bin" directory of your Oracle software install. This will allow you to execute commonly-needed commands/utilities like "sqlplus" and "lsnrctl" without changing directories. This is typically $ORACLE_HOME/bin

Your TNS_ADMIN variable needs to be set in a similar matter, pointing to the location of your tnsnames.ora, listener.ora, etc. By default, SQL Plus checks this directory (defined by TNS_ADMIN) for tnsnames.ora. This is typically $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin

If you want to connect to your database via TNS, your tnsnames.ora file (assuming a ORACLE_SID of "myDatabase", a host of "myHostname" and the default port) would look something like this:

myDatabase = 
    (DESCRIPTION = 
        (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = myHostname)(PORT = 1521))
        (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVICE_NAME = myDatabase)))

This would allow you to connect locally simply by doing the following from a command line:

sqlplus username/password@myDatabase

Of course, as SQL Plus looks for the tnsnames.ora file in the location defined by $TNS_ADMIN, this will only function locally. To access this database via TNS (Transparent Network Substrate) from a remote machine, you would have to install the Oracle client and ensure that the TNS entry for myDatabase (as described above) is included in the remote machine's tnsnames.ora file as well.

1. I think you are probably looking for Oracle Enterprise Manager or OEM as it is normally referred as, a good starting point for more information is here.

   • a. Oracle database starting with 10G+ do their own data collection (Automatic workload Repository), however, you need to be licensed to access much of that data. You can still use statspack (which is free). OEM actually uses this collected performance metrics and uses them for display via its pages.
   • b. Live views are available to use (the V$ and GV$) in Oracle, no experience with SQLServer, but I suspect you have similar views available.
   • c. OEM can send you alerts on events and conditions that exceed user defined thresholds. This is configurable via templates or custom metrics (aka User Defined Metrics).
   • d. OEM has some performance reporting built-in, but you can use OEM repository to roll your own reports, it is not very difficult (have done it in the past). OEM repository is simply a different database, the SYSMAN schema contains tables and views which expose all collected data. You can adjust retention, only constrained by available storage. It can provide your historic information as well as realtime performance for Oracle. You will have to check the plug-in for similar capability for SQLServer.

2. OEM can (with using optional plugins) monitor SQL Server, check this link for a brief overview. In my shop there is no SS, so I don't have first hand experience in using these plugins.

3. Licensing information for OEM is here, I'd definitely recommend reading this manual to you and your customers.

4. There could be, but once you read through the information linked above, you will get a better idea. Then a quick chat with your Oracle Sales team will yield more information as well.

5. Some of the extension packs for OEM are listed here.

Hope this gives you enough information to get started on it.