Recently I got my new book Oracle Database 11g New Feature on 11g from .

Even though I know that now Oracle 11g has a new mechanism to keep the alert , trace and log file, but I wasn’t fully aware of the technical terms that oracle is using to define it.

In fact starting Oracle 11g, Oracle has totally re-vamp it’s activity logging mechanism from generating simple logging files to sophisticated mechanism introduced as a new feature which they are calling Fault Diagnosability Infrastructure.

This Fault Diagnosability infrastructure is made up of many components, some of key component are as follows:

• ADR – Automatic Diagnostic Repository
• Alert Log
• Trace Files, Dumps, and Core Files
• Other ADR Contents
• Enterprise Manager Support Workbench
• ADRCI Command-Line Utility

Automatic Diagnostic Repository (ADR)

The ADR is a file-based repository for the files associated with the fault diagnosability infrastructure.

The file are stored in the unified directory structure.Each instance stores data data in their own ADR home as follows:

ADR home for each instance = ADR Base Directory->diag->product type->product_name->product_instance_name

Example in my (windows) development machine, I had following configuration:

ADR Base Directory : C:\oracle
Product Type : rdbms
Product Name : development
Instance Name (SID) : orcl

So ADR Home for orcl will be c:\oracle\diag\rdbms\development\orcl

Under each ADR home, following directory exist:

alert - The XML-formatted alert log

cdump - Core files

incident - Multiple subdirectories, where each subdirectory is named for a particular incident, and where each contains dumps pertaining only to that incident

trace - Background and server process trace files and SQL trace files

(others) - Other subdirectories of ADR home, which store incident packages, health monitor reports, and other information

Note:
Initialization parameters BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST and USER_DUMP_DEST are deprecated. They are replaced by the initialization parameter DIAGNOSTIC_DEST, which identifies the location of the ADR.

Alert Log

Now alert log is stored in two formats i.e. TEXT FORMAT and XML Format, in their respective ADR Home.

The new style alert log is stored in the ADR home under directory “alert” in XML format.

The old style text format alert file can be found in the ADR home under directory “cdump” for backward compatibility.

However, Oracle recommends that any parsing of the alert log contents be done with the XML-formatted version, because the text format is unstructured and may change from release to release.

Trace Files, Dumps, and Core Files
Trace files, dumps, and core files contain diagnostic data that are used to investigate problems. They are stored in the ADR.

Other ADR Contents
In addition to files mentioned above, the ADR contains health monitor reports, data repair records, SQL test cases, incident packages, and more.

Enterprise Manager Support Workbench
As per Oracle Documentation
The Enterprise Manager Support Workbench (Support Workbench) is a facility that enables you to investigate, report, and in some cases, repair problems (critical errors), all with an easy-to-use graphical interface. The Support Workbench provides a self-service means for you to gather first-failure diagnostic data, obtain a support request number, and upload diagnostic data to Oracle Support with a minimum of effort and in a very short time, thereby reducing time-to-resolution for problems. The Support Workbench also recommends and provides easy access to Oracle advisors that help you repair SQL-related problems, data corruption problems, and more.

ADRCI Command-Line Utility
As per Oracle Documentation
The ADR Command Interpreter (ADRCI) is a utility that enables you to investigate problems, view health check reports, and package and upload first-failure diagnostic data to Oracle Support, all within a command-line environment. ADRCI also enables you to view the names of the trace files in the ADR, and to view the alert log with XML tags stripped, with and without content filtering.

For more information on ADRCI, see my old post.

Any way still going through more pages and will keep posting if I find anything interesting.