Overview of Monitoring

The Monitoring service uses metrics  to monitor resources and alarms  to notify you when these metrics meet alarm-specified triggers.

Metrics are emitted to the Monitoring service as raw data points , or timestamp-value pairs, along with dimensions  and metadata. Metrics come from a variety of sources:

• Resource metrics automatically posted by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resources . For example, the Compute service posts metrics for monitoring-enabled compute instances through the oci_computeagent namespace. One such metric is CpuUtilization. See Supported Services and Viewing Default Metric Charts.
• Custom metrics published using the Monitoring API.
• Data sent to new or existing metrics using Service Connector Hub (with Monitoring as the target service for a service connector).

You can transfer metrics from the Monitoring service using Service Connector Hub. For more information, see Creating a Service Connector with a Monitoring Source.

Metric data posted to the Monitoring service is only presented to you or consumed by the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure features that you enable to use metric data.

When you query a metric, the Monitoring service returns aggregated data according to the specified parameters. You can specify a range (such as the last 24 hours), statistic , and interval . The Console displays one monitoring chart per metric for selected resources. The aggregated data in each chart reflects the selected statistic and interval. API requests can optionally filter by dimension  and specify a resolution . API responses include the metric name along with its source compartment and metric namespace . You can feed the aggregated data into a visualization or graphing library.

Metric and alarm data is accessible from the Console, CLI, and API. For retention periods, see Storage Limits.

The Alarms feature of the Monitoring service publishes alarm messages  to configured destinations, such as topics in Notifications and streams in Streaming.

The following concepts are essential to working with Monitoring.

aggregated data

The result of applying a statistic and interval to a selection of raw data points for a metric. For example, you can apply the statistic max and interval 1h (one hour) to the last 24 hours of raw data points for the metric CpuUtilization. Aggregated data is displayed in default metric charts in the Console. You can also build metric queries for specific sets of aggregated data. For instructions, see Viewing Default Metric Charts and Building Metric Queries.

alarm

The alarm query to evaluate and the notification destination to use when the alarm is in the firing state, along with other alarm properties.

To create an alarm, see Creating a Basic Alarm.

alarm query

The Monitoring Query Language (MQL) expression to evaluate for the alarm. An alarm query must specify a metric, statistic, interval, and a trigger rule (threshold or absence). The Alarms feature of the Monitoring service interprets results for each returned time series as a Boolean value, where zero represents false and a nonzero value represents true. A true value means that the trigger rule condition has been met.

To create a basic alarm query, see Creating a Basic Query to Generate an Alarm Metric Chart. To create an alarm, see Creating a Basic Alarm.

data point

A timestamp-value pair for the specified metric. Example: 2022-05-10T22:19:00Z, 10.4

A data point is either raw or aggregated. Raw data points are posted by the metric namespace to the Monitoring service using the PostMetricData operation. The frequency of the data points posted varies by metric namespace. For example, a custom namespace might send data points for a metric at a 20-second frequency.

Aggregated data points are the result of applying a statistic and interval to raw data points. The interval of the aggregated data points is determined by the SummarizeMetricsData request. For example, a request specifying the statistic sum and interval 1h (one hour) returns a sum value for each hour of available raw data points for the metric.

dimension

A qualifier provided in a metric definition. Example: Resource identifier (resourceId), provided in the definitions of oci_computeagent metrics. Use dimensions to filter or group metric data. Example dimension name-value pair for filtering by availability domain: availabilityDomain = "VeBZ:PHX-AD-1"

To select a dimension for a metric chart or query, see Selecting Dimensions to Filter Metrics and Selecting Dimensions for a Query.

To select an interval for an alarm, see Selecting the Interval for an Alarm Query.

frequency

The time period between each posted raw data point for a metric. (Raw data points are posted by the metric namespace to the Monitoring service.) While frequency varies by metric, default service metrics typically have a frequency of 60 seconds (that is, one data point posted per minute). See also resolution.

interval

The time window used to convert the set of raw data points.

The timestamp of the aggregated data point corresponds to the end of the time window during which raw data points are assessed. For example, for a five-minute interval, the timestamp "2:05" corresponds to the five-minute time window from 2:00:n to 2:05:00.

The following example query (MQL expression) specifies a 5-minute interval. For valid interval options in MQL expressions, see Interval (Monitoring Query Language (MQL) Reference).

CpuUtilization[5m].max()

Note

Supported values for interval depend on the specified time range in the metric query (not applicable to alarm queries). More interval values are supported for smaller time ranges. For example, if you select one hour for the time range, then all interval values are supported. If you select 90 days for the time range, then only interval values between 1 hour and 1 day are supported.

To select an interval for a metric chart or query, see Changing the Interval for a Default Metric Chart and Selecting the Interval for a Query.

To select an interval for an alarm, see Selecting the Interval for an Alarm Query.

See also resolution.

message

The content that the Alarms feature of the Monitoring service publishes to topics in the alarm’s configured notification destinations. A message is sent when the alarm transitions to another state, such as from OK to FIRING.

For more information about alarm messages, see Message Format and Examples.

metadata

A reference provided in a metric definition. Example: unit (bytes), provided in the definition of the oci_computeagent metric DiskBytesRead. Use metadata to determine additional information about a metric. For metric definitions, see Supported Services.

metric

A measurement related to health, capacity, or performance of a resource. Example: The oci_computeagent metric CpuUtilization, which measures usage of a compute instance. For metric definitions, see Supported Services.

Note

Metric resources don't have OCIDs .

metric definition

A set of references, qualifiers, and other information provided by a metric namespace for a metric. For example, the oci_computeagent metric DiskBytesRead is defined by dimensions (such as resource identifier) and metadata (specifying bytes for unit) as well as identification of its metric namespace (oci_computeagent). Each posted set of data points carries this information. Use the ListMetricData API operation to get metric definitions. For metric definitions, see Supported Services.

To select a metric name for a query, see Selecting the Metric Name for a Query.

To select a metric name for an alarm, see Creating a Basic Query to Generate an Alarm Metric Chart and Creating a Basic Alarm.

metric namespace

Indicator of the resource , service, or application that emits the metric. Provided in the metric definition. For example, the CpuUtilization metric definition emitted by the Oracle Cloud Agent software on compute instances  lists the metric namespace oci_computeagent as the source of the CpuUtilization metric. For metric definitions, see Supported Services.

To select a metric namespace for a metric chart or query, see Viewing Default Metric Charts for a Metric Namespace (Multiple Resources) and Selecting the Metric Namespace for a Query.

To select a metric namespace for an alarm, see Creating a Basic Query to Generate an Alarm Metric Chart and Creating a Basic Alarm.

metric stream

An individual set of aggregated data for a metric and zero or more dimension values.

In the Metric streams status page, each metric stream corresponds to a set of dimension key-value pairs.

In metric charts (in the Console), each metric stream is depicted as a line (unless you aggregate all metric streams).

The following image depicts metric streams in a chart. Each line in the chart corresponds to a metric stream.

For example, consider a compartment containing three compute instances in the AD-1 availability domain (including two in the ipexample instance pool) and a fourth instance in the AD-2 availability domain. In this example, the CPU Utilization metric chart shows four lines (one per instance). When filtered by the AD-1 availability domain, the chart shows three lines. When further filtered by the ipexample instance pool, the chart shows two lines.

To select metric streams in a query, see Selecting Dimensions to Filter Metrics, Selecting Dimensions for a Query, and Selecting Dimensions for an Alarm Query.

To set up an alarm for notifications per metric stream, see Creating an Alarm That Splits Messages by Metric Stream and Scenario: Split Messages by Metric Stream.

notification destination

Details for sending messages when the alarm transitions to another state, such as from OK to FIRING. The details and setup might vary by destination service. Available destination services include Notifications and Streaming.

For the Notifications service, specify a topic. (If you're creating the topic for the alarm, also specify one or more subscription protocols (such as PagerDuty).

For the Streaming service, specify a stream.

For examples of alarm messages sent to topics and streams, see Example Alarm Messages.

To set up a notification destination in an alarm, see Defining the Notification Destination for an Alarm.

Oracle Cloud Agent software

Software used by a compute instance to post raw data points to the Monitoring service. Automatically installed with the latest versions of supported images. See Enabling Monitoring for Compute Instances.

query

The Monitoring Query Language (MQL) expression and associated information (such as metric namespace) to evaluate for returning aggregated data. The query must specify a metric, statistic, and interval.

To create a metric query, see Creating a Query.

To create an alarm query, see Creating a Basic Query to Generate an Alarm Metric Chart.

resolution

The period between time windows, or the regularity at which time windows shift. For example, use a resolution of 1m to retrieve aggregations every minute.

Note

For metric queries, the interval  you select drives the default resolution  of the request, which determines the maximum time range of data returned.

For alarm queries, the specified interval  has no effect on the resolution  of the request. The only valid value of the resolution for an alarm query request is 1m. For more information about the resolution parameter as used in alarm queries, see Alarm.

As shown in the following illustration, resolution controls the start time of each aggregation window relative to the previous window while interval controls the length of the windows. Both requests apply the statistic max to the data within each five-minute window (from the interval), resulting in a single aggregated data point representing the highest CPUutilization counter for that window. Only the resolution value differs. This resolution changes the regularity at which the aggregation windows shift, or the start times of successive aggregation windows. Request A doesn't specify a resolution and thus uses the default value equal to the interval (5 minutes). This request's five-minute aggregation windows are thus taken from the sets of data points emitted from 0:n to 5:00, 5:n to 10:00, and so forth. Request B specifies a 1-minute resolution, so its five-minute aggregation windows are taken from the set of data points emitted every minute from 0:n to 5:00, 1:n to 6:00, and so forth.

To specify a nondefault resolution that differs from the interval, see Selecting a Nondefault Resolution for a Query and Creating an Alarm.

resource group

A custom string provided with a custom metric that can be used as a filter or to aggregate results. The resource group must exist in the definition of the posted metric. Only one resource group can be applied per metric.

To select a resource group in a query, see Selecting a Resource Group in a Query.

To select a resource group in an alarm query, see Selecting a Resource Group in an Alarm Query.

statistic

The aggregation function applied to the set of raw data points.

To select the statistic for a metric chart or query, see Changing the Statistic for a Default Metric Chart and Selecting the Statistic for a Query.

To select the statistic for an alarm query, see Selecting the Statistic for an Alarm Query.

suppression

A configuration to stop publishing messages during the specified time range. Useful for suspending alarm notifications during system maintenance.

To suppress an alarm, see Suppressing an Alarm.

time range

The bounds (timestamps) of the metric data that you want. For example, the past hour.

To select the time range for a metric chart or query, see Changing the Time Range for Default Metric Charts, Changing the Time Range for a Custom Metric Chart, and Selecting a Nondefault Time Range for a Query.

trigger rule

The condition that must be met for the alarm to be in the firing state. A trigger rule can be based on a threshold or absence of a metric.

To set up a trigger rule in an alarm, see Defining the Predicate for an Alarm Query.

The Monitoring service is available in all Oracle Cloud Infrastructure commercial regions. See About Regions and Availability Domains for the list of available regions, along with associated locations, region identifiers, region keys, and availability domains.

The following services have resources or components that can emit metrics to Monitoring:

• Analytics Cloud - see About Metrics for Oracle Analytics Cloud
• API Gateway - see API Gateway Metrics
• Application Performance Monitoring - see Application Performance Monitoring Metrics
• Autonomous Recovery Service - see Recovery Service Metrics
• Bastion - see Bastion Metrics
• Big Data Service - see View Cluster Metrics
• Block Volume - see Block Volume Metrics
• Blockchain Platform - see Monitor Metrics (Blockchain Platform)

• Compute - see these pages:

  • Compute Instance Metrics
  • Instance Pool Metrics
  • Compute Instance Health Metrics
  • Infrastructure Health Metrics
  • Compute Management Metrics
• Container Engine for Kubernetes - see Container Engine for Kubernetes Metrics
• Container Instances - see Container Instances Metrics
• Data Catalog - see Data Catalog Metrics
• Data Flow - see Data Flow Metrics
• Data Integration - see Data Integration Metrics
• Data Science - see About Notebook Session Metrics
• Data Transfer - see these pages:
  • Disk-Based Data Import: Viewing Data Transfer Disk-Based Metrics
  • Appliance-Based Data Import: Viewing Data Transfer Appliance Import-Based Metrics
  • Data Export: Viewing Data Transfer Appliance Export-Based Metrics
• Database - see these pages:
  • Monitor Performance with Autonomous Database Metrics (Autonomous Database on Shared Exadata Infrastructure)
  • Monitor Databases with Autonomous Database Metrics (Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure)
  • Metrics for Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure in the Monitoring Service (from Reference Guides for Exadata Cloud Infrastructure)
  • Metrics for Base Database Service in the Database Management Service: Monitor a Database Using Database Management Metrics
  • Metrics for External Database
• Database Management - see Database Management Metrics
• Database Migration - see Database Migration Metrics
• DevOps - see DevOps Metrics
• Digital Assistant - see Digital Assistant Metrics
• DNS - see DNS Metrics
• Email Delivery - see Email Delivery Metrics
• Events - see Events Metrics
• File Storage - see File System Metrics
• Functions - see Function Metrics
• GoldenGate - see Oracle Cloud Infrastructure GoldenGate Metrics
• Health Checks - see Health Checks Metrics
• Integration - see these pages:
  • Integration Generation 2: View Message Metrics
  • Integration 3: View Message Metrics and Billable Messages
• Java Management - see Java Management Metrics
• Load Balancer - see Load Balancer Metrics
• Logging - see Logging Metrics
• Logging Analytics - see Monitor Logging Analytics Using Service Metrics
• Media Streams - see Media Streams Metrics
• Management Agent - see Management Agent Metrics
• MySQL Database - see MySQL Database Metrics

• Networking - see these pages:

  • VNIC Metrics
  • FastConnect Metrics
  • Site-to-Site VPN Metrics
  • Service Gateway Metrics
• NoSQL Database Cloud - see Service Metrics
• Notifications - see Notifications Metrics
• Network Firewall - see Network Firewall Metrics
• Object Storage - see Object Storage Metrics
• Operations Insights - see Operations Insights Metrics
• Oracle APEX Application Development - see Metrics (APEX)
• OS Management - see OS Management Metrics
• Process Automation - see Process Automation Metrics
• Queue - see Queue Metrics
• Service Connector Hub - see Service Connector Hub Metrics
• Service Mesh - see Service Mesh Metrics
• Stack Monitoring - see Stack Monitoring Metric Reference
• Streaming - see Streaming Metrics
• Vault - see Monitoring Vault Resources
• Vulnerability Scanning - see Scanning Metrics
• WAF - see Edge Policy Metrics

Most types of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resources have a unique, Oracle-assigned identifier called an Oracle Cloud ID (OCID). For information about the OCID format and other ways to identify your resources, see Resource Identifiers., see Resource Identifiers.

You can access Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) by using the Console (a browser-based interface), REST API, or OCI CLI. Instructions for using the Console, API, and CLI are included in topics throughout this documentation. For a list of available SDKs, see Software Development Kits and Command Line Interface.

Console: To access Monitoring using the Console, you must use a supported browser. To go to the Console sign-in page, open the navigation menu at the top of this page and click Infrastructure Console. You are prompted to enter your cloud tenant, your user name, and your password. Open the navigation menu and click Observability & Management. Under Monitoring, click Service Metrics.

API: To access Monitoring through APIs, use Monitoring API for metrics and alarms and Notifications API for notifications (used with alarms).

CLI: See Command Line Reference for Monitoring and Command Line Reference for Notifications.

For more information about user authorizations for monitoring, see IAM Policies (Monitoring).

Administrators: For common policies that give groups access to metrics, see Metric Access for Groups. For common alarm policies, see Alarm Access for Groups. To authorize resources, such as instances, to make API calls, add the resources to a dynamic group. Use the dynamic group's matching rules to add the resources, and then create a policy that allows that dynamic group access to metrics. See Metric Access for Resources.

See Monitoring Limits for a list of applicable limits and instructions for requesting a limit increase.

Other limits include the following.