Before You Begin with Oracle Log Analytics

Here are some of the common terms and basic concepts for Oracle Log Analytics.

Term	Definition
Agents	Oracle Management Cloud agents collect configuration, performance, availability, and log data from monitored entities and make this information available in Oracle Management Cloud.
Alerts	Information generated in response to an availability issue or when a metric crosses its thresholds. Conditions for generating alerts are defined in Alert Rules. Alerts sent to administrators by using various channels, such as, email and SMS are known as notifications.
Alert Rules	A set of rules that define the conditions under which alerts are generated and notifications sent when an alert is raised. Alert conditions consist of a metric, a comparison operator, and thresholds against which metric values are evaluated.
Associations	Associations (association instances) define a relationship between two managed entities. The association type that you define, either via the user interface or based on a written document Oracle provides, determines how data is correlated and visualized in Oracle Management Cloud. In many cases, associations are defined automatically by Oracle Management Cloud.
Cloud Agent	A Cloud agent collects the host, entity, and log data from the host where you deploy the Cloud agent. It can connect to Oracle Management Cloud directly or through a Gateway.
Data Collector	A Data Collector agent collects data from your on-premises OMR and uploads it to Oracle Management Cloud.
Entities	Entities are monitored resources such as databases, host servers, compute resources, or application servers.
Entity Types	Entity types are a type of monitored resource, such as a host or database, which define where that entity fits in the Oracle Management Cloud hierarchical structure. In Oracle Management Cloud, each entity is defined by a set of characteristics, it has a parent and may have other children. For example, a generic host is an operating system (OS) independent target and it has children entities that are specific OS hosts, such as Linux and Windows. The metrics collection functionality takes advantage of this inheritance model so each monitored entity has entity-specific metrics as well as metrics inherited from each level it descended from. For example, Oracle Management Cloud collects metrics at level three that are common to all generic hosts, independent of the vendor. A Linux host, since its parent is a generic host, inherits all the metrics collected for generic hosts and its ancestors, as well as Linux-specific ones, if any.
Gateway	A Gateway agent acts as a channel between Oracle Management Cloud and other Cloud agents. Multiple Data Collector or Cloud agents can communicate with Oracle Management Cloud through a single Gateway.
JSON	JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) allows data to be concisely and precisely defined in a format that is both human and machine-readable. Oracle provides sample JSON files for defining entities. JSON files are then edited with your own custom parameters and are passed on to agents. This configuration step defines the entities with that agent and Oracle Management Cloud.
License Editions	License editions are pre-defined categories of Oracle Management Cloud offerings.
Log entity	A log entity is the host or the server from which the logs are collected.
Log source	A log source is a named group of log files. The files that belong to this group can be configured using patterns such as /var/log/ssh*. A log source can be associated with one or more parsers.
omcli	Oracle Management Cloud agent control command line interface utility (omcli) is used to interface with Cloud agents and define entities using customized JSON files.
Oracle Cloud Instance	An Oracle Cloud instance is a virtual machine, or a set of virtual machines, with CPU and memory resources, running a specific operating system and hosting a specific Cloud service offering.
Oracle home	Oracle home refers to a directory where Oracle products are installed, pointed to by an environment variable. Multiple active Oracle homes can exist on the same host.
Oracle Java Cloud Service	The Oracle Java Cloud Service is a part of the platform service offerings in Oracle Public Cloud Services. Powered by Oracle WebLogic Server, it provides a platform on top of Oracle's enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure for developing and deploying new or existing Java EE applications. Optionally, you can enable Oracle Coherence within Oracle Java Cloud Service to use Coherence caching and data grid functionality.
Oracle Management Repository (OMR)	OMR is a schema in an Oracle Database where all the information collected by Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Management Agents is stored. It consists of objects such as database jobs, packages, procedures, tables, views, tablespaces, and so on.
Oracle Wallet	An Oracle Wallet is a password-protected container used to store private keys, certificates, and trusted certificates needed by secure communication between software components.
Oracle WebLogic Server	Oracle WebLogic Server is the Java EE application server, part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware suite of products, used for building and deploying enterprise applications.
Oracle WebLogic Server Cluster	An Oracle WebLogic Server Cluster consists of multiple Oracle WebLogic Server instances running simultaneously and working together to provide increased scalability and reliability.
Parser	A parser is a named entity used to define how to parse all log entries in a log source and extract field information. It uses one or multiple parse expressions and a log entry delimiter to parse all log entries in a log source. It also specifies how the parsed content is converted into fields.
Parse expression	A parse expression is the regular expression used to parse a log entry.
Security Certificate	A Security Certificate, or a Digital Certificate, is an electronic document that proves the ownership of a public key used for secure communication over a network.
WebLogic domain	A WebLogic domain is a logically related group of Oracle WebLogic Server resources. Domains include a special Oracle WebLogic Server instance called the Administration Server, which is the central point from which you configure and manage all resources in the domain. Usually, you configure a domain to include additional Oracle WebLogic Server instances called Managed Servers. You deploy web applications, EJB, and other resources onto the Managed Servers and use the Administration Server for configuration and management purposes only.