How to monitor an Oracle database with Prometheus

Monitoring an Oracle Database with Prometheus involves utilizing an exporter to generate and collect metrics that provide insights into resource usage and performance, enabling the detection of issues such as long-running queries and resource starvation. The process, exemplified by Gabriela, a Site Reliability Engineer, includes setting up the OracleDB exporter within a Kubernetes environment, using Prometheus annotations for metric collection, and configuring necessary environment variables with secure credentials. Custom metrics, such as those tracking slow queries and big table sizes, are added to enhance monitoring capabilities. Key metrics to monitor include wait times, active sessions, and resource utilization, while essential alerts include database availability and resource limits. The integration with Sysdig enhances the monitoring experience by offering a managed Prometheus service, complete with dashboards and alerts, and PromCat.io provides ready-to-use resources for further customization.