Database performance data

Database performance data is a type of database data that shows the metrics that indicate the performance capacity of the database. This includes resource consumption, throughput, and connections, buffer pool efficiency.  

Data visibility 

Database performance data can help you detect possible bottlenecks and avert emergencies related to memory, buffer, and other configuration variables. It can also help with database capacity planning, such as determining whether a performance increase is necessary or feasible. 

Data application

When your Splunk deployment is ingesting database performance data, you can use the data to achieve objectives related to the following use cases:

• Analyzing wire data from databases

High-value fields

This data type has many available fields, but users typically derive the most value out of the fields listed here.

instance_reads, instance_writes

How many reads and writes the database is doing and is often used to see if the IO capacity of the database matches that of the underlying storage system

buffer_cache_hit_ratio

Number of times the data was found in the buffer cache and a physical disk read was avoided 

wait_state, wait_time

Whether a session is waiting and for how long. These values are indicative of contention for a resource in the database and are often places that need to be optimized for increased performance and scale  

Note that the names of these fields vary, depending on the data source. The Splunk Common Information Model (CIM) can be added to your deployment to normalize and validate data at search time, accelerate key data in searches and dashboards, or create new reports and visualizations.  In the Common Information Model, database performance data is mapped to the Databases data model.

Known data sources and source types

Guidance for onboarding data can be found in the Splunk documentation, Getting Data In. In addition, the following data sources have add-ons and apps available in Splunkbase to optimize data collection and help you with analysis and visualizations.