Advantages & disadvantages

Advantages

• Free !
• Simple to install.
• No need to install agents.
• No need to run a performance warehouse.
• No need to hire consultants to implement.
• No extra clients to install.

Disadvantages

• No GUI.
• No direct memory access for fine grained monitoring.
• You need a query tool (like Toad), which can be used to copy+paste data to Excel.
• You need a graph tool like Excel.
• A little work has to be done to produce a graph.
• You still need indepth knowledge of the Oracle database.
• You still need a method for performanced tuning & analysus.
• Analysis of performance puts extra load on the database.