Complaint about Enterprise Manager (version 10g)

First off, let me say that EM has some really cool stuff going on! This post will be largely negative and critical, but I do not want to discount the fact that the developers of this tool have done a lot of hard work to make some things very neat and slick. Real-time data for performance monitoring at various levels is quite nice. While the interface is kooky (very!), I have to give credit for the massive conglomeration of features that are packed into this "free" tool. And most of them work to boot! *grin*

Ok, so my first gripe is just administrating the EM itself. The logfiles are a complete mess. There is no one log file that summarizes all the activity. If you get an error in the GUI, it will most likely say "see log file for further details". Which log file? Granted, most of them are in one place (depending on if you are using DBControl or GC), but not all of them. Worse, it is very common to find a logfile that repeats what you saw on the GUI and it refers to itself for further details! How is that helpful? I want one file that can either tell me where exactly the problem is, or at least point to the file where the real further details are. Same for the config files. There are xml fiels sprinkled throughout, and .properties. Since EM is comprised of so many different components, there are many different log files and many different configuration files. But nothing ties them all together. Say I want to alter the ports of the components (I have tried this, and it is not pretty). I had to touch about 5 or 6 different files, each with multiple entries for various port numbers. And then there are those ports that are defined by global variables, with no indication where those are set. If one wanted a headache, a lemon-encased gold brick to the skull would be more appealing.

What next.... The GUI itself is extremely cluttered and the opposite of intuitive. I understand that some tools take a while to learn how to navigate (ie, TOAD - still catching on), but there are some functions I use quite often and I always find myself in the wrong place. Here is a tricky example, how about "Historical SQL". Do you mean the sql that EM has generated on your behalf, or AWR SQL? What about "features" that do not work quite well. We have tried Data Masking and Change Capture, both of which hung and finally died without any visible productive work. And trying to debug that?? See above paragraph. =) Or how about that infamous "remove datafile" option in the Tablespace screen? Cool, I did not know you could remove a datafile from a tablespace, this must be new. Yeah, try it and get back to me on that. I have had the opportunity to Queisce my database by accident; if you flip through the Maintenance Window management screens (just click ok or next), you can freeze your database because one of the options to specify the type of the current maintenance window defaults to Quiesce, even if that is not the current type. Handy, eh?

I am curious what the 11g EM will be like. I briefly looked at the 11g Database Control, but not enough to make any kind of judgement. Would it be foolish to even hope that the administration side of things has been made easier?

'nuff for now.