Observability

Was That Query Always This Slow? The Query-History Gap in MySQL, SQL Server, and DB2

Your database can tell you which queries are slow right now. It usually can't tell you which ones got slower, because the per-query numbers it keeps are a running total with no time axis: reset on restart, or evicted as a cache fills. Here's the query-history gap in MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and DB2, why SQL Server is the exception that proves the point, and why the trend belongs in the Oracle Enterprise Manager repository, including the unglamorous work of making the subtraction honest.

Aug 24, 2026

Logs Without the Regret, Part 2: Building the Alloy and Loki Pipeline

Part 1 made the case that log cost is set at write time by what you index. This is the hands-on half. A production-grade Alloy and Loki pipeline comes down to four decisions: what gets in, what gets rewritten, what gets indexed, and what happens when the backend is unavailable. Here's the three-component minimum that proves the transport works, the OTTL processors that filter and redact in flight, how to set label policy server-side in otlp_config, and the four signals worth alerting on once it is live.

Aug 19, 2026

Least-Privilege by Design: One Read-Only, TLS-First Way to Monitor DB2, SQL Server, and MySQL

Every database monitoring tool eventually meets the security team, and the answer is usually a broad-privilege account plus an agent installed on the database host. That's a design choice, not a law of nature. Here's the posture shared by all three Integration Plumbers plug-ins for Oracle Enterprise Manager: one read-only grant per engine, an encrypted connection that won't quietly downgrade, your choice of where collection runs, and why that same design reaches a managed cloud database without a rebuild.

Aug 13, 2026

Logs Without the Regret, Part 1: How Loki and Alloy Fit Into OpenTelemetry

Most log pipelines weren't chosen so much as inherited, and the bill nobody can fully explain traces back to a single decision: what you put in the index. Loki's native OTLP endpoint splits log data into a small set of indexed labels and unlimited structured metadata, and Grafana Alloy gives you a server-side place to decide which is which. Here's why traditional pipelines break on cardinality, what the native endpoint actually changes, and where the collector tier still earns its keep.

Aug 3, 2026

No Cliff, No Drama: Db2 11.5 to April 2027, 12.1 Open-Ended, and the New Ground Ahead

While MySQL and SQL Server admins spent this summer watching end-of-support dates pass, DB2's is still ahead: IBM supports Db2 LUW 11.5 until April 30, 2027, and hasn't published an end-of-support date for 12.1 at all. Here's why that runway makes now the right time to fix DB2 monitoring rather than scramble at it, the compliance rule that flags your 11.5 estate the day the date passes, what the DB2 Plug-in for Oracle Enterprise Manager closes that even IBM's free Data Management Console leaves open, and the ground on the roadmap in Db2 for z/OS and the 12.1 AI Query Optimizer.

Jul 29, 2026

Inside the OpenTelemetry GenAI SIG: The Conversations Shaping AI Observability

The GenAI semantic conventions aren't handed down by a vendor. They're argued out in weekly public meetings and a Slack channel anyone can join, and the biggest open questions — evaluation, agentic systems, content privacy, and cost attribution — are the ones that decide whether your production telemetry is portable in three years. Here's where the debates are happening and how to walk in.

Jul 20, 2026

After MEM: The Next Chapter for MySQL Monitoring in Oracle Enterprise Manager

MySQL Enterprise Monitor reached end of life in January 2025, and Oracle guided customers to its Enterprise Manager plug-in as the path forward. Oracle has since published a deprecation notice for that plug-in through My Oracle Support. The MySQL Plug-in for Oracle Enterprise Manager from Integration Plumbers provides continuity: the same console, the MEM features the Oracle plug-in didn't include, and a collection layer built for MySQL 8.4.

Jul 16, 2026

GenAI Observability in OpenTelemetry: Where the Standard Actually Stands in 2026

OpenTelemetry's GenAI semantic conventions have become the de facto vocabulary for AI observability, and every major vendor now speaks it, while the spec itself is still in Development. Here's how the conventions reached their six-layer shape, the attributes and metrics worth emitting today, and the state of vendor, framework, and tooling adoption in 2026.

Jul 10, 2026

SQL Server 2016 End of Support: What Your Monitoring Should Do About the July 14 Cliff

On July 14, 2026, SQL Server 2016 leaves extended support, the same month Microsoft's surviving SQL tooling has gone paid, Azure-first, and Windows-only, with AWS force-upgrading any remaining RDS 2016 instances to 2019 that September. Here's what your monitoring should do about the version cliff, and how the Microsoft SQL Server Plug-in for Oracle Enterprise Manager flags what's stranded and follows your databases to 2017 through 2025 on Windows and Linux.

Jul 8, 2026

The DR-Readiness Gap: Why "Synchronized" Isn't "Safe" in MySQL, SQL Server, and DB2

Every HA tool shows you a synchronization state. Almost none of them, by default, tells you how much data you'd lose or how long recovery would take if you failed over right now. Here's the DR-readiness gap in MySQL, SQL Server, and DB2, and why the answer belongs in the Oracle Enterprise Manager repository.

Jul 1, 2026

The Plant Floor Has a Visibility Problem. A New Community Wants to Fix It.

A modern plant generates an enormous volume of data, yet the teams who run it often have little real-time visibility into what's actually happening. Here's why industrial observability is so hard, why OpenTelemetry is a credible answer, and how the new OpenTelemetry Industrial community is organizing to close the gap.

Jun 26, 2026

The Backup You Can't See: The Database Backup Blind Spot in MySQL, SQL Server, and DB2

Your observability stack alerts on CPU, connections, and replication lag. Out of the box, it rarely tells you whether last night's backup succeeded — or whether you could actually recover. Here's the backup blind spot, and why it belongs in the Oracle Enterprise Manager console.

Jun 22, 2026

OpenTelemetry Goes Deeper and Wider: Profiling Hits Alpha, and OTel Heads to the Factory Floor

OpenTelemetry's fourth signal, profiling, entered public Alpha in March 2026, while a parallel community effort is bringing OTel to OT and Industry 4.0 systems. Here's what both mean for closing the last observability gaps.

Jun 9, 2026

Bringing Tintri Storage Into Your OpenTelemetry Observability Stack

A deep dive into the ip-tintri-otel-receiver — architecture, design decisions, and how to run a Python-based OTel Collector receiver that unifies Tintri VMstore metrics with the rest of your observability pipeline.

Apr 24, 2026

Webinar – Integrating Tintri Data Management into Your OpenTelemetry Pipeline

Stop letting storage be a blind spot in your observability stack. Experts from Tintri and Integration Plumbers introduce a new, open-source OpenTelemetry Collector that brings granular Tintri storage metrics into your existing monitoring tools.

Apr 15, 2026

Webinar – How to Leverage Observability 3.0 Through OpenTelemetry

Moving beyond basic telemetry to turn OpenTelemetry data into real operational intelligence. Presented by Integration Plumbers and Edge Delta.

Mar 31, 2026

The Evolution of Observability: From Dashboards to Intelligence

How observability has evolved from siloed metrics and manual correlation to intelligent, pipeline-driven operations, and why observability in the AI era demands a new approach to telemetry.

Mar 23, 2026

Simulation Testing for OpenTelemetry: Why Mocks Aren't Enough for Fleet-Scale Collectors

How we built a fully self-contained Rivian API simulator in Python to catch bugs that mocks and stubs miss, and how to integrate simulation testing into your CI/CD workflows.

Mar 11, 2026

Why Tintri Chose the Integration Plumbers to Bring OpenTelemetry to Data Management

How Integration Plumbers partnered with Tintri to build a production-quality OpenTelemetry Collector integration for VMstore data management systems.

Mar 9, 2026

The 6 Dimensions of Observability Maturity: Where Does Your Organization Stand?

A structured framework for evaluating observability maturity across instrumentation, pipeline architecture, cost management, vendor independence, incident response, and team readiness.

Mar 4, 2026

The Observability Blind Spots: Why Your Storage Infrastructure Is Invisible to OpenTelemetry

Most organizations have invested heavily in application-layer observability while leaving storage infrastructure uninstrumented — creating dangerous blind spots that extend incident response times.

Feb 23, 2026

Enterprise OpenTelemetry Adoption Playbook

Free guide: A practical framework for adopting OpenTelemetry in enterprise environments — architecture, rollout, and cost management.

Feb 21, 2026

Observability Cost Optimization Checklist

Free checklist: Actionable steps to reduce observability costs — control cardinality, optimize pipelines, and right-size your stack.

Feb 21, 2026

Webinar – How to Scale EV Fleet Monitoring Using Python Simulators and OTel

Learn how to build scalable EV fleet monitoring using Python simulators and OpenTelemetry for real-time vehicle telemetry.

Beyond Auto-Instrumentation: Building a Custom OpenTelemetry Collector with Python

Step-by-step guide to building a custom OpenTelemetry collector with Python, going beyond basic auto-instrumentation.

Feb 4, 2026

Taming the Data Explosion: A Guide to Managing Cardinality in OpenTelemetry

Learn to manage high-cardinality data in OpenTelemetry to control costs and maintain pipeline performance.

Jan 23, 2026

Webinar – Building a Custom OpenTelemetry (OTEL) Collector for Vehicle Telemetry | Python Tutorial

Python tutorial on building a custom OpenTelemetry collector for vehicle telemetry data collection and processing.

Webinar – Building an OTEL Collector for Rivian Vehicles

Webinar recap on building an OpenTelemetry collector for Rivian vehicle telemetry with real-world implementation details.

Prometheus Snap Pitfalls: How to Setup a Full Prometheus Server

Avoid common Prometheus snap installation pitfalls with this guide to setting up a full Prometheus monitoring server.

Jan 8, 2026

Monitoring Vs Observability with Oracle OCI Observability & Management

Understanding the difference between monitoring and observability using Oracle OCI Observability and Management.

Jan 27, 2025