Okay, so today I wanted to mess around with Oracle a bit, specifically trying to get this “Oracle Pillars” thing displayed. I’d seen it in some presentations and thought it looked pretty cool, plus I figured it might be useful for monitoring.
First, I had to find out what this “Oracle Pillars” thing actually was. After a bit of searching, I realized it’s part of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) dashboards. I already had an OCI account, so that was a good start.
Getting Started
I logged into my OCI console. Honestly, the first time I saw the interface, I felt a little lost, lots of options. But I knew I needed to find “Dashboards,” so I used the search bar at the top and typed it in. Easy enough, it popped right up.
Once I was in the Dashboards section, I clicked on “Create Dashboard”. I gave it a simple name like “My Oracle Pillars”.
Adding the Widgets
Now, this is where it got a little tricky. The dashboard was blank, and I needed to add the “pillars.” These are essentially widgets that show different metrics. I found the “Add Widget” button, and it presented me with a bunch of options, It took some exploring, as I wasn’t sure of the names.
I started by adding a few widgets that seemed relevant, things like “CPU Utilization,” “Memory Utilization,” and “Disk I/O.” I figured these were core components of any system. The widgets appeared on my dashboard, but they weren’t arranged like the “pillars” I’d seen.
Figuring Out the Layout
This is where I spent some time just playing around. I clicked and dragged the widgets, resized them, and experimented with different layouts. There wasn’t a specific “Oracle Pillars” template, so I had to build it myself, widget by widget.
I realized that I needed to group related metrics together. So, I put all the CPU-related widgets in one column, memory-related ones in another, and so on. I also adjusted the sizes to make them look like, well, pillars.
It was a lot of trial and error. I’d add a widget, move it around, resize it, and then decide if it fit. If not, I’d delete it and try something else.
I think I spent a good hour just fiddling with the layout until it started to resemble what I wanted. There’s no “magic button” to make it look perfect; you just gotta get your hands dirty.
The Final Result
Eventually, I had something that looked pretty good! It wasn’t exactly like the professional presentations, but it was functional and gave me a good overview of my Oracle instance’s performance. I had my “pillars” showing CPU, memory, disk, and network activity.
One thing I learned: patience is key! It’s not a one-click solution. You have to be willing to experiment and adjust things until you’re happy with the result. I also saved my dashboard, so I can always come back to it and make modifications later. I hope my own experience record can help you to get it.
