Oracle Attention Log
Version 21c

General Information
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Purpose The following text is in the Oracle 21c online docs:

The attention log is a structured, externally modifiable file that contains information about critical and highly visible database events. Use the attention log to quickly access information about critical events that need action.

There is one attention log for each database instance. The attention log contains a pre-determined, translatable series of messages, with one message for each event. Some important attributes of a message are as follows:
  • Attention ID: A unique identifier for the message
  • Attention type: The type of attention message. Possible values are Error, Warning, Notification, or Additional information. The attention type can be modified dynamically
  • Message text
  • Urgency: Possible values are Immediate, Soon, Deferrable, or Information
  • Scope: Possible values are Session, Process, PDB Instance, CDB Instance, CDB Cluster, PDB (for issues in persistent storage that a database restart will not fix), or CDB (for issues in persistent storage that a database restart will not fix)
  • Target user: The user who must act on this attention log message. Possible values are Clusterware Admin, CDB admin, or PDB admin
  • Cause
  • Action
From an Oracle DBA standpoint ... rather than reviewing a massive amount of possibly irrelevant details in the alert log ... the attention log filters out what are likely to be the most critical matters that require review.
 
Demo (new 21c)
  [oracle@test21 log]$ pwd
/u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/test21db_iad25g/test21db/log

[oracle@test21 log]$ ls
attention attention.log ddl debug debug.log hcs hcs_test21db.log imdb test

[oracle@test21 log]$ more attention.log

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Starting ORACLE instance (normal) (OS id: 65129)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Additional Information Not Available",
"CAUSE" : "A command to startup the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1000",
"TIME" : "2020-12-11T18:04:18.224+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Shutting down ORACLE instance (immediate) (OS id: 65992)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Shutdown is initiated by sqlplus@test21 (TNS V1-V3). ",
"CAUSE" : "A command to shutdown the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1001",
"TIME" : "2020-12-11T18:06:00.820+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Starting ORACLE instance (normal) (OS id: 66162)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Additional Information Not Available",
"CAUSE" : "A command to startup the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1000",
"TIME" : "2020-12-11T18:06:23.521+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Shutting down ORACLE instance (immediate) (OS id: 68112)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Shutdown is initiated by sqlplus@test21 (TNS V1-V3). ",
"CAUSE" : "A command to shutdown the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1001",
"TIME" : "2020-12-11T18:09:46.677+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Starting ORACLE instance (restrict) (OS id: 68397)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Additional Information Not Available",
"CAUSE" : "A command to startup the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1000",
"TIME" : "2020-12-11T18:10:10.507+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Shutting down ORACLE instance (immediate) (OS id: 70673)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Shutdown is initiated by sqlplus@test21 (TNS V1-V3). ",
"CAUSE" : "A command to shutdown the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1001",
"TIME" : "2020-12-11T18:13:27.837+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Starting ORACLE instance (normal) (OS id: 71778)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Additional Information Not Available",
"CAUSE" : "A command to startup the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1000",
"TIME" : "2020-12-11T18:14:08.246+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Shutting down ORACLE instance (immediate) (OS id: 72636)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Shutdown is initiated by sqlplus@test21 (TNS V1-V3). ",
"CAUSE" : "A command to shutdown the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1001",
"TIME" : "2020-12-11T18:16:57.367+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Starting ORACLE instance (normal) (OS id: 74328)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Additional Information Not Available",
"CAUSE" : "A command to startup the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1000",
"TIME" : "2020-12-11T18:17:37.630+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Shutting down ORACLE instance (immediate) (OS id: 79507)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Shutdown is initiated by oraagent.bin@test21 (TNS V1-V3). ",
"CAUSE" : "A command to shutdown the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1001",
"TIME" : "2020-12-11T18:20:14.374+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Starting ORACLE instance (normal) (OS id: 80290)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Additional Information Not Available",
"CAUSE" : "A command to startup the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1000",
"TIME" : "2020-12-11T18:20:51.496+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Shutting down ORACLE instance (immediate) (OS id: 85804)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Shutdown is initiated by oraagent.bin@test21 (TNS V1-V3). ",
"CAUSE" : "A command to shutdown the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1001",
"TIME" : "2020-12-11T18:23:53.238+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Starting ORACLE instance (normal) (OS id: 86612)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Additional Information Not Available",
"CAUSE" : "A command to startup the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1000",
"TIME" : "2020-12-11T18:24:29.881+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Shutting down ORACLE instance (immediate) (OS id: 30583)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Shutdown is initiated by sqlplus@test21 (TNS V1-V3). ",
"CAUSE" : "A command to shutdown the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1001",
"TIME" : "2020-12-20T13:29:24.679+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Starting ORACLE instance (normal) (OS id: 32811)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Additional Information Not Available",
"CAUSE" : "A command to startup the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1000",
"TIME" : "2020-12-20T13:29:58.386+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Shutting down ORACLE instance (immediate) (OS id: 31931)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Shutdown is initiated by sqlplus@test21 (TNS V1-V3). ",
"CAUSE" : "A command to shutdown the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1001",
"TIME" : "2021-01-05T05:35:23.601+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Starting ORACLE instance (normal) (OS id: 36591)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Additional Information Not Available",
"CAUSE" : "A command to startup the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1000",
"TIME" : "2021-01-05T05:35:57.387+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Shutting down ORACLE instance (immediate) (OS id: 19263)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Shutdown is initiated by sqlplus@test21 (TNS V1-V3). ",
"CAUSE" : "A command to shutdown the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1001",
"TIME" : "2021-01-16T13:31:11.879+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Starting ORACLE instance (normal) (OS id: 24042)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Additional Information Not Available",
"CAUSE" : "A command to startup the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1000",
"TIME" : "2021-01-16T13:31:56.142+00:00"
}

{
"ERROR" : "GEN0 (ospid: 24229): terminating the instance due to ORA error 495",
"URGENCY" : "IMMEDIATE",
"INFO" : "Additional Information Not Available",
"CAUSE" : "The instance termination routine was called",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for more information relating to instance termination rectify the error and restart the instance",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1003",
"TIME" : "2021-01-17T02:19:27.281+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Starting ORACLE instance (normal) (OS id: 40569)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Additional Information Not Available",
"CAUSE" : "A command to startup the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1000",
"TIME" : "2021-01-17T02:19:40.353+00:00"
}

{
"ERROR" : "GEN0 (ospid: 40703): terminating the instance due to ORA error 495",
"URGENCY" : "IMMEDIATE",
"INFO" : "Additional Information Not Available",
"CAUSE" : "The instance termination routine was called",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for more information relating to instance termination rectify the error and restart the instance",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1003",
"TIME" : "2021-01-17T02:21:29.637+00:00"
}

{
"NOTIFICATION" : "Starting ORACLE instance (normal) (OS id: 43575)",
"URGENCY" : "INFO",
"INFO" : "Additional Information Not Available",
"CAUSE" : "A command to startup the instance was executed",
"ACTION" : "Check alert log for progress and completion of command",
"CLASS" : "CDB Instance / CDB ADMINISTRATOR / AL-1000",
"TIME" : "2021-01-17T02:21:40.683+00:00"
}
[oracle@test21 log]$

Related Topics
Database Security
Built-in Functions
Built-in Packages
DBMS_ADR
What's New In 21c
What's New In 23c

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