ADR is a file-based repository that stores database diagnostic data such as traces, dumps, the alert log, and health monitor reports. ADR's unified directory structure and a unified set of tools enable customers and Oracle Support to correlate and analyze diagnostic data across multiple instances and Oracle products.

Like Enterprise Manager, ADR creates and tracks incidents and problems to allow you to resolve issues.

• A problem is a critical error in the database. Critical errors manifest as internal errors, such as ORA-00600, or other severe errors, such as ORA-07445 (operating system exception) or ORA-04031 (out of memory in the shared pool).

• An incident is a single occurrence of a problem. When a problem (critical error) occurs multiple times, an incident is created for each occurrence. Incidents are timestamped and tracked in ADR. When an incident occurs, ADR sends a diagnostic incident alert to Enterprise Manager.