Oracle -OIC- Optimize Oracle Integration Billing: How to Analyze Message Traffic with OCI Monitoring

Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC) now bills based on the maximum number of messages processed during any single hour of the day. This means that even if your workload is light for most of the day, a single traffic spike can drive up your daily cost.

In this blog post, I’ll walk you through how to analyze message traffic, detect usage bursts, and take proactive steps to optimize your billing using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Monitoring tools.

Step 1: Navigate to Message Metrics

Start by logging into your OCI Console, then navigate to:

Developer Services → Application Integration → Integration

Select Your Integration Instance

PrerequisiteYou must have the necessary permissions:

• Users with manage access to the OIC instance can view metrics automatically.

• Users with read-only access must be granted a policy that allows metric reading.

📘 Learn more about setting user roles and policies here.

Once access is in place, go to the "Metrics" tab to view an hourly breakdown of message usage. You can filter the data by the past 24 hours, 7 days, or a custom time range.

💡 Tip: If you’re unsure when your traffic peaks, start by viewing data from the last 7 days.

Step 2: Use OCI Metrics Explorer for Detailed Insights

For deeper analysis, use the Metrics Explorer:

Navigate to:Observability & Management → Monitoring → Metrics Explorer

Configure the Query:

• Compartment: Select the compartment where your OIC instance is deployed

• Metric namespace: oci_integration

• Metric name: TotalBilledMessageCount

• Interval: 1 hour

• Statistic: Max

• Metric dimensions: resourceName

• Dimension value: Your OIC instance name

Click “Update Chart” to visualize your message traffic trends.

Step 3: Interpret the Data

Use the chart to identify traffic patterns:

• Consistent peaks: Likely from scheduled batch flows — consider staggering them.

• Unexpected spikes: Check logs; these may be caused by retry loops or errors.

• Idle hours: These are great time windows for running non-critical flows.

Step 4: Set Up Alarms to Monitor Spikes

To stay proactive, create OCI Alarms that alert you when usage exceeds a defined threshold.

Example:

I configured an alarm to monitor when the TotalBilledMessageCount exceeds 50. It uses an existing Notification Topic to send an email alert.

This way, I’m immediately notified when usage spikes — giving me time to investigate and respond.

Final Tips for Cost Optimization

With hourly-level visibility into message traffic, you can take greater control of your Oracle Integration billing. Here are some best practices:

✅ Review usage patterns weekly

✅ Set up alarms for unusual spikes

✅ Spread out high-traffic flows to avoid billing peaks

Start monitoring today — and turn insight into savings.