Christian,
There are lot of option which you can play around, for an example if you would wish to depricate(Supress) some of your messages which database is generating which you can do it from the error log by setting some customised option, also for any database troubleshooting mechanisms we always wish to see the information or message under database server error log and backup server log which is very useful.
Also if you run the backup or tran dump from cockpit/DB13 or from isql there will be entries in the backup server log with the % of completion(ex: Database <SID backed up 20% Complete,Database <SID backed up 40% Complete,Database <SID backed up 60% Complete.....)
Kindly have a look at Backup Server log as well, same path File Name: SID_BS.log 
Regards
Kiran K Adharapuram