We were in the process of discussing 10G Grid Control’s Segment Analyzer before being interrupted by a one terabyte table that I discussed in the last blog. In this blog, I’ll get back on track by reviewing the different alternatives we can use to reclaim wasted space in Oracle10G.

Since the Segment Analyzer and online shrink command were introduced in Oracle10G, I’ll spend a few minutes discussing how you can identify and shrink objects in pre-10G releases.

Consider this to be yet another "Stop the Presses Blog". I originally intended to discuss the different toolsets that DBAs can use to reclaim unused space allocated to Oracle objects. This installment was to be the follow-up to my previous blog on the Segment Analyzer. But we have hit an important milestone here at Giant Eagle, so I thought I would deviate from my intended topic for one blog.

If you have been following this series, you'll know that my unit is responsible for administering several large data warehouses. The warehouse that we most recently converted to 10G has a single, partitoned table that has just grown to one terabyte in size. The entire database is multiple terabytes and rapidly growing at hundreds (and hundreds) of MEGs per month. We estimate that within 2 years, the database will be close to 10 terabytes in size. I thought it might be interesting to interview our "big data" DBA, Jim Dojonovic. Jim is responsible for administering our data warehouses.

The 10G segment advisor identifies segments that have become fragmented as a result of update and delete operations. Oracle describes these objects as being sparsely populated. Not only do sparsely populated objects waste space but they can also contribute to SQL performance problems.

This blog will show you how to use the 10G segment advisor to identify sparsely populated segments. In my next blog, we'll discuss the different alternatives we can use to reclaim the wasted space.

The memory advisors can only be activated when 10G's automatic shared memory management feature is turned off. Since the memory advisors are pretty simple, I thought I would include a discussion on 10G's automatic shared memory management feature. So consider this blog to be your first "two for one special" from your friendly ex-Oracle instructor.

SQL tuning can be a real pain. I have been doing it for 15 years and it is still one of the most challenging parts of my job. I have always described SQL tuning as more of an art than a science. Hopefully, as the SQL Tuning Advisor matures, it will help transform a once time-consuming and arduous burden into just one more line item on a DBA’s “TODO” list. This blog presents an overview of 10G Grid Control’s SQL Tuning Advisor.

SQL Tuning Sets are stored groupings of SQL statemtents that can be used as input to the SQL Access Advisor and the SQL Tuning Advisor (next blog). If you intend to use 10G Grid Control to tune SQL, you'll be using SQL Tuning Sets. So, I’d like to spend a few minutes discussing them before we discuss the SQL Tuning Advisor.

We have reached the final blog on 10G R2 New Features. I think that after reading the last blog of this series, you'll agree that 10G R2 (like all new Oracle releases) contains a LOT of interesting and beneficial enhancements.

I'll get back on track in the next blog by discussing how to use 10G Enterprise Manager SQL Tuning Sets.

Oracle has recently announced that 10GR2 for Linux is available for download from their technical website. If you read my last blog, you will probably agree that this release has some pretty interesting and beneficial features. But there are a few more enhancements that we need to cover before we can call ourselves 10G R2 new features experts. So, let's forge ahead and continue our discussion on 10G Release 2.

OK, here comes another "Stop the Presses" blog. I intended to discuss the SQL Tuning Advisor, but Oracle 10G R2 intervened. Since Oracle is currently publicizing all of the features contained in the latest and greatest release of its flagship product, I thought it would be appropriate to spend a few blogs discussing them.

Rest assured, we will continue our discussion on the10G EM advisors once we have completed our review of 10G R2.

OK, let's continue our review of 10G Enterprise Manager's Advisors. In this blog, we turn our attention to the SQL Access Advisor (not to be confused with the SQL Tuning Advisor which is a totally different tool). We'll begin by reviewing the benefits that the SQL Access Advisor provides and finish with a quick demo of the tool.