In a few of my previous blogs, I provided instructions on how to use 10G Grid Control to run the SQL Tuning Advisor and the SQL Access Advisor. In this next couple of blogs, we’ll peel back the layers and find out exactly what happens when these utilities are executed.

In part one of this multi-part blog on the advisors, we take a look at how the SQL Tuning Advisor uses the optimizer to generate its tuning recommendations. We’ll also cover the types of recommendations it provides and how it comes to those conclusions.

10G provides so many automatic features that it should have been called 10A for Automatic. Over the course of this blog, I have covered many of the automated features that were introduced in Oracle's latest and greatest release. There are a couple of automatic features that I haven't covered yet that warrant further investigation. We'll discuss automatic undo retention tuning, automatic checkpoint tuning and automatically tuned multi-block reads.

Temporary tablespaces are used to store transient data, which Oracle defines as data that is only available for the duration of the session. The two main types of transient data is data stored in temporary tables and data that is generated by sort operations. Oracle provides temporary tablespaces that are optimized for storage of transient data.

Oracle10G allows administrators to group multiple temporary tablespaces together and assign them to users as a single unit. We'll begin our discussion on temporary tablespace groups by reviewing sort operations and temporary tablespaces, then continue with a discussion on 10G temporary tablespace groups.

We all know that the desired result of any tuning exercise is to reduce the amount of time that users spend performing database activities. Good tuners understand that the tuning process starts with an understanding of the problem then continues with the DBA collecting statistical information. Information collection begins at a global level and then narrows in scope until the problem is pinpointed.

Experienced DBAs often start their tuning efforts by selecting data from the V$ dynamic performance tables to view system-wide performance indicators. Thanks to Oracle 10G, we have two new views to add to our tuning arsenal. We’ll take a look at these two time model views in this blog and learn how we can use them to determine where the user processes are spending their time.

Readers of this blog know how important I think 10G Grid Control is to the future of Oracle database administration. DBAs must learn to leverage the intelligence built into the Grid Control product set to reduce the amount of time they spend administering, monitoring and troubleshooting Oracle databases.

That being said, there are times when you don't have access to a full blown, enterprise-wide Grid Control environment. Not to worry, Oracle also provides the 10G Database Control administration toolset. 10G Database Control can be used to effectively administer a single Oracle database. Although 10G Database Control might not have the enterprise-wide scope that Grid Control does, it does provide a very robust set of features and functions that are guaranteed to make database administrators more productive. This blog will provide you with a brief overview of the 10G Database Control product set. We'll also compare and contrast Database Control to its big brother, Grid Control.

I thought it might be interesting for those of us that don’t administer RAC environments on a daily basis to talk to someone that does. Scott Rupnik is one of our senior-level RAC administrators. Since we administer RAC implementations for many different customers, Scott has experience administering RAC ecosystems that use many different hardware, operating system and disk storage combinations.

This provides Scott with a unique skill set this is pretty rare in our profession. In addition, since Scott has a strong background in both database and operating system administration, he is able to provide us with insight on both of these two tightly coupled RAC components.

One of the benefits of working for a remote database services provider is the caliber of people you get to work with. We have some very talented people here at Contemporary Technologies (CTi) and I fully intend to leverage their expertise to improve the quality of this blog.

In addition, I now have access to a wide range of technologies and Oracle features. Since we provide services to many different companies, I will be able to expand the scope of this blog to cover a much wider spectrum of topics.

I’ll provide you with a quick preview of what is coming in the future. In my next blog, I’ll interview Scott Rupnik. Scott is our resident 10G RAC expert. We’ll discuss the benefits of 10G RAC and Scott will provide some helpful hints and tips on 10G RAC installation and administration.

Readers of this blog know that I rarely stray off topic. The intent of this blog to provide technical information to readers that is hopefully both informative and interesting.

That being said, I thought I would write one blog on my personal career path. A career path that will be different by the time my next blog is released. Rest assured that I intend to get back on topic as soon as ppssible.

I was going to show you how to schedule statistics gathering jobs manually in 10G Grid Control, but I just used a neat feature that I'd like to show you. 10G Grid Control R2 provides a Hang Analysis tool that helps administrators easily identify contention problems.

We recently used the Hang Analysis feature to quickly identify an application transaction that was blocking other transactions from successfully executing. I thought it might be beneficial for us to deviate from our intended topic of discussion to review 10G R2 Grid Control's Hang Analysis tool. This is one feature that I think you'll find to be VERY worthwhile!

Now that we understand how to set up maintenance windows, let’s take a look at 10G Grid Control’s (Enterprise Manager), default statistics gathering options. It is important that we understand what the options are and how to configure them. Only then can we determine if the automatic and manually executed statistics gathering jobs are configured to meet the needs of our individual database applications.