Chris Foot's Oracle10g Blog
The Passing of Lex de Haan
The Oracle community lost a valued contributor. Oracle author, presenter and educator Lex de Haan passed away after a battle with cancer. I intended to write about our Giant Eagle ASM test plan but it is important for me to take a few minutes to talk about Lex first. Look for my blog on our test plan in a day or two.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
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Let’s deviate from 10G EM R2 for a blog or two. As I mentioned in an earlier discussion, we are in the beginning stages of testing Oracle ASM here at Giant Eagle. I thought I would provide you with some general information on ASM and why we are interested in it. In my next blog, I’ll show you our ASM test plan.
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Monday, January 30, 2006
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I made the big-time! Tom Parrish recently interviewed me for a DBAZine Podcast. I think streaming audio Podcast’s are an exciting addition to the web experience. Tom and I talk about my newly received Oracle Ace title, technology advancements in the retail industry, blogging, outsourcing and the changing role of the DBA. Oh, and we also talk about what to do, and what NOT to do, when giving presentations.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
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One of the features that was missing in 10G R1 was a tool that allowed administrators to generate reports on system related information. 9I OEM's reporting feature could be described as somewhat rudimentary but it got the job done. That job was to quickly generate pre-created and AD-HOC reports using one, or more, database targets as input. Although 10G R1 is far superior to its 9I OEM counterpart, its reporting functionalities were limited.
10G Grid Control R2 comes to the rescue with a new reporting capability that makes 9I OEM's reporting capabilities pale in comparison. Let's face it, DBAs have too much to do. The less time we have to spend retrieving information we need to make decisions, the more time we have to make them.
_____10G Grid Control R2 comes to the rescue with a new reporting capability that makes 9I OEM's reporting capabilities pale in comparison. Let's face it, DBAs have too much to do. The less time we have to spend retrieving information we need to make decisions, the more time we have to make them.
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Monday, January 23, 2006
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Last week, we discussed 10G Grid Control R2’s feature that allows us to run host commands against multiple targets at the same time. 10G Grid Control R2 also provides an easy-to-use panel that allows administrators to run SQL scripts against multiple database targets simultaneously. Just like its host command counterpart, all we need to do is code up a SQL statement, choose a set of database targets, run the SQL against the multiple targets and review the output. Simple as can be.
Monday, January 16, 2006
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A weird combination of topics to start the New Year on but I think it is important for us to cover a few interesting enhancements contained in 10G R2 Enterprise Manager.
In addition, we are starting our official ASM (Automatic Storage Management) evaluation project . The end result of the project would be the conversion of 10.2 Terabytes of disk to Oracle ASM. Could make for a very interesting set of blogs, don't you think?
In addition, we are starting our official ASM (Automatic Storage Management) evaluation project . The end result of the project would be the conversion of 10.2 Terabytes of disk to Oracle ASM. Could make for a very interesting set of blogs, don't you think?
Monday, January 09, 2006
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This will be my last blog of 2005. I have been blogging on DBAZine for over a year now. I thought I would take one blog to quickly review where we have been and where we'll be going in 2006.
I intend to broaden our range of discussion topics in the upcoming year. But I also intend to dedicate numerous blogs to previously discussed topics including data warehouse administration, 10G Enterprise Manager and Oracle database 10G R2.
I intend to broaden our range of discussion topics in the upcoming year. But I also intend to dedicate numerous blogs to previously discussed topics including data warehouse administration, 10G Enterprise Manager and Oracle database 10G R2.
Monday, December 19, 2005
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This is a weird combination of topics. We are currently installing and configuring the latest and greatest release of Oracle’s enterprise-wide monitoring and administration toolset, 10G Grid Control R2. I am very excited about the new features and functionality that this new release provides. Before we get into the nitty-gritty details about the release’s new feature set, I thought I would take one blog to discuss some of the features we are interested in.
The other topic is a quick announcement to let you know that I am Oracle’s newest Ace. A title that I am very proud to have.
The other topic is a quick announcement to let you know that I am Oracle’s newest Ace. A title that I am very proud to have.
Monday, December 12, 2005
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I have always thought that a graphical display utility that compared performance statistics would be a worthwhile tool. You could compare the statistics captured from two sets of timelines and quickly identify the differences.
10G Grid Control provides a comparison utility that allows administrators to compare two sets of ADDM snapshots. Although it provides a very simple comparison at this time, it is certainly a step in the right direction. This blog will show you how to select the timelines and perform the comparison.
10G Grid Control provides a comparison utility that allows administrators to compare two sets of ADDM snapshots. Although it provides a very simple comparison at this time, it is certainly a step in the right direction. This blog will show you how to select the timelines and perform the comparison.
Monday, December 05, 2005
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Now that we have learned how to create Statspack-Style performance reports from Automatic Workload Repository snapshots, let’s run an ADDM task and an intelligent advisor or two and let 10G Grid Control do the diagnostic grunt work for us. As I ranted in my previous blog, ADDM and the intelligent advisors are the future of database performance analysis. The era of relying totally on DBA experience and expertise to tune Oracle is rapidly drawing to a close.
We'll create a not-so mythical performance problem and use the output from an ADDM task to provide us with the diagnostic information and recommendations we need to solve the issue. Along the way we'll look at some of the different features and functionality that ADDM offers.
We'll create a not-so mythical performance problem and use the output from an ADDM task to provide us with the diagnostic information and recommendations we need to solve the issue. Along the way we'll look at some of the different features and functionality that ADDM offers.
Monday, November 28, 2005
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This blog should be a quick and easy read. I will admit that this is a weird combination of topics. We are going to learn how to generate traditional, Statspack-style performance reports from the Automatic Workload Repository. This blog also contains my thoughts on the future of database tuning. And the future does NOT include administrators poring over reams of database statistics to tune Oracle databases.
I absolutely and firmly believe that ADDM and the intelligent advisors are the future of database performance analysis. In my next blog, we let Oracle do all of the tuning work for us when we generate an ADDM task from the same set of beginning and ending snapshot IDs.
I absolutely and firmly believe that ADDM and the intelligent advisors are the future of database performance analysis. In my next blog, we let Oracle do all of the tuning work for us when we generate an ADDM task from the same set of beginning and ending snapshot IDs.
Monday, November 21, 2005
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It looks like I am going to have to deviate from my intended topic of discussion for one blog. Oracle has recently announced 10G Express Edition with great fanfare. I thought that I would provide you with a quick overview of the product. We’ll then get back on track next week when I discuss 10G EM performance snapshot reports.
Monday, November 14, 2005
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Now that we have a good overview of 10G AWR snapshots, let’s continue our discussion by learning how to tailor the 10G AWR snapshot environment to meet our specific needs.
If you are like me, I’m sure you would rather learn how to use the performance statistics captured in the snapshots to monitor and tune your databases. But we must spend one blog learning how to configure 10G Grid Control to ensure that we have the information we need. We can’t tune if we don’t have adequate performance measurements!
If you are like me, I’m sure you would rather learn how to use the performance statistics captured in the snapshots to monitor and tune your databases. But we must spend one blog learning how to configure 10G Grid Control to ensure that we have the information we need. We can’t tune if we don’t have adequate performance measurements!
Monday, November 07, 2005
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Now that we have completed our discussion on the 10G EM Advisors, let’s take an in-depth look at the performance statistics capturing and reporting capabilities provided by 10G EM. Oracle 10G captures performance statistics on a periodic basis and stores the data in the Automatic Workload Repository. The individual statistic capture executions are called AWR Snapshots.
We’ll begin our discussion with a review of the 10G AWR snapshot environment. In a series of upcoming blogs will learn how to use AWR Snapshots to generate performance reports, compare two sets of performance statistics to one another, compare a captured set of statistics to a baseline and finally, how to preserve snapshot sets for future diagnostic use. When we are done with this series, you’ll be saying “Statspack, who needs THAT tired old tool anymore?"
We’ll begin our discussion with a review of the 10G AWR snapshot environment. In a series of upcoming blogs will learn how to use AWR Snapshots to generate performance reports, compare two sets of performance statistics to one another, compare a captured set of statistics to a baseline and finally, how to preserve snapshot sets for future diagnostic use. When we are done with this series, you’ll be saying “Statspack, who needs THAT tired old tool anymore?"
Monday, October 31, 2005
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We continue our discussion on the 10G Grid Control advisors. In this blog, I’ll provide you with a brief review of Automatic Undo Management in Oracle 10G. I’ll continue the discussion by showing you how to use the 10G Grid Control Automatic Undo Advisor to determine how much space you will need in your undo tablespace for a specified undo retention time period.
Monday, October 24, 2005
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Before we return to our series of blogs on 10G EM features and functionality, I think it is important for us to discuss the 10G Enterprise Manager Standalone Java Console. Previous blogs have contained information on troubleshooting 10G EM management server to agent communications. But what happens if the entire environment goes down and you still want to use a GUI version of the tool? In addition, the management server version of 10G EM currently does not provide the capability of administering some of Oracle’s advanced features such as streams, advanced queuing, etc..
This blog will show you how to install and configure the 10G Enterprise Manager Standalone Java Console. We’ll also compare and contrast the Java Console to its big brother that uses the management server and repository.
This blog will show you how to install and configure the 10G Enterprise Manager Standalone Java Console. We’ll also compare and contrast the Java Console to its big brother that uses the management server and repository.
Monday, October 17, 2005
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Before we return to our regularly scheduled 10G EM topics, I'd like to provide you with my opinions on Tom Kyte's latest book.
Monday, October 10, 2005
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This is the final blog of a three part series on troubleshooting 10G Grid Control agent to management server communication issues. I’ll start the discussion by summarizing a few key points from the previous two blogs.
I’ll also provide a few hints that will help you determine where to start the debugging process (management server or agent). I’ll complete this series by showing you how to activate detailed tracing on the agent and management server components. If you can’t identify the problem by analyzing error messages normally generated by the agents and management server, you’ll have to activate more detailed traces to gather additional diagnostic data.
I’ll also provide a few hints that will help you determine where to start the debugging process (management server or agent). I’ll complete this series by showing you how to activate detailed tracing on the agent and management server components. If you can’t identify the problem by analyzing error messages normally generated by the agents and management server, you’ll have to activate more detailed traces to gather additional diagnostic data.
Monday, October 03, 2005
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Let's continue our discussion on debugging 10G Enterprise Manager agent to management server communications. My last blog covered some of Giant Eagle's experiences with agent administration and troubleshooting. But the management agents are only one piece of the puzzle; the problem could also be on the management server. As a result, when debugging communication failures we must also spend some time reviewing diagnostic information generated by the 10G Grid Control management server environment.
Monday, September 26, 2005
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As we continue down our path of 10G Grid Control enlightenment, I thought it might be advantageous to deviate from our discussions on the advisors for yet another blog. Keeping the communications flowing between the agents and the management console can be somewhat tricky at times. I will admit that most of our issues were "self inflicted". If you are like us, you'll have to learn how to troubleshoot a problem or two until you gain experience.
We have been installing and administering the 10G agents for some time now and we think we have crested the top of the learning curve. Once you gain experience, the environment pretty works as advertised. I thought I would give you a few helpful facts on how to administer the agents and also provide you with some information on how we solved some of the problems we have encountered. In an upcoming blog I'll describe how to troubleshoot the management server.
We have been installing and administering the 10G agents for some time now and we think we have crested the top of the learning curve. Once you gain experience, the environment pretty works as advertised. I thought I would give you a few helpful facts on how to administer the agents and also provide you with some information on how we solved some of the problems we have encountered. In an upcoming blog I'll describe how to troubleshoot the management server.
Monday, September 19, 2005
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