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11g Central

Oracle 11g database articles, tutorials and training for Database Administrators (DBAs)

Oracle 11g Security Features

Security and patches, security approaches, encryption, Transparent Data Encryption

Authenticating Users in Oracle Database 11g Using Proxy Authentication Methods : Oracle DBAs are responsible and accountable for many different areas of the database that they maintain. These areas include availability, recoverability, performance monitoring, accessibility and security. This poses a challenge for the DBAs since many applications use middle tier connections that make it difficult to access the end user information. To address these challenges, Oracle offers proxy authentication.

Oracle 11g Security – Guidelines for Auditing : Oracle focuses on the default settings for just about all of the security setup in "The Oracle 2-Day Security Guide". As we draw near the close of the book, we'll examine a few guidelines for auditing.

Creating a standard audit trail in Oracle Database 11g : Turning on auditing is easy; knowing what to do with it is entirely different. Learn how to create a standard audit trail using Oracle’s Enterprise Manager.

Setting default auditing as recommended by Oracle : If you don’t know where to start when setting Oracle auditing parameters, just start with what Oracle recommends. In this article, we set the default auditing as recommended by Oracle.

Getting started with standard auditing in Oracle Database 11g : Database auditing is big business. Are you ready for the challenge to pass an audit? This article begins with an introduction to Oracle’s standard auditing that we can build on to answer that question.

Secure Sockets Layer and Oracle 11g Security : In an Oracle environment, much of the communication between client and server is unsecured and clear-text. Learn how Oracle Advanced Security and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) can be used to tighten security for both network traffic and for communication between user and database.

Securing Client Connections: OS Authentication : Connection to an Oracle database, using operating system authentication has come under fire for providing loopholes in security. You be the judge.

Securing Oracle Database Client Connections : Connection methods to Oracle databases have remained relatively static over the years. Unfortunately, governmental regulations and would-be attackers have not stood still. Join us as we begin a look at securing client connections.

Explicit GRANTs and ROLES in Oracle Database 11g : Many database shops have no idea of the security breaches that occur across user granted privilege and floating unused synonyms. James Koopmann offers tips for granting privileges explicitly to a user or group of users, and assigning privileges to a role and then granting that role to users.

Oracle 11g Object privileges and synonym usage : Many security breaches occur across user granted privileges and floating unused synonyms. That being said, the question becomes, how can we get a handle on this. Read on to learn more...

Oracle 11g Security – The Power of PROFILES : Using profiles for password management is an effective way to restrict unsolicited database usage. Every DBA should verify the password restrictions and setup an appropriate number of profiles for the groups or types of users within the database.

Oracle 11g Security – Those Pesky Predefined Accounts : How many users do you have in your database? Are they all being used? Come for a ride as we trim down the installed base of Oracle default users.

Oracle 11g Security – Securing the Data Dictionary : Protecting the data dictionary is quite easy. Follow along as we examine various methods.

Oracle 11g Security – Enabling default security settings : James Koopmann peeks into the 'Oracle Database 2 Day + Security Guide', walking through each topic and sharing insight on what he finds.

Oracle 11g Development

Development Languages, Tables, Globalization, Ordering Events, SQL, SQL*Plus.

Query Tactics Questions for the PL/SQL Developer Job Interview : James Koopmann shares five common issues that could get you into trouble when writing PL/SQL (and SQL), and how you might answer those questions within the confines of a PL/SQL job interview.

User Defined Encryption Questions for Your Next PL/SQL Developer Job Interview : Security is big business these days, putting additional stress on DBAs and developers to develop methods of securing corporate information resources. James Koopmann shares his top 7 user defined encryption questions for the PL/SQL Developer.

Addressing Security in Your Next PL/SQL Developer Job Interview : Security, in general, is big business these days and to ace that interview you need to at least know the basics. This article discusses encryption and how Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) & Transparent Tablespace Encryption (TTE) work.

Top 10 Performance Questions for Your Next PL/SQL Developer Job Interview : All too often, database developers are under such extreme pressure to write code that they forget about the performance aspects. This set of interview questions addresses the concerns that a hiring manager might have concerning the performance of the code you write.

Preparing for the OCA Exam from a DB2 LUW DBA Perspective : Can a DB2 DBA learn Oracle? Discover the hurdles one DB2 DBA must overcome as she prepares to take the Oracle Certified Associate Examination.

Top 10 PL/SQL Developer Job Interview Questions to Demonstrate Your Coding Skill : Understanding data structures, data types, and code fragments all play a very important piece in understanding PL/SQL code. James Koopman helps you put these code pieces together to better demonstrate your skill and foresight on that job interview.

Top 5 SQL Questions for an Oracle Database PL/SQL Job Interview : Interviewing for a PL/SQL developer position may turn into a quiz, specifically about writing SQL and extracting information from a set of tables. The following questions are actual questions the author has been asked when interviewing for both a DBA position and a PL/SQL developer position.

Top 9 Database Object Tips You Need to Know for Your Next PLSQL Job Interview : Interviewing for a PL/SQL developer position ultimately will turn towards talking about database structures and objects. This article goes beyond the basic table and index questions that you might expect and offers a tip or two designed to impress the interviewer.

Top 5 Basic Concept Job Interview Questions for Oracle Database PL/SQL Developers : James Koopman discusses how to give/take/study for an Oracle Database PL/SQL developer position, with a look at the top five questions he would ask potential Oracle Database PL/SQL Developers to help assess his/her basic knowledge.

Getting Oracle VM VirtualBox Ready for an Oracle Database : Everyone wants to go virtual, but getting started with Oracle’s VM VirtualBox can be tricky. James Koopmann takes a quick look at installing Oracle VM VirtualBox 3.2.4, covering some of the features you as a database administrator or database developer might run across while trying to install an operating system or Oracle database.

Building an Oracle (and other RDBMS) Server Environment : In previous articles discussing Oracle and VMware, the hardware and software components consisted of a Windows-based PC and the Oracle RDBMS. Steve Callan expands upon the "Oracle in a virtualized environment" concept by looking at other alternatives for the hardware and software.

VMware and Oracle Setup Examples – Part 2 : This installment of " VMware and Oracle Setup Examples" covers installing Oracle Enterprise Linux, connecting Windows to Windows and connections in general.

VMware and Oracle Setup Examples : With VMware at your disposal, there is practically no reason you cannot gain experience on all of the major operating systems supported by Oracle.

So what is an Oracle Nested Table? : James Koopmann takes some of the confusion out of Oracle nested tables with this step by step approach to create a table with a nested table.

Oracle 11g Administration

Database administration, Materialized Views, Database Migration, Replication, Automatic Storage Management (ASM)

Using Oracle Alerts : We take a look at some of the alerting concepts and settings available within Oracle Database 11g.

Exploring Oracle GoldenGate - Creating Dump Files : In addition to performing replication, GoldenGate can also be used to dump the contents of a table into a formatted file.

Learning Oracle GoldenGate : Steve Callan takes a look at configuring Oracle GoldenGate and discusses what takes place within Oracle GoldenGate in terms of how data gets from the source database to the target database.

Three Steps to Configuring Oracle for Automatic Database Monitoring : The homegrown automatic monitoring of an Oracle database often results in time consuming, resource intensive tactics, in terms of DBA hours and development costs. A more elegant way to monitor database performance automatically is Oracle's Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor (ADDM). James Koopmann gets you started by showing you how to configure ADDM.

A Guide to 4KB Sector Support for Oracle Files : DBAs must decide what the standard database block size should be when they first creat a new Oracle database. It is virtually impossible to change the standard block size once the database is created, without recreating the entire database. Karen Reliford explains how to create tablespaces with different block sizes.

Replication in Oracle: Streams vs. GoldenGate : Steve Callan offers an overview of Oracle Streams and GoldenGate, comparing topology similarities and differences.

The Top 5 Changes in Oracle Database 11g R2 RAC : Five main changes have been incorporated into Oracle Database 11g RAC with the introduction of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure product. These changes include installing and working with Grid Infrastructure, Single Client Access Names (SCAN), RAC One Node, Automatic Workload Balancing and the ASM Cluster File System (ACFS). Read on to learn more.

Monitoring an Oracle Database Automatically : Automatic monitoring of an Oracle database often results in time consuming, resource intensive tactic, in terms of DBA hours. A more elegant way to monitor database performance automatically is Oracle's Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor (ADDM). ADDM captures and analyzes statistical data in the Automatic Workload Repository to determine if potential performance related database issues exist.

Oracle GoldenGate Fundamentals : Oracle Corp. has acquired so many companies of late that it's getting to be a job to keep up with things. GoldenGate is one of the products you'll want to stay on top of. It's still kind of under the radar, but it's going to be big. Really big.

Using the Oracle Performance Method : Statistics are at the core of determining whether your performance tuning efforts are working or not. James Koopmann dives into performance methodologies, specifically Oracle's performance method, to give us a better understanding of how to tune a database with statistics.

Performance Tuning Oracle Database: Identifying and Evaluating I/O Bottlenecks : This article illustrates the wealth of I/O performance tuning information that Oracle 11gR2’s Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) reports provide, how to use that information to determine if any I/O performance bottlenecks actually exist, and how to form initial hypotheses to resolve those bottlenecks within the database’s underlying input/output (I/O) subsystem.

Top 5 Technologies for the Oracle DBA : A DBA is expected to know the basics of database administration, but to be successful, proficiency in more advanced database administration is required. Read on to learn the top 5 skill areas for the advanced DBA.

Methods of Oracle Database Performance Tuning : Some good to great database products exist to help you tune your database, while others are not so good; but regardless of the tool, it is imperative that you understand some form of tuning methodology first.

Getting Ready to Tune Your Oracle Database : A DBA's role often revolves around tuning the database. This in itself can be a very daunting task. A checklist of DBA tasks can be quite handy. James Koopmann shares some performance tuning activities that a DBA needs to know and that will often be part of a solution to remedy a database performance problem.

Intra-Database Performance Testing With Benchmark Factory : Even though Oracle 11g Release 2 makes it easy to identify potential root causes of poor I/O performance, most DBAs have found that tuning the I/O performance of an Oracle database is still just as much art as science. Learn how to use Quest’s Benchmark Factory to construct and execute TPC-E and TPC-H workloads against an Oracle database, and how isolate the sources of I/O performance bottlenecks.

Oracle Database I/O Performance Tuning: Generating Intra-Database Workloads : While Oracle Database 11gR2 provides some excellent tools to drill down to the potential root causes of poor I/O performance, generating a standard, consistent, and repeatable I/O workload is crucial for fair comparisons. This article discusses which Transaction Processing Council (TPC) sample schema(s) are available, and which one(s) are most appropriate for evaluation of a database system’s underlying input/output (I/O) subsystem.

Accessing SQL Server from an Oracle Database : Setting up a connection to Oracle Database from SQL Server is fairly easy, but the opposite is not so true. Steve Callan walks you through a complete example of how to access SQL Server from Oracle Database using, named Database Gateways (Oracle's new and improved method).

Oracle Database I/O Performance Tuning: Capturing Extra-Database I/O Performance Metrics : Before tuning an Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11gR2) for optimal I/O performance, it's important to understand how well the underlying I/O architecture is performing versus its expected I/O rates. This article explores how to implement a suitable extra-database I/O performance test and then capture the actual I/O performance results.

Understanding SQL Plan Baselines in Oracle Database 11g : SQL Plan Baselines are a new feature in Oracle Database 11g that helps to prevent repeatedly used SQL statements from regressing because a newly generated execution plan is less effective than what was originally in the library cache. Read on to learn more...

Examining the Oracle Database 10053 Trace Event Dump File : Ever wonder what the Oracle Database Cost Based Optimizer (CBO) was doing behind the scenes or how it comes up with an execution plan? While other tools or settings show us WHAT the CBO comes up with, the 10053 trace event setting tells us HOW the CBO came to its decision (the final execution plan).

I/O Performance Tuning Tools for Oracle Database 11gR2 : Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11gR2) makes it easier than ever to isolate and identify potential root causes of poor I/O performance. This article focuses on the various Oracle and non-Oracle tools to generate sample workloads to provide sufficient metrics for detection and eventual resolution of performance bottlenecks within the database’s underlying input/output (I/O) subsystem.

Solve Database Performance Tuning Problems by Monitoring CPU Resource Consumption : Constantly watching CPU utilization is critical to a database administrator's understanding of their database system. The sar utility, while seemingly small and insignificant can and should be used to help initially determine if any high-level CPU resource usage is out of balance, potentially signaling a database performance tuning problem.

Purchasing Oracle Database Support for your Own Use : Oracle's software is freely available for personal use but you'll have to pay for access to technical notes, patches, and other specialized content. Plus, there's a technical/legal catch; you can't use My Own Support to find database articles under a different product license. In terms of compliance, you really need a database product. Enter Oracle Database Personal Edition.

Regain Control of Your Oracle Database with DBMS_METADATA_DIFF : Oracle Database change control is always difficult even under the best scenarios. Using Oracle's DBMS_METADATA_DIFF becomes a great weapon for a database administrator to regain control.

Oracle Database 11gR2 I/O Performance Tuning: A Primer : Tuning the performance of Oracle Database 11gR2 is still just as much of an art as it is a science. Jim Czuprynski focuses on the detection and analysis of performance bottlenecks within the database's underlying input/output (I/O) subsystem.

Installing Oracle Database Sample Schemas using Data Pump : Having a re-usable dump file for installing Oracle Database Sample Schemas is much more convenient than the current method. Would you rather download a compressed file containing one (or several) dump files, including a parameter file suitable for use during an import session or job or use the Oracle Universal Installer?

PL/SQL Records for Oracle Database Administrators : It can be hard, as an Oracle Database administrator, to expand your PL/SQL skills due to a lack of good examples, not to mention that lines upon lines of syntax definitions can be somewhat of a turn-off. Steve Callan shows how using PL/SQL records can simplify what you have to code - and they're easy to use too.

Little Known Uses for Oracle Database's Error Tool : Oracle Database's Oracle Error messaging system is often forgotten but can become a staple for many Database Administrators.

Leveraging ACFS Snapshots and Cluster Infrastructure in Oracle Database 11gR2 : Jim Czuprynski illustrates how to upgrade an Oracle Database 11gR1 quickly and efficiently to Oracle Database 11gR2 and place its database files within ASM-managed storage, including a brief demonstration of how ACFS snapshots can be used to recover quickly from human error when crucial components of an Oracle home are damaged or destroyed.

Setting Up Oracle Database's Oracle Text : Steve Callan walks through some Oracle Text setup steps and working examples of different index types used by Oracle Text.

Oracle Database's ADRCI: the Extended Commands : Oracle's ADRCI extended commands provide valuable scripting and file viewing options, with about two dozen commands that you can use to look at and manage diagnostic information.. ADR is the future of Oracle diagnostics and it's essential that database administrators understand it.

Oracle Text - Expanding Your String Searching Capabilities in Oracle Database : Searching for text within a database can be like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Users depend on the database administrator to solve complex text search requirements. Do you respond with clever methods such as LIKE, regular expressions and function-based indexes? Is there something more available to you and your users?

Oracle Database's ADRCI : Reading the Old Alert Log and Listener Log : Oracle Database's ADR Command Interpreter is a great for the new XML logs but let's not forget about the old style logs as ADRCI can do a few things with them as well. Read on to learn more...

SQL Server Management Features vs Oracle Database Management Features : The usefulness and utility of the SQL Server Agent cannot be overstated. Oracle Database supports the automatic starting of an instance, so whatever is associated with the Oracle instance can also be started along with the instance. The same holds true with the SQL Server instance and its agent service.

Using Oracle Database's 11gR2 New ASM Features During ASM Migration : Oracle Database 11gR2 offers several new Automatic Storage Management features for managing both Oracle database files as well as files stored within its new ASM Clustered File System. This article illustrates how to upgrade an Oracle database quickly and efficiently from version 11gR1 to 11gR2 and then migrate all of its database files so they’re resident within ASM-managed storage.

Purging Oracle Database's Alert Log with ADRCI; usage and warning : Oracle Database's ADR purge command is superior for purging alert log entries. Just be forewarned on how to actually use it since the desired or perceived outcome is not always apparent.

Top Ten Oracle Database to IBM DB2 Enablement Tips for DBAs : With IBM DB2 9.7's new compatibility and enablement features, DBAs tasked with moving Oracle databases to DB2 will find out-of-the-box "enablement" functionality that streamlines tasks and fast tracks time to completion.

Mapping SQL Server Management Features to Oracle Database : DBAs often need to learn where features of their system can be found on other systems. Steve Callan explores mapping SQL Server replication and management features back into Oracle Database.

Oracle Database 11gR2: Building an ASM Clustered File System (ACFS) : Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11gR2) integrates a new ASM-based file system -- the ASM Clustered File System -- that offers the ability to store files other than database specific files like online redo logs, control files, and datafiles. This article demonstrates how to install and configure a new Oracle 11g Release 2 (11gR2) Grid Infrastructure home as the basis for the majority of these grid computing features.

Mapping SQL Server Features to Oracle Database : Database administrators are often faced with the need to learn where features of his/her system live or reside on a less familiar system. Steve Callan approaches this need by mapping SQL Server features back into Oracle Database.

Alert Log Scraping with Oracle’s ADRCI Utility : Oracle’s new ADR with command interface shows promise for database administrators who like to script their own solution for quickly scraping the alert log and automatically looking for errors.

Eight Reasons Why Oracle’s Acquisition of Sun isn't All Bad : Much has been said about why Oracle acquired Sun, how it will be the demise of the free world and produce a one-world database monopoly. While there is probably a little truth in the statement, we should keep in mind that much of what is happening can be beneficial for the end customer.

Oracle Database to SQL Server Comparisons : One of the initial obstacles a database administrator encounters is learning where features of his/her system live or reside on a less familiar system. Steve Callan approaches this feature comparison by taking SQL Server and mapping its features back into Oracle.

Oracle Database Archive Logging -- Where are my archive logs? : Archive log destinations can be tricky when defining or viewing in Oracle Database. Stick to a few common rules and never get lost.

Oracle Database 11gR2: Installing Grid Infrastructure : Jim Czuprynski demonstrates how to install and configure a new Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11gR2) Grid Infrastructure home as the basis for the majority of the grid computing features that were only available in a Real Application Clusters (RAC) clustered database environment in previous releases.

Oracle DBA Job Interview - Nailing a Fairly Common Question : While not that technical in nature, this one question gives you an opportunity to list reasons or possibilities of a technical nature, which in turn allow you to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of how Oracle Database works, and perhaps in this case, how it may not be working.

Pay Attention to your Oracle Database Archive Logging Function : Ignore your archive logging function and your Oracle database will soon become crippled and unusable. Learn how to pay attention, starting with ensuring that Automatic archival is Enabled, how to switch into archive log mode if it's not enabled and how to locate where redo logs are archived.

Configuring Oracle as a Data Source for SQL Server : Discover what happens within SQL Server during and after configuring Oracle as a data source. Quite a few objects are created, including a system-level database, numerous jobs running under the SQL Server agent, and flat files created on the file system. Read on to learn more.

When tuning Oracle is not an option : Before you start monitoring your Oracle database, make sure you understand some of the behind-the-scenes issues of using Oracle monitoring.

Leveraging Logical Standby Databases in Oracle 11g Data Guard : Oracle Data Guard still offers support for the venerable logical standby database in Oracle Database 11g. This article, investigates how data warehouse and data mart environments can effectively leverage logical standby database features, but simultaneously provide a final destination when failover from a primary database is mandated during disaster recovery.

Setting up Oracle as a Data Source for SQL Server : The requirements for setting up Oracle as a data source for SQL Server include some obstacles and one major showstopper. Read on to learn a work-a-round that allows you to continue the setup.

Oracle as a Data Source : This article takes a quick look at Oracle database's materialized view and extends the concept of that feature to a case where Oracle is the data source for another relational database management system.

Printing Barcodes in Oracle Reports : No, really, you may have to do this one day: enable the use of barcodes in Oracle Reports. Is this a database administration or administrator responsibility?

Fast-Start Failover in Oracle 11g Data Guard : Learn how to set up and control automatic failover using the Fast-Start Failover Observer, so that DBA intervention is no longer required during a disaster recovery scenario.

Performing Database Failover with Oracle 11g Data Guard : This article - the sixth in this ongoing series - explores how to manually fail over a production database to its corresponding physical standby database, as well as reinstate a "failed" primary database to a physical standby.

Using Oracle 11g's Active Data Guard and Snapshot Standby Features : This article - the fifth in this ongoing series - illustrates how Oracle 11g's new snapshot standby features leverage a physical standby database for application quality assurance testing, including the new Real Application Testing suite.

Data Guard: Backup, Recovery, and Active Data Guard : Oracle Data Guard makes it possible to back up a production database using a valid physical standby database as the target for the backups, and those same backups can be used to restore and recover a production database. This article demonstrates how Oracle Database 11g expands these features to virtually guarantee against any data losses...

Oracle 11g Data Guard: Grid Control Management : Oracle Database 11g offers several enhancements to the Oracle Data Guard feature set that helps an Oracle DBA to manage a complex, multi-database disaster recovery environment. This article explores how to set up Data Guard Broker for simpler configuration, monitoring and maintenance of Oracle 11g primary and standby databases.

Configuring Data Guard Broker : Oracle Database 11g offers several enhancements to the Oracle Data Guard feature set that helps an Oracle DBA to manage a complex, multi-database disaster recovery environment. This article explores how to set up Data Guard Broker for simpler configuration, monitoring and maintenance of Oracle 11g primary and standby databases.

Oracle 11g Data Guard: Building a Physical Standby Database : Oracle Database 11g expands disaster recovery features dramatically to include the capability to keep a standby database open for read-only queries while still accepting change vectors from the primary database. Jim Czuprynski explains how to set up a standby database environment using Oracle 11g's new Recovery Manager features.

What’s in an Oracle Schema? : A fairly common question on Oracle Q&A forums is how to identify schemas within a database. Many times, a quite misleading answer is to query owner names from DBA_TABLES. This answer is only correct for those schemas (owners) who own tables.

Changing the Word Size in Oracle : Changing the word size in Oracle appears to be pretty simple, but this is one of those situations where doing some additional digging into support notes can alleviate to outright prevent some problems down the road. Read on to learn more...

Oracle Health Checks with Health Monitor; Using PL/SQL or ADR : Learn how to use health checks to stay on top of corruption in your Oracle database.

Oracle's ADR Command Interpreter (ADRCI) – Part 3 : Oracle's new ADR with command interface shows promise for DBAs to quickly investigate diagnostic information.

Oracle's ADR Command Interpreter (ADRCI) – Part 2 : Oracle's new ADR with command interface shows promise for DBAs to quickly investigate diagnostic information.

Oracle’s ADR Command Interpreter – Part I : Oracle’s new ADR with command interface shows promise as a way for DBAs to quickly investigate diagnostic information.

Looking at Memory Usage for Oracle Processes : When an Oracle instance starts, or an application uses the Oracle database, the associated Oracle processes are allocated and consume memory. Learn how to use the V$PROCESS view and V$PROCESS_MEMORY to look at this memory usage.

Oracle Database 11g – Common Background Processes : To understand Oracle background processes is to understand how Oracle works--offering opportunity to tune effectively. Learn about the processes that are typically running after a fresh, common, and basic installation.

Oracle Indexing - What, Where, When? : If you are new to databases, or perhaps new to Oracle, you may find the discussion on indexes and indexing strategy complicated. Don't fret. To get started it's fairly straightforward, and as long as you pay attention to the options relevant to day-to-day DBA needs, it should remain fairly simple.

Oracle 11g Real Application Clusters (RAC)

Oracle Database 11g RAC: Single Client Access Name (SCAN) : Single Client Access Name (SCAN), a new feature of Oracle Database 11g RAC databases, will save DBAs some time and effort when they are changing the structure of their RAC databases.

Migrate to Oracle RAC One Node : Learn how to implement Oracle RAC One Node on Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.

Oracle RAC 64 bit for Windows: Preparing the Virtual environment : Part 4 of this series covers installing Oracle 11g RAC on a 64 bit Windows system using Windows 2003 Service Pack 2.

Open Source Virtualization: Oracle VM Manager Installation : Part three of this series covers how to install the Oracle VM Manager on your Workstation skeleton.

Open Source Virtualization: Oracle VM enters the Virtualization arena : Part 2 of this series covers downloading Oracle VMServer, VM Manager and VM Source Files, converting the Oracle VM files into ISO files, creating an ESX compatible skeleton and installing the Oracle VM.

Installing Oracle 11g RAC on VMware ESX 3i - Part1 : This article covers installing Oracle 11g RAC on the VMware workstation in ESX 3.x compatibility mode, in anticipation of the release of ESX 3i.

Using Orion Calibration to check I/O numbers : Orion is an I/O metrics testing tool, designed specifically to simulate the I/O workload before installing Oracle RAC on the hardware. It is ideal for capacity planning and checking DAS, SAN or NAS storage. Read on to learn more.

Oracle 11g Performance Features

Looking at Real-Time Database Performance : A look at Oracle Enterprise Manger (OEM) and performance issues.

Installing Oracle Enterprise Manager (Grid Control Component) : Learn how to install the Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control component on Windows 2003 Server.

Installing Oracle Enterprise Manager (WebLogic Server Component) : Two major prerequisites for installing Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) are having an existing, certified Oracle Database and an installation of Oracle WebLogic Server. Steve Callan shows you the steps performed for database preparation and for installation of Oracle WebLogic Server.

The New and Improved Oracle Enterprise Manager : Learn what's new in Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g, and how you will benefit by learning to use it.

New Features for Oracle Database 11g Table Partitioning : Table partitioning can help DBAs key database performance areas including i/o balancing, contention reduction, SQL statement performance improvements and even data availability. New table partitioning methods found in Oracle Database 11g can be implemented to help to achieve some of these goals.

Monitoring Oracle Database 11g R2 with Oracle Enterprise Manager : Simplify the monitoring of queries in Oracle Database with Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM). Learn how to analyze query related activity and reach a definitive conclusion of database performance.

To Partition or Not to Partition in E-Business Suite : As a database administrator, there are two kinds of databases you are likely to own: those you design and those you inherit. This article looks at what takes place during the design phase, and then applies the lessons learned to a real world implementation, courtesy of Oracle E-Business Suite.

SQL Performance Analyzer : Any activity that may impact a statement's execution plan is a candidate for using SPA to investigate the possible consequences - both good and bad. Steve Callan discusses the workflow and provides a working example.

ADDM Enhancements in Oracle Database 11g : This article illustrates how Oracle Database 11gR1 has expanded ADDM to encompass Real Application Clusters (RAC) database tuning at the global level and provided the ability to filter out previously identified performance issues from any ADDM analysis report.

Optimizer Hints in Oracle 11g (and hint overkill) : Oracle has many hints to choose from; know what they are and how they are different from one another before tossing them into production.

Intro to Oracle's Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) : Oracle's Automatic Workload Repository improves quite a lot on the previous statspack; it installs automatically, has some fairly reasonable default settings, and brings us Active Session History as well. Read on to learn more...

Oracle Database 11g: Adaptive Cursor Sharing : This article discusses a new Oracle Database 11gR1 feature - Adaptive Cursor Sharing - and illustrates how to use it in practical situations to limit hard parsing of SQL statements with bind variables while increasing the relative execution efficiency of those statements.

Oracle Database 11g: PLSQL and OCI Result Set Caching : Oracle Database 11gR1 offers several new performance enhancements that limit "round trips" between database server, application servers, and applications when the identical data is required. The final article in this series explores how the latest release of Oracle extends the ability to cache result sets to applications and PL/SQL functions.

Oracle Database 11g: SQL Query Result Set Caching : This article - the first in this series - delves into how the result set from a SQL query result set can be retained in the database's Shared Pool for later access by a similar or identical query in the immediate future.

Oracle Database 11g: Database Replay, Part 3 : The final article in this series illustrates how to use Oracle Database 11gR1's new Database Replay (DBR) features to capture and prepare a workload from a current Oracle 10gR2 single-instance database environment and then replay that identical workload in an Oracle 11gR1 Real Application Clusters (RAC) testing environment.

Oracle Database 11g: Database Replay, Part 2 : Part 2 of this series - demonstrates how Oracle 11g Database Replay can be used to capture and prepare a workload from a current Oracle 11g production database environment (P+0) and then replay that identical workload in an Oracle 11g testing environment that represents the next iteration (P+1) of the database system.

Oracle Database 11g: Database Replay, Part 1 : This article provides a primer for using Oracle 11g Database Replay to effectively predict the performance of rapidly changing applications within increasingly fluid database environments.

Oracle Database 11g: SQL Plan Management, Part 3 : The final article in this series illustrates how to use SPM to limit unexpected regression of existing SQL statement performance before those statements first encounter Oracle 11g’s cost-based optimizer.

Oracle Database 11g: SQL Plan Management, Part 2 : Part 2 of this series explains how SQL Plan Management can be used during the upgrade of an existing Oracle 10gR2 database to an Oracle 11g environment, as well as during the deployment of brand new application code, to effectively limit unexpected regression of SQL statement performance.

Oracle Database 11g: SQL Plan Management, Part 1 : This article - the first in this series - provides a primer to SQL Plan Management principles and offers a simple demonstration of its performance tuning capabilities.

Oracle Database 11g: SQL Performance Analyzer, Part 3 : This article - the final one in this series- explores how the SQL Performance Analyzer can effectively analyze changes in SQL statement performance due to modified database initialization parameters.

Oracle Database 11g: SQL Performance Analyzer, Part 2 : This article - the next in a series on new Oracle Database 11g SQL performance improvement features - discusses how to use the SQL Performance Analyzer to evaluate a SQL workload generated from an Oracle 10gR2 database to detect potential performance issues for that workload if it were executed within an Oracle 11g database system.

Oracle Database 11g: SQL Performance Analyzer, Part 1 : This article – the first in a series on new Oracle Database 11g SQL performance improvement features – reviews how to set up and utilize these features and provides a simple simulation of how SQL Performance Analyzer can detect changes to an Oracle 11g database system.

Oracle 11g Tools, Features and Enhancements

New tools, features and enhancements in Oracle 11g.

What's New in Oracle Application Express : APEX is only getting better with time. If you need a web-based application or interface into your data, and want to empower developers and end-users (in terms of letting them do more with less overhead), APEX is the way to go.

Oracle OpenWorld 2010: The Buzz From the (Exhibition) Floor : Jim Czuprynski reports not only on the keynotes and announcements from OOW 2010, but also on what the DBAs on the exhibition floor were saying--what impressed them and what concerns they had for the future of their existing systems.

What Every DBA Ought to Know About Oracle Application Express : Should DBAs be overly concerned about Oracle Application Express (APEX)? The answer to this question is YES! APEX is used for rapid application development (RAD) to create web enabled applications that run against an Oracle database.

Flashback Vs. Recovery in Oracle Database : If you consider "normal" recovery as anything having to do with RMAN (and what it replaced), then you're actually limiting yourself in terms of what Oracle has to offer. Recovery - in the traditional sense - isn't just recovery anymore, but more like recovery plus various flashback options.

Oracle Business Intelligence, Past and Present : Oracle Business Intelligence 11g has been available since August 14 and many people are digging into the new features. Rather than repeating what is readily available elsewhere, this article looks at a history of the product, comparing the 11g version with the 10g version, so that you can better appreciate the changes.

What's New in Oracle Warehouse Builder : Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB) has seen many changes lately. Keeping up with new features in the Oracle RDBMS is challenging enough, and when you add changes to products, well, you may have your work cut out for you. This article looks at some updates in OWB for Oracle Database 11gR2 (plus some of the changes between 10g and 11g).

The Second 5 top new features in Oracle Database 11gR2 : The second part of this two-part article completes a high-level evaluation of Oracle 11gR2's new features to assist Oracle DBAs to decide whether to upgrade their Oracle 9i, 10g, and 11gR1 databases to Oracle 11g Release 2 in the near term.

Oracle Database 11g Release 2 New Features Summary, Part 1 : This article summarizes some of Oracle 1gR2’s more intriguing new features and discusses how those features might help enterprises to decide to upgrade their Oracle 9i, 10g, and 11gR1 database to Oracle 11g Release 2 in the immediate future.

Oracle’s Flashback Query – TIMESTAMP or SCN? : Oracle’s Flashback Query(SQL-driven) makes use of both TIMESTAMP and SCN--but which should you use? It just may be a matter of preference but requires some thoughtful considerations.

Oracle’s Flashback Query – Should you unset _in_memory_undo? : The benefits of Oracle's Flashback Query are well documented--but with minor nuances of parameters such as _in_memory_undo, how much should you really buy into them? James Koopmann takes a deeper look at the _in_memory_undo parameter and how it effects flashback query.

Failures within Your UNDO Tablespace-When do they occur? : James Koopmann examines the typical errors within an Oracle UNDO tablespace, by breaking the UNDO mechanism, and demystifying the occurrence of errors.

Is Your UNDO Tablespace Prepared for Oracle’s Flashback Technology? : Not every database is automatically created using Oracle’s Automatic UNDO Management. Here is a  step by step approach to setup UNDO tablespaces for Oracle’s flashback technology.

Oracle 11g's Transparent Data Encryption Security Feature : A crucial reason for upgrading the storage capabilities of Large Objects (LOBs) is the ever-expanding requirements for data security within an Oracle 11g database. This article - the last in this three-part series - investigates how to extend Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) security features to LOBs and tablespaces to secure data, and explains how these features enable improved security...

How to Migrate from BasicFiles to SecureFiles Storage : This article - second in a three-part series - explores how to migrate most efficiently from BasicFiles to SecureFiles storage, how to measure the relative storage efficiency of SecureFile vs. BasicFile LOBs, and how to utilize the different compression and deduplication options for SecureFile LOBs.

SecureFiles in Oracle Database 11g : With the introduction of SecureFiles, Oracle Database 11g dramatically expands the storage capabilities for Large Objects (LOBs) within an Oracle database. This article – the first in a two-part series – discusses how LOBs have expanded their domain within databases over the past decade, looks at several potential future uses for LOBs, and introduces the new SecureFile LOB object model.

Oracle Database 11g: Flashback Transaction Backout : Oracle Database 10g offered two new Flashback features that allowed an authorized user to see all versions of any changes made to one or more rows in a table. Database 11gR1 provides the ability to back out one or more independent or dependent transactions with Flashback Transaction Backout.

Oracle Database 11g: Flashback Data Archives : Oracle Database 11gR1 offers an intriguing new Flashback feature - Flashback Data Archives - that allows an Oracle DBA to preserve a record of all changes to any table for a definite period of time.

Oracle Database 11g: Automatic SQL Tuning : This article delves into a new Oracle Database 11g feature that significantly extends this powerful 10g feature by providing the ability to implement improved execution plans automatically within DBA-specified boundaries.

Oracle Database 11g Release 1 New Features Summary, Part 2 : Oracle Database 11g Release 1 was launched in mid-July 2007. This second article in a two-part series takes some tantalizing glimpses into the upcoming improvements to database performance and database management that expand even further the revolutionary concepts introduced in Oracle Database 10g.

Oracle Database 11g Release 1 New Features Summary, Part 1 : Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11gR1) is due to be released in July 2007. Although not all new features have been fully documented yet, this article - the first in this series - takes some tantalizing glimpses into the upcoming improvements to database performance and management.

Oracle 11g Book and Product Reviews

Book and third party product reviews

Learning SQL Using Oracle SQL by Example : The fourth edition of Oracle SQL by Example is an excellent resource for not only learning SQL but also for serving as a reference book for experienced users. This book covers the fundamentals as well as more advanced constructs in SQL.

More Advanced Features of Toad for Data Analysts : In Part 2 of the product review for Toad for Data Analysts (TDA), we'll look at several of the more advanced features of this application. TDA offers more sophisticated users features such as data synchronization, automation, and reporting.

Product Review: Toad for Data Analysts : Toad for Data Analysts (TDA) is yet another product in a long line of highly useful, well-designed, productivity enhancing applications. The branding behind the purpose of this tool gets right to the heart of what TDA can help you accomplish with data: Query, Understand, and Report.

Previous versions of Oracle Database:
10g Central
9i Central
8i Central

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