Oracle 11g database articles, tutorials and training for Database Administrators (DBAs)
Oracle 11g Security Features
Security and patches, security approaches, encryption, Transparent Data Encryption
Oracle 11g Security – Guidelines for Auditing
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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.
Setting default auditing as recommended by Oracle
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
Development Languages, Tables, Globalization, Ordering Events, SQL, SQL*Plus.
Getting Oracle VM VirtualBox Ready for an Oracle Database
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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
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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
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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
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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?
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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.
Examining the Oracle Database 10053 Trace Event Dump File
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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
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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
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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
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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.
Oracle Database 11gR2 I/O Performance Tuning: A Primer
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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
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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
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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.
Leveraging ACFS Snapshots and Cluster Infrastructure in Oracle Database 11gR2
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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.
Oracle Database's ADRCI: the Extended Commands
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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
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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?
SQL Server Management Features vs Oracle Database Management Features
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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
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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.
Top Ten Oracle Database to IBM DB2 Enablement Tips for DBAs
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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 11gR2: Installing Grid Infrastructure
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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?
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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
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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...
Looking at Memory Usage for Oracle Processes
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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
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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?
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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.
Using Orion Calibration to check I/O numbers
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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.
To Partition or Not to Partition in E-Business Suite
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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
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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
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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.
Intro to Oracle's Automatic Workload Repository (AWR)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
The Second 5 top new features in Oracle Database 11gR2
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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
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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?
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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?
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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.
Oracle 11g's Transparent Data Encryption Security Feature
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
More Advanced Features of Toad for Data Analysts
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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
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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.
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