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Blogs upon products of Oracle corporation.

Oracle–Flashback Query

oracleWay back in 2001 Oracle announced Oracle9i with a new feature named ‘Flashback Query’. The implication was that Flashback technology would permit one to query past data, no matter how old it was days, weeks or even months old. In fact the actuality was very different since Flashback Query relied upon the undo information contained within the database Undo-Segments.

Later releases refined what was possible. It was named ‘Total Recall’ in Oracle 11g, and now goes by the name of ‘Flashback Data Archive’.  This recent blog goes into a little detail of the recent changes available in Oracle release 12c.

It is an easy read, but at the back of the mind one can’t help but think how much disk storage is required on a busy site to enable one to search back over long periods of time. The feature is useful, and is available ‘free-of-charge’ with all versions of Oracle 12c,  but at what cost in terms of system resources and performance?

Oracle Database 12c (12.1.0.1.0) released for Windows 64bit

oracleWe note that Oracle has now released the latest version of its database for Windows 64bit to go with the earlier released Solaris (Sparc and x86-64)  and Linux platform versions. Interested readers can obtain a copy from Oracle via its Technet site.

The official release docs follow:

Oracle Database 12c, the latest generation of the world’s most popular database, has been developed for the Cloud and will enable customers to make more efficient use of their IT resources while continuing to improve their users’ service levels. In addition to a raft of enhancements and new features, including a new architecture, Oracle Database 12c makes it easier for customers to take advantage of the Cloud through:

bullet  Consolidating multiple databases with Oracle Multitenant

bullet  Automatically optimizing data storage and compression according to usage patterns

bullet  Providing continuous access with Oracle’s Maximum Availability Architecture

bullet  Securing enterprise data with comprehensive defense-in-depth strategy

bullet  Simplifying in-database analysis of Big Data

bullet  Efficient database management using Enterprise Manager Cloud Control

Oracle Database 12c (12.1.0.1.0) released for Solaris and Linux

oracleWe note that Oracle has released the latest version of its database for Solaris (Sparc and x86-64)  and Linux platforms. The release for Windows is not yet available. Interested readers can obtain a copy from Oracle via its Technet site.

The official release docs follow:

Oracle Database 12c, the latest generation of the world’s most popular database, has been developed for the Cloud and will enable customers to make more efficient use of their IT resources while continuing to improve their users’ service levels. In addition to a raft of enhancements and new features, including a new architecture, Oracle Database 12c makes it easier for customers to take advantage of the Cloud through:

bullet  Consolidating multiple databases with Oracle Multitenant

bullet  Automatically optimizing data storage and compression according to usage patterns

bullet  Providing continuous access with Oracle’s Maximum Availability Architecture

bullet  Securing enterprise data with comprehensive defense-in-depth strategy

bullet  Simplifying in-database analysis of Big Data

bullet  Efficient database management using Enterprise Manager Cloud Control

DBMS_FEATURE_USAGE_REPORT

oracleRead an interesting article/blog post upon the Oracle package DBMS_FEATURE_USAGE_REPORT that once one ignored the ‘Star Wars’ trivia, brought back recollections of the scripts that I used to run to achieve the same results. i.e.  Produce evidence that the company was only using certain features of the Oracle product, which in turn influenced the ‘price’ that one paid to Oracle Corporation for the licenses.

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Oracle SQL*Developer updated


oracle
Latest updates for Oracle SQL*Developer 3.2.20.09.87 and SQL*Developer Data Modeller 3.1.4 (710).Both available on Oracle Technet.  Required account.

Moving APEX application to the Oracle cloud

Just read an interesting blog post about moving an Oracle APEX application to the Oracle cloud.  Interesting because I have previously used APEX and migrated some of the apps to Joomla.

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Oracle announces MySql changes

oracle
At Oracle OpenWorld this week there were a few changes announced for MySql.  Oracle has issued an open source MySQL 5.6 release candidate.

Oracle issued its first MySQL 5.6 preview in July of 2011. For certain types of queries, there has been a performance gain of as much as 200 percent.

MySQL 5.6 includes sub-query optimizations that improve the query execution speeds. The underlying InnoDB storage engine has also been enhanced for throughput performance.

Under Oracle's guidance the number of new features per release has been cut down to be more manageable. While at the same time, there is more effort going into testing and overall quality.

From a release perspective, Oracle believe that users don't want to upgrade their databases often with big feature releases.  It is noted that Oracle has been coming out with a regular stream of maintenance releases though, as the 5.6 release is being developed. The current plan is for major new releases of MySQL every other year. That would place a MySQL 5.6 generally available release for early in 2013.

Oracle 12c - Pluggable databases.

oracle
Larry Ellison at the Oracle OpenWorld conference earlier this week, provided the information that the forthcoming Oracle Database 12c (the c standing for ‘cloud’) will  feature a radical new architecture called pluggable databases.

Currently a server running an Oracle database has an individual set of server processes.  Adding a second database to the server adds additional processes for the second database.  Pluggable databases will allow multiple databases to run under one copy, or instance, of the Oracle database software, a feature he called "multitenancy."

As the name implies, pluggable databases allow multiple tenant databases to run under one copy of Oracle 12c.  An arbitrary number of up to 250 user databases, can be run under the new architecture, and the architecture could probably support more. The new database is reportedly compatible with older Oracle databases.

This change in architecture brings a number of benefits that Oracle touted through the week, including improved efficiency, stronger security and easier upgrades.

However there are a few challenges for database administrators especially in the area of allocation computational resources. How will the new workload characteristics of running multiple databases on a single server be determined. The characteristics of the optimum size of a server, in reference to memory and storage space, may also/will need to be reconsidered.

Interesting times lay ahead.  Oracle Database 12c is set for availability in 2013.

New Releases Oracle SQL*Developer * SQL*Developer Modeller

Having been busy recently I nearly missed the recent announcement of Oracle SQL*Developer 3.2.0.09.30 and SQL*Developer Data Modeller 3.1.2 (704).

Both available on Oracle Technet.

Oracle Goldengate


I was talking with a colleague the other day about Oracle Goldengate and it was strange that I saw this article which describes the recent release. Having used the product and its ‘relation’ Streams, it was interesting to catch up on the recent changes.

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