Oracle related rants (and lots of off-topic stuff)…
In today’s video we demonstrate attribute clustering, introduced on Oracle database 12.1.
The video is based on this article.
The star of today’s video is Francesco Tisiot, who seems to have some aversion to putting pineapple on pizza. Why anyone would ask an Italian about pizza is beyond me… 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
In today’s video we’ll quickly demonstrate long identifiers, introduced in Oracle database 12.2.
The video is based on this article.
I was moved to make this because I saw someone on Twitter complaining about the 30 character limit in Oracle. I figured they were probably using an old version of the database, but that’s their fault. A short video was convenient, as I was working this weekend, and didn’t have much free time. 🙂
The star of today’s video is Marcelle Kaye, in honour of her recent birthday. Hopefully we will get to meet up again one day…
Cheers
Tim…
Today’s video demonstrates the PDB refresh functionality introduced in Oracle database 12.2.
If you prefer to read rather than watch, you can get all the information from this video from here.
The star of today’s video is Markus Michalewicz. He’s so serious in this clip it makes me laugh. 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
Today’s video is a brief run through the PDB relocate functionality, introduced in Oracle 12.2.
As always, this is based on articles with a lot more information, which you can find here.
The star of this video is none other than Martin Bach. 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
Today’s video is a quick run through the Extended Data Types functionality introduced in Oracle Database 12c Release 1. Why such an old subject? Well, it’s a prerequisite for something I was planning to do a video on, so I thought I better do this first. 🙂
For those that don’t like videos, you can find the same information and more here.
The cameo in today’s video is Martin Klier. 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
Danger, Will Robinson! Obligatory warning below.
So here we go…
Fedora 29 has been out for a bit over a week now. Over the weekend I had a play with it and noticed a couple of differences between Fedora 28 and Fedora 29 as far as Oracle installations are concerned. There are some extra packages that need to be installed. Also, one of the two symbolic links that were needed for the Oracle installation on Fedora 28 is now present in Fedora 29, but pointing to the wrong version of the package.
Here are the articles I did as a result of this.
It’s pretty similar to the installation on Fedora 28, with the exception of the extra packages and a slight alteration to the symbolic links.
Once the “bento/fedora-29” box becomes available I’ll probably do a Vagrant build for this, but for the moment is was the old fashioned approach. 🙂
So now you know how to do it, please don’t! 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
Just a couple of certification related updates.
Upgrade to oracle Database 12c (1Z0-060)
About a week ago I finally got round to doing the 12c certification. As followers of the blog/website know I’ve been writing articles about Oracle Database 12c since it was released nearly 4Â years ago and for pretty much all of that time I’ve been trying to convince myself to sit the 12c OCP DBA upgrade exam. It’s not that I care about the piece of paper itself (see my certification FAQ), but I’ve had so many people write and thank me for my 12c revision notes, that it felt a little bit odd I hadn’t actually sat the exam myself.
The biggest factor in delaying taking this exam was it was not a conventional 12cR1 new features exam. Instead it was an upgrade from OCP 9i, 10g, 11g to 12cR1. That meant it potentially covered anything introduced from 9iR2Â onward. Â That means in addition to learning the new features well enough to pass the exam, you also have to cover the old ground, which is quite a burden. Oracle used to provide catch-up exams like this as well as a straight new features exam and I think that was a better option.
Now I’m sure some of you will think, “But you should know that stuff anyway!”, and you are right, but knowing enough to do the job and knowing the type of things you are tested on in an exam are not the same thing. The thought of revising everything from 9iR2 onward was quite daunting and it put me off doing this exam. This seemed to be a common reaction amongst many people I spoke to.
I realise maintaining a catch-up exam and a regular new features exam is extra work for the certification folks, but if you want to keep people on the OCP treadmill, I think you’ve got to do this. I came very close to ditching the whole OCP thing as a result of this 12c upgrade exam, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Upgrade Oracle DBA 11g/12c to 12cR2 (1Z1-074)
I mentioned in a recent post there is an exam called “Upgrade Oracle DBA 11g/12c to 12cR2 (1Z1-074)” in beta at the moment. I’ve been writing about Oracle Database 12cR2 since its release on the Oracle Public Cloud, so there are quite a few articles on my website already.
Normally the release 2 articles get lumped together, since they don’t form part of an exam syllabus, but now they do, so I’ve split them up into two sections.
I’ll continue to add new articles to both sections, and at some point I will have a complete set of revision notes for the new exam. 🙂
Once again the new exam is a catch-up exam, but at least it only covers 12cR1 and 12cR2 this time. As before, I think this is a mistake, but that’s just my opinion. 🙂
Part of me wants to cram for this new exam and get it done on the cheap while it is in beta. Part of me thinks I may never take this new exam. Time will tell I guess. You’ll probably see an update post in 4 years when I’ve finally got round to it. 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
The company I work for is in the process of moving some core systems to Oracle Cloud Apps. As part of that process the folks who do the warehousing, BI and reporting stuff are transitioning from a bunch of SAP tools to ODI, OBIEE, OBIA etc. I am not part of either the old or new projects related to this work, but it does seem I am going to have to get involved in some of the infrastructure side of it, namely installations and basic “turn it off and on again” type support. I will never actual use this stuff. 🙂
I don’t like surprises, so I’ve spent some time recently playing with some of this stuff from an infrastructure perspective. I’ve been building, destroying and rebuilding this stuff repeatedly, trying to figure out how some of it hangs together and some of the pain points. That resulted in these articles.
There may be some more to follow, but they could be for older bits of kit, depending on the certification status of the various pieces when used against Oracle Cloud Apps.
I can’t emphasise enough how little I know about this stuff. I understand databases and I know a bit about WebLogic. As a result I can muddle my way through some installations of this OBIEE and ODI stuff. That is about it. 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
PS. If you are wondering about the image, it’s a stupid cow. It represents how clueless I am about this stuff, as well as how amusing I find it that we are transitioning to these tools just as the rest of the world is transitioning away from them. 🙂
A couple of articles have crept out over the last few days that relate to online operations on Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2). Both of them are pretty small in terms of what you have to do, but are pretty awesome in terms of impact, so I’m giving them the official thumbs-up! 🙂
The first one is about moving tables online.
I wonder if this was a 12.1 feature that got pulled? In 12.1 we got to move partitions and sub-partitions online, but being able to move a table as an online operation is great. Saves you having to mess around with DBMS_REDEFINITION for a bunch of tasks.
The second one is about converting non-partitioned tables to partitioned tables.
This is pretty cool too. For one, you can use a single command to do it now, rather than having to use EXCHANGE PARTITION or DBMS_REDEFINITION to do it. What’s more, it can be done online!
As I’ve said many times before, it’s these convenience new features that usually have a bigger impact on my day-to-day life than the big sexy features.
Cheers
Tim…
I’m a fan of APEX, but I am not a fan of the shared installation used in Oracle Database 12.1. I’m sure it is great for some people, but not for me. I prefer to have APEX installed locally in the PDB, which prompted this article.
Fast forward to Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) and APEX is no longer installed by default. It’s still shipped with the software, see $ORACLE_HOME/apex (see update), but not installed. I am conflicted about this…
So just remember you have an extra job to do after you’ve installed your database, which to install the latest version of APEX. 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
Update: As per comment from Joel Kallman, always download the latest version and install in the PDB locally, not in the root!