I know I’m not alone, and I know I’m not the first to express displeasure, but let me just say: AAAARRRRRRRGHHHH!!!!! I’m going to call the new Metalink “Metaflash.” Seems like a good name for it. It combines “meta” and “flash” which sounds really hip and technical, yet communicates nothing. Kind of like shoving “i” or “e” in front of a … [Read more...]
How to hire a really good Oracle DBA
Many of our customers have internal database administrators. FACT: Any remote DBA organization, and I mean ANY one of them, should be excited to work with a talented on-site person; in fact, part of good remote DBA support should be to help clients hire good DBAs when appropriate. Without fail, collaboration between solid, focused technical … [Read more...]
If it’s really important… get 2
When our daughter was about 2, my wife and I noticed she had become almost disturbingly attached to a particular blanket. She carried it everywhere and slept with it every night; they were inseparable. There was nothing remarkable about the blanket, except that if Daniella (our daughter) couldn’t find it she would melt down like a popsicle on the … [Read more...]
Linux is the only choice for the E-Business Suite application tier
Some single points of failure are often unnecessary with Oracle E-Business Suite. By design, application code may easily run on multiple, inexpensive x86 (or x86_64) nodes running Linux. I often see organizations spending lots of money on commercial, internally redundant application computing nodes when they could be spending far less while … [Read more...]
New presentation: Deriving Optimal Configurations Using 11g Database Replay
Jeremiah Wilton’s presentation shows how to use Oracle 11g Real Application Testing to quantify effect of system and database configuration changes. As an example, he uses Real Application Testing to validate the Automatic Advisor recommendations, and uncovers some interesting results. Check out the presentation on our whitepaper page. … [Read more...]
In-Memory Undo
Presented by: Craig Shallahamer, Founder, Orapub I attended Craig’s second presentation, this on In-Memory Undo (IMU). This was another great presentation on a feature I have to admit I really knew nothing about. In a nutshell, “traditional” undo uses physical blocks, just like any other segment. If a query needs to read an undo block to … [Read more...]
Breaking Oracle
Presented by: Jeremiah Wilton, Blue Gecko Jeremiah’s patented Breaking Oracle seminar – a one-hour condensed version of a full-day class – was again a huge hit. To a packed room, Jeremiah mercilessly rained spins, hangs, corruption, and a variety of other Oracle failures and disasters on a poor, unsuspecting test 11hg database, then demonstrated … [Read more...]
Enterprise Database Security – A Practical Example
I attended this presentation without a lot of practical hands-on knowledge of using OID with either the database or E-Business Suite. Blue Gecko has several SOX-beholden customers, and we plan to implement OID for EBS soon; centralized control for database accounts would also be a huge boon. … [Read more...]
Deriving Optimal Configuration Values Using 11g Database Replay
Presented by: Jeremiah Wilton, Blue Gecko OK, so, no, I’m not going to steal Jeremiah’s thunder here. What I am going to do is post his presentation, and give you a teaser: All bias aside, Real Application Testing is a truly revolutionary 11g feature that every DBA should get to know. As Jeremiah demonstrates, its uses go far beyond planning … [Read more...]
Introduction to Oracle BI Enterprise Edition Plus
Presented by: Adam Lee, Product Manager, Oracle My first session of the day was a little dry. The overview was very typical Oracle stuff: A bunch of slides displaying block-pyramids with each block sporting important terms like “INFRASTRUCTURE” and “ABSTRACTION ENGINE.” I was hoping to see potential support impact on Blue Gecko. Eventually, … [Read more...]
Running Oracle in the Amazon EC2 Cloud
This is a subject I have much interest in and something we are working on very hard at Blue Gecko; Amazon is positioning itself as an Oracle partner and leader in the Oracle/cloud space and I want to know anything I can about what other people are doing, which is why this presentation was not what I was hoping it would be. The gentleman presenting … [Read more...]
Oracle also acquires MySQL… right?
Yes, we all know that Oracle has acquired Sun. Or intends to. They still have to get through a few hurdles, one of which will be the SEC. My first thought upon hearing the news (delivered by Sarah, running over to the copy machine yelling, "Did you hear?! Oracle just bought Sun!!" causing me to completely jam the automatic paper feeder, and … [Read more...]
FNDCPASS doesn’t always use the SYSTEM password
FNDCPASS does not check the system password when used to change an applications user account. We can check this with a simple test. First, we’ll change the SYSTEM password to the default value “manager”: … [Read more...]
Oracle Education – Our First DBA Class!!
We are very pleased to announce our very first Oracle Class open to the general public! Taught by our very own Jeremiah Wilton, this class is titled “Hands-on Oracle Database Administration one-week Total Immersion.” We are pleased to offer the opportunity to build upon your professional skills with a week-long hands-on intensive … [Read more...]
Blue Gecko featured at Oracle Technology Solutions Fair
Blue Gecko has been recognized as a key Oracle partner, and will participate with the Seattle Oracle database team at the Oracle Technology Solutions Fair. Jeremiah Wilton and JJ Ecker will be on site to answer questions about the latest database features, tuning, and general Oracle database questions, so please register for the fair today and … [Read more...]