Looking for a simpler way to download from the new Metalink? Oracle has replaced the ftp site with http downloads using wget. If you’re looking for a simple way to use wget without all of that cutting-and-pasting from the web site, you can use a simple script like this: #!/bin/bash # Program: download.sh # Description: Download Oracle … [Read more...]
Blue Gecko named Amazon Web Services partner
Blue Gecko has been officially recognized as an Amazon Web Services partner! Blue Gecko was an early adopter of the AWS platform for databases and database-backed applications. By deploying Oracle, Oracle E-Business Suite and MySQL infrastructures in the cloud, Blue Gecko leverages AWS to substantially improve customer IT flexibility and reduce … [Read more...]
6 things to do after an Oracle Apps R12 install
OK, so there are a ton of things to do right after a fresh R12 install. And before anyone says anything, I know each of my steps has multiple steps; I though 6 things made a simpler blog title, that's all. Nevertheless, below are the major tasks I think every Apps DBA should do right away before letting anyone log in. I call these out for two … [Read more...]
Disable Flash for Oracle Metalink
If you want to improve certain aspects of Oracle's new Flash-based Metalink, you can do so by disabling Flash. In Firefox or IE you can disable Flash discretely; in Safari, you need to disable all plugins. Once Flash is disabled, log out of and back in to your browser and go to http://metalink.oracle.com. On the right, near the bottom, there … [Read more...]
9 reasons why the new Metalink sucks
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...]
Converting Hexadecimal Oracle SCNs to Decimal
Oracle serializes transactions and manages concurrency and recovery using an ever-increasing number called a system change number, or SCN. Usually, we see these numbers expressed in decimal, in places like the v$ views and the alert log. Occasionally, however, Oracle's code expresses SCNs in hexadecimal. Unfortunately, you can't just perform a … [Read more...]
ORA-00054: resource busy and acquire with NOWAIT specified
When trying to perform DDL such as truncate, drop or alter on Oracle objects that are in use by other users, you may encounter the error ORA-00054: resource busy and acquire with NOWAIT specified. This occurs even if you acquire an exclusive DML lock on the table using lock table. Locking a table does not guarantee the success of any subsequent DDL … [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...]
FRM-40501: Could not reserve record [2 tries]; Oracle Apps Record-Locking
One of your end users attempts to modify a record, and the user is prompted with a dialog box asking "Could not reserve record [2 tries]. Keep trying?" The user answers "yes" and after being prompted a few more times the user gives up. Ultimately the user gets a "FRM-40501: ORACLE error: unable to reserve record for update or delete." When … [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...]