The Momen Blog

Oracle Database In-Memory Advisor Released

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 22:22:00 +0000

Oracle Database In-Memory option was released with Oracle Database 12c (12.1.0.2) and the In-Memory Advisor (IMA) has been much awaited since then. The Oracle Database In-Memory is designed to achieve the following goals:

Speed up analytical queries
Speed up OLTP transactions
NO application changes

Without the In-Memory Advisor, a DBA has to manually identify the tables to be placed in the In-Memory Column Store (IMCS). This manual task is no more required as the IMA, analyzes the analytical workload of the database and produces a recommendation report (which includes SQL commands to place the tables in IMCS).

For more information on IMA please refer to MOS: 1965343.1 and you may also download the best practices white paper from here.

Oracle Database 12c: In-Memory Option

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Sun, 03 Aug 2014 12:16:00 +0000

Starting with Oracle Database 12cR1 (12.1.0.2), a new static pool in the SGA is designed to store data in the columnar format and is called In-Memory Column Store (IMCS). Each table column is stored as a separate structure in IMCS. The In-Memory column store does not replace the buffer cache, rather supplements by storing data in columnar format.

Following the levels at which IMCS can be enabled at:

Column
Partition / sub-partition
Table
Materialized view
Tablespace

The IMCS is populated by a set of background processes. Objects are populated into the IMCS either in a prioritized list soon after database start-up or after they are queried for the first time.

Like other Oracle Database Options, you make NO changes in your application to start benefiting from the In-Memory Option. It is completely transparent to the applications. Also, Oracle Optimizer is fully aware of the column format and automatically utilizing IMCS when required.

I plan to test and blog more on the In-Memory option. Following are few of the topics that I plan to post a blog entry on:

Enable and disable In-Memory Option
In-Memory Option at various levels
In-Memory Space pressure
In-Memory background processes
In-Memory with compression levels
In-Memory statistics
In-Memory and Data Pump Export
In-Memory with Multi-tenant Option

AWR Warehouse

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 02:10:00 +0000

AWR Warehouse is a central repository configured for long term AWR data retention. It stores AWR snapshots from multiple database sources. Increasing AWR retention in the production systems would typically increase overhead and cost of mission critical databases. Hence, offloading the AWR snapshots to a central repository is a better idea. Unlike AWR retention period of default 8 days, the AWR Warehouse default retention period is "forever". However, it is configurable for weeks, months, or years.

For more information on AWR Warehouse click on the following link for a video tutorial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StydMitHtuI&feature=youtu.be

Benefits of Single Tenant Deployments

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 10:54:00 +0000

While presenting at a database event, I had a question from one of the attendees on benefits of running Oracle databases in Single Tenant Configuration. I thought this would be a nice if I post it on my blog as it would benefit others too.

From Oracle documentation, “The multitenant architecture enables an Oracle database to function as a multitenant container database (CDB) that includes zero, one, or many customer-created pluggable databases (PDBs). A PDB is a portable collection of schemas, schema objects, and non-schema objects that appears to an Oracle Net client as a non-CDB. All Oracle databases before Oracle Database 12c were non-CDBs”.

Following are the benefits of running databases in Single Tenant Configuration:

Alignment with Oracle’s new multi-tenant architecture
Cost saving. You save on license fee as single tenant deployments do not attract Multi-tenant option license fee. License is applicable should you have two or more PDBs.
Upgrade/patch your single PDB from 12.1.0.1 to 12.x easily with reduced downtime
Secure separation of duties (between CDBA & DBA)
Easier PDB cloning

I would recommend running all your production and non-production databases in single-tenant configuration (if you are not planning for consolidation using multi-tenant option) once you upgrade them to Oracle Database 12c. I expect to see single tenant deployments become the default deployment model for the customers.

Oracle Database Express Edition 11g Release 2: Released

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 17:36:00 +0000

Oracle Database Express Edition 11gR2 has been released. You may download the software and documentation following below links:

Happy downloading !!!

IOUG’s 2014 Exadata Virtual Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 21:35:00 +0000

IOUG is organizing a two-day virtual Exadata Conference on 29-30 Jan, 2014. More importantly the virtual conference is FREE. Following is the agenda as per the IOUG's website:

29-Jan-2014 (Wednesday)

10-11am CST	Minimizing Risks with Database Consolidation on Exadata using I/O Resource Manager (IORM) Speaker: Sameer Malik, Exadata Technical Architect, Accenture
11am-12pm CST	Introduction to the New Oracle Database In-Memory Option Speaker: Kevin Jernigan, Senior Director, Oracle
12-1pm CST	Understand the Flash storage and Dynamic Tiering Solution for Traditional Database in Comparison of Exadata Flash Solution. Speaker: Amit Das, Database Engineering Architect, Paypal

30-Jan-2014 (Thursday)

10-11am CST	Oracle Exadata Technical Deep Dive Session Speaker: Yenugula Venkata RaviKumar, Senior Sales Consultant, Oracle India Pvt. Limited
11am-12pm CST	Exadata X4: What’s New Speaker: Mahesh Subramaniam, Director of Product Management, Oracle
12-1pm CST	Exadata for Oracle DBAs Speaker: Arup Nanda, Director, Starwood Hotels & Resorts

For more information and registration click on the below link:

http://www.ioug.org/exavirtual2014

I have registered myself for the two-day conference and hope to see you all there !!!

Oracle Database Security Assessment

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 19:01:00 +0000

Data Security has taken a front seat in terms of IT Security lately. Database security is an area of information security that is concerned with the use of security controls to protect databases. Organizations are trying to protect their databases from both internal and external threats.

In this regard, Oracle has put up an online Database Security Assessment on their website. You may now check how secure your database is by answering few simple questions.

Below is the link for Oracle's Database Security Assessment:

http://www.oracle.com/us/media/survey/index-191234.html

I am also sharing top ten most common database security vulnerabilities by ZDNet. Below is the link for the same:

http://www.zdnet.com/the-top-ten-most-common-database-security-vulnerabilities-7000017320/

Wishing you a secure database !!!

Forgot SYSMAN Password? Here's How to Regain Access to EMCC-12c

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 12:57:00 +0000

I installed Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c soon after it's release in a virtual environment for the purpose of testing. I normally save passwords, ip-address, ports, and other details in a text file. But unfortunately, I was not able to locate the file for this particular VM.

However, it was easy to reset the password following these steps:

1) Stop OMS (leaving the Admin Server up)
2) Modify SYSMAN password
3) Stop all OMS components
4) Start OMS
5) Login to Oracle EMCC-12c with the new password

1) Stop OMS (leaving the Admin Server up)

Stop the OMS without "-all" as shown below:

[oracle@emcc bin]$ ./emctl stop oms
Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 2
Copyright (c) 1996, 2012 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Stopping WebTier...
WebTier Successfully Stopped
Stopping Oracle Management Server...
Oracle Management Server Successfully Stopped
Oracle Management Server is Down
[oracle@emcc bin]$

2) Modify SYSMAN password

[oracle@emcc bin]$
[oracle@emcc bin]$ ./emctl config oms -change_repos_pwd -use_sys_pwd -sys_pwd XXXXX -new_pwd mynewpassword
Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 2
Copyright (c) 1996, 2012 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

Changing passwords in backend ...
Passwords changed in backend successfully.
Updating repository password in Credential Store...
Successfully updated Repository password in Credential Store.
Restart all the OMSs using 'emctl stop oms -all' and 'emctl start oms'.
Successfully changed repository password.
[oracle@emcc bin]$

3) Stop all OMS components

[oracle@emcc bin]$ ./emctl stop oms -all
Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 2
Copyright (c) 1996, 2012 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Stopping WebTier...
WebTier Successfully Stopped
Stopping Oracle Management Server...
Oracle Management Server Already Stopped
AdminServer Successfully Stopped
Oracle Management Server is Down
[oracle@emcc bin]$
[oracle@emcc bin]$

4) Start OMS

[oracle@emcc bin]$ ./emctl start oms
Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 2
Copyright (c) 1996, 2012 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Starting Oracle Management Server...
Starting WebTier...
WebTier Successfully Started
Oracle Management Server Successfully Started
Oracle Management Server is Up
[oracle@emcc bin]$

5) Login to EMCC-12c

I was able to login to the EMCC-12c console with the new password without any issues.

For more information refer to MOS - 1365930.1

Oracle Database 12: Architecture Diagram

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 08:04:00 +0000

I found the following Database Architecture Diagram for Oracle Database 12c on Oracle Education's website. It lists all the processes and the relationship between processes and other database components. I recommend you to take a print on A3 paper.

And below is a YouTube link which gives database architecture overview.

Oracle Database 12c Architecture Overview

Update - 1 (11-Jul-2013):

Below is Oracle Database 12c Multi-Tenant Architecture Diagram:

Upgrading Oracle Database 11.2.0.3 to 12.1.0 (Oracle 12c)

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 11:47:00 +0000

There are different ways of upgrading to the latest release of Oracle database and Oracle provides multiple methods to upgrade. Few are listed below:

Database Upgrade Assistant (DBUA)
Manual Upgrade
Transportable Tablespaces
Datapump export/import
Oracle Streams
Oracle GoldenGate

I chose DBUA to upgrade my test database as it was the simplest and quickest of all. Below are the database environment details prior to upgrade:

Oracle Database Version: Oracle Database 11gR2 (11.2.0.3) (64-bit)

Operating System: Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.1 (64-bit)

To begin the upgrade process, I copied Oracle 12c software to the database server and did the following

Backup Oracle database
Stop the database
Stop listener
Change ORACLE_HOME environment variable in the bash profile of “oracle” user
Launch Oracle 12c Installer (./runInstaller)

You will see the following screen:

Click "Next" and chose "Skip software updates".

Click "Next" and select "Upgrade an existing database". When you select this option Oracle will install Oracle 12cR1 software and then automatically launch DBUA to upgrade the databases.

Click "Next" and continue as shown in the screenshots below:

Make sure all the warnings are resolved before proceeding with the next step. In my case, I ignored the warning as this is a test database and the swap size is almost closer to the expected value.

Installation of Oracle 12 software begins as shown below:

After installing the software and completing Net configuration, Oracle Universal Installer will launch DBUA to upgrade existing databases.

Below are the screenshots from DBUA:

I ignored the warnings as this is our test database. You would like to resolve these warning for your production, development, testing, etc databases.

Well, it took more than 90 minutes to upgrade my test database. DBUA generates log files under "/u01/app/oracle/cfgtoollogs/dbua//upgrade1/" location. You may monitor the logs to see the progress and scripts that DBUA executes during the upgrade process.

Well, that's it. My database is now upgraded to Oracle Database 12c.

SQL> select * from v$version;

BANNER CON_ID
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------
Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition Release 12.1.0.1.0 - 64bit Production 0
PL/SQL Release 12.1.0.1.0 - Production 0
CORE 12.1.0.1.0 Production 0
TNS for Linux: Version 12.1.0.1.0 - Production 0
NLSRTL Version 12.1.0.1.0 - Production 0

SQL>

I am sure you would like to look for alternative and near zero downtime database upgrade approaches to upgrade your production databases. Here are few of the helpful links in this regard:

Oracle White Paper on "Upgrading to Oracle Database 12c"
Upgrade, Migrate, and Consolidate to Oracle Database 12c
Complete Checklist for Manual Upgrades to Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1) [ID 1503653.1]

Enjoy your Oracle Database 12c.

"An unexpected error has been detected by HotSpot Virtual Machine" Error While Launching Installer

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 10:44:00 +0000

Today while installing Oracle 11gR2 (11.2.0.3) 64-bit on RHEL 6.1 64-bit on a VMWare box, I received the mentioned error. Looking up at MOS wasn't fruitful. However, this seems to be an RHEL bug.

bash-4.1$ ./runInstaller
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

Checking Temp space: must be greater than 120 MB. Actual 27976 MB Passed
Checking swap space: must be greater than 150 MB. Actual 4031 MB Passed
Checking monitor: must be configured to display at least 256 colors. Actual 16777216 Passed
Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2013-07-01_03-12-27AM. Please wait ...bash-4.1$ #
# An unexpected error has been detected by HotSpot Virtual Machine:
#
# SIGSEGV (0xb) at pc=0x00007f33a28c8d70, pid=2400, tid=139859082229520
#
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (1.5.0_30-b03 mixed mode)
# Problematic frame:
# C [ld-linux-x86-64.so.2+0x14d70]
#
# An error report file with more information is saved as hs_err_pid2400.log
#
# If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit:
# http://java.sun.com/webapps/bugreport/crash.jsp
#

bash-4.1$

The workaround to the problem is to set "LD_BIND_NOW" environment variable to a value "1" as shown below and re-launch the installer.

bash-4.1$ export LD_BIND_NOW=1

bash-4.1$ ./runInstaller
Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

Checking Temp space: must be greater than 120 MB. Actual 27339 MB Passed
Checking swap space: must be greater than 150 MB. Actual 4031 MB Passed
Checking monitor: must be configured to display at least 256 colors. Actual 16777216 Passed
Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2013-07-01_03-29-40AM. Please wait ...
bash-4.1$

According to a post on "The Gruff DBA" blog, this bug seems to have reported on 11.2.0.1 & 11.2.0.3

Connecting to Oracle Database Even if Background Processes are Killed

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:28:00 +0000

Yesterday, I received an email update from MOS Hot Topics Email alert regarding a knowledge article which discusses how to connect to an Oracle database whose background processes are killed.

I bet every DBA must have encountered this situation at least once. When I am in this situation, I normally use "shutdown abort" to stop the database and then proceed with normal startup.

After receiving the email, I thought of reproducing the same. My database (TGTDB) is 11.2.0.3 running on RHEL-5.5. The goal is to kill all Oracle background process and try to connect to the database.

Of course you don't want to test this in your production databases.

SQL> select * from v$version;

BANNER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.3.0 - 64bit Production
PL/SQL Release 11.2.0.3.0 - Production
CORE 11.2.0.3.0 Production
TNS for Linux: Version 11.2.0.3.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 11.2.0.3.0 - Production

SQL>

Below is the list of background processes for my test database "TGTDB":

[oracle@ogg2 ~]$ ps -ef|grep TGTDB

oracle 8249 1 0 01:35 ? 00:00:00 ora_pmon_TGTDB

oracle 8251 1 0 01:35 ? 00:00:00 ora_psp0_TGTDB

oracle 8253 1 0 01:35 ? 00:00:00 ora_vktm_TGTDB

oracle 8257 1 0 01:35 ? 00:00:00 ora_gen0_TGTDB

oracle 8259 1 0 01:35 ? 00:00:00 ora_diag_TGTDB

oracle 8261 1 0 01:35 ? 00:00:00 ora_dbrm_TGTDB

oracle 8263 1 0 01:35 ? 00:00:00 ora_dia0_TGTDB

oracle 8265 1 6 01:35 ? 00:00:02 ora_mman_TGTDB

oracle 8267 1 0 01:35 ? 00:00:00 ora_dbw0_TGTDB

oracle 8269 1 1 01:35 ? 00:00:00 ora_lgwr_TGTDB

oracle 8271 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_ckpt_TGTDB

oracle 8273 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_smon_TGTDB

oracle 8275 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_reco_TGTDB

oracle 8277 1 1 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_mmon_TGTDB

oracle 8279 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_mmnl_TGTDB

oracle 8281 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_d000_TGTDB

oracle 8283 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_s000_TGTDB

oracle 8319 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_p000_TGTDB

oracle 8321 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_p001_TGTDB

oracle 8333 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_arc0_TGTDB

oracle 8344 1 1 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_arc1_TGTDB

oracle 8346 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_arc2_TGTDB

oracle 8348 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_arc3_TGTDB

oracle 8351 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_qmnc_TGTDB

oracle 8366 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_cjq0_TGTDB

oracle 8368 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_vkrm_TGTDB

oracle 8370 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_j000_TGTDB

oracle 8376 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_q000_TGTDB

oracle 8378 1 0 01:36 ? 00:00:00 ora_q001_TGTDB

oracle 8402 4494 0 01:36 pts/1 00:00:00 grep TGTDB

[oracle@ogg2 ~]$

Let us kill all these processes at once as shown below:

[oracle@ogg2 ~]$ kill -9 `ps -ef|grep TGTDB | awk '{print ($2)}'`

bash: kill: (8476) - No such process

[oracle@ogg2 ~]$

Make sure no processes are running for our database:

[oracle@ogg2 ~]$ ps -ef|grep TGTDB

oracle 8520 4494 0 01:37 pts/1 00:00:00 grep TGTDB

[oracle@ogg2 ~]$

Now, try to connect to the database using SQL*Plus:

[oracle@ogg2 ~]$ sqlplus "/as sysdba"

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.3.0 Production on Wed Mar 13 01:38:12 2013

Connected to:

Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.3.0 - 64bit Production

With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL>

Voila, I am connected. Not only you get connected to the database but you can query V$*, DBA* and other application schema views/tables. Let's give a try:

SQL> select name from v$database;

NAME

---------

TGTDB

SQL> select name from v$tablespace;

NAME

------------------------------

SYSTEM

SYSAUX

UNDOTBS1

USERS

TEMP

TEST_TS

6 rows selected.

SQL>

SQL> select count(*) from dba_tables;

COUNT(*)

----------

2787

SQL>

SQL> select count(*) from test.emp;

COUNT(*)

----------

3333

SQL>

Let us try to update a record.

SQL>
SQL> update test.emp set ename = 'test' where eno = 2;

1 row updated.

SQL>

Wow, one record was updated. But when you try to commit/rollback, the instance gets terminated. And it makes sense as the background processes responsible for carrying out the change have all died.

SQL>
SQL> commit;
commit
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel
Process ID: 8917
Session ID: 87 Serial number: 7

SQL>

Following is the error message recorded in the database alert log:

Wed Mar 13 01:41:44 2013
USER (ospid: 8917): terminating the instance due to error 472
Instance terminated by USER, pid = 8917

The user (client) session was able to retrieve data from the database as the shared memory was still available and the client session does not need background processes for this task.

Below mentioned MOS article discusses on how to identify and kill the shared memory segment(s) allocated to "oracle" user through UNIX/Linux commands.

References:

Successfully Connect to Database Even if Background Processes are Killed [ID 166409.1]

Oracle Linux 6.4 Announced

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:15:00 +0000

The Oracle Linux team has announced the availability of Oracle ~~Enterprise~~ Linux (OL) 6.4. You can download OEL-6.4 from Oracle's EDelivery website (the link is below):

https://edelivery.oracle.com/EPD/Search/handle_go

To learn more about OL-6.4 click on the below link.

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E37670_01/E39522/html/

Happy downloading!!!

Exporting Multiple Tables on a Common Filter

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 11:59:00 +0000

To be frank, I consider myself novice when it comes to advanced export/import requirements. This is because I don’t deal with these utilities on a day-to-day basis.

A simple requirement came across my desk to export selected tables from a schema based on a common filter.

Requirement:

Say, you have 5 tables T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5. All have “ID” as the primary key column and you have to export data from these tables only if it is found in COMMON_TABLE. The COMMON_TABLE stores “ID” to be exported.

Solution:

The first place that I look for solution is “Oracle Documentation”. I knew we can filter a table using “QUERY” parameter of Data Pump Export but did not know how to apply it on multiple tables.

The syntax of the QUERY parameter is:

QUERY = [schema.][table_name:] query_clause

If you omit [schema.][table_name:] then the query is applied to all the tables in the export job.

So, here’s my export command:

expdp test/test DIRECTORY=data_pump_dir TABLES=t1,t2,t3,t4,t5 DUMPFILE=test.dmp QUERY=\"WHERE id IN $SELECT common_table.id FROM common_table$\"

You may click here to read more about the QUERY parameter of Data Pump Export.

Thanks for reading!!!

RACcheck for Single Instance Databases

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 07:21:00 +0000

Starting with RACcheck 2.2.0, RACcheck support is extended to Oracle Single Instance Databases, Oracle Restart and RAC One Node configurations.

I downloaded the latest version of the tool and tested it against my play database. Below is a sample RACcheck output from a single instance database:

[oracle@localhost raccheck]$ ./raccheck -v

RACCHECK VERSION: 2.2.0_20121109

[oracle@localhost raccheck]$

[oracle@localhost raccheck]$ ./raccheck -a

List of running databases

1. testdb

2. None of above

Select databases from list for checking best practices. For multiple databases, select 1 for All or comma separated number like 1,2 etc [1-2][1].

. .

Checking Status of Oracle Software Stack - Clusterware, ASM, RDBMS

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oracle Stack Status

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Host Name CRS Installed ASM HOME RDBMS Installed CRS UP ASM UP RDBMS UP DB Instance Name

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

localhost No No Yes No No Yes testdb

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Refer to the MOS document mentioned below to learn more about RACcheck tool. You may download the latest version of RACcheck from My Oracle Support (MOS).

References:

RACcheck - RAC Configuration Audit Tool [ID 1268927.1]

Bug: ORA-00979: not a GROUP BY expression

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:51:00 +0000

Bugs and performance degradation are part of database upgrade stories and we have witnessed yet another post-upgrade bug after upgrading our database from Oracle 10gR2 (10.2.0.5) to Oracle 11gR2 (11.2.0.2).

Following query (I have simplified the query for the demonstration purpose) was running happily within Oracle 10gR2:

SQL>
SQL> select * from ( select TRUNC(dt,'MM')
2 from test
3 group by TRUNC(dt,'mm'));

TRUNC(DT,
---------
01-JAN-13

SQL>

However, the same query started to throws an error (ORA-00979) when executed in Oracle 11gR2 (11.2.0.2):

SQL> select * from v$version;

BANNER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
PL/SQL Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production
CORE 11.2.0.2.0 Production
TNS for Linux: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Production

SQL>

SQL> select * from ( select TRUNC(dt,'MM')
from test
group by TRUNC(dt,'mm'));
2 3 select * from ( select TRUNC(dt,'MM')
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00979: not a GROUP BY expression

SQL>

At this point I normally do a search on My Oracle Support (MOS) to see if I get some hits pertaining to this problem and found the following bug information:

Bug 11067251 - False ORA-979 with TRUNC(date, format) or ROUND(date, format) - superceded [ID 11067251.8]

Apparently, you hit the bug when you use either TRUNC or ROUND functions in an inline view. Executing the same query with little modification (removing inline view) in 11.2.0.2 was however successful.

SQL> select TRUNC(dt,'MM')
from test
group by TRUNC(dt,'mm');
2 3
TRUNC(DT,
---------
01-JAN-13

SQL>

The above bug confirms that 11.2.0.2 is affected and proposes following two workarounds:

1) Use NO_MERGE hint or
2) Disable view merging "_simple_view_merging=false"

As it was not possible to rewrite the application at this point, so we disabled view merging at the system level. Well, disabling view merging at the system level might appear as a bad choice but I think it is a right decision at this time. We will soon be upgrading this database to 11.2.0.3. This will kill two birds with one stone, a) bug fix and b) upgrading to the latest patch level (who knows what new bugs are waiting for us ???).

References:

My Oracle Support: Bug 11067251 - False ORA-979 with TRUNC(date, format) or ROUND(date, format) - superceded [ID 11067251.8]

Online Free Courses from World's Best Universities

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 08:56:00 +0000

Coursera is offering courses free online. The courses are delivered from faculty members of top universities in the world. You may find more information on the courses at:

https://www.coursera.org/

Happy learning !!!

OOW-2012: Oracle 12c New Features

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 19:15:00 +0000

Blogging right from Tom's session "database new features". Here are the new features as they are discussed:

1. Identity Columns

Remember I blogged on this topic earlier.

2. Default on null

A default value is inserted into the column When it's null.

3. Improved defaults - metadata only defaults

Now add new default columns to a table on the fly. 12c does that for you.

4. Increased size limit for Varchar2 and NVarchar2

The column types can be upto 32k.

5. Row Pattern Matching

Efficient SQL functionality for reporting row patterns like identifying V and W patterns for your stock

6. Partitioning Improvements

Online partition movement without using DBMS_REDEFINITION. Efficient global index management during DROP and TRUNCATE partition operation.

7. Hybrid Histograms

Jonathan Lewis spoke on this topic. I think more information on this is available on his blog.

8. Session private statistics for GTTs

Table and index statistics are held private for each session.

9. Temporary UNDO
Undo for temporary tables can now be managed in TEMP. Reduces the amount of undo generated in undo tablespace and redo generation.

10. Pluggable databases

Read Roels blog for this one. He has a good blog post on this

http://roelhartman.blogspot.com/

Oracle RAC 12c: New Features

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 19:32:00 +0000

Blogging live from OOW session on "Enhancements in Oracle RAC". Following are few Oracle RAC 12c new features being discussed in this session as I post:

1. Application Continuity

2. Oracle Flex ASM
With this feature, database instances use remote ASM instances.

3. Oracle ASM Disk Scrubbing
Checks for logical data corruptions and repair them automatically.

4. Enhancements to Policy-based Databases
Actively utilizes different sized servers

5. What - if analysis for server pool management

6. Standardized deployment and patching
Introducing GHS, rapid home provisioning and gold images

7. A new "ghctl" command for better patching

8. Oracle Utility Cluster

9. Dynamic IP Management and name resolution made easy

10. IPv6 Based IP Addresses Support for client connectivity

11. Multi-purpose Installation

12. Oracle installer will run Fix-up scripts & "root.sh" scripts across nodes. You don't have to run the scripts manually on RAC nodes.

Exciting new features !!!

OOW-2012: Very Large Databases (VLDB): Challenges and Opportunities

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 07:56:00 +0000

I would like to thank all the attendees for attending my session "Very Large Databases (VLDB): Challenges and Opportunities". I am glad, the hall was full to it's capacity. :)

You may download the presentation by logging into OOW-2012 schedule builder.

I request all the attendees to kindly rate my session by logging into OOW: Schedule Builder.

See you all !!!

PARALLEL_MIN_TIME_THRESHOLD Contradictions

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:39:00 +0000

PARALLEL_MIN_TIME_THRESHOLD initialization parameter controls which statements are candidate for parallelism.

As per MOS, this parameter is set to 10 seconds while Oracle documentation claims that it is set to 30 seconds. Now who's correct ??? Seems like it's a documentation bug.

Below are the links to both Oracle documentation and MOS article:

PARALLEL_MIN_TIME_THRESHOLD from Oracle Documentation
Oracle 11g Release2: new parallel query parameters [ID 1264548.1]

Speaking at Oracle OpenWorld 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:59:00 +0000

Well, it's time for Oracle OpenWorld again. This is the place to meet & learn from the industry experts. Glad I am making this year.

This year I will be speaking on my experiences managing Very Large Databases. Following are the details of my session.

Session ID: UGF3662
Session Title: Very Large Databases: Challenges and Opportunities
Venue / Room: Moscone West - 2000
Date and Time: 9/30/12, 10:00 - 11:00

These are the activities on my OOW to-do list:

1) Attend lots of sessions
2) Oracle ACE dinner
3) Blogger meetup
4) Oaktable World

I’m looking forward to seeing you in San Francisco!

Win A Free Copy of Packt's Oracle Database XE 11gR2 Jump Start Guide eBook

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 07:00:00 +0000

I am pleased to announce that Packt Publishing is organizing a giveaway especially for you. All you need to do is just comment below the post and win a free copy of Oracle Database XE 11gR2 Jump Start Guide. Two lucky winners stand a chance to win an e-copy of the book. Keep reading to find out how you can be one of the Lucky One.

Overview of Oracle Database XE 11gR2 Jump Start Guide eBook

Build and manage the Oracle Database 11gR2 XE environment with this fast paced, practical guide. The book helps beginners to install, administer, maintain, tune, backup and upgrade the Oracle Database Express Edition.

Read more about this book and download free Sample Chapter:

http://www.packtpub.com/oracle-database-xe-11gr2-jump-start-guide/book

How to Enter?

All you need to do is head on over to this page and look through the product description of this book and drop a line via the comments below to let us know what interests you the most about these books. It’s that simple.

DeadLine:

The contest will close on 26-AUG-2012. Winners will be contacted by email, so be sure to use your real email address when you comment!

All the best !!!

Book Released: "Oracle Database XE 11gR2 Jump Start Guide"

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 13:59:00 +0000

I am pleased to announce my first book "Oracle Database XE 11gR2 Jump Start Guide" published by Packt Publishers. The book is available in two formats "Print Book" and "ebook".

Please let your friends and colleagues know about the book. Have a look at the contents by following the below link:

http://www.packtpub.com/oracle-database-xe-11gr2-jump-start-guide/book

The book is available for purchase from the publishers website (www.packtpub.com) and other leading consumer websites like Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Waterstones etc.

Thanks to all my readers who have encouraged me to write this book.

Oracle Database 12c - New Feature: Identity Columns

noreply@blogger.com (Asif Momen) — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 10:20:00 +0000

Well, Oracle Database 12c is not yet available but new features seems to be popping out in MOS. While troubleshooting Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c startup issues I came across Oracle Database 12c new feature called “Identity Columns”.

An Identity Columns is auto-incremented at the time of insertion just like in SQL Server. Going forward, I think you will not use Oracle Sequence anymore to generate unique values instead use Identity Columns.

For more information on this read:

HOW TO CREATE A TABLE WITH APRIMARY KEY USING AN IDENTITY CLAUSE [ID 1472346.1]

Happy reading!!!