Exploring Autonomous Database – The CDB

I am the new kid in the block, wandering around the autonomous database cloud. Let me share something I found interesting. Though on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, the ATP (Autonomous Transaction Processing) and the ADW (Autonomous Data Warehouse) have two different higher level menu and they appear to be different, they are not.

Here are two ADW databases I created:

Autonomous Data Warehouse Instances Created on 10 Sep and 2 Oct. 

Here are two ATP databases created:

Autonomous Transaction Processing Instances Created on 10 Sep and 2 Oct.

Each instance of the ADW and ATP  is a pluggable database. The (pluggable) databases created on Sep 10th – one ATP and one ADW – belonged to the same CDB. Similarly, the (pluggable) databases created on Oct 2 – again one ATP and one ADW – belonged to the same CDB. So, it appears that at the CDB level, both ATP and ADW have the same configuration. The differences are only in the PDB. And my guess is that Oracle creates the new instances (ATP and ADW) in a CDB until that CDB reaches its capacity threshold, then moves to the next CDB.

The database properties are same as well for ATP and ADW. The only (obviously) difference is the GLOBAL_DB_NAME value. 

Oracle Database 18c

Happy New Year 2018!

We all have questions on Oracle Database 18c and its ability to self-drive! I tried to summarize my understanding of Oracle Database 18c and RU/RUR in a blog post here.

What to expect in Oracle Database 18c

“Oracle Database 18c by itself is NOT Self-Driving. It is the Oracle Autonomous Database Cloud Service that brings the “Self-Driving” in 18c. Oracle Database 18c installed on-prem will “drive” pretty much the same as Oracle Database 12c.”

I like the idea of releasing major features more frequently and releasing patches and updates that are smaller in size and easy to test. But, the question still is how many DBAs out there are ready to patch every quarter, even if you are able to automate the patching using OEM and other tools.