OracleNotes

Category: Database

  • Oracle Database 19c – The best Oracle database release to be on now!

    Recently Oracle announced that the extended support fee for the Oracle database 19c will be waived for the first two years.

    I wanted to take a moment to document the best MOS notes that help customers to upgrade their older version of Oracle databases to the 19c long-term version.

    11.2.0.4 and 19c are similar releases before a major architecture change (PDB architecture was introduced in 12.1 and traditional architecture deprecated. In 23c traditional architecture is unsupported). You can see in the chart above that 11.2.0.4 had four years of waived extended support, 2 years of extended support, 2 years of market-driven support, and now has upgrade support from CSS (Customer Success Services, which used to be known as ACS). I think it is only prudent for customers to jump on 19c and stay there for a while – 19c is a good database release to be on.

    19c Database Upgrade – Self-Guided Assistance with Best Practices (Doc ID 1919.2)

    This is the best MOS note for upgrade planning and learning about the 19c upgrade.

    Oracle Database Patches to Consider for 19c (Doc ID 2781612.2)

    Primary Note for Database Proactive Patch Program (Doc ID 888.1)

    Oracle Database 19c Important Recommended One-off Patches (Doc ID 555.1)

    The RU and MRPs will include only the patches that are standby-first and RAC-rolling enabled. There are many critical patches that may need to go on your databases. This note is an absolute must for all DBAs to review and apply.

    And finally, check out the new features in Oracle Database 19c using the interactive & easy to search APEX tool – Oracle Database Features and Licensing.

    None of upgrade learning and planning is complete without reading and watching Mike Dietrich’s Blog About Oracle Database Upgrades.

    Oracle Database 19c Technical Architecture

    Oracle Real Application Clusters 19c Technical Architecture

  • Oracle Autonomous Database: A DBA Perspective

    Oracle Autonomous Database: A DBA Perspective

    When more people started using Autonomous Database services, more Admin tools are made available as well. When ADW was introduced, all the DBA had for monitoring or diagnosis or utilization was only the Service Console. Here are some administrative enhancements in ATP/ADW we saw in the past 1+ year.

    • July 2018: SQL Developer 18.2.0 and later allows for setting up connections without the need for Keystore passwords.
    • September 2018: Autonomous Data Warehouse allows users to create partitioned tables, indexes, and materialized views. 
    • March 2019: Autonomous Database provides cloning where you can choose to clone either the full database or only the database metadata. 
    • April 2019: A simple way to secure your autonomous database instances using network access control lists. Specifying an access control list blocks all IP addresses that are not in the list from accessing the database. 
    • May 2019: Oracle Management Cloud supports monitoring Autonomous Databases via its Oracle Database Management console. This provides both monitoring and alerting for your Autonomous Database instances. 
    • May 2019: It is possible to create a database link from an ADW instance to any database that is accessible from an ADW/ATP including other ADW/ATP instances.
    • June 2019: You can select auto-scaling during provisioning or later using the Scale-Up/Down button on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console.
    • June 2019: Oracle Rest Data Services (ORDS) is included with Autonomous Database. ORDS maps HTTP(S) verbs (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.) to database operations and returns any results formatted using JSON. 
    • June 2019: Oracle SQL Developer Web provides a browser-based integrated development environment and administration interface for Oracle Autonomous Database. 
    • June 2019: Autonomous Database includes Oracle’s premiere low-code development platform: Application Express (APEX). 
    • July 2019: Customers can get a real-time and historical view of performance data directly on the OCI console using Performance Hub.
    • August 2019: Autonomous Database supports multiple directories which makes it even easier for customers to migrate their existing applications to ADB.

    Oracle Open World 2019 announced that there are two autonomous databases included in the Always Free tier! Great news!! Now, DBAs and developers have no reason not to get into Autonomous Database and start playing. Maybe you can develop an application using APEX and ATP for your favorite local charity 🙂

    I will be comparing the traditional DBA activities against the activities you can do on ATP or ADW of Autonomous Database service in my talk “Autonomous Database: What’s the Admin’s Role?” on Sep 27th at the Arizona User Group meeting.

    https://www.meetup.com/Arizona-Oracle-User-Group/events/264171869/