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  • Oracle Tidbits – December 2016 #oratidbit

    “Oracle *daily* TidBits” (#oratidbit) published on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ during weekdays in December 2016. You will also see these tidbits, one tidbit at a time, for each page refresh on the right side of this blog as well… Hope you find these helpful to learn something new or to remind you of its existence and use.

    OraTidBit
    #oratidbit #DB12cR2 You can capture Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) data for Oracle Active Data Guard standby databases. This feature enables performance tuning of Oracle Active Data Guard standby databases.
    #oratidbit #DB12cR2 INACTIVE_ACCOUNT_TIME initialization parameter automatically locks the database user account who has not logged in to the database instance in a specified number of days.
    #oratidbit #db12cR2 You can prioritize the PDBs in a CDB when you upgrade the CDB. The PDBs with higher priority are upgraded before PDBs with lower priority.
    #oratidbit #db12cR2 A CDB can run in local undo mode or shared undo mode. Local undo mode means that every container in the CDB uses local undo. Shared undo mode means that there is one active undo tablespace for a single-instance CDB.
    #oratidbit #db12cR2 In 12.2, tables with BFILE columns can be redefined online.
    #oratidbit #db12cR2 In 12.2, Query the V$ONLINE_REDEF view to monitor the progress of an online table redefinition operation.
    #oratidbit #db12cR2 In 12.2, SYSRAC is a new administrative privilege for tasks related to Oracle Real Application Clusters (#Oracle #RAC) operations.
    #oratidbit #DB12cR2 ALLOW_GROUP_ACCESS_TO_SGA is new parameter and controls group access to shared memory on UNIX platforms. The default value is false, which means that database shared memory is created with owner access only. In Oracle Database releases prior to Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2.0.1), database shared memory was created with owner and group access.
    #oratidbit #DB12cR2 AWR_PDB_AUTOFLUSH_ENABLED is new parameter and enables you to specify whether to enable or disable automatic Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) snapshots for all the PDBs in a CDB or for individual PDBs in a CDB.The default value of AWR_PDB_AUTOFLUSH_ENABLED is false. Thus, by default, automatic AWR snapshots are disabled for all the PDBs in a CDB. When you change the value of AWR_PDB_AUTOFLUSH_ENABLED in the CDB root, the new value takes effect in all the PDBs in the CDB. Therefore, if you change the value of AWR_PDB_AUTOFLUSH_ENABLED in the CDB root to true, the value of AWR_PDB_AUTOFLUSH_ENABLED is also changed to true in all of the PDBs, so that automatic AWR snapshots are enabled for all the PDBs. You can also change the value of AWR_PDB_AUTOFLUSH_ENABLED in any of the individual PDBs in a CDB, and the value that is set for each individual PDB will be honored. This enables you to enable or disable automatic AWR snapshots for individual PDBs.
    #oratidbit #DB12cR2 ENABLE_AUTOMATIC_MAINTENANCE_PDB is new parameter and can be used to enable or disable the running of automated maintenance tasks for all the PDBs in a CDB or for individual PDBs in a CDB. When you change the value of ENABLE_AUTOMATIC_MAINTENANCE_PDB in the CDB root, the new value takes effect in the root and in all the PDBs in the CDB. You can also change the value of ENABLE_AUTOMATIC_MAINTENANCE_PDB in any of the individual PDBs in a CDB, and the value that is set for each individual PDB will be honored. This enables you to enable or disable automated maintenance tasks for individual PDBs.
    #oratidbit #DB12cR2 ENABLED_PDBS_ON_STANDBY is new parameter and specifies which pluggable databases (PDBs) to replicate on an Oracle Data Guard standby database. The asterisk (*) and question mark (?) wildcard characters are supported.
    #oratidbit #DB12cR2 REMOTE_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST is new parameter and specifies a directory from which to read archive log files during a pluggable database (PDB) refresh operation if the source is not available.
    #oratidbit #DB12cR2 UNIFORM_LOG_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT is new parameter and specifies that a uniform timestamp format be used in Oracle Database trace (.trc) files. When the value of UNIFORM_LOG_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT is TRUE, the format used for timestamps in trace files is standardized on universal time with millisecond precision. When the value of UNIFORM_LOG_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT is FALSE, trace files include a mix of timestamps using different precisions, with some timestamps showing local time and other timestamps showing universal time.
    #oratidbit Before you create a DBaaS instance on Oracle Database #Cloud (#DBaaS), you must setup an SSH public/private key pair to connect to compute node and optionally Oracle storage cloud service container to backup the database to cloud.
    #oratidbit Use dbaascli utility on Oracle #DBaaS cloud deployments to perform a variety of life-cycle and administration operations including patching, database recovery and data guard switchover.
    #oratidbit Use raccli utility #DBaaS cloud deployments that use Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) to perform a variety of life-cycle and administration operations including backup, recovery, patching, security configurations and so on.
    #oratidbit Use dbpatchmdg utility #DBaaS cloud deployments that are configured with Oracle Data Guard to perform a variety of patching operations.
    #oratidbit Use the oracle-dbcs-cli utility on your Linux computer to connect to Oracle Cloud and perform a variety of life-cycle and administration operations on Oracle Database Cloud Service deployments (non RAC).
    #oratidbit To use #Oracle Database Backup Cloud Service you’ll subscribe to the service, install the Oracle Database Cloud Backup Module, and configure your environment to send backups to the cloud using familiar RMAN commands.
    #oratidbit Oracle Database Exadata Express Cloud Service delivers a managed Oracle Database 12c Release 2 Enterprise Edition with options, running on Oracle Exadata engineered systems.
    #oratidbit #DB12cR2 In 12.2, the maximum length for most database object names has increased from 30 bytes to 128 bytes.
    #oratidbit #DB12cR2 In 12.2, you can encrypt undo tablespaces, temporary tablespaces, and the SYSTEM and SYSAUX tablespaces. Also, encrypt both offline and online tablespaces.

  • 12th Day of #Cloud: Thoughts

    12 Days of #Cloud: Day 12

    After playing with Oracle Database Cloud Service (DBaaS) for past several days, I have mixed feeling. I like quite a lot of features and the amount of automation went into the product. For example, creating an RAC instance and creating a Data Guard instance by picking a check box is pretty awesome. These two configurations are pretty good, in my quick validation. If Oracle development team takes care of few cosmetic items in the Cloud interface to make it consistent across all services and simplify the data entry portion, users like me would start liking and adopting the service. I also expect a lot of automation.

    I had two pain points – storage and cloud tooling. The trial account navigation on the Cloud dashboard is too slow as well.

    From the Dashboard after you click on a Cloud Service (for example Database Cloud Service or Golden Gate Cloud Service), you get to the screen where you have a button on the top right to open the console.

    The Storage Console URL is tied to the data center (not sure why), hence I think the “Open Service Console” button is missing in Storage Cloud Service main screen.

    Still, I do not think it is a big deal to generate my storage cloud console URL as my data center is known to Oracle and provide a consistent interface. The URL is https://storageconsole.us2.oraclecloud.com/

    When entering storage container information, I have to create URL. Would it be easier to ask me the domain name and container name instead of asking me to coin the URL? From the storage domain name and container name, Oracle developer can easily build the URL.

    When I am subscribing to a service, I expect everything latest and greatest, especially the cloud tools to manage my service. I am not sure why I should manually update the cloud tooling to the latest? In my view, updating cloud tooling to latest release must be part of provisioning and automatic ongoing.

    When creating a DBaaS service, enabling backup is easy through the GUI. But, if we have to change the backup configuration, it is a lot of manual steps. I would expect a DBaaS modify service GUI similar to the create service GUI where I can change the backup configuration.

    These may be minor, and once you are used to the service may not be a big deal. For a new product, the challenge is to get people to get used to the tool. If you turn them off initially with a non-friendly interface, it does not matter how good the product is.

    Hope these posts will help you try out Oracle #DBaaS. I will continue to play with Cloud service as long my trial account is active 🙂

    Happy New Year!