I’m sorry, I didn’t realize there was such a thing as a ‘fake’ DBA Jeff! Ok, so labeling someone as a ‘real’ DBA is a bit insulting to DBAs everywhere. If you have children, that makes you a parent. If you are responsible for a database, then you are a DBA. So what exactly am I getting at? What do you most fear, and have you ever faced that fear? If you are sitting there…
“Look for things that make them go!” – from ST:TNG, “Samaritan Snare” (Wiki) I have a tendency to relate everything in life back to a Star Trek or South Park episode – it’s a personal problem and I’m currently in therapy, courtesy my DVR. But back to Oracle… How often have you been asked to help with a performance problem, but the person asking for help lacks the ability to describe the actual problem? The…
A lot of folks contact me off-line, asking if I really do hate Chet, or do I just like kidding him. Mostly, it’s me forgetting that Chet hates it when I InitCap his Twitter handle, @oraclenerd. Or am I remembering that he hates that? Hmmmm… Anyways, I needed to write this post so people would know, that, ‘yes’, I really do like picking on Chet. He refuses to wear my Toad t-shirts, and more importantly,…
Jealousy is not an emotion I generally feel for the SQL Server technology stack. I covet their Twitter camaraderie, but I ‘know’ that Oracle can counter just about anything thrown at it. People that Helped Me with this Post I was reminded that even old dogs can be taught new tricks while monitoring the #SQLSaturday conversation going on in Chicago this weekend. The subject of monitoring INDEXES came up, and it was casually mentioned that…
Database developers and DBAs often play the role of gunslinger, or a hired gunman. Someone brought in to ‘kill’ the bad guy, in this case, an under-performing database. Our tools of the trade are not as dramatic as firearms, but we can do just as much damage. Ever heard of Angry Birds? In this mobile game, users get various weapons (in the form of Angry Birds) to launch at the naughty piggies. What are your…
Question: How do I find the hour portion of the value between to timestamps? Answer: Use the EXTRACT() function! Thankfully @TheRealLewisC (twitter | blog) pointed us in the right direction! I was tempted to do a subtraction and then a substr() to pull out just the hour portion of the returned string – way more work than necessary for the Optimizer. EXTRACT (Oracle Docs) gives us just what we want! So there is not an…
Do you run a 3rd party application that uses Oracle RDBMS under-the-hood? Do you experience performance issues? Frustrated that you do not own the application SQL that is causing the issues? Maybe an upcoming upgrade to 11g might give you some relief. Many of the customers I speak with are unaware of a new 11g feature called ‘SQL Plan Management’ (docs.) A big bonus here is that a majority of the functionality is available without…
You better run and catch it then! You know you’re getting old when the new crop of kids don’t get this joke, or even worse, don’t understand what a prank phone call is. I’m pretty sure that folks still get phone calls from frustrated people who want to know how much time is left before their query will finish executing. You sit down and write what looks to be a pretty straightforward request for some…
Is that an offensive question? Does it assume to much? I can’t imagine asking ‘Do you have a test plan?’ I was working with an Oracle group this week, and after hearing about a big application upgrade schedule to go in April, I had a few questions for them. I was most curious how they would ensure that no performance degradation would occur? This would be a major concern of mine for any major upgrade,…
Think the NHL or PGA seasons are brutally long? Try keeping up with all of the SQL Server and Oracle events. The friendly folks in Denver, CO tend get the conference ball rolling with the Rocky Mountain Oracle User Group (RMOUG) Training Days event. I had the pleasure to attend a couple of years ago and catch some skiing with my wife. Every conference doesn’t turn into a vacation, but I try! The 2011 calendar…