Cary Millsap : Mastering Oracle Trace Data…

 

I was ribbing Cary about missing his unconference session (due to migraine and alarm malfunction). Lenz Grimmer and I both tweeted him to see where he was and in return we received this message in reply.

Very generous indeed. Unfortunately Lenz was flying home so he couldn’t make it. I had a conversation with Cary about it saying I wanted to come, but felt weird about accepting a freebie, so I thanked him for the offer and left it at that.

As the day progressed I kept mentally revisiting my decision. I think it must be my working class genes expressing the , “I do not need charity”, phenotype. Stupid I know, but that’s how I’m made. In the end I decided if I wanted to go, but didn’t feel comfortable with the freebie, then the solution was to pay for the course. So that’s what I did.

So Thursday morning, after a very long 3 days at UKOUG, I found myself in a classroom being taught the wonders of Oracle trace files by Cary. 🙂

It’s a really enjoyable course. Cary’s presentation style is relaxed and natural, which really gets you into the swing of what you are doing. I’ve seen him present a number of times over the years and his style works really well in conferences and the classroom.

I’ve been using Oracle for many years and in that time I’ve lost count of the times I’ve captured SQL trace and run it through TKPROF. So what was there for me in this course? As it turns out, quite a lot. It gave me a better understanding of what trace files really contain and what can/can’t be trusted in the raw files and the TKPROF output. It also showed how the Method R tools can be used to dig deeper into the trace files than is possible with TKPROF alone. There is some very cool stuff there.

The course includes:

  • The “Mastering Oracle Trace Data” book. This means you don’t have to keep scribbling notes and it is much more comprehensive than just a printout of the slides.
  • A limited license for MR Tools and MR Trace. I’ve used the MR Trace SQL*Developer plugin before, but MR Tools is new to me.
  • A t-shirt. Everyone knows I’m a sucker for a t-shirt. 🙂

It was well worth the money in my opinion.

Cheers

Tim…

Author: Tim...

DBA, Developer, Author, Trainer.

5 thoughts on “Cary Millsap : Mastering Oracle Trace Data…”

  1. I tweeted it and he didnt offer me a free day……… but then what would I have done with it? Databases ugh

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