Category: Oracle

Oracle Midlands Event #5 : Summary

Oracle Midlands Event #5 happened last night.

First up was Martin Widlake speaking about clustering data to improve performance. The cool and scary thing about Oracle is you often go into session like this thinking it’s all going to be stuff you already know, then you realise how much you either didn’t know in the first place, or had forgotten. A couple of times Martin asked questions of the audience and I felt myself shrinking back in my seat and chanting the mantra, “Don’t pick me!”, in my head. 🙂

After food and some chatting there was freebie prize draw. I won a RedGate t-shirt. I shall have to remember to take it to OOW and “accidentally” wear it whilst walking past the RedGate booth. 🙂

Next up was Ron Ekins speaking about data virtualization and instant cloning. The session started off with a general introduction to the subject and a quick look at the products available to achieve it. This session also included a live demo of Delphix. The more I hear about Delphix, the more impressed I am. Judging by the Oracle geeks they’ve drawn into the company in recent years (Kyle Haley, Steve Karam and Tim Gorman) it seems I’m not alone in that opinion. 🙂

Thanks to RedGate for sponsoring the event, allowing it remain free.  Thanks to Mike Dirden for organising the event. Thanks to the speakers travelling to Birmingham to teach us some stuff. Thanks also to the attendees, without whom this would not happen. Please keep spreading the word. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

PS. The next event will be with Bjoern Rost in November. Keep an eye on the Oracle Midlands site for details, which should be appearing in the next few days.

Temporal Validity, ACLs, External Tables, SQL*Loader and more in Oracle 12c

Some more 12c articles have trickled out over the last few days.

I kind-of mentioned this next thing in a post a few weeks ago, but didn’t name names. 🙂 While writing an article about the PDB logging clause in 12.1.0.2 I noticed it didn’t work. I raised an SR with Oracle Support and they confirmed it was a bug. I was not planning to release the article until the bug was patched, but it came up in conversation recently and I decided it was better to release the article with a big fat warning on the top saying it doesn’t work, just so others are not as confused by this as I was. I’m still not sure it is the right thing to do, but what the heck…

When the bug is patched, I will revise the article and probably promote it to the front page of the website as a “new article”. For now it is lurking in the depths of my website. 🙂

The 12c journey continues…

Cheers

Tim…

VirtualBox 4.3.16

VirtualBox 4.3.16 has arrived. The downloads and changelog are in the usual places.

Although 4.3.14 worked fine on OS X and Linux, I skipped it on Windows because it just wouldn’t start a VM. That issue is allegedly fixed in this release. The changelog includes the following entry.

“Windows hosts: fixed startup problems on certain Windows hosts due to conflicts with anti-virus software (4.3.14 regression, bug #13187)”

Happy days! 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Update: It is working fine on Windows 7 at work…

A few more 12c articles

A few more 12c articles went live over the last few days…

The DMU and In-Database Archiving are from the OCP syllabus. The Invisible Columns stuff seemed like a natural thing to mention, when discussing the In-Database Archiving.

The 12c journey continues…

Cheers

Tim…

 

OTN APAC Tour 2014

As well as losing the ACED OpenWorld confirmation email, it turns out my website/mailbox move also caused me to lose the email about being accepted on the OTN APAC Tour 2014. I saw a tweet this morning saying that I was on the agenda for the NZOUG event and checked with Francisco to see what was going on. That’s when I found out that yet another important email had gone missing… 🙂

The good news is I had already agreed the time off work, so everything is good for the tour.

  • Perth, Australia : November 6-7
  • Shanghai, China : November 9
  • Tokyo, Japan : November 11-13
  • Beijing, China : November 14-15
  • Bangkok, Thailand : November 17
  • Auckland, New Zealand : November 19-21

After the OTN Yathra Tour 2014, which was 7 cities in 14 days, I told myself I was too old to do all this tour stuff… So much for that idea… 🙂

Although it’s a 6 event tour, the first and last events are pretty much like being at home for me. I’ve been to the AUSOUG and NZOUG events a few times, so it will be good to meet up with everyone again… It will be my second time in Beijing, and I’ve seen the traffic in India now, so I’m hoping I will cope better with the roads in China this time. 🙂 Shanghai, Tokyo and Bangkok are all new to me, so it will be interesting to see how I cope with them…

As always before one of these tours, I am a complete mix of excitement, fear and general panic! 🙂

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Cheers

Tim…

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge : Keeping It In The Family

If you watched my (No) Ice Bucket Challenge yesterday, you will know I nominated my Oracle family.

The first family member to step up to the plate was the daughter, Heli “Hell-Squirrel” Helskyaho. She shared the video on Facebook, which you can see here if you are a friend. We have to be careful with the parental controls to keep her safe!

Next up was the wife, Debra Lilley, who used the opportunity to do an Oscar acceptance speech.

That left only my dad, Graham Wood. This really is a case of saving the best for last. Thanks Dad for proving you really are the daddy! When I grow up I want to be just like you…

Thanks to the whole family for getting involved. It’s enough to bring a tear to your eye! 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

PS. Please don’t forget to donate!

Multitenant : PDB CONTAINERS Clause

I forgot to mention, I put another multitenant article live at the weekend.

I’m not sure I will ever use it, but it’s good to know it’s there.

I was originally working on an article on a completely different multitenant feature, but the examples I was using highlighted a bug, which kind-of scuppered that article. I’ve raised an SR and I’m waiting on the acknowledgement and possible fix. I’ll hold that article back until the fix is in place.

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle Midlands : Event #5

Just a quick reminder that Oracle Midlands Event #5 is just around the corner (Tuesday 16 September).

  • Boost Performance by Clustering Data – Martin Widlake
  • Data Virtualisation and Instant Cloning – Ron Ekins (Delphix)

Martin is always good value, so I’m looking forward to that session. I’ve seen a couple of talks on the Delphix stuff and it is seriously cool! I think this session will open a few people’s eyes… 🙂

Big thanks to the Red Gate Software folks for sponsoring the event, allowing it to remain free

You can get more details here. I’ve already registered. See you there!

Cheers

Tim…

 

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