Category: Technology

Power Loss and Database Recovery…

About a week ago we had a big power outage at work. What with UPS and generators, most systems coped fine, but one system didn’t fair so well…

One of the mount points, and some of the data files within it, got corrupted and the Solaris container holding the database decided to repeatedly bounce between nodes. After a few days work on the part of the sysadmins, including a file system restore to repair the Oracle software installation, the server was given back to me.

A DBVerify showed there were loads of block corruptions in the data files, so I did a full restore and recovery of the database. The app was released for testing to the users this morning. A little before midday we had another power outage, even more severe than the previous one. Some of the UPS had not fully recharged since the last outage…

We will not get power restored until this evening. Everyone has an early start planned tomorrow. We have no idea what we are walking in to though!

The moral of this story is always have a good DR strategy!

Fun, fun, fun…

Cheers

Tim…

PS. The other DBA is on holiday this week. LOL.

Update: The DB was mangled again so we had to restore it again. 🙁

New Articles on Old Themes Inspired by Work…

I’ve put a couple of new posts live recently that are on quite old themes.

The instance caging article was my feedback to some people at work about one method for managing resources in a consolidated environment.

The last couple of days I’ve been helping one of my colleagues improve the performance of a Business Object report that contained calls to PL/SQL functions in the select list. The report took ages to run. So long in fact I don’t think anyone had actually waited long enough to see it complete. 🙂 After a bit of messing around we got it down to less than a minute. The function calls article is a summary to help prevent other people making the same mistakes. I think this is probably going to be the subject of a future Tuesday meeting at work…

In a recent Tuesday meeting I presented my forthcoming UKOUG session entitled “PL/SQL: Stop making the same performance mistakes”. That references some existing articles on my website, but there are a number of things I’ve been teaching in my Oracle University class for ages that have never made it on to the website. To correct that, I put another 6 PL/SQL articles on the site (with some more to come), but the subject matter is so old I’m not going to promote them to the front page. I will write a new article to support the UKOUG session, which will mostly be links to all the relevant content covered by the talk. That article will go to the front page, so all this content I’ve added to the site in “stealth mode” will become evident in the near future.

Cheers

Tim…

UltraEdit 3.3 for Mac/Linux…

I’m now rockin’ UltraEdit 3.3 on my MacBook Pro and Linux boxes at home. A previous announcement suggested by this version the Mac and Linux versions would have caught up with the Windows version from a functionality perspective. I’m not sure if that’s true, but they are close enough for me.

The latest Windows versions is 18.20, which I use at work, but home is where the real magic happens. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

 

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) : Context is everything…

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is definitely an important issue for companies and IT departments, but what the vast majority of reporters and CEOs seem to forget is that context is extremely important.

Looking at this from a company perspective, when we are talking about phones and tablets, then BYOD is a pretty important issue. It seems to be creeping into the laptop side of business a little, but as far as desktops are concerned, BYOD it is virtually non-existent. So when Marc Benioff talks about the affect of BYOD on Windows 8 uptake I think he is living in some sort of dream land. I’m not suggesting Windows 8 will be a success in business, but it’s failure will not be down to BYOD.

Ignoring the board rooms and the sales teams, who are essentially consumers, the real IT work in companies is still being done on PCs. Yes, you can use a cloud service on your phone, but look around the office and you will see those cloud services are actually being used by people on PCs. Applications such as Oracle Fusion Apps have mobile device interfaces, but typically people will be sitting at a PC doing all the real work, not using some crappy little software keyboard. This idea that the office is full of people doing their job on an iPhone is just stupid.

Since we are going to have PCs on our desks for quite some time, then Microsoft are going to do OK. The PC on your desk at work will be replaced and Microsoft will get their pound of flesh, because there is no real alternative. Apple is a tiny fraction of this market and Linux desktops have never taken off. Whether the company install Windows 7 or Windows 8 is another issue, but Microsoft get paid all the same.

So please stop insulting our intelligence by telling us BYOD is a game changer on the office desktop. It’s not!

Note. I’m looking at this from a company IT perspective, so don’t start telling me how your granny got rid of her PC and happily replaced it with an iPad! Your Granny is not running SalesForce.com!

Cheers

Tim…

 

Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 on my Nexus 7…

I turned on my Nexus 7 last night and it asked if I wanted to upgrade to Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean). The install was pretty quick and went through with no dramas.

I’m not all that interested in the whole Android thing. To be honest, I can’t even be bothered to check the change log. It’s just an enabling technology for me, not something I’m passionate about. What I can say it that it has finally fixed the home page swivel issue. In case you hadn’t heard, the Nexus 7 automatically orientates the screen to whichever way you are holding it, except for the home page which always stays in portrait mode. Not any more. Finally it too can swivel.

I was never sure why this screen didn’t act like all the others, but it seems Google has responded to the criticism and sorted it.

Cheers

Tim…

UltraEdit 3.2 on Mac and Linux…

I’m now rockin’ UltraEdit 3.2 on Mac and Linux…

This is the version that is meant to bring the Mac/Linux version in line with the Windows version as far as functionality is concerned. I’m not sure that is the case, but it’s getting ever closer. It certainly does everything I need it to do now. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Nexus 7 : Impressions after a couple of days…

It’s been a couple of days since I got my spangly new Nexus 7. I was hoping to chalk it down to an impulse buy, but after 3 failed attempts to buy one at high-street stores I got frustrated and ordered one off Google Play directly…

If you’ve used an Android phone (or tablet) before, there aren’t many mysteries here. It’s just a bigger, faster and smoother version of what I’ve seen before. There has been lots of talk about the improvements in Jelly Bean (Android 4.1). Now I don’t know if it’s really because of changes in Android, or just because of the hardware refresh compared to my HTC Wildfire, but this thing is like sh*t off a shovel! Everything is so quick and smooth. It’s really cool! As far as *my* use is concerned, Android and iOS are now the same thing. You can be picky, but Jelly Bean is a very polished product.

The issue with phones and tablets is that every pro is also a con. For example:

  • Size: It’s smaller than my iPad, but that makes it a little more annoying for typing than the already-annoying iPad.
  • Portability: Because it’s smaller than the iPad, it feels more portable than that, but not as portable as my crappy old HTC Wildfire or some of the larger smart phones.
  • Reading: Even though it is smaller than the iPad, it’s still bigger and heavier than my Kindle. That, added to the shiny screen makes it vastly inferior to the Kindle for reading novels.

Mark Rittman made some mention of the unusual form factor as far as displaying web pages. It’s true the aspect ratio is more like a large phone than the tablets I’ve used/seen, but that hasn’t affected me so far.

I don’t have a posh smart phone, but for those that do, you might want to read Howard Rogers’ review. I’m guessing a lot of people might actually get more use out of a Galaxy SIII or Galaxy Note phone that the Nexus 7.

So the conclusions are pretty simple. For £200 it is a really excellent device. It’s half the size of the iPad and half the price, so you get what you pay for in that respect. If you have the money and want the extra screen size, the iPad is a better option. If price is an issue, or you prefer a smaller tablet, then the Nexus 7 is a great choice.

I’m not sure what the future holds for my Nexus 7. It might end up replacing my iPad, in which case my nephews will get that. The Nexus 7 might become a present for my nephews and I’ll keep the iPad. I might end up using both devices. Yesterday I was streaming the Olympics or Netflix on my iPad, while doing emails and tweeting on my Nexus 7. I have this horrible feeling I will have my laptop, iPad, Nexus 7 and Kindle when I’m traveling to OOW this year… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…