Querying DBA_HIST_SNAPSHOT and DBA_HIST_SYSSTAT

Why is it so hard in Oracle to get a decent answer to the question of how many seconds elapsed between two timestamps? I'm looking at DBA_HIST_SNAPSHOT and wondering how many seconds each snapshot spans, because later on I want to use this to generate metrics like Redo Size per Second, etc. SQL> desc dba_hist_snapshot … Continue reading Querying DBA_HIST_SNAPSHOT and DBA_HIST_SYSSTAT →

Exadata Roadmap Preview

Last week, Andrew Mendelsohn gave a talk at the Enkitec Extreme Exadata Expo ("E4") run in Texas by those excellent guys at Enkitec. Andrew is the SVP of Oracle's Database Server Technologies group, so it's fair to say he has his finger on the pulse of the Oracle roadmap for Exadata. Big thanks to Frits Hoogland … Continue reading Exadata Roadmap Preview →

Database Virtualization Part 2 – Flash Makes The Difference

In part one of this article I talked about Database Virtualisation and how I believe that it is the next trend in our industry. Databases - particularly Oracle databases - have held out against the rise of virtualisation for a long time, but as virtualisation products have matured and the drive to consumerise and consolidate … Continue reading Database Virtualization Part 2 – Flash Makes The Difference →

Database Virtualization Part 1 – It’s Happening Right Now

Forget Big Data. Stop talking about Analytics. There is a trend taking place in the marketplace right now, one that is really happening rather than just being spoken about. That trend is Database Virtualisation. Or, as my U.S. cousins would spell it, Database Virtualization. (And whilst I am loath to drop the Queen's English in … Continue reading Database Virtualization Part 1 – It’s Happening Right Now →

Database Consolidation Part 4 – Flash Memory Makes The Difference

[This is part four of a series of articles about database consolidation. Part one addressed the business drivers and technical challenges, with part two focussing on design choices. Part three was about capacity planning and the concept of overcommitting resources. This section will now look at each resource and see how flash memory helps achieve … Continue reading Database Consolidation Part 4 – Flash Memory Makes The Difference →

Database Consolidation Part 3 – It’s All About Capacity

In parts one and two of this article I blogged, extensively and laboriously, about database consolidation. I talked (at length) about the business drivers for this industry trend, then went on to discuss (for some considerable time) the technical challenges. I even droned on about the different design choices faced by enterprises who are about to embark … Continue reading Database Consolidation Part 3 – It’s All About Capacity →

Database Consolidation Part 2 – Shared Infrastructure Design Choices

Part one was all about the business drivers and technical challenges faced when building a database consolidation platform. Database consolidation is all about sharing infrastructure, so part two is about the design choices that are available... An important architectural decision when consolidating databases is that of where the shared infrastructure should diverge. If we assume … Continue reading Database Consolidation Part 2 – Shared Infrastructure Design Choices →

Database Consolidation Part 1 – Business Drivers and Technical Challenges

Database consolidation has been a big trend in the industry for a while now. You can see this if you read the IT press, or if you listen to the relentless procession of people queueing up to talk about the "cloud". I saw it in my time at Oracle, where we had an increasing number … Continue reading Database Consolidation Part 1 – Business Drivers and Technical Challenges →

The Strategic Platform for ALL Database Workloads

I was invited to Microsoft HQ in the UK yesterday to be a speaker at one of their launch event for SQL Server 2012. It's the second of these events that I've appeared at and it finally made me realise I need to change something about this blog. So far until now I have resisted … Continue reading The Strategic Platform for ALL Database Workloads →

SLOB on Violin 3000 Series with PCIe Direct Attach

A reader Alex asked if I could post a comparative set of tests from my previous 3000 series Infiniband testing but using the PCIe direct-attached method. I was actually very keen to test this myself as I wanted to see how close the Infiniband connectivity method could get to the PCIe latencies. Why? Well, PCIe … Continue reading SLOB on Violin 3000 Series with PCIe Direct Attach →