Databases are the systems of record at the heart of the enterprise. They were designed for correctness, durability, and human-paced interaction – not for continuous, machine-driven access patterns.
As workloads evolve, the database remains the point of truth… but the assumptions around how it is accessed are starting to break.
Guest Post I'm excited announce another guest blog written by my good friend and funny-talking American cousin Nathan Fuzi. Like me, Nate comes from a database background but joined the all-flash storage revolution back in its infancy. Which means, like me, Nate how has a little tombstone on his résumé marked Violin Memory. But even though he … Continue reading The Flash Insider: To POC or Not To POC?
I've updated my install cookbooks page to include a new cookbook for installation of Oracle 11.2.0.4 Real Application Clusters on Oracle Linux 6.7. This is also the first one I've published since I left the employment of Violin Memory to work for Kaminario, so this install uses a Kaminario K2 All Flash Array. However, it applies very well … Continue reading New Installation Cookbook: Oracle Linux 6.7 with Oracle 11.2.0.4 RAC
Almost exactly a year ago I published a post covering my first impressions of the ASM Filter Driver (ASMFD) released in Oracle 12.1.0.2, followed swiftly by a second post showing that it didn't work with 4k native devices. When I wrote that first post I was about to start my summer holidays, so I'm afraid … Continue reading Oracle’s ASM Filter Driver Revisited
This is a very simple post to show the results of some recent testing that Tom and I ran using Oracle SLOB on Violin to determine the impact of using virtualization. But before we get to that, I am duty bound to write a paragraph of text featuring lots of long sentences peppered with industry buzz … Continue reading The Great Hypervisor Bake-off: VMware ESX vs Oracle VM
I've run into a few customers recently who have had problems with their ASM rebalance operations running too slowly. Surprisingly, there were some simple concepts being overlooked - and once these were understood, the rebalance times were dramatically improved. For that reason, I'm documenting the solutions here... I hope that somebody, somewhere benefits... 1. Don't … Continue reading ASM Rebalance Too Slow? 3 Tips To Improve Rebalance Times
Now that the dust has settled on the announcement of Oracle's new Exadata X5 Database Machine, I've been doing some research in order to update my History of Exadata post (it'll be ready soon). While reviewing the datasheets and other collateral for the X5 I was struck by the meteoric increase in one particular statistic: the … Continue reading Oracle Exadata X5: The Road To Ten Billion Dollars
Back in July 2013, Oracle released the latest version of its flagship database product, Oracle 12c. Among the usual fanfare was information about a number of new options - including one known as Multitenant. With the Multitenant option, databases use a new architecture which features a container database (or CDB) which in turn contains one or more pluggable databases (or PDBs). … Continue reading Deprecation of Non-CDB Architecture in Oracle 12c
If you've been unfortunate enough to follow my dithering on Twitter recently you'll know that I've been lurching between thinking that there is and isn't a problem with Oracle's tracking of I/O statistics in its AWR reports. I'm now convinced there is a problem, but I can't work out what causes it... so step 1 … Continue reading Oracle AWR Reports: When IOStats Lie
I've posted a new installation cookbook for using Oracle within a virtual machine running on Oracle VM. Surprisingly, I was unable to come up with a satisfactory method of accessing external storage that did not involve the use of Oracle ASMLib... Oracle Linux 6 Update 5 within an Oracle VM Template
I was recently contacted by a customer who runs a busy ERP system on their Oracle database. Their users have been screaming for some time about unpredictable performance, where application screens which would usually open in under a second suddenly take an age. ERP systems are legendary for this, of course, because as each screen … Continue reading Oracle AWR Reports: When Averages Lie
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