Tag: oracle

Oracle AWR Reports: When Averages Lie

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 →

Oracle, Parallelism and Direct Path Reads… on Flash

Guest Post This is another guest post from my buddy Nate Fuzi, who performs the same role as me for Violin but is based in the US instead of EMEA. Because he's an American, Nate believes that "football" is played using your hands and that the ball is actually egg-shaped. This is of course ridiculous, … Continue reading Oracle, Parallelism and Direct Path Reads… on Flash →

Viewing ASM trace files in VIM: Which Way Do You Use?

A couple of people have asked me recently about a classic problem that most DBAs know: how to view ASM trace files in the VIM editor when the filenames start with a + character. To my surprise, there are actually quite a few different ways of doing it. Since it's come up, I thought I'd … Continue reading Viewing ASM trace files in VIM: Which Way Do You Use? →

Oracle 12.1.0.2 ASM Filter Driver: Advanced Format Fail

[Please note that a more up-to-date post on this subject can be found here] In my previous post on the subject of the new ASM Filter Driver (AFD) feature introduced in Oracle's 12.1.0.2 patchset, I installed the AFD to see how it fulfilled its promise that it "filters out all non-Oracle I/Os which could cause accidental overwrites". … Continue reading Oracle 12.1.0.2 ASM Filter Driver: Advanced Format Fail →

Oracle 12.1.0.2 ASM Filter Driver: First Impressions

This is a very quick post, because I'm about to log off and take an extended summer holiday (or vacation as my crazy American friends call it... but then they call football  "soccer" too). Before I go, I wanted to document my initial findings with the new ASM Filter Driver feature introduced in this week's … Continue reading Oracle 12.1.0.2 ASM Filter Driver: First Impressions →

New AWR Report Format: Oracle 11.2.0.4 and 12c

This is a post about Oracle Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) Reports. If you are an Oracle professional you doubtless know what these are - and if you have to perform any sort of performance tuning as part of your day job it's likely you spend a lot of time immersed in them. Goodness knows I … Continue reading New AWR Report Format: Oracle 11.2.0.4 and 12c →

New section: Oracle SLOB Testing

For some time now I have preferred Oracle SLOB as my tool for generating I/O workloads using Oracle databases. I've previously blogged some information on how to use SLOB for PIO testing, as well as shared some scripts for running tests and extracting results. I've now added a whole new landing page for SLOB and … Continue reading New section: Oracle SLOB Testing →

New My Oracle Support note on Advanced Format (4k) storage

In the past I have been a little critical of Oracle's support notes and documentation regarding the use of Advanced Format 4k storage devices. I must now take that back, as my new friends in Oracle ASM Development and Product Management very kindly offered to let me write a new support note, which they have … Continue reading New My Oracle Support note on Advanced Format (4k) storage →

The Ultimate Guide To Oracle with Advanced Format 4k

It's a brave thing, calling something the "Ultimate Guide To ..." as it can leave you open to criticism that it's anything but. However, this topic - of how Oracle runs on Advanced Format storage systems and which choices have which consequences - is one I've been learning for two years now, so this really … Continue reading The Ultimate Guide To Oracle with Advanced Format 4k →