Tag: oracle

Storage Myths: Dedupe for Databases

Storage for DBAs: Data deduplication - or "dedupe" - is a technology which falls under the umbrella of data reduction, i.e. reducing the amount of capacity required to store data. In very simple terms it involves looking for repeating patterns and replacing them with a marker: as long as the marker requires less space than … Continue reading Storage Myths: Dedupe for Databases →

The Most Expensive CPUs You Own

Storage for DBAs: Take a look in your data centre at all those humming boxes and flashing lights. Ignore the storage and networking gear for now and just concentrate on the servers. You probably have many different models, with different types and numbers of CPUs and DRAM inside. My question is, which CPUs are the most … Continue reading The Most Expensive CPUs You Own →

OOW13: The Future Is Here (Just Don’t Mention “Legacy”)

Last week I attended Oracle OpenWorld 2013 in the stunning city of San Francisco, along with 60,000 other attendees. At times it felt like we'd taken over the entire city, with every street, bus, billboard and hotel plastered in Oracle logos and pictures of engineered systems... although apparently there was some other stuff going on … Continue reading OOW13: The Future Is Here (Just Don’t Mention “Legacy”) →

The Real Cost of Oracle RAC

Storage for DBAs: In my previous article (in this mini-series on database economics) I explained how to calculate the cost of a mid-range Oracle database system. My motive was a concern that many people working either directly or indirectly with database software are uninformed about just how expensive it is - particularly in comparison to … Continue reading The Real Cost of Oracle RAC →

The Real Cost of Enterprise Database Software

Storage for DBAs: The strange thing about enterprise databases is that the people who design, manage and support them are often disassociated from the people who pay the bills. In fact, that's not unusual in enterprise IT, particularly in larger organisations where purchasing departments are often at opposite ends of the org chart to operations … Continue reading The Real Cost of Enterprise Database Software →

Storage Myths: Put Oracle Redo on SSD

Storage for DBAs: "My database is slow"... "Well then why not put your redo logs on SSDs?" Gaaaah. I still hear people having this discussion and it drives me mad. "Nobody got fired for putting Oracle redo on ...<flash vendor>". Yeah right, but does that mean it was worth the investment? I'm bored of this … Continue reading Storage Myths: Put Oracle Redo on SSD →

Storage Myths: IOPS Matter

Storage for DBAs: Having now spent over a year in the storage industry, I've decided it's time to call out an industry-wide obsession that I previously wasn't aware of: everyone in storage is obsessed with IOPS (the performance metric I/O Operations Per Second). Take a minute to perform a web search for "flash iops" and … Continue reading Storage Myths: IOPS Matter →

SLOB2: Testing The Effect Of Oracle Blocksize

I recently posted a test harness for generating physical I/O using the new version of SLOB (the Silly Little Oracle Benchmark) known as SLOBv2. This test harness can be used for driving varying workloads and then processing the results for use in ... well, wherever really. Some friends of mine are getting very adept with … Continue reading SLOB2: Testing The Effect Of Oracle Blocksize →