Log Buffer #274, A Carnival of the Vanities for DBAs

Technical blogging has become more than just a way to tell the world what the technologist did. It has become a vibrant medium through which the tech bloggers are sharing their experiences and teaching the interested audience. It has become an enabling technology. This Log Buffer Edition encompasses such vibrant blogs in Log Buffer #274.
Oracle:

Jonathan Lewis starts with the sentence, “When locally managed tablespaces first appeared, there were a number of posts on Usenet (comp.databases.oracle.server) and the metalink lists (the OTN database forum didn’t exist at the time) about “missing” space in data files.”

Execution Plan Changes when the OPTIMIZER_FEATURES_ENABLED Parameter is Changed, But Why? Charles Hooper answers.

Richard Foote discusses the cost of virtual indexes and little lies in that regard.

Short but powerful post by Tom Kyte rocks.

For anyone into using their SQL skills creatively, and getting out of the boring SQL-coding daily routine, Alberto Dell’Era has an idea.

SQL Server:

Tim Radney, with a help of a video demo, turns on Instant File Initialization for SQL Server Performance.

Colin Stasiuk is so much satisfied with the #OKPASS and shares his thoughts.

Melissa Coates has a great post about improving the Performance of a Calculated Field in SSRS When Reporting from SSAS.

Nobody starts a database project with failure in mind. And yet, it would seem as if the majority of all such projects end up with some degree of failure, Thomas LaRock has more.

So what Michael Swart has got here below is a web form. It takes a source query and target table and spits out a merge statement for the standard insert/update use case.

MySQL:

When tables which are meant to be dropped are dropped speedily, it makes the dropper feel very nice. Mark Callaghan has the same feelings.

JSON is a data format that has become very popular recently. The name JSON means “JavaScript Object Notation” and it’s a bit misleading, as although the format originally was used in JavaScript, it has become very popular in many more environments. Anders Karlsson goes on.

Next week MySQL Innovation Day has a great agenda, according to Serge Frezefond.

Do the operating systems kill your MySQL instances from time to time? Are some database servers swapping constantly? These are relatively common problems. Why? How to prevent them?

Ovais Tariq is presenting a case for MariaDB’s Hash Joins.