Pythian Group

dbm_configurator.xls is needed to generate databasemachine.xml file which is needed by OEM 12c to discover an exadata cluster.

Following is a step  by step process as how to generate databasemachine.xml file to be used with OEM 12c:

Read the rest of this entry . . .

During last couple of month I was seeing some discussion and question in different online conferences and user groups about upgrade RAC and exadata to 11.2.0.3. The questions were mostly about upgrade procedure, timing, what can happen during the upgrade and how a system behaves after upgrade.

I’ve recently upgrade couple of exadata to 11.2.0.3 and want to share the experience. I hope this short note will help someone to make the decision, calculate estimation and prepare for maintenance. I am going to talk about upgrade from the version 11.2.0.2 BP10 to 11.2.0.3 BP2.

I. Preparation:
First, you need to read thoroughly oracle support note [ID 1373255.1] (strongly recommended as a primary guidance for the upgrade), make a general plan and calculate estimation time for every upgrade step. Most of the steps can be done in rolling mode and don’t require full downtime for the environment.

The second step is about gathering information about your current system and checking if your firmware and exadata software versions fulfill the requirements for 11.2.0.3.

Read the rest of this entry . . .

I had a chance to talk to several Oracle Database Appliance users at the annual Collaborate 2012 conference last month in Las Vegas. And a common theme in this discussions, as well as discussions with Pythian clients, is an interest in using the ODA as a large-scale consolidation platform. ODA offers all the benefits of engineered systems: fast, simple setup, single-vendor support, and pre-validated configurations. At first glance, however, the fixed non-expandable capacity of an Oracle database appliance would make it look like a poor candidate for consolidation, particularly the fixed 4TB of usable disk capacity and 24-core processing capacity.
Read the rest of this entry . . .

It was fun presenting today at Portland and I’m looking forward to continuing my user group marathon at Denver tomorrow and on Thursday.

Since many people asked me where they can find my slides, and I predict that few more will keep asking about them over the next few days, I uploaded my Big Data and NoSQL presentations to SlideShare. You can find them here:

http://www.slideshare.net/gwenshap/big-data-rmoug

http://www.slideshare.net/gwenshap/no-sql3-rmoug

I had issues uploading my Exadata slides, but you can view my colleague, Marc Fielding video presentation on this topic in YouTube. It is pretty much the same content I presented in Portland:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfGy3mswUI

See you in Denver.

Pythian is very excited to return to the much-awaited RMOUG 12 held in Denver, Colorado from February 14-16, 2012. Keep your eyes open for Alex Gorbachev, Marc Fielding, Don Seiler and Gwen Shapira in attendance. We have a fantastic line-up of speakers this year featuring a total of seven papers presented by Alex, Marc, Don and Gwen. If you have any feedback on our sessions, please send your comments directly to the speaker or to Vanessa Simmons, Pythian Director of Marketing. Please also follow this link to sign up to receive notice of future speaking engagements, webinars or Pythian news.

Be sure to stop by our booth (#3,6,7,10) to say hello to our friends from the OakTable Network, and enter our draw to win the new Amazon Kindle with software provided by Cary Millsap (MR-Trace, MR-Tools & Method-R Profiler) and a pack of digital e-book downloads courtesy of Apress. Also slated is the RAC Attack workshop, which was first offered at Oracle Open World and UKOUG, and is now in its second year at RMOUG. Pythian is co-sponsoring this event with Apress and it’s a fun and informative way to learn from our experts how and when to properly build a RAC environment.

Read the rest of this entry . . .

The 2012 edition of RMOUG Training Days in Denver less than a month away, running February 15 and 16 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Although it’s only two days, there’s a lot of technical content there, and a refreshing reduction in marketing-oriented presentations from “product managers”. It’s not too late to register, and it’s a pretty nice excuse to get to the Rockies in ski season. I’ll be doing two presentations, and am polishing up whitepapers and presentations for the submission deadline tomorrow:

• Exadata I/O Resource Manager: Ideal Technology for Database Consolidation, Wednesday 1:15pm in room 4B
• Peering Through the Cloud: The Straight Goods on Oracle Exalogic, directly after, Wednesday 4pm in room 4C

They’re right after each other in the grid, but I do get a short break for the dedicated exhibit hall time and paid vendor presentations (yes there are still a few; they have to pay the bills somehow).
Read the rest of this entry . . .

With the announcement of the Oracle Big Data Appliance, Oracle also comes up with some really cool technology stack which is being termed as Oracle Big Data Connectors (OBDC). This piece of software can be used with both Oracle Big Data Appliance and other Apache Hadoop-based systems.

Read the rest of this entry . . .

Hot on the heels of 11.2.0.3 coming out for Exadata, there’s yet another Exadata patch schedule out: the Quarterly Database Patch for Exadata (QDPE). They’re designed to being some of the predictability of Oracle’s quarterly critical patch updates (CPU) to the Exadata world. Behind the new naming, it looks like these are ordinary Exadata bundle patches, and even have BP numbers, but will have the predictable quarterly release schedule, synchronized with the CPU schedule (quarterly Tuesday nearest to 17th of the month it appears). Ordinary bundle patches aren’t going away quite yet though: there’s still a need to get patches out more frequently, and will still come out monthly or bimonthly on top of the quarterly patches. Oracle’s patching recommendations have changed too: QDPE patches are recommended, but other bundle patches are recommended only if experiencing issues resolved by them. From My Oracle Support note 888828.1, the following patches for Oracle 11.2.0.3 are planned:
Read the rest of this entry . . .

Since Oracle 11.2.0.3 came out last September, there have been questions about Exadata availability. As of today, the patchset is now available.

Reviewing the upgrade document (MOS note 1373255.1) a few things that jumped out at me:

• There is already a bundle patch (11.2.0.3 BP1, patch 13343057) that must be installed directly after the DB upgrade
• If running 11.2.0.2, a bugfix for unpublished bug 12539000 Synchronization problem in the IPC state affects ASM rolling upgrade and is required. BP12/13 have it (though the installer will still complain and must be ignored on install), and there are backports for BP7 through BP11.
• A recent storage server version (11.2.2.4.0+) is required, though with the critical issues fixed in 11.2.2.4.2, An upgrade there is probably in order.
• Install happens in a new ORACLE_HOME that should not be under /opt/oracle (presumably due to storage space limitations)
• Automatic memory management must be permanently disabled in the ASM instance, in favor of fixed SGA and PGA targets. Keep in mind that AMM would have prevented ASM from using hugepages in the past, and should be explicitly disabled with use_large_pages as part of the change.
• As for other database version upgrades, the data dictionary update requires system-wide downtime, though this can be minimized using a logical standby or GoldenGate.

Hat tip to R. Kundersma’s blog for the notification.

For those of you attending UKOUG today, there is a healthy dose of Pythian presentations on tap this afternoon. Actually, you can do it wall to wall 2:30pm to 6:30pm if you like.

To note:
Read the rest of this entry . . .