Pythian Group

Automatic degree of parallelism, or Auto DOP, is a new feature in 11gR2 that promises to help manage systems where large subset of the workload runs with parallel processing. In this post I’ll introduce the feature and give very useful tips I got from Oracle’s Real World Performance expert Greg Rahn on how to use it. So this is worth reading even if you are familiar with the feature.

The problem is fairly well known – you system only has finite amount of resources. Only so many CPUs, only so many disks capable of delivering only so many IO/s and MB/s. A certain query may have amazing performance when running with 32 parallel processes all alone on your test system. When 5 people need to run it at once, and at the same time there are two scheduled jobs running each with its own parallel processes, there are two likely outcomes:

1. You will run more parallel processes than your system is capable of serving. Resulting in long queues on the CPU and storage, and overall performance degradation.
2. You limit the maximum number of parallel processes to protect the database resources, and some of the queries degrade. If you don’t detect it, the ETL process that should have finished in two hours takes 24, which means that the daily report sent to the CEO is missing some of the data. Ouch.

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Cloud computing day at OOW 2011 … how fitting. It’s that familiar San Francisco grey overcast (cloudy) sky. As OOW draws a to a close, we can all look back at a week filled with education, networking, discovery, and yet another reality check with the passing of Steve Jobs. I usually leave early AM on the last day of a conference but this time we all head out late this evening for the overnight jaunt to Chicago then Ottawa.

Pythian’s presence at OOW each year permits this fine company, of which I have been a part for a total of close to 8 years, to get higher on Oracle’s and the industry in general’s radar. There are so many differentiators that separate Pythian from other companies. Take homes from OOW?

• The database world will be waiting for at least 12-16 months for 12c; not a bad thing in my eyes
• Exa-this and Exa-that, watch out for Exa-everything when the install community embraces the existing offerings even more than it has already
• Came here wondering about MySQL and leaving here wondering even more so
• Oracle is already and, with the Sun acquisition, even more of a force to reckon with in the appliance/hardware space; ODA … a dream come true? Seems like that to me.
• The Applications get stronger by the minute.

There has been some chatter at Oracle Open World (OOW) about the next release of the database. They will be calling it Oracle Database 12c (for Cloud) and it is expected in the 16-18 month timeframe from this version of OOW. Oracle has made no commitment to this time frame, but satiated the appetite of CORE database people by giving an update with no firm dates.

Some late-breaking solutions have been discussed throughout the show so far and Oracle is nicely leveraging their acquisition of Sun Microsystems to facilitate the smart direction they have taken with hardware.

I am attending Publisher’s Day at OOW and a gentleman is now discussing the functionality they are concentrating on in Solaris 11 that lends itself well to the cloud-computing direction the industry is following. They are attending to the platform-specific features that provide turnkey support for the applications their install community are deploying and currently coming down the corporate applications’ pipeline.

The website for Oracle Database Cloud Services at cloud.oracle.com is now online, in conjunction with Larry Ellison’s announcement during the Oracle OpenWorld keynote going on now. It’s a hosted database service running Oracle 11gR2. The database can be accessed using a hosted Oracle application server, via JDBC across the Internet, or their own RESTful API a la Amazon. Notably lacking is Oracle’s own TNS network protocol.
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After the first day and a half, the show has yet again lived up to all expectations. Oracle has been around for over two decades and this well-oiled machine excels at everything it does … OOW 2011 being a living/breathing example. It all started with the database and everything they have touched since has turned to gold.

There are some definitive themes at the show so far and I am sure others will emerge as the rest of the week unfolds. The expected buzz words are all over the show and the name “Pythian” is on (or poised to be on) the mind of attendees. The highlight of the partners’ general session was our very own Paul Vallee who sounded like a seasoned pro speaking in front of a capacity crowd in Moscone South on Sunday afternoon. It’s just a matter of time until the throngs get wind of Paul’s already-famous words while on stage … get the ODA from Pythian and we will migrate you for free. Read the rest of this entry . . .

With all the buzz in OOW about the big data machine, there was also a lot of non-sense flying around. I love it that the Oracle community is finally interested in Hadoop and NoSQL, but I hate it when people sound authoritative without having an actual clue. I’ve left a few presentations with smoke coming out of my ears.

Here are few things that people got all wrong:
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Oracle announced the Big Data Appliance on Monday morning keynote. Many people, me included, were long waiting for this to happen. Others didn’t think it will ever happen. So naturally, there is a lot of buzz and excitement around the new device in Open World. The keynote announcement was very short on details and certainly did not satisfy my technical curiosity. So I went to a few presentations to hear what exactly is included in the offering.
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Many analysts are suggesting that a big data appliance will be announced at this OOW. Based on published Oracle OpenWorld focus sessions on oracle.com (PDF documents), the following technologies will most likely be the key — Hadoop, NoSQL, Hadoop data loader for Oracle, R Language.

Want more details — you have to wait for them. This page contained some details but they moved here.

Yes, a deliberate take on Tom Petty’s “Into the Great Wide Open”; fitting since he is playing at the conference on the Wednesday night. As OOW approaches. I want to re-share some of my trivia/coincidental facts about Oracle with you; some have heard this before.

1. The closest airport to Oracle headquarters in Redwood Shores California is at San Carlos, whose call letters are SQL. The locals in that neck of the woods claim this is just a coincidence.
2. One of the underlying packages that support Oracle’s PL/SQL engine is called DIANA. Many, myself included, have always wondered who may have had a horse or even a dog by that name. The fact is that one of the letter “A”s in the name is from the programming language called Ada, developed for/on behalf of the US Department of Defence (DoD) between 1977 and 1983.
3. Rumour has it that one of the differences between Oracle V6 and Oracle7 was that King, owner of a row in the famous EMP/DEPT/BONUS/SALGRADE set of demo tables, reported to Blake in V6 but was promoted to Clark’s department in Oracle7.
4. In the middle of the versions of Oracle V6, there was a release for VAX cluster (parallel server) numbered 6.2. At about the same time, the balance of the install base was running 6.0.33. About the time the next release was out (think it was 6.0.36), the two versions were “married” at which point all were on the same version regardless of whether on VAX cluster or something else. Hence, VAX cluster installations upgraded from 6.2 to 6.0 … maybe better called an updowngrade. Read the rest of this entry . . .

A mere week away from the excitement of another Oracle OpenWorld (OOW). I had the pleasure of working Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest this summer. I was on a crew that spent a lot of our time in the pit–the area between the crowd and the front of the stage. I did not work the night of the stage collapse, but had I been there the pit is probably where I would have been. While working a shift, a colleague mentioned to me that working Bluesfest for 12 days was like being a kid and going to camp. That reminded me … going to a software convention is the same thing. It’s a complete turnaround from our normal day-to-day lives. We also get to stay up late (ya right late for me now is 10pm) and tell stories and hang with people whom we mostly see once a year if that. It’s like a little family.

This is my first Oracle OpenWorld in a few years. I have not changed (I don’t think), but the show must have grown significantly. With the huge number of acquisitions over the past few years, I am sure I will not recognize some of the solutions mentioned in many presentation billboards as I pass through all the conference venues. I am pretty much a CORE database guy. The Server has made me tick since the 80′s, and put a lot of groceries on the table. Read the rest of this entry . . .