Performance, APEX, EBS, Clouds

Performance

Cary Milsap once again uses examples from life to think about performance. Check it out here.

APEX

APEX is a wonderful way to get more bang for your buck. Ask Tom, one of the most popular and authoritative knowledge sites for Oracle in the world, moved to APEX recently, and Joel Kallman writes about it in his blog: YABAOAE. Speaking of Tom Kyte, Kevin Closson reminds us that he will be the keynote speaker at this year's Hotsos Symposium.

EBS

This week at the Oracle E-Business Suite Technology blog:

Tuning the Oracle E-Business Suite Environment (OpenWorld 2009 Recap)

Integration Architectures for Oracle EBS (OpenWorld 2009 Recap)

EBS 12 Certified with 10gR2 10.2.0.4 DB on Windows Server x64 (64-bit)

Clouds

At the OTN blogs we have Creating Prebundled Machine Images for the Cloud

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, all who celebrate the day!

MOS, Linux, EBS, Analytic Features, Optimizer, OTN, Indexing

MOS

My Oracle Support has been a hot topic out in the blogosphere. For instance Chris Warticki's blog, which has a pointer to the FAQ.

Linux

Kevin Closson has some words of technical wisdom on Linux memory, free vs. reclaimable.

EBS

New from the Oracle E-Business Suite Technology blog this week:

E-Business Suite Technology Essentials (OpenWorld 2009 Recap)

Application Change Management Pack for EBS (OpenWorld 2009 Recap)

Critical Data Protection + Security in EBS (OpenWorld 2009 Recap)

Analytic Features

Tom Kyte is looking for feedback and ideas from users on Comparative Window Functions... in the analytics featureset of the RDBMS.

Optimizer

The Optimizer team over at the Inside the Oracle Optimizer blog remind us that old hints can go 'stale', how that happens and what to do about it.

OTN Best Articles for the Year

As we start the holiday season and the long slow slide out of 2009, OTN has a blog entry on the most popular articles of the year here.

Indexes: To Rebuild or Not to Rebuild

Yes, that ever-controversial topic is covered by Richard Foote, veritable doctor of indexology, at his blog, along with a very engaging comment thread beneath it.

Join us for the next Oracle Content Management Quarterly Customer Update Webcast scheduled for December 2009.

Don't miss this chance to get an overview:

• New PeopleSoft adapter for I/PM, plus solution templates
• New E-Business Suite adapter for UCM
• Updated Siebel adapter for UCM
• New features in the latest Site Studio roll-up patch
• Latest IRM Desktop release
• Other content management news

Americas / EMEA time zones: Customer Update
Tuesday, December 1, 2009 - 60 minutes
9:00 a.m. US PST / 12:00 noon US EST / 17:00 GMT
*Remember to use your existing InterCall username & password if you already have one.

Asia-Pacific time zones: Customer Update (Repeat Webcast)
Wednesday, December 2, 2009 - 60 minutes
1:00 p.m. Sydney AEDT, 10:00 a.m. Singapore
(December 1, 2009 @ 6:00 p.m. US PST)
*Remember to use your existing InterCall username & password if you already have one.

Missed Previous Customer Quarterly Updates?
Get caught up on Oracle & ECM news. View a recording or the presentation from previous Webcasts held since June 2008.

Contributions by Angela Golla, Infogram Contributor

Check out this link to Oracle Premier Resource Library. It contains Oracle's Lifetime Support Policy, Analyst Reports , Customer Success Stories and More.
http://www.oracle.com/support/library/index.html#guides

Customer Service, Hyperion, Oracle Search Utilities, Performance, Product Announcements, Security, BI, Storage, EBS on Exadata, Oracle Magazine

Customer Service

With all the dust in the air from the recent changover from Metalink to MOS, this article is a good reminder to everyone in Oracle Support about keeping the customer at the center of everything we do: 16 Lessons in Customer Service form a Car Salesman.

Hyperion

Tim Tow has some helpful material for you if you are upgrading from 11.1.1.1 to 11.1.1.3.

PeopleSoft

The PeopleSoft Technology Blog brings us an anouncement on the availability of the Oracle VM Template for PeopleSoft HCM 9.1 and PeopleTools 8.50

Oracle Search Utilities

If you were using the excellent Firefox plugin for finding Oracle information directly, Gareth Roberts over at In Depth Apps has an update for you.

ECM

Oracle ECM Alerts lets us know that Oracle IRM 10.1.3.5.2 Desktop supports Windows 7.

Performance

Cary Milsap discusses Latency Hiding, continuing the discussion started by James Morle. If you know anything about Oracle performance, you know that those two are major figures in the field, so this light-hearted article bears reading.

RemoteDBA Experts has a lengthy entry on Using Deductive Reasoning and Communication Skills to Identify and Solve Performance Problems.

Product Announcements

A new version of Audit Vault

and...drum roll...

Golden Gate

This one is a very exciting product. If you are running streams right now, you will want to learn more about GoldenGate.

Security

Over at Pete Finnigan's Oracle security weblog we have a good article on the ever-confusing topic of Direct Grants, DBA, Invoker rights and definer rights (at least I know it used to confuse me when I was a DBA, but perhaps that's not all that hard).

BI

There's the start of a series on Oracle BI EE 10.1.3.4.1 - Single Table Repository Design over at the RittmanMead blog.

Storage

StorageMojo brings us an article this week on Redundant array of inexpensive servers (what's next, redundant array of inexpensive IT departments?).

EBS on Exadata

The Oracle E-Business Suite Technology blog has a posting this week on Running E-Business Suite on Exadata V2.

Oracle Magazine

Looked at Oracle Magazine lately? Here's a link to an article on Driving Down Costs (and no, that doesn't mean laying off all the people in the company you don't like).

Contributions by Angela Golla, Infogram Contributor

Here are some helpful links for My Oracle Support:

Main Website (uses Flash)
http://support.oracle.com

HTML Website
http://supporthtml.oracle.com

Sign up for training classes
http://www.oracle.com/support/training-schedule.html?msgid=8268387

OBI EE, RDBMS, Oak Table, PeopleSoft, Hyperion, Data Warehouse, Coherence, Doom, Security

OBI EE

Running OBI EE on Windows? This posting at the Rittman Mead blog may be of interest to you: Using Perfmon.exe to Monitor OBIEE on Windows

Also of interest at Rittman Mead is this item:

Oracle BI EE 10.1.3.4.1 & Essbase Connectivity – Direct MDX Requests – Multiple Measure Dimensions, Varying Attributes & Format Strings

RDBMS

Oracle Scratchpad, Jonathan Lewis' performance blog, has a couple of postings on foreign keys. Though one of the fundamental concepts of the relational model in theory and practise, foreign keys confuse a lot of people, and have more than their share of myths. Jonathan should be able to help you cut through the fog.

The Global Oracle Contractors Network has a series on Using the Oracle PL/SQL Profiler. Here is a link: Using the Oracle PL/SQL Profiler Part 1

Alberto Dell'Era's blog has some good material on changes in 11gR2 Materialized Views.

Oak Table

Speaking of Jonathan Lewis, I'd like to remind everyone about the Oak Table Network. They don't update their homepage very often, but the place is definitely worthy of exploration. In my years as a performance specialist I found that most rules of thumb are dangerous...except one: If a performance specialist has been invited to join the Oak Table that is a person of substance in the field. I'm surprised to still see ratio-based optimization being touted, specialists in performance recommending rebuilding indexes, etc. Members of the Oak Table have been pioneers in dispelling such myths and shadow boxing in the realm of performance optimization by a curious activity: direct experimentation and proof by hard example.

PeopleSoft

The PeopleSoft tipster brings us A first look at Tools 8.50’s new User Interface

The PeopleSoft DBA Blog explains some of the arcane knowledge of database links and PeopleSoft.

Hyperion

In 2 Hyperion, one of my favorite blogs, has an article on EPM Reformation (in spite of sounding like a rock band founded by Martin Luther, it's a Hyperion posting).

Data Warehouse

The Data Warehouse Insider brings us some valuable info on Chunking of Updates.

Coherence

SOA and Java Using Oracle Technology blog discusses a cutting edge way to improve middle tier performance, Oracle Coherence*Web: easy in-memory session management in a clustered environment.

Doom and Gloom Supplemental

In a continuing series on project management philosophy, the Edgewater Technology blog runs down the various ways that things can blow up, planets, projects, and what have you: Ten Ways to Ensure Project Failure.

Security

Speaking of gloom and doom, did I mention lately that it is a very good idea to apply the CPUs we put out quarterly? Yes, I hear the groaning, the gnashing of DBA teeth, but there really are people in the world whose moral fiber leaves much to be desired, and many of them have access to the Internet, so it's good to keep up your guard. I even received a warning about an Oracle vulnerability from the makers of my home router (with built-in firewall). If you're running 10g, you should have a look. Further details are to be found in previous Infogram updates about the CPU and all over the My Oracle Support site.

Contributions by Angela Golla, Infogram Contributor

The official retirement of Classic Metalink and move to My Oracle Support is here. If you have not already done so, sign up for free training to learn more about the transition and features of My Oracle Support. Here is the link: http://www.oracle.com/support/training-schedule.html?msgid=8268387