Contributions by Angela Golla, Infogram Contributor

Oracle Application Express (Oracle APEX) is a rapid web application development tool for the Oracle database. Using only a web browser and limited programming experience, you can develop and deploy professional applications that are both fast and secure. Oracle APEX is a fully supported, no cost option of the Oracle database. Learn more at: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/application_express/index.html

Performance, APEX, OBI EE

Performance

Kevin Closson's Oracle blog has an intriguing discussion of Running Oracle Database On A System With 40% Kernel Mode Overhead? Are You “Normal?, which links to related discussions of the matter, but also links to a PDF of Scaling Oracle 8i, James Morle's classic work on Oracle performance. As Kevin points out, don't let the antiquity of the version scare you, there is still much of value in the book, and since it is available in PDF form you can load it up on your Kindle to read at odd moments.

Over at Striving for Optimal Performance, Christian Antognini has some updates to his performance scripts from his Troubleshooting Oracle Performance book.

APEX

Have you checked out version 4.0 0f APEX yet? It's here! With a press release for your reading pleasure here.

OBIEE

A quick tip on finding: Which report uses which column over at the Oracle business intelligence obiee 101 blog.

ODI

ODI Webcasts and Podcasts

Here are some good links on ODI:

Listen to a podcast (mp3).
Watch previous webcasts.
Learn more and download Oracle Data Integrator.

Contributions by Angela Golla, Infogram Contributor

There are two new white papers that describe how to deploy PeopleSoft in an Oracle Database MAA configuration to achieve maximum availability for both unplanned outages and planned maintenance activities. Check them out at the links below:

Deploying a PeopleSoft Maximum Availability Architecture

Reducing PeopleSoft Downtime Using a Local Standby Database

UCM, Storage, Security, Magazine

UCM

The bex huff blog lets us know the happy news that Oracle UCM 11g Now Released!

Storage

James Morle tells us about the possibility that flash memory is finally poised on its price point. It's been a long time, and we've heard plenty of announcements before that flash is going to fix everything, but somehow the train never quite got to the station. Well, apparently it's close enough to hear train horns now: “Flash” Storage Will Be Cheap – The End of the World is Nigh

Security

Auditing can be important, but, as in everything else, having several systems helps, as does never putting all eggs in one basket. Case in point: Turning off SYS auditing from the DB without that fact being recorded, over at Paul M. Wright's Three Tier Oracle Security in London blog.

SOA

SOA 11g cloning over at the SOA@Oracle SCA, BPEL, BPM & Service Bus blog. You don't need a government grant to do the cloning with all the associated controversy. You don't even have to wonder if you are crossing some thorny ethical border by cloning. You can just clone it.

Oracle Magazine

It doesn't have a centerfold (no, not even with raw devices), but it's as glossy and entertaining as our folks can make it while still satisfying our customers' inner geek. It's Oracle Magazine, and the latest issue is linked from here: May/June 2010 Issue

APEX, RDBMS Memory, Performance, Linux

APEX

Dimitri Gielis has an excellent blog we've linked to before, Dimitri Gielis Blog (Oracle Application Express - APEX). He's running a series on the countdown to the public release of 4.0 that is well worth reading: CD APEX 4.0: Feedback feature and Team Development

Troubleshooting RDBMS Memory

Tanel Poder recommends an article by Randolf Geist on Oracle memory troubleshooting. I somehow missed it before: Oracle memory troubleshooting article.

Performance

James Morle blogs on Log File Sync and AWR – Not Good Bedfellows and starts a discussion you may want to join (and experiment with the results yourself) on AWR. There is an overarching issue that you can see from this article: Always have a set of tools and never depend totally on one tool for performance monitoring and measurement, not even if Oracle made the tool. There are always other factors and there are always going to be specialized tools that are best for a particular situations (i.e. don't try to pry out flat screws with a phillips screwdriver).

Linux

Writing some scripts involving copying data (very few exist without that function). Here's an interesting post on some of the under the hood activities and performance of Linux sendfile and splice over at the Superpatterns blog: Zero-Copy in Linux with sendfile() and splice()

RDBMS, Hyperion, PL/SQL, APEX, SQL Developer, PeopleSoft, Exadata, Flashback

RDBMS

Tom Kyte is putting the finishing touches on the second edition of his magnum opus, Expert Oracle Database Architecture. You can preorder a copy at Amazon here.

Speaking of Oracle guruhood, Cary Milsap has an update on his blog about Filter Early

The title reminds me of the old Chicago voting motto: Vote early and vote often.

__________________________

New release out:

Oracle Database Patch Set 10.2.0.5 has been released on the following platforms:

· Oracle Solaris x86-64 (64-bit) and SPARC (64-bit)

· HP-UX Itanium

· IBM AIX on POWER Systems

All are available for download from My Oracle Support (patch 8202632) as well as edelivery.oracle.com.

Next up will be Windows...stay tuned

Hyperion

Just one item this week. Over at Glenn Schwartzberg's Essbase Blog Glenn has a moment of revelation about exports: Data Export, why I never thought of it

PL/SQL

Eddie Awad has a good article on Please Request a Reasonable Conversion, including some drill-down links at the bottom for further research.

APEX

David Peake let's us know that APEX 4.0 comes to http://apex.oracle.com

Also in the realm of APEX is this article from the APEX Development blog:
APEX 3.2 Quick Picks Updated.

Book Review: SQL Developer

Olaf Heimburger's Blog has a brief but useful review of the book Oracle SQL Developer 2.1.

PeopleSoft

We frequently link to posts at Jim's PeopleSoft Journal. Since he has a new book out, I'm sure it's worth taking a look at: PeoplesTools Tip Book

Flashback – Careful about Storage

A customer recently encountered problems with running out of space for Flashback Database logs (though it took a while to determine that was the problem). Here are a few interesting links that popped up when I was researching the problem:

http://dba-blog.blogspot.com/2006/05/flashback-database-feature.html

and this one is excellent, and comes from Jonathan Lewis, one of the key gurus of the Oak Table Net performance group:

http://jonathanlewis.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/analysing-statspack-12/

and a spot in the docs:

http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/cd/B12037_01/server.101/b10734/rcmflash.htm

HCM News and Events

HCM 9.1 Portal:
Check out the new Oracle HCM 9.1 portal. Within this portal you will be able to find information on the new enhancements in version 9.1 and learn about new complimentary applications that are available for Peoplesoft HCM customers.

Events:
OHUG 2010
June 13-17
Mirage Resort and CasinoLas Vegas, Nevada

HR Technology Conference 2010
September 29-October 1
McCormick Place Chicago, Illinois

Oracle Enterprise Content Management 11g R1 (11.1.1.3) General Availability

We are proud to announce the following products under the Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g R1 (11.1.1.3.x) series of release:

* Oracle Universal Content Management 11g R1 (11.1.1.3.0)
* Oracle Universal Records Management 11g R1 (11.1.1.3.0)

Here is the related information for these releases:

* Roadmap
* Download
* Bill of Material
* Certification
* Languages Supported
* Standards Supported
* Collateral
* Training
* Documentation
* Pricing
* Life Time Support Policy
* Product Website (Internal)

You can also visit the Oracle Fusion Middleware page on OTN to find more information about the products.

Thanks.
Oracle Fusion Middleware Team

Contributions by Angela Golla, Infogram Contributor

Oracle Performance Survival Guide: A Systematic Approach to Database OptimizationBy Guy Harrison

The new book Oracle Performance Survival Guide offers a structured, systematic, start-to-finish methodology for optimizing Oracle performance as efficiently as possible. Leading Oracle expert Guy Harrison shows how to maximize your tuning investment by focusing on causes rather than symptoms, and by quickly identifying the areas that deliver the greatest “bang for the buck.”

Writing for DBAs and developers with all levels of experience, Harrison covers every area of Oracle performance management, from application design through SQL tuning, contention management through memory and physical IO management. He also presents up-to-the-minute guidance for optimizing the performance of the Oracle 11g Release 2.

RDBMS Internals, Hyperion, EBS, I/PM, PeopleSoft/Unix, OPA

RDBMS Internals

In the course of researching a client problem I came across a good internals blog. Consider this article, which goes into how to examine the system state on a RAC system and concludes with some wisdom on caching in RAC sequences: Dynamic_plan_table, x$kqlfxpl and extreme library cache latch contention.
As always, Oracle internals is a realm that is somewhat abstruse, and when you have a problem the best thing to do is do a little MOS and Web research to see if there is an obvious solution and then open an SR at the appropriate level to get Oracle Support engaged. That way you are researching in parallel and, hopefully, will find a solution that much faster.

Hyperion

Over at Essbase Labs there's posting pointing out the advantages of a new Smart View function:

Cell Functions: Smart View 11.1.2 vs. Class Add-In

EBS

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

JRE 1.6.0_20 Build 5 Fixes E-Business Suite Compatibility Issues

New Whitepaper: Advanced Compression 11gR1 Benchmarks with EBS 12

I/PM

The Oracle ECM Alerts - Product News & Information has a new course announcement: First-Global-Teach for the Oracle Imaging and Process Management 11g: Administration: San Francisco | June 23-25

PeopleSoft and VIM

This is useful to any UNIX user, not just the PeopleSoft types: Using Vim to Count Patterns.

OPA

Oracle Policy Automation is another of those interesting products that we've acquired (it started out life called Haley). See more about it here at the SOA@Oracle SCA, BPEL, BPM & Service Bus blog: Oracle Policy Automation (OPA) on Linux

Indexing

Richard Foote, the doctor of indexes, the professor of the vtree and guru of the mapping of bits, has a posting on the improvements to bitmap indexes from 10g forward: Bitmap Index Degradation Since 10g (Fix You)

Contributions by Angela Golla, Infogram Contributor

White Paper: Architectural Strategies for IT Optimization: From Silos to Clouds Oracle's Paul Silverstein describes a comprehensive future state roadmap articulating the key architectural principles across rationalization, virtualization, consolidation, systems management automation, and shared services.