Oracle Priority Service Infogram for 30-NOV-2011

EBS

The latest posts from the Oracle E-Business Suite Technology blog:

ATG Live Webcast: Advanced E-Business Suite Architectures

In-House Generated Certificates Supported for Signing E-Business Suite JAR Files

ATG Live Webcast: Planning Your Oracle E-Business Suite Upgrade from 11i to 12.1 and Beyond

And don't miss this great posting:

Summary of Oracle E-Business Suite Technology Webcasts and Training

Performance

Over at the Striving for Optimal Performance blog there is a brief but very useful posting for those trying to use SQL Trace and Oracle Portal.

Oracle Forums

When is the last time you used the forums? (or is it forii?). There's a lot of useful info there to search through as well as some heavy-duty experts to help you with questions, and that can sometimes include the kind of questions that SRs don't typically deal with (can anyone say 'customizations'?)

Here are a few examples:

A discussion on Constraints and Indexes from Hemant's Oracle DBA Blog.

A discussion of Lost Sysadmin Access After Upgrade to Solaris 11 at the Oracle Forums at OTN.

A posting arising from a discussion at the Oracle Community forums at Eddie Awad's Blog: Why You Must Use an ORDER BY Sometimes

New Support Articles

Speaking of Eddie Awad. He shared some new Support documents of interest: Five Recently Created or Updated Oracle Support Articles.

Upgrades

The Upgrade your Database - NOW! blog gives us a heads up on an 11.2 RDBMS bug you should keep an eye out for if you are upgrading: Wrong statistics in AUX_STATS$ might puzzle the optimizer.

APEX

Amis Technology lets us in on the secret and arcane art of making clickable columns in APEX reports (okay, nothing is particularly arcane in APEX, that's why people love it, but it sounds cool to say it's arcane): APEX: Make a report row clickable.

Java

Get involved with the process. Stephen Colebourne's blog fills us in on JDK Enhancement Proposals in this posting: The future is in the JEPs

CRM

I've owned a Kindle since the day they came out and definitely comparison shop on my iPhone and iPad when I'm in the store. Over at the The Complete CRM Blog we have an article about that comparison shopping and how widespread it is becoming. Indeed it makes me wonder about the future of bookstores. Perhaps they will morph into cafes that maintain sample copies of most books and a few big coffee table books that don't lend themselves to electronic form. I know my personal progression for purchasing books is: Kindle version, if there is none, used copy, if that doesn't work, new book from Amazon. That model doesn't leave a whole lot of room for the old fashioned brick and mortar book chain. I do still cruise used book stores, but it's more like going to an antique shop to see if something turns up now rather than looking for items of current interest.

3 Key Trends For Mobile Commerce – Location, Location, Location

MySQL

SearchOracle has good things to say about a new book: Book explores Oracle, MySQL query methods

BI

Rittman Mead goes over some of the features of Web Services in BI Publisher 11g.

Backup and Recovery

It's a good time to review backup and recovery. I guarantee it is. In the hubbub of maintaining, improving, upgrading and dealing with a chaotic mass of opposing wills (developers, I'm not talking about you...really), backup and recovery gets neglected. When it comes up as an issue it is often time to tune up your resume because it's too late to fix things. So this cautionary article is a good read: Why do companies backup infrequently? at Help Net Security.

Contributions by Angela Golla, Infogram Contributor

Oracle Technology Newsletters

Oracle Support has some great newsletters available filled with technical tips. Checkout four of them below:

Database Support Newsletter Note 230.1 (contains feature article 'SQL Tuning Health-Check Script - an alternative to SQLTXPLAIN (SQLT) ')

Enterprise Manager Support Newsletter Note 1363807.1 (contains feature article Enterprise Manager 12c has Arrived!)

Fusion Middleware Support Newsletter Note 1347075.

EPM and BI Support Newsletter Note 1347131.1

Oracle Priority Service Infogram for 23-NOV-2011

A short issue this week, what with the holiday and all most people are thinking more about their families than their server configurations. Can't say I blame them.

WebLogic

It's out there! A presentation: Introducing Oracle WebLogic Server 12c, the #1 Application Server Across Conventional and Cloud Environments

Data Guard

Connections between various pieces of a Data Guard environment, and the latencies thereof, can be a key issue for DBAs. At the Alejandro Vargas' Blog there is a posting on: How to Calculate TCP Socket Buffer Sizes for Data Guard Environments

Exadata

Also from Alejandro is this handy item about Configuring FTP on Exadata.

Solaris 11

The blogosphere is generating a lot of info about Solaris 11. Here are several postings of interest:

From Dave Miner's Fore! blog: Virtually the fastest way to try Solaris 11 (and Solaris 10 zones).

How to Find Out Which Devices Are Supported By Solaris 11 (Oracle Technology Network Blog (aka TechBlog)).

Solaris 10 branded zone VM Templates for Solaris 11 on OTN (Virtually All The Time blog)

Fixing a shell problem: New Shell In Oracle Solaris 11 (OTN Garage).

And when it all goes 'Woof': How to Recover a Solaris 11 System (OTN).

Oracle Service Bus

Spider Logic brings us: Oracle Coherence & Oracle Service Bus: REST API Integration.

Demantra

From the Oracle E-Business Suite Communities Blog: Oracle Demantra BAL Migration

Clouds

From Syngress: A Brief Introduction on Migrating to an Oracle-based Cloud Environment.

Primavera

CBR Online discusses: Oracle introduces BI publisher for enhanced visibility across project portfolio.

Oracle Priority Service Infogram for 16-NOV-2011

Clouds

It takes a really long wrench, but you can build a cloud. Here's a posting to help do just that over at Oracle Systems Blog Austria: Building an Infrastructure Cloud with Oracle VM for x86 + Enterprise Manager 12c.

Oracle Wiki

The Wiki's back. Get the info here at OTN: The Return of Oracle Wikis: Bigger and Better.

EBS

The latest from the Oracle E-Business Suite Technology blog:

11gR2 11.2.0.3 Database Certified with E-Business Suite

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 Certified on Solaris 11

Java

Are you a good Java programmer and want to show it? Nothing better than being published in Java Magazine for that (well, actually coding a killer app, making a fortune and retiring at thirty is probably somewhat better, but let's not get bogged down). Oracle Technology Network Blog (aka TechBlog) let's us know all about it: Java Magazine calling all Java Coding Gurus.

Backup and Recovery

The key word there is recovery. No amount of backups are as reassuring as the actual restoration of your business data. Over at Hemant's Oracle DBA Blog there's a link to some good discussions on RESTORE, RECOVER and RESETLOGS.

SQL

Charles Hooper in his usual detailed technical manner, discusses a request he encountered and the solution he came up with for: Matching the Expected Output – Analytic RANK, ROW_NUMBER, DENSE_RANK, or Something Different?

RDBMS Performance

Tanel Poder pointed out a blog I hadn't seen before: Alexander Anokhin's Oracle Performance and Scalability blog. Judging from this item on Dynamic tracing of Oracle logical I/O it should be a good one.

Another great item from Tanel Poder is this: Profiling trace files with preprocessor external tables in 11g and some parallel execution hacking.

Troubleshooting

We've all been there. It's a normal day, then suddenly it's chaos as directors circle the DBA's cubicle like sharks and the application wallows. This posting at dbaStreet has some good thoughts on one of the solutions: How to influence the execution plan without modifying the sql from the application. The most effective solution involves airline tickets to a country lacking an extradition treaty with the U.S., but that's somewhat career-limiting, so influencing the plans may be better.

Another good item on troubleshooting is over at the Oracle at Delphix blog: Why does the same job run slower on an exact clone? My explanation was either gnomes or cosmic rays. The folks over at Deliphix take a far more scientific approach.

Linux and Oracle

This posting at the Pythian blog discusses a very important element of patching -- you're not just patching the DB, you also need to be aware of the OS patches and, preferably, involved: Linux Patching and Oracle – how to detect RPM conflicts before they happen.

and you can look at some of the OpenWorld material on Linux from this link at Oracle's Linux Blog: Linux Presentations from Oracle OpenWorld 2011.

Data Warehouse

The Oracle related stuff blog gives us some material on some of the potential pitfalls of misusing star transformation: Star Transformation And Cardinality Estimates.

Links

Pythian has lots of links of interest to DBAs: Log Buffer #245, A Carnival of the Vanities for DBAs. (I must say I find a carnival of the vanities a lot better than the historic 'bonfire of the vanities').

Avian Education

Yes, you too can make millions of dollars .99 cents at a time. Just take this free course offered at Stanford: Stanford University Offers Free Course on Developing Apps for iPhone and iPad, then write the next Angry Birds. Speaking of which, people are getting heavily into Angry Birds, and I'm talking about physicists figuring out parameters of the yellow bird: Physics of the Yellow Angry Bird.

Contributions by Angela Golla, Infogram Contributor

Recorded Technical Advisor Webcasts
Did you know that Oracle has hundreds of recorded technical webcasts available for download. Products having presentations available include Hyperion, JD Edwards, Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Database, Oracle Enterprise Manager, Fusion Middleware, Primavera and PeopleSoft. The complete archive list is available at Note:740964.1.

Oracle Priority Service Infogram for 09-NOV-2011

Newsletters

The Infogram isn't a newsletter (perish the thought!), but there are a batch of good newsletters for our Oracle Support customers. Here are some samples in MOS:

• Database Support Newsletter Note 230.1 (contains feature article SQLTXPLAIN (SQLT) - The tool for SQL Tuning analysis and more)
• Enterprise Manager Support Newsletter Note 1363807.1 (contains feature article Enterprise Manager 12c has Arrived!)
• Fusion Middleware Support Newsletter Note 1347075.1
• EPM and BI Support Newsletter Note 1347131.1 .

MySQL

The Ilmar Kerm DB blog has an original approach I thought was original and resourceful. Have a look: Clustering MySQL instances with Oracle Clusterware 11gR2.

Performance

The Oracle at Delphix brings us this very handy script to help with: Importing AWR repositories from cloned databases.

SOA

Deltalounge fills us in on their upcoming SOA and Governance seminar.

RAC

Some good material on Troubleshooting ‘DFS lock handle’ waits over at Oracle database internals by Riyaj.

PeopleSoft SCM

If you are using SCM you will find this MOS page very useful: Information Center: PeopleSoft eProcurement Document 1358021.1

News of the Future

I've been predicting and looking forward to this use of technology for years. I've always thought that you could harness the efforts of gamers to resolve real world problems. And now you can: Computer gamers develop problem-solving algorithm that beats scientists’ best efforts. In fact, you've already been doing a human-machine assisted reading program yourself and didn't know: Deciphering Old Texts, One Woozy, Curvy Word at a Time .

Book Review: "Oracle Weblogic Server 11gR1 PS2: Administration Essentials" by Michel Schildmeijer

The reviewer didn't think much of the book. Anyone disagree? Review: "Oracle Weblogic Server 11gR1 PS2: Administration Essentials" by Michel Schildmeijer

APEX

Something handy over at (YABAOAE) Yet Another Blog About Oracle Application Express:

Adjusting the Width of an Interactive Report Filter Textbox

Siebel

Siebel Essentials discusses some new releases on CRM: New Siebel CRM Releases: 8.1.1.6 and 8.2.2

Hyperion

Cameron's Blog for Essbase Hackers discusses Resolving EPM and BI support issues faster.

Statistics

Tom Kyte has a follow-up to this posting last week that we linked to here: I really liked this one (the followup) .

Free Courses

We've had a few articles about mainly IT-specific courses available from several universities. This site gathers those and much more, along with language courses. Worth having a look over at Open Culture: 400 Free Online Courses from Top Universities

Contributions by Angela Golla, Infogram Contributor

Top 11 Things to do NOW to Stabilize your RAC Cluster Environment
Check out the details in NOTE:1344678.1.

Contributions by Angela Golla, Infogram Contributor

Application Technology Group (ATG) Newsletter
Check out the latest Application Technology Group (ATG) newsletter. Featured topics include Concurrent Processing with E-Business Suite and E-Business Suite Cloning. It is available at Note:1367975.1.

Oracle Priority Service Infogram for 02-NOV-2011

Hyperion

Some good hands on programming material in this posting at Cameron's Blog for Essbase Hackers: Stupid Planning queries #7 -- User Variables

Another interesting looking technique over at Essbase Labs: Add-in Load Times.

EBS

This week at the Oracle E-Business Technology blog:

EBS 12.0 Minimum Baseline Required by Feb 2012 for Extended Support

11gR2 Transportable Tablespaces Certified for EBS 11i

Premier Support ends December 2011 for Discoverer 10g, Portal 10g, Single Sign-On 10g, and others

Quarterly E-Business Suite Upgrade Recommendations: October 2011 Edition

APEX

David Peake is looking for information if you are in higher education and using APEX.

PeopleSoft

For those who, like the blogger are 'On the PeopleSoft Road' is this posting on some new aspects of Peopletools 8.52 : managing PIA with psadmin.

Indexing and Performance

Over at Martin Widlake's Yet Another Oracle Blog is part six of an excellent series on index only tables: IOT Part 6 – Inserts and Updates Slowed Down (part A)

Performance

Okay, I'm not touching the title with a ten foot pole, but it's a useful script, so here's the link to the posting over at the Ora-600 blog, one of the Oak Table's many awesome blogs: Oracle ASS - one time it will save yours !

RDBMS

One of the new 11.2 features is Auto Degree Of Parallelism (DOP). The Oracle related stuff blog gives us some valuable information on this, along with a few caveats (database features always seem to come with caveats, but such is life): Auto DOP And Direct-Path Inserts

ADF

Want to roll your own iPhone apps with ADF? Andrejus Baranovskis's Blog can get you started: iPhone Web Application Development With ADF Mobile Browser.

Statistics

This question reminds me somehow of the time in classic Star Trek when Kirk destroys a villainous supercomputer with a simple paradox (the old 'I am lying' line, which in turn traces back to a classical paradox about the Cretan who says: 'All Cretans are liars'). Tom Kyte found this call on random answers of interest and there is already a wide variety of answers accumulating in the comment area: I Really Liked This .