Neil Chandler begins this blog with, “Gathering object statistic in Oracle is important. The optimizer needs metadata about the object, such as the amount of rows and number of distinct values in a column, to help it decide the optimum way to access your data. This takes effort, and takes place automatically in scheduled windows, both overnight or at the weekend. These windows have a limited duration, and if there’s a lot of data to analyse to get the requisite metadata, it may run out of time.”
He then goes through:
- Check the stats gathering regularly
- Unexpected Gotchas
and ends with, “Finally, when you switch on INCREMENTAL statistics, Oracle needs to store additional SYNOPSES data to allow it to calculate the number of distinct values in a column more easily. This can take a lot of space in SYSAUX, although this has been significantly improved in Oracle 12.2 onwards with the synopses tables occupying around 3-5% of their previous large footprint. For more information about SYNOPSES, Oracle Support maintains a note with a query: 1953961.1 “
2. One Billion Rows – Gerald’s Challenge
Connor McDonald says, “At the start of the year, Twitter become all a flutter when people started posting their results for the 1 billion row challenge….So I posted a quick tweet after I loaded the flat file into the database showing why databases are just so damn cool at dealing with data.”
And he links to another post here.
3. ORA-1031 during Oracle Transportable Tablespace Import
Marco Pachaly-Mischke shares, “I really do like the idea of transportable tablespaces in the Oracle database world for several reasons. It is a good feature for migrating data from one system to another, it allows to skip lengthy upgrade procedures, it can be used to change the OS platform and it can reduce downtime by utilizing incremental updates.”
He explains in much more detail in his blog.
Bobby Curtis writes, “At Oracle Cloud World 2023, Oracle announced they were moving toward enabling Artificial Intelligence (AI) within many of their products. Oracle is making huge steps forward for many people to use AI daily. As 2023 ended, many other industry leaders announced they would do the same.
Regarding databases, Oracle is the only industry leader that leverages its core product for many different things. For at least a decade, Oracle has turned the Oracle Database into a Swiss army knife by enabling it to support different modern data types, analytics, and development paradigms, all in one product. It is only natural that with the AI revolution starting, Oracle would build a data type that enables organizations to use Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) within the databases.”
He then goes through:
- Where is the Vector datatype?
- What is the Vector datatype?
- Vector Settings?
- Vector Forms?
- Examples of Vectors
5. Step-by-Step Guide: Converting a Non-CDB to PDB with an Existing CDB
This blog begins with:
“In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through the process of converting a Non-CDB (Non-Container Database) to a Pluggable Database (PDB) using an existing CDB (Container Database).”
It goes through the following steps:
- Step 1: Cleanly Shutdown the Non-CDB Database(orcl)
- Step 2: Open the Database in Read-Only Mode
- Step 3: Describe the Database and Generate the XML File
- Step 4: Shutdown the Database
- Step 5: Check Compatibility and Resolve Issues
- Step 6: Connect to the Target CDB
- Step 7: Create a Pluggable Database
- Step 8: Run the noncdb_to_pdb.sql Script
- Step 9: Startup the PDB and Verify
6. Rewind A Table Using Oracle Flashback Table
In this article, we learn how to ‘Rewind A Table Using Oracle Flashback Table’.
The article goes through the 8 steps involved.
David Fitzjarrell begins with, “Pace management for a database doesn’t stop with the datafiles as the file system can also present challenges for the DBA. Even though sufficient space may exist inside datafiles the file system itself may be an issue. Depending upon the operating system in use utilities and commands may be available to diagnose such problems. Let’s look at the Linux/U)NIX operating systems and see what they offer.”
8. SPM baseline and historical execution plans
Mohamed Houri says, “I have often wondered why when we consult a past execution plan that is protected by an SPM baseline, there is no Note at the bottom of that execution plan showing the use of that SPM.”
He goes on to explore this further.
9. Supplying Advanced Parameters to Oracle SQL Developer for VS Code
Ilmar Kerm starts with, “Oracle released a new SQL Developer edition, this time as extension for VS Code. Setting up a new connection is pretty straightforward, you have all the usual connection fields available, but my first worry was that how to create a database connection if you require more advanced features turned on, for example TLS or Radius authentication.”
He then gives an example of how to supply custom trust store for TLS encrypted connection and enabling RADIUS authentication.
10. The 5 major benefits of ECPUs in the Oracle Autonomous Database
Julian Dontcheff writes, “Oracle Autonomous Database (ADB) recently introduced a more advanced ECPU billing metric and is now retiring the legacy OCPU billing metric for Autonomous Data Warehouse and Autonomous Transaction Processing in the next 12 months. Oracle recommend switching from the OCPU billing metric to the ECPU billing metric, which will not incur any downtime or service interruptions.”
He links to further articles and reading regarding the announcement at the bottom of his blog.