As often as I use the Automatic Workload Repository(AWR) data in my day-to-day job at Microsoft, I think most can imagine how often I’m explaining its value, along with tracing to my Microsoft peeps. Its time to write a post dedicated to the Microsoft crowd who want to understand a bit more about AWR, so hopefully its helpful! What is the Automatic Workload Repository? The Automatic Workload Repository, (AWR) had been around since Oracle 10g and requires the diagnostic and tuning management pack licensing to use all of its features in Oracle’s Enterprise Edition database. Versions before 10.2.0.4 had limited…
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Some folks stated they were having trouble finding this, so I’m posting a link here for the blog I wrote on the Microsoft Tech Community Blog on my opinion about building out RAC on Azure.
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Load testing as part of a cloud migration project is expected and should be built into the requirements. The goal is to set yourself up for success. Log Latency Recently I had a Cloud Solution Architect, (CSA) escalate an Oracle performance problem after migrating from on-prem to the cloud. The information provided from the customer stated they were experiencing log sync latency in Oracle and that they hadn’t experienced this previously on-prem. They said there weren’t really any changes, just a simple lift and shift to Azure, so they were at a loss as to why the latency was being…
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In my last post, I discussed some of the unique challenges migrating Oracle workloads from Exadata to Azure posed. Engineered systems are not your everyday lift and shift and are rarely simple. Although I covered some focus areas for success, I’d like to get into the migration philosophical questions around cell offloading and IO. cell information is referred to in the average Oracle 12c AWR report almost 350 times. That’s a LOT of data to consider when migrating a workload to a server that won’t have cell nodes to OFFLOAD TO. If cell nodes are creating a ton of different…
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I know, I know- there’s a number of you out there thinking- I’m being brought in on more and more of these projects due to a recent change for some Exadata backup components many companies kept onsite, (parts that wear out more often, like PDUs and cell disks) which are no longer an option and that moving to Azure is a viable option for these workloads if you know what to identify and address before the move to the cloud. Engineered, Not Iron An Exadata is an engineered system- database nodes, secondary cell nodes, (also referred to as storage nodes/cell…
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We’ll start with a disclaimer here- this is my experience and my opinion. NO ONE ELSE’S, just as any link to any blog in this post is. Take it or leave it, I really don’t care, never have, never will- never been one to follow any drummer but my own anyway. 😊 Although the basis for calculating database management systems percentage of business is highly contested, there isn’t anyone contesting Oracle as having the largest percentage of the current database management system business. Don’t confuse this with cloud business or other technology platform- those are two different things. One such…
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I’ve been studying for over a week for my certs. It really is a challenge for my ADHD brain, as I learn by interacting and using a product, not be reading about it and guess what? Most of what the certs are on are not in my technical area. Yeah, this is not fun for me. I find that my brain hits a limit on what it can absorb before the activity levels in the temporal lobes diminish and I need to take a break, which is what I’m doing right now after a full day of Azure Synapse Analytics,…
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No matter how far my career and role has shifted, I will always view myself as a database administrator. I know this because when I fill out any form asking me what role I fulfill in IT, I still choose “DBA” from the list. No matter what claims the media and leading sources state, DBAs are an important role, even as technology shifts and traditional database tasks move to the cloud. Deeper relational database skills are still quite relevant when working in complex technical scenarios. The Experts Companies work to ensure they hire the right technical specialists. They don’t understand database…
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I’ve been very busy allocating 60% of my time towards Oracle on Azure migrations. The biggest challenge right now isn’t getting Oracle on Azure, but keeping my percentage of time allocated to only 60%. I love Oracle technology- yes, a Microsoft employee who LOVES Microsoft and Azure cloud, also LOVES. Oracle. I won’t apologize and I know I’m not the only one. Every company I’ve worked for, even when I worked at Oracle, required my multi-platform skill set. I’ve never worked anywhere that had ONLY Oracle, only Linux, only Microsoft, only SQL Server, etc. I saw it only as…
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Microsoft has done a great job of documenting how to create a VM with the appropriate VM image and Oracle version, then how to log in, startup the listener and create the database. I just have some enhancements I’d like to make to it, hoping to help it move up one level. I Bequeath to You All instructions provided by the Microsoft documentation show how to connect to the database using a bequeath, (BEQ) connection. This is done by the following command, using SQL Plus, (or similar): sqlplus / as sysdba It bypasses the need for a connection string, only…
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If there’s one thing I’ve been able to prove this week, it’s that even with the sweet 4G LTE, Wi-Fi setup in my RV, Montana still has the worst Wi-Fi coverage in the US. Lucky for me, I work in the cloud and automate everything, because if there’s one thing I love about automating with scripts, is that I can build out a deployment faster and less resource intensive than anyone can from the portal. Oracle Virtual Machines in Azure When you build out an Azure VM, with Oracle, you’ll also need to have the supporting structure and a sufficiently…
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I keep saying I’m going to start sharing what I’m doing in the Analytics space soon, but heck, there’s too much I need to keep adding to on the Oracle in Azure arena! So, as most people know, I’m not a big fan of Oracle RAC, (Real Application Cluster). My opinion was that it was often sold for use cases that it doesn’t serve, (such as HA) and the resource demands between the nodes, as well as what happens when a node is evicted to those that are left are not in the best interest for most use cases. On…
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A couple weeks back, Oracle and Microsoft announced their cross-cloud partnership. This was wonderful news to me, as I’ve been working on numerous Oracle projects at Microsoft with Azure. The Gist To know that there is now a partnership between the two clouds and that there’s also a large amount of documentation about working between the two clouds is very helpful vs. the amount I’ve been working on based off just my knowledge. Just as anyone appreciates a second set of eyes, I now have two company’s worth! If you missed the announcement and curious what it’s about, Oracle has…
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This last week, I presented a few sessions at ODTUG’s KSCOPE 2019 conference in Seattle. One of these sessions was with my wonderful co-presenter and Oracle Application Cloud expert, Opal Alapat. I connected with her when the call for papers opened and asked her if there would be interest in doing a session with Power BI connect to the Essbase in the Oracle Applications cloud, (OAC). There was no desire to do a bake-off or competitive session, just a morbid curiosity about what options there were to connect the two and the outcome of building reports out of valuable data…
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This is the third in a series of product identifications between Oracle and Microsoft to assist those attempting to understand the similarities and differences between these essential parts of any data platform environments. In this post, I’m going to describe the similarities and differences between Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services and Oracle Golden Gate. Hang on, it’s a bit of a bumpy ride. as neither service is out there on its own, (other’s piggy back off of them) and there’s definitely some new products on the Microsoft side that aren’t taken into consideration. The first thing to know is that…
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As I have seen the benefit for having a post on Oracle database vs. SQL Server architecture, let’s move onto the next frontier- High Availability…or what people think is high availability architecture in the two platforms. To RAC or Not to RAC There is a constant rumble among Oracle DBAs- either all-in for Oracle Real Application Cluster, (RAC) or a desire to use it for the tool it was technically intended for. Oracle RAC can be very enticing- complex and feature rich, its the standard for engineered systems, such as Oracle Exadata and even the Oracle Data Appliance, (ODA). Newer…
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There are a lot of DBAs that are expected to manage both Oracle and MSSQL environments. This is only going to become more common as database platforms variations with the introduction of the cloud continue. A database is a database in our management’s world and we’re expected to understand it all. Its not an easy topic, but I’m going to post on it, taking it step by step and hopefully the diagrams will help. Its also not an apple to apple comparison, so hopefully, but starting at the base and working my way into it with as similar as comparisons…
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As I live in an RV and travel as part of my work and to attend events, travel has started to figure out that I often fly out of one location and fly back into another. This week will be no different. Since we travel between cities on the weekend, its bound to happen that I leave for a SQL Saturday on a Friday in one city and arrive back in a different city on a Sunday. This Friday I will fly out of New Orleans, LA airport, only to fly in on Sunday to a small airport outside of…