Daniel Westermann's Blog

while reading more about postgresql I came across a discussion which is valid for oracle, too: it’s about implementing hints in the postgresql optimizer. actually it is more about why the postgresql people do not want to provide a feature like this.

for developing and testing purposes there might be situations where hints are useful. but hints do not solve the issue, hints are always a workaround. I like the way the postgresql people think about this: fix the problem ( either in the application or the postgresql source code ).

check out the pros, cons and discussions:
postgresql optimizer hint discussion
Hinting at PostgreSQL

here is the summary for the os essentials posts:

1. linux and its processes
2. double linked lists
3. sema… what ? interprocess communication (1)
4. shared memory – interprocess communication (2)
5. SIGSEGV and the ORA-07445
6. kill is not really about killing
7. memory management
8. slabs are not only for kitchens
9. hey, I don’t care if you are ext3 … just follow the model

will update the toc once there is more to say …

… there are plenty of excellent oracle posts out there. why another one?

When I started working with oracle I had one big problem: There is so much information around that it’s hard to decide where to begin. I started as most of the people would do:

… had a question or issue -> go to an internet search engine -> search -> millions of different answers, some correct, some useful, a lot of them misleading or even wrong

What I always was missing was a clean guide on how to setup a training environment that can be used as a base for trying all the interesting things. This includes, for example:

• Setting up the Operating System
• Preparing the Operating for Oracle
• Installing the Oracle Software
• Patching the Oracle Software
• Create an ASM Instance and configure the Grid Infrastructure
• Create and configure the database instance
• Start playing with it …. and provide some examples

As you can see from the above list, this are not advanced topics, so we are back to what this blog is about: It is for all those who are at the beginning of their oracle experience. You will see as less screenshots as possible because I believe that you’re not going to learn how things work if you trust the graphical tools. Another big point which still is mess if I look around: Documentation. If you put your work in a script you are documented. People using the graphical tools tend to not document their work and this can be very dangerous if others try to continue. In qualified environments it’s even strictly forbidden to do anything on the server or database without going through an approval process. And it may be even forbidden to use any of the graphical tools.

So let’s try the experiment: Feel free to comment, feel free to correct me, feel free to ask…. Hopefully this is useful to some of you

I will start this blog with a little series on how you may prepare your os, install the oracle software and do the configuration tasks you need to do for getting an oracle instance up and running.

… and please don’t blame me for my English :)