Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Oracle Magazine 2008 Jan-Feb PDF
Oracle Magazine 2008 Jan-Feb PDF
A3/;:3AA5@727<B35@/B7=<
A/D3;7::7=<A
>719/<GB6@33=@/1:3272
2007 Network Appliance, Inc. All rights reserved. Specications subject to change without notice. NetApp and the Network Appliance logo are registered trademarks and Network Appliance is a
trademark of Network Appliance, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of
their respective holders and should be treated as such.
www.red.de
Best-in-class architecture
2007 Fujitsu Limited. All rights reserved. Fujitsu, the Fujitsu logo and PRIMEQUEST are registered trademarks or trademarks of Fujitsu Limited in the United States and other countries.
All designations used in this document may be trademarks, the use of which by third parties for their own purposes could violate the rights of the trademark owners. Changes in design
and technology are reserved. Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo, Itanium, Itanium Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the
United States and other countries.
omag0108pCov2_p001 11/28/07 2:54 PM Page 2
PRIMEQUEST
The fault-immune PRIMEQUEST server represents best-in-class SMP capabilities
for Itanium-based systems. With its high performance memory sub-system,
PRIMEQUEST is designed to support robust and demanding database workloads.
www.fujitsu-siemens.com www.fujitsu.com
CONTENTS VOLU M E XXI I , I SSUE 1
FEATUR ES
MAKING
ENTERPRISE
INFORMATION CHOICES
With investments
COMES HOME
Traditional relational content, unstructured content, XML,
in SOA and other
standards-based technologies, every
Oracle application upgrade offers better
3-D spatial datayour enterprise is home to all kinds of integration choices. Find out how Oracle
information. Read how customers are using Oracle Database gives companies options for upgrades
11g to store all their data, simplify management, and improve that improve performance, reduce
complexity, and prepare the enterprise
systems performance. David Baum
/30 for the future. David A. Kelly
/42
DEFINITELY
NOT OLD-SCHOOL
Northwestern University faces
all the IT challenges of any
major corporation, plus a few
that are unique to higher education. Learn how
Northwesterns IT professionals are improving and
Cover by Phil Saltonstall simplifying the universitys IT environment with an
SOA and Oracle technology. Alan Joch
/49
DE PAR T M E NTS
12
From Our Readers / 8
From the Editor / 10
Capturing the Enterprise AT OR AC LE
Imagination Tom Haunert Events / 12 Oracle News / 21
Find out about current and With full support for Oracle and non-Oracle
upcoming industry events. applications, Oracle VM promises faster,
cheaper, more scalable server virtualization.
Oracle OpenWorld / 14
Highlights from the show Interview / 22
Vince Casarez, Oracle vice president of
Oracle Resources / 16
product management, talks about Oracle
OTN Bulletin / 17 WebCenter and Web 2.0.
Learn whats happening with
Interview / 24
Oracles most dynamic online
Ray Roccaforte, Oracle vice president of
community.
database development, talks about the Oracle
Oracle News Briefs / 18 Optimized Warehouse.
59 TEC HNOLOGY
DATABAS E R EP LAY
Better Workload, Better Testing / 59
Use database replay to record and replay database
activities for better testing. Arup Nanda
25 C OM MU NI TY
Commitment / 25
IDENTITY
Intelligence and Identity / 63
Integrating Oracle Business Intelligence and Oracle
Oracle promotes teacher training to improve Identity Management Mark Rittman and Joel Crisp
math and science education.
Partner News / 26 OC P
Wipro, Promero, Centennial Software, Become a Certified Expert / 67
BearingPoint, Solution Beacon, CPSG, Oracle University offers Oracle Expert certification in
Partners Consulting Services Oracle Real Application Clusters.
Harald van Breederode and Joel Goodman
Book Beat / 26
Peer-to-Peer / 28 AS K TOM
Chris Ostrowski, Andrejus Baranovskis, On Tuning By Tracing / 71
Jacco Landlust Our technologist does a tune-up with SQL_TRACE.
Tom Kyte
75 R ES OUR C ES
Oracle Certified Partner Index / 75
53 D EVEL O PER
F RA MEWO RKS
Services with a Smile / 53
Create data-centric Web services for SOA
77 C OMMENT
ANALY S T S C OR NER
Moving the Business Forward / 80
Nucleus Researchs Rebecca Wettemann
discusses how Oracle Fusion Middleware and
Oracle On Demand pave the way for application
upgrades. David Baum
Toad supports best practices through all phases of development. With Toad, your team
will write expert code, no matter what their skill level. Youll be empowered to monitor
and validate code during development. And youll rest easy knowing only the highest
performing, best quality code makes it to production.
2007 Quest Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Quest and Quest Software are trademarks or registered trademarks of Quest Software.
All other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. DBM_Toad4Oracle_ToadRelax_Q32007.
Rapid deployment. Seamless Oracle integration.
Major productivity.
With ImageNow, you can take control of the documents that overwhelm ofce workers and stie
their productivity. ImageNow enterprise document management, imaging and workow helps
organizations like yours cut costs and boost daily efciency in accounts payable, human resources
and beyond. Our patented integration method works seamlessly with your existing Oracle
business applications and scales easily to connect every department in your organization, at a
fraction of the cost youd expect.
Read how businesses just like yours are putting ImageNow to work at
www.imagenow.com/success.
www.imagenow.com/oracle
2007 Perceptive Software, Inc. ImageNow is a registered trademark of Perceptive Software, Inc. All other product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. ad_oracle0801
ED ITOR IA L
D ESIGN
Design Director Richard Merchn
A DV ERTISING SA LES
Associate Publisher Kyle Walkenhorst kyle@sprocketmedia.com +1.323.340.8585
Northwest & Central U.S. Tom Cometa thomas.cometa@sbcglobal.net +1.510.339.2403
Southwest U.S. Shaun Mehr shaun@sprocketmedia.com +1.949.923.1660
MidAtlantic U.S. Dawn Becker and Lisa Rinaldo dbeck71@optonline.net +1.732.772.0160
Northeast U.S./Canada Ann and David Schissler schissler@comcast.net +1.508.394.4026
Europe/Middle East/Africa/Asia Pacific Mark Makinney mark.makinney@oracle.com +44 0 1273 774341
Mailing-List Rentals Edith Roman Associates +1.800.223.2194, Ext. 684
ED ITORIA L BOA R D
Ian Abramson, Jeff Bernknopf, Karen Cannell, Andrew Clarke, Chris Claterbos, Karthika Devi, Kimberly Floss,
Kent Graziano, Taqi Hasan, Tony Jambu, Tony Jedlinski, Ari Kaplan, Val Kavi, Steve Lemme, Carol McGury,
Sumit Sengupta, Danisment Gazi Unal, Jonathan Vincenzo, Dan Vlamis, Billy Yu
Copyright 2008, Oracle. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without
permission from the editors. ORACLE MAGAZINE IS PROVIDED ON AN AS IS BASIS. ORACLE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL
WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. IN NO EVENT SHALL ORACLE BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY
KIND ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF OR RELIANCE ON ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED HEREIN. The information is intended to
outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It
is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.
The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracles products remains at the sole discretion
of Oracle.
44% Faster
than Informatica
67% Faster
than DataStage
Results are based on specific tests and may vary depending on environment. If you would like to verify DMExpresss superiority in your current application, please contact us to arrange a free trial.
Syncsort and DMExpress are registered trademarks of Syncsort Incorporated. All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
a t O r a c l e EVENTS
ORACLE USER
GROUPS
Technology Events
German Oracle User Group (DOAG)
Regional Meeting
January 15, Jena, Germany
www.doag.org/termine/143633
Conferences and sessions to help you stay on the cutting edge Nashville Oracle Users Group Meetings
January 16 and February 20,
Nashville, Tennessee
HIMSS 2008 www.noug.net
February 2428, Dallas Oracle Users Group Meeting
Orlando, Florida with Cary Millsap of Hotsos
January 17, Dallas, Texas
Join the Healthcare Information and www.doug.org
Management Systems Society for its
Northern California Oracle
annual conference for healthcare IT Applications User Group Training Day
(HIT) professionals, physicians, nurses, January 17, Santa Clara, California
executives, pharmacists, and vendors. www.norcaloaug.org
Keynote speakers include former U.S.
Twin Cities Oracle User Group
Senator Bill Frist and Revolution Chairman Winter Meeting
and CEO Steve Case. Learn more at January 17, Golden Valley, Minnesota
www.himssconference.org. www.tcoug.org
Atlanta Oracle Applications Users
47th Annual Geomatics Gartner India CIO Summit 2008 Group Meetings
January 18 and February 15,
Engineering Conference February 1819, Mumbai, India Atlanta, Georgia
January 2426, Clovis, California The second Gartner India CIO Summit features www.atloaug.org
This student-run conference, sponsored by two tracksBusiness Alignment and the
UKOUG UNIX SIG Meeting
California State University, Fresno, brings Workforce, and Technology and Processes January 22, London
together hundreds of participants from around and structured interactive roundtable discus- www.ukoug.org
the world for workshops on geographic sions facilitated by Gartner analysts. Apply at
Greater Cincinnati Oracle User
information systems, surveying, and photo- www.gartnerinfo.com/ciosummitindia. Group Meeting
grammetry. Sign up at www.csufresno.edu/ January 23, Cincinnati, Ohio
geomatics/conference. FutureTest 2008 www.gcoug.org
February 2627, New York City Northeast Ohio Oracle Users
GTC Southwest 2008 Industry leaders will discuss the present and Group Meeting
January 2831, Austin, Texas future of software testing at this first-of-its- January 25, Independence, Ohio
www.neooug.org
With the theme 21st-Century Government kind event. Expand your testing and quality
Meets 21st-Century IT, this event for gov- assurance (QA) horizons with topics ranging Ottawa Oracle User Group Meeting
ernment technology professionals provides from open source models to team dynamics. January 31, Ottawa, Canada
www.oug-ottawa.org
business and technical training and features Interact, innovate, and network with other QA
keynotes by New York Times technology writer professionals. Sign up at www.futuretest.net. Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group
Training Days
David Pogue and by Frank Abagnale, whose life
February 1314, Denver, Colorado
story inspired the movie Catch Me if You Can. Oracle Applications Users Group www.rmoug.org
Sign up at www.govtech.com/events/silo Free eLearning
Puget Sound Oracle Users Group
.php?id=126027. TuesdaysThursdays, online Database SIG
The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) Hotsos training with Cary Millsap
Southern California Linux Expo offers free online training session to its February 1921, Bellevue, Washington
(SCALE) members. Training Tuesdays and Training www.psoug.org
February 810, Los Angeles Wednesdays cover a range of topics and are
This exposition includes several focused con- presented by top-rated OAUG trainers. OAUG
ferences, including Women in Open Source, Community Thursdays highlight educational eventsLOCATOR
Open Source in Education, and DOHCS and training sessions presented at OAUG geo- Oracle Events
(Demonstrating Open Source Health Care graphic and special interest group meetings. oracle.com/events
MISSION UNBELIEVABLY-IMPORTANT-DATA,
MISSION LIFE-OR-DEATH-DATA,
YOU GET THE IDEA.
Your database is crucial to your business. Thats why HP and
Oracle have teamed up to develop the HP Integrity Solution for
Oracle Database. Take the first step in protecting your data.
Go to hp.com/go/myoracle and use HPs solution builder to
determine the configuration thats right for your business.
B:11.125 in
T:10.875 in
S:9.875 in
2007 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Oracle, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Siebel are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its afliates.
194593puw01A df
Release Date: 10-Sep Output %: 100% Fonts: Futura, Futura CE Lt, A.D.: None
Futura CE Bk, Futura
Date/Time: 9/6/07 3:05 PM Actual Size: 8 in x 10.875 in Copywriter: None
CE Md, Helvetica
Comments: Oracle Neue C.D.: None
PACIFIC DIGITAL IMAGE 333 Broadway, San Francisco CA 94133 415.274.7234 www.pacdigital.com
Filename: 194593puw01A.ps_wf01 Operator: SpoolServer Time: 20:13:22
Colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black Date: 07-09-06
NOTE TO RECIPIENT: This le is processed using a Prinergy Workow System with an Adobe Postscript Level 3 RIP. The resultant PDF
contains traps and overprints. Please ensure that any post-processing used to produce these les supports this functionality. To correctly
view these les in Acrobat, please ensure that Output Preview (Separation Preview in earlier versions than 7.x) and Overprint Preview
are enabled. If the les are re-processed and these aspects are ignored, the traps and/or overprints may not be interpreted correctly and
incorrect reproduction may result. Please contact Pacic Digital Image with any questions or concerns.
O r a c l e OPENWORLD 2007
sneak peak into technologies that will influence the way we live, work, and Oracle OpenWorld blogs, photos,
and more
play in the not-so-distant future. otn.oracle.com/events/oracle-openworld-2007
You can watch archived keynotes and videocasts, read blogs, listen to pod- Oracles 30-year timeline
oracle.com/timeline
casts, and view photos and more online. See the webLOCATOR for links to ThinkQuest
www.thinkquest.org
more of the Oracle OpenWorld 2007 experience.
Nidal Haddad, Jan Roehl, Karen Mazer, and Tara Hall from Deloitte
Consulting accept the Oracle E-Business Suite Solution Titan Award from
Oracle Senior Vice President Matt Mills (far left) and Oracle Chairman Jeff
Henley (far right). At Oracle OpenWorld, Oracle PartnerNetwork presented
awards to 17 North Americanbased partners: Accenture, CedarCrestone,
CGH Technologies, Cloud Creek Systems, Deloitte Consulting, Entology,
Hitachi Consulting, IBM Global Business Services, Intelenex, Io Consulting,
iSP3 Solution Providers, Piocon Technologies, SYSTIME Computer Corp.,
Tallgrass Technologies, Terillium, Trianz, and TUSC.
ROBERT BENGTSON
imaginationas well as edit and post (held September 2729, 2007, near Documentation
otn.oracle.com/documentation
comments on pages created by others. Copenhagen) were treated to technical
Think of it as a free-form Oracle parallel sessions by fellow Oracle ACEs Cary Technology Centers
otn.oracle.com/tech
universe built by customers and part- Millsap, Anjo Kolk, and other big names
Podcasts
ners, and thus the perfect complement in the Oracle Database community. otn.oracle.com/techcasts
to the OTN Web site, Oracle discussion At the keynote, Managing Director of
Technical articles
forums, and blogs. Oracle Denmark Thomas Honor spoke otn.oracle.com/pub/articles
Create your own Oracle Wiki pages at on the challenges of communicating to Blogs
wiki.oracle.com. partners and customers about Oracles blogs.oracle.com
strategic plans regarding the 32 com- Discussion forums
CALLING ALL ORACLE APPLICATIONS ACES panies that had been acquired in the forums.oracle.com
Once the bastion of DBAs and develop- two years leading up to the conference. Developer Events Calendar
otn.oracle.com/events
ers, Oracle ACE-dom has come to the Honor said that Oracle hadnt really
Oracle Applications community. So if bought 32 products but rather that many Oracle ACE Program
otn.oracle.com/goto/oracle-ace
you are or know an ace in the Oracle technology stacks.
GREEN ISSUES GROW ON IT AGENDAS NEW ORACLE APPLICATION INTEGRATION can now share data within and across
11 percent of IT professionals surveyed say ARCHITECTURE FOR SAP INITIATIVE company boundaries while addressing
their operations address energy concerns,
and 25 percent more expect to be addressing
energy concerns within three years. 21
O racle has unveiled the Oracle
Application Integration Architecture
for SAP Initiative, which provides joint
regulatory and privacy compliance, says
Richard Sarwal, senior vice president of
systems management products, Oracle.
percent claim that energy conservation Oracle/SAP customers with a standards- Through the packs innovative use of
influenced their companys IT purchasing based method to unify their enterprise templates, which support application-
decisions in the past year, and 46 percent applications and rapidly adopt service- aware masking definitions, customers
predict that energy conservation will be a oriented architectures. Through this ini- can achieve greater IT efficiencies while
factor in the coming year. Still, the majority tiative, Oracle/SAP customers can build reducing costs.
of companies do not have any infrastructure sustainable, composite business appli- Oracle Data Masking Pack enables
to monitor IT energy use. A total of 1,011 IT cations across Oracle, SAP, and other regulatory compliance through consistent
professionals, 81 percent of whom work in third-party applications. and rule-based application of masking
the U.S., took the online survey. Several Oracle to SAP prebuilt inte- formats across enterprisewide databases.
Source: The 451 Group gration packs, which reduce the time to It also supports a rich and extensible
www.the451.com/special_reports/special_ deploy key cross-application business format library that covers a variety of
report_detail.php?icid=465
processes, are available. These include mask formats. This helps ensure consis-
CIOS SAY INTERNAL TECH SUPPORT Siebel CRM to SAP, Agile PLM to SAP, tent enforcement of information security
IS UNDERSTAFFED Hyperion to SAP, Oracle Utilities to policies and allows organizations to share
When asked about the ratio of internal end SAP, Oracle Communications Billing data quickly and scalably without violat-
users to technical support employees, CIOs and Revenue Management to SAP, and ing privacy regulations.
said that the ideal ratio is 82 users for each PeopleSoft HR to SAP.
support person. When the same CIOs were Oracle and SAP share the same ORACLE FUSION GOVERNANCE, RISK, AND
asked about the ratio of end users to support customers, and we are pleased to offer COMPLIANCE INTELLIGENCE CENTRALIZES
personnel in their own companies, they said a standards-based approach to building RISK AND COMPLIANCE INFORMATION
it was 136:1. Things are a little better for
companies with more than 1,000 employees:
composite applications and prebuilt inte-
grations for key industries, says Ed Abbo,
senior vice president of applications
O racle has released Oracle Fusion
Governance, Risk, and Compliance
Intelligence version 7.7.1, which deliv-
their actual ratio is 118:1, whereas CIOs
for midsize firms said their actual ratio was development, Oracle. Oracle Application ers expanded risk and compliance
131:1. The survey polled 1,400 CIOs from U.S. Integration Architecture for SAP extends diagnostics. Business process owners,
companies with 100 or more employees. the leadership weve demonstrated in compliance officers, and risk managers
Source: Robert Half Technology delivering on the promise of a service- can use this tool to better understand
www.rht.com oriented architecture and reinforces our the effectiveness of governance, risk,
VALUE OF B2B E-COMMERCE RISING
commitment to maximizing value from and compliance (GRC) programs across
AMONG COMPUTER, ELECTRONICS FIRMS
Oracles existing product lines. the enterprise.
59 percent of computer and electronics
The new release combines qualitative
ORACLE RELEASES DATA MASKING PACK FOR and quantitative information from both
companies surveyed say the value of
ORACLE ENTERPRISE MANAGER Oracle and non-Oracle systems and
business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce to
their organizations is increasing significantly,
and 38 percent say it is increasing slightly.
N ow shipping, Oracle Data Masking
Pack for Oracle Enterprise Manager
automates masking of sensitive data for
presents this information in integrated
dashboards and reports, allowing execu-
tives and managers to identify and focus
57 percent of survey respondents reported a
significant increase in transactional volume
secure, scalable data sharing. The pack efforts on key risk and control issues.
using B2B e-commerce. The most frequently
helps customers protect sensitive data by Built on Oracles business intelligence
cited hurdles to greater B2B e-commerce
replacing confidential or sensitive pro- technology, Oracle Fusion Governance,
use are internal manual process costs (86
duction information with realistic but Risk, and Compliance Intelligence offers
percent), the cost of implementing data and
scrubbed data based on masking rules. organizations prebuilt, role-tailored
business process standards (62 percent), and
Providing a comprehensive manage- intelligence and personalized reporting
the cost of doing e-business (57 percent).
ment solution that spans applications, and diagnostics.
Source: CompTIA
middleware, and database management To effectively gain an understanding
comptia.org/pressroom/get_
is the foundation for Oracle Enterprise of the status and effectiveness of GRC
pr.aspx?prid=1291
Managers top-down approach. With the programs, an organization must have a
Oracle Data Masking Pack, companies way of integrating risk and control infor-
N
oracle.com/support/premier/software-
ow shipping, Oracles Siebel CRM Our goal is continual operational configuration-manager.html
Integration Pack for Oracle Trade improvement for the entire Oracle
Siebel CRM Integration Pack
Promotion Management synchronizes stack, says Larry Abramson, senior for Oracle Trade Promotion
critical promotion, customer, and vice president, Oracle Advanced Management
financial information. Part of Oracle Customer Services. The enhancements oracle.com/aia
Application Integration Architecture, the to the Upgrade Management Service Oracle Advanced Customer Services
pack delivers prebuilt business process are designed, developed, and tested to Upgrade Management Service
oracle.com/support/advanced-customer-services
integration between Oracles Siebel CRM help Oracle users leverage our expertise
and Oracle E-Business Suite. Consumer to ensure that their upgrade projects Oracle and Interlace Systems
oracle.com/interlacesystems
goods companies can use the integra- are successful.
denition
Embarcadero solutions help manage data
enterprise-wide, enabling you to build and
communicate an architecture of your data assets
so you always know what is what, and where it is.
With just one, everything gets simpler. You and
your business are empowered to use and reuse
reliable, relevant, and timely data across a range
of platforms and storage formats. Understanding
your data is nally possible, and getting a hold
of the metadata is the key. Standards can be
2007 Embarcadero Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved.
server software and an easy-to-use inte- many features and benefits, Oracle VM READ about Oracle VM technology
otn.oracle.com/tech/virtualization
grated, Web-browser-based management offers simplified installation, with single
BOB ADLER
console for creating, cloning, sharing, install, patching, and upgrading for both LISTEN to an Oracle VM podcast
streaming.oracle.com/ebn/podcasts/otn/6084482.mp3
configuring, booting, and migrating Oracle VM and Oracle Enterprise Linux;
can get started very easily. But, we hear tion of Web 2.0 with business processes. LEARN more about Oracle WebCenter
webcenter.oracle.com
customers say, I like wikis, I like blogs. Casarez: With Oracle WebCenter 10g
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
a t O r a c l e INTERVIEW BY JEFF ERI CKSO N
IBM, and Sun. Oracle Database is prein- Oracle Magazine: Youve stated that Oracle LEARN more about the Oracle
BOB ADLER
stalled and preconfigured. The hardware Database 11g, which is at the heart of the Optimized Warehouse Initiative
oracle.com/goto/oowi
is designed and tested to be balanced so Oracle Optimized Warehouse Initiative,
Certified Teacher, believes that National teachers in the U.S. by connecting teach- National Board for Professional
Board Certification could help reverse ers with their peers, providing teach- Teaching Standards
NBPTS
www.nbpts.org
troubling trends in teacher attrition. ing resources, and promoting National
The Berkeley DB
Book
By Himanshu Yadava
Apress ORACLE AND WIPRO PROVIDE MANAGED CallCenterAnywhereis an integrated,
Apress.com IDENTITY SERVICES multichannel contact center platform
C
ISBN: 1590596722
ertified Advantage Partner Wipro that merges traditional phone calls with
has partnered with Oracle to provide e-mail, chat, fax, and Web callback.
This practical guide covers the intricacies of Oracle Identity and Access Management The important benefits of this offer-
Oracle Berkeley DB, a family of open source, Suite as a managed service. This new ing are high voice quality, virtual access,
embeddable databases. The book goes offering allows companies to outsource stability, enhanced inbound/outbound
into depth on complex design issues that
are only touched on in the footnotes of the
the user management, help desk, and calling features, and very low opera-
Berkeley DB reference manual. It explains maintenance elements of identity man- tional cost, says Gregg Troyanowski,
the technology at a higher level and also agement to Wipro. These services are president of Promero.
covers the internals, providing generous provided at a single monthly cost that
code and design examples. covers product licenses, implementation, CENTENNIAL SOFTWARE DELIVERS
Author Himanshu Yadava provides a
and maintenance. INTEGRATED IT ASSET MANAGEMENT
developers perspective on design issues in
Berkeley DBbased applications and offers
design options for specific conditions. He
also includes a look at fault tolerance and
The offering is delivered on two
concurrent tracks. A Transition and
Operation Support track evaluates the
C entennial Software, a developer of
IT asset discovery and audit solu-
tions, has released IT asset management
high-availability frameworks and offers extent of automation and help-desk call products for use with Oracle E-Business
extensive coverage on replication, distributed
transactions, and environment recovery.
volume, while an Identity Management Suite and Oracles PeopleSoft Enterprise.
Yadava is a software developer and Automation track builds out an auto- Called Centennial Discovery Connector,
consultant through his company, BitSeer. mated solution based on products in the the products enable Oracle IT Asset
Oracle Identity and Access Management Management customers to use IT asset
Suite. Wipro migrates manual tasks to inventory data from Centennials IT
Oracle Database
Oracle-powered automated processes audit solution, Centennial Discovery.
11g SQL
over time; once the system is configured, By integrating Centennial Discovery
By Jason Price
Oracle Press customers can leverage proven security with Oracle IT Asset Management solu-
www.oraclepress.com templates and toolkits to take advantage tions, organizations have the ability to
ISBN: 0071498508 of repetitive tasks such as on-boarding implement a true best-of-breed solu-
identities and integrating Sarbanes- tion with class-leading ERP [enterprise
Oxley applications. resource planning] solutions, says Andy
In Oracle Database 11g SQL, author Jason
Price teaches readers to access Oracle Burton, CEO of Centennial Software.
databases through SQL statements and PROMERO OFFERS VOICE OVER IP CALL Centennial Discovery includes
to construct PL/SQL programs. The book CENTER SOLUTIONS a hardware and software audit for
P
explains how to retrieve and modify romero, an Oracle Certified Partner all computers and network devices,
database information, use Oracle SQL*Plus
and a provider of Oracle Contact including smartphones, printers, and
and Oracle SQL Developer, work with
database objects, write PL/SQL programs, Center Anywhere virtual call center wireless access points. Combined with
and more. Readers will find in-depth solution, now offers a hosted, virtual Oracles IT Asset Management solutions,
coverage of the latest SQL features and call center solution using third-party Centennial Discovery helps to control
tools, performance optimization techniques, Voice over IP (VoIP) carriers. Promeros IT costs, maintain regulatory compli-
advanced queries, Java support, and XML. ance, comply with software licenses, and
hosted configuration, coupled with VoIP
Readers will learn to take advantage of
Oracle Database 11g features such as media gateways from Quintum, has provide better IT service.
PIVOT, UNPIVOT, and flashback archives. been successfully deployed with VoIP
With practical examples, code samples, carriers including Nexogy, Packet8, XO ORACLE OFFERS BUSINESS PROCESS
and programming tips, this book provides Communications, and Qwest. The use OUTSOURCING PARTNER PROGRAM
O
everything you need to master SQL, whether
of virtual phone numbers and internet- racle now offers Business Process
you are a technical manager or consultant,
business user, database administrator, or based voice traffic enables customers Outsourcing (BPO) service pro-
developer. No prior knowledge of Oracle to take advantage of free or low-cost vider partners the complete Oracle
Database, SQL, or PL/SQL is assumed. long distance, advanced calling fea- stack (applications, database, and
Price is a freelance consultant and former tures offered by VoIP providers, virtual middleware) under the Oracle BPO
product manager at Oracle. He is an Oracle
remote employee access, and low total Go-to-Market Initiative. The initiative
Certified DBA and Application Developer.
cost of ownership. includes programs and services to help
Look for Oracle books at oracle.com/ Oracle Contact Center Anywhere partners develop and promote solu-
technology/bookstore formerly known as Telephony@Work tions that complement Oracle Business
Process Outsourcing in selected product, will have a positive impact on profit Pittsburgh, and San Francisco.
market, and solution channels. Partners margins and the quality of operations. We understand how to get the most
who qualify can brand their services Solution Beacons Silk Paradigm inte- out of this platform and believe that our
with a BPO Powered by Oracle logo. grates budgeting, scheduling, and actuals combined capabilities . . . will make
to provide real-time information about CPSG a clear choice when it comes to
SOLUTION BEACON AND ORACLE DELIVER advertising campaigns. It uses business implementing Oracle technologies, says
ADVERTISING INDUSTRY SOLUTION intelligence and a powerful research Jim Guinn, vice president of enterprise
ogy solution called Silk Paradigm buying trends, and market conditions.
that integrates with Oracle Media and Wipro
oracle.com/partnerships/si/wipro
Entertainment solutions. Silk Paradigm CPSG MERGES WITH PARTNERS
Promero
allows advertising companies to esti- CONSULTING SERVICES
www.promero.com/call_center_software/
mate, manage, and control the processes
and costs related to campaigns.
The advertising industry continues
C PSG, an Oracle Certified Partner, has
merged with Partners Consulting
Services (PCS), an Oracle Partner, to
call_center_software.asp
Centennial Software
www.centennial-software.com/oracle
to be challenged in its management of create a national company that provides BearingPoint
advertising and marketing campaigns Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle www.bearingpoint.com/oracle
that include many dynamic activities, Fusion Middleware solutions. Oracle BPO Go-to-Market Initiative
creative teams across disparate geogra- CPSG delivers service-oriented oracle.com/partners/home/bi/global/bpo/
unauth/index.html
phies, and collaboration across campaign architecture and identity and access
agencies, says David Murphy, chief strat- management solutions. PCS has 25 years Solution Beacon
www.solutionbeacon.com
egy officer at Solution Beacon and former of experience with Oracle solutions,
executive vice president at advertising including Oracles PeopleSoft and Oracle CPSG
www.cpsg-inc.com
and marketing company Young and E-Business Suite. The companies will
Partners Consulting Services
Rubicam. Automation of this process maintain operations in Atlanta, Chicago, www.partnersconsulting.com
and real-time performance monitoring Dallas, Denver, Houston, Irvine,
Favorite Things
Oracle ADF, Oracle JDeveloper, and Oracle Application Server top the list for these Oracle ACEs.
Chris Ostrowski tions. Although if were talking peerSPECS
Company: IBM Global Business
Whats your favorite tool or about forums, its highly possible Services, a business and technology
technique on the job? Oracle that someone has already asked services provider
JDeveloper combined your question. So dont be lazy Job title/description:
Technical consultant, responsible
with Oracle Application search before you ask! for consulting on Oracle projects,
Development Framework What technology has most changed resolving development issues, and
designing software architectures
[Oracle ADF] is a phenom- your life? Oracle JDeveloper with
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
enal piece of software. The Oracle ADF. Im developing and
Oracle credentials: Oracle
latest version10g Release posting sample applications using Certified DBA (Oracle Database
3makes creating portlets this technology on my blog [www 10g ), with three years of experience
using Oracle products
incredibly easy. For developing sophisticated, Web-enabled, .andrejusb.blogspot.com], which
Oracle ACE
Oracle-based applications, no other tool comes close. has helped me to become recog- otn.oracle.com/community/
What would you like to see Oracle, nized in the technical community. oracle_ace
with Oracle technology. Professional exam, but I didnt Location: Deventer, the
Netherlands
What advice do you have about enroll for that purpose. Since all
Length of time using Oracle
how to get into Web and database five students were experienced products: Seven years
development? If you want to DBAs, we dove right into Oracle Oracle ACE
be a successful developer, you Database 10g new features and otn.oracle.com/community/
oracle_ace
shouldnt be afraid to ask ques- even built an Oracle RAC cluster.
oracle magazine m ay / J u n e 2 0 0 7 28
54% of Prot Readers
Make Buying Decisions Based on Third-Party Ads
They See in the Magazine!
84% say reading Prott helps them make better strategic decisions
81% go online to read more about products and services they see in Prot
79% consider Prott a must-read
75% say reading Prott shows them Oracle understands the challenges
they face
66% say Prott provides information they cant nd in other magazines
54% say they make buying decisions based on third-party ads in the
magazine
07002768_Profit_House_Full_Ad_.1 1 6/26/07
6 /2
/26/07
6/0
/07 8:20:39 AM
INFORMATION
spatial information.
repository for both data and metadata, much of which is cur- information, and all of our code in a single repository. We get
rently stored in file systems and content management systems all the benefits of backup, management, failover, clustering,
and on unmanaged PCs. and so forth, without supporting different strategies for differ-
ent parts of the application.
AN EVOLVING ARCHITECTURE Metatomix also favors Oracle Database 11g for its native
In addition to improvements in performance, scalability, avail- Resource Description Framework (RDF) storage capabilities.
ability, security, and management efficiency, Oracle Database Oracle supplies a semantic layer within the database, and
11g includes many new features that support all your enter- Oracle is the only database vendor that offers native support
prise data. For example, Oracle Database 11gs Spatial option for RDF datatypes and OWL [Web ontology language] ontolo-
provides native semantic technology, which identifies and gies, adds Britton. This makes it a good technical option for
creates connections between disparate pieces of datasuch as us and our customers.
a companys customers, orders, and productscreating new, For example, a U.K.-based financial services organization
actionable insights. These capabilities are of particular impor- hired Metatomix to speed up data-intensive tasks related to
tance to Metatomix, a leading provider of semantic solutions the processing of mutual fund trades. The bank needed a
in the government, financial services, manufacturing, and life business intelligence application that could understand the
sciences sectors. meaning of the information it was gathering, which led the
Im not just looking for solutions to relational data storage company to semantic technology.
but for a reliable repository for all types of information, says Britton says that the Oracle-based solution helps this finan-
Colin Britton, chief technology officer at Metatomix. With an cial services organization verify fund prices and identify data
Oracle database, we can manage our data, our configuration anomalies. Financial services firms have massive amounts of
SNAPSHOTS
Metatomix www.metatomix.com
Location: Boston, Massachusetts Industry: High technology
Employees: 46 Oracle products: Oracle Database, Oracle
Application Server
TUSC www.tusc.com
Location: Chicago, Illinois Industry: Professional services
Employees: 180 Oracle products: Oracle Database, Oracle Applications,
Rich Niemiec, CEO of TUSC, says that new functionality of Oracle Database 11g with Oracle Application Server, Oracle Developer Suite, Oracle Enterprise
Oracle SecureFiles can resolve concerns that companies might have had about Manager, Oracle Portal
putting unstructured information into a relational database.
Warner Music Group www.wmg.com
Location: New York City Industry: Entertainment
data, governed by complex business processes and analytics,
Employees: 4,000 (2006) Oracle products: Oracle Database,
he says. Semantic technology offers insight whenever excep- Oracle XML DB, Oracle SQL*Loader
tions occur, and Oracle has the right database platform for
maintaining the information. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Engineer Research and Development Center/Cold Regions
REDUCING PERFORMANCE OVERHEAD Research and Engineering Laboratory
www.erdc.usace.army.mil
ANDREA MANDEL
During their testing, TUSC found out that Oracle ments, Janik says. This can significantly reduce the storage
SecureFiles was 22 times faster than LOBs when reusing space required.
deleted space. Similarly, TUSC saw PL/SQL reads as 6 times Oracle XML DB is commonly used for storing, retrieving,
faster, and SQL*Loader operation as nearly 3 times faster. All and managing massive volumes of XML data. XML documents
of the performance issues that might have prevented people can be stored either as character large objects for unstruc-
from storing unstructured content in the database have been tured and semistructured documents such as Microsoft Word
addressed, Niemiec says. documents, or as object-relational datatypes for structured
documents such as purchase orders.
A REMODELED STOREHOUSE FOR XML This functionality enables XML documents to be
As a markup language capable of describing all kinds of accessed using industry standard SQL, XML, and file/folder
informationincluding structured, unstructured, and semi- interfaces. Moreover, says Oracles Krishnamurthy, Oracle
structured dataXML appeals to many types of organizations. Database 11g introduces a new storage representation and
Oracle was the first commercial relational database vendor indexing method for XML data: Binary XML datatype and
to offer native XML capabilities within a relational database. XMLIndex. Binary XML improves performance and storage
Oracle made XML a fundamental datatype with Oracle9i efficiency. In combination with XMLIndex, it can provide
Database Release 2, says Oracles Krishnamurthy. up to a 15-fold performance improvement when accessing
Oracle Databases XML capabilities caught the ear of Don XML documents.
Janik, senior technical manager at Warner Music Group, home Warner Music Group uses Oracle XML DB to expedite the
to well-known record labels such as Asylum, Atlantic, and loading and validation of digitally formatted sales information.
Elektra. Last year, Warner Music Group implemented the XML In one test, Janiks team processed 50,000 sales transactions
DB feature in Oracle Database 10g to collect, validate, and in 15 minutes. This is partly due to the unique architecture of
track critical sales information from its business partners. The Oracle Database. When an XML schema is registered, Oracle
music company has also tested the new XML capabilities in XML DB generates a set of SQL objects that correspond to
Oracle Database 11g. complex types defined in that schema. XPath expressions,
Warner Music Group looked at various solutions for han- sent to Oracle XML DB functions, are translated to SQL access
dling XML data. They chose the Oracle solution because they methods that operate directly against the underlying objects.
PETER STEMBER
like the way Oracle implements structured storage. Based on By abstracting the storage model through the use of the
the XML schema, it is not necessary for Oracle XML DB to XMLType datatype, and providing a set of operators that use
store XML tag names when storing the contents of XML docu- XPath to perform operations against XML documents, Oracle
XML DB lets us switch between structured and unstructured team, Warner Music Group will be well positioned to take
storage and to experiment with different forms of structured advantage of these new standards.
storage without affecting the application, Janik says.
This is particularly important as the music industry pre- INTEGRATING SPATIAL DATA
pares for compliance with Recording Industry Association of Scientists working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rely
America (RIAA) standards for electronic messages. The RIAA on Oracle to store all kinds of data, including geospatial and
is proposing use of the Digital Data Exchange XML-based multimedia information.
message formats for processing payments and royalties among Oracle Database 11g helps us pull together and process
music service providers, artists, publishers, and composers. very large sets of both unstructured and traditional struc-
Because of the innovative work being done by Janik and his tured data, says Michael Smith, a physical scientist who
With Oracle Database 11g, store all your data, including relational, XML, binary XML, 2D and 3D spatial,
Data Types
semantic, DICOM, RFID, e-mail, multimedia, spreadsheets, and documents.
Active Data (510%) Less Active Data (30 35%) Historical Data (60%)
The high-peformance storage tier The low-cost storage tier holds The archive storage tier holds
holds current and frequently less current, less frequently read-only data that is rarely accessed
accessed data. accessed data. (but still needs to be available).
Partner
Guide
Partners Are Lining Up to Help Customers Meet
Change with Condence
PARTNER INDEX
HP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Pillar Data Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Fujitsu Siemens Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
NetApp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
HP
HP and Oracle: Improving Business Outcomes
MAKING
ENTERPRISE
CHOICES
PICK THE ORACLE APPLICATIONS YOU NEED,
WHEN YOU NEED THEM.
ew standards, new business pressures, and the need
to deliver continuous value are redefining the benefit
of enterprise application upgrades and new integration
approaches. Oracle customers can choose both a road
map to a new generation of enterprise applications in the Oracle
Fusion Applications future and specific, continuous upgrades
and enhancements that deliver new technologies today.
A lot of customers have had a desire and need to integrate
systems for a very long time, but up until the last year or so,
its been very hard to do in a scalable and cost-effective way
because of the lack of standards, says Jesper Andersen, senior
vice president of applications strategy, Oracle. But now with
service-oriented architecture [SOA] and the way that Oracle is
embracing it, its become a much easier goal to achieve.
One way to achieve integration is through upgrading. With
investments in SOA and other standards-based technologies,
customers get new functionality and greater (and easier) integra-
PHIL SALTONSTALL/CORBIS
built on a shared services model and is charged with manag- are housed internally and are part of a mission-critical applica-
ing IT infrastructure and technology services for the three tion thats integrated with Clopays hosted Oracle E-Business
business units. Suite applications.
Since we went to Oracle On Demand, weve seen a tre- would have been too involved for Clopay and, as a result,
mendous improvement in terms of performance. User satisfac- the company was considering upgrading the business unit to
tion has improved. We needed a robust architecture to handle Oracle E-Business Suite from JD Edwards. It looks like Oracle
the load as well as support multiple strategic projects, and that Fusion Applications will integrate with JD Edwards, so we
was one of the key benefits weve received from Oracle On dont have to migrate our JD Edwards business unit in a sepa-
Demand, says Waah. Our move to Oracle
On Demand was a wise and strategic deci-
sion and has been very, very successful.
In a fast-growing company like Clopay,
planning for the future means finding ways
to streamline information flow, increase
customer satisfaction, and simplify the IT
environment. As a result, Clopay is working
on upgrading from Oracle E-Business Suite
Release 11.5.9 to Release 12, which pro-
vides the best of both worldstechnology
and business benefits today, with a clear
road map for the future.
Well benefit from the live support that
comes with the new release, and it will help
us implement new projects like transpor-
tation management, says Waah. It will
also benefit us as well as prepare us for
the future and [Oracle] Fusion technology.
Whats nice is that customers that want to
be on Release 12 and benefit from the appli-
cations or integration thats out there will
have lifetime support but wont have to go
to Oracle Fusion Applications if they dont
want to. At the same time, though, Release
12 comes with a lot of components that we
can integrate with other applications, as well
as Oracle Database 10g and all its perfor-
mance, security, and grid benefits.
Enterprise application integration
capabilities were an important planning
consideration for Clopay, since one of its
business units primarily uses Oracles JD
Edwards to run its business. By upgrad-
ing to Release 12, Clopay will be on a path
to Oracle Fusion Applications, which will
RAFFI ALEXANDER
and more. In addition to Oracle E-Business Suite, Roll also using the best practices and business processes within Oracle
uses Oracle Discoverer, Oracle Business Intelligence, and E-Business Suite helps Roll reduce risk.
Right now, any time we make a change for one business puts added pressure on ITwith a clear need for an applica-
unit, we have to regression-test everything to make sure we tion stack thats flexible enough to handle its specialized
dont adversely impact the other two businesses, says Carlson. business processes.
By reducing the complexity and number of customizations, We needed a CRM [customer relationship management]
we can stabilize and reduce risk in our environment better. solution that would be comprehensive and that would inte-
Because of Rolls corporate structure, Carlson needs to be grate with Oracle E-Business Suite, says Dominic Martinelli,
able to provide optimal support for vice president of information technol-
Rolls individual businesses as well ogy at Rackable Systems. As a result,
as application environments that are
SNAP SHOTS Rackable Systems chose Siebel CRM
optimized for each companys needs. On Demand for its entire sales team.
Clopay
For Carlson, that means that some www.clopay.com The companys need to integrate its
of the businesses may be on different Location: Mason, Ohio business processes across applications
versions of Oracle E-Business Suite Annual Revenue: US$1 billion led to the choice of Oracle Application
and even different sets of applica- Oracle products: Oracle E-Business Suite (including Integration Architecture. Powered by
tions. Thus, the future release of Configurator, Order Management, iStore, Field Service, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle
HR, Payroll, Financials, Advanced Supply Chain Planning),
Oracle Fusion is an important consid- Application Integration Architecture
Oracle On Demand, Oracle Database, Oracle Portal
eration for Roll. provides organizations with prebuilt
I think [Oracle] Fusion will be Roll International integrations and business processes
important for us because we may www.roll.com that bridge traditional operational silos
be looking at using Siebel for one Location: Los Angeles, California and applications. For this fast-growing
of our business lines and perhaps Annual Revenue: US$1.48 billion server and storage provider, that
PeopleSoft for another, says Carlson. Oracle products: Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle On meant a prebuilt integration between
Demand, Oracle Discoverer, Oracle Business Intelligence,
Were always looking at new and Siebel CRM On Demand and Oracle
Siebel CRM
different ways to leverage our appli- E-Business Suite.
cations to support the business and Rackable Systems We have a very small IT staff
help it grow. www.terrascale.com with a limited budget, so we needed
Location: Fremont, California something that would be very easy to
UPGRADING THE BUSINESS Annual Revenue: US$360 million use, easy to maintain, and easy
Oracle products: Oracle E-Business Suite, Siebel CRM
Whatever upgrade and integration to customizebut also fully inte-
On Demand
strategy a company needs, for Oracle grated with [Oracle] E-Business
the ultimate goal is to give companies Suite, says Martinelli. Oracle
the choices they need to foster growth. Application Integration Architecture was the best choice to
The key is that Oracles strategy is an evolutionary strategy allow us to do that. O
and a strategy of choice, says Oracles Andersen. Our cus-
tomers can choose to stay on the existing product lines theyve David A. Kelly (dkelly@upsideresearch.com) is a business, technology, and travel
already invested significantly in, and we will continue to bring writer who lives in West Newton, Massachusetts.
them incremental improvements that get them closer to Oracle
Fusion. But they also have the option of moving to the next-
generation, standards-based set of Oracle Fusion applications
once these become available. READ more about Oracle Applications
These kinds of choices are especially important for com- oracle.com/applications
panies that have unique business modelsespecially since LEARN more about Oracle Technology
having a unique business model doesnt make your IT oracle.com/applications/technology.html
requirements any simpler. Just ask Rackable Systems. Unlike DISCOVER Oracle On Demand
oracle.com/ondemand
competitors that sell off-the-shelf systems, Rackable Systems
specializes in highly efficient, cost-effective, build-to-order x86 FIND OUT more about Oracle Application
servers and storage customized for each customers unique Integration Architecture
oracle.com/technology/products/applications/aia/aia_index.html
data center needs. Its a sound business strategy but one that
Pre-packaged integration
between Oracle applications
oracle.com/aia
or call 1.800.ORACLE.1
Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
BY AL AN JOC H
DEFINITELY
Betty Brugger, Northwestern
Universitys director of
information technology,
management systems, expects
that SOA technology will
simplify business processes
and customer experiences.
NOT OLD-SCHOOL
A leading university bets on service-oriented architecture to tame IT complexity, streamline
business processes, and improve services for its users.
hen Betty Brugger ticks off her top challenges, To cope, Brugger and her staff are embracing a service-
the list matches that of any corporate IT manager: oriented architecture (SOA) to a greater degree than most of
manage costs more effectively, better satisfy Northwesterns higher-education counterparts. SOAs ability to
demanding users, strengthen LAN and WAN secu- string multiple Web services together into nimble applications
rity, modernize legacy applications, and optimize busi- to address changing business needs quickly is just one attrac-
ness processesall while serving the organizations emerging tion. Brugger says that Oracle SOA Suite and its Oracle BPEL
global strategy. Process Managersoftware they have started to implement
Except that Brugger doesnt manage technology for a big incrementally, beginning with Oracles PeopleSoft Financials
corporation; shes the director of information technology, man- installationswill let Northwestern streamline its business pro-
agement systems, at Northwestern University. The challenges of cesses, tame IT complexity, and ultimately improve services for
higher education add a layer of difficulty to the job, she says. end users. We want to get real-time data to our people, and
The existence of many somewhat autonomous schools within were using Oracle SOA Suite to do that, Brugger says.
ANDREA MANDEL
SOA strategy. The university is also research and advisory services firm
taking advantage of the prebuilt Web SNAP SHOT Datamonitor. Under an SOA approach,
services available with PeopleSoft Northwestern University
institutions can modify and tailor their
Financials 8.9, which the school www.northwestern.edu processes in much more flexible and
is now implementing to replace its Location: Evanston, Illinois cost-effective ways, she says. The fun-
outdated legacy financial application. Industry: Higher education damental value of SOA lies in its ability
For the highly used transactions that Employees: 7,100 to let institutional processes drive tech-
are more end-user-facing, we wanted Oracle products and services: Oracle nology usage, as opposed to the tech-
SOA Suite, PeopleSoft Campus Solutions,
something friendlier, Brugger says. nology solutions themselves dictating
PeopleSoft Human Capital Management,
In a lot of ways, technologies PeopleSoft Financials, Oracle Database, what the institution can do.
such as SOA are catching up to the Oracle Warehouse Builder, PeopleSoft She adds that organizations benefit
way universities do business, notes Enterprise Performance Management from Oracles complete technology
Theo Bosnak, senior director of Oracle System, Oracle Portal, Oracle Application offerings, ranging from Oracle SOA
Higher Education. SOA offers a way Server, Oracle Real Application Clusters, Suite to related middleware, applica-
Oracle Collaboration Suite, Oracle
to break down the silos of separate tions, and the database. Having a
JDeveloper, Oracle Solution Support Center,
systems by separating those processes Oracle Professional Services
partner such as Oracle to put it all
into manageable components to together into a coherent whole and start
support unique ways of doing busi- the institution down the path of using
ness and supporting students. Not only does this apply SOA is a great way to begin, she says.
to financial processes, but it is also key to enabling Northwesterns Brugger agrees. She evaluated several
schools to improve recruiting, admissions, records, and SOA vendors and concluded that the comprehensive-
other student-related processes. ness of Oracles technologies was unique. We could
These advantages are particularly important for orga- have bought one component from here and one from
nizations that face the IT complexities of higher educa- there, but they wouldnt have worked as well together,
tion, according to Nicole Engelbert, lead analyst for she says.
education and vertical markets technology for market
PREBUILT SERVICES SPEED SOA RESULTS
Oracle provides applications such as PeopleSoft
NORTHWESTERNS STRATEGY Financials with a wide range of prebuilt Web services,
FOR SOA SUCCESS which, when paired with the BPEL engine, enable orga-
Northwestern is creating new Web services and new types nizations to configure processes that are unique to their
of systems as well as using SOA to integrate and modernize enterprise. The PeopleSoft applications also include
existing applications. We dont have a lot of traditional legacy development capabilities to enable organizations to create
systems, says the universitys Betty Brugger. We have very little their own Web services. There are some Web services
left on our mainframe. Heres how they plan to make their SOA that we can take advantage of out of the box, and if we
strategy work across the university system: want to develop additional services in the future, we can
O Start small by focusing on an application area
use the platform for that as well, says Harry Samuels,
O Use the successful implementation to generate buy-in for
Northwesterns applications systems manager responsible
other systems for the SOA implementation.
O Cultivate acceptance from end users who can communicate
Northwestern is taking advantage of PeopleSoft
benefits to peers Financials SOA savvy in its widely used Expense
O Reduce complexity and integration chores by choosing a
Journals application. SOA support means that
vendor with a comprehensive suite of SOA, middleware, appli- Northwestern can build end-user applications that are
cations, and database offerings easier for students and staff to use. By pushing capabili-
O Find an implementation partner that can augment in-house
ties out to users, well have better data integrity, put more
expertise, especially for a maturing area such as SOA power into their hands, and eliminate a lot of bureau-
O Team Web services with a BPEL engine to wring business-
cracy, Brugger says.
process efficiencies from cross-system applications For example, in the old system, stacks of paper fun-
neled throughout the procurement workflow for order-
AVAILABLE IN NOVEMBER
EVERYWHERE COMPUTER BOOKS ARE SOLD.
Join the Oracle Press Community to be the rst to hear about new
Oracle Press releases and special offers at
www.OraclePressBooks.com.
Oracle is investing in middleware and applications, and thats a big deal. . . .
Oracle has the whole package.
Betty Brugger,
Director, Information Technology, Management Systems, Northwestern University
ing, approving, and paying for supplies. The SOA-based real-time access or real-time information or real-time
alternative creates more-efficient electronic workflows provisioning, if thats what were doing with the BPEL
that eliminate this paper-based pain, Brugger says. Self- workflow, Brugger says. I wont have to wait a couple of
service brings us more into the modern age and in line days before all these databases are populated to give new
with our other enterprise systems, she adds. employees all the rights and access privileges they need.
The SOA capabilities will tie together the financials
system with the schools PeopleSoft Enterprise Campus MEASURING SUCCESS
Solutions, Northwesterns student management system, Brugger will judge the success of the SOA effort accord-
as well as a Peoplesoft Enterprise Human Capital ing to what she calls the illusion of simplicity it creates
Management (HCM) system and a new proposals tracking for end usersthe staff and students who will take
system. Architecturally, each of Northwesterns enterprise advantage of new, real-time applications without con-
systems is tightly integrated and runs on an Oracle data- cerning themselves with the complexities of the back-end
base. For example, Brugger says, Campus Solutions systems that make it all possible. We gauge the value by
includes functions for financial aid, student financials, how it streamlines business processes and satisfies the
student records, registration, transcriptions, and admis- users, Brugger says.
sions. Each one of those areas is complex in itself, and the In addition to saving time and increasing user satisfac-
same is true for the HCM and core financials. tion, an SOA strategy can also save money. Maintenance
Northwestern decided to go with Oracle for applica- cost reductions are another benefit for SOA strategies
tions and middleware because of the functionality the such as Northwesterns, Oracles Bosnak says. Whether
full stack offered, the universitys experience with Oracle organizations rely on prebuilt Web services or mix them
Database, and Oracles commitment to upgrades. We with their own custom services, SOA standards ensure
looked at the marketplace when we first got into the that the resulting processes will continue to work even
architecture, Brugger says. When we looked at Oracle if vendors alter the underlying applications code. You
Fusion and Oracle Fusion Middlewareand looked at wont have to go in and change those extensions you
their futurewe thought that that would be the best way wrote. Theyll still connect to that underlying process
to go. Oracle is investing in middleware and applications, through this SOA architecture, he says. This means
and thats a big deal. We didnt see the other vendors as youre reducing the overall costs of maintaining your
having a total offering as much as Oracle has. Oracle has systems, which is a huge challenge for universities,
the whole package. because of the IT complexity.
If universities can save money and take inefficiency
REAL-TIME DATA THRIVES out of their systems, the cost savings will add up,
Right now Northwestern has implemented only the Bosnak says. In turn, IT professionals can spend more
first part of its overall SOA plan. Ultimately the IT team time on areas that are more mission-critical to the organi-
plans to link systems across departments to achieve zation than just maintaining existing systems. O
faster and more-real-time processing. They expect to
improve the cross-system workflow for new employees, Alan Joch (ajoch@worldpath.net) is a technology writer based in New
which entails a wide range of approvals across depart- England who specializes in enterprise, Web, and high-performance-
ments for salary authorizations as well as access to computing applications.
networks and business applications. Now this can be
a slow process. Today, we use HR and our student
system as our systems of record, so we have to wait
until people are hired before we can provision them DOWNLOAD
and give them a network ID, Brugger says. Oracle SOA Suite
otn.oracle.com/software/tech/soa
The current process relies on nightly batch uploads
to the databases. If we can do a Web service for this Oracle Database 11g
otn.oracle.com/software/products/database
workflow, were attaching to one system and sending
READ more about Oracle Applications technology
data over to another, transaction by transaction, rather otn.oracle.com/products/applications/applications-technology.html
than batching the data at night. So we could get
.wsdl and the HRService.xsd files are the the URL will be http://localhost:8988/ server, open a command shell window,
standards-based Web Services Description EJB-FrameworksJanFeb2008/HRService. You navigate to the ./jdev/bin subdirectory
Language (WSDL) and XML Schema doc- should see an HRService endpoint Web of your Oracle JDeveloper 11g installa-
uments that describe the service contracts service test page appear in the browser. tion, and run the start_oc4j script. The
methods and datatypes. In the future, if To test the Web service in the first time you run it, it will prompt you
you need to adjust your service interface browser, using a sample parameter, select to create and confirm the password for
settings, you can click the yellow-pencil getEmployee from the Operation list. the fmwadmin account. Remember this
edit button in the Service Interface editor, Then enter the value 7839 in the Empno password, because you will need it a bit
and Oracle JDeveloper will automatically field in the Parameters area and click later. You can ignore any warning mes-
keep your implementation files in sync the Invoke button. The Test Result page sages you may see while the server is
with changes you make in the Oracle should display the standard XML format starting up. When the server is ready, it
JDeveloper user interface. of the Web services result, and the will display the message Oracle Containers
employee data for KING should be con- for J2EE 10g (11.1.1.0.0) initialized.
TESTING THE SERVICE tained in the data inside the tags. Note Now that the OC4J server is running,
As you might expect, it is very easy to that when the Web service is accessed the next step is to define an applica-
test your Web service interface by using by programmatic clients, the XML-based tion server connection for this server.
the embedded Oracle Application Server Web service requests and responses are In Oracle JDeveloper, select View ->
Containers for Java (OC4J) server inside implementation details that guarantee Resource Palette from the main menu.
Oracle JDeveloper. However, before interoperability but dont require any In the Resource Palette, click the
testing your service, verify the follow- manual processing. folder with a plus-sign icon (to the left
ing settings to ensure a successful result. Now click the Return to Test Page of the search field), and select New
First, select Tools -> Preferences... from link and select updateEmployee from Connection -> Application Server from
the main menu. When the Preferences the Operation list. Enter 7839 in the the list that appears. On the Type page
dialog box appears, click Web Browser Empno field, enter 5005 in the Sal field, of the Application Server Connection
and Proxy. Make sure the Use HTTP and uncheck the Include in Message Wizard, name the connection
Proxy Server check box is unchecked. check boxes for all of the other param- localoc4j, leave the Connection Type
(You wont need a browser proxy for eters so that they are not included in set at Standalone OC4J 11g, and click
this exercise.) Next, click Deployment the request. When you click Invoke, Next. On the Authentication page, leave
and check the check box labeled Allow you should see an XML-based exception Username set as fmwadmin, enter the
Deployed Module access to OC4J message with the fault string Salary must password you entered for this account
internal classes. Click OK to dismiss the be between 0 and 5000 on the Test Result when you first started the embedded
Preferences dialog box. page. This operation fails whenever you OC4J server in standalone mode, and
To test your service interface by attempt an update that violates the range click Next. On the Connection page,
using the embedded OC4J server, go validation rule on the Sal attribute of the leave the defaults and click Next.
to the serviceinterface folder in the Emp entity object. Now try repeating Finally, on the Test page, click Test
Applications Navigator, right-click the updateEmployee test with a salary of Connection and wait for the Success!
the HRServiceImpl.java file, and select less than 5000. This time, the Test Result message to appear in the Status area.
Run. Youll know the service is ready page will confirm a successful update by Click Finish to define the new applica-
for testing when Running: Embedded displaying the modified employee data. tion server connection.
OC4J Server - Log displays the target To stop the embedded OC4J server, The next step is to create a busi-
URL and Oracle Containers for J2EE 10g in Oracle JDeveloper, click the red termi- ness components service interface
(11.1.1.0.0) initialized. You can safely nate icon in the Log window toolbar or deployment profile, which defines
ignore warning messages that might select Run -> Terminate -> Embedded the set of files or runtime artifacts
appear due to known issues in the tech- OC4J Server from the main menu. required to deploy the service to an
nology preview release. external server. To create the profile,
Next to the target URL message, DEPLOYING THE SERVICE right-click the Model project node in
note (but dont click) the hyperlink. If Testing with the embedded OC4J server the Application Navigator and select
you were to click the link, you would can be useful while youre developing New. When the New Gallery dialog
open the HTTP Analyzer in this preview your service, but once youre satis- box appears, expand the General cat-
release (which isnt what we want to fied with it, youll need to deploy it on egory, select Deployment Profiles, and
do). Instead, test the service in your an external application server. Using double-click Business Components
Web browser, by copying the target URL the Oracle JDeveloper 11g Technology Service Interface. When the Create
and pasting it into the browsers address Preview 2 release, you can launch the Deployment Profile dialog box appears,
bar. If you havent changed your default embedded OC4J server in standalone enter HRService for Deployment Profile
embedded OC4J server port numbers, mode for this purpose. To start the Name and click OK. The Project
Navigator and select Deploy -> a Business Process Execution Language READ more Frameworks
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/frameworks
HRService -> Deploy. When the (BPEL) business process, or another Web
Deployment Plan dialog box appears, service, Oracle ADF 11g will make quick READ more about
Oracle JDeveloper and Oracle ADF
click OK to begin the deployment by work of the task. For more information otn.oracle.com/products/jdev
using the default deployment plan. At on this topic, see the Integrating ADF otn.oracle.com /products/jdev/tips/muench/
designpatterns
this point, the Deployment tab of the Applications with External Services
Oracle ADF Developers Guide
Log window will show the progress of the chapter in the Release 11g version of otn.oracle.com/documentation
deployment. One important status line to Oracle ADF Developers Guide. O
DOWNLOAD
look for is Binding FrameworksJanFeb2008 Oracle JDeveloper 11g Technology
web-module ... under context root Steve Muench is a consulting product manager for Preview 2
/FrameworksJanFeb2008. Oracle JDeveloper and an Oracle ACE. Since 1990 he otn.oracle.com/products/jdev/11
The online version of this column, has developed and supported Oracle tools and XML starter workspace for this column
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/08-jan/
at otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/08-jan/ technologies and continues to evangelize them. Muench
o18frame.zip
o18frame.html, describes how to point coauthored the Oracle ADF Developers Guide for
Best in 15 of 20 Categories
SOA World Magazine
2007 Readers Choice Awards 2
oracle.com/middleware
or call 1.800.ORACLE.1
1.The Forrester Wave: Application Server Platforms, Q3 2007, Forrester Research Inc., July 11, 2007.
2. SOA World Magazine 2007 Readers Choice Awards, July 3, 2007.
Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
d e v e l o p e r BROWSER-BASED BY DAVI D PEAKE
as they occur (1) in several Workload Database Replay link (under Real 8. Navigate to the /home/oracle/
Capture (WC) files. These files are stored Application Testing). replaydir directory. The captured work-
in a directory specified by the DBA (2). 3. The main Database Replay page load files are located here. Transfer the
Later, after the capture is complete, the displays the three high-level tasks files to the target system (using FTP or
as follows:
Figure 1: Architecture of database replay
Figure 2: Main Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control page, Software and Support tab
RMAN> run {
2> set until time 2007-07-11 11:30:04;
3> restore database;
4> recover database;
5> }
including the directory name, the OS various performance metrics of the data- another replay, first roll back all the
username (oracle, most likely), OS base over a period of time. In Oracle changes, by issuing
password, database userid and password, Enterprise Manager, navigate to the
and so onand click Submit. The pre- Performance tab (shown in Figure 2), flashback database to restore point
processing is done by a job, and once the select the snapshots for the capture and pre_change;
job completes, the workload displays as replay times, and perform a side-by-side
preprocessed and ready for replay. comparison of the two periods. Figure You can perform this change/analyze/
2. Navigate to the Database Replay main 5 is part of the AWR report, showing rollback cycle as many times as you
page, and choose Replay Workload (the events taking the highest percentage of need to until you determine the best
third task). Answer the same types of database time side by side. configuration for your specific workload.
questions as in the preprocessing step, This comparison shows a simple
and click Submit at the end. analysis of the performance of the CONCLUSION
3. The database is now ready for new and the old systems. Key metrics Change is inevitableparameters
replay. The screen appears as shown in include CPU time, which is only 8.47 change, patches need to be applied,
Figure 4. This screen indicates that the percent of the database time on the new hardware is replaced, and on and on.
replay driver has been started but the system, compared to almost 18 percent Like death and taxes, change is unavoid-
actual replay has not. on the old. The db file sequential read able, but thats where the analogy stops.
4. The replay runs in a process called is about 11 percent of the database time If the exact outcome of a change can
a replay client. Start a replay client on the new system, compared to about be predicted with certainty, the risk of
from the command line, using the wrc 19 percent on the old. These metrics are implementation disappears or at least
command, as shown in Listing 1. key indicators of how the new system drops significantly to an acceptable
5. When the replay finishes, the replay performed, and all the metrics are based level. Database replay enables DBAs,
client displays on the actual operations of the produc- without involving any other group, to
tion database, not synthetic operations, assess the exact impact of a change with
Replay finished (04:53:03) so it can be said with a very high degree a few simple commands while using the
of confidence that the new system will actual database workload. The reduction
Oracle Enterprise Manager shows the outperform the old. in risk allows for a true high-availability
status as Completed. Click Report infrastructure. O
to show statistics about the capture MORE CHANGES
and replay. If you want to make changes to the new Arup Nanda (arup@proligence.com) has been an
system and retest, you can replay the Oracle DBA for more than 12 years. He was Oracle
ANALYSIS captured workload. There is no need to Magazines DBA of the Year in 2003.
Now that the workload captured earlier recapture the workload or perform the
has been replayed on the target system, preprocessing again. For example, first
check for errors. To do so, click View create a restore point:
Workload Replay Report. Examine READ more about
the report for any errors due to bugs or create restore point pre_change; Oracle Real Application Testing
otn.oracle.com/products/manageability/database
other factors. Once that is done, note
how the new systems performance com- Now make the changes to the new Database replay
Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide
pares to the old ones. system, and finally run the replay on download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/server.111/
To compare the old and new systems, the new system. If, after analyzing the b28274/wcr.htm#BABCAABF
otn.oracle.com/pub/articles/oracle-database-11g-top-
compare the AWR reports for the periods results of the new replay, you need to features/11g-replay.html
of capture and replay. AWR reports show further modify the new system and run
3'))$#01.#1+.'2)#"#"1!0',+$,..!)#0#!&+,),%5+"--)'!0',+/-.,$#//',+)/ )'(#5,1 3&,
.#),,('+%0,#+.'!&0&#'.!.##./+"#+&+!#0&#-#.$,.*+!#,$0&#'.!,*-+5/.!)##+2'.,+*#+0 &0/3&5
'/0&#)#"'+%1/#.".'2#+.!)##"1!0',+#2#+0 )),3'+%.!)#-.,$#//',+)/0,
7 3'0& 0&,1/+"/ ,$ .!)# 1/#./ 0, /&.# /1!!#// /0,.'#/ !&))#+%#/ +" /,)10',+/ $,. .!)#
0#!&+,),%5 +"--)'!0',+/
7 $.,*0&##4-#.0/+")#"#./'+0&#.!)#!,**1+'053'0&!&,'!#,$*,.#0&+ #"1!0',+/#//',+/
50&# +"1#/0-.#/#+0'+% #/0-.!0'!#/+"0#/0#"/,)10',+/
7
0#!&+,),%5/,)10',+/+"/0.0#%'#/3'0&!!#//0,*,.#0&+
,$0&#)#"'+%/,)10',+-.,2'"#./
#4&' '0'+%'+,+#,-#+$,.1*
7
'+/'"#'+$,.*0',++"'+/'%&0$.,*.!)#)#"#./&'-+"0#!&+,),%52'/',+.'#/ +")#2#.%#0/#./
%.,1-/!,))#!0'2#2,'!#0,.!)#
$%#%"!$&$%'''""#%"
"# "#!"# %"!
t e c h n o l o g y IDENTITY BY M A RK RITTMAN
A N D JO EL CRI SP
standards-based identity management identity management implementations, Oracle Business Intelligence Server
tools, including Oracle Access Manager, including Oracle Identity Management. makes it possible for privileged users
Intelligence Enterprise Edition with an enables the necessary components (Web an Oracle Internet Directory instance
integrated, scalable identity manage- Bridge servlet, JMX Bean Server, and installed and configured. To set up the
ment solution across all their reporting Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher) connection between Oracle Business
needs. This article provides three inte- to be installed in Oracle Application Intelligence Server authentication and
gration scenarios that demonstrate how Server 10.1.3 (rather than the default Oracle Internet Directory, the user
to take advantage of powerful features Oracle Containers for J2EE [OC4J]). accounts must exist in Oracle Internet
in both products. In general, Oracle Application Server Directory. To create user accounts,
Example 1: Leverage Oracle Internet is recommended for Oracle Business 1. From a Web browser, navigate
Directory for Oracle Business Intelligence Intelligence Enterprise Edition running to the Oracle Identity Management
Interactive Dashboard Security steps in production environments. Provisioning Console:
you through enabling users of Oracle O Oracle Identity Management and
2. From within the left-hand pane of different group, they will see data for Oracle documentation
Security Manager, select Groups. those particular states. Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation
Services Administration Guide
3. Add the name of a group that The online version of this article, Oracle Business Intelligence Server
matches the group set up in Oracle at otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/08- Administration Guide
Internet Directory. jan/o18biidm.html, describes how to Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
Deployment Guide
4. Create groups that match the groups build Example 3: Streamline Access to otn.oracle.com/documentation
already created in the Oracle Business Oracle Business Intelligence by Using LEARN more about
Intelligence Presentation Services Web Oracle Single Sign-On. Oracle Identity Management
Catalog and that match the group names otn.oracle.com/products/id_mgmt
he new Oracle Certified Expert B. Sequence numbers may be out of instance for the cached values.
program provides opportunities order if multiple instances run the appli- B. Instances regularly send the
for Oracle professionals to earn cation program that uses the sequence. NEXTVALUE data for all CACHE and
certifications in advanced, niche, C. Sequences add no extra overhead to ORDER sequences to other instances to
and specialty technology areas. The pro- traffic over the interconnect. guarantee ordering.
grams first advanced offering for DBAs is D. Using the CACHE and NOORDER C. The cache information is written and
the Oracle Database 10g: Administering options together results in the best per- read from the controlfile.
Oracle Real Application Clusters exam. formance for a sequence. D. When an instance allocates a new
To earn the Oracle Real Application The correct answers are B and D. number from a CACHE and ORDER
Clusters Administrator Certified Expert Answer B is correct because if the sequence, it asks all other instances to
credential, you must pass this new exam CACHE option is used without the pass the NEXTVALUE over the intercon-
and meet one of the following additional ORDER option, each instance caches a nect. The highest value for all instances,
requirements: earn the Oracle Database separate range of numbers and sequence including the requesting instance, is used.
10g DBA Oracle Certified Professional numbers may be assigned out of order The correct answer is D.
(OCP) credential or attend either the by the different instances. Answer D Answer D is correct because all
Oracle Database 10g: Real Application is correct because the CACHE option database instances know their own
Clusters course or the Oracle Database causes each instance to cache its own NEXTVALUE, based on the last cached
10g: Real Application Clusters for range of numbers, thus reducing I/O value used in that instance. So the
Administrators Release 2 course. to the Oracle Data Dictionary, and the NEXTVALUE used for a request from
This column discusses concepts relat- NOORDER option eliminates message any instance must be the highest
ing to sequences, parallel execution, traffic over the interconnect to coordi- NEXTVALUE from any instance.
virtual IP addresses (VIPs), and Oracle nate the sequential allocation of numbers Answer A is incorrect because no
Clusterware file management. It also across all instances of the database. database instance masters the sequence
provides samples of the type of questions Answer A is incorrect because even metadata for a specific sequence. Each
that appear in the Oracle Database 10g: though each instance has a row cache, instance has row cache metadata for the
Administering Oracle Real Application it is still possible to use the CACHE same sequence, provided that sequence
Clusters exam. The sample questions option with sequences. In such a case, has been used in that instance. Answer
and code formats have been adjusted for each instance may cache numbers for B is incorrect because instances do not
publication in this column. that sequence in its row cache. Answer send this metadata regularly; they send it
C is incorrect because if the CACHE only upon request from the instance cur-
SEQUENCES AND ORACLE RAC and ORDER options are used together, rently allocating the next number in the
The use of sequences in Oracle Real all instances must allocate numbers in sequence. Answer C is incorrect because
Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) is order by coordinating the assignment of the cache metadata is not stored in the
much the same as it is for single-instance the next value, using messages over the controlfile. It is stored in the row cache of
Oracle databases, but there are certain interconnect, thereby increasing inter- all instances that have used the sequence
Oracle RACspecific issues. With two or connect traffic in proportion to the fre- since that instance started.
more database instances, sequences may quency of new-number assignment.
require coordination to guarantee that Adding the ORDER option requires PARALLEL EXECUTION AND ORACLE RAC
the sequence numbers are allocated in that sequence numbers be returned Oracle RAC databases support parallel
the correct order. in order. execution of queries, data manipulation
Which of the following are always true How does Oracle Database coordinate language (DML), and data definition
regarding the use of sequences in an sequences with the CACHE and ORDER language (DDL) in much the same way
Oracle 10g RAC database? (Pick two.) options so that numbers are cached in as a single database instance, but there
A. It is not possible to use the CACHE each instances row cache but are still are some special considerations regarding
option, because each database has a allocated in the correct order? performance and administration issues
row cache. A. One instance acts as the mastering that are unique to Oracle RAC.
A two-instance Oracle RAC database has Another important performance that the default is for recovery to be
the settings PARALLEL_MAX_SERVERS issue related to parallel execution is serial, not parallel.
= 100 and PARALLEL_MIN_PERCENT = 0 instance recovery.
on each instance. The DBA has also set A four-node Oracle RAC cluster has VIRTUAL IP ADDRESSES
PARALLEL_ADAPTIVE_MULTIUSER to false an instance on each node. Instance C Database clients use TNS descriptors
on both instances. The DBA then logs in fails due to node failure on node C. All to contact a TNS listener on one of the
to instance A and attempts to create a instances have the PARALLEL_MAX_ cluster nodes from a list of the listeners
large index in parallel, using the following SERVER = 300 setting. How does the on all cluster nodes. TNS descriptors
statement: DBA ensure that recovery for instance C for Oracle RAC contain hostnames or IP
is done in parallel, thereby speeding up addresses of the public network inter-
SQL> create index sh.sales_prod_cust the recovery? faces on all cluster nodes.
on SH.sales (prod_id, cust_id) parallel 10; A. No action is required, because When database clients attempt con-
PARALLEL_MAX_SERVER is already set nections to cluster databases, one of the
How are the parallel execution slave pro- on all instances. available hostnames in the TNS descrip-
cesses allocated to build this index? B. Issue the recover command for tor is selected and a connection request is
A. Five slaves are allocated from each instance C, using the parallel option. made. If the selected instance or listener
instance, and if either instance has fewer C. Make sure that the RECOVERY_ on that host is unavailable, clients select
than five slaves available, an error is PARALLELISM parameter is greater another hostname and try again until
returned. than or equal to 2 to guarantee parallel they succeed in connecting. Although
B. Ten slaves are allocated from instance recovery. this technique improves availability
A, and if fewer than 10 are available in D. No action is required, because when instances or listeners are down, a
instance A, an error is returned. PARALLEL_MAX_SERVER is set and network timeout is required to enable
C. Ten slaves are allocated from instance RECOVERY_PARALLELISM defaults clients to detect unavailable nodes.
A, and if fewer are available, the creation to 10. Clients are therefore delayed by the TCP
of the index proceeds with fewer slaves, The correct answer is C. timeout period before they attempt to
all on instance A. In Oracle Database 10g, the connect to another hostname, resulting in
D. Ten slaves are allocated from instance RECOVERY_PARALLELISM parameter slower network connection establishment
A, if possible. If fewer are available, defaults to CPU_COUNT 1, but the DBA and lower availability of connections.
slaves are requested from instance B. must assure that it has a nonzero value To circumvent these network time-
If instance A and B together cannot and that the degree of parallelism used by outs, Oracle Database 10g clusters use
provide 10 slaves, the statement exe- the recovery allows instance recovery to VIPs, which respond in one of two
cutes with fewer slaves. complete within the required service-level ways to connection requests made over
E. Ten slaves are allocated from instance agreement for recovery. If RECOVERY_ the public network interfaces. While a
A, if possible. If fewer are available, PARALLELISM is set to a value less than cluster node is available, its associated
slaves are requested from instance B. If 2, recovery will be done serially, not in VIP is active on that node and inbound
instance A and B together cannot provide parallel. Note that other factors affecting connection requests are accepted by the
10 slaves, the statement returns an error. recovery speedsuch as default buffer listener. If a node becomes unavailable,
The correct answer is D. cache size, which is outside the scope its associated VIP is activated on one of
Oracle Database attempts to allocate of this articleare neither Oracle RAC the remaining cluster nodes by Oracle
all slaves on the instance where the coor- specific nor related to parallelism. Clusterware, thereby enabling this other
dinator process is running, in this case Answer A is incorrect because node to reject connection requests
on instance A. If all slaves required are setting PARALLEL_MAX_SERVER to a originally sent to the failed node.
available, they are allocated from this nonzero value is not enough to guar- This rejection of connection requests
instance, which reduces interconnect antee that recovery will be done in results in immediate notification to the
overhead. If the coordinator instance is parallel. If RECOVERY_PARALLELISM requesting client, which immediately
unable to provide enough slaves because either defaults to or is set to 0 or 1, selects another hostname from the TNS
some are already allocated or because the recovery will be done serially. Answer descriptor. This results in faster network
parallel request exceeded PARALLEL_ B is incorrect because an Oracle RAC connection establishment and higher
MAX_SERVER for the requesting recovery is performed by one of the availability of connections.
instance, slaves are requested from other surviving instances automatically and Which statements are true about VIPs?
instances. If all the instances together not by the DBAs issuing a recover A. VIPs always accept connection
are unable to provide enough slaves, the command. Answer D is incorrect because requests.
statement will execute with a reduced RECOVERY_PARALLELISM defaults to B. VIPs must be manually moved from
set of slaves, as would be the case in a CPU_COUNT 1. On a machine with one node to another.
single-instance Oracle Database. only one or two CPUs, this would mean C. Clients should connect to the VIP
On Tuning by Tracing
Our technologist does a tune-up with SQL_TRACE.
y all-time favorite presenta- codeLISTING 1: Different inputs, different plans
tion is called All About
SQL> set autotrace traceonly explain
Binds. It takes me about SQL> select * from t where id = 1;
three hours to do the entire
talkwhich covers performance, Execution Plan
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
memory utilization, scalability, security, | Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU) | Time |
bind mismatches, bind variable peeking, -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and cursor sharingfrom start to finish. | 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 1 | 96 | 2 (0) | 00:00:01 |
| 1 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID | T | 1 | 96 | 2 (0) | 00:00:01 |
Today, I got this message on Ask Tom |* 2 | INDEX RANGE SCAN | T_IDX | 1 | | 1 (0) | 00:00:01 |
(asktom.oracle.com): -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a query that runs slowly (it takes about SQL> select * from t where id = 99;
two minutes). So what do I do? I turn on tracing Execution Plan
(SQL_TRACE=TRUE) before running the query, -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and consistently, 100 percent of the time, | Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU) | Time |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
without my changing anything else, when I | 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 50244 | 4710K | 235 (4) | 00:00:02 |
enable tracing the query comes back instantly! |* 1 | TABLE ACCESS FULL | T | 50244 | 4710K | 235 (4) | 00:00:02 |
This message on Ask Tom shows -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
exactly what I demonstrate in the All
About Binds presentation, during which Lets start with the setup script to will return all of the rest (about 50,000
I say, Im going to show you how to demonstrate this phenomenon. Ill set up records). Also, the optimizer is very aware
tune by setting SQL_TRACE=TRUE. You a very skewed set of data for emphasis: of this fact, because of the histograms in
are probably all thinking that Im going place, and if we parse by using literals, we
to run a query, observe it running slowly, SQL> create table t can definitely see different plans for differ-
trace it, and then tune it. Well, Im not 2 as ent inputs, as shown in Listing 1.
going to do thatall Im going to do 3 select case when rownum = 1
is set SQL_TRACE=TRUE, and youll 4 then 1 else 99 end id, a.* ORACLE8i DATABASE RELEASE 3
observe that the query performance 5 from all_objects a AND EARLIER
and resource utilization are dramatically 6 / But what happens when we bind the ID
affectedall for the better! Table created. inputwhen we issue SELECT * FROM
I know exactly what is happening in t WHERE ID = :ID? Well, the answer
the Ask Tom scenarioit is a combina- SQL> create index t_idx on t(id); depends on which release of Oracle
tion of two things: Index created. Database is being used. With Oracle8i
OWhen you set SQL_TRACE=TRUE, Database Release 3 and earlier, the
you set up a new parse environment SQL> begin optimizer will more or less guess. It
(a made-up term). You have changed 2 dbms_stats.gather_table_stats will not have any information about the
your session in such a way that it will 3 ( user, T, WHERE ID = :ID clause. The informa-
not share any existing SQL that was not 4 method_opt=> tion it has is
parsed with SQL_TRACE enabled. So it 5 for all|| OID has two values in the table: 1 and 99.
is highly likely that you will either hard- 6 indexed columns|| OThere are 50,000 records in the table.
parse a new version of the query or use 7 size 254 ); And because ID has only two values,
some existing child cursor that is differ- 8 end; this old optimizer will guess that for
ent from the one you would use with 9 / any query on ID, about half of the table
SQL_TRACE disabled. PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. on average will be selected. And the
OBind variable peeking happens at database would come up with one plan,
hard-parse time and may affect the plan It is quite clear that WHERE ID=1 will regardless of the inputs. In this case, it
chosen by the optimizer. return one record and WHERE ID=99 would likely do a full scan of the table.
ORACLE9i DATABASE AND ORACLE codeLISTING 2: Using DBMS_XPLAN to show the plans for each child cursor
DATABASE 10g
SQL> select sql_id from v$sql where sql_text = select * from t where id = :id;
From Oracle9i Database Release 1
through Oracle Database 10g Release SQL_ID
2, Oracle Database will wait until the -----------------------------------
8s40hfjcbmxzk
cursor is opened to do the actual opti-
8s40hfjcbmxzk
mization of the queryit will wait for
the bind variable value to be supplied SQL> select * from table( dbms_xplan.display_cursor( 8s40hfjcbmxzk, 0 ) );
by the application before figuring out
PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
the right way to optimize the query. This -------------------------------------------------
is called bind variable peeking, when the SQL_ID 8s40hfjcbmxzk, child number 0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
optimizer first looks at the bind values
select * from t where id = :id
and then optimizes the query. In this
case, however, depending on which Plan hash value: 1601196873
inputs are used to first run the query, the
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
database will either choose a full scan or | Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU) | Time |
an index range scan plus table access by ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | | | 235 (100) | |
index rowid. And in Oracle9i Database
|* 1 | TABLE ACCESS FULL | T | 50250 | 4710K | 235 (4) | 00:00:02 |
Release 1 through Oracle Database 10g ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Release 2, that is the plan that will be
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
used to execute the SELECT * FROM t
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHERE ID = :ID query, regardless of the 1 - filter(ID=:ID)
subsequent bind values, until the query
18 rows selected.
is hard-parsed and optimized again.
Ill address what happens in Oracle SQL> select * from table( dbms_xplan.display_cursor( 8s40hfjcbmxzk, 1 ) );
Database 11g Release 1 in a minute, but
PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
first lets take a look at what is happen-
-------------------------------------------------
ing to the person whose scenario on Ask SQL_ID 8s40hfjcbmxzk, child number 1
Tom inspired this discussion: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
select * from t where id = :id
1. Someone hard-parsed the query in
question, and the inputs used resulted in Plan hash value: 470836197
Plan A.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Plan A was the best plan for that
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU) | Time |
person, given the inputsit was the ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
most efficient plan. | 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | | | 2 (100) | |
| 1 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID | T | 1 | 96 | 2 (0) | 00:00:01 |
3. Later, someone else executed the same
|* 2 | INDEX RANGE SCAN | T_IDX | 1 | | 1 (0) | 00:00:01 |
query. Using shared SQL, this person ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
reused the plan generated by the other
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
person (Plan A in No. 1), but the new
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
bind variable inputs were different and 2 - access(ID=:ID)
the plan generated for No. 1 was not the
19 rows selected.
best plan for these inputs. In fact, the
plan was miserable for these new inputs.
4. The person in No. 3 turned on SQL_
TRACE and executed the query with SQL> variable id number 4031 consistent gets
inputs from No. 3 again, but because
...
6 l_recs data_array;
1 rows processed 7 begin
8 for i in 1 .. l_data.count
9 loop
This result demonstrates that it was 10 open l_cursor for select * from T where id = :x using l_data( i );
unlikely that an index range scan/table 11 loop
access by index rowid was executed. In 12 fetch l_cursor bulk collect into l_recs limit 500;
13 exit when l_cursor%notfound;
such a case, wed expect many fewer 14 end loop;
logical I/Os (consistent gets)three or 15 close l_cursor;
four against an index and one against the 16 end loop;
17 end;
table. This result represents our poorly 18 /
performing query. Now we turn on PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL_TRACE to find the performance
SQL> select sql_id
characteristics, and we observe 2 from v$sql
3 where sql_text = select * from T where id = :x;
SQL> alter session set sql_trace = true; SQL_ID
------------------------------------
Session altered.
gw1fks2wb4j2g
gw1fks2wb4j2g
SQL> select * from t where id = :id;
...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 consistent gets | Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU) | Time |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...
SQL> select * from t where id = :id; See it run slowly (720 consistent gets). Statistics
And now that weve seen slow, turn ------------------------------------------------------------
SQL_TRACE on again:
...
Statistics
-------------------------------------------------------------- 4 consistent gets
...
...
1 rows processed SQL> select * from t where id = :id; And see it go fast. It is not magic; it
is bind peeking. To see the real plans, IF BIND VARIABLE PEEKING IS A PROBLEM without gathering histograms, the plan
you can query V$SQL_PLAN / V$SQL_ Most of the timealmost all of the time, would not flip-flop.
PLAN_STATISTICS or use DBMS_ in factbind variable peeking works as Use your domain knowledge of the data. If
XPLAN to dump the plans for each child the designers of the feature intended: in you know that when a certain query is
cursor, as shown in Listing 2. a positive, helpful manner. The query in executed with a date that falls within the
You can use V$SQL_SHARED_ the application uses bind values that drive last 30 days, the volume of data would be
CURSOR and the SQL_ID from Listing it to one plan or the other consistently. It small and indexes would be used and that
2 to see why you have multiple child is only when the plan flip-flops between if the date is way in the past, the volume
cursors as well. For example, two radically different execution paths, of data would be large and full scans
and for some segment of users, that you would be used, then just use if/then/else.
SQL> select child_number, have a really bad plan. In such cases, The online-only version of this
2 stats_row_mismatch Oracle Database 11g might be the right column, at otn.oracle.com/oramag/
3 from v$sql_shared_cursor answer for you, because it accommodates oracle/08-jan/o18asktom.html, includes
4 where sql_id = 8s40hfjcbmxzk multiple plans. example syntax for using if/then/else, as
5 / But when bind variable peeking well as information on using CURSOR_
doesnt work nicely and Oracle SHARING=SIMILAR and stored outlines.
CHILD_NUMBER STATS_ROW_MISMATCH Database 11g is not a viable solution Disable the bind peeking feature. You
------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------- for you, what can you do to get around can disable bind peeking by using an
0 N bind variable peeking? Ill go through the undocumented init.ora parameter, but
1 Y ideas one by one. because this really affects you only if
Dont bind that query. Yes, you read that you have statistics that cause plans to
That is what you would look for to correctlydont use a bind variable (yes, flip-flopI would say, instead, that you
verify that you were seeing an it must be I wrote thatdo not use a bind variable!) should stop gathering those statistics to save
SQL_TRACE creating a new child cursor In my example, ID has two values1 the time and resources it takes, and youll
and a hard parse with different binds and 99. Lets say ID wasnt ID but rather have achieved basically the same goal. O
result. (The queries you run to verify this was PROCESSED_FLAG and had two
in Oracle9i Database are slightly different valuesY and N. Most of the records are Tom Kyte is a database evangelist in Oracles Server
from the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 PROCESSED_FLAG=Y; some of them Technology division and has worked for Oracle since
queries above. If you are interested in the are N. Some people query the processed 1993. He is the author of Expert Oracle Database
Oracle9i Database queries, you can review records (Y=yes). They want a full scan. Architecture: 9i and 10g Programming Techniques
tkyte.blogspot.com/2007/09/sqltracetrue- Others query the unprocessed records and Solutions (Apress, 2005) and Effective Oracle by
part-two.html, where I worked the in order to process them (N=no). They Design (Oracle Press, 2003), among others.
example through in that release.) want an index range scan.
Here my suggestion would be not
ORACLE DATABASE 11g RELEASE 1 to bind against PROCESSED_FLAG;
The current release of Oracle Database instead, use literals. That way we have ASK Tom
Oracle Vice President Tom Kyte answers your most dif-
Oracle Database 11gchanges the above two queries and two plans. ficult technology questions. Highlights from that forum
behavior for the better. A new feature This is also why I do not like appear in this column.
asktom.oracle.com
intelligent cursor sharingenables the CURSOR_SHARING=FORCE, because
optimizer to recognize that performance when a programmer does this (uses lit- READ online-only column content
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/08-jan/
can be affected when a fixed, one-size- erals) and the DBA turns on CURSOR_ o18asktom.html
fits-all plan is used and come up with SHARING=FORCE, we are back to the READ more about
different plans for certain bind ranges. In original problem! Bind variable peeking Oracle Database 11g
the following example, I simply used the comes into play once againthere is otn.oracle.com/products/database/oracle11g
schema from abovethe copy of ALL_ one plan for all, and it depends on Intelligent cursor sharing
Oracle Database New Features Guide
OBJECTS, with one row having the value who runs the query first. (By the way, download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/server.111/
ID=1, the index in place, and statistics CURSOR_SHARING=SIMILAR would b28279/chapter1.htm#FEATURENO07493
gathered. Then I ran a PL/SQL block not have this side effect. It would choose SQL_TRACE=TRUE
that would open a cursor by using one not to bind against PROCESSED_FLAG tkyte.blogspot.com/2007/09/sqltracetrue-
part-two.html
of two inputseither 1 or 99. This time, based on the statistics).
instead of just one plan being generated, Dont gather statistics that cause the plan READ more Tom
Expert Oracle Database Architecture: 9 i and 10g
well see two. The optimizer recognized to flip-flop. If there is only one plan that Programming Techniques and Solutions
amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1590595300/
that one plan was not sufficient for all the optimizer would ever choose, then
inputs and allowed for multiple plans to bind variable peeking will have no effect. DOWNLOAD Oracle Database 11g
otn.oracle.com/software/products/database
be generated, as shown in Listing 3. If you were to execute the above example
It runs continuously in the background, interfere with the transaction-handling DOWNLOAD Oracle Database 11g
oracle.com/technology/software/products/database
constantly moving data from the pro- duties of the production system, some-
duction site to the target site. The catch, times significantly. DISCUSS Oracle Data Guard
forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=61
of course, is that you still need to set By running reports from the target
Financial Services Subscribe now and receive content you wont nd anywhere else.
Linux
Public Sector
Retail
Procurement
Content Management
On Demand
European Union
Inside the enterprise, search engines are now so flexible and the distinc- READ more Davidson
blogs.oracle.com/maryanndavidson
need to be smart and choosy: they tion between inside and outside the
must help people find what they need, network so mutable that companies must DISCUSS Security
forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=51
without allowing them to snoop for what be able to extend their security policies
DOWNLOAD
they arent supposed to have. Oracle beyond the enterprise. Otherwise, an
Oracle Secure Enterprise Search
Secure Enterprise Search was built to be enterprise could potentially lose its oracle.com/technology/products/oses
a better mousetrap: an intelligent, intellectual-property shirt and the cor- Oracle Information Rights
security-aware search engine. For porate crown jewels. Oracle Information Management
example, suppose I am an evil-minded Rights Management can help organiza- oracle.com/technology/products/content-
management/irm
employee at Company X who wants tions seal data from secondary uses,
oracle.com/database
or call 1.800.ORACLE.1
Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.