11 Compelling Reasons to upgrade to Oracle 11GR2 - … Continued

11 Compelling Reasonsto upgrade to Oracle 11GR2

Copyright © 2011 MyDBA CC

By Craig Moir of MyDBA

With technical contribution by Tommie Grove and Jared Jordaan of MyDBA

May 2011

Version 2

1. Flash Cache

2. Advanced Compression

3. Flashback Data Archive (Oracle Total Recall)

4. Online Application Upgrade

5. Partitioning Enhancements

6. Zero Downtime Upgrades for Oracle Clusterware and RAC

7. ACFS File System Replication

8. Oracle SecureFiles

9. Oracle Database File System (DBFS)

10. Real Application Testing

11. Miscellaneous ‘cool stuff’


11 Compelling Reasons


1. Flash Cache

� Boosts database processing speed by 5x or more using Flash Cache Solid State Disk (SSD).

� Extend the SGA size and database caching by hundreds of Terabytes in a single rack of SSD.

� Achieve massive increases in processing power without increasing actual processors*

� SSD offers 250x faster access times and 80x more IOPS (400,000 instead of 5,000) than RAID.

� 395% performance improvement for TPC-H benchmarks using Oracle 11GR2 and SSD.

� Cheap @ R680/1Gig DDR

� Low power consumption – 2 Terabytes of Flash Cache consumes 260 Watts (less than 3 light bulbs!)

� Very Green – huge processing power increase with very low power usage and cooling requirements.

� Flash Cache is fully tuneable with the Oracle database.

* Increasing Processors will increase Oracle licensing costs



2. Advanced Compression

� Reduce storage requirements by 3x or more.

� Improved memory efficiency as data remains compressed in memory.

� Minimal or no performance impact on DML operations.

� Faster query performance due to improved I/O and memory efficiency.

� Better network bandwidth utilization.

� Transparent to applications - no application changes required.

� Reduce Data Centre footprint, reduce power usage, reduce cooling requirements.

� Reduce backup size by 3x, reduce tape library usage by 3x.

� Invest in software, not hardware.

� Combine Advanced Compression with Flash Cache and you have performance improvements measurable

in orders of magnitude!



3. Flashback Data Archive (Total Recall)

� Tracks and stores all transactional changes to a table over its lifetime.

� Useful for compliance with record stage policies and audit reports.

� A Flashback Data Archive is configured with retention time. Data archived in the Flashback Data Archive

is retained for the specified retention time.

� Stores data in files in a compressed and partitioned format.

� Transparent to your Application.

� No need for Log Mining, triggers or traditional auditing to track changes made to a table.

� Flashback Data Archive facilitates:

o Digital shredding i.e. removing data older than the specified retention period.

o Auditing

o Data recovery

o Historical reporting



4. Online Application Upgrade

� This is the final crucial piece in the High Availability puzzle.

� Upgrade database Applications online using Edition-based redefinition.

� A revolutionary new capability allowing online Application upgrades with uninterrupted availability of

the Application.

� Each Application version in the database is an Edition of the Application.

� Multiple Editions of an Application can reside simultaneously in a single database.

� Pre-upgrade Application and the post-upgrade Application Editions can be accessed simultaneously.

� Hot rollover of the Application between pre-upgrade version and post-upgrade version.

� Code changes are installed in the privacy of a new Edition.

� Column differences or new tables remain private per Edition. Each Edition is allowed to see only its own

columns.

� A crossedition trigger propagates data changes made by the old Edition into the new Edition’s

columns, or (in hot-rollover) vice-versa.



5. Partitioning Enhancements

� Extended Composite Partitioning

o Range-Hash, Range-List, Range-Range;

o List-Range, List-Hash, List-List;

o Interval-Hash, Interval-List, Interval-Range;

� Interval Partitioning

o An extension of range partitioning.

o System is able to calculate and create new partitions as they are required.

� System Partitioning

o This is partitioning that is managed at the Application layer.

o Database has no control over where rows are placed.

� Reference Partitioning

o Allows tables related by foreign keys to be logically equi-partitioned.

o The child table is partitioned using the same partitioning key as the parent table without having to duplicate the key columns.

o Partition maintenance operations performed on the parent table are reflected on the child table.

� Virtual Column-Based Partitioning

o Virtual columns are not physically stored in the table, but derived from data in the table.

o These virtual columns can be used in the partition key in all basic partitioning schemes.



6. Zero Downtime Upgrades for Oracle Clusterware and RAC

� Patch Oracle Clusterware and RAC without taking the entire cluster down.

� Patchsets are now installed as out-of-place upgrades.

� Installed into a separate HOME.

� Simply stop old version and restart with new version to complete node upgrade.

� Done node by node (rolling upgrade).



7. ACFS File System Replication

� What is Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (ACFS)?

o It is a multi-platform, scalable file system

o Extends Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) functionality to support files maintained outside of the Oracle

Database.

� What type of files does ACFS support?

o Oracle software installations (ORACLE HOME).

o Executables, database trace files, database alert logs, application reports, BFILEs, and configuration files.

o Video, audio, text, images, engineering drawings, and other general-purpose application file data.

� What can ACFS replication do?

o Enables automated replication of an ACFS file system across a network to a remote site.

o Useful for providing Disaster Recovery capability.

o ACFS Replication captures ACFS file system changes on a primary file system and transmits these changes to a standby file system.

o The combination of Oracle Real Application Clusters, Data Guard and ACFS Replication provides comprehensive site and Disaster

Recovery policies for all files inside and outside the database.



8. Oracle SecureFiles

� Oracle SecureFiles is a complete redesign of the implementation of Oracle LOB storage.

� LOB’s store unstructured data content such as images, audio, video, documents etc.

� With Securefiles ‘all data’ in your organization can be securely stored and effectively managed from

within your database, no need for file systems any more.

� SecureFiles includes an option for LOB Compression for massive storage reductions.

� SecureFiles includes an option for LOB Encryption to meet legislative requirements.

� SecureFiles offers performance capabilities faster than when accessing LOB files from commercially

available file systems.

� SecureFiles provides a consistent security, auditing, backup/recovery, transaction and concurrency

model for storing ‘all data’ within the database.



9. Oracle Database File System (DBFS)

� The Oracle Database File System (DBFS) creates a standard file system interface on top of files that are stored in database tables.

� DBFS is like a NFS in that it provides a shared network file system that looks like a local file system.

� As with NFS, the DBFS has a server and a client component.

� With DBFS the server component is the Oracle Database and the client component is any Linux or Solaris platform.

� Mount the database file system on a regular mount point and access it like any other physical file system.

� Files in the database can now be transparently accessed using any operating system (OS) program or tool.

� Now you can store business data files in the database along side traditional relational data, and benefit from a unified data and file backup, Disaster Recovery, transactional consistency, security and search and management capabilities provided by databases.

� DBFS also adds advanced features of compression, deduplication and encryption to files.



10. Real Application Testing

� System changes are extremely risky and often introduces instability and unplanned downtime, which is unacceptable in todays mission-critical IT systems.

� Oracle Real Application Testing (RAT) is an EE option that has been designed to eliminate the risk associated with change, enabling businesses to adopt and implement change quickly with minimal impact.

� RAT can be used to identify the full impact of upgrades and system changes.

� RAT captures ‘live’ real-world database transactions and workloads for playback and analysis in the new environment.

� RAT provides a means to thoroughly test any ‘new environment’ with actual ‘production’ database transactions and workloads.

� Identify SQL execution plan changes and performance regressions.

� Removes the guesswork from Oracle tuning.

� Maintain the original transaction concurrency, timing and dependencies during replay.

� RAT facilitates easier upgrades, hardware replacements, and operating system changes.

� RAT supports version 9i and upwards thereby accelerating database upgrades.

� Dramatically reduces testing costs while improving testing quality.

� Dramatically reduces implementation risk.



11. Miscellaneous ‘cool stuff’

� File Watchers

o An Oracle utility that continually searches for new files within a file system directory.

o Implemented via dbms_scheduler.create_file_watcher procedure.

o Execute code when the specific external event occurs.

� Support 4 KB Sector Disk Drives

o New disk technology uses 4 KB sectors allowing for higher capacity with lower overhead.

o Oracle 11GR2 supports both 512 B and 4 KB sector disk drives simultaneously in the same database.

o Use ASM to migrate current disk groups from 512 byte sector drives to 4 KB sector drives.

� External Tables can run code now

o Run any O/S commands such as dir, uncompress, df by running a simple ‘SELECT * FROM my_external_table’;.

o “See” anything outside of the database without leaving the oracle environment

o Capture the output directly into the database using the hosts ‘stdout’ capabilities.

� Invisible Indexes

o Create and test new indexes without impacting the execution plans of existing SQL statements.

o Optimizer can’t see the invisible index hence existing execution plans remain unchanged.

� Case sensitive passwords

o At last Oracle has introduced case sensitive passwords.

� Tablespace encryption

o Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) is now possible at tablespace level.

� Online index builds with no pause to DML

o Oracle no longer requires exclusive DML locks on the table to build the index.


MyDBA is an Oracle Gold Partner Specialized in the following:

Oracle Database 11G

Oracle Performance Tuning 11G



MyDBA Consulting Services

This is just a small example of the many powerful features available with Oracle Database 11GR2. MyDBA can assist you in unleashing the full potential of your Oracle software investment.

For more information on MyDBA’s services, or to see a demo or presentation on any of the topics in this paper, please contact us on:

+27 11 808 6451 0861 911 DBA

http://www.mydba.co.za/ [email protected]


Disclaimer: This document is provided for information purposes only. While MyDBA has taken care to ensure that the content on this document is accurate, the information is provided "as is" and is not warranted to be error-free. Your use of and reliance on the information is entirely at your own risk.This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the prior written permission of MyDBA.


Feature availability by database edition



No. FeatureStandard Edition

Enterprise Edition

Extra Cost Option Notes

1 Flash Cache N Y N Requires SSD storage

2 Advanced Compression N Y Y MyDBA highly recommended!

3 Flashback Data Archive (Oracle Total Recall) N Y Y

4 Online Application Upgrade Y Y N A revolutionary new feature!

5 Partitioning Enhancements N Y Y Requires Partitioning option

6Zero Downtime Upgrades for Oracle

Clusterware and RACN Y Y Requires RAC option

7 ACFS File System Replication Y Y N

8 Oracle SecureFiles Y Y N

9 Oracle Database File System (DBFS) Y Y N

10 Real Application Testing N Y Y

Feature availability by database edition continued



No. FeatureStandard Edition

Enterprise Edition

Extra Cost Option Notes

11 Miscellaneous ‘cool stuff’

- File Watchers Y Y N

- Support 4 KB Sector Disk Drives Y Y N

- External Tables can run code now Y Y N

- Invisible Indexes Y Y N

- Case sensitive passwords Y Y N

- Tablespace encryption N Y Y Requires Advanced Security

- Online index builds with no pause to DML N Y N

References

http://blogs.oracle.com/BestPerf/entry/oracle_flash_cache_sga_caching

http://dbataj.blogspot.com/2008/05/oracle-flashback-data-archive-oracle.html

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/appdev.111/b28424/adfns_flashback.htm#g1703502

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11882_01/appdev.112/e18294/adlob_fs.htm

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e17128/chapter1.htm

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14072_01/appdev.112/e10645/adlob_fs.htm

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14072_01/rac.112/e10717/whatsnew.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_sector

http://fritshoogland.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/oracle-database-filesystem-dbfs-done-the-easy-way/

http://jiri.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/whats-new-in-oracle-11g-r2-external-tables-preprocessor/

http://kamranagayev.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/oracle-flashback-data-archive-total-recall/

http://oracletoday.blogspot.com/2007/08/invisible-indexes-in-11g.html

http://tonguc.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/11g_real_application_testing.ppt

http://wiki.oracle.com/page/Real+Application+Testing

http://www.dba-oracle.com/disk_i_o_speed_comparison.htm

http://www.dba-oracle.com/oracle_news/2006_04_06_ssd_clobbers_disk_speed.htm

http://www.dba-oracle.com/oracle_tips_ault_going_solid.htm

http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_disks_obsolete.htm

http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_file_watcher.htm



References Continued

http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_flash_cache.htm

http://www.ora600.be/news/oracle-database-file-system-dbfs-11gr2

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/cloud-storage/acfs-replication-12-2010-279867.pdf

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/availability/317103-186766.pdf


http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/availability/edition-based-redefinition-1-133045.pdf

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/focus-areas/storage/advanced-compression-whitepaper-130502.pdf

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/options/compression/index.html

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/options/compression/overview/securefiles-131281.pdf

http://www.oracle.com/us/dm/h2fy11/securefiles-362607.pdf?evite=EMEAFM10041984MPP017

http://www.oracle.com/us/products/database/options/real-application-testing/index.html

http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/11g/DBFS_11gR2.php

http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/11g/InvisibleIndexes_11gR1.php

http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/11g/PartitioningEnhancements_11gR1.php

http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/11g/SecureFiles_11gR1.php

http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/11g/TablespaceEncryption_11gR1.php

http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/11g/SecureFiles_11gR1.php

http://www.oracledistilled.com/oracle-database/securefiles-and-large-objects/oracle-database-file-system-dbfs-11gr2/

http://www.orafaq.com/node/848



References Continued

http://www.orafaq.com/wiki/Real_Application_Testing

http://www.ramsan.com/products/22

http://www.ramsan.com/products/73

http://www.ramsan.com/resources/SSDOverview

http://www.ramsan.com/solutions/oracle/#whitePaper6

http://www.ramsan.com/solutions/oracle/#whitePaper9

http://www.sswug.org/articles/viewarticle.aspx?id=46498

http://www.oracle86.com/ora_dir/server.111/b28281/hafeatures.htm

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11882_01/license.112/e10594/editions.htm

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/community/database-11g-product-family-technic-133664.pdf




Documents

11 Compelling Reasons to upgrade to Oracle 11GR2 - … Continued