The debate about Single Purpose Database VS Converged/Consolidated Databases: Which approach/architecture is better?

The debate about Single Purpose Database VS Converged/Consolidated Databases: Which approach/architecture is better?

Here is an excellent blog post by Maria Colgan Master Product Manager at Oracle Product Management summarizing the pros and cons of each approach. Here is a quick recap on this topic.

• Single-Purpose Databases / Purpose Built Databases
• Single-Purpose Databases or Purpose Built Databases are architected for a singular or small number of problems/workloads: they are rather simplistic in nature with lesser functionality.
• It is relatively easier to start development against Single-Purpose Databases because of their simplicity.
• Single-Purpose Databases mostly scale well because they do not offer strong consistency guarantees.
• Single-Purpose Databases end up costing significantly more in the medium to long run due to data fragmentation and higher maintenance costs.
• Single-Purpose Best-of-Breed Databases typically creates Vendor Lock-In.
• Single-Purpose Databases are generally used in boutique cases which, typically require higher performance requirements e.g. transaction processing systems.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases 
• Converged/Consolidated Databases cater to all types of data, workloads and development protocols.
• Eliminating data fragmentation also eliminates data contagion in Converged/Consolidated Databases enabling application logic/modules to use and reuse a shared data copy across the organization.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases enable more synergy for data and workloads making development faster.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases make it much simpler for developers to run stuff like Cloud, Autonomous/ML, extended SQL, spatial, blockchain, IoT etc. in one singular consolidated database rather than running them across distributed Single-Purpose databases.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases helps the overall ecosystem to be relatively lesser complex which results in lesser maintenance and development costs in the medium to long run.
• Summary
• The of Single-Purpose Databases or Purpose Built Databases should be well thought out for a very limited/focused set of problems/tasks as, they come at extra maintenance/cost in the medium to long run.

This video by Juan Loaiza & Andrew Sutherland gives a good summary on this debate.

I hope you got a quick overview of the pros and cons of this ongoing debate: Single Purpose Database VS Converged/Consolidated Databases: Which approach/architecture is better?

Cheers.

Oracle Database 19c is now certified on Linux 8

Oracle Database 19c is now certified on Linux 8 - there is a very good blog post by Mike Dietrich Master Product Manager for Oracle Database Upgrade and Migrations.

Here is a quick recap on this topic.

• Minimum Release Update is 19.7 (Or 19.6 with patches or higher.
• Goto My Oracle Support > Certifications tab and then enter  “Oracle Database“, “19.0.0.0.0” and either “Linux x86-64 Oracle Linux 8.x” or “Linux x86-64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8“.
• Reference Document: MOS Note: 1369107.1
• Minimum Kernel Versions: 
• Oracle Linux 8.1 with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 6: 5.4.17-2011.0.7.el8uek.x86_64 or later
• Oracle Linux 8.0 with the Red Hat Compatible kernel: 4.18.0-80.el8.x86_64 or later

Enjoy Oracle 19c on Linux 8.

Cheers.

Oracle Standard Edition High Availability Released - A Quick Summary of New Features

Oracle released a High Availability version of Oracle Standard Edition (SE2) recently.

There is a very good blog post by Markus Michalewicz Senior Director Oracle Product Management summarizing the following new features. Here is a quick recap of what's new with SE2.

• With SE2 Cluster-based failover using Oracle Clusterware is now available for single-instance Standard Edition Oracle Databases. 
• With this latest release of Oracle Standard Edition, you can now use standard Oracle Clustering features such as Automatic Storage Management (ASM), ASM Cluster File System (ACFS) & Oracle Clusterware on Oracle Standard Edition.
• Oracle Standard Edition is completed integrated with 19c RU 19.7.
• However, Oracle Standard Edition High Availability DBs are NOT RAC enabled - to RAC enable your Oracle databases, you still do need Real Application Clusters (RAC) option enabled.
• There is no direct upgrade path for a single instance or a pre-19c RAC Standard Edition 2 Database
• The Standard Edition High Availability option can be failed over to an unlicensed machine for up to 10 days.
• SE2 is available on Windows, Linux & Solaris family of Operating Systems.

Enjoy the SE2 version of Oracle.

Cheers.

Oracle Autonomous Database Newsletters: A great resource to keep up with

Oracle Autonomous Database Newsletters are a great resource to keep up with. Started in Feb 2020 by Keith Laker, Senior Principal Product Manager for Analytic SQL at Oracle.

Here is a recap of all the Oracle Autonomous Database Newsletters posted so far:

• Don't miss out on Oracle Autonomous Database Newsletters.
• Autonomous Database Newsletter - February 18-2020.
• Autonomous Database Newsletter - February 26-2020.
• Autonomous Database Newsletter - April 08-2020.
• Autonomous Database Newsletter - April 30-2020.

You can subscribe to these Newsletters here.

Cheers.

Faster Oracle Database Upgrades but with lesser memory

Here is a shout out to very good blog post by Mike Dietrich Master Product Manager for Oracle Database Upgrade and Migrations: Faster Oracle Database Upgrades but with lesser memory.

Quick Recap on this topic.

• Reducing SGA and PGA sizes for Database Upgrades makes the whole process faster by leveraging lesser memory.
• Leverage Large Pages for Database Operations and Upgrades.
• Database is started in Upgrade Mode during restarts.
• Upgrades don't touch User Data.

Cheers.

Converged/Consolidated Databases: A Quick Overview

What are Converged/Consolidated Databases?

Here is an excellent blog post on this topic by Maria Colgan Master Product Manager at Oracle Product Management. Here is a quick summary of the characteristics/properties of Converged/Consolidated Databases.

• Converged/Consolidated Databases 
• Converged/Consolidated Databases cater to all types of data, workloads and development protocols.
• Eliminating data fragmentation also eliminates data contagion in Converged/Consolidated Databases enabling application logic/modules to use and reuse a shared data copy across the organization.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases enable more synergy for data and workloads making development faster.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases make it much simpler for developers to run stuff like Cloud, Autonomous/ML, extended SQL, spatial, blockchain, IoT etc. in one singular consolidated database rather than running them across distributed Single-Purpose databases.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases provide native support for all modern data types and most of the latest/prevalent development protocols.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases helps the overall ecosystem to be relatively lesser complex which results in lesser maintenance and development costs in the medium to long run.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases provide more/better integration for data and workloads.
• Oracle Database is a very successful example/manifestation of a Converged/Consolidated Databases model.

This video by Juan Loaiza & Andrew Sutherland gives a good summary on this topic.

I hope you got a quick overview of Converged/Consolidated Databases in this blog post.

Cheers.

Oracle Database 20c - A Sneak Peak into whats coming

Oracle Database 20c - A Sneak Peak into whats coming.

Here is an excellent blog post by Dominic Giles Master Product Manager at Oracle summarizing a Preview of Oracle Database 20c which was refreshed to v20.3 on the Oracle Cloud DBCS Platform. Here is a quick recap on this topic.

• Oracle Database 20c is the latest upcoming version in the multi-model family of Oracle Databases.
• Oracle Database 20c focus and push is on the Converged/Consolidated Database model. Here is a quick summary about Converged/Consolidated Databases:
• Converged/Consolidated Databases cater to all types of data, workloads and development protocols.
• Eliminating data fragmentation also eliminates data contagion in Converged/Consolidated Databases enabling application logic/modules to use and reuse a shared data copy across the organization.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases enable more synergy for data and workloads making development faster.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases make it much simpler for developers to run stuff like Cloud, Autonomous/ML, extended SQL, spatial, blockchain, IoT etc. in one singular consolidated database rather than running them across distributed Single-Purpose databases.
• Converged/Consolidated Databases helps the overall ecosystem to be relatively lesser complex which results in lesser maintenance and development costs in the medium to long run.
• Some of the New Features in Oracle Database 20c
• Blockchain Tables.
• SQL Macros.
• In-Memory Enhancements:
• Self-Managing In-Memory Column Store.
• In-Memory Hybrid Columnar Scans.
• Database In-Memory Vector Joins.
• Native JSON datatype Support.
• Machine Learning for Python and AutoML.
• Optimized Graph Models.
• Sharding Enhancements/Improvements.
• Persistent Memory Support.
• Expression based init.ora parameters.
• Automatic Zone Maps.
• A whole lot more is coming with Oracle 20c: Stay Tuned...

I hope you got a quick overview of whats coming in Oracle Database 20c which was refreshed to v20.3 on the Oracle Cloud DBCS Platform.

Cheers.

General Availability (GA): Oracle Database 20c is now available for Preview + New Features

General Availability (GA): Oracle Database 20c is now available for Preview + New Features. You can download 20c as a Oracle Cloud (Database Cloud Service Virtual Machine) here.

Here is an excellent blog post by William Hardie VP of Oracle Database Product Management summarizing a Preview of Oracle Database 20c. Here is a quick recap on this topic.

• Oracle Database 20c is the latest upcoming version in the multi-model family of Oracle Databases.
• Oracle Database 20c focus and push is on the Converged/Consolidated Database model. Here is a quick summary about Converged/Consolidated Databases.
• Some of the New Features in Oracle Database 20c
• Blockchain Tables.
• SQL Macros.
• In-Memory Enhancements:
• Self-Managing In-Memory Column Store.
• In-Memory Hybrid Columnar Scans.
• Database In-Memory Vector Joins.
• Native JSON datatype Support.
• Machine Learning for Python and AutoML.
• Optimized Graph Models.
• Sharding Enhancements/Improvements.
• Persistent Memory Support.
• Expression based init.ora parameters.
• Automatic Zone Maps.
• A whole lot more is coming with Oracle 20c: Stay Tuned...

Here is a pretty good video by Andy Mendelsohn providing an overview of some of the new & upcoming features with Oracle Database 20c:

Here is the complete list of New Features in Oracle 20c Documentation.

I hope you got a quick overview of whats coming in Oracle Database 20c which is now available in Preview Release.

Cheers.

The world's largest Raspberry Pi Cluster by Oracle

The world's largest Raspberry Pi Cluster was completed and built by Oracle. Here is an excellent blog post by Gerald Venzi Product Manager for Oracle Database.

Quick Recap on this topic:

• The world's largest Raspberry Pi Cluster by Oracle
• 5 x 2 Meter high racks
• 1 Supermicro 1U Xeon server
• 18 USB power supplies
• 22 network switches
• 49 customer 3D printed Raspberry Pi holders
• 1,060 Raspberry Pies
• Showcased at Oracle Code One 2019

Cheer.

How to upgrade to Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 19c with ZERO DOWNTIME?

Here is a very useful blog post by Anil Nair Oracle Senior Principal Product Manager on How to upgrade to Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 19c with ZERO DOWNTIME?

Here is a quick recap on this topic:

• Upgrade to RAC 19c requires Linux 7.
• Running ./gridSetup on OS version < Linux 7 will result in an error.
• Performing a series of Delete Node, Upgrade & Add Node Operations = Upgrade OS & Grid Infrastructure (GI) at the same time without Downtime (Pretty Cool Stuff).
• Alternative Upgrade Paths.

The entire presentation by Anil can be found here.

Cheers.

Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 19c Upgrade Paths, Best Practices, Tips & Tricks

Today's post is a shout out to a very beneficial presentation by Anil Nair Oracle Senior Principal Product Manager on Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 19c Upgrade Paths, Best Practices, Tips & Tricks.

Here is a brief summary of the presentation by Anil:

• Lifetime Support Policy Schedule.
• Oracle 12.2 Release Family & 19c.
• Future Projections for Upgrades.
• Oracle 19c requires Linux 7.
• How to upgrade to Linux 7 with least downtime.
• Alternative Paths to OS Upgrades.
• Latest ORAChk = ORAChk + CLUVFY + Autoupgrade.jar + Application Continuity & Security Related Checks.
• orachk -preupgrade = One Command for all Autoupgrade Checks.
• State of Grid Infrastructure Management Repository (GIMR).
• gridSetup can now be used with -dryRunForUpgrade option.
• Real Only Oracle Home (ROOH).
• Faster Patching with -SwitchHome.
• Upgrade Best Practices Summary.
• Whats New for Oracle 19c Grid Infrastructure (GI)?
• New GI Resource Modeling for PDBs (New).
• Oracle Clusterware Start Diagnostics (New).
• Auto-Diagnosis of unsuccessful startup issues (New).
• New Clusterware Monitor Thread & Processes (New).
• Private Network Interface Check (New).
• Oracle Clusterware Ciphers (New).
• Human Readable Messages in Trace Files for faster issue resolution (New).
• Whats New with Oracle Cache Fusion?
• Optimized Resource Master Placement (New).
• Zero Downtime for Planned Outages (New).
• Smart DRM (New).
• Rolling Windows to reduce reconfiguration impact (New).
• RAC Performance Automation.
• Exadata RAC Optimizations.
• Cache Fusion Optimizations on Exadata.

To summarize, upgrading to Oracle RAC 19c comes with lots of improvements, automations and optimizations to make the DBA's life easier than before. Check out Anil's presentation here.

Enjoy the new features by upgrading to Oracle RAC 19c.

Cheers.

Under the hood of Oracle RAC Scalability & High Availability - A Primer

Here is a very useful blog post by Anil Nair Oracle Senior Principal Product Manager outlining Oracle RAC Scalability & High Availability Internals.

Here is a quick recap on this topic:

• Fault Detection & Automatic Diagnosability with Oracle RAC 19c.
• Oracle Database High Availability Features Recap.
• Oracle Cluster Synchronization Services Recap.
• Oracle Clusterware CSSD Monitor & Agent Recap.
• Achieving Higher Availability with Flex ASM.
• Autonomous Database = RAC on Exadata (+ More).
• A whole lot more on Oracle RAC Scalability & High Availability.

The entire presentation by Anil can be found here.

Cheers.

Leveraging Docker for Oracle Database Applications in Node.js and Python

Here is an excellent two part series of blog posts: Part 1 and Part 2 by Christopher Jones, Senior Principal Product Manager working with the Oracle Database Data Access team.

Quick Recap on this topic:

• Installation of Docker and Image Creation: Overview.
• Building an Oracle Instant Client Image.
• Working behind a Proxy.
• Building a Python Docker Image.
• Building a Node.js Docker Image.
• Running an Application Container.
• Creating Docker Containers that Connect to Oracle Database
• Wallets
• Networking
• Smart Application Design
• Application High Availability

Enjoy Docker for Oracle Database Applications in Node.js and Python.

Cheers:

Multiple Ways on how to get the Oracle Database

Here is a very nice blog post by Gerald Venzi Product Manager for Oracle Database on how to get the Oracle Database using 5 Ways.

Quick Recap on this topic:

• LiveSQL
• Docker Image
• Vagrant Box VM
• Database App Dev VM
• Always Free Autonomous Database

With so many ways on how to get the Oracle Database, do check it out for free development on your Apps.

Cheers.

Smarter Monitoring with Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 19c

With Oracle RAC's latest release 19c, you can now perform Smarter Monitoring with Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC).

There is a very good presentation by Anil Nair Oracle Senior Principal Product Manager on this topic. Here is a quick recap of how to perform smarter monitoring with Oracle RAC 19c.

• Achieving Maximum Availability by quickly detecting & resolving outages & failure to disaster recovery site for business continuity.
• Identifying Outage Scope.
• Oracle Database High Availability Features Recap.
• Detection & Eviction of Failed/Unresponsive Nodes by Oracle Cluster Synchronization Services.
• Oracle Clusterware CSSD Monitor & Agent.
• Clusterware Agent & Resource Startup & Actions.
• Resource State Information.
• CRSD Check Actions.
• High Availability for the Private Network (HAIP).
• HAIP Network Configuration, Implementation & Failure Handling.
• LMS managing the Buffer Cache.
• CR Slaves for mitigation of Performance Outliers.
• LMON & IMR Instance Membership Recovery & Timeouts.
• Solving IPC Timeouts.
• Eviction of Sick & Unresponsive Nodes.
• Oracle Automatic Storage Management & achieving Higher Availability with Flex ASM.
• Hang Manager Workings & Optimizations.
• Real Time Data Protection with Oracle Data Guard.
• Active Data Guard Advanced Capabilities.
• DataGuard Standby Redo Apply.
• Multi-Instance Redo Apply Performance.
• Autonomous Database = RAC on Exadata (+ More).

With this presentation you will learn on how to achieve higher availability, Smarter Monitoring & minimize downtime with Oracle Real Application Clusters family of High Availability Solutions.

Cheers.