Ranko Mosic

(Please refer to the following article: Oracle 12c In-Memory Database is Out - Hardly Anybody Notices for update on Oracle 12c databases) Contemporary large servers are routinely configured with 2TB of RAM. It is thus possible to fit an entire average size OLTP database in memory directly accessible by CPU. There is a long history of academic research on how to best utilize relatively abundant computer memory. This research is becoming increasingly relevant as databases serving business applications are heading towards memory centric design and implementation. If you simply place Oracle RDBMS's files on Solid State Disk, or configure buffer cache (SGA) large enough to contain the whole database, Oracle will not magically become an IMDB database, nor it will perform much faster.  In order to properly utilize memory, IMDB databases require purposely architected, confi... (more)

Column Store, In-Memory, MPP Databases and Oracle

( For latest information on Oracle 12c database update please refer to the following article: Oracle 12c Database and How It Relates to SAP Hana ) RDBMSs are stable and mature products. While there is nothing radically new on horizon that would challenge Codd's relational theory and related advances in data processing there are some developments that force established vendors like Oracle to come up with new features and products. Column Stores and Oracle Column store concept has been around for quite a while. Vendors like HP Vertica grabbed some market share in data warehousing seg... (more)

Oracle RMAN, BMC Patrol Catalogs Hosted in Amazon Cloud

Oracle RMAN  (Recovery Manager) catalog database contains backup metadata for all enterprise wide Oracle databases. Each database backed up through RMAN needs connection to a central backup repository database. RMAN catalog  is purged and maintained by removing obsolete backup records, crosschecking with existing media etc. If central repository grows too big then backup performance will suffer since it will take too long for RMAN to locate metadata. Amazon Web Services gives us the ability to quickly and easily create either brand new RMAN catalog database or move an existing c... (more)

Oracle Fusion Applications - Installation and First Impressions (Part 4)

Oracle Identity Management is a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware and part of the Oracle Fusion Applications infrastructure. Its purpose is to manage user identities across the enterprise. We are going to install Oracle Internet Directory 11g (OID), Oracle Virtual Directory 11g (OVD), Oracle Identity Manager 11g (OIM), Oracle Access Manager 11g (OAM) as well as two instances of Oracle Database (11.2.0.2) - one for the Identity Store and the other for the Policy Store. SOA Suite is first component to be installed since Identity Manager requires it. Some SOA Suite components (... (more)

Oracle 12c In-Memory, Columnar Database & How It Relates to SAP Hana

All major relational database vendors are developing or already shipping  in-memory, columnar databases. The next release of Oracle 12c - an in-memory, columnar database, will be available next year. It will feature simultaneous transaction-level updates to both  row and column stores i.e. data will be stored in both formats at the same time, in the same transaction. This is quite an improvement over SAP Hana's awfully clumsy delta merge process ( data changes in SAP Hana are first accumulated in delta store, then periodically merged into column store - process which locks targe... (more)