| administration
features |
| Automatic Shared Memory Management (ASMM): |
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 |
Oracle
have taken the memory management features introduced in Oracle
9i a step
further by introducing the SGA_TARGET parameter. This parameter
governs the SHARED_POOL_SIZE, DB_CACHE_SIZE & JAVA_POOL_SIZE
parameters, with the database automatically resizing them as
it sees fit. With the use of an spfile, SGA_TARGET can be decreased
or increased within the limits of SGA_MAX_SIZE without the
need for a database restart. |
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| Automatic Storage Management (ASM): |
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| With this
new feature, Oracle can now take over the task traditionally
performed by volume managers (e.g. Veritas) and manage the
filesystems on your disks directly. A special Oracle instance
resides on the server which transparently manages the disks.
By presenting a series of raw disks to the Oracle ASM instance,
Oracle can manage disk redundancy and data striping across
these disks to provide best performance. In addition Oracle
can dynamically rebalance disks as you new disks to the server.
However, if you prefer to have something like disk RAID pre-configured,
you can just present the RAID volumes to ASM and it will only
manage the filesystem and the database files. ASM uses an extension
of Oracle Managed Files syntax to locate and name database
files. As well as core database files, archivelogs and other
backup files can also reside on ASM. |
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| Data
Pump: |
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| Although
import and export still exist in 10g, Oracle has produced a
significantly enhanced version of the tools (impdp & expdp),
collectively known as Data Pump. Using similar interfaces to
the old export and import you can now load and unload data
at dramatically faster speeds. In addition you can detach from
a long-running Data Pump job session and re-attach to it from
elsewhere and continue to interact with it. Many extra features
have also been added, including dynamic transformation of data
storage parameters and tablespace locations. Another nice feature
is that the contents of single table dump files exported with
expdp can be viewed as external tables using a new external
table driver. |
|
| Database
Scheduler: |
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| The
new DBMS_SCHEDULER package significantly enhances the functionality
of DBMS_JOB. The scheduler can run scripts external to the
database and jobs can have dependencies so that they will be
run in sequence and the sequence halted if one fails. Job windows
can be created so that a job will start when the window opens
and will terminate if still running when the window closes – ideal
for limiting overnight schedules. |
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| Automatic Workload Repository (AWR): |
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| The
AWR replaces the Statspack utility, a vital DBA tool from
Oracle 8i & 9i. Unlike Statspack, the AWR runs automatically
in the background, by default gathering hourly snapshots
of system data and keeping 7 days worth on-line. More statistical
data is collected than before and easy to read HTML reports
can be produced. In addition, you can create performance
baselines against which you can compare database activity. |
|
| Automatic
Database Diagnostic Monitor (ADDM) & the Advisor Framework: |
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| 10g
provides the DBMS_ADVISOR package to help tune many aspects
of database performance including query tuning, undo tuning,
hot segment identification & materialized view tuning.
With regards to SQL tuning, the advisor can work out the
best optimizer plan and you can save this as a profile for
the statement so it is always used. DBMS_ADVISOR underpins
the ADDM which, like the AWR is constantly running in the
background. You can run an ADDM report between two snapshots
to see what performance bottlenecks have been identified
and any auto-generated advice about how to resolve them. |
|
| Drop
Database / Rename Tablespace: |
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|
These
two new SQL commands provide handy solutions to old problems.
A tablespace can now easily be renamed with a single rename
command. An entire database instance and all its files can
be dropped with the drop database command. This is especially
useful if you are using Automatic Storage Management as in
10g release 1 you cannot directly interact with ASM files.
Furthermore, from RMAN you can issue the “drop database
including backups” command to delete everything related
to the database. |
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| Optimizer
Changes & Statistics Gathering: |
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| Although
it remains for backwards compatibility, the Rule Based Optimizer
has been shelved and is no longer supported. This makes it
more important than ever to have current and accurate statistics
on all your data and 10g provides an automatic statistics
gathering job to gather statistics nightly. Tables now all
have monitoring on by default and so only stale or incomplete
statistics are gathered. Furthermore limited dynamic statistics
gathering can occur at query parse time to produce at least
some statistics on objects that do not have any. |
|
| Multiple Block Size: |
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| Tablespaces can be created with non-standard block sizes (i.e. block sizes other than that specified by the DB_BLOCK_SIZE initialisation parameter). To use this feature you must specify a sub-cache for that block size by using the appropriate DBA_(n)K_CACHE_SIZE initialisation parameter. |
|
| Online
Segment Shrink: |
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|
|
| The
days of having to rebuild an object to reset its high watermark
are now over with the online segment shrink feature. ALTER
TABLE commands can be run to compact a table and reset its
high watermark, thus freeing up any unused space within each
segment. This feature does not work with LOBS, XML and other
user-defined data types. |
|
| SYSAUX
Tablespace: |
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|
|
| This
new tablespace sits alongside the SYSTEM tablespace and serves
the purpose of keeping system-related schemas out of the
SYSTEJM tablespace. This includes AWR data, Log Miner data,
Streams, Oracle Text and Oracle Spatial. You can also put
any of your own schemas in there as you see fit. |
|
| DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER
Package: |
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|
|
| This
new package can be used to copy binary files around, both
on the local server and to remote servers. As is usual these
days, directory objects within the database facilitate this
process. |
|
| Direct
8 & 8i Upgrade Procedure: |
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|
You
can directly upgrade your 8.1.7 or 8.0.6 database to 10g
Release 1 using a single script. |
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| More
Archiving Destinations: |
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|
|
| You
can now have 5-10 archive log destinations specified in the
parameter file. |
|
| Server
Alerts: |
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| The
DBMS_SERVER_ALERT package allows you to monitor and automatically
generate alerts within the database. Things you can monitor
include tablespace usage, open cursors, database wait time
and blocked sessions. |
|
| Default
User Tablespace: |
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|
|
| Oracle
9i introduced the default temporary tablespace and 10g takes
this step further by introducing the ability to set a default
user tablespace as part of the alter database command. |
|
| Temporary
Tablespace Groups: |
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|
|
| As
the name suggest you can now assign any number of temporary
tablespaces to a temporary tablespace group and assign the
group as a user’s temporary tablespace. This enables
better distribution of temporary segment usage and can be
of particular benefit in data warehouses where very large
sort or hash joins are written to disk. |
|
| RMAN
- Datafile Format Conversion: |
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|
|
| It
used to be the case that if you wanted to move a database
from Windows to Solaris, you had to do an export and import
due to the difference in the way the two operating systems
construct files. With 10g, RMAN can now convert files between
platforms as part of a transportable tablespace operation.
Instead of just copying the read-only datafile as in a normal
transportable tablespace operation, you issue the RMAN “convert
tablespace” command to the convert the file to a new
format and location. |
|
| Recycle
Bin: |
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|
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| As
part of enhancements to Oracle’s Flashback features,
each tablespace now has a recycle bin and objects are moved
there after they are dropped unless you specifically use
the PURGE keyword as part of the drop statement. If you don’t
need it the recycle bin can be turned off with a hidden parameter. |
|
| Skip
Unusable Indexes: |
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|
|
| The
new init.ora parameter skip_unusable_indexes prevents errors
being returned when a query is issued against a table that
tries to use an unusable index. Instead the index is ignored
and the query goes ahead. |
|
| Bigfile
Tablespaces: |
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|
This
special kind of tablespace has a single datafile that can
be anywhere in size up to 128TB (depending on the block size
specified for the tablespace). This simplifies management
and you can use alter tablespace commands where you would
normally use “alter database datafile” commands
to modify the file, e.g. change its size or set autoextend.
This kind of tablespace is most useful in data warehouses
as it allows for the creation of very large databases. |
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| Automatic
Undo Retention: |
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|
|
| The
init.ora parameter undo_retention is now a minimum value
rather than an absolute value for undo retention. In 10g,
Oracle will take this minimum and tune undo retention up
and down above it in an effort to ensure that the longest
running queries running on the database will not be susceptible
to ORA-01555 errors. |
|
| Resource
Manager Enhancements: |
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|
|
| Enhancements
here include a Session Timeout feature and the ability to
switch back to your original consumer group after a switch
for other reasons. In addition you can configure the database
to automatically assign a consumer group to a session based
on certain characteristics. |
|
| Multi-tier
Materalised Views: |
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|
|
| You can now build updateable materialized views on top of other updateable materialized views. This provides the ability to create complex branched replication environments, e.g. for regional offices. |
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| Extended
Database Auditing: |
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|
| When
database-based auditing is switched on, extra information
such as SQL statements can be written to the AUD$ table. |
|
| Web-based
Enterprise Manager and Grid Control: |
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|
|
| The
old enterprise manager tool has been completely revamped
and turned into a web-based management tool. As well as all
the usual features you can now access all of the aforementioned
workload repository and advisory features through the same
interface and completely manage all aspects of database administration.
Grid Control lets you manage databases and application services
across RAC environments. |
|
| Security
Enhancements: |
|
|
|
| The
new DBMS_CRYPTO package allows data to be encrypted right
down at the table data level using most kinds of encryption
such as RSA and MD5 and so on. Further improvements to the
Fine Grained Auditing feature and Virtual Private Databases
(DBMS_RLS) mean data can be monitored and secured at an even
more sophisticated level than before. |
|
| UTL_MAIL
package: |
|
|
|
| This
new package allows you to send mails from the database using
very simple commands, instead of the many commands that used
to be necessary with UTL_SMTP. All you need to do is set
the smtp_out_server init.ora parameter to point to your mail
host and port number. |
|
| Resumable
Space Allocation: |
|
|
|
This
feature was introduced in Oracle 9i and could be set at
session level or as part of an import command. 10g introduces
the
resumable_timeout init.ora parameter meaning the feature
is turned on at the database level. It can also be altered
via the alter system command. |
|
| EZ
Connect Facility: |
|
|
|
| You
can now connect to database without any of the traditional
configuration files (such as sqlnet.ora and tnsnames.ora)
by specifying a JDBC-style connect string that includes server
and listener port information. |
|
| Shared
Server: |
|
|
|
| This
is now even easier to use with dispatchers that start automatically
and easily changeable settings via alter system commands. |
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