Last update date 22nd Feb 2012
This is simply a list of useful (or just plain interesting) links that I have accumulated over time. The criterion for their appearance on the list is simply that when I read them I either decided they were interesting, or that I’d probably want to read them again some time.
I’ve finally decided to tidy up the list a bit and post it – but it has a flaw: when I was collecting URLs I didn’t take a note of the date I read something so some of the useful information may have been superceded by newer versions of Oracle or a better workaround to a problem. So if you do follow a link, remember my “Rules of Trust”.
For future links, and with some retrospective additions as I re-read and transfer articles from the currently unpublished part of my list, the date at the end of each line will be the data it was added to the list. In some cases, of course, the date of publication is included in the URL itself. To make it easier to see if there’s anything new since the last time you visited I’ll put the last update date at the top of the page then mark the latest updates with *** as a tag you can search for (obviously I’ll delete the *** from previously marked entries).
Oracle
Real-time SQL monitoring – Tim Hall (August 2011)
An intertesting ASH query – John Beresniewicz by way of Doug Burns ***
Virtual column problem 11.2 – Karen Morton (June 2011)
Dynamic Sampling damaged in 11.2 - Randolf Geist (June 2011)
Empty tables, indexes and Dynamic Sampling (11.2) – Randolg Geist (Feb 2012) ***
Some edge cases with frequency histograms – Randolf Geist
Logical I/O Part 1 – Randolf Geist
Logical I/O Part 2 – Randolf Geist
Logical I/O Part 3 – Randolf Geist
adrci (Automatic Diagnostic Repository Command Interpreter) in 11g – An introduction by Uwe Hesse (June 2011)
Saving Optimizer Stats - Doug Burns
Automatic Stats Collection failing – 1 – Martin Widlake ***
Automatic Stats Collection Failing – 2 – Martin Widlake ***
Automatic Stats Collection Failing – 3 – Martin Widlake ***
Optimizer default values (10.1) – from the 10g manuals, values used if you haven’t collected stats on a table or index (watch out for distributed queries).
Optimizer Features listed ( X$QKSFM) internally – Julian Dyke
Counting a collection using ODCI as a cardinality fix - Adrian Billington
Partitioned tables with partly unusable indexes in 11.1 (_optimizer_table_expansion) – Christian Antognini
Parallel distribution costs – Christian Antognini
Join Elimination and subquery coalesce - Christian Antognini
Join factorisation a new optimizer features in 11.2, by TimurAkmadeev
Subquery Coalescing a new optimizer features in 11.2, by TimurAkmadeev
Subquery Unnesting bug in 11.2 - Timur Akhmadeev
A closing comment explains the meaning ot “type” in the 11.2 trace file for CLOSE #N lines - Timur Akhmadeev
An example of a result cache problem caused by the single latch – Dominic Brooks
Overview of the Result Cache – Arup Nanda in Oracle Magazine
Wait event documentation (w.i.p.) – Kyle Hailey
Great discussion (in the comments) on 11g and Mutexes – Tanel Poder
Attaching plans to statements in 11g using SQL Plan Management in 11g, by the Optimizer Development Group
Problems with SQL Baselines – Dominic Brooks ***
Parallel Execution - by Greg Rahn, includes an important addition to monitoring in 11.1. (Dec 2009)
Range Partitioned index clusters (11.2) – Iggy Fernandez
adaptive direct path reads( 11.2) things that affect Oracle’s decision to use it, by Alex Fatkulin
The new, better Oradebug in 11g – Tanel Poder’s reference
Oracle Diagnostic Events – Miladin Modrakovic’s Hotsos presentation
A better sql_trace in 11g – Miladin Modrakovic
Hanganalyze - Arup Nanda ***
Related to Hanganalyze above – Virag Sharma ***
Latching on the root block of an index – Tanel Poder (from oracle-l) ***
Contention for index leaf blocks – Tanel Porder (from oracle-l) ***
Rowsource Operations listed in 11g – Tanel Poder ***
Automatic Memory Management Internals – Tanel Poder ***
who has what privileges and how they got them, and the SQL for several other security reports from Pete Finnigan
Bulk binds in streams 11.2 – but it seems to be broken – by Pythian.
Exadata Storage Indexes – Pythian
Control File Reads – one reason (and changes in behaviour with version), a thread on the OTN database forum
CF Enqueues and Control file reads - a bug fix reported by Timur Akhmadeev
Log file sync – Kevin Closson
Log file sync – Riyaz Shamsudeen
Log file sync – Christian Bilien
Some interesting stuff on SGA heap dumps – Riyaz Shamsudeen
More on the SGA and free memory – Riyaz Shamsudeen
Plan Hash Value – the final say ? – Riyaz Shamsudeen
Same plan hash value different plan pt.1 – Randolf Geist
Same plan hash value different plan pt.2 – Randolf Geist
Link to 11g New Features series in Oracle Magazine – Arup Nanda
Link to 10g New Features series in Oracle Magazine - Arup Nanda
Link to Security Lockdown series in Oracle Magazine - Arup Nanda
Block Change Tracking – Kyle Hailey, with links to Alex Gorbachev
Block Change Tracking – Alex Gorbachev’s original pdf file
Rolling Cursor Invalidation – Harald van Breederode
Some useful comments on database resident connection pooling (DRCP) – an OTN thread
A cute way of setting up Advanced Queues (AQ) to cause jobs to run on user events – an OTN thread
11.2.0.1 procedure for calculating sql_id from sql_text – check the comments on the post.
The SQL_ID and the hash_value – Tanel Poder
Oracle Database 11g Release 2 RAC On Linux Using VirtualBox – Tim Hall
Oracle Database 11g Release 2 RAC On Linux Using VMware Server 2 – Tim Hall
Oracle 11g Release 1 RAC On RHEL5 Linux Using VMware ESX Server and NFS – Tim Hall
Cloning an Oracle image – Niall Litchfield
Catalogue and examples of changes in 11g R1 – Dan Morgan
Catalogue and examples of changes in 11gR2 – Dan Morgan
Oracle’s Learning Channel on YouTube – Oracle Corp.
How to ask a tuning question on OTN – Randolf Geist’s template
When your query takes too long – OTN advice by Van Wijk
How to review a test case – a thread on OTN
A reminder about how to test – (also some notes on auto-allocation with mult-file tablespaces) – a thread on OTN
A case study about choice of index, starting with tkprof output – a thread on OTN
A discussion regarding a query with “exists” and “not exists” subqueries – a thread on OTN
Some informative comments about OPATCH – a thread on OTN
Scripts to download Oracle documentation pdf files – Christian Antognini
Oracle Learning Channel on YouTube
Cost Based Oracle – Fundamentals in Russian - Official publication and sales
Metalink (Needs an account)
A list of notes on statistics - I haven’t checked all the target locations.
A master list of MOS notes on RAC et. al. - same comment on targets as above
Lookup tool for ORA-00600 and ORA-07445 errors
Interesting bits about archive_lag_target (10.2)
Comparing Enterprise to Standard Edition (11.2) – from the documentation
Comparing Enterprise to Standard Edition (10.2) – from the documentation
General Interest
Little’s Law (queue theory) – Wikipedia
Beware of “experts” using weasel Words
Bad Science – a TED talk by Ben Goldacre
Expensive SANs never fail ! (1) – by Pythian
Expensive SANs never fail ! (2) – by Pythian
Bubbles in I/O latency (device queues)
Important Statistical Distributions – an introduction by Craig Shallahamer
Bayesian Statistics, an introduction. (Bayesian statistics is a formal way of combining prior beliefs with observed facts into posterior beliefs, and ultimately, informed decisions.)
A useful description of SSD and flash memory.
More on SSD – Gwen Shapira
Some key numbers of hardware performance.
Quantum Electrodynamics – video of Richard Feynmann giving the Douglas Robb Memorial Lectures at the University of Auckland.
The periodic table of elements – Tom Lehrer (with supporting animation)
