4/AB3@/>>23D3:=>;3<B

A3/;:3AA5@727<B35@/B7=<
A/D3;7::7=<A

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SEPTEMBER/OCT O BE R 2 0 0 7 O R A C L E.C O M /O R A CLEMA GA ZI NE

MANAGE
CHANGE
WITH ORACLE DATABASE 11g
NEW FEATURES SPEED
INNOVATION AND TRANSFORM
THE ENTERPRISE

OPEN AND THE POWER MORE PARTITIONING

SECURE /54 WITHIN /58 CHOICES /73
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ORACLE PL/SQL
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improvements for them. Together with its tools for Oracle DBA’s and its
extensive range of over 40 tools for PL/SQL developers, SQLDetective 4.0
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EMC2, EMC, and where information lives are registered trademarks of EMC Corporation. All other trademarks used herein are property of their respective owners. © 2007 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.
 CONTENTS VOLU M E XXI , I SSUE 5

F E AT UR E S
MANAGE CHANGE
WITH ORACLE DATABASE 11g
Oracle Database 11g
includes a broad array
of new features and
capabilities, from grid
computing and data
security to high availability
and manageability, all of
which will help companies
manage change better and
faster. Learn how it can
transform your enterprise.
—David Baum
/36
Cover by Richard Merchán
OPEN and
SECURE
Data security, access,
and compliance:
controlling who gets to
see what information
or manage which data is today’s
business imperative. See how
Oracle helps manage these
mission-critical tasks.
—David A. Kelly
/54

GET READY FOR THE THE POWER

BIGGEST EVENT
OF THE YEAR
WITHIN
Oracle embedded databases work behind
Innovation. Inspiration. Information.
the scenes and undercover, driving
Find out what’s coming at Oracle
software applications and hardware
OpenWorld 2007, including keynotes,
appliances. Find out how companies
programs for DBAs and developers,
power their success at the edge of the
technology presentations, and more.
enterprise with Oracle. —Alan Joch
/17 /58
DE PAR T M E NTS

16
From Our Readers/ 12
From the Editor / 14
AT OR AC LE
Innovation Matters
—Tom Haunert Events / 16 OTN Bulletin / 19
Find out about current and Learn what’s happening with Oracle’s most
upcoming industry events. dynamic online community.

Oracle Resources / 18 Oracle News Briefs / 20

Your guide to Oracle’s broadband, Interview / 23
education, online offerings, Andy Mendelsohn, senior vice president of
and more Database Server Technologies at Oracle, talks
about innovations in Oracle Database 11g.

ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 5

SO07_TOC.indd 5 7/19/07 11:50:13 AM

 CONTENTS

26 C OM MU NI TY
Commitment / 26
Oracle supports CARE’s education initiatives in
impoverished Uttar Pradesh.
73 TEC HNOLOGY
PAR TITIONING
Partner News / 28 More Partitioning Choices / 73
Cisco Systems, Zend Technologies, Ingram Learn when and how to use new partitioning schemes in
Micro, Tech Data, Fujitsu, Dell Inc., PANTA Oracle Database 11g. —Arup Nanda
Systems, HP, IBM, Sun Microsystems,
Applimation, Sierra Atlantic S TOR AGE
Faster, Safer, and Smaller LOBs / 77
Book Beat / 28
Oracle SecureFiles provides increased performance, better
Peer-to-Peer / 30 security, and reduced disk usage.
Lutz Hartman, Eric — Jonathan Gennick
Marcoux, Daniel
Uehara S QL DEV ELOP ER
Moving to an Oracle Database / 81
Use Oracle Migration Workbench to migrate third-party
schema objects to an Oracle database. —Sue Harper

AS K TOM
On Oracle Database 11g / 85
Our technologist takes a look at the server results and

63
PL/SQL function caches. —Tom Kyte

D EVEL O PER
F RA MEWO RKS
Defining a Cascading List of Values / 63
90 R ES OUR C ES
Oracle Certified Partner Index / 90
Setting up LOVs is easier than ever with Oracle
JDeveloper 11g. —Steve Muench Advertisers’ Index / 94

92
B RO WSER-B A SED
Express Web 2.0 / 67
C OMMENT
Create dynamic interfaces that minimize page refresh
with Oracle Application Express. —David Peake IN THE FIELD
What’s New in Oracle Database 11g / 92
PL / SQ L PRA CTI CES The latest version of the database has great new
On the PL/SQL Function Result Cache / 71 features for everyone. —Ari Kaplan
Best practices—and preparation—for PL/SQL in Oracle
Database 11g. —Steven Feuerstein ALL S EC UR E
Automating Security / 93
Papa’s got a brand-new bag (of tools).
—Mary Ann Davidson

ANALY S T’ S C OR NER
Secure Data for Every Business Need / 96
Burton Group’s Trent Henry discusses why new
needs for compliance mean tighter access
control. —David Baum

6 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

SO07_TOC.indd 6 7/19/07 11:50:15 AM

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Systems, Pillar Axiom, AxiomONE and the Pillar logo are all
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 HOW DOES YOUR
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
E DITORIAL

Editor in Chief Tom Haunert

STRATEGY MEASURE UP?
tom.haunert@oracle.com

Senior Managing Editor Caroline Kvitka

caroline.kvitka@oracle.com
If your BI strategy is more anemic than
strategic, then it may be time to take a look
Features Editor Kay Keppler
at Oracle BI Enterprise Edition (OBI EE). We
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can help. Using our training offerings through
Contributing Editor and Writer
BICG University, our custom methodology
Blair Campbell
designed specifically for OBI EE projects,
Editor in Chief, OTN Justin Kestelyn and our deeply experienced project
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Technology Advisor Tom Kyte across the globe are
Contributing Writers making the most of their
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With more than 250 OBI EE
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 Oracle_Citrix_Revised2.eps 6/27/07 4:03:03 PM

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 WHAT’S THE COST OF A
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P UBL ISHING
Publisher HOW DOES FREE SOUND?
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Your corrections, your opinions, and your requests:
Here’s your forum for telling us what’s right and
wrong in each issue of Oracle Magazine, and for
letting us know what you want to read.
WHERE’S THE CHOICE?
I found the headline of the cover story
of Oracle Magazine’s May/June issue,
“Develop with Choice,” to be rather
ironic. The article did indeed describe
some choices and options that develop-
ers have, but it did not cover Oracle
Developer! This is still an excellent
development tool for creating data entry
applications for Oracle.
Mark Geerlings
mark.geerlings@gentex.com
LOOKING FOR MY PEER COUSINS
Oracle Magazine has been of immense
help to me because it keeps me abreast
of what is happening in the world of
Oracle Database features, skills, and
so on. I love reading the Peer-to-Peer
column in your magazine, because there
I get to read about my cousins in the
world of Oracle. But there are good
Oracle programmers and developers
in Africa, and you are not really doing
them justice if you are not coming down
to Africa to have a chat with them and
publishing them in that column.
Anyasor Chigozie D.
TaviaM@mtnnigeria.net
Peer-to-Peer candidates are active Oracle
community members from all over the
world who distinguish themselves by con-
tributing to Oracle Technology Network,
Oracle Magazine, Oracle discussion
forums, and/or organizations, sites, and
publications that focus on Oracle technology.
Recent Peer-to-Peer columns have featured
Oracle ACEs (otn.oracle.com/community/
oracle_ace) and Oracle Fusion Middleware
Regional Directors (otn.oracle.com/
12 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
SO07_Readers.indd 12
f r o m o u r READERS
community/ofm_directors)—recognized
Oracle community members and leaders.
All who are interested in appearing in
Peer-to-Peer can send their contact infor-
mation as well as links and references to
their Oracle community contributions to
opubedit_us@oracle.com.
NEWBIES SEEK ENLIGHTENMENT
I’m a regular reader of Oracle Magazine,
and I suggest you include introductory
articles for Oracle beginners like me on
topics such as installation and creating
a database.
Oguntuase Busayo Afolabi
Oguntuase@gmail.com
I suggest including more articles for
newbies. I believe that they would
be both more enlightened and more
encouraged if just a page or two could
be dedicated to beginners.
Kehinde Adedipe
kennyadex83plus@yahoo.com
SEARCHING FOR SAMPLES
I am a regular reader of your maga-
zine, and I have been working with the
sample code you publish. I really appre-
ciate that content. I request that you also
publish Oracle Database installation and
configuration content for new users.
Adeghe I. John
adebor2000@yahoo.com
I am a regular reader of Oracle Magazine
and a SQL programmer, and I must
commend your effort especially on the
SQL scripts and code in the magazine.
I want to make a plea that for Oracle
learners like me, you include more
Oracle code and scripts in the pages of
the magazine.
Femi Famejo
hollaffo@yahoo.com
IN NEED OF PRIVACY
I am a regular reader of Oracle Magazine,
and I would be grateful if you could
please provide more information on
Oracle Virtual Private Database and
its features.
Raj Boddu
rajasekharb@gmail.com
NO CHEMISTRY
“Producing Parameterized Pages,” the
Frameworks column in the July/August
issue (otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/
07-jul/o47frame.html), deals with an
excellent topic. However, it was hard
to follow because there was not even a
single diagram or snapshot illustrating
the steps. It is a magazine article—not
a formula for a chemical process.
Ammar Sajdi
ammar.sajdi@realsoft-me.com
send mail to the EDITOR
Send your opinions about what you read in Oracle
Magazine, and suggestions for possible technical
articles, to opubedit_us@oracle.com.
Or click on the Write the Editors link on our Web
site, oracle.com/oraclemagazine.
Letters may be edited for length and clarity and
may be published in any medium. We consider
any communications we receive publishable.
7/17/07 11:17:42 AM
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Innovation Matters
Oracle Database 11g reduces risk and speeds change in the enterprise.
aunched in July 2007, Oracle Database 11g continues
the tradition of Oracle innovation. In addition to deliver-
ing the secure data management that customers expect
from Oracle, Oracle Database 11g answers customer
demands for both fast, reliable software that minimizes risk
and a platform to speed innovation. With features designed
to speed the testing, deployment, patching, and upgrading of
enterprise infrastructure; provide more-efficient disk usage and
information lifecycle management; and support more types of
data and larger data volumes with faster data access, Oracle
Database 11g is committed to making your enterprise innova-
tion move faster.
This issue of Oracle Magazine takes a first look at key fea-
tures of Oracle Database 11g and how they support customer
innovation in the enterprise.
REAL TESTING, REAL LIFECYCLE
Moving to new database releases, moving to new hardware, and
migrating to different operating systems all require extensive
planning and testing. But building and executing truly repre-
sentative tests for these moves and migrations has traditionally
been a complex, risk-intensive, and time-consuming process.
In Oracle Database 11g, Oracle Real Application Testing
reduces risk and makes it faster and easier to test systems,
identify problems, and create solutions before and after data-
base upgrades and hardware and operating system changes.
Oracle Real Application Testing includes the database replay
feature, which lets you capture and replay a true production
workload, and SQL performance analyzer, which identifies SQL
execution plan changes and performances regressions.
Industry estimates indicate that enterprise databases will
triple in size every two years, but new compression features in
DISCUSS Oracle Database 11g
forums.oracle.com/forums/category.jspa?categoryID=18
DOWNLOAD Oracle Database 11g
otn.oracle.com/database
LISTEN to the Oracle Database 11g podcast
otn.oracle.com/syndication/magcasts
READ more about
Oracle Database 11g
oracle.com/database
Oracle Database 11g: Top features for DBAs and developers
otn.oracle.com/11gdba
14 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
SO07_EdNote_X.indd 14
f r o m t h e EDITOR
Oracle Database 11g can help manage that growth. The new
advanced compression option supports compression during
INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE operations—which can also
speed the performance of subsequent queries, as well as the
compression and deduplication of unstructured data.
Beyond reducing disk space used via compression, today’s
information lifecycle management (ILM) initiatives seek to
store data in the most cost-effective locations, and database
partitioning is an important part of ILM. New partitioning
options in Oracle Database 11g include partitioning by parent/
child references, interval partitioning, partitioning by virtual
columns, and more composite partition options. See Arup
Nanda’s “More Partitioning Choices” (page 73) for detailed
how-to information on partitioning in Oracle Database 11g.
Oracle Database 11g provides storage and access for both
relational and object data, including image, large text object,
XML, DICOM, and geospatial files. New applications require
fast access to a variety of different object data, and Oracle
SecureFiles in Oracle Database 11g provides a new and faster
high-performance architecture for large object (LOB) storage.
Oracle SecureFiles also provides compression, transparent
encryption, and transparent deduplication, which reduce the
disk space required and improve the security of LOBs. See
Jonathan Gennick’s “Faster, Safer, and Smaller LOBs” (page 77)
for information on how to use Oracle SecureFiles.
CUSTOMER INNOVATION
In “Manage Change with Oracle Database 11g” by David
Baum (page 36), several Oracle customers talk about the
improvements they expect to achieve by using key Oracle
Database 11g features, including Oracle Real Application
Testing, automatic SQL tuning, automatic memory tuning,
hot patching, and Oracle SecureFiles, as well as enhancements
in Oracle Real Application Clusters and the automatic database
diagnostic monitor.
Oracle Magazine columnists Steven Feuerstein, Ari Kaplan,
and Tom Kyte also discuss Oracle Database 11g features in this
issue, and in the new Interview column, Rich Schwerin talks
about Oracle Database 11g with Oracle Senior Vice President
of Server Technologies Andy Mendelsohn. (You can listen to the
complete interview at otn.oracle.com/syndication/magcasts.)
And there’s a lot more Oracle Database 11g coverage coming
up fast in future issues of Oracle Magazine, so stay tuned.
Tom Haunert, Editor in Chief
tom.haunert@oracle.com
7/17/07 10:54:49 AM
Untitled-3 1 7/19/07 12:07:51 PM
 a t O r a c l e EVENTS
ORACLE USER
GROUPS
Quest Midwest Conference
September 6–7, Schaumburg, Illinois

Technology Events www.questdirect.org/questdirect/events

Midwest Oracle Users Group
Fall Conference
Conferences and sessions to help you stay on the cutting edge September 7, Chicago
www.moug.org
UKOUG PeopleSoft Financials
Digital ID World SIG Meeting
September 24–26, September 11, London
www.ukoug.org
San Francisco
Featuring more than 40 hours of East Tennessee Oracle Users
Group Meeting
presentations covering all aspects of identity
September 17, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
solutions—including deployments, identity- easttennessee.oracle.ioug.org
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processes, and Web services security— Applications Meeting
Digital ID World attracts thought leaders, September 19, Sydney, Australia
developers, and identity solution providers. www.ausoug.org.au
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September 20, London
www.ukoug.org
Gartner Business Process Oracle Business Intelligence,
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September 17–19, Orlando, Florida Special Interest Group Summit September 21, Independence, Ohio
This business process management confer- October 2–3, Reston, Virginia www.neooug.org
ence covers building a business case, best Designed to accelerate the success of busi-
Ottawa Oracle User Group DBA/
practices, the role of change management, ness intelligence, warehousing, and analytics Developer Day
metrics and return on investment, modeling users, this first-ever summit provides a forum September 21, Ottawa, Canada
and methods, and business/IT alignment. Sign for sharing best practices, useful informa- www.oug-ottawa.org
up at www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id= tion, novel and innovative methods, and other New York City Metro Area Oracle
501307&tab=overview. issues. Sign up at www.OracleBIWA.org. Users Group Meeting
October 2, New York City
www.nyoug.org
AJAXWorld Conference & Expo Oracle Clinical User Group
September 24–26, Santa Clara, California 12th Annual Conference Australian Oracle User Group Meeting
October 3, Brisbane, Australia
Join more than 1,000 developers, architects, October 7–10, Atlanta, Georgia
www.ausoug.org.au
IT managers, and software professionals at The Oracle Clinical User Group (OCUG) is an
sessions covering offline Ajax, mobile Ajax, international group of users of Oracle Clinical Oracle User Group Scotland
Conference 2007
enterprise Ajax, Ajax security, desktop Ajax, software—a database system for capturing, October 4, Glasgow, Scotland
Ajax rich-internet-application GUIs, and more. storing, and processing clinical trial data—and www.ukoug.org
View the full agenda at www.ajaxworld.com. related applications. Learn about the group
Virginia Oracle Users Group
and register for the conference at www.ocug Fall Conference
Oracle Human Capital .webexone.com. October 4–5, Charlottesville, Virginia
Management Users Group www.voug.org
Conference Society for Information UKOUG App Server SIG Meeting
September 24–27, Las Vegas Management SIMposium 07 October 10, Midlands, England
Promising to be the largest Oracle Human October 7–10, Memphis, Tennessee www.ukoug.org
Capital Management (HCM) Users Group This conference for senior-level IT executives
meeting yet, this conference includes tracks and academic, business, and government IT eventsLOCATOR
for both Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle’s thought leaders offers peer-to-peer exchange,
Oracle Events
ELIJAH MERCHÁN

PeopleSoft Enterprise users, special interest an enriching learning environment, access to oracle.com/events
group sessions, “Meet the Experts” sessions, practitioners at leading companies, and inno- Locate user groups
and hands-on labs. Learn more at www vations to leverage your business. Read more otn.oracle.com/collaboration/user_group
.ohug.org/index.php/general-information. at www.simnet.org.

16 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

SO07_Events.indd 16 7/17/07 11:03:11 AM

 Oracle OpenWorld 2007 Special Section

Keynotes INNOVATION. INSPIRATION. INFORMATION.

Larry Ellison
CEO
Oracle
November 11–15, 2007 | Moscone Center | San Francisco
Oracle OpenWorld 2007, with more than 1,600 sessions, 500 exhibitions, and
Charles Phillips 41,000 attendees, promises to be even bigger and more information-packed
President than last year’s record-breaking conference. Showcasing the customers and
Oracle
partners whose innovation with Oracle translates to better business results,
Chuck Rozwat Oracle OpenWorld 2007 provides technologists and business leaders with the
Senior Vice President information—and inspiration—they need to drive innovation throughout their
Oracle
own companies.
Hector de J. Ruiz, PhD
Chairman of the Board Oracle OpenWorld 2007 Highlights
and CEO Innovation. Get inspired at Experience Innovation, a new Oracle OpenWorld extravaganza
AMD
sponsored by Intel that showcases how the innovations of today and tomorrow are changing the
Mark Hurd
Chair man of the Board, way we live, work, and play.
CEO, and President
HP Inspiration. Hear what industry thought leaders and featured keynote presenters have to say

Paul Otellini about the future of technology.

President and CEO
Intel
Thomas Kurian
Senior Vice President
Oracle
John Wookey
Senior Vice President,
Applications Development
Oracle
Jonathan Schwartz
CEO and President
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Information. Choose from more than 1,600 technology, applications, and industry-specific
conference sessions. O Learn how Oracle uses leading development technologies to innovate
across its product lines at Oracle OpenWorld Develop. O
Attend sessions just for Oracle’s JD
Edwards customers. O
Gain insight at a special two-day program for Oracle’s Hyperion customers.
Connection. Network with your colleagues before, during, and after the event with Oracle
OpenWorld Connect. O
Celebrate and mingle at the Welcome Reception, OTN Night, and
It’s a Wrap. O Party to the music of Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks with Mick Fleetwood at the
Appreciation Event.
Oracle thanks the following sponsors:
MARQUEE INNOVATION DIAMOND

Michael Dell
Chairman of the Board
Dell Inc.
PREMIER GRANDE ELITE PLATINUM

To learn more and to register go to oracle.com/openworld

Preregister for the Early Bird full conference: $1,950 (through Sept. 14th) | Onsite registration: $2,350

ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 17

SO07_OOW_X.indd 17 7/20/07 10:58:03 AM

 a t O r a c l e RESOURCES
What’s New at Oracle
The latest Webcasts, courses, and online content
NEW WEBCASTS
Secure Enterprise Search—An A.T. Kearney
Advantage
oracle.com/pls/ebn/live_viewer.main?p_
direct=yes&p_shows_id=5591986
Find out why A.T. Kearney selected Oracle
Secure Enterprise Search as a core com-
ponent and enabling technology within its
knowledge management toolset, which
allows its employees to quickly and securely
search the company’s global knowledge
repositories to rapidly assist clients.
Driving Business Value from IT Investments
oracle.com/pls/ebn/live_viewer.main?p_
direct=yes&p_shows_id=5588788
Sonny Singh, senior vice president, Oracle,
discusses the key questions driving IT
decision-making, how you can analyze and
improve the business impact of IT invest-
ments, and what Oracle is doing to improve
business results for its customers.
Oracle Application Integration Architecture
oracle.com/pls/ebn/live_viewer.main?p_
direct=yes&p_shows_id=5583522
Oracle executives Fred Studer, Charles
Phillips, and Jose Lazares discuss Oracle
Application Integration Architecture and
how it fits into Oracle’s overall strategy.
ORACLE UNIVERSITY
Oracle Database 11g course offerings
oracle.com/education
(For all courses below, search keyword: 11g)
Oracle Database 11g : New Features Overview
This one-day seminar introduces par-
ticipants to the key new capabilities of
Oracle Database 11g. Topic areas include
new features for managing storage,
ensuring high availability, improving scal-
ability and performance, strengthening
security, and managing data warehouses.
Oracle Database 11g : Change Management
Overview Seminar
This one-day course focuses on Oracle
Database 11g innovations that enable you to
better manage the database and application
18 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07
SO07_Resources.indd 18
upgrade process. Learn about features you
can use to record production workloads, and
then play them back in a test environment.
Oracle Database 11g: New Features for
Administrators
This five-day course gives participants
the opportunity to learn about the new
change management features and other
key enhancements in Oracle Database
11g. Topic areas include managing change,
diagnosing and recovering from problems,
ensuring high availability, and improving
scalability, performance, and security.
NEW PODCASTS
The New SOA Standards: Web 2.0 in
the Enterprise
oracle.com/techcasts
Vince Casarez, vice president of develop-
ment at Oracle, explains why many enter-
prises are looking to add Web 2.0 services
on top of their existing applications, and
how Oracle WebCenter, a key technology
in forthcoming Oracle Fusion Applications,
provides infrastructure for that goal.
The Latest Updates to Oracle’s
Applications Strategy
oracle.com/appcasts
John Wookey, Oracle senior vice presi-
dent, applications development, talks about
new releases across all product lines,
the path to Oracle Fusion, and what he is
hearing from customers around the world.
The Value of Oracle’s Application Integration
Architecture to IT Managers
oracle.com/appcasts
Jose Lazares, vice president of Oracle’s
Application Development organization,
talks about Oracle Application Integration
Architecture and how it helps provide a
pathway to Oracle Fusion Applications.
The Solution to Spiraling Scalability Demands:
Extreme Transaction Processing (XTP)
oracle.com/products/middleware/
ofmradio.html
Steve Harris, vice president of Oracle
ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
Java and application server development,
discusses evolving customer requirements
for extreme scalability, reliability, and avail-
ability and how these can be addressed
with an in-memory data grid such as
Oracle Coherence.
ORACLE NEWSLETTERS
Oracle Database Insider
oracle.com/newsletters
Want to keep up with the latest develop-
ments in Oracle Database 11g? Subscribe
to the monthly Oracle Database Insider
newsletter and stay on top of enhance-
ments and new features, articles on busi-
ness issues such as identity management
and compliance, interviews with database
gurus, market news, and special offers.
For Oracle product information, call the number for
your region:
Country Phone Number
U.S. and Canada .....................................1.800.367.8674
Australia ....................................................1800.735.467
Austria.......................................................0800.29.7626
Belgium ........................................................0800.73280
Brazil .........................................................0800.901.985
China.........................................................800.810.0161
Denmark.........................................................8088.1068
Finland ......................................................0800.113.573
France .......................................................0800.905.805
Germany.................................................0800.1.810.111
Greece.................................................00800.353.12020
Hong Kong......................................................3002.1246
India ..........................................................1600.44.6725
Indonesia...........................................001.800.1.672.253
Ireland ........................................................1850.672253
Italy ..............................................................8008.74720
Japan ........................................................0120.155.096
Malaysia ....................................................1800.80.1837
Mexico...................................................01800.221.7321
The Netherlands .............................................0800.0827
New Zealand .............................................0508.555.215
Norway...........................................................800.14411
Philippines........................................................811.5831
Portugal.......................................................800.853.021
Singapore ................................................1800.6722.531
South Africa...............................................0800.994.225
South Korea...............................................080.2194.114
Spain............................................................900.952900
Sweden ........................................................020.798798
Switzerland................................................0800.55.2574
Taiwan.......................................................0800.672.253
Thailand ..............................................001800.441.0545
Turkey .................................................00800.353.90014
U.K. .........................................................0870.5.332200
7/17/07 11:24:25 AM
 a t O r a c l e OTN BULLETIN
Crash into Oracle Database 11g
New OTN series highlights top features of the new release.
hen a new major database
release hits, the experience
can be overwhelming—like
trying to drink through a fire
hose. Absorbing the typically massive
volume of documentation about new
features and functionality can be a full-
time job—and a crushing responsibility
for a busy DBA or developer.
When Oracle Database 10g was
released, Oracle Technology Network
(OTN) partnered with Oracle ACE Arup
Nanda, Oracle Magazine’s DBA of the
Year at that time, to publish a series of
short, actionable how-to’s covering the
best new features in that release from
a grassroots point of view. (Nanda is a
senior DBA with Starwood Hotels.) The
intention was to help readers get up to
speed and proficient with new features
such as Automatic Storage Management,
Automatic Workload Repository, and
Oracle Data Pump in a relatively short
amount of time. Millions of readers
did exactly that, and Nanda and OTN
received a lot of recognition across the
community for it.
With the release of Oracle Database
11g, we are revisiting that goal. “Oracle
Database 11g: Top Features for DBAs
and Developers” walks you through
important new functionalities such as
Oracle Database 11g Database Replay,
SQL Plan Management, intelligent schema
design, and many partitioning enhance-
ments, using real-world scenarios as
examples. (According to Nanda, the
Database Replay feature alone—a major
part of the Real Application Testing
functionality in this release—justifies an
upgrade to Oracle Database 11g.)
Unlike the previous series, most of
these installments are complemented by
screencasts that demonstrate precisely
how the feature in question is used.
“Oracle Database 11g: Top Features
SO07_OTN.indd 19
for DBAs and Developers” is a crash
course that no database professional
remotely interested in this release can
afford to miss. Explore the complete
topic list (and subscribe to the RSS feed)
at otn.oracle.com/11gdba.
TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
They might be on islands at opposite
ends of the world, but with the help of
community leaders, developers from the
Faroe Islands and Java, Indonesia, are
now in the middle of the OTN landscape.
Oracle employee and Oracle ACE
Grant Ronald recently headed to the
Faroe Islands, in the frigid waters
between Iceland and Norway, where he
led a hands-on SOA/Java/Forms work-
shop for the nation’s entire developer
community (numbering 33 Faroese)—
and set them up with OTN T-shirts
while he was at it.
Meanwhile, on the island of Java
(how appropriate), Oracle Fusion
Middleware Regional Director Frans
Thamura has turned his Java User
Group (JUG) Indonesia into one of the
top-50 Java developer communities in
the world. “Right now we’re digging in
and learning more about Oracle TopLink
and its features,” he says. “We’re espe-
cially interested in the migration from
JBoss Hibernate to Oracle TopLink.”
Follow Thamura’s Java community
inspirations in his blog at www.jroller
.com/page/fthamura.
ORACLE ACES HAVE IT
The Oracle ACE program—the formal
network of nonemployee evangelists
sponsored by OTN—has grown by
leaps and bounds since its inception
in 2005, having surpassed the 100-
member mark in May 2007.
This summer, the Oracle ACE
program was formally combined with
ORACLE MAGAZINE
BY JU STIN KESTELYN
the Oracle Fusion Middleware Regional
Director program, with members of the
latter becoming Oracle ACE Directors.
Consequently, it is now possible for
DBAs, database architects, and database
developers to obtain director status,
joining the 40-plus Oracle Fusion
Middleware experts who already are
honored with that distinction.
Learn more about the Oracle ACE
program and meet existing ACEs at
otn.oracle.com/community/oracle_ace.
THE BIG EVENTS
Finally, a single online resource is
available for the purpose of tracking
community-oriented events across the
globe. Visit the new Developer Events
Calendar on OTN to explore upcom-
ing workshops, conferences, and OTN
Installfests as they’re scheduled. Point
your browser to otn.oracle.com/events
for dates and details. O
Justin Kestelyn (justin.kestelyn@oracle.com) is the
editor in chief of Oracle Technology Network.
OTN home
otn.oracle.com
OTN Headlines
otn.oracle.com/pub/news
Free software downloads
otn.oracle.com/software
Documentation
otn.oracle.com/documentation
Technology Centers
otn.oracle.com/tech
Podcasts
otn.oracle.com/techcasts
Technical articles
otn.oracle.com/pub/articles
Blogs
blogs.oracle.com
Discussion forums
forums.oracle.com
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 19
7/17/07 11:22:37 AM
 D I D Y O U KNOW
?
LATE IT PROJECTS LINKED TO LOWER
PROFITS, POOR BUSINESS OUTCOMES
A survey of 1,125 IT professionals worldwide
showed a clear link between company
profitability and timeliness of IT projects. In
nearly half of companies surveyed, 25 percent
or more of IT projects were delivered late—
and in 57 percent of companies surveyed,
no more than half of IT initiatives produced
a positive business outcome. But in firms
where 75 percent or more of IT initiatives in
the past three years had a positive business
outcome, improvement in project delivery
speed was considerably higher than average.
A full 62 percent of respondents said their
companies would experience a substantial
increase in profitability from faster delivery
of IT services and projects.
Source: HP and the Economist Intelligence Unit
www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2007/070605xa.html
IT COMPLEXITY PROVES RISKY, COSTLY
Each hour of application downtime costs
more than US$300,000, according to
33 percent of respondents to a March
2007 survey of more than 300 senior IT
professionals at Fortune 1000 companies.
Troubleshooting configuration errors
with application servers, middleware,
and databases can take more than a day,
according to a third of respondents, and most
said that installation and configuration of
core application infrastructure assets is a
“major time sink.”
Source: mValent
www.mvalent.com/downloads/mvalent_survey_results_
2007.pdf
ORACLE LEADS DATABASE MARKET
The market for relational database
management systems grew by 14.3 percent
from 2005 to 2006. Oracle leads in market
share (measured by revenues), at 44.4
percent, and its 2006 revenues were US$7.3
billion, up 14.7 percent over 2005. Other
database vendors’ market shares were
IBM, 21.2 percent; Microsoft, 18.6 percent;
Sybase, 3.2 percent; Teradata, 2.8 percent;
and all others, 9.9 percent.
Source: Oracle and IDC
www.oracle.com/features/hp/oracle-number-one-
database-idc.html
20 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07
SO07_BRIEFS.indd 20
a t O r a c l e BRIEFS
ORACLE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE STANDARD
EDITION ONE NOW AVAILABLE
ackaged and preconfigured for small
P and medium businesses (SMBs)
and work groups, Oracle Business
Intelligence Standard Edition One—a
complete, integrated business intelli-
gence (BI) and data warehousing solu-
tion—is now shipping.
Oracle Business Intelligence Standard
Edition One, a component of Oracle
Fusion Middleware, features all the core
BI capabilities SMBs need, including
interactive dashboards; formatted report-
ing; ad hoc query and analysis; extract,
transform, and load (ETL) technology;
and Oracle Database 10g Standard
Edition One.
“Oracle Business Intelligence
Standard Edition One is the only end-
to-end BI and data warehousing solution
that is based on category-leading tech-
nology for every component, offering a
complete and compelling solution at an
attractive price,” says Paul Rodwick, vice
president, Oracle Business Intelligence.
“The software offers small and medium
organizations a proper infrastructure
that will serve their immediate BI needs
yet easily scale and grow with their
needs over time.”
Oracle Business Intelligence Standard
Edition One offers customers the right
BI foundation to deliver complete, rel-
evant, and timely information for better
decision-making across the organization.
Developed with business user self-
sufficiency in mind, the product features
business user interfaces that do not
require coding.
ORACLE SIMPLIFIES USER MANAGEMENT IN
ORACLE DATABASE 10g
racle has integrated the enterprise
O user security feature of Oracle
Database 10g with Oracle Virtual
Directory to allow organizations to cen-
trally manage database user identities
through existing corporate directories.
Centralized database user manage-
ment helps address compliance and
insider threat challenges, especially for
organizations with large-scale databases
ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
and user populations. With enterprise
user security, organizations can now
use virtualization capabilities to manage
database user identities and their highly
privileged roles across diverse identity
stores without having to migrate or
synchronize the data. Oracle Database
10g customers can pair Oracle Virtual
Directory with enterprise user security
to virtually provision database user
accounts, assign database roles, centrally
manage user authentication and autho-
rization, and enable self-service features
such as password resets in existing cor-
porate directories.
“Given heightened security demands,
organizations must implement compre-
hensive identity and access strategies
that span database users and the access
rights they typically enjoy,” says Sally
Hudson, research director, security
products and services, IDC. “The inte-
gration of Oracle Virtual Directory with
enterprise user security is a timely and
important offering. The increased flex-
ibility and greater choice helps solve a
critical security need for many Oracle
Database customers today.”
ORACLE DATABASE LITE 10g RELEASE 3
NOW AVAILABLE
Now shipping, Oracle Database Lite 10g
Release 3 is a comprehensive solution
for the rapid development and deploy-
ment of applications for mobile and
embedded environments. It delivers
enhanced synchronization of occasion-
ally connected devices with Oracle
Database and support for a broader
range of platforms.
Oracle Database Lite 10g is a highly
scalable, mobile solution that enables
applications to run even when discon-
nected from the network, while peri-
odically synchronizing to an Oracle
Database server. Composed of a mobile
server and a mobile relational database,
Oracle Database Lite 10g Release 3 helps
users reliably and securely exchange
data with a corporate database; enables
application, device, and user provision-
ing; and provides centralized manage-
ment tools. Additionally, the latest
7/16/07 1:59:22 PM
 release includes an automatic synchro-
nization capability that enables data to
be synchronized bidirectionally without
user intervention.
“The new enhancements in Oracle
Database Lite 10g reflect Oracle’s
dedication to offering mobile users an
identical experience to their connected
colleagues—when it comes to continu-
ous data availability,” says Rex Wang,
Oracle’s vice president of embedded
product marketing.
The client database of Oracle
Database Lite 10g Release 3 supports
Windows, Windows CE, Windows
Mobile, Linux, and Symbian platforms.
It also supports stored procedures for
C++, C#/.NET, and Java.
SPRING DEVELOPMENT KIT RELEASED
he new Oracle Development Kit for
T Spring is designed to simplify the
development, deployment, and manage-
ment of Spring-based enterprise Java
applications and to address demand
for integration between Oracle Fusion
Middleware and the Spring framework.
The Oracle Development Kit for
Spring includes Spring Framework 2.0,
the latest version of Spring’s lightweight,
open source application development
framework; Oracle JDeveloper Extension
for Spring, which provides wizards and
full editor support for both Spring 1.x-
and 2.0-style definitions; and Oracle
Developer Depot, a free, Spring-based
developer productivity tool. It also
includes prepackaged sample applica-
tions and tutorials and transaction
manager integration, which allows
developers to leverage the lightweight
programming model of Spring with the
high-performance transactional capabili-
ties of Oracle Application Server.
“The Oracle Development Kit for
Spring is a natural step in our efforts to
simplify enterprise Java development,”
says Steven G. Harris, vice president,
Java Platform Group, Oracle. “As more
and more customers use Oracle’s Java
development platform in conjunction
with the Spring framework, we see
increasingly innovative results.”
SO07_BRIEFS.indd 21
ORACLE’S DEMANTRA 7.1.1 NOW SHIPPING
ow available, Demantra 7.1.1
N expands on the industry-leading
demand management functionality that
Oracle obtained through the acquisition
of Demantra to deliver better forecasting
and demand management capabilities.
New capabilities include support for
Oracle Fusion Middleware, improved
planner productivity, enhancements to
data loading and export, new demand
analysis worksheets, and series and data
security enhancements. This release
also enables companies to model more-
precise statistical forecasting, analysis,
and collaboration scenarios without
special training or IT support.
Demantra 7.1.1 is now part of the
Advanced Planning solution within
Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle’s JD
Edwards EnterpriseOne, which gives
companies the ability to accurately
predict demand, shape profitability for
their products, and proactively manage
complex global supply chains. This
integration reduces setup, configuration,
and ongoing maintenance costs because
Demantra shares the same demand and
master data as the Oracle Applications.
“By integrating Demantra into
Oracle’s Advanced Planning applica-
tions, we are giving companies the tools
to better predict, shape, and respond to
demand in order to uphold the opera-
tional and strategic goals of their com-
panies,” says Jon Chorley, Oracle’s vice
president of product strategy.
ORACLE BUYS PRODUCT LIFECYCLE
MANAGEMENT LEADER AGILE
racle has agreed to acquire Agile
O Software Corporation, a leading pro-
vider of product lifecycle management
(PLM) software solutions. Agile’s PLM
solutions help engineers, manufactur-
ing and supply chain professionals, and
business executives drive the product
innovation and introduction process,
share product specifications and configu-
rations, and collaborate effectively across
the supply chain.
PLM is evolving into an enterprise-
wide discipline that spans multiple
ORACLE MAGAZINE
product design systems and interacts
with a wide range of enterprise applica-
tions. The combination of Agile and
Oracle will create an integrated, enter-
prisewide PLM solution.
“Profitable product innovation is criti-
cal to product-based industries, making
PLM one of the fastest-growing applica-
tion segments,” says Oracle President
Charles Phillips. “The addition of Agile,
which will serve as the foundation of
our PLM offering, will further Oracle’s
strategy of delivering industry-specific
enterprise applications and allows us to
offer yet another strategic application to
SAP customers.”
ORACLE INVESTS IN SOPHOI
racle has made a minority invest-
O ment in Sophoi, a privately held
provider of enterprise intellectual prop-
erty management software. Oracle and
Sophoi will continue to partner to bring
innovative end-to-end solutions to the
media and entertainment industry.
“Customers of Sophoi and Oracle
can benefit from a comprehensive
suite of mission-critical applications
for the media and entertainment
industry by combining Oracle’s inte-
grated applications suite and Sophoi’s
iPLS [Intellectual Property Licensing
Suite] solution,” says Lars Wahlstrom,
Oracle’s group vice president of the
Communications, Media and Utilities
Global Industries Business Unit. O
Oracle Business Intelligence
Standard Edition One
oracle.com/appserver/business-intelligence/
standard-edition-one.html
Oracle Virtual Directory
oracle.com/goto/virtual-directory
Oracle Database Lite 10g Release 3
otn.oracle.com/products/lite
Oracle Development Kit for Spring
oracle.com/goto/spring
Demantra
oracle.com/applications/scm/demantra
Oracle and Agile
oracle.com/agile
Sophoi
www.sophoi.com
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 21
7/16/07 1:59:22 PM
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 a t O r a c l e INTERVIEW BY R IC H SCHWERI N

Change Assurance
Oracle Database 11g helps customers manage change.
ndy Mendelsohn, senior vice point in time can be years in the past, for managing very large databases,
president of Database Server which can be very useful for things often in a time-based fashion. It turns
Technologies at Oracle, sat like auditing. out that partitioning works perfectly
down with Oracle Magazine to Oracle Magazine: By some estimates, the for implementing an ILM strategy. You
talk about new technologies and inno- volume of corporate data is growing can basically have a set of tablespaces
vations in Oracle Database 11g. The fol- three times larger every two years, that are defined on different classes of
lowing is an excerpt from that interview. which dramatically increases storage storage, and then as the data ages out,
To download a podcast of the full you create a set of time-based
interview, visit otn.oracle.com/ partitions for your table. So,
syndication/magcasts. let’s say it’s the order table. As
Oracle Magazine: Most organiza- the orders start aging out, you
tions today are faced with a variety just implement partitioning
of regulatory compliance issues as by time stamp on the order,
well as security challenges. How and when the orders get more
does Oracle Database 11g address than a few months old, you
these issues? start moving them onto parti-
Mendelsohn: One of our new tions with lower-cost storage,
enhancements is that we’re and over time even lower-cost
encrypting large objects [LOBs] storage, until ultimately you
transparently in Oracle Database either drop them or archive
11g. We’re also doing encryption them completely.
at the whole tablespace level. Oracle Magazine: People are
So if you want to just go in and storing all kinds of things
encrypt everything, we make it in databases today that they
easy to do that. didn’t used to—documents,
We also have Oracle Audit images, multimedia. How does
Vault, which targets security and Oracle Database 11g address
compliance. Oracle Audit Vault this issue?
consolidates audit trails from dif- Mendelsohn: In Oracle Database
For Andy Mendelsohn, Senior Vice President of Database Server
ferent source databases into a Technologies at Oracle, the Real Application Testing feature in Oracle 11g, Oracle SecureFiles is a
central data warehouse, which Database 11g is the most exciting new technology. whole new implementation
makes it easier for auditors to of our LOB infrastructure,
understand the security-relevant costs. How does Oracle Database 11g and we rearchitected it for really high
operations in a company. address this issue? performance. The performance of the
Oracle Magazine: Tell us about the flash- Mendelsohn: Storage vendors have an Oracle Database 11g LOB implementa-
back data archive feature for compliance initiative called information lifecycle tion for just reading and writing LOBs
in Oracle Database 11g. management [ILM]. When you have in the database is up to five times faster.
Mendelsohn: Flashback data archive lets information that’s really active, you Oracle SecureFiles actually reads and
you go back in time indefinitely. With need the highest-performance storage writes documents and files in the data-
flashback data archive, you can set up out there. But, as the data becomes base faster than outside the database,
an archive on any table, and whenever more historical in nature, the high- which is a real eye-opener for custom-
any updates are made to a table, we performance storage isn’t needed. All ers. And the Oracle SecureFiles infra-
record those updates and we keep the the storage vendors now have differ- structure underlies all of our support for
old versions of every row that’s been ent levels of storage, at different price rich datatypes like spatial, multimedia,
BOB ADLER

updated. You can run queries as of a points. Oracle has a technology called and XML. We are very sensitive to the
point in time in the past, but now the partitioning that has been used mostly amount of storage these documents

ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 23

SO07_Interview.indd 23 7/17/07 11:50:52 AM

 INTERVIEW
“The big new area in Oracle Database 11g is our change assurance capabilities, where
we really have spent a lot of time to lower the risk of change.”
consume, and so we have full compres-
sion for Oracle SecureFiles, and we also
support deduplication.
Oracle Magazine: Could you tell us more
about the new compression technology
in Oracle Database 11g ?
Mendelsohn: In Oracle Database 11g,
we’ve improved our algorithms for com-
pression so they are enabled on every
update to even a single row of a table.
Now you can do compression for any
kind of application workload, not just
the data warehouse. This will make
compression very interesting for people
who want to implement ILM, because as
the data ages out, you want to compress
that data to lower your storage costs
even further.
Oracle Magazine: How will Oracle help
customers migrate to Oracle Database
11g and manage this change process?
Mendelsohn: When we talk to customers,
one of their big pain points is migra-
tion, whether they’re migrating to a
new version of the database, a new
version of an operating system, or even
a new version of their own database-
based internal applications. In Oracle
Database 11g , we looked at the whole
lifecycle of what customers do when
they do a migration, an upgrade, or
a change of any sort, and we have a
number of technologies to lower the
cost and the risk of change.
First, we’ve enhanced our Oracle
Data Guard technology to make it really
easy to automate the creation of a test
environment. As you run tests, the data
in the test environment is no longer in
sync with the production environment,
but you can use Oracle Data Guard to
resync the test environment with the
latest version of the production environ-
ment in a very clever fashion.
The next things we’ve added are two
major Oracle Real Application Testing
features. The first one lets you point at
a production system and say, “I want to
take a real production workload off of
24 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
SO07_Interview.indd 24
—Andy Mendelsohn, Senior Vice President of Database Server Technologies at Oracle
that production system and move it into
my test environment and then run it as
a regression test.” Today, doing some-
thing like this is basically a development
project. With Oracle Real Application
Testing, you can just point to a real
system, capture the workload, bring it
over to a test environment, and replay it,
purely within the database tier.
The other [Oracle Real Application
Testing] thing we’re doing is that you
can go to a production environment and
just pull off the SQL statements. If you
want to make sure that the performance
of individual SQL statements hasn’t
regressed, you can go to your production
environment, pull off the SQL statements,
bring them over to a test environment,
and then run them against both the old
and the new version of the query opti-
mizer. So between both of these features,
you can now have a lot more confidence
that when you go live you’re going to get
the quality, robustness, and performance
you need out of the new release.
Another new feature is SQL Plan
Change Control. One of the key things
people really would like to do when
they move to a production environ-
ment is keep the SQL plans unchanged.
So in Oracle Database 11g, SQL Plan
Change Control lets you move to a
new production environment. You can
freeze the query execution plans there
and then periodically look at what the
optimizer is recommending as better
plans and move to these new plans in a
controlled fashion.
Finally, with Oracle Database 11g,
we’re rolling out a new capability called
hot patching, where you can actually
apply a bug fix to a production system
online without any downtime.
Oracle Magazine: How would you sum-
marize the benefits that all these new
technologies deliver?
Mendelsohn: Well, the key goal for all cus-
tomers is better quality of service, higher
performance, better scalability, reliability,
and security—at lower costs.
As far as lowering costs, a big focus
for us has been ease of management.
In Oracle Database 11g, we continue
strongly pushing in that direction. The
big new area in Oracle Database 11g
is our change assurance capabilities,
where we really have spent a lot of
time to lower the risk of change. This is
really the lifeblood of every enterprise:
everybody knows they need to change
to be more competitive, to grow their
business, but there’s this opposite force
that says, “Any change I make is going
to destabilize my IT environment.” It’s
a real problem for customers, and we
think we’ve done a great job in tackling
that problem.
Oracle Magazine: What is the single
most exciting new technology in Oracle
Database 11g, from your perspective?
Mendelsohn: What’s always most exciting
is when we move into a new area. The
Oracle Real Application Testing feature
is that one for me in Oracle Database
11g. It’s a whole new area. Customers
have no good solutions out there today
for dealing with creating test suites
or doing online hot patching of their
systems. It’s an area that’s dying for help
from Oracle, and we have unique tech-
nologies that are going to be exciting for
our customers to really lower their risk
of change and help them really innovate
much more freely. O
Rich Schwerin is a product marketing manager
with Oracle technology marketing and a regular
contributor to Oracle Magazine.
LISTEN to the podcast
otn.oracle.com/syndication/magcasts
LEARN more about Oracle Database 11g
oracle.com/database
DOWNLOAD Oracle Database 11g
otn.oracle.com/database
7/17/07 11:50:53 AM
8@]P]^[^VXRRXaRdXc\PV]XUXTS#  g

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 c o m m u n i t y COMMITMENT BY A A RO N L A Z E N BY

SMART Project, Smarter Students

Oracle supports CARE’s education initiatives in impoverished Uttar Pradesh.
he state of Uttar Pradesh, CARE’s hard work in Uttar Pradesh a minimum of one hour of math and
in northern India, is a place earned the organization one of Oracle’s science instruction a day.
of extremes. With 167 million Commitment Grants in 2006. The Early efforts are already having an
citizens, the territory is the most US$1 million gift funded education impact. At a school in rural Pilibhit, the
populous of India’s states. Poverty is improvement efforts in the area, specifi- SMART curriculum has already trans-
endemic, with per capita income among cally the introduction of high-quality, formed the education experience of one
the lowest of all Indian states. Life proven teaching practices across the girl. Marked as a discipline problem and
expectancy—which at 58 years is 10 state. Working with a handful of model a slow learner, the eighth grader was
percent lower than the global left to her own devices as teach-
average—is on par with the ers chose to direct their limited
war-torn African nations of resources toward more-willing
Sudan and Eritrea. pupils. But a series of compe-
CARE, one of the world’s tency tests revealed that her
largest humanitarian organiza- behavior troubles stemmed from
tions, began its operations in struggles with basic math skills.
the Asian subcontinent nearly Now in a classroom with stu-
60 years ago, and while con- dents at the same skill level, she
ditions have improved since is a different student. Her math
1950—indeed, India hosts and language skills have both
one of the world’s fastest- improved, and many other chil-
growing economies—the dren now see her as an example.
situation in Uttar Pradesh has Such a success may seem
remained difficult. In addition like a drop in the bucket of mil-
to poverty and below-average lions of students, but CARE’s
life expectancy, education is impact on the project schools
also a challenge; for example, An Oracle Commitment Grant supports CARE’s efforts to improve education for has improved achievement in
only one in four girls can read impoverished residents of India’s Uttar Pradesh. core school subjects—paving the
in this populous state. CARE way for better living standards.
is working there to establish a compre- schools, CARE hosts a series of teacher And Oracle’s partnership with CARE
hensive education improvement cam- trainings and workshops, student and only promises to expand the good work.
paign in hopes of improving economic curriculum assessments, and community “Because of Oracle’s tremendous partner-
opportunity, promoting citizenship, and outreach in an effort to mobilize educa- ship with CARE, students will develop a
fostering positive change. tors, students, and parents to take inter- better understanding of certain academic
The results are undeniable. Between est in the quality of local schools. The concepts using computers and other
1997 and 2004, enrollment rates for girls stakeholders in these model schools can important tools, and teachers will have
in the target regions in Uttar Pradesh then share these lessons and promote the the necessary tools and instruction to
have increased by 40 percent. adoption of best practices in neighboring convey subject matter through appropri-
“CARE believes that education schools. Ultimately, the program will train ate learning materials,” Gayle says. O
plays an important role in our efforts 325 teachers to serve 13,000 students.
to achieve our vision of a world where The program kicked off with the Aaron Lazenby is a director with Oracle Publishing.
poverty has been overcome,” says Helene Science, Math and Relevant Technology
D. Gayle, president and CEO of CARE. (SMART) project. Its curriculum focuses
“Education gives people, especially on introducing core skills that can have Oracle’s Commitment
oracle.com/commitment
ANNE HESLOP

women and girls, the skills, knowledge, an immediate impact on students’ school
and confidence they need to lift them- performance. CARE works with teach- CARE
www.care.org
selves out of poverty.” ers to ensure that each student receives

26 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

SO07_Commitment.indd 26 7/17/07 10:56:54 AM

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<0C;3D4C>?D1)&!& 1;443) !$P[[bXSTb

b o o k BEAT
Oracle Database
11g New Features
By Robert G. Freeman,
with Arup Nanda
Oracle Press
www.oraclepress.com
ISBN: 0071496610
Learn how to take advantage of the latest
release of Oracle Database with Oracle
Database 11g New Features. This completely
rewritten guide from the author of Oracle
Database 10 g New Features details the
new features and tools available in Oracle
Database 11g, including high-availability
features, security measures, and business
intelligence tools. Author Robert Freeman
discusses how to maximize the potential of
these capabilities, making the book an ideal
resource for decision-makers and IT staff
preparing for upgrades or migration.
Freeman is an Oracle Certified Professional
and the author of eight other Oracle books.
He is an expert in UNIX and Oracle Real
Application Clusters and specializes in Oracle
backup and recovery and performance tuning
for complex databases.
The book includes contributions by Arup
Nanda, a frequent Oracle Magazine author.
RMAN Recipes for
Oracle Database 11g
By Darl Kuhn, Sam
Alapati, and Arup Nanda
Apress
www.apress.com
ISBN: 1590598512
Your database is going down. Some or all of
your database files will be lost or damaged.
Are you ready? Do you know what to do?
It’s often said that the one true job of an
Oracle Database DBA is to be able to recover
a database. In RMAN Recipes for Oracle
Database 11g, authors Darl Kuhn, Sam Alapati,
and Arup Nanda provide a task-oriented
collection of ready-made and example-based
solutions to common (and some not-so-
common) backup and recovery operations.
When the pressure’s on, DBAs don’t have
time for long discussions of theory. They need
solutions, and they need them now. This book
delivers, getting right to the point with quick,
easy-to-read, step-by-step solutions that DBAs
can implement with confidence.
Coauthors Kuhn, Alapati, and Nanda are
all experienced Oracle DBAs. Kuhn has more
than 18 years of experience; Alapati has been
working with databases since the 1980s; and
Nanda has been an Oracle DBA since 1993.
Look for Oracle books at oracle.com/
technology/books/10g_books.html
28 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07
SO07_PARTNER.indd 28
c o m m u n i t y PARTNER NEWS
CISCO SOLUTIONS OPTIMIZE ORACLE
DEPLOYMENTS
racle Certified Advantage Partner
O Cisco Systems has released Cisco
Solutions for Oracle Deployments, a set
of three tested, documented, and vali-
dated solutions that together make up
an end-to-end network architecture to
optimize Oracle Applications and Oracle
Fusion Middleware implementations.
Providing elevated application avail-
ability, performance, and security; lower
application complexity and cost; and
reduced deployment risk, these solu-
tions include best practices and deploy-
ment guidance for WAN optimization,
application and Ethernet switching, fire-
wall access control, and storage switch-
ing technologies.
Cisco, with the support of Oracle
product teams, also continues to invest in
testing and documenting of best-in-class
network solutions for new Oracle releases
such as Oracle SOA Suite and Siebel
Customer Relationship Management
8.0. This commitment will reduce risk
and shorten deployment times for future
Oracle customer implementations.
ZEND CORE FOR ORACLE 2.0 RELEASED
end Technologies and Oracle have
Z released Zend Core for Oracle 2.0,
merging Zend Core’s production-quality
PHP solution with native integration
with Oracle Database and PHP support
in Oracle Application Server. Zend Core
provides a certified, high-performance
PHP development and production envi-
ronment based on best practices in con-
figuring and tuning PHP. This version
includes PHP 5.2.1, Oracle’s new OCI-8
extension, and Oracle Instant Client.
Zend Core works with Oracle9i
Database and Oracle Database 10g and
can be integrated with Oracle Database
10g client libraries. It enables interoper-
ability between PHP and Java (and other
popular technologies) through an Oracle
JDeveloper PHP extension.
Zend, an Oracle partner, supports
Zend Core for Oracle, which is certified
by both Oracle and Zend. It includes
ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
support for a variety of operating systems
and Web servers, including Oracle
Enterprise Linux; Solaris; AIX; Windows;
Macintosh OS X; and many versions of
Apache, Microsoft Internet Information
Server, and Oracle HTTP Server.
INGRAM MICRO, TECH DATA EXTEND
ORACLE’S REACH TO SMBS
ore than 400 new value-added
M resellers (VARs) have joined with
Oracle in the last year as a result of
Oracle’s distribution agreements with
Ingram Micro and Tech Data. With the
expertise, resources, and broad customer
base of these two IT distributors, Oracle
has expanded the community of solu-
tion providers offering Oracle Database
and Oracle Fusion Middleware to small
and medium businesses (SMBs).
Oracle has a dedicated team of
specialists available through Ingram
Micro and Tech Data to provide their
reseller channels with technical support
and guidance throughout the SMB sales
cycle. More than 175,000 SMBs cur-
rently use Oracle’s technology products.
“Tech Data supports tens of thou-
sands of resellers nationwide, and we’ve
had tremendous success expanding
Oracle’s reach in the SMB market,”
says Stacy Nethercoat, Tech Data’s vice
president of software product market-
ing. “Our team of dedicated Oracle
specialists have recruited many SMB
VARs, helping to expand the Oracle
PartnerNetwork.”
“Ingram Micro places great focus on
helping the channel provide its customer
base with the most up-to-date solutions
that are designed for the SMB market,”
says Jodi Honore, vice president of
vendor management at Ingram Micro.
“Being able to offer Oracle products is
just another step in the right direction to
providing our channel partners with new
ways to generate business opportunities.”
FUJITSU FLEXFRAME FOR ORACLE APPLIES
GRID COMPUTING DYNAMICALLY
racle Certified Advantage Partner
O Fujitsu has announced FlexFrame
7/17/07 11:56:26 AM
 PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
growing number of Oracle partners are supporting the
A Oracle Information Appliance Initiative with optimized
data warehousing solutions built on scalable, balanced,
high-performance hardware platforms. Examples include
the team of Certified Advantage Partners Dell Inc. and
EMC and Oracle Partner PANTA Systems. Other Oracle
partners involved in the Information Appliance Initiative
include HP, IBM, and Sun.
The Oracle Information Appliance Initiative has two
levels: Oracle Information Appliance Foundations are vali-
dated, balanced designs (software, hardware, storage, I/O,
and networking) for customers who want flexibility and
choice in a data warehousing platform. Oracle Information
Appliances are preinstalled and preconfigured data ware-
house products for customers who want simple and quick-
to-implement data warehouse solutions. Oracle software
is preinstalled on a jointly developed Oracle Information
Appliance Foundation.
The new Oracle Information Appliance Foundation on
Dell Inc. and EMC is a reference configuration consisting
of a database, server, and storage mix optimized for data
warehouses with 1 terabyte of raw data. The modular com-
ponents can be combined to support larger data warehouses
Partners Support Oracle Information Appliance Initiative
so solutions can scale over time. The new Dell/EMC founda-
tion consists of dual-processor, dual-core Dell PowerEdge
2950 servers running Linux, two Emulex or QLogic Host
Bus Adapters, Brocade four-gigabyte switches, and one EMC
CLARiiON CX-310 networked storage system.
“The long-standing collaboration amongst EMC, Dell
and Oracle enables us to help reduce the risk customers
face in developing a well-designed, scalable data warehouse
solution,” says Chuck Hollis, vice president, Technology
Alliances, EMC. “The Oracle-Dell-EMC Information
Appliance Foundation will help joint customers achieve
considerable cost and time savings.”
Oracle and PANTA Systems are offering the first pre-
configured data warehouse appliance under the Oracle
Information Appliances banner: the Oracle Information
Appliance on PANTA Systems. This appliance provides
customers with a preconfigured, turnkey grid of industry-
standard Linux servers and storage modules with Oracle
Database 10g and Oracle Real Application Clusters pre-
installed and configured for a real-world data warehouse
environment. Built for data warehouses ranging from 3 to
100 terabytes, the products are built on PANTA’s DM4000
family of appliances.

for Oracle, the first dynamic infra-
structure solution based on Oracle grid
technology for application and database
services. Fujitsu FlexFrame for Oracle
eliminates the permanent assignment of
Oracle services to specific servers, and
instead uses all resources dynamically to
handle workloads.
PRIMERGY blade servers also provide an Archive uses a single engine for online
attractive software-licensing model. and long-term data retention of struc-
tured and unstructured data. O
APPLIMATION AND SIERRA ATLANTIC PROVIDE
ENTERPRISE DATA MANAGEMENT
ierra Atlantic, a provider of busi-
S ness process–based integration and
enterprise application optimization,
Cisco Systems
www.cisco.com/go/oracle

Zend Core for Oracle

Under the FlexFrame architecture, all has teamed with Applimation, a maker www.zend.com
services software resides on the storage of enterprise data management solu- Ingram Micro
system and can be assigned to any tions, to provide a data management www.ingrammicro.com

server in the infrastructure—even non
local servers—via NetBoot. In addition
to providing flexibility, this approach
simplifies patches, updates, and other
software lifecycle management tasks.
The FlexFrame architecture is based
on an IP network with a cluster of
Fujitsu PRIMERGY servers and flexible,
integrated storage. This architecture
ensures that every Oracle-based service
can be run on any server at any time,
so enterprises can consolidate IT land-
scapes and provide on-demand availabil-
ity of applications and services. Scalable
archiving solution for Oracle Process Tech Data
www.techdata.com
Manufacturing based on Applimation’s
Informia Archive product. Applimation Fujitsu
us.fujitsu.com/computers
will extend Informia Archive’s data
Oracle Information Appliance
archiving functionality to Oracle cus-
Initiative
tomers with Sierra Atlantic acting as its oracle.com/solutions/business_intelligence/
implementation partner. oiai.html
oracle.com/solutions/business_intelligence/
The offering is aimed at custom- emc.html
ers that have experienced exponential oracle.com/solutions/business_intelligence/
panta.html
growth in transaction data. Informia
Applimation
Archive provides packaged templates www.applimation.com
for Oracle Process Manufacturing’s key
Sierra Atlantic
high-transaction modules and offers www.SierraAtlantic.com
archiving for customizations. Informia

ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 29

SO07_PARTNER.indd 29 7/17/07 11:56:26 AM

 c o m m u n i t y PEER-TO-PEER BY B LA IR C AMPBELL

Innovating and Unplugging

Three peers celebrate getting online and occasional escapes.
Lutz Hartmann development. Then, you must peerSPECS
Company: Fujitsu Consulting, a
How did you get started in IT? think in tiers, because Web devel- client-focused IT services provider
During university, I worked in opment involves the separation Job title/description:
Hamburg University’s statistics of layers—presentation, business, Consultant, specializing as either
an Oracle technical architect or a
department, dealing with large persistence. By using a component Java Platform, Enterprise Edition,
amounts of data. I was espe- model approach, it is much easier technical architect
cially interested in indexing to reuse, thus simplifying develop- Location: Quebec City, Canada

multilingual data for library ment and delivering Web applica- Length of time using Oracle
products: Six years
catalogs. When I started study- tions quickly.
Oracle ACE
ing, there were two machines Do you have a favorite vacation spot? otn.oracle.com/community/
available in our entire department. When I left the university, we Every summer weekend I go to oracle_ace

had installed a network, linked three scientific libraries to the
international library network, and installed computing pools.
How did you help bring the university up to speed in terms of its
systems and connectivity? I orga-
nized a get-together with the peerSPECS
Company: sysdba database
department director, the library consulting GmbH, a network of
staff, and technical staff from the Oracle experts
Job title/description: Founder
university’s data center. We dis- and owner, offering Oracle
cussed possible options for linking training and premium consulting
and support services for Oracle
the department with the Web, and databases
while there was money available for Location: Near Zurich, Switzerland
the hardware, there were no funds Oracle credentials: Oracle
for the necessary work. I suggested Certified Professional (Oracle9i
Database, Oracle Database 10g ),
we coordinate the installation with with eight years of experience using
volunteers, and it was all done in Oracle products
two weeks during summer break. Oracle ACE
otn.oracle.com/community/
If you were going to the Space Station oracle_ace
for six months and could only take
one Oracle reference book, what would it be? K. Gopalakrishnan’s
Oracle Database 10g Real Application Clusters Handbook [Oracle
Press, 2006]—it gives comprehensive insight.
Eric Marcoux
What’s your favorite tool or tech-
nique on the job? Since last year,
my favorite tools have been
Oracle JDeveloper and its
Oracle Application Development
Framework [Oracle ADF], espe-
cially Oracle ADF Faces. I can
now build and deliver simple
Web applications more quickly.
What advice do you have about how to get into Web and database
development? My first advice would be to think differently,
because Web development is not the same as client/server
my favorite campsite with my
family. I have no internet access, no phone, and plenty of time
to spend with my wife and three children.
Daniel Uehara
What big changes in technology
have you witnessed in the course
of your career? It’s amazing how
the Java IDEs have evolved over
time. I remember when I started
programming Java and we had
a few IDEs, most of them just
nice look-and-feel text editors.
Now we have tools like Oracle
JDeveloper, which basically does everything we need, and for
the things we can’t do we just need to create an extension.
At EDS, we’ve been able to integrate Oracle JDeveloper with
some of our standard tools from the project lifecycle to get a
full software engineering environment.
What would you like to see Oracle, as a company, do more of?
Oracle’s portfolio of products is getting bigger. It would be
helpful if we had a clearer mapping between the products
and types of services we can peerSPECS
develop with them, and a path Company: Electronic Data Systems
(EDS), a provider of business
of training, tutorials, and docu- and technology solutions to help
ments that would help us get clients worldwide improve business
performance
ready to apply a product to a
Job title/description: Manager
certain service domain. of the EDS Java Center of Expertise,
What’s your favorite thing to do that overseeing a team of 140 Java
developers
doesn’t involve work? Running is
Location: São Paulo, Brazil
my hobby. It’s when I have the
Length of time using Oracle
opportunity to unplug from the products: Seven years
network and relax from the stress Oracle ACE
of globalization and being avail- otn.oracle.com/community/
oracle_ace
able on demand. O

30 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

SO07_PEER.indd 30 7/17/07 11:52:52 AM

DellDisasterRecov_v7ForPrep 6/28/07 2:10 PM Page 1

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

An Ounce
of Prevention A well-planned, strategic approach to disaster recovery has helped
Dell strengthen its infrastructure—and provided some valuable lessons
about keeping enterprise systems up and running.

t has become a truism in business that IT is long as 12 weeks to get things back up and

Dell IT’s comprehensive

disaster recovery plan
I a strategic asset that is vital to the operation
takes into account critical
operations such as the
Enterprise Command Cen-
ter above, which provides
vital customer support.
of companies. A few years ago, however,
Dell decided to take a deeper look at just what
that meant.
To start, executives asked a fairly straight-
forward question: What would it cost the business
if the company’s main data center were destroyed?
The Dell IT group determined that it could take as
running, and then worked with business people
to determine what that would mean to areas such
as sales, manufacturing, shipping, and service.
“When you multiplied that impact out across that
time frame, needless to say, the lost-revenue
figure was huge,” says Debi Higdon, Dell’s Global
Disaster Recovery test manager.
With that financial assessment in hand, it was

S1
DellDisasterRecov_v7ForPrep 6/28/07 2:10 PM Page 2

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

clear that Dell could benefit from an
enterprise approach to disaster recov-
ery. But not many companies had imple-
mented such an approach—disaster
recovery was typically addressed in
a fragmented, tactical manner. “There
just wasn’t a good handbook to go by—
we had to write our own,” says Higdon.
The group did just that, and worked
out a comprehensive plan for using
standards-based technology in a rig-
orous, robust approach to protecting
its strategic IT assets.
Plans and priorities
After assessing the financial impact,
the next step was to develop an under-
standing of where to focus disaster
recovery initiatives. “We created a risk
profile based on hard data, rather than
guesswork,” says Higdon. To get that
hard data, the IT group gathered input
from a range of sources, including mete-
orologists and the company’s insurance
carrier—an especially valuable source
of risk information.
Next, the group conducted a careful
analysis to identify the applications
that would have the greatest impact on
the business in the event of a disaster,
creating three classifications. Class 1
applications are those that need to be
up and running in the event of a disaster
within four hours—generally, things that
affect manufacturing, sales, and service.
Class 2 applications need to be up within
48 hours. And Class 3 applications are
to be back up based on “best effort.”
That classification helped the group
prioritize efforts and allocate invest-
ments appropriately in order to be able
to recover the most crucial systems first.
Strengthening the infrastructure
Armed with that understanding, Dell
laid the cornerstone of its disaster
recovery effort—a new 40,000-square-
foot data center with some 5,000 servers
to provide redundant backup to the
company’s main data center in Austin,
Texas. In both centers, Dell IT profes-
sionals looked at business continuity
across several levels, including the site
as a whole, computing platforms, appli-
cations, and data.
For example, the centers make use
of Oracle® Real Application Clusters
(Oracle RAC) technology, running on
Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers that have a
number of high-availability features.
With Oracle’s clustering technology, if
one system in a cluster fails or is taken
down for maintenance, the others can
pick up its workload instantly. “About

Disaster Recovery: Rules of the Road

In creating and implementing its enterprise approach to disaster recovery, Dell’s IT group
developed 10 principles designed to help ensure a thorough, focused effort.

1. Articulate the need in financial terms. Doing so provides
a clear business case, helps ensure organizational buy-in,
and provides a guidepost for investing in disaster recovery.
2. Use hard data to create a risk profile. Rather than simply
taking a best guess, work with insurers and other data
sources to determine the true nature of the risk—such as
fire, storms, etc.—for a particular operation.
3. Identify critical resources. Conduct a rigorous analysis to
identify key applications that warrant redundancy, backup,
and recovery attention, and categorize applications to help
prioritize efforts.
4. Think beyond the data center. Factor in essential and rel-
evant business processes and infrastructure components
across the organization.
5. Eliminate or mitigate single points of failure. Perform a
detailed single-point-of-failure analysis across the entire
infrastructure—including seemingly minor components—to
find areas where redundancy is lacking.
6. Assume that everything is going to fail. Create business
continuity plans based on the idea that every key piece
of internal and external infrastructure may fail or become
unavailable for extended periods.
7. Consider an active-active data center strategy. A dis-
tributed environment that runs across data centers enables
high availability and the use of load balancing as a constant
test of recoverability.
8. Recognize potential vendor weaknesses. Evaluate
vendors’ disaster recovery capabilities, and include vendors
in disaster recovery testing to understand how their policies
and technologies might affect the enterprise.
9. Keep disaster recovery capabilities up to date. Monitor
documentation and establish strong procedures and pro-
cesses to make disaster recovery part of everyday activity.
10. Perform tests on a regular basis. Validate failover and
recovery capabilities to make sure things work as planned—
perhaps on a quarterly basis.

S2
DellDisasterRecov_v7ForPrep 6/28/07
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
“We assume that everything
is going to fail. It might be
systems, a network, phone
lines, roads leading to one
of the data centers. And then
we think about what to do if
those things do fail.”
—Mitchell McGovern, director,
Dell Global Operation Services
72 percent of the Oracle databases we
have in production are Oracle Database
10g and Real Application Clusters,”
says Logan McLeod, IT strategist for
Dell. “They provide high availability and
scalability, and they enable us to dynam-
ically respond to ever-changing work-
loads in our environment.” The data
centers also use Oracle Data Guard
software to manage standby databases,
and Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid
Control, which provides a single point of
management for 100 percent of Dell’s
global production databases.
Mitchell McGovern, director of Dell’s
Global Operation Services, says that Dell
paid close attention to rooting out single
points of failure in the infrastructure.
“We did a detailed analysis across the
entire infrastructure, focusing on
ensuring redundancy at all levels—
power, cooling, network, software,
hardware,” says McGovern. “You may
have duplicate networks and systems,
but if the power fails, for example, and
you just have one generator that doesn’t
come on, it’s all for naught.”
The group also found that it needed to
pay close attention to processes as well
as technologies. In particular, they estab-
lished detailed change-management
2:10 PM Page 3
processes to make sure that over time,
patches and upgrades are applied con-
sistently across the data centers so that
the two remain identical as the infra-
structure evolves. Otherwise, seemingly
minor differences in the two centers
could delay and complicate failover
efforts in an actual emergency.
Maintaining that consistency is
especially important as Dell moves to
an active-active configuration across
the two data centers. With this con-
figuration, systems operate in a fully
distributed production environment,
with each data center able to handle
75 percent of peak workloads and
100 percent of normal workloads. For
example, Dell’s Quote Management
System runs in both data centers on
two independent Oracle Database 10g
RAC clusters, using Oracle Streams
technology. If there were a disaster,
failover would be automatic and instan-
taneous—the problem would constitute
a loss of capacity, but not of data or
functionality. Thus, if one system han-
dling quotes becomes unavailable, the
other simply carries on, and customers
continue to get quotes without noticing
any difference except possibly a minor For high availability, Dell’s data centers rely
degradation in response times. That on Dell PowerEdge servers running Oracle
active-active configuration not only pro- Database 10g with Real Application Clusters.
vides high levels of availability, it also
allows Dell to balance loads across weaknesses,” says Higdon. “We spend
centers to maintain high performance time testing with our vendors—for
levels. What’s more, this load balancing example, we might simulate a disaster
is essentially testing the failover capa- here at Dell and include a couple of
bilities—all the time, as a part of day- vendors to see how an event here might
to-day operations. affect them. You don’t want to get in a
Dell IT recognized that although the silo and forget about everything else
data centers are critical, they don’t that touches your operations.”
operate in a vacuum. The group took a McGovern says that the broad
broad look at its infrastructure to identify search for weaknesses—internally and
where business continuity depended externally—is the result of a guiding
on applications in other Dell facilities principle adopted by the IT group: “We
around the world, and took steps to assume that everything is going to fail.
apply disaster recovery procedures It might be systems, a network, phone
in those areas. It also looked outside lines, roads leading to one of the data
corporate boundaries. “We felt that it centers. And then we think about what
is important to look for potential vendor to do if those things do fail.”
S3
DellDisasterRecov_v7ForPrep 6/28/07 2:10 PM Page 4

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Keeping disaster recovery current

Dell has completed its transformation
of its disaster recovery plans and pro-
cesses—but the effort will never be
entirely finished, says McGovern. Tech-
nologies, business needs, and security
threats all continue to evolve, and Dell’s
disaster recovery policies and proce-
dures are designed to do the same.
For example, when a change is made
to an application, database, or data
center, disaster recovery capabilities
are updated as well. New applications
must be engineered for recoverability.
Dell actively monitors and manages
disaster recovery compliance, and
disaster recovery documentation for
each system has to be updated every
90 days.
The company also maintains a strict
policy that calls for all of its more than
250 Class 1 applications to be tested
at least once a year. “That’s not nego-
tiable—it’s mandatory,” says Higdon.
Dell has created a disaster recovery
scorecard that lets the company keep
close track of testing and documen-
tation status. The card is used by the
IT group and the CIO, and is eventually
shared with the corporate audit function
and the audit committee of the board
of directors. “You can see how serious
we are about this,” says Higdon.
The Dell disaster recovery initiative
has put the company in good position to
ensure business continuity—and keep
supporting customers—in the event of
a serious interruption at its data center.
“The goal is to do a complete failover
to the disaster recovery site within four
hours, and we’ve been hitting that mark.
In our last test, we actually failed over
all the applications in scope in less than
an hour,” says Higdon. And as an unex-
pected benefit, the company has seen
The Dell and Oracle Relationship
D ell and Oracle have a long collaborative relationship based in large part
on the similar long-term visions of both companies. Oracle’s Grid Computing
strategy focuses on delivering flexible, reliable database throughput; the dynamic
provisioning of database workloads on grids of industry-standard servers; and
the ability to easily add more capacity to grids. Dell’s Scalable Enterprise vision
complements that strategy with its focus on standardizing the core elements of
IT infrastructure to deliver superior value, and ultimately enabling customers to
simplify operations, improve utilization, and scale effectively.
With those complementary visions in mind, Dell and Oracle work together on
a number of fronts. For example, experts from both companies have collaborated
to develop a number of pre-engineered, tested, and validated Intel-based Oracle
database solutions on Red Hat Linux® and Microsoft® Windows Server® 2003.
Dell and Oracle test and support the entire solution stack—servers, storage,
switches, operating systems, and Oracle Database software—giving companies
a cost-effective solution to legacy data center technologies. In addition, Dell
Services and Oracle Consulting Services work together to provide fixed-fee and
custom services designed to accelerate implementation and help organizations
make the best use of the technology.
The two companies also have a firsthand view of the effectiveness of these
technologies: Both use Dell and Oracle platforms in their own operations. Oracle
develops and tests much of its software on Dell PowerEdge servers and relies
on more than 20,000 Dell Linux servers to power key elements of its Global IT
operations. Similarly, Dell entrusts several mission-critical business systems to
PowerEdge servers running Oracle Database 10g—including not only its EMEA
(Europe, Middle East, and Africa) order-management system, but also its North
American supply chain database.
its insurance premiums go down, Resources
because its carrier has recognized the
value of Dell’s disaster recovery efforts. Dell PowerEdge servers
“This initiative shows how cost- www.dell.com/PowerEdge
effective, standards-based servers can Dell and Oracle Database 10g
be used to support a strategic, enter- www.dell.com/oracle10g
prise approach to disaster recovery,” Oracle and Dell
says McGovern. “Just as important, www.oracle.com/dell
it has enabled us to build disaster www.dell.com/oracle
recovery into our culture. That’s key to
keeping disaster recovery in sync with
the business. In today’s world, disaster
recovery is not a ‘nice to have’—it’s a
‘must have.’ And we’ve been able to
make it a part of everyday life at Dell.”

July 2007. Printed in the U.S.A. Dell, the DELL logo, and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Inc. Oracle is a registered
trademark of Oracle Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Microsoft and Windows Server are regis-
tered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either
the entities claiming the marks or their products. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.
© 2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc. is
strictly forbidden. For more information, please contact Dell Inc.

S4
 ew
NDatabase Vault
The only database
that prevents your IT staff
from seeing your data.

Without Oracle’s new Database Vault,

your staff can see:
Your financial results

Your customer list

Your employees’ salaries

Only Oracle has a Database Vault

oracle.com/security
or call 1.800.ORACLE.1

Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
 BY DAV I D B AUM

MANAGE CHANGE WITH ORACLE

ith the recent launch of Oracle Database 11g, customers

are realizing a broad array of new capabilities in many

areas—grid computing, data security, high availability,

performance and scalability, and manageability. Especially impor-

tant to many are the new features that manage change faster,
NEW FEATURES thus helping to lower the risk and cost of implementing new

SPEED INNOVATION software and other system changes.

AND TRANSFORM “Change is a constant, which means IT depart-

ments are constantly upgrading servers, rolling out

THE ENTERPRISE.
upgrades, applying patches, and resolving problems,” says

Andy Mendelsohn, Oracle senior vice president, Database

Server Technologies. “Oracle Database 11g helps customers

manage these changes in a controlled manner—minimizing the

risk of new projects and the potential for error.”

Change assurance capabilities are among Oracle Database 11g’s

many new features that customers have had a chance to test-drive.

Since September 2006, hundreds of Oracle customers have partici-

pated in a comprehensive beta testing program for Oracle Database

11g. Their stories are as diverse as the companies they work for, yet

as IDC Research Vice President Carl Olofson points out, a common

chord resonates through them all: a desire to reduce the risk of

36 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

SO07_11g_FEAT.indd 36 7/17/07 10:10:27 AM

 DATABASE 11g
RICHARD MERCHÁN

ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 37

SO07_11g_FEAT.indd 37 7/17/07 10:10:27 AM

 “With these new capabilities of Oracle Database 11g, we can record everything
that happens to the database during a particular period in the real world and
then replay it on a test system to see how it reacts.”
managing data and to enable their organizations to do
more with less.
“Today’s DBAs face challenges on a scale never
before seen in the industry,” says Olofson. “On the one
hand, they’re dealing with exploding databases, both
in numbers and in sizes. And at the same time, they’re
increasingly expected to manage new complex datatypes
that we’ve never seen in the database before.”
One of the problems of coping with all these changes
is the time and effort it has taken in the past to prepare
for and execute them. But new Oracle Database 11g capa-
Thomas Knauber, an architect for Postbank Systems AG, says that Oracle Database 11g offers real-world testing, which will be especially valuable when the
company needs to evaluate changes to databases that underlie critical applications.
38 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
SO07_11g_FEAT.indd 38
—Thomas Knauber, Architect
Postbank Systems AG
bilities, such as database replay, which lets customers
simulate production environments, can help.
RISING COMFORT LEVEL
These capabilities appealed to Qualcomm, a telecommu-
nications equipment manufacturer based in San Diego.
Qualcomm pioneered a digital wireless technology that
works by converting analog information, such as speech,
into digital information, which is then transmitted as a
radio signal over a wireless network. The company now
has 400 mission-critical databases that depend on Oracle
7/17/07 10:10:32 AM
 technology. After beta testing the new management
capabilities of Oracle Database 11g, Qualcomm DBAs
determined that several features, including database
replay, will make it easier to tune database applications
to improve performance.
“Right now our test environments might not give us
the correct picture of what production will be,” says Shaik
Hidayatullah, staff DBA at Qualcomm. “Database replay
will allow us to be more comprehensive and systematic
and will also give us a more accurate test experience.”
Oracle Database 11g continues the effort to simplify
and ultimately fully automate common DBA tasks.
Oracle has introduced more self-management utilities,
along with advisors for partitioning, database repair,
streams performance, and space management. Thomas
Knauber, an architect for Postbank Systems AG—the
IT service provider for Deutsche Postbank AG, in
Bonn, Germany—says these enhancements will enable
the DBA team to work smarter and not always be
driven by incidents. “We don’t want to be in a constant
state of reacting to issues,” he says. “Clearly, Oracle
sees the value in this outlook.”
For example, Knauber looks forward to a new feature
called snapshot standby, which will allow the DBAs to
temporarily convert physical standby databases to snap-
shot standby databases for testing and maintenance. In
addition, the database replay facility will allow Postbank
Systems to capture production workloads at the database
level and then play them back on a test system to fully
gauge the impact of changes—including critical concur-
rency characteristics. Knauber says this type of real-
world testing will be especially valuable when they need
to evaluate changes to databases that underlie the bank’s
critical applications.
“We have a dedicated test network, but it has always
been difficult to simulate the cash dispenser workload,”
he says. “With these new capabilities of Oracle Database
11g, we can record everything that happens to the data-
base during a particular period in the real world and
then replay it on a test system to see how it reacts.”
WORKING SMARTER
One of the features that appeals to the Qualcomm DBAs
is automatic memory tuning, which enables automatic,
unified tuning of both system global area (SGA) and
program global area (PGA) memory buffers. “Before,
we used to look at each instance manually,” says Justin
Ambrose, another staff DBA at Qualcomm. “Now, we can
set one or two global parameters, and everything will be
adjusted. Oracle automatically balances the memory allo-
BOB ADLER
cated to each group of nodes, depending on the load.”
Other features that Qualcomm DBAs expect will
SO07_11g_FEAT.indd 39
help improve database performance are database
replay; automatic SQL tuning, which automatically
chooses the workload and tests, implements, and
retunes SQL profiles; and the SQL tuning set, which is
used to store the SQL workload.
“We can adapt database replay to most of our
databases when we go from test to production,” says
ORACLE DATABASE 11g FEATURES
Oracle Database 11g helps companies protect information,
reduce complexity of operations, and adapt to change. Here are
just a few of the innovations and improvements.
Oracle Real Application Testing. This new feature in Oracle
Database 11g makes it easier to test systems before and
after database upgrades and hardware and operating system
changes so you can more quickly identify and fix problems,
thus lowering costs. Oracle Real Application Testing includes
O
Database replay, which lets you capture production
workloads at the database level and replay them on your test
system—so you can test the impact of system changes, includ-
ing critical concurrency characteristics
O
SQL performance analyzer, which identifies SQL execution
plan changes and performance regressions
Enhanced partitioning. These capabilities include partition-
ing by parent/child references; partitioning by virtual columns;
more composite partitioning choices; and interval partitioning,
which automatically generates new partitions based on inter-
vals, such as every day or every month.
Advanced compression. Oracle Database 11g supports
data compression for update, insert, and delete operations
commonly used in online transaction processing (OLTP) appli-
cations. Oracle Database 11g table compression improves data-
base performance with better use of memory for caching data
and reduced I/O for table scans. With table compression, you
can achieve two- to three-fold compression ratios with minimal
processing overhead.
Flashback data archive. Part of the Oracle Total Recall
option, this feature lets you query data in selected tables
“as of” earlier times, which adds a time dimension to your
data for change tracking, information lifecycle management,
auditing, and compliance. Flashback data archive stores
change data automatically to enable fast query access to old
versions of the data.
Oracle SecureFiles. This feature lets you store large objects
such as images, large text objects, or advanced datatypes—
including XML, medical imaging, and geospatial raster
objects—inside the database. Performance is comparable to
file systems, and Oracle SecureFiles provides advanced func-
tionality including intelligent compression, transparent encryp-
tion, and transparent deduplication.
ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 39
7/31/07 2:16:10 PM
 “Automatic SQL tuning and automatic memory tuning will reduce the

Ambrose. “Additionally, automatic SQL tuning and automatic
memory tuning will reduce the amount of time we spend on
tuning tasks by about 70 percent. The SQL tuning set will
look at the overall picture of all our SQL statements and give
us recommendations.”
Online hot database patching is another feature that
Qualcomm DBAs are interested in, since it will allow many
database patches to be applied with no downtime in both
Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) and non–
Oracle RAC environments. “Right now we need downtime to
do a patch,” Ambrose says. “That can be eliminated totally
with Oracle Database 11g and the online patching facility.”

Innovate Faster with Oracle Database 11g

Ensure Security
and Compliance Manage All Your Information
Keep data secure and ensure Consolidate and integrate all your
regulatory compliance with enterprise information including
transparent data encryption, binary XML, RFID datatypes, DICOM
flashback data archive, Oracle medical images, 3-D spatial data, and
Database Vault, and Oracle other multimedia data into your
Audit Vault. business processes.

Make Changes Faster

Change with confidence and
Manage More Data
reduce the time it takes to
Manage your ever-growing
change your IT systems with
database storage needs
the realistic production
more easily with advanced
workload testing and diagnosis
partitioning and data
capabilities of Oracle Real
compression, and efficiently
Application Testing.
manage the lifecycle of
information inside
your database.

Performance and Scalability

Deliver optimal database
Maximize Availability
performance and scalability with
Manage unplanned downtime from
enhancements and optimizations,
server, storage, or site failure and
including query result caches, new
human error, perform online patch
Oracle SecureFiles LOB storage
updates and rolling upgrades, and
architecture, and OLAP cube-
get more performance out of
organized materialized views.
production systems using new
Oracle Data Guard features.

40 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

SO07_11g_FEAT.indd 40 7/17/07 10:10:47 AM

 amount of time we spend on tuning tasks by about 70 percent.”
—Justin Ambrose, Staff DBA, Qualcomm

Qualcomm’s Hidayatullah
likes Oracle Database 11g’s
adaptive threshold capabili-
ties. Performance monitoring
is established with baselines,
which capture metric value
statistics and are automatically
computed over the system’s
moving window. The baseline
metric statistics are used to
determine alert thresholds,
and companies can use Oracle
Enterprise Manager to configure
adaptive thresholds for alerts.
Hidayatullah adds that these
settings will enable Qualcomm
to vary the expected perfor-
mance levels at certain times
of the day and week. “We can
set the parameters so that the
database automatically senses
the threshold,” he says. “It will
know what the expected load
should be and then adjust the
parameters accordingly.”
Vishu Krishnamurthy, Oracle’s
senior director of XML Database,
search, and information manage-
ment, believes that these auto-
mated management capabilities
are becoming increasingly impor-
tant, particularly as customers
use Oracle Database to store both
structured and unstructured data Justin Ambrose (left) and Shaik Hidayatulla, staff DBAs at Qualcomm, anticipate that Oracle Database 11g ’s management
ranging from office documents capabilities will save time, give DBAs a better picture of test results, and ultimately, make it easier to tune database
applications to improve performance.
and spreadsheets to medical
images and geographical data. “It makes good economic sense create a large-scale storage system for its Printrak Biometrics
to store, manipulate, and protect all types of information in Identification Solution.
a common repository,” he says. “Oracle Database 11g can According to Aris Prassinos, a database architect for the
manage all information in the enterprise, with robust security biometrics division of Motorola, the company selected Oracle
and information lifecycle management (ILM) capabilities.” for its ability to store large, complex biometric images such
as fingerprints, palm prints, facial and iris images, and sig-
DATATYPE CONVERGENCE natures in a secure, highly flexible way. Motorola uses Oracle
Motorola was most enthusiastic about Oracle Database 11g’s large objects (LOBs) to store these images within the data-
enhanced XML capabilities and more-robust support for base, along with Oracle XML Database (Oracle XML DB) to
BOB ADLER

unstructured data. The global wireless and broadband com- store diverse textual data.
munications provider implemented Oracle Database 10g to Prassinos believes that Oracle Database 11g will improve

ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 41

SO07_11g_FEAT.indd 41 7/17/07 10:10:51 AM

 “Since the [large objects] have been rearchitected for Oracle Database 11g with
Oracle SecureFiles, we have seen huge performance improvements.”
—Aris Prassinos, Database Architect, Biometrics Division, Motorola

performance significantly.
“90 percent of our data is
either images or XML data
stored in LOB format,” he
says. “Since the LOBs have
been rearchitected for Oracle
Database 11g with Oracle
SecureFiles, we have seen
huge performance improve-
ments. For smaller images
such as fingerprints, reading
and writing from the LOBs is
three times faster. For larger
images such as palm prints,
we’ve clocked it at seven
times faster using Oracle
Database 11g beta software.”
Oracle SecureFiles is
Oracle’s next-generation offer-
ing for storing LOBs such
as images—as well as large
text objects and advanced
datatypes such as XML,
medical images, and geospa-
tial raster objects—inside the General manageability enhancements such as Oracle RAC–aware automatic database diagnostic monitor will
database, with performance improve reliability and uptime. “With Oracle Database 11g we can apply its performance diagnostic and tuning
capabilities across all nodes of our Oracle RAC clusters,” says Aris Prassinos, Database Architect for Motorola.
comparable to file systems. This
speed and flexibility are essential for Motorola’s demand- tomers transform data centers from silos of isolated
ing justice and public-safety customers, as well as for resources to versatile, shared pools of servers and storage
disaster recovery efforts. Prassinos says general manage- capacity. Oracle Database 11g helps these organizations
ability enhancements such as Oracle RAC–aware auto- take full advantage of infrastructure grids by managing
matic database diagnostic monitor (ADDM) will improve changes to the database and the surrounding IT infra-
reliability and uptime for these customers. “We’re heavy structure, such as when they move their data from one
users of ADDM. With Oracle Database 11g we can apply hardware platform to another.
its performance diagnostic and tuning capabilities across “We enhanced all the key areas in grid computing,”
all the nodes of our Oracle RAC clusters,” he says. says Oracle’s Mendelsohn. “We improved automatic
Another advancement for Motorola in Oracle storage management to make software mirroring faster.
Database 11g is the way Oracle treats XML data as part of We enhanced Oracle RAC’s cache fusion protocol. One of
Motorola’s XML Index product. “Everything that Oracle the cool things we did was an enhancement with ADDM.
supports for SQL we can now do in XML and vice versa,” In Oracle Database 11g, ADDM can look for interconnect
Prassinos says. “Binary XML storage and enhanced issues or global I/O problems when it performs diagnos-
XML indexing will give us more options for storing and tics and tuning. That’s a very exciting improvement for
retrieving important data.” our administrators.”
RAFFI ALEXANDER

Fidelity National Information Services welcomes these

ENHANCING THE GRID PARADIGM enhancements. This leading provider of core financial
One of Oracle’s primary objectives with Oracle Database institution processing, card issuer, and transaction pro-
11g is to extend the benefits of grid computing, as cus- cessing services specializes in mortgage loan processing

42 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

SO07_11g_FEAT.indd 42 7/17/07 10:10:57 AM

 and related information products.
Nearly 50 percent of all U.S. resi-
dential mortgages are processed
using Fidelity software. In 2006,
Fidelity converted an IBM DB2
database to Oracle Database 10g
and Oracle RAC. Managers valued
Oracle’s ability to eliminate single
points of failure and improve
capacity planning. Today, Fidelity
uses the Oracle software to store
50 million mortgage title docu-
ments and associated metadata
with a combination of XML data
and PDF files. “We are heavily
vested in Oracle as a product and that Oracle Database 11g ’s new internal encryption will
future direction,” says Fidelity’s
Mike Amble, senior vice president of operations and engi- and personal data like social security numbers in different
neering. “Our database is a very large component of our
overall operation.”
Amble and his team have been
evaluating Oracle Database 11g,
which they plan to deploy later
this year. They are particularly
enthusiastic about the software’s
high-availability capabilities and
flashback data archive, which
provide an easy, practical way to
add a time dimension for change
tracking, auditing, and compli-
ance. Fidelity has standardized
on an Oracle RAC environment,
along with Oracle Automatic
Storage Management, Oracle Data
Guard, recovery manager, and
flashback technologies. These
systems have been implemented
according to Oracle Maximum
Availability Architecture, with
help from Oracle Consulting.
“For an operation of our size,
any type of outage translates into
millions of dollars of loss in a
very short period of time,” says
Amble. “We need an environ-
ment that permits instantaneous
backup, anchored by highly
available systems in separate loca-
CHARITY DEMEER
tions. Oracle RAC enables us to
distribute data more effectively
to improve response time, and
Oracle Database 11g has many
SO07_11g_FEAT.indd 43
useful tools that can improve the
structure, layout, and query plan
associated with our databases.”
With millions of mortgage,
title, and escrow documents
stored as LOBs in its database,
Fidelity also favors Oracle
Database 11g because its Oracle
SecureFiles feature can manage
structured and unstructured
information in a cohesive way—
securely and with encryption
capabilities. “We have extremely
Mike Amble, Senior Vice President of Operations and demanding security issues,”
Engineering at Fidelity National Information Services, says Amble continues. “We need to
maintain information about bank
enable the company to encrypt sensitive data transparently.
accounts, mortgages, credit cards,
formats. Oracle’s new internal encryption mechanism in
11g will enable Fidelity to encrypt sensitive data, includ-
ing LOBs, transparently.”
SNAP SHOTS AND SO MUCH MORE . . .
Qualcomm www.cdmatech.com
The customers profiled here are
Location: San Diego, California Industry: High technology discovering useful enhancements
Annual revenue: US$1 billion Employees: 5,000–9,999 to Oracle’s flagship database
Oracle products and services: Oracle Database, environment, yet Mendelsohn
Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle E-Business points out that there are many
Suite, Oracle Enterprise Manager, Oracle Fusion more enhancements. “We’ve
Middleware
enhanced our data warehousing
Deutsche Postbank AG www.postbank.com and business intelligence [BI]
Location: Bonn, Germany Industry: Financial services capabilities on several fronts to
Annual revenue: €941 million Employees: 22,000 improve manageability and make
Oracle products and services: Oracle Database, advanced technologies such
Oracle JDeveloper as online analytical processing
[OLAP] and data mining more
Motorola www.motorola.com
Location: Schaumburg, Illinois Industry: High technology
accessible to mainstream users,”
Annual revenue: US$42.6 billion Employees: 69,000 he says. Oracle OLAP capabili-
Oracle products and services: Oracle Database, ties are now fully integrated with
Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle Data Guard, the Oracle Materialized Views
Oracle XML DB, Oracle Automatic Storage Management, feature, and OLAP cubes can
Oracle Diagnostic Pack, Oracle Tuning Pack be automatically refreshed from
relational data and transparently
Fidelity National Information Services
www.fidelityinfoservices.com/fnfis accessed using SQL.
Location: Jacksonville, Florida Industry: Financial services “In addition, automatic data
Financial services US$9.4 billion Employees: 25,000 preparation at the SQL/Java API
Oracle products and services: Oracle Database, level, an improved management
Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control, Oracle console, and more predictive
Enterprise Manager Performance Pack, Oracle Recovery
analytics have made data mining
Manager, Oracle Data Guard, Oracle Real Application
Clusters, Oracle Partitioning, Oracle E-Business Suite,
in Oracle Database 11g both
including Human Capital Management and Financials easier to use and more power-
ful,” Mendelsohn says. When it
ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 43
7/17/07 10:11:01 AM
 comes to managing this advanced BI infrastructure, Oracle
Enterprise Manager is fully “DW [data warehouse] aware,”
as Mendelsohn puts it, and includes data warehouse–specific
screens, parallelism, and partitioning.
MAKING IT ALL SECURE
Vipin Samar, Oracle’s vice president of database security
development, points to the comprehensive security and com-
pliance features and products associated with Oracle Database
11g such as the recently introduced Oracle Audit Vault,
enhancements to transparent data encryption, and improved
security tools. “While Oracle Database Vault protects the
data inside the database from highly privileged users through
custom controls and flexible policies, Oracle Audit Vault
helps monitor the enterprise by consolidating audit data from
multiple enterprise databases—Oracle9i Database Release
2 and higher—into a centralized secure data warehouse,
enabling auditors to efficiently report, analyze, and raise alerts
on suspicious user activity,” he says.
Data encryption continues to be a top priority for custom-
ers coping with personally identifiable information and privacy
regulations such as Peripheral Component Interconnect, Samar
he says. Oracle Database 11g also includes new management
interfaces in Oracle Enterprise Manager for encryption, Oracle
Label Security, and enterprise user security. Other security
enhancements include case-sensitive passwords, default profile
password settings, and default audit settings.
Mendelsohn says that the release of Oracle Database 11g
this year is apropos, because Oracle is celebrating its 30th
anniversary as one of the world’s leading technology providers.
“It’s a time for celebration,” he says, “and it’s great to have such
enthusiastic customers on board for the occasion.” O
David Baum (david@dbaumcomm.com) is a freelance business writer based in
Santa Barbara, California.
READ about Oracle Database
oracle.com/database
DOWNLOAD Oracle Database
otn.oracle.com/database
DISCUSS Oracle Database
forums.oracle.com/forums/category.jspa?categoryID=18

says. “Oracle Database 11g provides significant new enhance- DISCOVER Oracle Database documentation
otn.oracle.com/documentation
ments to transparent data encryption with Oracle SecureFiles
(LOB encryption) and tablespace encryption, making it easier EXPLORE Oracle Database tutorials
otn.oracle.com/obe
to encrypt an entire application’s data or sensitive objects,”

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44 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

SO07_11g_FEAT.indd 44 7/17/07 10:11:06 AM

 Special Advertising Section

ORACLE DATABASE 11g

Partner
Guide
Partners Are Lining Up to Help Customers Meet
Change with Confidence

THE FOLLOWING SECTION HIGHLIGHTS

key hardware, storage, and service partners
who are ready to help Oracle customers
manage change while reducing risk, lowering
cost, and improving performance.

PARTNER INDEX
HP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Fujitsu Siemens Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Pillar Data Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
The Pythian Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Quest Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
TUSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
NetApp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Autodesk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
AMD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

11g_Ads.indd 45 7/31/07 12:02:17 PM

 Special Advertising Section
HP
HP and Oracle: Improving Business Outcomes
T he speed and unpredictability of business cycles
have pushed the limits of information technology (IT)
infrastructures at many enterprises. Organizations need to
become more adaptable, but often their information systems
are slow to respond. At the same time, these enterprises
want to gain greater efficiency and effectiveness from their
IT systems, lower the cost of computing, and optimize their
business outcomes.
HP has a tradition of helping customers profit from new IT
innovations. As enterprises all over the world discover that
they need new levels of availability and integration—in real
time—they are turning to HP. HP Integrity, HP ProLiant, and
HP BladeSystem servers offer the highest levels of service
of any platform in their class. HP storage systems scale to
meet the most demanding customer workloads. HP software
provides a leading management platform for the data cen-
ter, plus tools such as HP LoadRunner and Quality Center
software, to help customers optimize their environments. In
other words, HP provides all of the components of an agile,
high-performance, highly available data center, thus helping
customers achieve better business outcomes.
HP also has a long history of working with Oracle. And
Oracle Database 11g will be an integral part of HP’s cus-
tomer solutions.
“Oracle Database 11g, with its low-cost maximum avail-
ability architecture, combined with HP’s software, servers,
and storage, provides an opportunity for customers to take
advantage of this next level of IT innovation and, in turn, achieve
better business outcomes,” says Ron Eller, vice president and
general manager, enterprise solution alliances, at HP.
A TOTAL SOLUTION
HP and Oracle share more than 100,000 customers, from
small and medium businesses to large enterprises. The
breadth and depth of this joint solution stack—including HP/
Oracle reference architectures, applications, and operating
systems—allow these two partners to provide customers
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT | www.hp.com/go/oracle
11g_Ads.indd 46
with a total solution. “For customers who want to optimize
their business outcomes, HP and Oracle together offer the
products, services, and experience to accelerate business
growth, mitigate risks, and lower costs, providing a solid
return on IT investments,” explains Eller.
The companies have invested heavily in their joint
solutions. In fact, HP and Oracle manage 13 competency
centers across the globe that provide proofs of concept;
design, configuration, and benchmarking assistance; thought
leadership; and training.
HP has been involved in the Oracle Database 11g beta
program for more than a year. As an Oracle database
customer, HP gained insight into how the new release would
help the company improve its business. At the same time, as
an Oracle partner participating in the beta program, HP lent
its perspective and expertise to Oracle’s development team
to make the new database release even better.
For example, HP worked with Oracle to incorporate HP’s
industry-leading network-attached storage solution directly
into the Oracle Direct network file system (Oracle Direct
NFS) The result? With Oracle Database 11g, customers
can realize scalable and available I/O performance on
network-attached storage that was not previously possible.
In addition, this combination of Oracle and HP technology
can leverage existing storage area networks, providing
customers with investment protection while allowing
flexibility for growth with mitigated risk.
“We’re excited that Oracle has developed its [Oracle]
Direct NFS feature in Oracle Database 11g on HP Storage
products so that customers can choose simple, inexpensive
storage connectivity and provisioning for grid deployment,”
says Eller. “It’s just another example of the way Oracle
and HP work together to provide customers with better
overall answers.”
HP and Oracle share a common goal of improving their
customers’ business outcomes through IT. Because IT isn’t a
separate piece of the business—IT helps drive the business.
7/27/07 11:02:17 AM
 Special Advertising Section
FUJITSU SIEMENS COMPUTERS
Oracle and Fujitsu Siemens Computers
“I t’s a fact that no one vendor offers the whole picture, so
partnerships are vital,” says Dr. Bernd Kosch, vice president
of strategic alliances within Fujitsu Siemens Computers. “The
key is that both companies bring unique contributions to a
strategic partnership, giving joint customers a leading edge
and business advantage.”
It is precisely these types of strategic partnerships that
fuel growth and innovation. It’s also one of the many drivers
behind why Oracle has had a strategic global partnership with
the Fujitsu Group for decades —including Fujitsu Limited and
Fujitsu Siemens Computers.
Oracle technology is a key component in the Fujitsu
Group’s range of servers running Linux, Windows, and Solaris
operating environments on both Intel and SPARC platforms.
The Fujitsu Group meets the needs of the world’s largest
and most-progressive users of information technology by
providing enterprise and e-business open systems server
and storage solutions. In fact, Fujitsu Siemens Computers
is the only company that supports three out of five strategic
platforms—Linux, Windows, and Solaris running on UNIX/
SPARC–based PRIMEPOWER, PRIMEQUEST, and Intel-based
PRIMERGY servers.
A SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP
Oracle recently named the Fujitsu Group a Global Alliance
Partner and assigned a dedicated Global Alliance Manager
in Europe who reports directly to Oracle’s headquarters
in Redwood Shores. “We are now able to draw on direct
support from Oracle’s headquarters, which clearly improves
the planning and implementation of joint activities,” Kosch
explains. Within the Oracle PartnerNetwork, Fujitsu Siemens
Computers is an Oracle Certified Advantage Partner.
“Together with Oracle we can guarantee our customers
enhanced application performance, unlimited scalability,
fault tolerance, optimum security, and increased value from
products and services that are fully integrated and compatible
with our technology,” says Kosch.
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT | www.fujitsu-siemens.com/solutions/strategic_partners/oracle/index.html
11g_Ads.indd 47
Oracle Database 11g will deliver the highest level of
manageability, availability, performance, and security for cus-
tomers. In the jointly run Center of Excellence at the Oracle
facility in Munich, Germany, Fujitsu Siemens Computers and
Oracle will evaluate and test Oracle Database 11g with Fujitsu
Siemens Computers’s infrastructure solutions and storage
systems. Fujitsu Siemens Computers also plans to integrate
Oracle Database 11g as soon as possible into its own product
and solution portfolio, and to promote its benefits to customers
and partners via the joint Oracle/Fujitsu Siemens Computers
ISV Migration Centers in Europe.
CHECKS AND BALANCES
Ongoing performance testing and analysis will ensure that
Oracle and Fujitsu Siemens Computers deliver on the top
performance-improvement features, including faster and
more-reliable direct connections to network file system storage
devices, faster upgrades, faster backup/restore for large files,
faster backup compression, and new security features, such
as improved transparent data encryption to support tablespace
encryption and tighter integration with hardware security
modules for high-assurance masterkey protection. Also in the
works is increased password security with support for case-
sensitive, multibyte passwords, plus strong password-hashing
algorithms such as Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-1) and salt.
Additional features include secure-by-default configuration
settings supporting password policies and audit options,
and strong authentication support for database system
administrator and database system operator connections.
Kosch anticipates great things to come. “Fujitsu and
Fujitsu Siemens Computers are strategic to Oracle,” he
says. “We see significant sales opportunities for Oracle’s
technology solutions running on Fujitsu Siemens Computers
platforms in general, including PRIMERGY, PRIMEPOWER,
PRIMEQUEST, and BS2000, as well as especially the
FlexFrame for Oracle solution. We look forward to growing
our sales efforts to capitalize on this opportunity.”
7/27/07 11:02:18 AM
 Special Advertising Section
PILLAR DATA SYSTEMS
Making Room for Automation
W hen it comes to business data, there’s no such thing
as too much of a good thing. There is, however, the
ongoing challenge of effectively managing and storing
all that data. And that’s where Pillar Data Systems and
Oracle come in.
Pillar provides Oracle Database customers with end-to-
end solutions for cost-effective data storage. From validating
specific hardware and software configurations to providing
customers with tools for managing and consolidating multiple
storage tiers on a single platform, Pillar’s goal is to help
customers maximize data center performance while lowering
infrastructure costs.
In addition to providing Oracle Database 11g customers
with higher levels of efficiency, automation, and quality of
service, Pillar addresses the growing customer concern of
resources: power and physical space. In fact, Gartner predicts
that 50 percent of data centers will not have sufficient power
or cooling capacity by 2008 to keep up with current demands
for high-density computing.
GET CONFIDENT WITH VALIDATED CONFIGURATIONS
Pillar’s Oracle Validated Configurations will certify
architectures based on Oracle Database 11g to ensure
that servers, operating systems, and storage network
connectivity components all work together seamlessly,
according to Mike Workman, Pillar’s CEO. Oracle Validated
Configurations also include documented best practices for
standardization and deployment—saving time and expense
and improving overall quality of service (QoS). “The result is
true IT automation and higher efficiency,” says Workman.
Pillar’s commitment to publishing new validated configura-
tions for Oracle Database 11g running on Oracle Enterprise
Linux will provide confidence to customers looking to expedite
early adoption of our joint technologies.
“We see [Oracle] Database 11g as a natural progression
in providing our joint customers with the right solutions
for their needs,” says Paul Veilleux, Pillar’s executive
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT | www.pillardata.com
11g_Ads.indd 48
director, global alliances. “Customers who migrate to
Oracle Database 11g on Pillar will experience a new era in
automation.”
CONSOLIDATE ON PILLAR FOR MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY
Pillar is working with Oracle to provide adapters for Oracle
Enterprise Manager so that database administrators can
manage storage based on Oracle Database 11g from a single
console. Database administrators can also establish quality-
of-service levels by using a policy-driven framework for
automating storage requirements.
“There is a major shift in the way database administrators
and IT professionals view storage today,” says Pillar’s
Veilleux. “Space is at a premium and power requirements are
becoming an important issue. Companies can avoid significant
costs by purchasing a Pillar solution that consolidates SAN
[storage-area network] and NAS [network-attached storage]
systems onto a single platform and scales out to grow with
your database applications.”
By consolidating multiple tiers of storage, customers
can achieve more than twice the efficiency for each IOPS
performed per watt consumed, he says. Pillar is also a member
of the Green Grid, a consortium of information technology
companies and professionals seeking to improve energy
efficiency in data centers around the globe.
MORE ABOUT PILLAR
Pillar Data Systems takes a sensible, customer-centric
approach to networked storage. We started with a simple
yet powerful idea: Build a successful storage company
by creating value that others had promised, but never
produced. At Pillar, we’re on a mission to deliver the most
cost-effective, highly available networked storage solutions
on the market. We build reliable, flexible solutions that, for
the first time, seamlessly unite SAN with NAS and enable
multiple tiers of storage on a single platform. In the end, we
created an entirely new class of storage.
7/27/07 11:02:18 AM
 Special Advertising Section
THE PYTHIAN GROUP
Your 11g Database Maestros
“W e’ve seen features in Oracle Database 11g that
are so compelling that many companies are going
to want to adopt them sooner rather than later,” says Paul
Vallee, president of the Pythian Group. “And when they do,
our DBA teams are ready to help.”
Engineers from Pythian, an industry-leading outsourced
DBA services company, have spent over a year mastering
Oracle Database 11g features as part of a select beta tester
group on the Oracle campus.
The Pythian Group, founded in 1997, works with
organizations such as the University of Pennsylvania and
Forbes.com to blend its DBA expertise into the customer’s
existing database management team. “We can, of course,
outsource the entire DBA function, and we do that for many
customers,” says Vallee. “We’ve also spent 10 years fine-
tuning a service that blends our expertise with a customer’s
existing DBA team to great advantage for customers.”
Pythian customers range in size from startups to medium
businesses to Fortune 500 members.
SCALE UP WHEN YOU NEED TO, DOWN WHEN YOU DON’T
“A big part of our success is that we do not lock our
clients into long-term contracts,” says Vallee. “A company
can change how much work they flow to Pythian with
only 30 days notice.” This means Pythian customers can
quickly change their contracts to add Pythian’s expertise for
a major IT initiative, and then scale back when workloads
return to normal. “Even without long-term contracts,
customers stick around,” says Vallee. “We still have many
customers from our early years that have stayed with us all
this time.”
Another key to Pythian’s success is the level of
expertise it provides to clients. “We have deep roots
in the Oracle community,” says Vallee. “Our engineers
are very active in the Oracle users groups and the
Oracle beta process, and we have one of the world’s top
Oracle-focused blogs,” says Vallee. “When customers
contract our services, they’re getting access to consultant-
quality engineers.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT | www.pythian.com
11g_Ads.indd 49
ORACLE DATABASE 11g EXPERTISE
One Pythian consulting engineer, Christo Kutrovsky, a Pythian
DBA team lead and Oracle Database 11g beta member,
sees compelling features that customers are going to want
right away. “I’m very, very excited about real application
testing,” says Kutrovsky. “It’s the ability to capture workloads
on the production database and replay them on a different
environment. That is very, very useful. Oracle is going to
backport this feature to [Oracle Database] 10g, so you can
capture workloads in [Oracle Database] 10g and play them in
[Oracle Database] 11g. This might be the No. 1 feature that will
convince my clients to upgrade to [Oracle Database] 11g.”
Kutrovsky sees other features that will entice his current
clients to upgrade as well. “[Oracle] Database 11g allows you
to take a standby database and put it to use as a reporting
database while changes are still being propagated in real time
from the production database. I already have a customer use
case for this feature,” says Kutrovsky. “[Oracle] Database 11g
also allows server-side data connection pooling. This is very
interesting for our clients who run many, many Web servers,
and they’re having issues with too many connections to the
database,” he says. “Having a connection pool on the server
side will be extremely useful to them.”
GET ORACLE DATABASE 11g FEATURES NOW
By being able to quickly scale up with help from Pythian’s
expertise, customers that didn’t have the opportunity to
participate in the beta can quickly upgrade to Oracle Database
11g to take advantage of compelling features. “If Oracle
customers want to inject skills into their operations in DBA
roles, such as feature implementation or developer support,
they can blend Pythian resources into their DBA team and be
up and running right out of the gate,” says Vallee.
The Pythian Group is headquartered in Ottawa,
Canada, and performs most of its work from that location.
Pythian also maintains offices in Sydney, Australia, and
Hyderabad, India, to provide clients anywhere in the world
with 24/7 access to its broad range of database and system
administration capabilities.
7/27/07 11:02:19 AM
 Special Advertising Section
QUEST SOFTWARE
Mastering the Art of
Database Management
C omplexity is inherent in IT—and change, it seems, is
the only constant. To fully realize the value of their IT
investments and ensure the peak performance of critical
applications, organizations must adopt strategies and best
practices that minimize the impact of change—on both the
IT environments and the people who manage them. And that’s
where Quest Software, an Oracle Certified Partner, comes in.
As Oracle seeks to extend platform functionality in
Oracle Database 11g, Quest seeks to give IT professionals
additional tools to fully realize that extended functionality.
As Oracle seeks to optimize performance tuning and add
automation capabilities, Quest seeks to give IT professionals
the knowledgebase and techniques for making the most of
those capabilities.
It’s a synergistic relationship that helps both Oracle and
Quest customers get a better return on their IT investments,
says Larry Humphries, Quest Software’s vice president of
product management. “Our understanding of the market and of
customers’ needs is quite similar. Our [common] goal is to help
customers get maximum price performance and productivity
from their database platform and from their people.”
The new features in Oracle Database 11g are a good
case in point, adds Humphries, who sees them as address-
ing two key customer requirements: managing and the impact
of change and improving automation. New features and en-
hancements such as change impact analysis, performance
auditing, capacity management, and automated suggestions
for testing and tuning will complement workflow features and
best practices that Quest is infusing in its own tools, including
SharePlex for Oracle, Toad for Oracle, Space Manager with
LiveReorg, Spotlight, and SQL Navigator.
When Oracle and Quest products are used together,
says Humphries, “Not only does the database perform
more efficiently and with less risk, the people developing,
administering, and analyzing the data themselves perform
more efficiently.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT | www.quest.com
11g_Ads.indd 50
TUSC
The Oracle Database Experts
Since 1988
“T heof change
amount of data continues to grow while the pace
accelerates,” says Rich Niemiec, TUSC CEO
and an Oracle Certified Master. “Oracle Database 11g meet
these challenges by giving us a way to visualize and manage
huge data loads and to meet change with confidence,” he says.
“We’re very excited to bring Oracle Database 11g advancements
to our customers and to our own Oracle systems.”
TUSC, Oracle’s Partner of the Year in 2002 and 2004, was an
early and enthusiastic member of the Oracle Database 11g beta
program. It sees Oracle Database 11g as both a smooth next step
and a new version with the power and manageability features
to handle the megadatabases of the future. “We brought almost
20 years of deep Oracle experience to the beta program, so we
were able see where the improvements are in Oracle Database
11g and how they work,” says Niemiec, who says his Oracle
Database 11g favorites include tuning and manageability
features such as invisible indexing and SQL Repair Advisor, and
memory advantages such as result cache.
As an Oracle Certified Advantage Partner (one of only a
handful in the U.S.), TUSC provides expertise in the areas of
Oracle E-Business Suite consulting, business intelligence/data
warehousing, custom development (Oracle Fusion Middleware,
Web services, service-oriented architecture), database services,
managed services for remote DBA and Oracle E-Business Suite
support, software licensing, and training and mentoring.
TUSC sees clients not only as valued customers, but also
true partners, and its record of client satisfaction sets it apart
as an industry leader. “Whether it’s a phone call for technical
advice, an executive planning meeting, or a cooperative effort
across the company, we support our clients with our entire
firm at their doorstep, even after the project is completed,”
says Niemiec.
“We’ve done well over a hundred major upgrades for
Oracle technology and Oracle E-Business Suite customers,”
adds Niemiec. “And with more than a year on the Oracle
Database 11g beta, both in our own systems and in several
customer sites, we’re ready to help any organization get the
most out of Oracle Database 11g.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT | www.tusc.com
7/27/07 11:02:20 AM
 Special Advertising Section
NETWORK APPLIANCE, INC.
Multiplying the Power of Oracle Database 11g
A key Oracle partner in the development of grid computing,
leading storage provider Network Appliance, Inc.,
(NetApp) provides solutions that significantly enhance the power
of Oracle Database 11g to enable cost-efficient ILM, increase
DBA productivity, and shrink development cycle times.
“Since the advent of grid computing, NetApp and Ora-
cle have gone down the same path and shared the same
mind-set,” says Patrick Rogers, vice president of solutions
marketing, Network Appliance, Inc. “Both companies are fo-
cused on developing innovative solutions that reduce IT cost
and complexity.”
CLOSING THE ILM LOOP
With the launch of Oracle Database 11g, Oracle has signifi-
cantly expanded its commitment to content management.
Running on NetApp’s unified storage architecture, Oracle
Database 11g can deliver seamless information lifecycle
management (ILM).
Unlike many of its competitors, NetApp doesn’t have a siloed
approach to storage. High-performance, low-cost, archival,
and write-once-read-many (WORM) systems all run on a single
architecture, making it far simpler to migrate data from one system
to another. The result: Enhanced data protection for compliance
as well as reduced data management costs. “NetApp’s single
architecture means that customers can leverage a single
platform to enable data security and compliance,” Rogers adds.
BOOSTING DBA PRODUCTIVITY
Oracle Database 11g includes a series of advances that speed
development cycles and boost DBA productivity. NetApp builds
on the momentum with SnapManager for Oracle, “application-
aware” software that detects and responds intelligently to the
application on which it is running.
SnapManager for Oracle automates key DBA tasks and
enables DBAs to perform functions that were previously lim-
ited to storage administrators, including storage provisioning,
backup and restore functions, and even creation of clones.
Underlying SnapManager for Oracle is NetApp’s FlexClone
software, which dramatically speeds instant point-in-time
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT | www.netapp.com/partners/oracle/
11g_Ads.indd 51
copying of production data. As a result, developers can complete
testing, updating, and patching far more quickly than before.
“When you have to copy and distribute a terabyte of data
multiple times, the potential time and space savings that
FlexClone enables is huge,” says Rogers.
GROWING THE GRID
Many new features in Oracle Database 11g are designed to
further improve availability and performance of infrastructure
grids. Leveraging FlexVol technology, NetApp provides Oracle
Database 11g with virtualization capabilities that allow dynamic
pooling of storage resources, enabling customers to add or
shrink storage and meet the dynamic needs of the enterprise.
“NetApp FlexVol technology allows customers to grow their
grid environment,” says Rogers. Oracle has done it; they use
FlexVol to quickly provision and decommission systems and
rapidly repurpose assets.”
OPENING WINDOWS WITH DNFS
NetApp was a key partner in the development of Oracle
Database 11g most notably in developing, testing and optimizing
direct NFS (DNFS) performance and resiliency.
DNFS, a new feature in Oracle Database 11g, not only makes
it even simpler to run and manage a database and storage
system over an IP network, it also improves performance and
scalability through automatic link aggregation. And for the
first time, companies running Oracle Database 11g Standard
Edition can also run on Windows—a development that will
enable more small and medium businesses to leverage the
benefits of Oracle Database.
THE NEXT PHASE IN THE RELATIONSHIP
The relationship between NetApp and Oracle goes deeper
than most partnerships. It spans technical integration, services
and support, and sales and marketing, as well as executive
alignment. On Oracle E-Business Suite since 2001, NetApp is
also the standard storage platform for Oracle’s state-of-the-
art Austin Data Center. “Our shared goal is always to reduce
IT cost and complexity for Oracle customers,” adds Rogers.
7/27/07 11:02:21 AM
 Special Advertising Section
AUTODESK
Adding a New Dimension to
Business Intelligence
A pplications that use geospatial information—data that
can be referenced in either two or three dimensions—
aren’t just for design engineers anymore. Web-based
mapping services, GPS watches, and onboard vehicle
navigation systems have made consumer applications
that use geospatial data much more commonplace. And
now enterprises are exploring new ways to boost business
intelligence by integrating geospatial data into corporate
applications. For example, up-to-date electricity network
maps help power utilities respond faster to customer service
calls and maintain their valuable infrastructure assets.
In fact, bringing powerful geospatial analysis to the
corporate masses is a goal both Autodesk and Oracle share.
As an Oracle Certified Partner, Autodesk is working with Oracle
to offer easy-to-use, affordable, and open solutions based on
Oracle Database 11g that enable customers in a variety of
markets and industries to expand their use of geographic data
and realize new and valuable business insights.
“Our flagship engineering GIS product, AutoCAD Map 3D,
was Autodesk’s first product based on AutoCAD to support
Oracle software and its geospatial components,” notes Lisa
Campbell, Autodesk vice president. “For more than six years,
we have offered native support for each release of Oracle
with products like Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise and now
Autodesk Topobase. Having seen the upcoming enhancements
to Oracle Database 11g, I believe that this release will benefit
our customers by delivering faster applications and spatial tools
that speed decisions and lower operating costs significantly.”
The recipient of Oracle’s 2007 Spatial Excellence
Partnership Award, Autodesk is already developing industry-
specific solution suites that integrate Autodesk’s leading-edge
geographic information systems (GIS) and computer-aided
design (CAD) applications with Oracle’s spatially enabled
relational database technology. With the help of such
integrated applications, even nontechnical users will soon be
able to use sophisticated geospatial relationships to quickly
make informed business decisions.
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT | www.autodesk.com
11g_Ads.indd 52
AMD
Combining the Highest
Performance with Energy
Efficiency for Unbeatable TCO
T oday, Oracle customers across the board are running
bigger data centers. In response, Oracle Database 11g
increases automation and introduces change-assurance
features designed to improve IT performance and bring down
management costs. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), an
Oracle Certified Advantage Partner, is working with Oracle
to deliver industry-leading server performance while bringing
down another source of cost in the data center: energy.
“Power usage is becoming more important to customers
today for both environmental and practical reasons,” says
Terri Hall, vice president of commercial systems marketing and
alliances at AMD. Businesses today require highly available
and highly scalable applications—and that means more muscle
in the data center. “Customers are using so much computing
power now that they are sometimes literally in danger of running
out of enough energy resources to power them.”
AMD has made a point of seeking Oracle’s input to help
shape the direction of AMD development, says Hall. With
Oracle’s collaborative help, AMD continues to advance its
multicore processor technology to include features that maxi-
mize performance per watt. “Our dual-core and quad-core
processors will provide Oracle Database 11g customers with
enterprise-class performance, but on a very power-efficient
platform,” say Hall.
Providing benchmarking and validated configurations are
two examples of the way in which AMD collaborates with
Oracle to provide customers with market-ready solutions.
“Joint benchmarking gives customers proof of the
performance advantage of running Oracle on AMD,” says Hall.
“Validated configurations allow customers to buy complete,
pretested solutions, which is particularly nice for small and
medium businesses.”
Combined with AMD’s Direct Connect Architecture,
power-efficient AMD Opteron™ processors will provide
Oracle Database customers with an unmatched TCO in an
x86 solution. AMD is well positioned to help customers get the
most out of Oracle’s grid computing solution, Hall says.
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT | www.amd.com
7/27/07 11:02:21 AM
 OPEN and
SECURE
BY DAV ID A . KE L LY
PFIZER USES ORACLE SECURITY FEATURES
TO OPEN THE DOOR TO PARTNERS AND
LOCK DOWN IDENTITY AND DATA. WILLIAM
BARNES, PFIZER’S MANAGER OF IDENTITY
SERVICES, TALKS ABOUT THE SOLUTION.
DAVE BRADLEY
SO07_SecurityFEAT_X.indd 53
ompanies have always had a huge interest in
controlling who gets to see what informa-
tion or manage which data. The increased
security that results from controlling access
to systems and applications is a basic business value.
In addition, automating access management increases
efficiency and reduces the resources required to manage
individual user access to applications or systems.
With today’s greater demands for data security, organi-
zations have realized additional benefits from deploying
ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 53
7/20/07 10:53:37 AM
 access management, especially in areas
such as compliance and federation.
“With the advent of the Sarbanes-
Oxley Act [SOX] a few years ago, capabili-
ties like Web access management have
become almost the de facto technology
that you use to enforce some of the SOX
requirements, such as Section 404,” says
Wynn White, vice president, product
marketing, Oracle. “Access control and
identity management systems can enable
organizations to enforce access and
provide a detailed audit trail to show
auditors exactly what’s happening.”
Many organizations have also iden-
tified new value in federated access
management, which gives business part-
ners greater access to corporate systems
and applications.
Federated access management solutions Pfizer uses Oracle Access Manager and Oracle Virtual Directory for identity and access management.
can streamline processes and reduce risk “We’ve worked closely with Oracle to develop a solution that enables individual users to select the level
of authentication that’s right for the task,” says William Barnes, Pfizer’s Manager of Identity Services.
and security vulnerabilities. “The idea is
that if you have a trusted partner that
they’ve authenticated to, then you can rely on that authen- The company started by leveraging two Oracle products
tication to let them into your application without necessar- to build a unified—and centralized—portal for more-
ily storing all sorts of private data that might be breached,” efficient internal and external access.
explains Trent Henry, senior analyst, Burton Group. “We use Oracle Access Manager and the Oracle Virtual
In many cases, even organizations that have already Directory products for our identity and access manage-
deployed access management are taking a fresh look at ment infrastructure,” says William Barnes, manager of
its potential. identity services, Pfizer. “We’ve worked closely with
Oracle over the past two years to develop a solution that
THE EXPANDING ROLE OF ACCESS MANAGEMENT enables individual users to select the level of authentica-
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is a good example of a tion that’s right for the task they’re trying to do.”
company that’s expanding its use of access management That solution, a portal called logon.pfizer.com, enables
to meet an ever-broadening set of IT challenges and busi- a more-flexible authentication system for organizations
ness opportunities. The goal is to treat authentication and their partners. The solution allows end users to
as an infrastructure service, so that each application can determine what form of credential they would like to
require the proper form of authentication from users. use—from logon IDs and passwords to digital certificates
This structure is important or two-factor authentication options.
because the company’s pharmaceuti- As one example of how flexible
cal research and development efforts SNAP SHOT authentication can be, Pfizer is a
around developing and marketing member of the biopharmaceutical
new drugs entail both applica- Pfizer group Signatures and Authentication
tions that are low sensitivity, with a www.pfizer.com for Everyone (SAFE), an organization
Location: New York City
low risk of information disclosure that delivers electronic credentials for
Industry: Pharmaceutical
and loss of data integrity, and high business-to-business transactions. In
Employees: 100,000
sensitivity, with high requirements Oracle products: Oracle Database, Oracle
accessing the portal, an internal Pfizer
DAVE BRADLEY

for absolute data integrity and for Access Management, Oracle Identity user might use a standard logon ID/
ensuring that data not be disclosed Management password combination, and an exter-
to those who shouldn’t have access. nal partner might use a SAFE certifi-

54 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

SO07_SecurityFEAT_X.indd 54 7/20/07 10:53:47 AM

 “Our authentication portal has multiple levels of trust associated with different levels of
authentication. We think that this is really important.”
—William Barnes, Manager of Identity Services, Pfizer

cate. Alternatively, a mobile user accessing the system
from a kiosk might use a secure ID one-time password-
type device such as RSA’s SecurID or the standardized,
open source Open Authentication (OATH) secure token.
“The hope is that by allowing users to select
what they want to use, it gives them the great-
est control over the experience they intend
to have,” explains Barnes. “One of the
major business benefits of this approach is
allowing people to use a credential they
may already have.”
According to Burton Group’s Henry,
having a centralized facility to enforce
and support access management policies
throughout multiple applications is a fairly
popular approach. “The idea is that no
matter what application a user is accessing,
the organization can rely on the same types
of authentication framework,” says Henry. “That
reduces the management burdens and helps to elimi-
nate potential mistakes that might occur.”
CENTRALIZING AUTHENTICATION
With its centralized authentication service, Pfizer has
taken the authentication process out of each applica-
tion and put it in the hands of the end user. And in the
future, Pfizer can immediately take advantage of any new
authentication methods that it wants to deploy, such as
biometric or fingerprint-type authentication options.
“Authentication is probably one of the hottest areas
in technology today, so we’re not prescriptive on exactly
what forms we will leverage,” says Pfizer’s Barnes. “But as
new ones emerge, we see this as the single place where
we can make them available.”
Of course, another important aspect of access
management for Pfizer is being able to manage
risk better by ensuring that the proper level
of authentication is required for specific
applications. For example, some applications
might have a low risk associated with access
to their data, while others might require
very high data integrity.
“Our authentication portal has multiple
levels of trust associated with different levels
of authentication,” Barnes says. “We think that
this is really important. Going forward, it will
allow application developers either to lower or
raise the bar required to get access to information and
protect the integrity of the data.”
Eventually, using this framework, Pfizer expects that
it could leverage the use of national IDs, which might
be issued through the European Union or by individual
countries. “As national and international identity providers
emerge, we see this framework as giving us the ability to
link directly to them,” adds Barnes. “And we will continue
to work with Oracle to enhance the native capabilities of

Oracle Audit Vault and Oracle Database Vault

In addition to providing authentication
and identity management, organizations
must provide data security that addresses
growing privacy and regulatory consider-
ations. For example, compliance and audit-
ing requirements have become a fact of
life for most organizations. Beyond ensur-
ing that the proper regulatory or industry
requirements are followed, organizations
also need to collect and analyze audit
data to keep track of the activities within
their systems. And because audit data can
be distributed across many systems and
stored in many databases, securing it and
ensuring that it hasn’t been tampered with
can be difficult.
“Oracle Audit Vault provides the ability to
consolidate audit data from different data-
base sources into one secure and scalable
repository, and then view all the audit trail
data, from all those sources, in one report,”
explains Tammy Bednar, senior principal
product manager, database security, Oracle.
“Oracle Audit Vault provides a consolidated
view of all audit operations, making it easier
to see the activities of your privileged users
across all your databases and raise alerts
on any suspicious activities.”
Securing the data in the database from
highly privileged users, Oracle Database
Vault helps to ensure database security
by protecting against insider threats and
addressing regulatory compliance needs.
It can also transparently enforce specific
operational policies or fine-grained security
requirements as specified by the auditors.
“Oracle Database Vault helps companies
implement separation of duties—managers
might not want even powerful administra-
tors to be able to look at important financial
data, for example,” says Vipin Samar, vice
president, database security, Oracle. “With
Oracle Database Vault, organizations can
increase the security level of an existing
application without changing the applica-
tion, which improves security throughout
the enterprise and helps reduce risks posed
by insider threats.”

ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 55

SO07_SecurityFEAT_X.indd 55 7/20/07 10:53:53 AM

 “The idea is that no matter what application a user is accessing, the organization can
rely on the same types of authentication framework.”
—Trent Henry, Senior Analyst, Burton Group

Oracle Access Manager and Oracle Virtual Directory to provide “A lot of new requirements have come in since most orga-
the functionality of the logon.pfizer.com authentication portal.” nizations originally adopted access management,” Leach adds.
“From compliance and auditing requirements to federation
THE EVOLUTION OF ACCESS MANAGEMENT needs to stronger authentication requirements, now is the time
Access management has come a long way in the past few for organizations to reconsider their access management solu-
years. But as organizations struggle to meet new compliance tions and opportunities in a broader context.” O
and security requirements and to reach out to partners and
customers in a secure and manageable way, access manage- David A. Kelly (dkelly@upsideresearch.com) is a business, technology, and travel
ment seems poised to play an even greater role in the corpo- writer who lives in West Newton, Massachusetts.
rate IT infrastructure.
“Over the past few years, the adoption of federation tech-
nologies has become much more prevalent,” says Eric Leach,
senior group product manager, access management, Oracle.
“That means that organizations can use their baseline Web READ more about
access management deployments and layer on standards-based Oracle Identity Management
oracle.com/identity
federation products that can greatly simplify the integration of
business partners.” Oracle Audit Vault
oracle.com/goto/auditvault
For many companies, the need to interact efficiently with
more organizations—whether it’s suppliers, outsourcers, part- Oracle Database Vault
oracle.com/goto/databasevault
ners, customers, or someone else—will only increase. At the
Security Solutions from Oracle
same time, organizations need to increase their agility and oracle.com/security
keep pace with changing business environments.

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Fastest
Growing Middleware

Oracle
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Business Process Management — SOA — Data Integration — Portal and Enterprise 2.0
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oracle.com/goto/middleware
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Worldwide, 2005. Based on 2005 license revenue worldwide.

Copyright © 2007. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
 THE POW Embedded Oracle databases drive

58 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

SO07_Embedded.indd 58 7/17/07 10:58:19 AM


W ER WITHIN
technology at the edge of the enterprise.
or Riverbed Technology, choosing the right database
for its network-acceleration appliances isn’t something
it takes lightly. The company’s Steelhead appliances
help boost WAN speeds an average of 30 times for custom-
ers running anywhere from hundreds to several thousands
of nodes, and what Riverbed needs is a database that’s robust
and that can go the distance. To achieve the performance
gains it needs with the smallest technology footprint possible,
Riverbed relies on Oracle Berkeley DB, a member of Oracle’s
family of embeddable databases.
Unlike traditional databases, embedded versions reside
within software applications or hardware appliances like
Riverbed’s and don’t require day-to-day management by DBAs.
Instead, they work behind the scenes, often without end users
even knowing they’re using the data management technology.
“Customers like our turnkey solution. They buy our appli-
ances because they don’t want to mess around with operating
systems and figure how to get this piece of hardware to work
with that piece of software,” explains David Wu, Riverbed’s
vice president of software development. “Our customers aren’t
database experts, so it makes sense for us to bundle in an
embedded database that just tunes itself.”
NEW CHOICES
Embedded databases aren’t new—developers have relied on
them for decades. Many developers have built their own,
because their application requirements were so unique, and
commercial choices were inadequate.
“Although custom development is very time-consuming
and expensive, it enables developers to build very specific
JUPITER IMAGES
capabilities,” says Rex Wang, vice president of embedded
product marketing at Oracle. “We understand that devel-
opers need technical flexibility and choice, so that’s why
SO07_Embedded.indd 59
BY ALAN JOCH
Oracle’s strategy is to offer developers the broadest selection
of embeddable databases for the diverse range of applications
out there.” In fact, Oracle offers four embedded database
choices. (See the “Choosing an Embedded Database” sidebar
for more information.)
“Oracle offers a suite of embedded databases for network
appliances, mobile devices, packaged applications, and other
uses,” says Noel Yuhanna, principal analyst with Forrester
Research. “Customers can choose among any of those prod-
ucts, with the additional advantage of having compatibility
across the various databases.”
PERFORMANCE DEMANDS
Cisco Systems released the Cisco License Manager (CLM) at
the beginning of 2007. The CLM enables Cisco customers to
inventory and manage sometimes thousands of licenses for
network devices running in their enterprises.
“If a customer wants to upgrade any of the licenses, they
place an order online and enter an authorization key into the
CLM, and it automatically obtains the licenses and deploys
them to the network devices,” says Niraj Gopal, CLM product
manager at Cisco. When customers download the CLM, the
product includes Oracle Berkeley DB Java Edition for manag-
ing licensing and authentication information for each device.
Before Cisco settled on Oracle Berkeley DB Java Edition,
the company considered several other databases, including
several commercial offerings and a homegrown solution. Cisco
chose Berkeley DB Java Edition after pilot tests convinced
developers that it could meet their top design goals—the
database had to be scalable and portable and work within a
small resource footprint.
“[The database] had to run on powerful servers as well as
a single blade,” explains Shaw Li, Cisco software development
ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 59
7/17/07 10:58:25 AM
 “After an evaluation and a
prototype, we decided that the
scalability and portability of
Berkeley DB Java Edition fit the bill.”
—Shaw Li
Software Development Manager
Cisco Systems

manager. The scalability test bed networked dozens

of Windows PCs to simulate the traffic load of
10,000 devices.
“After an evaluation and a prototype, we decided
that the scalability and portability of Berkeley DB
Java Edition fit the bill,” says Li. In addition, Li says,
because Oracle Berkeley DB Java Edition is written
in Java, “it gives us great portability across different
operating systems.”

REAL-TIME SERVICE
Aspect Software uses both Oracle Database and Oracle
TimesTen In-Memory Database within its contact
center solutions for organizations to manage incoming
questions and service requests from customers.
“Traditionally, contact centers were measured by ‘handle
time’—basically how long it takes to address each customer’s
call. The quicker being the better,” says Mike Sheridan,
Aspect’s senior vice president of strategy and marketing. “But
now companies recognize that’s not the best performance mea-
surement because it doesn’t speak to whether they satisfied
the customer or what the propensity is for that person to buy
more things from you in the future as a result of that call.”
Contact centers are massive data generators that collect
Cisco’s Niraj Gopal, Product Manager for Cisco License Manager (left), and Shaw Li, Software
Development Manager, find that Oracle Berkeley DB Java Edition gives them great portability across
different operating systems.
data for years. It must be possible to retrieve detailed records
to service an individual call, as well as look at aggregated
information about the contact center’s overall performance.
To help meet this challenge, Aspect relies on Oracle Database
for its enterprise data mart and Oracle TimesTen for real-time
analytics about performance across multiple call centers.
Oracle TimesTen also feeds a program that provides graphic
visualizations of contact center performance to help managers
and supervisors monitor the environment.
Aspect Software chose Oracle TimesTen because it performs
fast enough to serve real-time demands. “Traditional databases

CHOOSING AN EMBEDDED DATABASE

Hardware developers and ISVs have a range of
Oracle high-performance, scalable embedded
databases to choose from. These include
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition,
Oracle Database Standard Edition, Oracle
Database Standard Edition One, and
Oracle Database Express Edition. These
solutions provide advanced relational database
capabilities in an embeddable package that
requires no DBA and enables the embedding
application to automatically install and con-
figure it. Oracle Database is often embedded
cations systems that require advanced data
management capabilities and do not have
highly constrained memory and CPUs.
Oracle Berkeley DB. The only nonrelational
database in Oracle’s portfolio, Oracle Berkeley
DB delivers very high performance for appli-
cations that have static, predictable access
patterns. Top applications include networking
equipment, storage appliances, and geospatial
mapping software.
Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database.
This relational database keeps data in
memory, so it delivers extremely fast response
full relational database, Oracle TimesTen sup-
ports SQL, Open Database Connectivity, and
Java DataBase Connectivity. It can run as a
standalone database or as a cache to acceler-
ate Oracle Database, and it often runs in tele-
communications systems and customer-facing
applications requiring low latency.
Oracle Database Lite. This small-footprint
relational database is designed for PDAs,
smartphones, and automobile telematics
units. Because it can synchronize with Oracle
Database, it allows mobile employees to use
their devices in the field and later sync data
BOB ADLER

within medical equipment and telecommuni- times and high transaction throughput. As a with the main enterprise database server.

60 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

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 “Oracle is clearly investing
in the Oracle TimesTen product
going forward.”
—Roger Sumner
Senior Vice President, Office of Technology
Aspect Software

haven’t been quick enough for us to get the visu-

alizations we needed in a timely fashion,” says
Roger Sumner, senior vice president in the Aspect
Software Office of Technology.
But speed wasn’t the company’s only consider-
ation. The database also needed to perform all of
the essential data organization tasks of traditional
information management systems, including rep-
licating data, sorting through it, and retrieving
information for reporting tools.
“We looked for a fully functional relational data- Roger Sumner, Senior Vice President, Aspect Software Office of Technology, says that traditional
databases haven’t been quick enough for his company to get the visualizations they needed
base that could be used in an embedded setting,” in a timely fashion.
Sumner says.
An added bonus is that as a long-time Oracle appliances, depending on the size of their WANs.
customer, Aspect now works with a single vendor for both “Our requirements for an embedded database are that it
Oracle Database and Oracle TimesTen. “If we’re looking for needs to be robust, scale efficiently, and be enterprise grade,”
consulting help, we can go to a single team,” Sumner says. Wu explains. “One of the top reasons we went with Berkeley
“And we see staying power. Oracle is clearly investing in the DB is its low resource consumption when it comes to memory,
Oracle TimesTen product going forward.” CPU, and disk usage. It has such lightweight requirements
that it doesn’t steal away important processing power.”
LIGHTWEIGHT IMPLEMENTATIONS Wu also appreciates the database’s “very clean” APIs, which
The Riverbed Central Management Console (CMC) configures were easy for developers to understand and which enabled
and manages Riverbed Technology’s Steelhead appliances and them to integrate the product into Riverbed’s existing technol-
embeds Oracle Berkeley DB to hold traffic and performance ogy framework in only a couple of weeks.
data about each device on a network. The information ranges Quick development time was critical because Wu and
from details about performance from five minutes ago to his staff were under a tight deadline to roll out the CMC. To
historical trend summaries that span months or years, says accomplish this goal, Riverbed tapped the Oracle technical
Riverbed’s Wu. Customers may install dozens or thousands of support staff to apply integration strategies that worked for
other customers to the CMC project. “Oracle support folks are
SNAP SHOTS top-notch, and it was very easy to get us up and running very
quickly,” Wu says. O
Riverbed Technology www.riverbed.com
Location: San Francisco Industry: Wide area data services Alan Joch (ajoch@worldpath.net) is a technology writer based in New England who
Employees: 450 Oracle products and services: Oracle Berkeley DB,
specializes in enterprise, Web, and high-performance-computing applications.
Oracle E-Business Suite

Cisco Systems www.cisco.com

Location: San Jose, California Industry: IT networking systems
Employees: 56,790 Oracle products and services: Oracle Berkeley DB READ more about Oracle Embedded Technology
oracle.com/technologies/embedded
Aspect Software www.aspect.com VISIT the Embedded Developer Center
ANDREA MANDEL

Location: Chelmsford, Massachusetts Industry: Software development otn.oracle.com/tech/embedded

Employees: 2,100 Oracle products and services: Oracle Database 10g,
DOWNLOAD embeddable technology
Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database otn.oracle.com/software

ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 61

SO07_Embedded.indd 61 7/17/07 10:58:57 AM

 B: 8.25 in
T: 8 in
S: 7 in

B: 11.125 in
T: 10.875 in
S: 9.875 in
COMPANIES TRUST ORACLE
WITH THEIR MOST VITAL INFORMATION.
WHICH IS WHY ORACLE TRUSTS DELL.
Oracle depends on its Austin Data Center to be ready and available 24/7/365.

So Oracle turned to Dell to cluster and maintain 12,000 servers, hosting the

Oracle On Demand Applications their customers rely on. Because Dell

designs business solutions with one company in mind. Yours.

Read the whole story online

or call Dell to start your own. dell.com/oracle/oraclemag 1.877.485.DELL

Dell cannot be responsible for errors in typography or photography. Dell and the Dell logo are trademarks of Dell Inc. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other
trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of
others. © 2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

P86119_Oracle_V1_300Dmax.psd Dell_cmyk_3.ai

J. Siebert, M. Westman, M. Piro, M. Kohler, C. Joyce, C. Guzy Keyline Size Routing Signatures Notes Links
the Studio
Kuhn, B. Bannor B 8.25 in x 11.125 in Oracle P86119_Oracle_V1_
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 d e v e l o p e r FRAMEWORKS
Defining a Cascading List of Values
Setting up LOVs is easier than ever with Oracle JDeveloper 11g.
ost data-intensive applications
require users to select values
from lists of choices. In many
cases, the list of valid choices
for one field depends on the selection a
user makes in another field. For example,
in a global commerce application, a user
might first pick a country, leading the
application to display a list of products
for sale in that particular country.
The ability to simplify the creation
of lists of values (LOVs) to support this
kind of scenario has been one of the
most common enhancement requests
for Oracle Application Development
Framework (Oracle ADF) 11g. In this
column, I show how easy this task has
become. In doing so, I take a first look at
the upcoming Oracle JDeveloper/Oracle
ADF 11g release and use it to build
LOVs, including a list with cascading
data dependencies.
To follow along, download and
install the Oracle JDeveloper 11.1.1.0
Technology Preview release, available
at otn.oracle.com/products/jdev/11. As
with all of my other Frameworks tutorial
articles, you should also have an Oracle
Database instance available with access to
the default SCOTT schema.
SETTING UP THE MODEL
Let’s start by creating a new application
in Oracle JDeveloper. If you don’t have
any other applications open, click the
New Application node that appears
in the Application Navigator. If you do
have other applications open, select
New Application from the applica-
tion selector list at the top of the
Application Navigator. In either case,
the Create Application dialog box will
appear. Enter OraMagDemo in the New
Application field, and enter oramag
.lovdemo in the New Application Prefix
field. For Application Template, select
SO07_Frameworks.indd 63
Web Application [ADF Faces, ADF
Page Flow, ADF BC], and then click
OK to create the application.
Next, let’s build our starter applica-
tion (as in past Frameworks columns) by
creating default business components for
the DEPT and EMP tables in the SCOTT
account. To do this, right-click the Model
project in the Application Navigator and
select New. In the New Gallery dialog box
that appears, select the ADF Business
Components category (in the Business
Tier grouping) and double-click the
Business Components from Tables
wizard. When the Initialize Business
Components Project dialog box appears,
click New to create a new application-
level database connection. In the Create
Database Connection dialog box, enter
scott for the connection name, enter the
appropriate username and password for
the SCOTT schema, and enter the host-
name and instance ID (SID) to connect
to your database. Note that in Oracle
JDeveloper 11g, the default SID is now
XE. This default will work if you’re using
Oracle Database Express Edition, but
you’ll need to change this to the correct
SID (such as ORCL) if you’re using a dif-
ferent Oracle Database edition. Click OK
to create the database connection and OK
again to start the Business Components
from Tables wizard. As you’ve done
before, go through the wizard to define
entity objects for the DEPT and EMP
tables, DeptView and EmpView, updatable
view objects for each respective entity
object, and an application module named
HRModule. As before, don’t bother creating
any read-only view objects or a business
components diagram.
When defining a list of values in
Oracle JDeveloper, you reference a view
object that provides the source of valid
choices for your list. In this example,
you’ll create two lists of values. First,
ORACLE MAGAZINE
BY STEVE MUENCH
you’ll define a list of values for the
Deptno attribute in the EmpView view
object created above, using the DeptView
view object as the source for the list of
valid departments. Then you’ll build a
more complex list of values for the Mgr
(manager) attribute. This list will refer-
ence a new view object that queries a
filtered list of employees who can serve
as the current employee’s manager. For
the sake of this exercise, let’s assume
that the list of available managers for a
given employee will be the list of other
employees in the same department, along
with any employee without a manager
(such as the president).
To define this new view object, right-
click the Model project in the Application
Navigator and select New. Select the ADF
Business Components category, and
double-click the View Object component
to open the Create View Object wizard.
In the Name panel, change the name to
ManagerListForDepartment and click Next.
In the Entity Objects panel, select the
Emp entity object from the Available
list, click Add (the right-arrow button),
and click Next. In the Attributes panel,
include the Empno and Ename attributes,
and click Next twice to get to the SQL
Statement panel. In the Where field, add
the following WHERE clause: (DEPTNO =
:CurrentDept OR MGR IS NULL) AND EMPNO
! = :CurrentEmp. This clause will filter the
list of employees to produce the set you
defined above. Click Next to get to the
Bind Variables panel. In this panel, create
two new variables called CurrentDept and
CurrentEmp (which are both referenced
in the WHERE clause) and set both vari-
ables to be of type Number. Now click
Finish to create the view object.
DEFINING THE LISTS OF VALUES
Now that the basic model layer objects
are in place, the next step is to configure
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 63
7/17/07 11:04:25 AM
 FRAMEWORKS
the two lists of values. In Oracle
ADF 11g, you can configure a list
of values as a declarative feature
of any view object attribute. By
defining the list of values at the
model layer instead of within
the user interface (UI), you can
ensure that your UI will present a
list of values correctly and consis-
tently, regardless of the particular
Oracle ADF–supported UI client
technology you decide to use.
In the Application Navigator,
begin by double-clicking
EmpView to open the view
object editor. Note that in Oracle
JDeveloper 11g, the business compo-
nent editors appear as tabs within the
main editor area instead of in a modal
dialog box. Select the Attributes cat-
egory along the left edge of the editor
page, and select the Deptno attribute in
the table that appears in the Attributes
section near the top of the editor frame.
Find the List of Values: Deptno section
header below, and click the green plus-
sign icon on the right side of the header
to create a list of values for the Deptno
attribute. When the List of Values dialog
box appears, click the green plus-sign
icon in the List Data Source section to
add a datasource that will supply the
list of valid choices for this attribute’s
value. In the View Accessors dialog box
that appears, select the DeptView view
object in the Available View Objects list
on the left and click the Add Instance
(right-arrow) button to add a new
view accessor named DeptView1 for the
selected view object. Then click OK.
Note that the newly added view acces-
sor datasource DeptView1 appears in the
List Data Source tree display in the List of object. Then click the green plus-sign
Values dialog box. Expand it, and select
its Deptno attribute. Note that the List
Return Values section updates to show
how attributes in the list datasource will
be assigned to attributes in the base view
object when the user makes a choice
from the list. You won’t need to modify
this section for this example, but note
that you could map additional return
value attributes in your application by
adding to this list.
Before leaving the List of Values dialog add a new view accessor named
64 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07
SO07_Frameworks.indd 64
Figure 1: Testing view object with cascading lists of values
box, click the Edit List UI Hints...
button (near the top of the window) to
open the List UI Hints dialog box. These
settings provide information that defines
how the list should appear within the
user interface. Note that the default
list type indicates a Choice List display
style. You will use this default list type
for this simple example, but if you click
the list, you’ll see the other types of list
controls you can use within your own
applications. In the Display Attributes
section, select the Dname attribute from
the Available list and click the Add
(right-arrow) button to add it to the
list of selected attributes. This selection
indicates that you want the user to see
the department name, rather than the
department number, in the list. Finally,
click OK to close the List UI Hints
dialog box and OK again to close the
List of Values dialog box.
Next, let’s configure the list of values
for the Mgr attribute. As before, select
this attribute in the Attributes section of
the view object editor for the EmpView
icon in the List of Values: Mgr section
header. When the List of Values dialog
box appears, click the green plus-sign
icon in the List Data Source section to
add a new datasource that will supply
the list of valid choices for this attribute’s
value. In the View Accessors dialog box,
select the ManagerListForDepartment
view object from the Available View
Objects list on the left and click the
Add Instance (right-arrow) button to
ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
ManagerListForDepartment1 for the
selected view object.
Because this view object has
bind variables, you need to config-
ure how those bind values will get
their values. To do so, make sure
the ManagerListForDepartment1
view accessor is selected and click
the Edit button. In the Edit View
Accessor dialog box, note that the
bind variable names CurrentDept
and CurrentEmp appear in the Bind
Parameter Values section. Check
the Row-level bind values exist
check box and double-click the
Value column for the CurrentEmp
bind variable in the table. You want to
assign the value of this bind variable
to be the value of the Empno attribute
in the current row, so enter the (case-
sensitive) expression Empno in this cell.
Similarly, double-click the value column
for the CurrentDept bind variable, and
enter the expression Deptno to assign
this bind variable’s value to the value of
the Deptno attribute in the current row.
Finally, click OK to close the Edit View
Accessor dialog box and OK again to
close the View Accessors dialog box. In
the List of Values dialog box, expand
ManagerListForDepartment1 in the List
Data Source tree and select its Empno
attribute. Then, click Edit UI Hints as
before to configure Ename as the list’s
display attribute. Click OK to close the
List UI Hints dialog box and OK again to
close the List of Values dialog box.
TESTING YOUR LISTS OF VALUES
You can use the enhanced Oracle
ADF 11g Oracle Business Component
Browser to immediately test the LOVs
you’ve just configured. To run the
application module in the Oracle
Business Component Browser, right-
click the HRModule component in the
Application Navigator and select Run.
After you click Connect in the dialog
box that appears, the Oracle Business
Component Browser will appear.
Double-click the EmpView1 view object
instance to see its data. As shown in
Figure 1, both Mgr and Deptno appear
as lists. If you select the Mgr list, you’ll
notice that the list includes the employ-
7/17/07 11:04:26 AM
 ees in the current department (excluding
the current employee) and employees
such as KING who have no manager.
When you navigate to different rows in
the result set, you can see the lists auto-
matically change to reflect the current
department for the current employee. If
you change an employee’s department
by choosing a different department name
from the list, you’ll notice that when you
select the Mgr list, the set of choices will
automatically update to reflect the
new department.
When you’re done experimenting,
select File -> Exit to exit the Oracle
Business Component Browser. Because
the Oracle Business Component Browser
has been reimplemented in the Oracle
JDeveloper 11g release with Oracle ADF
Swing, this example also serves as a quick
illustration of how Oracle ADF Swing
applications can make automatic use of
model-defined LOVs.
USING LISTS OF VALUES IN
JAVASERVER FACES
Now that you’ve configured and tested
the LOVs on the EmpView view object,
let’s see how simple it is to use them in an
Ajax-enabled Web page using JavaServer
Faces (JSF). In the Application Navigator,
expand the ViewController project and
its Web Content folder to display the
project’s Page Flows folder. Inside this
folder, double-click the adfc-config node
to open the page flow diagram. Next, go
to the Component palette and find the
Activities section. In this section, drag
a View component and drop it onto
the page flow diagram. When the new
view appears on the diagram, rename
the component Employees and press
Enter. To create the JSF page for this
view, double-click the icon representing
the new view. When the Create JSF JSP
dialog box appears, click OK to create the
Employees.jspx page, using the default
settings. The new Web page appears in
the visual page designer.
The next step is to drop a data
collection onto the page. First, take
a look at the Application Navigator
and note that the frame is grouped
into several sections, each contain-
ing a titled heading bar and an arrow
SO07_Frameworks.indd 65
to enable you to expand or col-
lapse the section contents. Below the
Projects section of the Application
Navigator is the Data Controls section.
Expand that section, and then expand
HRModuleDataControl to reveal the
EmpView1 and DeptView1 data collec-
tions it contains. Drag the EmpView1
data collection, and drop it onto the
center of the visual JSF page editor. From
the Create menu, select Forms -> ADF
Form to create an editable form showing
EmpView1 data. In the Edit Form Fields
dialog box that appears, note that the
Component To Use value for both the
Mgr and Deptno attributes is set to ADF
Select One Choice. Oracle JDeveloper
selects these UI component values by
default as a result of the List Type UI hint
you configured earlier when defining
the list of values for those two attributes.
Check the Include Navigation Controls
check box, and click OK to create the
form. Note that as expected, both the
Mgr and Deptno fields appear as lists.
On a traditional Web page, when a
user makes a change (such as picking a
department from a list), those changes
don’t take effect until that person clicks
a Submit button to send form results
to a server. However, the Oracle ADF
Faces JSF components make it easy to
build more-interactive Web pages. For
example, you can enable the Deptno list
to automatically submit changes to the
server whenever the end user changes its
value, simply by setting its AutoSubmit
property to true. To do this, select
View -> Property Inspector from the
Oracle JDeveloper main menu to show
the Property Inspector. Next, select the
Deptno list in the visual editor. In the
Property Inspector window, note that the
properties are grouped into categories
such as Common, Data, Appearance,
Style, and Behavior. Click the Behavior
category, and set the AutoSubmit prop-
erty to true.
Because you configured the list of
values for the Mgr attribute to depend
on the current value of the Deptno
attribute, you need to perform two
additional declarative steps to force
the Mgr list to immediately update to
reflect a changed list of managers. The
ORACLE MAGAZINE
first step is to assign a unique name to
identify the Deptno list on the page. To
do this, select the Common category in
the Property Inspector, type the name
DeptList in the Id field, and press Enter.
The second step is to configure the Mgr
list to refresh whenever the value of the
Deptno component changes. To perform
this step, select the Mgr list in the visual
editor. Then select the Behavior category
in the Property Inspector, type the same
DeptList name into the PartialTriggers
field, and press Enter.
The online version of this column,
at otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/07-
sep/o57frame.html, concludes with a
test of the sample application in your
browser and a demonstration of the lists
of values you created.
In this column I’ve shown how, by
using a few declarative settings, you
can configure both simple and cascad-
ing lists of values and use them within
Web pages without writing any code.
This example highlights the first in a
series of new declarative features due
in the Oracle JDeveloper/Oracle ADF
11g release. In future columns, I’ll
explore many more. For more informa-
tion on Oracle JDeveloper/Oracle ADF
11g new features, see otn.oracle.com/
products/jdev/11. O
Steve Muench is a consulting product manager for
Oracle JDeveloper and an Oracle ACE. In his more than
17 years at Oracle, he has developed and supported
Oracle tools and XML technologies and continues to
evangelize them. Muench coauthored the Oracle ADF
Developer’s Guide for Forms/4GL Developers (Oracle,
2006), and wrote Building Oracle XML Applications
(O’Reilly Media, 2000). He shares tips and tricks on
Oracle Technology Network (otn.oracle.com) and in his
Dive into ADF blog (radio.weblogs.com/0118231).
READ online-only column content
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/07-sep/
o57frame.html
READ more about Oracle JDeveloper
and Oracle ADF
otn.oracle.com/products/jdev
otn.oracle.com/products/adf/learnadf.html
DOWNLOAD Oracle JDeveloper
otn.oracle.com/products/jdev/11
otn.oracle.com/products/jdev
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 65
7/9/07 1:17:47 PM
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 d e v e l o p e r BROWSER-BASED
Express Web 2.0
Create dynamic interfaces that minimize page refresh with Oracle Application Express.
he term Web 2.0 refers to a
second generation of Web-based
applications that emphasize
online collaboration, participa-
tion, and interactivity. This includes
social networking sites, wikis, and com-
munication tools.
For Web application developers, Web
2.0 is also synonymous with technolo-
gies that underpin modern, dynamic,
rich-client Web applications that mimic
personal computer applications and can
improve the user experience in browser-
based applications. These technologies
include Asynchronous JavaScript and
XML (Ajax), partial page refresh (PPR),
Dynamic HTML (DHTML), Flash, and
JavaScript. They enable a Web page to
request an update for some part of its
content and to alter that part in the
browser, without needing to refresh the
whole page. These techniques are not
a replacement for underlying protocols
such as HTTP but an additional layer of
abstraction on top of them.
Oracle Application Express is
designed to help facilitate the creation
of Web 2.0 applications. More specifi-
cally, it is designed to take much of the
complexity out of building scalable
dynamic applications by providing a
declarative database-centric framework.
Some Web 2.0 technologies, such
as PPR, Flash, and many JavaScript-
enabled controls, are built into the latest
release of Oracle Application Express.
The following are some of the Web
2.0 features and capabilities of Oracle
Application Express:
O

PPR reporting is incorporated into
the report templates so that only the
report changes when the next set of
data is retrieved—no other page com-
ponents are refreshed.
O

Flash charting enables sophisticated
charting capabilities and display attri-
SO07_BrowserBase.indd 67
BY DAVI D PEAKE
codeLISTING 1: Code for creating a tooltip structure, including image layout
<script src=”#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#aria.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>
<table border=”0” cellspacing=”0” cellpadding=”0” id=”rollover”
style=”position:absolute;display:none;” summary=””>
<tr>
<td valign=”middle” rowspan=”3”><img src=”#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#point.png” /></td>
<td><img src=”#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#top1.png” width=”10” height=”11” alt=”” /></td>
<td style=”background-image:url(#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#top2.png)”></td>
<td><img src=”#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#top3.png” width=”10” height=”11” alt=”” /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style=”background-image:url(#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#middle1.png)”>
<img src=”#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#middle1.png” width=”10” height=”1” /></td>
<td style=”background:#FFF;”><div id=”rollover_content”></div></td>
<td style=”background-image:url(#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#middle2.png)”>
<img src=”#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#middle2.png” width=”10” height=”1” /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><img src=”#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#bottom1.png” width=”10” height=”11”></td>
<td style=”background-image:url(#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#bottom2.png)”></td>
<td><img src=”#WORKSPACE_IMAGES#bottom3.png” width=”10” height=”11”></td>
</tr>
</table>
butes, including animations. code snippets, go to otn.oracle.com/
O

Tooltips enable page elements to products/database/application_express/
include tooltips—using Ajax—that html/web2.0.html.
are invoked when the mouse moves
over the item. STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS FOR
O

Expanding trees are based on hier- ADDING TOOLTIPS
archical elements, such as a company’s The following steps demonstrate how
organizational structure, and with Ajax, to integrate Ajax-powered tooltips
they load only the initial hierarchy into an Oracle Application Express
and later populate nodes when they application. The o57browser.zip file, at
are expanded. otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/07-sep,
O

Detail frames use Ajax to enable the provides the SQL and the images used
dynamic display of detail information to develop the tooltips in this column.
within a master report. Step 1. Download and unzip the Aria
O

Dynamic menus use Ajax to provide employee lookup application from
a context-sensitive list of actions to otn.oracle.com/products/database/
the user. application_express/packaged_apps/
O

Cascading select lists narrow the packaged_apps.html, and install it in
choices available during the cascade your local Oracle Application Express
through subsequent select lists. instance or in the public instance at
For more details on Web 2.0 features apex.oracle.com. Select Application
in Oracle Application Express, includ- Builder -> Import -> Application, click
ing sample applications and additional Browse, select the aria_people_search_
ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 67
7/17/07 10:50:02 AM
 BROWSER-BASED
installer-0.91.sql file from the down-
loaded application files, and click Next.
Step 2. Download, unzip, and install
the images and JavaScript file from
the o57browser.zip file. Select Shared
Components -> Files -> Images,
click Create, browse to an image file,
select the Aria application from the
Application list, and click Upload.
Repeat the upload process for each
image. To install the aria.js file, select
Shared Components -> Files -> Static
Files, click Create, browse to the aria.js
file, select the Aria application from the
Application list, and click Upload.
Step 3. Add the code to create the tooltip
structure, including the image layout.
In the application builder and the Aria
application, click Page 0 to display the
page definition. In the Regions section,
click the Create (+) icon, and then click
HTML (on two successive screens).
Enter a title, select No Template from
the Region Template list, select After
Header from the Display Point list,
and click Next. Enter the HTML from
Listing 1 as the region source, and click
Create Region.
Step 4. Create an on-demand applica-
tion process named Person_Detail.
Select Shared Components -> Logic ->
Application Processes, click Create,
enter Person_Detail in the Name field,
select On Demand: Run this applica-
tion process when requested by a
page process from the Process Point
list, and click Next. In the Process Text
field, enter aria_detail;, click Next, and
click Create Process.
Step 5. Install the aria_detail procedure
(provided as part of the o57browser.zip
download for this column). Select SQL
Workshop -> SQL Scripts -> Upload,
click Browse, choose the aria_detail.sql
file, and click Upload.
Step 6. Create two application-level
items named TEMP_ID and TEMP_
PAGE_ID, respectively. Select Shared
Components -> Logic -> Application
Items. Click Create, enter the name for
the item, and click Create.
Step 7. Add the following JavaScript
snippet to any element that should
display a person detail, where PERSON_
ID is a valid employee ID:
68 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
SO07_BrowserBase.indd 68
Figure 1: A tooltip over a name in a list of results
Figure 2: A tooltip over a name in a detail result
onmouseover=
”ARIA_DETAIL(this, ’#PERSON_ID#’)”
For example, to create the tooltip
shown in Figure 1, in the application
builder, click Page 1, click Report (in
the Regions section), click Column
Attributes, and click the icon (edit)
next to the REVERSE_NAME column
alias. Under Column Link, enter the
JavaScript snippet in the Link Attributes
field, and click Apply Changes.
To create the tooltip shown in Figure
2, select Shared Components -> User
Interface -> Templates, and under the
Report Type, click Person_Detail. In
the Row Template 1 text field, replace
<td valign=”top”>
<a href=”f?p=&APP_ID.:2:&SESSION.::NO::
PERSON_ID:#MGR_PERSON_ID#”>
#MANAGER_NAME#</a>
with
<td valign=”top”>
<a href=”f?p=&APP_ID.:2:&SESSION.::NO::
PERSON_ID:#MGR_PERSON_ID#”
onmouseover=”ARIA_DETAIL(
this,’#MGR_PERSON_ID#’)”>
#MANAGER_NAME#</a>
Finally, run the application to see
your tooltips in action. Figure 1 shows
an example tooltip appearing over a
name in a list of results. Figure 2 shows
an example tooltip appearing over a
manager name in a detail result.
CONCLUSION
Oracle Application Express is a very
easy-to-use, rapid development tool
optimized for building Web 2.0–enabled
applications. The underlying framework
provides built-in declarative Web 2.0
capabilities and several “hooks” and
APIs to enable developers to readily
incorporate Web 2.0 functionality. O
David Peake (david.peake@oracle.com) is a principal
product manager in Oracle’s Server Technologies
division. He has been with Oracle since 1993.
READ more about
Oracle Application Express
otn.oracle.com/apex
DOWNLOAD
Oracle Application Express
otn.oracle.com/products/database/application_
express/download.html
packaged applications
otn.oracle.com/products/database/application_
express/packaged_apps/packaged_apps.html
sample content for tooltips
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/07-sep/o57browser.zip
7/17/07 10:50:04 AM
Use
Add PL/SQL
PL/SQLDeveloper
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 d e v e l o p e r PL/SQL PRACTICES
On the PL/SQL Function Result Cache
Best practices—and preparation—for PL/SQL in Oracle Database 11g
have been reading that Oracle is launching
the 11th release of its database. Very excit-
ing! But here’s the problem: I don’t think I’ll
be able to use it for another two years. So
why should I even care about the new PL/SQL
features of this future (for me) release?
Ah, yes, the real world. Oracle
comes out with a new database release,
and by the time it does so, its develop-
ers are already focused on the next new
release. People like me start writing
about, demonstrating, and even train-
ing on the newer release. And then
there’s almost everybody else: still on
older releases, hoping and praying that
someday maybe their management will
see fit to catch up.
I feel your pain.
Having said that, I do think it makes
an awful lot of sense to learn now
about what Oracle Database 11g will
have to offer you and your company in
the future. The reason is very simple:
once you see what is going to be avail-
able in Oracle Database 11g, you will
probably change the way you write
your code now!
I would say that the single most
important new PL/SQL feature in Oracle
Database 11g is the PL/SQL function
result cache. Quite a mouthful, but then
it is quite a feature.
I offer in this answer a quick over-
view of this feature, and I conclude
by discussing how knowing about this
feature should affect the way you write
PL/SQL programs for earlier Oracle
Database releases.
Suppose I am on a team that is
building a human resources applica-
tion. The employees table is one of
the key structures, holding all the
data for all the employees. Hundreds
of users execute numerous programs
in the application that read from this
table—and read from it very often. Yet
SO07_PLSQL.indd 71
the table changes relatively infrequently,
perhaps once or twice an hour. As a
result, the application code repeatedly
retrieves from the block buffer cache
what is mostly static data, enduring the
overhead of checking to see if the par-
ticular query has already been parsed,
finding the data in the buffer, and
returning it.
The team needs to improve the
performance of querying data from the
employees table. Currently, we use the
following function to return a row from
the employees table:
FUNCTION one_employee (employee_id_in
IN employees.employee_id%TYPE)
RETURN employees%ROWTYPE
IS
l_employee employees%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
SELECT *
INTO l_employee
FROM employees
WHERE employee_id = employee_id_in;
RETURN l_employee;
EXCEPTION
WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND
THEN
/* Return an empty record. */
RETURN l_employee;
END one_employee;
In Oracle Database 11g, however,
we can add a line to the header of this
function as follows:
FUNCTION one_employee (employee_id_in
IN employees.employee_id%TYPE)
RETURN employees%ROWTYPE
RESULT_CACHE RELIES_ON (employees)
IS
l_employee employees%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
...
ORACLE MAGAZINE
BY STEVEN FEUERSTEI N
This RESULT_CACHE clause tells
Oracle Database that it should remem-
ber (store in a special in-memory
result cache) each record retrieved for
a specific employee ID number. And
when a session executes this function
and passes in an employee ID that was
previously stored, the PL/SQL runtime
engine will not execute the function
body, which includes that query.
Instead, it will simply retrieve the
record from the cache and return that
data immediately. The result is much
faster retrieval.
In addition, by specifying RELIES_
ON (employees), we inform Oracle
Database that if any session commits
changes to that table, any data in the
result cache drawn from the table must
be invalidated. The next call to the one_
employee function would then have to
execute the query and retrieve the data
fresh from the table.
Because the cache is a part of the
System Global Area (SGA), its contents
are available to all sessions connected
to the instance. Furthermore, Oracle
Database will apply its “least recently
used algorithm” to the cache, to ensure
that the most recently accessed data will
be preserved in the cache.
Prior to Oracle Database 11g, a
similar kind of caching was possible
with package-level collections, but this
cache is session-specific and located
in the Process Global Area (PGA).
This means that if I have 1,000 differ-
ent sessions running the application, I
could use up an enormous amount of
memory in addition to that consumed
by the SGA.
The PL/SQL function result cache
minimizes the amount of memory
needed to cache and share this data
across all sessions. This low memory
profile, plus the automatic purge of
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 71
7/17/07 12:22:36 PM
 PL/SQL PRACTICES
cached results whenever changes are
committed, makes this feature of Oracle
Database 11g very practical for optimiz-
ing performance in PL/SQL applications.
ANALYZE PERFORMANCE AND PGA
MEMORY IMPACT
To test the improvement in perfor-
mance and the impact on PGA memory
over repeated queries of the data, I put
together a set of scripts, available at
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/07-sep/
o57plsql.zip, that compares three
different ways to retrieve a row of
employee data:
1. Execute the query repeatedly
2. Cache all the rows of the employees
table in a packaged collection and then
retrieve the data from that cache
3. Use the PL/SQL function result cache
to avoid repetitive querying
To try this out yourself, unzip the
o57plsql.zip file and run the 11g_
emplu.tst script. It should take about
five or six seconds to complete, and
then you should see results like this:
PGA before tests are run:
session PGA: 910860 bytes
Execute query each time
Elapsed: 4.5 seconds.
session PGA: 910860 bytes
Cache table in PGA memory
Elapsed: .11 seconds.
session PGA: 1041932 bytes
Oracle Database 11g result cache
Elapsed: .27 seconds.
session PGA: 1041932 bytes
Here are my conclusions from this
admittedly incomplete analysis:
O The Oracle Database 11g PL/SQL func-
tion result cache is, indeed, much faster
than repetitive querying. In this test, it
was over an order of magnitude faster.
O A packaged collection cache is even
faster, most likely because the PL/SQL
runtime engine can access the data
from PGA memory rather than SGA
memory. Unfortunately, this also means
that the consumption of memory
occurs on a per-session basis, which is
72 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
SO07_PLSQL.indd 72
not very scalable.
O The packaged collection approach
consumed additional PGA memory, but
the Oracle Database 11g function result
cache did not.
And then, of course, there are the
other key advantages of the function
result cache: automatic invalidation of
cache contents when a dependent table
is changed, the fact that the cache is
shared across sessions, and the applica-
tion of the least recently used algorithm
to the memory in the cache.
SO WHY SHOULD YOU CARE NOW?
“All right,” you may be saying to your-
self, “It’s cool. Super cool. But I still can’t
use it for two years or more, so what
good does that do me now?”
You may not be able to use the
PL/SQL function result cache yet,
but you can write your code now so
that when you eventually upgrade to
Oracle Database 11g, you will be able
to quickly and easily use this cache in
your application code.
In other words, you can and should
prepare now for this future feature.
How do you do that? By placing
all your queries (at least those against
tables that change infrequently but
are queried often) inside functions, so
that you can easily add the RESULT_
CACHE clause.
Think about it: today you prob-
ably don’t do that. Instead, whenever
you need data from the database, you
write the required query, right there in
the application logic you are writing
(whether that logic resides in the back
end—other PL/SQL programs—or the
front end—languages such as Java).
And that same query (or some minor
variation on it) will likely appear in
multiple places in your application
code. Why not? It is so easy to write
those SQL statements; that’s one of the
beauties of PL/SQL. But that ease of use
in executing SQL inside PL/SQL makes
us all take SQL for granted, and when
you upgrade to Oracle Database 11g,
you will pay the price.
If after upgrading, you want to take
advantage of RESULT_CACHE, you
will have to find every affected SQL
statement and either put the RESULT_
CACHE hint inside that query (that’s
right, this feature is available natively
within SQL as well as for functions) or
construct the function, put the query
inside it, find each of the applicable
queries, and replace the query with the
function call.
Certainly both of these approaches
are eminently doable, but they are also
very unlikely to happen. IT managers
are loathe to go into existing, working
production code and upset the applecart
by making lots of changes.
If, conversely, you start right now, in
Oracle9i Database or Oracle Database
10g, to place your queries inside func-
tions, you will almost instantly be able
to upgrade your code to use this fan-
tastic new feature when you upgrade to
Oracle Database 11g.
And, best of all, the application code
that calls the function will not have to
be changed at all! Your manager will be
very impressed.
And that is why you should learn
about the new features of Oracle
Database 11g. Today. O
Steven Feuerstein (steven.feuerstein@quest.com) is
Quest Software’s PL/SQL evangelist. He has published
10 books on Oracle’s programming language, including
Oracle PL/SQL Programming and Oracle PL/SQL Best
Practices (O’Reilly Media). Feuerstein’s self-appointed
mission in life these days is to improve the quality and
quantity of PL/SQL code testing.
READ more about
PL/SQL function result cache
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/07-sep/
o57asktom.html
otn.oracle.com/documentation
READ more
Best Practice PL/SQL
otn.oracle.com/pub/columns/plsql
PL/SQL Practices
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/plsql
DOWNLOAD
Oracle Database 11g
otn.oracle.com/database
test scripts for comparing row
retrieval speed
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/07-sep/o57plsql.zip
7/17/07 12:22:37 PM
 t e c h n o l o g y PARTITIONING
More Partitioning Choices
Learn when and how to use new partitioning schemes in Oracle Database 11g.
he July/August 2006 issue of
Oracle Magazine included an
article I wrote on the various types
of database partitioning and how
to choose a partitioning strategy to meet
your specific requirements. In Oracle
Database 11g, the partitioning schemes
have been greatly expanded to offer more
functionality, including the
ability to define new com-
posite partitioning, choose
a partition interval, specify
a foreign key to inherit the
partitioning key of its parent
table, and partition on
virtual columns.
REFERENTIAL PARTITIONING
Consider a hypothetical
company, Acme Hotels, for
which you are building a
hotel reservation system.
One core table, named
RES, stores the reservation
information. Here are the
columns of the RES table:
RES_ID NUMBER
RES_DATE DATE
HOTEL_ID NUMBER(3)
GUEST_ID NUMBER
The res_id, res_date, hotel_id, and
guest_id columns refer to a unique ID
number for the reservation, the date for
which the reservation was made, the
unique ID of the hotel for which the
reservation was made, and the unique
identifier of the guest who made the
reservation, respectively. Because most
users query on the res_date column and
it is also used to identify records for par-
titioning, you decide to range-partition
the table on that column with a partition
TIM WEBB
per quarter, as shown in Listing 1.
Next, you want to create a table to
SO07_PARTITIONING.indd 73
hold the transactions resulting from the
reservations. The table, called TRANS,
looks like this:
TRANS_ID NUMBER
RES_ID NUMBER
TRANS_DATE DATE
AMT NUMBER
There can be many transactions for
a specific reservation, and each record
is uniquely identified by a trans_id.
Because TRANS is a child table of RES,
there is a foreign key on the TRANS.res_
id column, pointing to the RES table.
Because the TRANS table has the same
archival requirements as the RES table,
you want to partition it in exactly the
same way—range-partition on res_date,
with one partition per quarter.
But there is a problem: the TRANS
table does not have a res_date column,
so how can you partition on a column
that does not exist?
Enter Oracle Database 11g.
Oracle Database 11g provides a very
useful new feature: referential partition-
ORACLE MAGAZINE
BY A RU P N A N DA
ing. So instead of adding a res_date
column to the TRANS table and specify-
ing the partitioning clause, as you did for
RES in Listing 1, you can specify a simple
PARTITION BY REFERENCE clause in
Oracle Database 11g, as shown in Listing
2. You must pass the foreign key con-
straint name as an argument that tells
how the references are estab-
lished. For instance, in this
case, you are creating refer-
ential partitions on TRANS,
referencing the foreign key
as FK_TRANS_01, which
points to the parent table
RES. The TRANS table will
inherit the partitioning
strategy of the RES table,
even though the partition-
ing column is not present
in TRANS. Referential
partitioning essentially
instructs Oracle Database to
equipartition the child table
(TRANS, in this example) in
exactly the same way as the
parent table (RES).
You can see how the
referential partitioning has been set up,
by querying the USER_PART_TABLES
dictionary view, as shown in Listing 3.
The partitioning_type column shows
the type of partitioning scheme; in
Listing 3, the type is REFERENCE, and
the ref_ptn_constraint_name column
shows the foreign key constraint name,
FK_TRANS_01, when the partition
type is REFERENCE.
To check the boundaries of the
partitions, query the USER_TAB_
PARTITIONS dictionary view, as shown
in Listing 4. Note that the boundaries of
the partitions of the TRANS child table,
shown in the HIGH_VALUE column,
are all null. This indicates that the
boundaries are the same as those of the
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 73
7/17/07 12:33:36 PM
 PARTITIONING
partitions of the RES parent table and
are not independently defined.
With referential partitioning, you can
partition any child table in the same way
as its parent to improve performance
and meet archival requirements, even
though the partition key column is not
present in any of the child tables.
Suppose you purge the RES table by
dropping partitions. All the child tables
are consequently purged as well, auto-
matically. When you add a partition to
the parent, a corresponding partition is
added to the child table, automatically.
Similarly, when you split the PM parti-
tion of the RES table to carve out a new
partition, the PM partition of the TRANS
table is also split into two partitions, at
exactly the same point. Here is how you
can split the PM partition of the RES
table at the value 401:
alter table res
split partition pm
at (401)
into (partition p4, partition pm);
Now if you query the partitions of
the TRANS table, the child, you see
select partition_name
from user_tab_partitions
where table_name = ‘TRANS’;
PARTITION_NAME
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
P1
P2
P3
P4
SYS_P45
Note the new partition, SYS_P45,
which was created when the PM parti-
tion was split. (The SYS_P45 name
comes from a sequence number prefixed
by SYS_P.) You may want to change its
name to be consistent with the naming
of the PM partition in RES. To rename it,
use the following SQL:
alter table trans rename partition
SYS_P45 to PM;
Note that if the child table had any
74 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
SO07_PARTITIONING.indd 74
codeLISTING 1: Creation of RES table
create table res (
res_id number primary key not null,
res_date date,
hotel_id number(3),
guest_id number
)
partition by range (res_date) (
partition p1 values less than (to_date(‘01/01/2007’,’mm/dd/yyyy’)),
partition p2 values less than (to_date(‘04/01/2007’,’mm/dd/yyyy’)),
partition p3 values less than (to_date(‘07/01/2007’,’mm/dd/yyyy’)),
partition p4 values less than (to_date(‘10/01/2007’,’mm/dd/yyyy’)),
partition pm values less than (maxvalue)
);
codeLISTING 2: Creating TRANS table, using reference partitioning
create table trans (
trans_id number not null,
res_id number not null,
trans_date date not null,
amt number,
constraint fk_trans_01
foreign key (res_id)
references res
)
partition by reference
(fk_trans_01);
codeLISTING 3: Checking for foreign key in reference partitioning
SQL> select table_name, partitioning_type, ref_ptn_constraint_name
2 from user_part_tables
3 where table_name in (‘RES’, ’TRANS’);
TABLE_NAME PARTITIONING_TYPE REF_PTN_CONSTRAINT_NAME
–––––––––––––––––––––– –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
RES RANGE
TRANS REFERENCE FK_TRANS_01
locally partitioned indexes, their cor- INTERVAL PARTITIONING
responding partitions would have been What happens when an incoming record
split as well. When you drop or split in an INSERT statement has a value
partitions on the parent, the operations in the partitioning key column, for
are performed on the corresponding which no partitions have been defined?
partitions on the child. If the parent has The INSERT will fail. However, if you
multiple referentially partitioned child have defined a default partition by, for
tables, the operations are performed example, using the MAXVALUE clause
automatically on all of them. Referential in a range-partition scheme (as shown in
partitioning enables you to define an Listing 1) or the DEFAULT partition for
appropriate partitioning strategy for the a list-partitioned table, the INSERT will
parent table while leaving the details out not fail but the new record will go into
for the child tables. This not only sim- the default partition, which defeats the
plifies the administration of partitioned purpose of partitioning. So you have to
objects significantly but also allows equi- ensure that you have a partition avail-
partitioning even when it is not desirable able for all possible records coming into
to include the partition key columns the table; you have to carefully identify
in the child table—or even possible to all possible values and then create parti-
include them, such as with prepack- tions for all of them before the actual
aged applications where adding an extra data arrives. For instance, suppose that
column in a table is not allowed. the RES table is partitioned on the res_
7/17/07 12:33:37 PM
 id column with partitions defined on
value ranges 1–100, 101–200, and 201–
300, so that you have defined partitions
up to res_id = 300. You can monitor the
maximum res_id column value, and just
before it approaches 300, you can create
a new p4 partition for values 301–400.
This task may be easier said than
done. If you forget to add the partition,
the new record with res_id = 301 will
either fail to insert or go into the default
partition, if you have defined one.
Wouldn’t it be great if the partitions were
somehow created automatically?
Oracle Database 11g can do exactly
that: create partitions automatically as
needed without your intervention. To
accomplish this, implement an interval
partitioning method, as follows:
create table res (
res_id number not null,
res_date date,
hotel_id number(3),
guest_id number
) 1
partition by range (res_id)
interval (100) store in (users)
(
partition p1 values less than (101)
);
This script creates a partition named
p1 for records in which the value of
the res_id column is 1–100. When
records with a res_id value of less
than 101 are inserted, they go into the
p1 partition, but when a new record
shows up with a res_id value equal to
or greater than 101, Oracle Database
11g creates a new partition for it with a
system-generated name. For instance,
suppose you insert a record that has a
res_id value of 901, as follows:
insert into res values (901,sysdate,1,1);
Now check the partitions defined on
the table by executing the query shown
in Listing 5. Note how the partition
SYS_P82 was created automatically to
hold the new 901 value, which was not
within the boundary value of the P1 par-
tition. At this time, if you insert another
record with a res_id value of 301, the
SO07_PARTITIONING.indd 75
codeLISTING 4: Checking partitions of tables
SQL> select table_name, partition_name, high_value
2 from user_tab_partitions
3 where table_name in (‘RES’, ’TRANS’);
TABLE_NAME PARTITION_NAME HIGH_VALUE
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
RES P1 TO_DATE(‘ 2007-01-01 00:00:00’, ‘SYYYY-M
M-DD HH24:MI:SS’, ‘NLS_CALENDAR=GREGORIA
RES P2 TO_DATE(‘ 2007-04-01 00:00:00’, ‘SYYYY-M
M-DD HH24:MI:SS’, ‘NLS_CALENDAR=GREGORIA
RES P3 TO_DATE(‘ 2007-07-01 00:00:00’, ‘SYYYY-M
M-DD HH24:MI:SS’, ‘NLS_CALENDAR=GREGORIA
RES P4 TO_DATE(‘ 2007-10-01 00:00:00’, ‘SYYYY-M
M-DD HH24:MI:SS’, ‘NLS_CALENDAR=GREGORIA
RES PM MAXVALUE
TRANS P1
TRANS P2
TRANS P3
TRANS P4
TRANS PM
codeLISTING 5: Checking partitions generated in interval partitioning
SQL> select partition_position, partition_name, high_value
2 from user_tab_partitions
3 where table_name = ‘RES’
4 order by 1;
PARTITION_POSITION PARTITION_NAME HIGH_VALUE
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
P1 101
2 SYS_P82 1001
The result of the same query after inserting res_id = 301:
PARTITION_POSITION PARTITION_NAME HIGH_VALUE
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
1 P1 101
2 SYS_P83 401
3 SYS_P82 1001
partition SYS_P82 is split in two, as alter table res truncate partition
shown in the output at the bottom half for (901);
of Listing 5.
You may want to address partitions You can use the FOR (value) syntax
by name, such as when you are truncat- in any direct partition access SQL state-
ing a specific partition. Given that the ment for any kind of partitioned table,
partition names are generated at runtime not only for interval-partitioned tables.
and you don’t know them in advance, In interval partitioning, the first par-
how can you address the specific parti- tition you specify in the table creation
tion of the table? For instance, suppose script is created in the default tablespace
you want to truncate the partition that of the user but the subsequent partitions
contains the value 901 as the res_id are created in the default tablespace of
but you don’t know the name of the the database, not that of the user. Even
partition. One way to find the parti- if you change the attributes of the table
tion name is to query the USER_TAB_ to change the default tablespace, the
PARTITIONS data dictionary view, new partitions still go into the default
as shown in Listings 4 and 5, but an tablespace of the database. To force them
easier way is to use the expanded parti- to go to different tablespaces, you have
tion access syntax in Oracle Database to specify an additional clause at table
11g. You can truncate that partition by creation time. To specify the RESDATA1
issuing the following SQL: and RESDATA2 tablespaces as the loca-
ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 75
7/9/07 1:22:14 PM
 PARTITIONING
tions for all new partitions, include the
STORE IN clause after the INTERVAL
clause, as follows:
interval (100) store in (resdata1,resdata2)
Now the new partitions will be
spread over these two tablespaces in a
round-robin manner.
You can also use a time stamp as the
partitioning interval. This comes in handy
for creating a table containing date ranges
and a partition for each month of records.
To accomplish that, write the INTERVAL
clause as follows:
interval (numtoyminterval(1, ’MONTH’))
EXPANDED COMPOSITE PARTITIONING
In my earlier partitioning article, I showed
another important feature: composite par-
titioning. A composite partition is a parti-
tion further broken up into subpartitions.
Up through Oracle Database 10g Release
2, you could divide only range partitions
into hash or list subpartitions. Although
this was adequate for most partition-
ing, some situations could really benefit
from a range subpartition. For instance,
consider the example of the hotel res-
ervations table (RES) you saw earlier.
Suppose the hotel ID shows the type of
hotel: values 1–100 are for 5-star hotels,
values 101–200 indicate 4-star hotels,
and so on. Because a comparative revenue
analysis is usually done within the same
star rating, users tend to select the data
for a specific range of hotel IDs, such as
1–100 only. Therefore, it makes a lot of
sense to range-partition the RES table on
the hotel_id column. However, users also
tend to select the most recent data and
you may want to store the older data on
cheaper disks to save storage costs. So a
perfectly valid competing argument may
be to range-partition the table on the
res_date column. Both are attractive alter-
natives—which one should you choose?
Why not both? In Oracle Database
11g, you can create—in addition to
already available range-hash and range-
list composite partitioning—the follow-
ing: range-range, list-range, list-hash,
and list-list composite partitioning. In
this example, you can create range parti-
76 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
SO07_PARTITIONING.indd 76
codeLISTING 6: Range-range composite subpartitioning
create table res (
res_id number not null,
res_date date,
hotel_id number(3),
guest_id number
)
partition by range (res_date)
interval (numtoyminterval(1,’MONTH’)) store in (example)
subpartition by range (hotel_id)
subpartition template
(
subpartition s1 values less than (101),
subpartition s2 values less than (201),
subpartition s3 values less than (301),
subpartition s4 values less than (401),
subpartition sm values less than (maxvalue)
)
(
partition p1 values less than (to_date(‘01-FEB-2007’,’DD-MON-YYYY’))
);
tions on res_date and then create a range on partitioning with new virtual columns
subpartition on the hotel_id column, available in Oracle Database 11g.
as shown in Listing 6. Note that I have
deliberately chosen an interval scheme CONCLUSION
for the partitioning. I could have chosen Partitioning is a powerful feature in
explicit partition names and high values modern database design that enables
as well, but I wanted to show how you easier database administration with no
can use interval partitioning to ease change in logical design. In most cases, it
maintenance. I could instead have chosen helps accomplish the seemingly contra-
to reverse the order of partitioning—I dictory objectives of fine-grained storage,
could have partitioned on hotel_id and backup, archival, and retrieval—all
then subpartitioned on res_date. To find with no application changes. In Oracle
the subpartitions created, you can select Database 11g, the partitioning option is
from the USER_TAB_SUBPARTITIONS further enhanced with the introduction
data dictionary view, as follows: of referential and interval partitioning,
extended composite partitioning, and
SQL> select partition_name, partitioning on virtual columns to offer a
2 subpartition_name compelling reason to include partitioning
3 from user_tab_subpartitions in your physical database design. O
4 where table_name = ‘RES’;
Arup Nanda (arup@proligence.com) has been an
PARTITION_NAME SUBPARTITION_NAME Oracle DBA for more than 12 years, handling all
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– aspects of database administration, from performance
P1 P1_SM tuning to security and disaster recovery. He was Oracle
P1 P1_S4 Magazine’s DBA of the Year in 2003.
P1 P1_S3
P1 P1_S2
P1 P1_S1
SYS_P106 SYS_SUBP105 READ online-only article content
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/07-sep/
SYS_P106 SYS_SUBP104 o57partition.html
SYS_P106 SYS_SUBP103
READ more about partitioning
SYS_P106 SYS_SUBP102 otn.oracle.com/documentation
SYS_P106 SYS_SUBP101 “Partition Decisions”
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/06-sep/
o56partition.html
The online version of this article, at
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/07-sep/ DOWNLOAD Oracle Database 11g
otn.oracle.com/database
o57partition.html, includes information
7/17/07 12:33:38 PM
 t e c h n o l o g y STORAGE
Faster, Safer, and Smaller LOBs
Oracle SecureFiles provides increased performance, better security, and reduced disk usage.
any organizations today face
the challenge of an explosion
in the amount of unstruc-
tured, often file-based data
that must be managed in conjunction
with the more-structured data typically
associated with relational databases.
Banking applications store check
images for cleared checks,
healthcare applications
store digital images from
X-rays and CAT scans,
geospatial systems store
satellite imagery, enterprise
resource planning systems
store invoice images, and
the list goes on.
Oracle Database 11g
makes significant strides
in addressing the problem
of unstructured data, by
introducing a completely
new storage infrastructure
for data that today is often
left in file systems. This
new infrastructure is called
Oracle SecureFiles, and
it is a complete, drop-in
replacement of Oracle’s previous large-
object (LOB) infrastructure (now called
BasicFiles). Every facet of the Oracle
SecureFiles LOB architecture, from disk
format to network protocol to redo and
undo algorithms, has been rethought
and reimplemented to
O
Improve performance
O
Improve security
O
Reduce disk usage
Suppose you’re migrating digital
assets from databases and file systems
and developing a more-complete digital
asset management system such as one
a magazine publisher might use. Your
system must manage article drafts
JOSEF GAST
and the workflow involved in writing,
editing, revising, and publishing that
SO07_Gennick_X.indd 77
content. This article describes how to set
up and configure Oracle SecureFiles and
how to migrate sample content for this
digital asset management system.
CONFIGURING YOUR INSTANCE
After installing Oracle Database 11g and
before using Oracle SecureFiles, check
the setting of the new Oracle Database
11g db_securefile initialization param-
eter. The default setting is
db_securefile = permitted
This setting makes BasicFiles, not
SecureFiles, the default storage approach
for any new LOB columns you create
while enabling you to explicitly specify
SecureFiles when needed. (BasicFiles is
also the LOB architecture in previous
database releases.) Other settings give
you various options for forcing the use
of one or the other storage type. For
example, you can set db_securefile =
force to ensure that all LOBs are created
as SecureFiles even when the creating
ORACLE MAGAZINE
BY JON ATH AN GENNI CK
user explicitly specifies otherwise. You
should be aware of which db_securefile
setting is in effect for your database.
CREATING TABLESPACES
Any tablespaces you plan to use with
Oracle SecureFiles need to be configured
for automatic segment space management
(ASSM). The key here is to
specify SEGMENT SPACE
MANAGEMENT AUTO
when creating your LOB
tablespaces. The following
creates the ARTICLE_LOBS
tablespace for this article:
CREATE TABLESPACE
article_lobs
DATAFILE ‘H:\APP\
JONATHAN\ORADATA\ORCL\
ARTICLE_LOBS.DBF’
SIZE 5M
EXTENT MANAGEMENT LOCAL
SEGMENT SPACE
MANAGEMENT AUTO;
If you are following
along with this article’s
example, be sure to give yourself adequate
quota on the ARTICLE_LOBS tablespace.
You’ll also need to adjust the datafile path
to something appropriate for your system.
SETTING UP FOR ENCRYPTION
Oracle SecureFiles provides optional
transparent data encryption of LOBs.
Transparent data encryption protects
LOB data from unauthorized users who
might somehow gain access to a datafile.
This encryption is completely transpar-
ent to end users and applications.
If you plan to use encryption with
Oracle SecureFiles, you’ll need to create
a transparent data encryption wallet to
hold the encryption key. First, create
a directory to contain the wallet. You
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 77
7/20/07 10:56:11 AM
 STORAGE
can place that directory underneath
$ORACLE_HOME. For example
mkdir H:\app\Jonathan\product\11.1.0\
db_1\wallet
Next, add an ENCRYPTION_
WALLET_LOCATION setting to your
sqlnet.ora file. You’ll find sqlnet.ora
in $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin.
Following is the setting corresponding
to the directory just created:
ENCRYPTION_WALLET_LOCATION=
(SOURCE=(METHOD=FILE)(METHOD_DATA=
(DIRECTORY= H:\app\Jonathan\product\
11.1.0\db_1\wallet)))
Be certain to include the
ENCRYPTION_WALLET_LOCATION
setting in sqlnet.ora as one long line.
And again, if you are following along
with this article’s example, you’ll need to
adjust the wallet directory to something
appropriate for your own system.
Finally, set an encryption key:
ALTER SYSTEM SET ENCRYPTION KEY
AUTHENTICATED BY “My secret key”;
With this setting, your Oracle
Database instance will generate an
encryption key and place it in the
wallet. The wallet is then protected by
the password “My secret key.”
CREATING SECUREFILE LOBS
Creating an Oracle SecureFiles LOB
can be as simple as specifying STORE
AS SECUREFILE in the LOB storage
clause of a CREATE TABLE or ALTER
TABLE statement. (Be sure to assign
your SecureFiles LOBs to appropriate,
ASSM-enabled tablespaces.) Listing 1
creates the article_draft_redef table,
with a single, SecureFiles LOB column
named article_content. Data for that
LOB is assigned to the ARTICLE_LOBS
tablespace (created earlier in this
article). Each row in the table contains a
magazine article at a specific stage in the
writing/editing/revising cycle.
Listing 1 shows some of the options
available when creating a new LOB.
RETENTION MIN 3600 ensures
78 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
SO07_Gennick.indd 78
codeLISTING 1: Creating an Oracle SecureFiles LOB
CREATE TABLE article_draft_redef (
article_id NUMBER,
article_stage VARCHAR(10),
article_content BLOB,
CONSTRAINT article_stage_check_b
CHECK (article_stage IN (
‘1st Draft’, ‘Edit Pass’, ‘2nd Draft’,
‘Copyedit’, ‘Review’, ‘Final’)),
CONSTRAINT article_draft_pk_b
PRIMARY KEY (article_id)
)
LOB (article_content) STORE AS SECUREFILE
article_content (
TABLESPACE article_lobs
RETENTION MIN 3600
KEEP_DUPLICATES NOCOMPRESS DECRYPT
CACHE READS);
that at least one hour (60 minutes x 60
seconds/minute = 3,600) of undo data
is retained for the LOB column. This
ability to specify a minimum retention
time is helpful for running your data-
base in flashback mode. The default is
RETENTION AUTO, which retains only
enough undo to satisfy consistent read
requests while a transaction is in prog-
ress. You can also specify a maximum
retention in bytes or no retention at all.
See the Oracle SQL Reference for details
on the syntax for retention.
KEEP_DUPLICATES,
NOCOMPRESS, and DECRYPT explic-
itly disable deduplication, compression,
and encryption. I’ll come back to these
options later in the article. In real life,
you would likely enable one or more of
them from the beginning.
CACHE READS causes LOB data to
be placed into the buffer cache during
read operations but not during write
operations. You gain improved read per-
formance here at the price of potentially
crowding other data out of the buffer
cache. NOCACHE specifies the default
behavior, which is never to bring a
LOB’s data into the buffer cache.
I’ve created the article_draft_redef
table in Listing 1 to migrate a table that
uses the older BasicFiles to the newer
SecureFiles storage method. To follow
along with the migration, download the
o57securefiles.zip file referenced under
“nextSTEPS” at the end of this article,
unzip that file, and follow the instruc-
tions in readme.txt to create the original
table named article_draft that I will be
migrating. The logical column structure
of article_draft is exactly the same as
that of article_draft_redef.
The article_draft table contains exist-
ing LOB data stored with BasicFiles.
I’ll assume that that data is in use by
running applications and that I want
to migrate that data from BasicFiles
to SecureFiles. The article_draft_redef
table, with its SecureFiles LOB column,
represents the destination of the
article_draft table data. (Bonus! There is
even a real article for you to read in the
example data.)
PLANNING A MIGRATION
Because Oracle SecureFiles represents a
completely new way of writing LOB data
to the database, the only way to migrate
LOB data from BasicFiles to SecureFiles
is essentially to rewrite the data by re-
creating or redefining the tables contain-
ing BasicFiles columns. If you can afford
to take your data offline, you can simply
select data from your old table and
insert it into the new one. Begin with a
statement such as
INSERT INTO article_draft_redef
SELECT article_id,
article_stage,
article_content
FROM article_draft;
Follow this INSERT with a DROP
and a RENAME to make the new table
take the place of the old one:
7/17/07 12:29:37 PM
 DROP TABLE article_draft;
RENAME article_draft_redef
TO article_draft;
There’s really no need to take your
data offline, though. Instead, consider
using the online table redefinition
feature introduced in Oracle9i Database
Release 1. Listing 2 shows a PL/SQL
block that migrates the article_draft
table to the structure indicated by the
article_draft_redef table. Online table
definition is very easy to do, and it
makes the migration transparent to
users and applications, because the
table being migrated remains available
the entire time.
If your LOB table happens to be
partitioned, another approach to con-
sider is partition exchange. You can
specify LOB storage on a per-
partition basis, giving you the option
of migrating one partition at a time
from BasicFiles to SecureFiles. Use the
URL under “nextSTEPS” to go to Arup
Nanda’s article on partitioning features,
“Partition Decisions,” where you will
find an example showing how partition
exchange is done.
Be sure you have enough tablespace
and disk space set aside to support
whatever migration method you
choose. For the online redefinition
approach, you’ll need enough space
for two complete copies of your data
to coexist. Partition exchange requires
only enough disk space to hold two
copies of whichever partition you are
exchanging. Bear in mind that one
downside of partition exchange is that
the partition being swapped needs to
be briefly taken offline. In the end,
you’ll have to weigh the different
approaches and their trade-offs and
choose the approach that works best in
your own situation.
CONFIRMING MIGRATION
You can confirm the SecureFiles status
of a given LOB column by checking
that column’s segment subtype. For
example, execute the following to
confirm that article_content is now a
SecureFiles LOB:
SO07_Gennick.indd 79
codeLISTING 2: Migrating by online redefinition
DECLARE
error_counter PLS_INTEGER;
BEGIN
--Begin the redefinition process
DBMS_REDEFINITION.START_REDEF_TABLE (
‘gennick’, ’article_draft’, ’article_draft_redef’,
‘article_id, article_stage, article_content’);
--Finish the redefinition process
DBMS_REDEFINITION.FINISH_REDEF_TABLE (
‘gennick’, ’article_draft’, ’article_draft_redef’);
END;
codeLISTING 3: Checking space used by a LOB
DECLARE
seg_blocks NUMBER;
seg_bytes NUMBER;
used_blocks NUMBER;
used_bytes NUMBER;
expired_blocks NUMBER;
expired_bytes NUMBER;
unexpired_blocks NUMBER;
unexpired_bytes NUMBER;
BEGIN
DBMS_SPACE.SPACE_USAGE (
‘GENNICK’, ‘ARTICLE_CONTENT’, ‘LOB’
, seg_blocks, seg_bytes, used_blocks, used_bytes
, expired_blocks, expired_bytes, unexpired_blocks, unexpired_bytes);
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (‘Bytes used = ‘ || to_char(used_bytes));
END;
SELECT segment_subtype Users each perceive that they have their
FROM user_segments own copy of deduplicated data, even
WHERE segment_name=’ARTICLE_CONTENT’; though that is not really the case.
In a real-life migration, it would
The result you want to see is likely make sense to deduplicate during,
SECUREFILE, which indicates not after, the migration process. For
SecureFiles storage. If you see ASSM, example purposes, though, it’s nice to
you’re still set for BasicFiles storage. be able to see that removal of dupli-
cates is actually occurring. Run the
ENABLING DEDUPLICATION code in Listing 3 to see how many
Having migrated to Oracle SecureFiles, bytes are in use by the LOB segment.
you can choose to enable deduplication, (Be sure to change the first parameter
an Oracle SecureFiles feature whereby of the procedure call to a valid schema
the database server stores only one name on your system.) On my system,
copy of a given LOB in a given column the result is
within the same partition. Two or more
users can independently store the same Bytes used = 450560
data in a LOB column—storing the
same article draft twice, for example— To deduplicate the data in the
and the database keeps track of that article_content column in the
duplication, storing only one copy of article_draft table, issue the following
the data. Deduplication is transparent. ALTER TABLE statement:
ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 79
7/11/07 1:04:39 PM
 STORAGE
ALTER TABLE article_draft
MODIFY LOB(article_content)
(DEDUPLICATE LOB);
Existing LOBs in the article_content
column will be scanned, and any current
duplicates will be detected and elimi-
nated. Any new LOB values written to
the column will be checked against exist-
ing values to prevent future duplication.
Now, run the code in Listing 3 again,
and you can see the effects of the dedu-
plication. The number of bytes used by
the segment should be reduced. On my
system, I see the following, lower usage:
Bytes used = 376832
The number of bytes used in the LOB
segment has dropped because document
#6 is a duplicate of an article stored in a
different row. Because of deduplication,
that article is not stored twice. Instead, a
pointer is stored to the LOB in that other
row. When you read the contents of the
LOB for document #6, that pointer is
dereferenced for you in a completely
transparent manner.
Duplicate detection is based on
checksums computed with the SHA1
cryptographic hash algorithm. When you
write a new LOB into a LOB segment, a
checksum is computed over the first n
bytes of that new LOB. If that checksum
doesn’t match that for any existing LOB
in the segment, the new LOB is written
to the database. Checksums are saved for
each LOB, for future deduplication.
When the checksum for a newly
incoming LOB matches an existing
checksum, there is the strong possibil-
ity that the two LOBs are identical. The
database instance will begin doing a
byte-by-byte comparison of the incoming
LOB data with the possible duplicate that
is already stored. That possible duplicate
is referred to as the primary LOB. The
comparison process reads the primary
LOB, but no new data is written, so long
as the LOB data continues to match.
If the LOBs compare as equal, only a
pointer to the primary LOB is written.
If the comparison fails, data from the
primary LOB up to that point is used to
construct the first part of the new LOB,
80 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
SO07_Gennick.indd 80
and remaining incoming data for the
new LOB is written to disk.
ENABLING COMPRESSION
Compression encodes the data in a LOB to
reduce the number of bytes required to
store that LOB. Compression is transpar-
ent and reduces the amount of storage
needed for your LOB data, giving you
more benefit from each dollar your orga-
nization spends on disk storage systems.
Compression requires additional CPU
cycles, so be sure that compression is
worthwhile before enabling it on a LOB
column. For example, image data, such
as PNG files and JPEG files, is often com-
pressed as part of the encoding scheme
used. Further compression of image
files may be a waste of CPU cycles. But
text-based data such as XML and word-
processing documents tends to compress
a great deal, making the trade-off of CPU
time for more disk space very worthwhile.
To enable compression on the sample
SecureFiles LOB column, issue the fol-
lowing ALTER TABLE statement:
ALTER TABLE article_draft
MODIFY LOB(article_content)
(COMPRESS HIGH);
This statement activates a high level
of compression on the column data.
You can specify MEDIUM to trade away
some of that compression for reduced
CPU cycles. There is currently no LOW
compression option, but that keyword is
reserved for future implementation.
If you rerun the code in Listing 3,
you should see that even less space is
now used by the LOB segment. I get the
following result:
Bytes used = 90112
The online version of this article, at
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/07-sep/
o57securefiles.html, includes infor-
mation on compression benefits and
instructions for enabling encryption
with Oracle SecureFiles.
REAP THE BENEFITS!
Oracle SecureFiles offers three compel-
ling features you can take advantage
of immediately without making any
changes to your LOB-using applications:
O
Deduplication
O
Compression
O
Encryption
Preliminary testing also shows signifi-
cant increases in performance through
use of Oracle SecureFiles. Oracle’s in-
house testing shows a 200 to 900 percent
increase in write performance, depend-
ing on LOB size and whether existing
segment space is being reused. Early-
adopter clients have reported 300 to 700
percent increases in performance of key
application functions.
Because Oracle SecureFiles is com-
pletely backward-compatible with
BasicFiles, even to the point of using
the same datatype names, you can begin
to take advantage of everything Oracle
SecureFiles has to offer, almost from the
moment you upgrade to Oracle Database
11g. You do need to rewrite your LOB
data in the database, but you can do that
while keeping the data online, and the
change is completely transparent to both
users and applications.
Oracle SecureFiles is a gift. Drop it in.
Take immediate advantage of improved
performance, save money on disk
storage, and secure your data from those
who would do you harm. O
Jonathan Gennick (www.gennick.com) is an
experienced Oracle professional and member of
the Oak Table Network. He wrote the best-selling
SQL Pocket Guide and the Oracle SQL*Plus Pocket
Reference, both from O’Reilly Media.
READ online-only article content
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/07-sep/
o57securefiles.html
READ more about
partition exchange
“Partition Decisions”
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/06-sep/
o56partition.html
Oracle SecureFiles
Oracle Database 11g Large Object’s Developer’s Guide
otn.oracle.com/documentation
DOWNLOAD
sample code for this article
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/07-sep/
o57securefiles.zip
Oracle Database 11g
otn.oracle.com/products/database
7/17/07 12:29:38 PM
 t e c h n o l o g y SQL DEVELOPER
Moving to an Oracle Database
Use Oracle Migration Workbench to migrate third-party schema objects to an Oracle database.
oes your business have a col-
lection of different databases
in house? Do you want an easy
way to review all the data in
these various databases by using one tool
and then, in some cases, to consolidate
the databases by migrating objects and
data to an Oracle database? This column
introduces the new Oracle Migration
Workbench, a powerful extension to
Oracle SQL Developer that enables you
to access data in Oracle and third-party
databases and migrate third-party
databases—including the schema objects,
triggers, and stored procedures—to an
Oracle9i Database or Oracle Database
10g. Third-party databases currently sup-
ported include Microsoft SQL Server,
Microsoft Access, and MySQL.
This column shows you how to set
up your environment and then, using
a Microsoft SQL Server database as an
example, how to browse and migrate
database objects and data from SQL
Server to an Oracle database.
CONFIGURING THE ENVIRONMENT
Before you migrate your third-party
database objects, you need to configure
your Oracle SQL Developer and Oracle
Migration Workbench environment to
work with your third-party database(s).
Oracle Migration Workbench is available
in Oracle SQL Developer as of Release
1.2.0.29.98. You can download Oracle
SQL Developer at otn.oracle.com/
products/database/sql_developer.
Oracle SQL Developer uses Java
DataBase Connectivity (JDBC) to
connect to databases, so in addition to
installing Oracle SQL Developer, you
need to install and set up the JDBC
drivers for the third-party database to
which you want to connect. The fol-
lowing includes download requirements
and location information for supported
SO07_SQL_DEV.indd 81
third-party databases:
O
The MySQL JDBC driver, version 5.04,
is available at http://dev.mysql.com/
downloads/connector/j/5.0.html.
O

Microsoft SQL Server requires the jTDS
driver, available at http://jtds.sourceforge
.net. The download for version 1.2 is
available at http://sourceforge.net/project/
showfiles.php?group_id=33291.
O

Microsoft Access does not require
an additional driver, because it uses a
JDBC/ODBC bridge.
SETTING UP JDBC DRIVERS
Once you have downloaded the JDBC
drivers you need, expand the driver
binary JAR file, typically a separate JAR
file inside the downloaded archive file:
O
For MySQL, the mysql-connector-
java-5.0.4.tar.gz (or .zip) download
includes a binary driver JAR file called
mysql-connector-java-5.0.4-bin.jar.
O

For SQL Server, the jtds-1.2-dist.zip
file includes a file called jtds-1.2.jar.
Ensure that your third-party database
is up and running, and start up Oracle
SQL Developer. From the main menu,
select Tools -> Preferences…, expand
the Database node, select Third Party
JDBC Drivers, and click Add Entry.…
Then browse to and select the JAR file
mentioned above, and click OK.
CREATING DATABASE CONNECTIONS
Before you can work with a database
in Oracle SQL Developer, you need to
create a database connection. Create
a connection for any third-party data-
base you plan to browse or migrate
from and a connection for any Oracle
database you plan to browse or migrate
database objects to.
To create a database connec-
tion in Oracle SQL Developer, click
the Connections tab, right-click the
Connections node, and select New
ORACLE MAGAZINE
BY SUE HARPER
Connection. For a SQL Server connec-
tion, click the SQLServer tab and com-
plete the following:
O

Connection name, such as
SQLServer2005_mwb
O

Username and password
O

Hostname of the machine where the
SQL Server database resides
O
Port
Now click Retrieve database to
populate the list of available SQL Server
databases. For this column, I am using
Northwind, a sample database provided
with SQL Server.
Finally, click Test, to ensure that
you can connect successfully, and then
click Connect to save the connection,
close the dialog box, and connect to the
selected SQL Server database.
BROWSING YOUR DATA
When you open a database connection
in Oracle SQL Developer, a SQL work-
sheet opens to enable you to write basic
queries and commands. Expand the SQL
Server connection you have created, and
navigate to the Tables node under dbo.
You can select and drag any table onto
the SQL worksheet, and the action will
create a SELECT statement. Press F9 to
execute the query.
If you have multiple queries you
want to execute, press F5. As with any
other Oracle database connection, you
can sort the returned data by clicking
the column headings.
To view the definition of a table
such as Customers in the Connections
Navigator, click the table. Note that the
tabs displayed are slightly different from
those available when the connection is to
an Oracle database. Also note that when
Oracle SQL Developer is connected to
an Oracle database, the context menus
offer many Data Definition Language
(DDL) commands or utilities; the context
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 81
7/20/07 10:59:32 AM
 SQL DEVELOPER

menus for third-party databases are

focused on browsing and migration.

SETTING UP A REPOSITORY
Oracle Migration Workbench uses an
Oracle database schema as a migration
repository to store the metadata it col-
lects and transforms for the migration
process. You need to set up a migration
repository only once, regardless of how
many migrations you perform. The
repository consists of 37 tables, with Figure 1: Creating a repository
associated primary keys and indexes,
eight views, triggers, and PL/SQL code.
Although this is not required, Oracle
recommends that you configure a dedi-
cated database schema for the repository.
The user who creates and owns the
repository must be granted various
system privileges and roles. Listing 1
creates a user named migration and
grants the necessary privileges.
Once you have created this user,
you’ll need to create a new database
connection, such as Migration_Repos,
for this user in the same way you did
before. However, for this user you are
creating the connection for an Oracle
database. After you have entered the
necessary information, click Connect
to save the connection and close the
dialog box. From the main menu, select
Migration -> Repository Management
-> Create Repository (as shown in Figure 2: Captured and converted models
Figure 1). Select the connection for
your new repository, and click Create. 5. Copy any data from the source data- connection to the Oracle database for
An Installing Repository dialog box will base to the new database, if required the new data. The wizard determines
appear, showing the progress. When the Quick Migration. Oracle SQL Developer whether you have an available repository,
process completes, close the dialog box. also provides a Quick Migration feature. and if there is none, it creates one during
Two additional windows open below This wizard-driven approach migrates the migration process. (You can also elect
the Connections Navigator, displaying schemas and data to an Oracle database to save or delete the repository once the
captured and converted models. and supports least privilege migration, migration is complete.) Click Verify to
which means that users can migrate connect to the third-party and Oracle
MIGRATION source database objects for which they databases and verify that the schema in
The migration process comprises a few have access to the target database without the Oracle database has been granted the
separate activities. Once you have con- the DBA privilege. The Quick Migration necessary privileges. With verification
nected to the database you want to wizard completes the migration process complete, click Migrate to complete the
migrate and have built the migration without user intervention. quick migration.
repository, the process is as follows: To invoke the Quick Migration option, Manual Migration. Using manual migra-
1. Capture the source database select Migration -> Quick Migrate from tion, you have much more control over
2. Convert the captured database the main menu. The wizard provides a the process and can select individual
3. Generate DDL for the new Oracle single dialog box that requires you to tables or schema objects to migrate. You
schema objects select the source connection, which is the can also make updates at various stages of
4. Run the generated DDL script to connection to the third-party database, the migration process, such as renaming
create the new user and objects and the target connection, which is the the schema and dropping or renaming

82 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

SO07_SQL_DEV.indd 82 7/17/07 12:26:11 PM

 tables after they have been captured and
before they are converted to the Oracle
model. Let’s take them one at a time:
Step 1. Capture the source database. Right-
click the source database connection
node (SQL Server2005_mwb in this
example) in the Connections Navigator,
and select Capture Microsoft SQL
Server. A progress dialog box showing
you the capture process appears. Once
it is complete, click Close. After the
source has been captured, the metadata
definitions are stored in the Migration
Repository and are ready to be converted.
The captured definitions are available in
the Captured Objects window. Expand
the new node, \\sourcehostname:port\
Northwind (Microsoft SQL Server),
and browse the output. You can make
any modifications, such as renaming
tables, at this point.
Figure 3: Run script as system
Step 2. Convert the captured database.
Once you are satisfied with it, right- codeLISTING 1: Creating the migration user
click the newly captured model,
CREATE USER migration IDENTIFIED BY migration
\\sourcehostname:port\Northwind DEFAULT TABLESPACE users TEMPORARY TABLESPACE temp;
(Microsoft SQL Server), and select
Convert to Oracle Model. A data map GRANT CONNECT, RESOURCE, CREATE VIEW, CREATE PUBLIC SYNONYM
TO migration WITH ADMIN OPTION;
appears for you to accept or modify. For
this exercise, click Apply to accept the GRANT ALTER ANY ROLE, ALTER ANY SEQUENCE, ALTER ANY TABLE, ALTER TABLESPACE, ALTER ANY
mappings offered. A progress dialog box TRIGGER, COMMENT ANY TABLE, CREATE ANY SEQUENCE, CREATE ANY TABLE,CREATE ANY TRIGGER,
CREATE ROLE, CREATE TABLESPACE, CREATE USER, DROP ANY SEQUENCE, DROP ANY TABLE, DROP ANY
appears; click Close when the process TRIGGER, DROP TABLESPACE, DROP USER, DROP ANY ROLE, GRANT ANY ROLE, INSERT ANY TABLE,
completes. Figure 2 illustrates the status SELECT ANY TABLE, UPDATE ANY TABLE
thus far. Both Captured Models and TO migration;
Converted Models reflect the metadata
stored in the Migration Repository. Figure 3, and press F5 to run the script. CONCLUSION
Step 3. Generate DDL for the new Oracle Once the script is complete, create Oracle Migration Workbench supports
schema objects. At this stage, you can a new database connection, such the migration of Microsoft Access,
elect to generate the DDL for individual as ConvertedSQLServer_mwb, in the Microsoft SQL Server, and MySQL data-
objects or categories of objects. To gen- Connections Navigator to browse and base schemas to Oracle Database. It also
erate all the converted objects, right- review the newly migrated objects. reduces the risks involved in migration
click the high-level converted model, Step 5. Copy the data from the source and reduces migration time by automat-
Converted: \\hostname:port\ database to the new database, if required. ing a large portion of the process. O
Northwind (Microsoft SQL Server), The last phase of the migration process is
and click Generate. to copy any data you have in the source Sue Harper (sue.harper@oracle.com) is an Oracle
Step 4. Run the script to create the new database to the target database. From the senior principal product manager based in London.
user and schema objects. When the DDL main menu, select Migration -> Migrate
generation is complete, the DDL script Data. In the dialog box, select the Source
opens in the SQL worksheet. Note that Connection, the Target Connection,
the opening commands create a new data- and the Converted Model (in this LEARN more about Oracle
base user and grant the new user privi- example, Converted: \\hostname:port\ Migration Workbench
otn.oracle.com/products/database/sql_developer
leges. This means that you need to run Northwind (Microsoft SQL Server)),
DOWNLOAD Oracle SQL Developer
the script as a user who has these privi- and click OK. You can now browse, edit, otn.oracle.com/software/products/sql
leges, such as SYSTEM. At the top right and work with your new objects and data DISCUSS Oracle Migration Workbench
side of the SQL worksheet, select the user as you would with any other schema in forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=1
you want to run the script, as shown in your Oracle database.

ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 83

SO07_SQL_DEV.indd 83 7/9/07 12:52:17 PM

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 t e c h n o l o g y ASK TOM
On Oracle Database 11g
Our technologist takes a look at the server results and PL/SQL function caches.
ver the next few months, I’ll be
looking at new features coming
out with the latest release
of Oracle Database, Oracle
Database 11g. There are so many to
choose from that it was hard to pick a
few to start with. So I’ve been talking
with Bryn Llewellyn, the PL/SQL
product manager, and he filled me in
on a couple of great new SQL and
PL/SQL features.
CACHE IT
Oracle Database 11g raises the bar
on data caching. In the past, Oracle
Database cached database blocks. It
could cache these blocks in various
places, such as the default pool, a keep
buffer pool, or a recycle buffer pool.
But it always cached blocks of data—the
building blocks used to build result sets.
Starting with Oracle Database
11g, the database can also now cache
result sets! If you have a query that is
executed over and over again against
slowly or never-changing data, you will
find the new server results cache to be
of great interest. This is a feature from
which virtually every application can
and will benefit.
In a nutshell, the concept is this:
when you run a query, Oracle Database
11g will first see if the results of that
query have already been computed and
cached by some session or user, and if
so, it will retrieve the answer from the
server result cache instead of gathering
all of the database blocks and com-
puting the answer all over again from
scratch. The first execution of the query
will take as long as usual (because it is
computing the result), but subsequent
executions will appear to be instan-
taneous, because the answer is being
returned immediately—instead of being
computed and then returned.
SO07_AskTom.indd 85
BY TO M KYTE
I view this feature as being analo- 9 from t
gous to a just-in-time materialized 10 group by owner, object_type
view. In Oracle8i Database Release 1, 11 order by owner, object_type )
Oracle introduced the concept of mate- 12 loop
rialized views, whereby DBAs could 13 -- do_something
create a summary table, much as they 14 null;
might create an index, and the database 15 end loop;
optimizer would recognize that this 16 end;
summary table existed and, when pos- 17 /
sible, use it to respond to queries rather Procedure created.
than query and process the detailed
information stored in the base tables. Now I execute this process three
This method of operation works well times, noting the time it takes to
but is rather static, much like an index- execute each invocation:
ing scheme. The Oracle Database 11g
server results cache, however, is in SQL> set timing on
effect creating and maintaining material-
ized views on the fly, using a cache. The SQL> exec my_function
server result cache (a just-in-time mate- PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
rialized view) is populated as needed Elapsed: 00:00:01.54
without DBA intervention.
By way of example, I’ll copy the SQL> exec my_function
ALL_OBJECTS table into a table: PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Elapsed: 00:00:00.10
SQL> create table t
2 as SQL> exec my_function
3 select * PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
4 from all_objects; Elapsed: 00:00:00.11
Table created.
SQL> set timing off
Now I’ll create a small function that
executes a report—a query against this Note that the first execution took
table. To clearly demonstrate the dif- a significant amount of time, about
ference in performance of this query, 1.5 seconds, due to the physical I/O
I’ll do nothing inside the loop (where required to read the data from disk
I would normally be printing the rows into the conventional buffer cache. The
and performing some computation): second and third executions took much
less time, about 0.1 second, because
SQL> create or replace procedure the blocks needed to answer the query
2 my_function were found in the cache, not on disk.
3 as Compare what happens if I add a
4 begin “cache the results” hint to the query:
5 for x in
6 (select owner, SQL> create or replace procedure
7 object_type, 2 my_function
8 count(*) cnt 3 as
ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 85
7/17/07 10:45:54 AM
 ASK TOM

4 begin —I observe the following behavior: two functions, identical except in name
5 for x in and compiler parameter options. They
6 (select /*+ result_cache */ SQL> set timing on will both access the previously created
7 owner, table T:
8 object_type, SQL> exec my_function
9 count(*) cnt PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. SQL> create or replace
10 from t Elapsed: 00:00:00.10 2 function not_cached
11 group by owner, object_type 3 ( p_owner in varchar2 )
12 order by owner, object_type ) SQL> exec my_function 4 return number
13 loop PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. 5 as
14 -- do_something Elapsed: 00:00:00.00 6 l_cnt number;
15 null; 7 begin
16 end loop; SQL> exec my_function 8 select count(*)
17 end; PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. 9 into l_cnt
18 / Elapsed: 00:00:00.01 10 from t
Procedure created. 11 where owner = p_owner;
SQL> set timing off 12 dbms_lock.sleep(1);
SQL> set timing on 13 return l_cnt;
Note that the first execution after 14 end;
SQL> exec my_function the UPDATE went back up to about 0.1 15 /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. second of execution time because it had Function created.
Elapsed: 00:00:00.10 to build the new answer. The subse-
quent executions benefit from this work SQL> create or replace
SQL> exec my_function and appear instantaneous. 2 function cached
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. I’m sure that if you sit back and 3 ( p_owner in varchar2 )
Elapsed: 00:00:00.00 ponder your own applications, you 4 return number
will be able to think of more than one 5 result_cache
SQL> exec my_function place where the server results cache 6 relies_on(T)
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. feature will come in handy. It provides 7 as
Elapsed: 00:00:00.01 many of the benefits of some material- 8 l_cnt number;
ized views, but without the setup and 9 begin
SQL> set timing off administrative overhead associated 10 select count(*)
with them. 11 into l_cnt
Note how the first execution took 12 from t
about 0.1 second, because the answer BUT WAIT—THERE’S MORE. . . . 13 where owner = p_owner;
was assembled for the first execution, As they say on late night television, 14 dbms_lock.sleep(1);
but that the subsequent executions were “If you thought that was really good, 15 return l_cnt;
blindingly fast—sometimes so fast that wait till you see this!” Oracle Database 16 end;
they appear instantaneous. 11g has a new PL/SQL function results 17 /
The nice thing about this is that the cache as well. Whereas the aforemen- Function created.
cache is invalidated and refreshed by tioned server results cache is about
the database—and the process is com- caching SQL result sets, this extension The only difference in the functions
pletely transparent to the application. of the server results cache feature caches besides the names are the compiler
The application need not worry about the results of PL/SQL function and pro- parameters RESULT_CACHE and
“stale” or invalid results. For example, cedure calls. RELIES_ON. The RESULT_CACHE
if I update a single row, thus changing In the past, if you called a PL/SQL directive tells Oracle Database that you
the results— function 1,000 times and each func- would like the answers from this func-
tion call consumed 1 second, the 1,000 tion to be saved, so that if someone
SQL> update t calls would take 1,000 seconds. With invokes this function again with the
2 set owner = lower(owner) this new function results cache feature, same inputs, the code should not
3 where rownum = 1; depending on the inputs to the func- actually be executed but, rather, that
1 row updated. tion and whether the data underlying person should just receive the already
the function changes, 1,000 function known answer. The RELIES_ON clause
SQL> commit; calls could take about 1 second, total. A tells the database when to invalidate
Commit complete. small example will be useful: I’ll create this function result cache value—in

86 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

SO07_AskTom.indd 86 7/17/07 10:45:54 AM

 this case, if the table T is modified If you have a query that is executed over and over
(which would change the answer from
my cached function, hence I need it to again against slowly or never-changing data, you
be re-executed). Note that for effect, will find the new server results cache to be of
I’ve put a 1-second sleep in both func-
tions and that that sleep call will make great interest.
it painfully obvious when the func-
tion is actually invoked and when the As you can see, the first execution ‘SYS’ ) );
results are reused. takes a little more than a second, just 29339
I start by calling the conventional like the noncached versions, but the PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
(not_cached) function three times with subsequent ones run at light speed, Elapsed: 00:00:01.21
timing on: simply because the cached function is,
in fact, not being executed. If I modify SQL> exec dbms_output.put_line( cached(
SQL> exec dbms_output.put_line( not_ the table this function relies on or ‘SYS’ ) );
cached( ‘SCOTT’ ) ); change the inputs I use, I can see that 29339
6 the database does the right thing: PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. Elapsed: 00:00:00.01
Elapsed: 00:00:01.93 SQL> update t set owner = initcap(owner)
where rownum = 1; Note that the first execution takes a
SQL> exec dbms_output.put_line( not_ 1 row updated. relatively long time (to build the result
cached( ‘SCOTT’ ) ); cache), a subsequent execution is fast,
6 SQL> commit; and calling the function with a different
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. Commit complete. username does not invalidate or throw
Elapsed: 00:00:01.29 away other cached results:
SQL> exec dbms_output.put_line( cached(
SQL> exec dbms_output.put_line( not_ ‘SCOTT’ ) ); SQL> exec dbms_output.put_line( cached(
cached( ‘SCOTT’ ) ); 6 ‘SCOTT’ ) );
6 PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. 6
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. Elapsed: 00:00:01.25 PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Elapsed: 00:00:01.07 Elapsed: 00:00:00.00
This first execution of the cached
As you can see, each invocation function takes more than a second, Function calls that use SCOTT as
takes at least one second—the work because it must refresh the result cache, the input will remain fast until the
done by the function plus the SQL but subsequent executions benefit from cache must be invalidated or until it
it executes take a little more than a this cached result: runs out of room and must make way
second. Now I try out the cached for other elements.
version of this function: SQL> exec dbms_output.put_line( cached( Again, this is a feature that can be
‘SCOTT’ ) ); implemented without massive rearchi-
SQL> exec dbms_output.put_line( cached( 6 tecting of your applications—in fact,
‘SCOTT’ ) ); PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. without rearchitecting at all. The com-
6 Elapsed: 00:00:00.01 piler parameter RESULT_CACHE can
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. activate this feature, and any client that
Elapsed: 00:00:01.09 SQL> exec dbms_output.put_line( cached( invokes the function will benefit. For
‘SCOTT’ ) ); example, informal tests with Oracle
SQL> exec dbms_output.put_line( cached( 6 Application Express show an approxi-
‘SCOTT’ ) ); PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. mately 15 percent decrease in runtime
6 Elapsed: 00:00:00.01 in a standard benchmark harness—your
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. mileage may vary, of course!
Elapsed: 00:00:00.01 And just to show that the PL/SQL
function results cache understands WHEN OTHERS THEN NULL REDUX
SQL> exec dbms_output.put_line( cached( that different inputs result in different In the July/August 2007 issue of Oracle
‘SCOTT’ ) ); outputs, I can call the cached function Magazine (at otn.oracle.com/oramag/
6 with a different username: oracle/07-jul/o47asktom.html), I wrote
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. about a certain PL/SQL programming
Elapsed: 00:00:00.01 SQL> exec dbms_output.put_line( cached( construct, the WHEN OTHERS

ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 87

SO07_AskTom.indd 87 7/9/07 1:02:03 PM

 ASK TOM
exception handler. I wrote
There’s a programming construct,
WHEN OTHERS, in PL/SQL that I wish
weren’t there.
Well, I knew Oracle could never
really remove this language feature—but
Oracle certainly has made it safer. Just
to reiterate why I wish this program-
ming construct did not exist, I’ll quote
myself again:
But the problem I see is that far too
many people use the WHEN OTHERS
clause without following it by a RAISE or
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR call. That
effectively hides the error. In reality, the
error happened, but it was not handled in
any meaningful way; it was just ignored—
silently. The invoker of your code has no
idea that something went horribly wrong
and that your code failed, and he or she
typically thinks that everything was, in
fact, successful.
Many times—many more times than
I can recall or count—“quirky” behavior
in a PL/SQL program unit is found to be
caused by the improper use of a WHEN
OTHERS clause—one that is not fol-
lowed by RAISE. The error was hidden,
error handling was effectively disabled,
and the outcome is typically logically
corrupt data (the application did not do
its job) or the wrong answer.
Now, in Oracle Database 11g, I can
easily find the offending bits of code.
When I suspect that an exception is
being raised and hidden in this fashion,
I’ll be able to verify my hunch rapidly.
Consider this innocuous procedure:
SQL> create table t( x varchar2(4000) );
Table created.
SQL> create or replace
2 procedure maintain_t
3 ( p_str in varchar2 )
4 as
5 begin
6 insert into t
7 ( x ) values
8 ( p_str );
9 exception
10 when others
11 then
12 -- call some log_error() routine
13 null;
88 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
SO07_AskTom.indd 88
14 end;
15 /
Procedure created.
It’s as simple as can be. Nothing
should go wrong, but in case it does, I’ll
log the error by using a utility routine
I’ve developed. That’ll write a nice
error message somewhere (hopefully!),
but whoever invokes this routine will
have no idea that an exception that was
not expected—and that could not be
fixed—happened. (I see code like this
time after time after time.) Now when
someone calls this routine,
SQL> exec maintain_t( rpad( ‘x’, 4001,
‘x’ ) );
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
it sure looks successful, but it wasn’t:
SQL> select * from t;
no rows selected
This is where confusion comes in:
people get on the phone; they write
e-mails; they say “Oracle Database is
broken; the transaction succeeds, but
the data is wrong.” In fact, the problem
is the hidden error. Now, to find these
errors in Oracle Database 11g, I will
simply ask people to perform the follow-
ing operation on their code first:
SQL> alter procedure maintain_t compile
2 PLSQL_Warnings = ‘enable:all’
3 reuse settings
4 /
SP2-0805: Procedure altered with
compilation warnings
SQL> show errors procedure maintain_t
Errors for PROCEDURE MAINTAIN_T:
LINE/COL ERROR
-----------––––– –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
9/8 PLW-06009: procedure
“MAINTAIN_T” OTHERS handler
does not end in RAISE or
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR
And instantly you’ll have a list of
applications—and the source code
lines—to immediately go to and add a
simple RAISE to see where this hidden
error is coming from. Job done.
IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS. . . .
There’s a saying that goes, “It’s the little
things in life that really make a differ-
ence.” So I’ll close with a little thing
that will make your coding life a bit
easier and the PL/SQL language a bit
more complete:
SQL> create sequence this_is_nice;
Sequence created.
SQL> declare
2 n number;
3 begin
4 n := this_is_nice.nextval;
5 dbms_output.put_line( n );
6 end;
7 /
1
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Compare that to what would have
happened in Oracle Database 10g and
prior releases. In Oracle Database 11g,
there’s no more selecting a sequence
FROM DUAL. PL/SQL is that much
more complete.
Tom Kyte has worked for Oracle since 1993. He is a
vice president in the Oracle Public Sector group and
the author of Expert Oracle Database Architecture:
9i and 10g Programming Techniques and Solutions
(Apress, 2005) and Effective Oracle by Design (Oracle
Press, 2003), among others.
ASK Tom
Oracle Vice President Tom Kyte answers your most
difficult technology questions. Highlights from that
forum appear in this column.
asktom.oracle.com
READ more about
Oracle Database 11g
otn.oracle.com/products/database
READ more Tom
Expert Oracle Database Architecture: 9i and 10g
Programming Techniques and Solutions
amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/
1590595300/
DOWNLOAD
Oracle Database 11g
otn.oracle.com/technology/software
7/17/07 10:45:56 AM
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Alcatel Australia Limited www.alcatel.com.au Developing World Systems Ltd. www.dwsonline.co.uk
ASG (Asia Pacific) Pty Ltd. www.asggroup.com.au DIGORA www.digora.com
Application Hosting Services Co., Ltd. www.a-host.co.th DISTRILOGIE (France) www.distrilogie.com
Attain IT Pty Ltd. www.attainit.com.au DBConcepts Daten - und Informationsverarbeitungsges.m.b.H. www.dbconcepts.at
Automated Systems (HK) Ltd. www.asl.com.hk Diligenta Limited www.Diligenta.co.uk
Beijing Futong Dong Fang Technology Co. Ltd. www.futong.com.cn DNS Hungary Ltd. www.dns-hungary.hu
China National Software & Service Company Limited www.css.com.cn Ecletic Group Ltd. www.eclectic.co.uk
DataHeaven Co., Ltd. www.dataheaven.co.kr Edenbrook Limited www.edenbrook.co.uk
Dataone Asia (Thailand) Co. Ltd. www.diasia.co.th Engineering Ingegneria Informatica S.p.A. www.eng.it
Daesang Information Technology Co., Ltd. www.daesangit.com Everis Spain S.L. www.everis.com
Digital China (China) Limited www.digitalchina.com.cn Explorer (UK) Limited www.explorer.uk.com
DMS Software Technologies (Pvt.) Ltd. www.dmsswt.com Experteam Consulting www.experteam.com.tr
ECS International Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. www.ecschina.com Fadata www.fadata.bg
Electronic Data Systems (India) Pvt Ltd. www.eds.com FORS Development Center www.fdc.ru
FPT Information System www.fis.com.vn Fujitsu Services Limited www.uk.fujitsu.com
FPT Software Solutions www.fss.com.vn Fujitsu Siemens Computers Ltd. www.fujitsu-siemens.com
Fujian Fujitsu Communication Software Co., Ltd. www.ffcs.cn Getronics PinkRoccade www.getronicspinkroccade.nl
Fusion5 Limited www.fusion5.co.nz Global Services Aarhus & Copenhagen A/S www.maerskdata.dk
GTL Limited www.gtllimited.com Groupe LGS France www.lgsrecrut.com
FPT Corporation www.fpt.com.vn GWI Unternehmensgruppe www.gwi-ag.com
HAND Enterprise Solutions Co., Ltd. www.hand-china.com Horizon Clarity Technology Ltd. www.claritytechnology.co.uk
HPT Vietnam Corporation www.hptvietnam.com Hunkler GmbH & Co. KG www.hunkler.biz
Huadi Computer Group Co., Ltd. www.huadi.com.cn I-Teco www.i-teco.ru
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. www.huawei.com/cn i-flex solutions bv www.iflexsolutions.com
iCE Consulting Co Ltd. www.iceconsulting.co.th Inatech Solutions Ltd. www.inatech.com
i-flex Solutions Limited www.iflexsolutions.com INDRA Sistemas S.A. www.indra.es
Jigsaw Services Pty Ltd. www.jigsawservices.com.au Industrial and Financial Systems, IFS AB www.ifsworld.com
LG CNS Co., Ltd. www.lgcns.com Ineum Consulting www.ineum.fr
L&S Information Technology Co. Ltd. www.lnsit.co.kr Infor Global Solutions GmbH www.infor.de
IT&C Co., Ltd. www.itnc.co.kr Informacines Technologijos www.it.lt
KPMG Consulting Co Ltd. www.kpmg.com.tw Informatica El Cortes Ingles www.ieci.es
KOLON I’Networks Corp. www.kdc.kolon.co.kr Information Technologies Company www.it.ru
NCS Pte. Ltd. www.ncs.com.sg Intec Billing Ireland www.intecbilling.com
Nucleus Software Exports Ltd. www.nucleussoftware.com Intec Telecom Systems www.intec-telecom-systems.com
Ora-Tech System Pvt. Ltd. www.ora-tech.com Intel Solution Services UK www.intel.com
OED Technology Sdn Bhd www.patimas.com Inter Access B.V. www.interaccess.nl
Propia Co., Ltd. www.propia.co.kr IT Alise www.it-alise.com
Pythis www.pythis.com IT-eye www.it-eye.nl
Red Hat Asia Pacific www.redhat.com KNAPP Systemintegration GmbH www.knapp.com
Red Rock Consulting www.redrock.net.au KPMG Consulting www.kpmg.be
Sam Yung Holdings IT Business Division www.syhds.com Kurt Salmon Associates www.kurtsalmon.com
Samsung SDS www.sds.samsung.co.kr Leaves www.leaves.ru
Shanghai New Century High Tecnology Services Ltd. www.shsnc.com LGS France www.lgs.com
Shen Yang Neusoft Co., Ltd. www.neusoft.com LogicaCMG www.logicacmg.nl
Sierra Atlantic Pte Ltd. www. sierraatlantic.com LogicaCMG www.Logicacmg.com
Sonata Information Technology www.sonata-infotech.com LOGIX www.logix.fr
Sysage Technology Co., Ltd. www.sysage.com.tw Mdtvision www.mdtvision.com
System Access Pte Limited www.systemaccess.com Memorex Telex/EDS www.memorex.ie
Systex Corporation Taiwan www.systex.com.tw Micros-Fidelio GmbH www.micros-fidelio.org
Systex Information (H.K.) Ltd. www.systex.com.hk Montora www.montora.com
Taiji Computer Corporation www.taiji.com.cn Morse Group Ltd. www.morse.com
Tata Infotech Ltd. www.tatainfotech.com Mphasis Ltd. www.mphasis.com
TechAccess Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd. www.techaccesspak.com Msg Systems ag www.msg-systems.com
Tietoenator Software Technologies Pvt Ltd. www.tietoenator.in Network Centric Solutions Limited www.ncsltd.com
Wezoomtek Corporation www.wezoomtek.com Noetix www.noetix.com

90 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

SO07_CAPindex.indd 90 7/11/07 12:54:17 PM

 CERTIFIEDadvantage partner index
COMPANY NAME URL COMPANY NAME URL
Nokia Corporation www.nokia.com Senior Serviços em Tecnologia de Informática Ltda. www.senior.com.br
Ordina www.ordina.nl Servicios, Tecnologia y Organizacion S.A. de C.V. (STO) www.stoconsulting.com
Oficina de Cooperación Universitaria www.ocu.es Sinergy Solutions, S.A. de C.V. www.sinergysolutions.com.mx
Open Technologies www.ot.ru Snoop Consulting S.R.L. www.snoopconsulting.com
Opitz Consulting GmbH www.opitz-consulting.de Soft Bolivar S.A. www.softbolivar.com
Patech Solutions Limited www.patech-solutions.com Softcomex Informática Ltda. www.softcomex.com.br
PC-Ware Information Technologies AG www.pc-ware.de Solusoft www.solusoft.com
Peak Systems Support Ltd. www.peaksystems.co.uk Sonda del Peru S.A. www.sonda.com
PDV-Systeme Erfurt Gesellschaft für Systemtechnik mbH www.pdv.de SQL Technology S.A. www.sqltech.cl
Peak Systems Support Ltd. www.peaksystems.uk.com Sunrising Desenvolvimento de Sistemas www.sunrising.com.br
Peter-Service www.billing.ru Sysdesign Consultoria Em Informatica Limitada www.sysdesign.com.br
Prodatis Consulting AG www.prodatis.com Tilsor S.A. www.tilsor.com.uy
QAS Ltd. www.qas.com TSnet S.A. www.tsnetglobal.com
Quantix Ltd. www.quantix-uk.com Unimix Tecnologia Ltda. www.unimix.com.br
RDTEX www.rdtex.ru Unisys www.unisys.com
Rila Solutions www.rila.com YKP Consultoria e Sistemas Ltda. www.ykp.com.br
RTC Real-Time Center AG www.rtc.ch Middle East
S.C. RomSoft S.R.L. www.romsoft.info Bahwan Cybertek LLC www.bahwancybertek.com
SCC PLC www.scc.com Computer and Communications Systems www. ccs.com.jo
Sddc www.sddc.fr Computer Information Systems www.cis.com.lb
SIV AG www.siv.de Computer and Engineering Bureau CEB www.ceb.com.jo
SIVECO Romania S.A. www.siveco.ro Districom www.cis.com.lb
Service & Systems Solutions www.northgate-is.com Emirates Computers Est www.emiratescomputers.co.ae
Softek Storage Solutions www.softek.com Giza Systems www.gizasystems.com
Softman S.A. www.softman.pl Global Technology Services LLC www.gtsuae.com
Software Design & Management AG www.sdm.de Hyperlink www.hyperlink-me.com
Sogeti Espana www.sogeti.biz Integrated Data Solutions www.idscomp.com
Sopra Group www.sopragroup.com International Turnkey Systems (ITS) www.its.ws
Symatrix Limited www.symatrix.co.uk Intracom Jordan www.intracom.jo
TEAM GmbH www.team-pb.de Mannai Trading Company Limited www.mannaicorp.com
Teamsolve www.teamsolve.co.uk Mercator www.mercator.co.ae
Tech Data Midrange GmbH www.tdmidrange.de
Macro Software Systems LLC www.macro-soft.com
Technologica www.tlogica.com
Mindscape www.mindscapeit.com
Technology Reply Srl www.reply.it
Raya Gulf LLC www.rayaholding.com
Temenos www.temenos.com
Royah www.royah.com
Teta S.A www.teta.com.pl
United States
TietoEnator Corporation www.tetioenator.com
170 Systems, Inc. www.170systems.com
TimeStamp - Sistema de Informação www.timestamp.pt
Abaris, Inc. www.abaris-inc.com
T-Systems International GmbH www.t-systems.com
Actuate Corporation www.actuate.com
Unisys France www.unisys.com
Apex IT, Inc. www.Apexit.com
Up to Data, Professional Services GMBH www.uptodata.de
Applications Software Technology Corp. www.astcorporation.com
Vector Software SRL www.vectorsoftware.ro
Applied Biosystems www.sqllims.com
Version 1 Software www.version1.com
Applimation, Inc. www.applimation.com
Whitehouse Consultants Ltd. www.whitehouse-consult.com
Avnet www.avnet.com
WM-data Danmark A/S www.wmdata.com
BMC Software, Inc. www.bmc.com
Latin America
Business & Decision www.businessdecision.com
Abaco Tecnologia de Informacao Ltda. www.abaco.com.br
Business & Technology Resource Group Inc. www.btrgroup.com
Acao Informatica Brasil Ltda. www.acao.com.br
CedarCrestone www.cedarcrestone.com
Advanced Database & IT Sistemas de Informação S.A. www.advancedit.com.br
CherryRoad Technologies www.cherryroad.com
Aporte Gestao Empresarial e Tecnologia da Informacao Ltda. www.aporte.com
CIBER www.ciber.com/ces/oracle
Apply Solutions www.applysolutions.com.br
Cognizant Technology Solutions www.cognizant.com
Asistir Ltda. www.asistir.com
COLLEGIS INC www.collegis.com
Atel S.A. (Quanam Uruguay) www.quanam.com
CSS International www.cssus.com
B2BR Business to Business Informatica do Brasil www.b2br.com.br
DAZ Systems www.dazsi.com
Bertini Comércio e Serviços de Informática Ltda. www.bertini.com.br
Eastern Software Corporation www.easternsoftware.com
BGH, S.A. www.bgh.com.ar
Fidelity Information Services www.fidelityinfoservices.com/FNFIS
BusinessMind S.A. www.businessmind.com.ec
GNC Consulting, Inc. www.gnc-consulting.com
Casa de Software S.A. www.casasoft.com.br
GNUCO, LLC dba Emerging Solutions www.emergenow.com
Compusoluciones y Asociados, S.A. de C.V. www.compusoluciones.com
Hyperion Solutions www.hyperion.com
CFP3 Consultoria e Tecnologia www.commitconsultores.com.br
IAE Solutions, LLC www.iaesolutions.com
CONSULT SOFT S.A. www.consult-soft.com
IMPAC Services www.impacservices.com
CTIS Tecnologia S.A. www.ctis.com.br
Datastar Argentina S.A. www.datastar.com.ar INRANGE Consulting Corporation www.inrangeconsulting.com
Datavision Digital, S.A. De C.V. www.datavision.com.mx INTELLIGROUP INC www.intelligroup.com
Datum www.datum.com KBACE Technologies, Inc. www.kbace.com
Discover Technology Informatica Ltda. www.discover.com.br Kronos Inc. www.kronos.com
e-Builders & Consulting Group S. A. C. www.ebuilders.com.pe Lucidity Consulting Group LP www.luciditycg.com
Elucid Solutions S.A. www.elucid.com.br MAXIMUS Inc. www.maximus.com
Enorey International www.quanam.com MSS Technologies, Inc. www.msstech.com
EN-SOF Consultoria e Informática Ltda. www.en-sof.com.br Mythics www.mythics.com
E-Partner Comercial e Serviços de Informática Ltda. www.epartnerbr.com.br NaviSite, Inc. www.navisite.com
ERP Soluciones S.A. de C.V. www.erpsol.com.mx Noetix Corporation www.noetix.com
Eserv Expert Services Del Ecuador S.A. www.eserv-andina.com Novell, Inc. www.novell.com
Excelsis S.A.C.I.G www.excelsis.com.py Optimum Solutions Group, LLC www.optimumsolutions.com
FYC Soluciones Integrales, C.A. www.fyccorp.com OSI Consulting, Inc. www.osius.com
Grupo Quanam www.quanam.com Perot Systems Corporation www.perotsystems.com
Illuminat Ltd. www.illuminatnm.com Princeton Softech www.princetonsoftech.com
In Motion Servicios S.A. www.inmotion.cl Protege Software Services, Inc. www.protege.com
Ingenieria Condor S.A. DE C.V. www.i-condor.com Red Hat, Inc. www.redhat.com
Innovat S.A. www.itexperts.com.ec Solbourne Computer Inc. www.solbourne.com
Intec Telecom Systems do Brasil Ltda. www.intec-telecom-system.com Solution Beacon, LLC www.solutionbeacon.com
JFM Informática Ltda. www.jfm.com.br SYSTIME www.systime.net
Kruger Corporation S.A. www.kruger.com.ec TietoEnator Majiq, Inc. www.tietoenator.com
MATERA Systems Informatica Ltda. www.matera.com TITAN Technology Partners www.ttpartners.com
MPL Corporate Software S.A. www.mpl.com.br TUSC www.tusc.com
Netix Distribuidores de Tecnologia, C.A. www.netixcorp.com Unisys Corporation www.unisys.com
Nexsys www.nexsysla.com USinternetworking, Inc. www.usi.net
Officer Distribuidora www.officer.com.br Waters Corporation www.waters.com
Politec Ltda. www.politec.com.br Wave Consulting Group www.wavecg.com
Preteco www.preteco.com Whitbread Technology Partners, Inc. www.whitbreadtech.com
Procwork CRM www.procwork.com.br Xcelicor, Inc. www.xcelicor.com
Recours Informatica Consultoria e Assessoria Ltda. www.recours.com.br Zanett Commercial Solutions, Inc. www.whitbreadtech.com

Partners able to demonstrate superior product knowledge, competence, and a commitment to doing business with Oracle qualify for the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Certified Advantage Partner level. These partners receive the
highest level of service, training, benefits, and resources from Oracle to support them in delivering quality to customers. For more information on partners, please visit the OPN Solutions Catalog at solutions.oracle.com.

ORACLE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 91

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 c o m m e n t IN THE FIELD
What’s New in Oracle Database 11g
The latest version of the database has great new features for everyone.
racle Database 11g, the biggest
release of Oracle’s flagship
database in several years, was
launched recently. I’m impressed
that Oracle invests so much effort in
each new version of the database, and
the effort shows. The database has con-
sistently been the technology market
leader, often by many years, and this
new version continues that tradition.
Full disclosure: The Independent
Oracle Users Group (IOUG) has been a
significant part of the beta program for
Oracle Database 11g. IOUG members
have been working with Oracle on fea-
tures and testing, and many members
have installed beta versions of the
release and run real applications against
it—and there’s a lot to like in Oracle
Database 11g. You’ve probably heard
about some of the major features, and I
want to tell you about some of my favor-
ite features of this new release.
ORACLE AUDIT VAULT
One feature I love in Oracle Database
11g is called Oracle Audit Vault, and
if you’re not using it now in Oracle9i
Database or Oracle Database 10g, maybe
you should be. What’s so special about
Oracle Audit Vault? It makes Oracle the
only database to enable you to be truly
security-process compliant.
From my experience as a DBA, I
know—and you probably do, too—that
DBAs who are skilled enough can view
and change data if they really want to.
They can then alter the audit trail—wipe
away their footprints—to make sure no
one can find out what they’ve done. It’s
always been a problem, and now it’s also
a major compliance issue.
Oracle Audit Vault changes that sce-
nario considerably. The audit trail goes
into a one-way “lockbox.” No one, not
even a highly skilled DBA, can alter
92 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
SO07_InTheField.indd 92
that audit trail once it’s in the lockbox.
People can view it, but no one can
change it or delete it.
This functionality prevents prob-
lems, whether deliberate or acciden-
tal, caused by insiders. Oracle Audit
Vault is implemented using encryp-
tion techniques, and those who try to
tamper with it leave telltale signs of
their attempts. Enterprises that need
to comply with regulatory audit pro-
cedures—and which don’t?—will love
Oracle Audit Vault. I can’t wait.
HOT PATCHING
Another feature that DBAs will really
appreciate is hot patching, which allows
you to apply updates and bug fixes
to the database without bringing the
system down. Previously, you would
have to stop production by halting work
entirely—or do an intricate and expen-
sive dance of transferring to another
system and back—to do any patching.
It’s no surprise that administrators were
reluctant to do this, and praiseworthy
dedication to uptime sometimes meant
not applying critical patch updates. Hot
patching resolves such dilemmas: you
can run your patches, including secu-
rity fixes, without affecting production.
Gotta love that.
Another new feature I like in Oracle
Database 11g is the ability to store
data in compressed format—called
advanced table compression. Suppose
you’re storing a lot of long documents.
Keeping them in compressed format
can save up to two-thirds of the usual
space necessary. Naturally the amount
of space you can save depends on the
kind of information you’re storing: this
compression won’t help much with data
that’s already compressed, for example.
But if you have large uncompressed
data elements, this feature will save you
BY ARI KAPLAN
a lot of space and expense.
Even managing large amounts of
ordinary data can be a chore. The new
partition advisor can suggest how best
to manage large amounts of data, such
as census data by state. It can also
physically create partitions. You still have
control over what it does—specifying
how long to keep data, for example.
QUERY RESULT CACHE
Another neat feature is query result
cache, which is what it sounds like:
Oracle Database 11g will cache the results
of queries in memory, where they act like
tables. Multiple users can see these results
without repeating the same query. For
common and frequently used queries,
this can save system effort and improve
performance. You can configure how
much space to allocate to query result
cache and how long to retain results.
These are just a few of the new fea-
tures I looked at in Oracle Database 11g.
Oracle consistently comes out with new,
useful, and—for some business issues—
mandatory technology. The company’s
commitment to its database product is
impressive. This one will be fun. O
Ari Kaplan (ari_kaplan@ioug.org) is president of the
Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) and a senior
consultant at Datalink. He founded Expand Beyond
Corporation, a leader in mobile IT software. He has
been involved in Oracle technology since 1992.
READ more about
Oracle Database 11g
oracle.com/database
Oracle Database 11g in Ask Tom
otn.oracle.com/oramag/oracle/07-sep/
o57asktom.html
DOWNLOAD Oracle Database 11g
otn.oracle.com/database
7/17/07 12:18:21 PM
 c o m m e n t ALL SECURE
Automating Security
Papa’s got a brand-new bag (of tools).
racle is celebrating its 30th
anniversary this year. Some
of us old-timers have been
busy wallowing in nostalgia
by cataloging remembrances of how
Oracle has changed over these 30 years.
There’s sometimes a tendency to think
that old times were better, but even
those with Luddite inclinations can
agree with my mother when she says,
“Without change, there is no growth.”
(I used to joke that working at Oracle
was like the weather in San Francisco:
if you aren’t 100 percent thrilled at
any given moment, wait half an hour,
because it will change.)
There are a great many things that
are actually better now than in the
“good old days.” One of these has been
the growth in tools that help people
do security-related things more easily.
Security automation can help everyone
from developers trying to get their prod-
ucts out the door securely (by finding
defects in software that could lead to
security vulnerabilities) to custom-
ers trying to ensure that their security
posture remains strong from day to day
despite frequent configuration changes.
Figure that most systems are larger and
more complex than they used to be, and
you realize why security automation
is the wave of the future even if it was
needed yesterday.
AUTOMATING SECURITY NOW
Oracle has some homegrown tools we
use to help find and root out common
secure-coding errors. Some of these
have been developed by Oracle’s ethical
hacking team, whose technical acumen
is exceeded only by its sense of humor
in naming the tools. (SQL*Splat is a
tool for finding SQL injections, and
Bit*Rotter is a protocol fuzzer.) The
ethical hacking team uses these tools to
S007_DAVIDSON.indd 93
automate its security assessments, and
the quality assurance teams use them to
keep ahead of the ethical hackers.
We’ve also licensed tools from third-
party vendors. You can’t test security
into a product, but even a really good
developer can benefit from tools that
automate finding security-related
defects. Some of these tools do static
analysis: tracing through source code to
find how an input at X (that is not cor-
rectly handled, for example) could lead
to an actual exploit at point Y later in
the code. We also use automated tools to
test Web interfaces—in both our devel-
opment and production environments—
for common security vulnerabilities. No
one tool does it all. Just as for building
a house, you need hammers, saws, and
screwdrivers as well as a good design
and excellent workers.
It took us a long time to find good
tools, train people to use them, and roll
them out. We have helped our vendors
make their tools more robust (nobody
could scan 50 million lines of code daily
when we started looking at tools), which
helps not only Oracle but also others in
the industry. We all need the equivalent
of spell-checkers for code to find where
we have misspelled security, so to speak.
I am pleased that Oracle is helping push
the envelope for security automation
higher and broader for everyone.
Security automation is also important
in secure configuration. Most people
don’t have the time or expertise to set,
say, 82 configuration parameters by
hand (on 37 instances), much less do
it every day to ensure that they didn’t
leave a cyberdoor wide open. Being able
to automate those “Am I secure?” checks
is like having a night watchman (who
never needs to sleep) checking every
door and window every quarter hour in
perpetuity. Ideally, every software vendor
ORACLE MAGAZINE
BY M A RY A N N DAVI DSO N
ought to document best security prac-
tice, make it easy to install its products
that way by default, and provide a tool
to automate the security checks.
SECURING GOOD TIMES
One thing that hasn’t changed in 30
years is that people who work in IT are
always doing at least four things at once,
and being able to automate three of them
will not only make us all more secure
but will also make better use of a scarce
resource (time!). So I look forward to
the “good new days” when there are lots
of automated security tools in the mar-
ketplace that meet the needs of vendors
large and small as well as those of Jane
or Joe Developer building a custom
application for Mom-and-Pop.com.
Another thing hasn’t changed in 30
years: we can all use more time. O
Mary Ann Davidson is the chief security officer at
Oracle, responsible for secure development practice,
security evaluations, and assessments. She represents
Oracle on the board of directors of the Information
Technology Information Security Analysis Center (IT-
ISAC) and the Defense Science Board and is on the
editorial review board of SC Magazine.
LEARN more about
Oracle security solutions
oracle.com/security/security-solutions.html
Oracle Software Security Assurance
oracle.com/security/software-security-assurance.html
Critical Patch Updates and
Security Alerts
otn.oracle.com/deploy/security/alerts.htm
READ more Davidson
blogs.oracle.com/maryanndavidson
DISCUSS
Oracle Identity Management
forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=47
Security
forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=51
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 93
7/17/07 10:52:58 AM
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 c o m m e n t ANALYST’S CORNER
Secure Data for Every Business Need
New needs for compliance mean tighter access control.
racle Magazine spoke with Trent
Henry of Burton Group about
data protection, compliance,
encryption, and access control.
Oracle Magazine: What changes in today’s
business climate are motivating organiza-
tions to adopt stronger database security?
Henry: One of the guiding factors is a
realization that they need to control what
insiders, such as system administrators,
can and can’t do. Until recently, these
folks had system-level privileges to see
any data, mainly for the sake of conve-
nience. Today, federal regulators require
public companies to constrain what priv-
ileged users can see, such as the financial
data within a general ledger. Companies
can do this explicitly, using fine-grained
authorizations, access control, or encryp-
tion, as well as after the fact, with data-
base audits and monitoring tools.
Oracle Magazine: What are the guiding
principles behind access control?
Henry: The important thing is to ensure
that trusted employees obey policies
governing their respective roles, because
regulators and auditors are asking hard
questions about how carefully companies
control the activities of these personnel—
whether you trust them or not. DBAs
may dislike the controls that are put in
place, but many times these controls are
in response to an external requirement.
Oracle Magazine: How difficult is it to
establish these controls?
Henry: In smaller organizations, seg-
regation of duties can be difficult to
achieve, because you might have only
one administrator. That’s when auditing
and monitoring make a lot of sense. At
Burton Group, we advocate a layered
approach to protection. It begins with
access control in the database. For
example, Oracle Database 11g enables
you to isolate certain parts of the data-
base or to implement perimeter control
96 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 20 07 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE
SO07_Analyst.indd 96
around the database. On top of that,
Oracle Audit Vault can be used to ensure
that your layered protections are operat-
ing as you expect them to operate.
Oracle Magazine: What else can organiza-
tions do to protect data from those who
shouldn’t have access to it?
Henry: Label security lets you describe
information as having a particular prop-
erty or label. It can be used in a wide
range of situations—everything from clas-
sifying an employee record to protecting
national security information. Companies
categorize data in a certain way and apply
the appropriate label to identify it. After
that, the information is always treated
the same way, in terms of who can see
that data or when people can see it. The
database explicitly enforces controls over
that information based on that label.
Oracle Magazine: How does encryption fit
into this access-control picture?
Henry: Encryption is used to prevent
people from seeing certain data. It can
be applied to a subset of the database,
the whole database, or even the disk
hosting the database (sometimes called
media-level encryption). The encryption
can take place outside of the database,
within the application layer. Different
levels of encryption protect against dif-
ferent types of threats. Media encryp-
tion prevents unauthorized users from
accessing a lost or stolen disk but won’t
prevent inside users from viewing data.
Protecting against insiders requires a dif-
ferent level of encryption. For example,
you might encrypt social security
numbers in a customer database yet
still allow support reps to view phone
numbers and addresses. You could
do this with Oracle Transparent Data
Encryption, which provides columnar
encryption within the database. This
utility doesn’t require a third-party tool,
so from a configuration and management
BY DAVI D BAUM
standpoint, it’s easy to put in place.
Oracle Magazine: Do these strategies
work for external users as well?
Henry: Encryption works well within
an enterprise setting. However, by the
time the information is viewed through
a Web portal, it may be decrypted. So
at that level you may need some type of
application-level encryption, in associa-
tion with Web access control.
Oracle Magazine: How does encryption
work with identity management?
Henry: It’s tied to identity management,
but one challenge with Web access
control is that you might be talking
about a broader audience than just
internal employees. For example, with
an extranet portal or e-commerce portal,
instead of thousands of employees, there
might be millions of users. So there’s an
issue of scale to consider. There’s also an
issue of the types of authenticators that
may be convenient to deploy. Within
the enterprise, you might use one-time
password tokens or smart cards to
authenticate users, but this can be cost-
prohibitive when it comes to strengthen-
ing authentication for consumers. O
David Baum (david@dbaumcomm.com) is a freelance
business writer based in Santa Barbara, California.
Burton Group (www.burtongroup.com) provides
vendor-independent research and advisory services
focused on enterprise IT infrastructure technologies.
READ more about
Oracle Security
oracle.com/security
Oracle Audit Vault
oracle.com/goto/auditvault
Oracle Label Security
oracle.com/database/label-security.html
Oracle Transparent Data Encryption
otn.oracle.com/deploy/security/database-security/
transparent-data-encryption
7/17/07 10:22:45 AM
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