Thursday, January 27, 2011

Training Day 2011 with Karen Morton


Are you curious about Karen Morton's Training Day topic? If so, check out her blog post for more information. She's going to turn you into a SQL magician.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Hotsos Symposium 2011 Speaker Spotlight - Andy Zitelli


Presentation Title: Five Things Every Programmer (and DBA) Should Know about Oracle


Abstract: One idea being widely propounded among many software developers is that software should be allowed to freely access data without any regard for how or where the data is stored. Although this idea sounds appealing, it frequently fails in practice. Software applications which treat data storage as a "black box" often suffer from widespread problems with performance, contention, and high resource consumption. These problems can be particularly acute when frameworks like Hibernate or Enterprise Java Beans are in use. Improper use of databases can increase the complexity of application code while degrading performance, limiting scalability and rendering multi-threading ineffective. Proper use of databases should simplify application design and support a high degree of concurrency across many users and applications.


This presentation will demonstrate several fallacies of the "black box" approach, using examples based on Oracle and other databases. The presentation will examine several key concepts regarding Oracle, which every software architect, developer and DBA using Oracle should understand. Topics will span several areas where developers and architects are prone to make mistakes. These will include problems related to Commits and Rollbacks, generation of unique identifiers, use of inefficient data types, locking mechanisms, data filtering and several other critical areas. The intent of the presentation is to help developers and DBA's avoid many common pitfalls arising from the "black box" approach to data storage.


Biography: Andrew Zitelli has over thirty years of experience as a software developer, data architect and performance analyst. He has served as a consultant to the aerospace, semiconductor, steel, and pharmaceutical industries. Andrew is proficient working with a broad range of operating systems and languages and has over 25 years experience working with ten different relational database products, including 18 years working with Oracle. He holds MS and BA degrees in Computer Science.


Andy is a previous presenter on Oracle performance topics at Hotsos Symposia in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. In 2010, he also presented at the Michigan OakTable Symposium (MOTS) and the Northern California Oracle User's Group (NoCOUG). Andrew is a member of the OakTable Network.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Symposium 2011 Speaker Spotlight - Andrey Nikolaev


Presentation Title: Contemporary Latch Internals


Presentation Abstract:

Latches in Oracle Database were radically changed during the last 10 years to achieve higher levels of concurrency and performance. Using oradebug and DTrace, this presentation explores how the latch works. Contemporary latch does not use exponential backoff, most of them spin 10 times more then expected, and they may wait for an infinite time in a queue.


This presentation will show how Oracle instruments the latch operations, discuss parameters and statistics related to latch performance diagnostics, and fine grain tuning. It will also explore the long-standing question: when and how to tune the "_spin_count" and "_latch_classes". DTrace provides additional capabilities to measure effectiveness and statistical properties of latch in production.


Presenter Bio: Andrey Nikolaev was first met with Oracle 5 in 1988. Since that time his professional interests have evolved from high performance particle physics computing, through application development, to database performance consulting, but always stay centered on performance. Working in RDTEX, Russian First Line Support company, he devotes his time to tuning and diagnosing the largest Oracle databases in Russia. As an Oracle University trainer, Andrey taught the full spectrum of Oracle database administration courses.


To find out about other speakers presenting at Hotsos Symposium 2011, please visit: www.hotsos.com.


To register for Sym and Training Day, please visit: Registration. Hope to see you there!

Hotsos Symposium 2011 Speaker Schedule Is Ready!


Hotsos is pleased to announce that the schedule of presentations is ready for your review. You can start thinking about which sessions you want to attend during the appropriate time slots.


The schedule is as follows:


Don't forget about the optional Training Day with Karen Morton on Thursday, March 10, 2011. You won't want to miss a minute!


If you haven't signed up yet, please keep in mind that we restrict the size of the audience. Register today!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Profiler 5.2.5.1 Released

Hotsos is pleased to announce that Profiler 5.2.5.1 was released today.


It includes the following fixes:

  • Corrected an issue with drag and drop of files from the lower pane to the upper pane.

  • Corrected highlighting of literal values in long SQL text.

  • Corrected bind value placeholder listing from long SQL text.

  • Fixed a bug appearing in 5.2.1 that causes the Profiler kernel to improperly attribute unaccounted-for time for database calls with 'SQL*Net message to client' syscalls associated with them.


Existing customers on maintenance may download the new release from portal.hotsos.com.


All other inquiries should be sent to sales@hotsos.com or call +1.817.488.6200.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Hotsos Symposium 2011 Speaker Showcase - Alex Gorbachev

Alex Gorbachev


Presentation Title: Database I/O Performance: Measuring and Planning


Presentation Abstract:

As data volumes are growing exponentially these days, databases need to process more and more data in shorter amounts of time. Many disruptive technologies have also emerged such as flash-based storage, large server memory footprint, InfiniBand, etc. In such a rapidly changing environment, storage I/O performance tuning and planning easily becomes the task of applying best practices and "black magic" rules. In order to adopt a more sound, scientific approach to I/O performance diagnostics and planning, one needs to master the foundation - measuring I/O performance. This is exactly the focus of this presentation - practical I/O performance measurement and planning.


Presenter Bio: Few DBAs are as well equipped as Alex to handle any kind of database scenario. Alex has architected and designed numerous successful database solutions addressing challenging business requirements. Alex is a respected figure in the Oracle world and a sought-after leader and speaker at Oracle conferences around the globe. He regularly publishes articles on the Pythian blog and runs online webinars. Alex is a member of OakTable Network and an Oracle ACE Director.


Alex is working at The Pythian Group. He started at Pythian in Ottawa, leading a team of database experts before moving to Australia to embrace the challenges of setting up company business in the East Asia/Pacific region. Now he's back in Ottawa as Pythian's Chief Technology Officer, continuing to bridge the gap between business and technology. The search for the perfect fit between technology, engineering talents and business processes is what keeps him up at night.


Before joining Pythian, Alex developed and administered Oracle databases and applications for Lukoil, the Russian petrochemicals giant. Later, he led design and implementation of high-availability mission-critical databases for Amadeus in Germany, the leading Global Distribution System and biggest processor of travel bookings in the world.



To find out about other speakers coming to Hotsos Symposium 2011, please visit: www.hotsos.com.


To register for Sym/Training Day, please visit: Symposium Registration. Hope to see you there!