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NoCOUG's February 21, 2002 Meeting

The NoCOUG Winter Conference was held on Thursday, February 21, 2002 at the Oracle Conference Center on the Oracle Corporation campus in Redwood Shores. Some of the presentations from the meeting are available for download.

Meeting Description

The Winter Conference had parallel sessions on the topics of database administration, application development, and a special "Oracle by Oracle" track. Here is the agenda, followed by session descriptions:

Note: All sessions start promptly at the time scheduled.
Please take your seat early so as not to disturb other attendees.

08:00-09:00  - Registration opens
09:00-09:45  - Opening Remarks and Announcements
09:45-10:45  - Keynote:"Oracle9i Database Overview"
   Ken Jacobs, VP Product Strategy, Server Technologies,
   Oracle Corporation
10:45-11:15  - Morning Break
11:15-12:15  - Parallel Session #1:
DBA Development Oracle by Oracle
"Interpreting Wait Events to Boost System Performance",
Roger Schrag, Senior Consultant, Database Specialists, Inc.
Level: Advanced
"Oracle9i JDeveloper Part I: Introduction and New Features", Peter Koletzke, Technical Director, Quovera
Level: Beginner
"Oracle 9iAS Overview",
Margaret Mei,
Sr. Product Manager, Oracle Corporation
12:15-01:30  - Lunch Break
01:30-02:30  - Parallel Session #2:
DBA Development Oracle by Oracle

"Top 7 Oracle Database Tuning Techniques and Case Studies",
Lev Moltyaner, Managing Partner, Procase Consulting, Inc.
Level: Intermediate

"Oracle9i JDeveloper Part II: Developing Java Client and JSP Applications", Peter Koletzke, Technical Director, Quovera
Level: Beginner
"Oracle9i Integrated Business Intelligence", John Entenmann, V.P. Business Intelligence, Oracle Corporation
02:30-03:15  - Afternoon Break
03:15-04:15  - Parallel Session #3:
DBA Development Oracle by Oracle
"Oracle9i Real Application Clusters on 8 Node Intel-based Clusters - An OLTP Case Study",
Kevin Closson, Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Database Engineering Group, PolyServe, Inc.
Level: Intermediate

"Be Careful What You Wish For: Complex Data Types", Fabian Pascal, Independent Consultant

Level: Intermediate

"Real Application Cluster Overview", Angelo Pruscino, Architect, Oracle Corporation
04:30-??? NoCOUG networking and happy hour at Players Billiards on Shoreway Road, half a mile from the Oracle Conference Center. Come network with your peers after the Winter Conference! Snacks, drinks, and pool tables available.

Interpreting Wait Events to Boost System Performance: At any given moment, every Oracle server process is either busy servicing a request or waiting for something specific to happen-a condition we call a "wait event." The Oracle instance maintains detailed statistics of all wait events-how many times each session has waited for a specific event, total time waited, and exactly what events are being waiting on right now. This information can be used to gain insight into the performance of both your application and database. In this presentation we will define what wait events are, detail how to extract wait event information from the instance, and learn how to interpret the data we collect. Many of us have heard of wait events and know how to query the v$ views, but in this presentation we'll go further than that. We'll walk through real life examples of how to use wait event data to diagnose problems and boost system performance.

Top 7 Oracle Database Tuning Techniques and Case Studies: Tuning experience is difficult to share because it is often application specific. In this session we will define 7 practical tuning techniques, including: eliminating inefficiencies in process flow, utilizing intended indexes, adopting best indexing options, decreasing PL/SQL context switches, reducing IO contention, increase memory utilization and increasing CPU usage by multi-threading. We will present a case study of how each technique was applied and summarize its performance gains. We will also illustrate how these techniques represent a tuning methodology, which can be applied to any database. We hope that each attendee will be able to identify immediate benefits for their databases.

Oracle9i Real Application Clusters on 8 Node Intel-based Clusters - An OLTP Case Study: Clustered database technology is a reality with Oracle9i Real Application Clusters (RAC). Compelling hardware economies and the robust horizontal scaling characteristics of RAC are motivating data center managers to investigate deploying applications on clustered commodity-based hardware. Targeted to Database Administrators, this presentation is based upon a case study of an Oracle9i RAC OLTP application deployed on an eight-node Intel-based cluster running Linux. Configuration and tuning tips, along with lessons learned, will be covered. Special attention will be given to alerts that can be gleaned from several new internal (gv$) performance views. Additionally, platform issues such as Clustered File Systems will be covered.

Oracle9i JDeveloper Part I: Introduction and New Features:
JDeveloper is the tool of choice for Java development because of its rich support for the Oracle database. In addition, it offers the major ease-of-use and code-generation features of a sophisticated Integrated Development Environment. The 9i release added a number of powerful features that you can use to assist in Java application development; in addition to new features, some operations changed from the previous versions. This presentation discusses and demonstrates the basics of the tool as well as the major new features and operations. This will help both the developer who has not yet examined the tool as well as the developer who is familiar with previous releases.


Oracle9i JDeveloper Part II: Developing Java Client and JSP Applications:
JDeveloper's interface allows you to quickly develop bug-free, default applications in many different styles. The development challenges are in understanding these different application styles and in knowing where to go in the tool to get started. This presentation explains the characteristics of two application options that you can create in JDeveloper: Java Client or JClient (Java application and applet) and JavaServer Pages (JSPs). It explores the architectures of each of these options and compares their benefits and drawbacks as well as how to use JDeveloper to develop each alternative. The presentation demonstrates application development methods and explains how to go beyond the wizards to create a production-ready application. This presentation is intended as a follow up to the "Introduction and New Features" presentation, but attendance at that session is not required.

Be Careful What You Wish For: Complex Data Types: The data type concept is one of the least understood by information technology practitioners. This is both a cause and a consequence of the failure by SQL and its commercial dialects to implement relational domains, which are nothing but data types of arbitrary complexity. Consequently, blame is being misplaced on the relational approach for the SQL products' lack of support for so-called "complex" types, which permits proponents of the object approach to claim with impunity that object DBMSs are superior in this respect to relational DBMSs.

In this session we'll

  • Define the data type concept
  • Explain the distinctions between
    • "simple" and "complex" types
    • system-supplied and user-defined types
  • Clarify what proper DBMS support of data types means
  • Assess the relational, object and "universal" DBMS approaches to type support
  • Derive practical conclusions and recommendations

Oracle9i Integrated Business Intelligence: If integration is key, what does it unlock? Have you considered building a business intelligence / data warehousing solution? Are you experiencing integration pain from a so-called best-of-breed solution -- how do I deal with this metadata mess, who's got the latest data, what impact will this change have, how can I turn my queries into reports, how do I take advantage of the latest Oracle9i Database features? This technical session examines the integration points between the Oracle9i for Business Intelligence product components (OWB, Discoverer, BI Beans, Database, Reports, and Portal). It also explores issues related to ongoing maintenance and improvements. The presentation concludes with a review of the advantages of Oracle's approach, compared to conventional and competing approaches.

Oracle 9iAS Overview: Oracle9i Application Server is the second major product for Oracle's Server Technologies Division. The application server is a platform that provides customers middleware needs. Oracle9iAS supports J2EE, Web Services, Integration, Portal, Business Intelligence, and Wireless solution areas. This presentation will provide an overview of Oracle9iAS, with some emphasis on the features and benefits of the upcoming V2 release.


If you have suggestions for future meetings or would like to offer feedback on previous meetings, then please complete our online survey or send us an email.

Directions to the Oracle Conference Center

Address: 350 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, California. Phone: 650-633-8300 Fax: 650-633-8399

Southbound- Take Highway 101 South (toward San Jose) to the Ralston Ave./Marine World Parkway exit. Take Marine World Parkway east which will loop you back over the freeway. Make a left at the first light onto Oracle Parkway. 350 Oracle Parkway will be on the right.

Northbound- Take Highway 101 North (toward San Francisco) to the Ralston Ave./Marine World Parkway exit. Take the first exit ramp onto Marine World Parkway. Make a left at the first light onto Oracle Parkway. 350 Oracle Parkway will be on the right. 

Copyright © 2002 NoCOUG. All rights reserved.