NoCOUG.org


FALL CONFERENCE

At the Computer History Museum

November 4, 2004

Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA

 



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See directions to the conference location near the bottom of this page.

If you will be coming, then please RSVP online now. Remember, conference attendance is free for NoCOUG members and $40 for non-members.

 

8:00 - 9:00 Registration and Continental Breakfast - Refreshments Served
9:00 - 9:30 General Session and Welcome - Roger Schrag, NoCOUG President
9:30 - 10:00 Keynote: Learning By Fire – Craig Shallahamer
10:00 - 10:30 Keynote: Museum Welcome and Introduction – Computer History Museum
10:30 - 11:00 Break
  Track 1 - Main Aud. Track 2 - Noyce Track 3 - Boole
11:00 - 12:00
Session 1
Conquering Oracle Latch Contention by Craig Shallahamer, President, OraPub Use EXPLAIN PLAN and TKPROF to Tune Your Applications by Roger Schrag, President, Database Specialists, Inc. Visual and Declarative J2EE Development with Oracle JDeveloper 10g and ADF by Blaise Ribet, Principal Product Manager, Oracle Corporation
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 - 2:00
Session 2
Resource Mapping: A Wait Time Based Methodology for Database Performance Analysis by Matt Larson, CTO and founder, Confio Software Common Performance Monitoring Mistakes to Avoid by Virag Saksena, CEO, Auptyma I Love the Java Jive: J2EE Overview for Oracle Technologists by Peter Koletzke, Technical Director and Principal Instructor, Quovera
2:00 - 2:15 Break
2:15 - 3:15
Session 3
Optimizing Oracle9i Instance Memory by Lenka Vanek, Sr. Product Manager, Quest Software Indexing Strategies in Oracle - an Overview by Scott Martin, President, Terlingua Software Introduction to Java - PL/SQL Developers Take Heart! by Peter Koletzke, Technical Director and Principal Instructor, Quovera
3:15 - 3:45 Break & Raffle
3:45 - 4:45
Session 4
Managing Oracle Application Server with Oracle Grid Control by Valerie K. Kane, Group Manager, Lars Ewe, Senior Principal Product Manager, Oracle Corporation Oracle 10g RAC on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 with Direct I/O by Sunil Mahale, Database Storage Architect, Network Appliance Data Warehousing with MySQL by Anand Pandey, Senior Consultant, MySQL
4:45 - ? NoCOUG networking and happy hour at The Sports Page, 1431 Plymouth Street, Mountain View, CA 94043 (650) 961-1992 (Directions: Turn right on Shoreline. Make a u-turn at the first light (Plymouth). It is on the corner of Plymouth and Shoreline.)

 


 

Speaker Abstracts for Fall Conference

 

Keynote
“Learning By Fire” - Craig Shallahamer

Fighting performance fires is something I’ve grown up doing in the Oracle community. Over the past fifteen years, I’ve seen everything from slow motion DBAs at a mortuary to “There’s no bottleneck!” crazed Unix sys admins. DBAs have even broken down and cried from exhaustion. The blessing in all of this, which is not always immediately apparent, is that real lessons have been learned about life, career, and Oracle performance. During the keynote, we will take a journey together reliving some of the saddest, humorous, and just plain stupid things I’ve encountered. And from these, we will all learn a little more about our careers and ourselves.

Track 1 - Main Auditorium
“Conquering Oracle Latch Contention” - Craig Shallahamer, President, OraPub

Oracle server complexity, transaction throughput, and simultaneous usage all continue to increase, latch contention can plague even the most experienced Oracle performance specialist. This presentation describes why latches exist, how they work, how to detect latching contention, and how to resolve the contention. To demonstrate this process, the library cache latch will be used throughout the presentation, as well as publicly available latching scripts.

“Resource Mapping: A Wait Time Based Methodology for Database Performance Analysis” - Matt Larson, CTO and founder, Confio Software

Database tuning and optimization in the past have been an art, not a science. Resource Mapping is a performance monitoring and optimization method that aligns technical efforts with business goals, and defines requirements and process to deterministically performance improvements.

Industry experts now recommend Wait Time based analysis as the foundation for effective performance management. Resource Mapping utilizes Wait Time, along with 2 other principles, defining a process that eliminates the trial-and-error from database tuning and SQL optimization.

The presentation describes the requirements for Resource Mapping, the benefits of this Wait Time based approach, and a multi-step procedure on how to make optimization decisions that are aligned with business priorities. It identifies Oracle specific techniques for identifying root causes of bottlenecks, and illustrates how some of the "old rules" on database tuning no longer apply once a detailed view of Oracle resource wait events is examined.

“Optimizing Oracle9i Instance Memory” - Lenka Vanek, Sr. Product Manager, Quest Software

DBAs are always aware that memory is the most critical system resource. Effective utilization of memory is a must for optimal system performance because memory access is faster than accessing data directly from disk. Resizing SGA and PGA memory components benefit the administration of memory resources for optimal performance.

This presentation takes a closer took at these features, explains how they work and makes recommendations for best practices for optimizing total instance memory. This presentation will give an overview of Oracle 9i instance memory and takes a holistic approach of instance memory management. The following concepts will also be covered:

  • Dynamic SGA
  • Automatic SQL execution management
  • Oracle advisories and their use in resizing
  • “Managing Oracle Application Server with Oracle Grid Control” - Valerie K. Kane, Group Manager, Lars Ewe, Senior Principal Product Manager, Oracle Corporation

    Managing a dynamic application server environment can be a challenge. The administrator needs a management system that simplifies administration and provides fast access to status and performance data. The management system must also be flexible and web-enabled.Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g provides such a management system for the Oracle Application Server. Enterprise Manager manages the application server’s configuration files, gathers performance data from each component, monitors and alerts administrators to potential problems, and performs administrative operations. Oracle Enterprise Manager also allows you to manage your entire Oracle environment, including web applications, databases, and hosts.

    Track 2 - Noyce
    “Use EXPLAIN PLAN and TKPROF to Tune Your Applications” - Roger Schrag, President, Database Specialists, Inc.

    In this presentation we'll discuss an overview of the EXPLAIN PLAN and TKPROF functions built into the Oracle server and learn how developers and DBAs use these tools to get the best performance out of their applications. We'll look at how to invoke these tools both from the command line and from graphical development tools. In the remainder of the session we'll discuss how to read and interpret Oracle execution plans and TKPROF reports. We'll look at lots of examples so that you'll come away with as much practical knowledge as possible.

    Target Audience: Developers

    “Common Performance Monitoring Mistakes to Avoid” - Virag Saksena, CEO, Auptyma

    This presentation will discuss the common mistakes made when monitoring and diagnosing Oracle issues in a Unix environment. Oracle administrators are deluged with large amount of performance data. Monitoring mistakes often make it harder to separate the right data from the noise. We will discuss low overhead, high impact techniques to quickly identify, isolate and troubleshoot performance issues.

    Target Audience: DBA

    “Indexing Strategies in Oracle - an Overview” - Scott Martin, President, Terlingua Software

    It would outline the half a dozen or so different indexing strategies and sub-strategies with dozens of examples of tables and applications. The talk would be interactive with participates voting on what they think would be the best indexing strategy for a specific problem. This presentation would be structured more like a 1 hour "mini-class".

    Target Audience: DBA/Developers

    “Oracle 10g RAC on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 with Direct I/O” - Sunil Mahale, Database Storage Architect, Network Appliance

    This presentation provides an overview of Oracle 10g's RAC architecture, discusses performance improvements with Direct I/O in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, presents new features such as CRS and shared $O_H in 10g RAC, and covers deployment best practices of Oracle 10g RAC on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 with networked storage.

    Target Audience: DBA

    Track 3 - Boole
    “Visual and Declarative J2EE Development with Oracle JDeveloper 10g and ADF” - Blaise Ribet, Principal Product Manager, Oracle Corporation

    The Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) brings a new level of productivity and flexibility to J2EE application development. This session introduces you to JDeveloper 10g's new visual, declarative development features, and shows how to implement business applications using Oracle JDeveloper 10g and Oracle ADF. By building simple web applications, we'll examine how Oracle ADF simplifies JSP page design, web page flow, data access, data binding, and business rules enforcement.

    “I Love the Java Jive: J2EE Overview for Oracle Technologists” - Peter Koletzke, Technical Director and Principal Instructor, Quovera

    Lately, Oracle has been spending a large amount of time and resources on implementing concepts published in the Sun Microsystems Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) specifications. We Oracle customers must have a handle on the technology and options available in this relatively new world if we are to take advantage of current and future technologies.

    J2EE offers a myriad of possibilities and dizzying number of new acronyms. This presentation is aimed at explaining these to the Oracle technologist who well understands the "traditional" world of relational database design, development, and administration but who needs a quick tour of the Java J2EE landscape and a simple explanation of its terms and features. The presentation puts J2EE in perspective with Microsoft's offering .NET and discusses web deployment alternatives such as servlet and JSP pages as well as Java client alternatives. Finally, Oracle's product offerings in the Java space are outlined.

    “Introduction to Java - PL/SQL Developers Take Heart!” - Peter Koletzke, Technical Director and Principal Instructor, Quovera

    Oracle's current focus on implementing database and development features based on the Java language may have you thinking that you need to learn Java. However, if you are familiar with PL/SQL, your first view of Java may be a bit discouraging because its object-oriented core makes it look very different. Also, you may be wonder about Java's strengths and weaknesses and where it fits in the industry.

    This presentation explains to PL/SQL developers who have had little or no exposure to Java, the basic concepts of and terms used in Java. The presentation provides an overview of the language and reviews the concepts of object orientation upon which Java is based. It also discusses the fundamental Java code structures -- classes and methods -- as well as control statements; exception handling; data types and variables. This explanation will act as a springboard for further study.

    “Data Warehousing with MySQL” - Anand Pandey, Senior Consultant, MySQL

    Data Warehouse (DWH) environments have many challenges that are rare to find in other applications, specifically in OLTP environments. The challenge is not only in exchanging, integrating and summarizing enormous amounts of data coming from various applications and systems, but also making the data readily available to diverse groups of users. The source of data in DWH environments will not necessarily be flat files but might be diverse sets of databases from various vendors. Many questions that a Business Intelligence User is interested in could not be answered using a single source of data. In this session, the presenter has two major themes in mind - how to manage huge amounts of data and how to make that information available using MySQL. And of course, the most cost effective and reliable way without compromising quality or performance will be the crux of this article.

     


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    Directions to Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA

    Address: 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA 94043

    Upon arrival you'll find NoCOUG representatives ready to sign you in.

    From San Francisco:
    Take Highway 101 South. Exit Shoreline Blvd. At the light, turn left onto N. Shoreline Blvd. After going over the freeway and crossing through the light (La Avenida), take an immediate right into the first driveway.

    From San Jose:
    Take Highway 101 North. Exit Shoreline Blvd/Middlefield Road. At the light, turn left onto N. Shoreline Blvd. Take an immediate right into the first driveway.

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