FALL CONFERENCE 2007

October 25, 2007

CarrAmerica Conference Center
4400 Rosewood Drive
Pleasanton, CA 94588

 



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

 

8:00 - 9:00 Registration and Continental Breakfast - Refreshments Served
9:00 - 9:30 General Session and Welcome - Lisa Loper, NoCOUG President
9:30 - 10:15 Keynote: Empiricism vs. Guessing Among Oracle Professionals - Jeremiah Wilton, ORA-600 Consulting
10:15 - 11:00 Break
  Auditorium Tassajara Room Diablo Room
11:00 - 12:00
Session 1
RAC be Nimble, RAC be Quick by Bert Scalzo, Quest Software Oracle Database 11g - Real Application Testing by John Sheaffer, Oracle Corporation The Oracle Fusion Development Platform - Simplify Your Application Development by Shay Shmeltzer, Oracle Corporation
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch: In the designated NoCOUG section of the cafeteria located across the courtyard.
1:00 - 2:00
Session 2
Automatic Hang Detection in Oracle 11g by Jeremiah Wilton, ORA-600 Consulting Performance Testing Fundamentals by Karen Morton, Hotsos Enterprises Moving Oracle Databases across Platforms without Export/Import by Roger Schrag, Database Specialists
2:00 - 2:30 Break and Refreshments: Last chance to visit the vendors
2:30 - 3:30
Session 3
Oracle 11g New Features: Live in SQL*Plus by Daniel Morgan, University of Washington Made from the Same Mold: Templating Approaches for Fusion Applications by Peter Koletzke, Quovera Oracle DataGuard Standby Features -- Physical vs Logical Standby by Brian Hitchcock, Sun Microsystems
3:30 - 4:00 Raffle
4:00 - 5:00
Session 4
Simulating Oracle I/O Workloads to Accurately Configure Storage by James Koopmann, Database Specialists Just Get it Written: Deploying Applications to OC4J Using JDeveloper and EM by Peter Koletzke, Quovera Oracle DataGuard Logical Standby Support Issues by Brian Hitchcock, Sun Microsystems
5:00 - ??? NoCOUG networking and happy hour at FAZ Restaurant (bar area), 5121 Hopyard Road, Pleasanton. 925-460-0444
(Directions: Leaving the conference, Head west on Rosewood Dr toward Owens Dr 0.6 mi. Turn right at Owens Dr 0.2 mi. Turn left at Hacienda Dr 0.3 mi. Turn right at Gibraltar Dr 0.5 mi. Turn right at Hopyard Rd.)

Mark your calendar for NoCOUG's Winter Conference:
February 19, 2008 at Oracle Corporation in Redwood Shores.

 


 

Speaker Abstracts for Fall Conference

 

Keynote
“Empiricism vs. Guessing Among Oracle Professionals” - Jeremiah Wilton, ORA-600 Consulting


As Oracle has provided ever-richer facilities for solving Oracle problems using facts and figures, the reliance of so many DBAs and developers on (sometimes educated) guesses to solve problems is shocking and inexcusable to many whose approach is strictly science. Conversely, proponents of (some) guessing see the strict empiricists as excessively doctrinal, and ask why, if they can solve problems faster by checking a few usual suspects, their approach is any less valid than solving the problem using hard data. In this polarizing debate, both sides have a point, and have much to learn from each other.

Auditorium
“RAC be Nimble, RAC be Quick” - Bert Scalzo, Quest Software


Often relying on default operating system setup and database configuration parameters can lead to very poor RAC performance right out of the box - a symptom that I jokingly refer to as "RAC in the Box" failure. But through simple application analysis and tuning corresponding network, operating system and database parameter settings to match - DBA's can often get past the initial RAC performance issues. Furthermore, the technique serves as a nice and simple "best practices" check-list for any RAC setup.

“Automatic Hang Detection in Oracle 11g” - Jeremiah Wilton, ORA-600 Consulting


When an Oracle database instance hangs, DBAs have often been left with few options other than killing and restarting the instance. The root cause of a hanging issue often goes undiscovered even after several occurrences. Oracle 11g introduces Automatic Hang Detection to produce useful diagnostics on the first occurrence of a hang. In this PowerPoint-free session, we will make an Oracle 11g database instance hang, watch hang detection do its job, and examine the diagnostic information produced.

“Oracle 11g New Features: Live in SQL*Plus” - Daniel Morgan, University of Washington


Oracle 11g offers a variety of great new capabilities that extend the value of your investment in the Oracle database. This presentation, live in SQL*Plus and reading a single PowerPoint slide, will feature demonstrations of Virtual Columns, Invisible Indexes, Flashback Archive, Native Compilation, the new table trigger Follows clause, and the Result Cache. Note: This will be a PowerPoint Free Zone!

“Simulating Oracle I/O Workloads to Accurately Configure Storage” - James Koopmann, Database Specialists


Configuring a storage array for use with an Oracle database need not be difficult. But there is some planning that must be done. Using Oracle's ORION Workload tool we can effectively develop a workload that mimics and stresses a storage array in the same manner as a planned application with an Oracle backend database. Only after benchmarking potential storage can we gain a finer understanding for the performance capabilities of our storage and be confident in its ultimate deployment. This presentation will present attendees with storage concepts such as RAID level, Host Bus Adapters, Controllers, and Oracle's ORION workload tool. Then the attendee will be walked through a variety of benchmark tests and results that show how to run the ORION tool and make decisions on how to configure storage for an Oracle database. This presentation will show the results of various workloads using RAID 0, 1, 10, and 5 on a 30 TB storage system. So come see how your favorite RAID level performed.

Tassajara Room
“Oracle Database 11g - Real Application Testing” - John Sheaffer, Oracle Corporation


In addition to meeting user Service Level Agreements, every organization has to upgrade their software, rollout database changes, and apply patches and other system changes on a regular basis. During this session we'll discuss how Oracle Database 11g addresses these challenges with the new Real Application Testing option, and then perform a live demonstration of the 11g Database Replay feature.

“Performance Testing Fundamentals” - Karen Morton, Hotsos Enterprises


How do you know if your SQL and PL/SQL code is performance optimal? Can you efficiently and adequately determine how well your applications perform in your test environment before you place your code into production? Are you considering all the "right" things when you test for performance? This presentation will focus on the fundamentals that should be the basis for code testing and will review a simple set of SQL*Plus scripts you can use to conduct complete, effective and easy performance tests.

“Made from the Same Mold: Templating Approaches for Fusion Applications” - Peter Koletzke, Quovera


Users will more easily understand your application and will therefore be more productive if all pages of your web application are designed to look and act the same. The requirement for a common look and feel has traditionally been met by the use of templates. However, the methods for implementing template systems change with each new technology. This presentation discusses how to work with templates and other common look-and-feel options in JDeveloper 10.1.3. It explains and provides code examples for template systems using ADF Faces and JSP tags as well as additional Java frameworks. It also describes the Oracle Browser Look and Feel (BLAF), which is used for the E-Business Suite. The presentation also describes the ADF Faces skinning feature as well as how the JHeadstart plug-in to JDeveloper uses templates.

“Just Get it Written: Deploying Applications to OC4J Using JDeveloper and EM” - Peter Koletzke, Quovera


Deploying a J2EE web application consists of wrapping all application files into a single Java archive file (the EAR, enterprise application archive) and then copying this file to the application server. Although the Oracle Containers for J2EE (OC4J) service of the Oracle Application Server is a standard J2EE runtime process, it has its own deployment utilities and procedures. This presentation explores the process deploying to an Oracle Application Server OC4J container. It outlines JDeveloper utilities and profiles that help you create an EAR file with all required libraries. The presentation explains how to deploy the application using JDeveloper. It also discusses the benefits of and techniques for testing deployment on a local standalone OC4J server. In addition, the presentation describes the deployment services of the Application Server's Enterprise Manager Console (EM). The presentation also discusses deployment plans and common deployment process and runtime errors.

Diablo Room
“The Oracle Fusion Development Platform - Simplify Your Application Development” - Shay Shmeltzer, Oracle Corporation


This sessions discusses the development platform for the Oracle Fusion Applications focusing on Oracle JDeveloper and Oracle ADF, as well as the integration with BPEL and WebCenter. Come see the tools in action and learn about the development experience. You'll also learn how you can leverage these tools to speed up your development today.

“Moving Oracle Databases across Platforms without Export/Import” - Roger Schrag, Database Specialists


Moving an existing Oracle database to a new server that uses a different operating system or processor architecture is more complicated than just copying data files from the old server to the new one. Prior to Oracle 10g, the only supported way to move a database across platforms was to export the data from the existing database and import it into a new database on the new server. This works pretty well if your database is small, but can require an unreasonable amount of down time if your database is large. Beginning in Oracle 10g, the transportable tablespace facility has been enhanced in a way that makes it possible to move large databases across platforms much more quickly and simply than the export/import method. So if you've got a few terabytes of data in a database on a Solaris server and you want to move it to a Linux server, for example, there now is a much faster way to do it. In this presentation we will begin by briefly discussing Oracle's cross-platform support for transportable tablespaces. Then we'll walk through a real-life example of moving an Oracle database from a Sun E450 to a Dell server running Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We will discuss the steps involved, pitfalls, limitations, and things to keep in mind when planning a database server platform change.

“Oracle DataGuard Standby Features -- Physical vs Logical Standby” - Brian Hitchcock, Sun Microsystems


DataGuard maintains a standby database by sending and applying the archived redo logs from the primary database to the standby database. This is a simple concept and can be put to good use in many situations. Within the DataGuard product you have the choice of Physical or Logical Standby. This presentation covers the features of both.

“Oracle DataGuard Logical Standby Support Issues” - Brian Hitchcock, Sun Microsystems


The Logical Standby offers many features that are not available with the Physical Standby. However, these features, while being very attractive, also bring with them numberous support issues. This presentation covers the real-world support issues that should be reviewed before making the decision to use Logical Standby.

 


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Area Map and Driving Directions to the conference.

BART/Bus Information

From BART -
Take Bus 1B from BART and this will drop you off at the CarrAmerica Corporate Center property in the morning. Bus stops are located on Rosewood Drive across from the Conference Center at 4400.

To BART - Bus 1A will take you from the CarrAmerica Corporate Center to BART in the afternoon. Bus stops are located on Rosewood Drive across the street from the Conference Center at 4400.

For a map and schedules, see wheelsline01.pdf and www.bart.gov.

Copyright © 2007 NoCOUG.  All rights reserved.