| Q: |
Some customers
have reported changes to the performance profile of their applications
after upgrading to Oracle8i. Are there reasons such changes have
been observed? |
| A: |
Oracle on OpenVMS
is currently optimized to support older Alpha chip sets. Oracle
and Compaq are jointly working/testing in various areas, including
switching to a newer Alpha chip set (EV56 or later) in Oracle 9i
Release 2 to achieve optimal performance.
A number of internal architectural enhancements were released
with Oracle8i, aimed at improving performance for a wide class
of customer applications. Even though they underwent extensive
testing prior to release, some changes had unintended impact on
certain customer applications, especially when run in slower network
environments or slower hardware environments. In some cases performance
can be improved through minor database or application change,
or by tuning the instance. In other cases, patches to Oracle8i
may be advisable to provide the most benefit.
|
| |
|
| Q: |
What can
customers do to tune for performance? |
| A: |
Please consult
MetaLink as your starting point for researching tuning tips for
Oracle8i. Oracle also recommends that customers stay current with
all software maintenance, both from Compaq and from Oracle, to ensure
that your applications continue to run smoothly.
Oracle Worldwide Support maintains a document, accessible from
MetaLink, which lists all Oracle patches and Compaq ECOs (please
see Note 154427.1 - List of patches for Oracle 8.1.7.1.0/8.1.7.1b
on Alpha OpenVMS, Note 174247.1 - List of patches for Oracle 8.1.7.3,
and Note162502.1 - List of patches for Oracle 9.0.1.0.0 on Alpha
OpenVMS).
Also, there are some basic tuning steps known to benefit overall
OpenVMS system and Oracle performance:
- Distribute Oracle datafiles and redolog files across all
available disks; the document at http://technet.oracle.com/deploy/availability/pdf/oow2000_sane.pdf
contains useful tips and guidelines.
- Ensure those files are not fragmented.
- Ensure tables and indexes have as few extents as possible.
- Ensure table rows have no or little block chaining.
- Ensure proper Working Set quota settings for both the Bequeath
and the TNS listener slave processes. Files are BEQLSNR.COM
and TNSLNR.COM, both residing in ORA_ROOT:[NETWORK]. We suggest
ORA_LSNR_WSDEFAULT be set to 4096 and ORA_LSNR_WSQUOTA and ORA_LSNR_WSEXTENT
each be set to 102400.
- Ensure Automatic Working Set Adjustment is enabled.
- Ensure proper tuning of the various components within the
SGA, keeping in mind that "bigger = better" is not
true per definition. Too large can in fact have an adverse effect
on overall performance! For example, having a buffer cache that
is too large incurs overhead that can be more than the benefits
of having more data blocks in memory. Similarly, a SQL pool
that is larger than the sum of all unique statements is a waste
of memory that is better used elsewhere.
|
Q: |
Is it true that Oracle 9i AS going away on OpenVMS?
|
| A: |
Customer
and field responses made us aware of the concern that 9i AS Standard
Edition (Portal) without Forms/Report tools (Enterprise Edition)
would not address the business needs of the majority of our OpenVMS
customers. In reviewing the release plans earlier this year with
Oracle, OpenVMS management agreed to reposition OpenVMS as a back-end,
highly reliable database for our e-business computing environment
and position Tru64 UNIX and NT as the application server for those
customers who want a total Oracle e-business solution on OpenVMS.
9i RAC (database) will be available
on OpenVMS at the end September 2001.
|
| Q: |
How has Rdb 7.1 been enhanced to support Web application development?
|
| A: |
Several new
features in Oracle Rdb 7.1 enhance application development and improve
compatibility with the Oracle server and Oracle tools. SQL*Net release
7.1.5 for Rdb provides technology for Oracle 9i AS connectivity
to Rdb. SQL*Net for Rdb allows you to run existing SQL*Net applications
to access data in an Rdb 7.1 database. SQL*Net applications use
the Oracle Call Interface (OCI) API or software such as Oracle Developer,
Oracle Designer or Oracle Discoverer™ to access and manage
data in an Rdb 7.1 database.
Release 3.0 of Oracle ODBC Driver for Rdb will support Microsoft
ODBC V3.0. Oracle ODBC Driver for Rdb enables Windows 95, Windows
98 and Windows NT Intel applications that implement the Microsoft
Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) API, to read from and write
to Rdb 7.1 databases.
In addition, the JDBC OCI Driver and JDBC Thin Driver provide
support for Java application access to Rdb databases.
OpenVMS customers with Rdb can now more fully participate in
e-business solutions including those integrating with Oracle 9i
AS, Oracle rdbms or other application servers.
|
| Q: |
Will Oracle
commit to support Itanium Processors on OpenVMS? |
| A: |
"Oracle and Compaq have a long and successful history of
delivering enterprise solutions to our OpenVMS customers. In July,
Oracle released Rdb V.7.1 for OpenVMS. In September, Oracle9i
for OpenVMS was released. Given Compaq's recent announcement to
consolidate its 64-bit servers on the Itanium Processor Family
™, Oracle's current plan is to team with Compaq and work
toward a delivery of Oracle Rdb and Oracle 9iRAC for OpenVMS on
Itanium Processors based upon Compaq's current engineering roadmap."
Juan C. Jones, Vice President
System Platforms Division
Oracle Corporation
October 10, 2001
|
| Q: |
Do you have
any dates on Rdb support for ES45? |
| A: |
Qualification of Rdb 7.0.6.2 and 7.1 was done on a GS-series
EV68 processor, the largest system we have. Oracle's preference
for requesting this is that the certification would then cover
any and all OpenVMS systems that run EV68 processors, including
ES45.
|
| Q: |
Why can't
I use the current compilers when building an Oracle application? |
| A: |
Oracle has
now certified the compilers currently shipping with OpenVMS V7.3:
Compaq FORTRAN V7.4B
Compaq C V6.4A
Compaq C++ V6.3
Compaq COBOL V2.7
This means that developers of applications running on Oracle/OpenVMS
can now use the compilers that come with OpenVMS rather than having
to download earlier versions.
|
| Q: |
Will Oracle
on OpenVMS offer Real Application Clustering (RAC)? |
| A: |
Oracle9i Real
Application Clusters run a single database on a group of servers
clustered together to provide increased scalability and reliability
without any change to applications.
Oracle plans two versions of RAC. The first version, 9i RAC,
will ship on all Compaq platforms. It is scheduled to be available
on OpenVMS in September 2001- far exceeding the goal of shipping
90 days after Tru64 UNIX. RAC is essentially the renaming of OPS
(Oracle Parallel Server) with some performance enhancements.
The second version is called Extended RAC. It further improves
scalability and reliability by incorporating TruCluster technology.
Present plans are to ship this exclusively on Tru64 UNIX in the
fourth quarter of 2001. Oracle is evaluating the need for making
Extended RAC available on non-UNIX platforms.
|
| Q: |
What are
the plans for certifying Oracle Rdb on new versions of the Alpha
processor? |
| A: |
Oracle is presently in the process of certifying Rdb 7.0.6.2
on Alpha EV68. This will be available mid-September 2001.
|
| Q: |
Will Rdb
be ported to Itanium? |
| A: |
Yes. The Oracle Rdb product will be available on Intel Itanium
Processor Family 90 days after OpenVMS is released on the Intel
Itanium Processor Family, that is mid-2004.
|
| Q: |
Why should
I upgrade from Rdb version 7.0 to Rdb version 7.1? |
| A: |
Rdb version 7.1 offers a number of significant benefits, all
reasons to upgrade:
- Galaxy support leverages OpenVMS clustering for flexibility
and scaling while still using Rdb's remarkable Row Cache and
other single node performance optimizations.
- The new release of SQL*net for Rdb allows you to build applications
with Oracle's 9i Application Server using tools like jDeveloper.
Web clients can access high volumes of data stored in your Rdb
database.
- Significant improvements in SQL help you develop reliable,
high performance applications at lower cost.
- New parallel index and partition management features allow
you to manage huge indexes in parallel operations, reducing
down time.
- Optimizer improvements take better advantage of bit-mapped
indexes. This means dramatically lower costs for queries that
specify many different conditions.
Check the Rdb web site,
http://www.oracle.com/rdb/, for details on all these improvements.
|
| Q: |
How difficult
is the upgrade to Rdb version 7.1? |
| A: |
Upgrading is very easy. Using VMSINSTAL, you can install Rdb
version 7.1 without removing version 7.0. You can test each database
while the production database continues to operate and, if necessary,
return to the version 7.0 structure. When you are ready, it is
easy and safe to make the upgrade permanent. Detailed instructions
are in the Installation and Configuration Guide included in the
software, and Oracle Support is available to answer your questions.
|
| Q: |
Do Oracle
8i and 9i take advantage of the OpenVMS Galaxy architecture? |
| A: |
Yes. Oracle
8i ran in a Galaxy environment, but with Oracle 9i Real Application
Clusters (RAC), configuring the database instances to communicate
over shared memory has been simplified via the cluster_interconnects
parameter. You just load the OpenVMS shared memory LAN driver, configure
a private LAN among the Galaxy instances with TCP/IP, and you're
all ready for Oracle 9i RAC to use Galaxy shared memory. Enhancements
to cache fusion in Oracle 9i make the low latency and bandwidth
of the RAC interconnect even more important to the performance of
your database. Dirty database cache blocks are transferred to other
database instances through the RAC interconnect. When the Oracle
9i RAC interconnect is in Galaxy shared memory, cache coherency
is maintained at memory speeds.
Although Oracle's distributed design precludes putting the SGA
in shared memory, having a separate SGA for each instance benefits
from the scaling of RAC. This is especially true with the extremely
fast algorithms in Oracle 9i RAC for keeping the separate caches
coherent.
In addition, you can use the OpenVMS Galaxy resource management
capabilities with Oracle 9i RAC to load balance system resources
and to accommodate instance shutdowns or failovers.
For all these reasons, Oracle 9i RAC and OpenVMS Galaxy make
a great combination for scaling and managing your database.
|
