RevealNet Pipeline Newsletter

All articles have been reprinted with the written consent of their respective authors.

In the March 2001 issue of the Pipeline Newsletter we featured Pretoria, a tool for manipulating Oracle indexfiles. Kurt has since updated this tool as of July 25, 2001. He also decided to put the source code into the public domain to facilitate its continued development. Click Here to download the utility.

Pretoria is a tool for manipulating Oracle indexfiles. Basically, Pretoria parses the indexfile and performs a search and replace on the storage parameters. It then separates table create statements and index create statements. These files can then be used to pre-create all database segments, basically reorganizing your database. Pretoria can also be used as a pretty printer (hence the name, pretty oracle a pretora a pretoria ) for indexfiles.

In last month's Pipeline Newsletter, we featured 2 High Water Mark Scripts submitted by John Dixon. This month, David Kowalczyk has submitted scripts for Oracle 7 and 8 that he uses for databases with partitioned tables. Click Here for the scripts.

Win a Free Cap! Donate useful code to the Pipeline Library, and we will mail you a "stylin" canvas/embroidered RevealNet baseball cap if your utility is published in the newsletter. Just submit your code archive to cwhite@revealnet.com.

This 19-page document serves as a consolidated reference document for standardizing the configuration of Oracle Databases in a Windows NT environment. It includes handy checklists for documenting configuration setup and deviations. Click Here for the paper.

Author Michael R. Ault has joined TUSC in their new Atlanta office. Mike is the author of several Database Administration books for John Wiley & Sons publishing and the Coriolis Group. He is also a major content provider for RevealNet's Knowledge Base for Oracle Administration and a SYSOP for RevealNet's "DBA Pipeline". Mike's books can be purchased from the Illuminations Bookstore and wherever Oracle books are sold. Congratulations, Mike!

This is the second part of the discussion on Shared Pools. This article will cover a discussion of what to pin as well as look at other areas of shared pool tuning such as multi-threaded server, hashing and the generalized tuning of the library and data dictionary cache areas. Click Here for the paper.

Get the real-world Oracle wisdom you need to perform your job better and faster. And, get it FREE for 30 days. Sign up for a FREE 30-day trial membership to the International Oracle Users Group (IOUG-A) at http://www.ioug.org/trial and receive 24/7 access to Information, Education, Networking, and Advocacy. You'll be joining the ranks of Oracle database and application development professionals who have already discovered the key to successful Oracle implementation - IOUG-A. Hurry, offer expires August 31^st.

This concise pocket reference, authored by RevealNet and published by O'Reilly & Associates (76 pages) contains a series of easy-to-use checklists providing helpful reminders of the procedures Oracle DBAs must follow when performing common database administration tasks. In this book, you will find checklists for database management, installation and configuration and network management responsibilities.

Application Performance Tuning for OS/390 and z/OS
By Deb Jenson, Director of DB2 Development, Quest Software

Databases are at the foundation of business computing architecture that often include web servers, application servers, client workstations, application logic, networks and other components. The database acts as the data server, and can quickly turn into an application bottleneck if a problem occurs. In many cases, newly developed applications pass quality assurance tests, but go on to fail in production because of scalability problems. Poorly written SQL frequently causes this to happen. Click Here for the white paper.

RevealNet is actively looking for 3-4 more SYSOPs to moderate the DB2 Pipeline. We are especially looking for professionals with UDB experience for OS/390, Unix and NT platforms. If you are an experienced DB2 professional, enjoy the challenge of volunteering and answering questions, please contact Michael Gilsbach at RevealNet (mgilsbach@revealnet.com). If you qualify, you will be given complete management access to the DB2 Pipeline, allowing you to easily moderate message traffic. Perks include free personal use of RevealNet's DB2 Knowledge Base and stylin' Pipeline SYSOP apparel. Our goal is to make the DB2 Pipeline the best support forum in the world for DB2 professionals.

PL/SQL Best Practices: "How do I Make it Run Faster?"

By Tom Kyte, Oracle Corporation PL/SQL Development Team
Excerpt from Tom's latest book "Expert One on One: Oracle", WROX Press, June 2001

RevealNet is publishing a summer series on Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices. This month's feature article is an excerpt from Tom Kyte's latest book, "Expert One on One: Oracle" released in June by WROX Press. Each month this summer we will feature articles from Steven Feuerstein, Tom Kyte, and others. These and other Oracle books can be purchased at a discount from the Illuminations Book Store.

Performance is something you have to design for, to build to, and to test for continuously throughout the development phase. It should never be something to be considered after the fact. I am amazed at how many times people wait until the application has been shipped to their customer, put in place and is actually running before they even start to tune it. Click Here for the excerpt from Tom's new book.

Checkboxes are an excellent way to represent two-state columns to the user. They are intuitive for the end-user, however they can be a bit tricky to implement for the web developer.

Checkboxes are commonly referred to as flags or indicators. Database columns are typically represented as checkboxes when they are length of one (1) character or number, such as VARCHAR2(1) or NUMBER(1). Valid values for a column like this are usually 1/0 or Y/N, representing an On/Off state. Click Here for the article.

Another Free Book Offer!

Get the "Oracle PL/SQL Language" Pocket reference FREE! Here's how:

Download and install the 30 Day Free Trial version of RevealNet's Knowledge Base for Active PL/SQL Development AND Formatter Plus from www.revealnet.com
Call RevealNet at 301-947-7744 and ask for a 20 minute walk-through of the products.
After completing your walk-through, we will mail you your free book. Sorry, this offer is valid in the United States and Canada only.

This pocket reference (94 pages) provides quick-reference information that will help you use Oracle's PL/SQL language, including Oracle 8i features. It is a companion to Steven Feuerstein and Bill Pribyl's best selling Oracle PL/SQL Programming book. This book boils down the most vital information from Oracle PL/SQL Programming into an accessible summary of fundamental language elements (e.g. block structure, identifiers, variables, datatypes, and declarations); statements for program control, cursor management, etc. Install the products today and call for your walk-through.

Deploying merge replication is generally a simple process. You simply subscribe to a merge publication, allow the snapshot to transfer the schema and data, and you are up and running. What happens though when you have disconnected users, remote subscribers over slow links, unstable connections, or simply a massive amount of data to send in the initial shapshot? SQL Server 2000 contains some improvements in deploying large shapshots, but if you are like me and the majority of SQL Server installations, you are not deploying SQL Server 2000. This 4th installment in my Best Practices series shows you how to deploy a new merge subscriber into an existing merge architecture simply and painlessly for 7.0 installations and it will also work for SQL Server 2000 installations. Click Here for the article.

Visit us at the SQL Server PASS Conference, September 19-21
Walt Disney Swan & Dolphin Resort Hotel - Orlando, Florida

Stop by booth 503 at the entrance of the Exhibit Hall and sign up to win a free Bose^TM Wave Radio. This conference will mark the debut of RevealNet's Knowledge Base for SQL Server Development. See you there!

RevealNet's first pocket reference book, published by O'Reilly has received excellent reviews on Amazon.com. Over 9,000 copies have sold in the last 3 months, and the book is now in its second printing. As always, this book can be purchased from the Illuminations bookstore. Click Here for the reviews on Amazon.

The Knowledge Base for Oracle Administration captured a 5-Star rating, higher than any other product reviewed on the site. ORAFAQ.com is one of the top information sites on the web for Oracle professionals. Click Here for the review.

The Oracle 9i Tech Expo, held on Tuesday, July 24th in Herndon, Virginia was a tremendous success. The conference was hosted by DLT Solutions - Oracle's largest value-added GSA reseller partner. Officials from Oracle Corporation, Quest Software, RevealNet and others were on hand to demonstrate the new features of Oracle 9i to Managers, DBAs and Developers. The conference facility, designed for about 250 people was completely filled. Over 300 people registered, prompting an early cut-off of registration. Another Oracle 9i Tech Expo is tentatively planned later this year, possibly in November. If you are a Federal Government, State or Municipal Agency - DLT is offering special discounts on Oracle products and tools. Visit their website or call 703-709-7172 for more information.

"How many newsgroup/Listserv subscribers does it take to change a light bulb? 1392!" Click Here to find out how!

Did you know RevealNet Knowledge Bases and Development Tools are tightly integrated with products from these companies? Click on each logo below for more information.

Software Developers					Reseller Partners

Pipeliners discuss options for modifying packages and help another pipeliner solve a specific problem. Click Here for the discussion.

RevealNet's Pipeline Communities are rich in technical discussions. Each month, we highlight particular discussions of interest. Log on to "Pipe Talk" and share your ideas with your colleagues around the world.

We love getting white papers, tips, articles, and code examples/archives from our readers around the world. Send your submission to cwhite@revealnet.com. If your article is published, we will mail you a "stylin'" canvas/embroidered RevealNet baseball cap as a gesture or our appreciation.

Our mission at RevealNet is to anticipate the daily responsibilities and challenges faced by database professionals. Our products help thousands of people solve problems and implement solutions every day. This newsletter is designed to help facilitate the sharing of information among database professionals. It is currently circulated to 17,000 readers.

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RevealNet develops Knowledge Bases and Development Tools for Oracle and DB2 professionals. Our Knowledge Bases are designed to anticipate the daily challenges of DBAs and Developers - providing the background information, syntax and examples you need to apply solutions immediately. Our Oracle development tools help you write far less code, improve code maintainability and achieve development excellence.

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