Instead of using OEM 10g, you will be using OEM 11g.

The upgrade exam is still using OEM 10g and DB 11gR1 (!) but I did not care installing OEM 10g and I prepared with OEM 11g.

Ref: p_exam_id:11GOCM

The correct method is to use
15 14 15 05 * /tmp/run-my-job

But… I wrote this five years ago. Hmmm ! Not that correct then since it would run every year

Ok, periodically I check for jobs are scheduled to run a specific date only

$ crontab -l|awk '$1!~/#/&&$3*$4'
15 14 15 05 * /tmp/run-my-job

I have 9 more days to remove this before it runs for the fifth time

SQL> DELETE FROM T WHERE C<DATE '2011-01-01';
1'000'000'000 rows deleted 
Elapsed: 23:45:22.01
SQL> commit;

This is perfectly fine. The table remains online, other users are not much affected (maybe they will not even notice the lower IO performance).

It will generate quite a lot of UNDO, and you will need enough space for archivelog and a large undo tablespace and a large undo retention setting (to prevent ORA-01555 snapshot too old).

If your table is like 100G big, you do it during week-end, you have 500Gb Undo and 250G free space in your archive destination, you will be fine. Well. Maybe.

There are workarounds where you create a new table then rename etc… but this is not the scope of this post and you will need to validate your index / foreign keys / online strategy with the application guys.

Another way to decrease runtime pro statement and undo requirement pro statement (but increase overall elapsed time) is to divided it chunks, for instance to delete 100’000’000 rows each night during 10 days.

SQL> DELETE FROM T WHERE C<DATE '2011-01-01' AND ROWNUM<=100000000;
100'000'000 rows deleted 
Elapsed: 04:11:15.31
SQL> commit;

Or if you want to delete in much smaller chunks to accomodate your tiny undo tablespace, you could try

BEGIN
  LOOP
    DELETE FROM T WHERE C<DATE '2011-01-01' AND ROWNUM <= 1000;
    EXIT WHEN SQL%ROWCOUNT = 0;
    COMMIT;
   END LOOP;
END;
/

This will run longer than a single transaction, but it is quite usefull if your undo tablespace is too small. Also if you abort it (CTRL-C or kill session), you will not lose all progresses (but you lose on integrity/atomicity) and your KILL SESSION will not last for ever. With a single transaction, your session may be marked as killed for hours/days…

SQL> select message from v$session_longops where target='SCOTT.EMP';

MESSAGE
------------------------------------------------------------
Table Scan:  SCOTT.EMP: 7377612 out of 629683 Blocks done

The total work is the Oracle estimation :

SQL> select blocks from dba_tables where table_name='EMP';

    BLOCKS
----------
    629683

This may differ quite a lot from the segment size, for instance if the table is not very often analyzed :

SQL> select blocks, sysdate, last_analyzed from dba_tables where table_name='EMP';

    BLOCKS SYSDATE             LAST_ANALYZED
---------- ------------------- -------------------
    629683 2013-04-21_09:21:47 2007-10-13_21:40:58

SQL> select blocks from dba_segments where segment_name='EMP';

    BLOCKS
----------
   7749888

I have customized my very long ops query to deal with very long waits.

col target for a20
set lin 150 pages 40000 termout off
alter session set nls_currency='%';
col PCT_DONE for 990.00L jus r
col time_remaining for 999999

select
  lo.target,lo.sofar,seg.blocks,
  lo.ELAPSED_SECONDS*seg.blocks/lo.sofar-lo.ELAPSED_SECONDS TIME_REMAINING,
  100*lo.sofar/seg.blocks PCT_DONE
from
  dba_segments seg,
  v$session_longops lo
where
  lo.units='Blocks'
  and lo.totalwork>0 and (lo.time_remaining>0 or lo.time_remaining is null)
  and regexp_substr(lo.target,'[^.]+') = seg.owner
  and regexp_substr(lo.target,'[^.]+$') = seg.segment_name
/

Let’s do it for real, let’s dive into the .xls file format and learn how to generate dynamic excel from Unix!

1) create one time your excel file manually. With graphs, colors, sounds, up to you. Or Word, Powerpoint or whatever (minimum MS Office 2007)

2) save as excel 2007 or later format (.xlsx)
this is called the Office Open XML format. It is neither OpenOffice nor OpenSource. It is XML and license restriction may apply.

3) transfer the excel file to your favorite platform

4) unzip the excel file (yes, you read it correctly, unzip the .xlsx file)

$ unzip /tmp/DynamicExcel.xlsx
Archive:  /tmp/DynamicExcel.xlsx
  inflating: [Content_Types].xml
  inflating: _rels/.rels
  inflating: xl/_rels/workbook.xml.rels
  inflating: xl/workbook.xml
  inflating: xl/styles.xml
  inflating: xl/worksheets/sheet2.xml
  inflating: xl/worksheets/_rels/sheet1.xml.rels
  inflating: xl/worksheets/_rels/sheet2.xml.rels
  inflating: xl/drawings/_rels/drawing1.xml.rels
  inflating: xl/theme/theme1.xml
  inflating: xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml
  inflating: xl/drawings/drawing2.xml
  inflating: xl/charts/chart1.xml
  inflating: xl/drawings/drawing1.xml
  inflating: xl/sharedStrings.xml
  inflating: docProps/core.xml
  inflating: docProps/app.xml

5) now substitute the data with some script output (for instance select * from v$backup_redologs). Here I am substituing all datas from row r=2

cd xl/worksheets

tr -d '\r' < sheet1.xml | sed 's,<row r="2".*,,' > head
sqlplus -s -L / as sysdba <<'EOF' > body
set feed off pages 0 lin 2000 longc 2000 long 2000
SELECT XMLELEMENT (
          "row",
          xmlattributes ((rownum+1) AS "r",
                         '1:2' AS "spans",
                         '0.2' AS "x14ac:dyDescent"),
          XMLELEMENT ("c",
                      xmlattributes ('A' || (rownum+1) AS "r", '1' AS "s"),
                      XMLELEMENT ("v", d-date '1899-12-30')),
          XMLELEMENT ("c",
                      xmlattributes ('B' || (rownum+1) AS "r", '2' AS "s"),
                      XMLELEMENT ("v", c)))
          x
  FROM (  SELECT TRUNC (next_time, 'DD') d, COUNT (*) c
            FROM v$backup_redolog
           WHERE next_time BETWEEN TRUNC (SYSDATE - 90)
                               AND TRUNC (SYSDATE) - 1 / 86400
        GROUP BY TRUNC (next_time, 'DD')
        ORDER BY 1);
EOF
tr -d '\r' < sheet1.xml | sed -n 's,.*</sheetData>,</sheetData>,p' > tail
cat head body tail | tr -d '\n' > sheet1.xml
rm head body tail

6) recreate zip file

$ cd ../..
$ zip -r /tmp/DynamicExcel2.xlsx *
  adding: [Content_Types].xml (deflated 78%)
  adding: docProps/ (stored 0%)
  adding: docProps/core.xml (deflated 51%)
  adding: docProps/app.xml (deflated 53%)
  adding: _rels/ (stored 0%)
  adding: _rels/.rels (deflated 60%)
  adding: xl/ (stored 0%)
  adding: xl/_rels/ (stored 0%)
  adding: xl/_rels/workbook.xml.rels (deflated 71%)
  adding: xl/workbook.xml (deflated 42%)
  adding: xl/styles.xml (deflated 56%)
  adding: xl/worksheets/ (stored 0%)
  adding: xl/worksheets/sheet2.xml (deflated 45%)
  adding: xl/worksheets/_rels/ (stored 0%)
  adding: xl/worksheets/_rels/sheet1.xml.rels (deflated 39%)
  adding: xl/worksheets/_rels/sheet2.xml.rels (deflated 39%)
  adding: xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml (deflated 81%)
  adding: xl/drawings/ (stored 0%)
  adding: xl/drawings/_rels/ (stored 0%)
  adding: xl/drawings/_rels/drawing1.xml.rels (deflated 39%)
  adding: xl/drawings/drawing2.xml (deflated 58%)
  adding: xl/drawings/drawing1.xml (deflated 61%)
  adding: xl/theme/ (stored 0%)
  adding: xl/theme/theme1.xml (deflated 79%)
  adding: xl/charts/ (stored 0%)
  adding: xl/charts/chart1.xml (deflated 85%)
  adding: xl/sharedStrings.xml (deflated 22%)

7) Check it

DynamicExcel2.xlsx

Remember, NT means New Technology

There is apparently a Home Selector that is a part of the installation software, maybe something like D:\oracle\product\11.2.0\client_1\bin\selecthome.bat. Sometimes. Not sure

But there is no DEFAULT HOME in the registry.

PS C:\> gci HKLM:\SOFTWARE\ORACLE

    Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE

Name                           Property
----                           --------
KEY_agent12c1                  ORACLE_HOME       : D:/oracle\core\12.1.0.1.0
                               ORACLE_HOME_NAME  : agent12c1
                               ORACLE_GROUP_NAME : Oracle - agent12c1
                               NLS_LANG          : AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8MSWIN1252
KEY_oracle_sysman_db_12_1_0_2_ ORACLE_HOME       : D:\oracle\plugins\oracle.sysman.db.discovery.plugin_12.1.0.2.0
0_discovery_Home0              ORACLE_HOME_NAME  : oracle_sysman_db_12_1_0_2_0_discovery_Home0
                               ORACLE_GROUP_NAME : Oracle - oracle_sysman_db_12_1_0_2_0_discovery_Home0
KEY_oracle_sysman_emas_12_1_0_ ORACLE_HOME       : D:\oracle\plugins\oracle.sysman.emas.discovery.plugin_12.1.0.2.0
2_0_discovery_Home0            ORACLE_HOME_NAME  : oracle_sysman_emas_12_1_0_2_0_discovery_Home0
                               ORACLE_GROUP_NAME : Oracle - oracle_sysman_emas_12_1_0_2_0_discovery_Home0
KEY_oracle_sysman_oh_12_1_0_1_ ORACLE_HOME       : D:\oracle\plugins\oracle.sysman.oh.agent.plugin_12.1.0.1.0
0_agent_Home0                  ORACLE_HOME_NAME  : oracle_sysman_oh_12_1_0_1_0_agent_Home0
                               ORACLE_GROUP_NAME : Oracle - oracle_sysman_oh_12_1_0_1_0_agent_Home0
KEY_oracle_sysman_oh_12_1_0_1_ ORACLE_HOME       : D:\oracle\plugins\oracle.sysman.oh.discovery.plugin_12.1.0.1.0
0_discovery_Home0              ORACLE_HOME_NAME  : oracle_sysman_oh_12_1_0_1_0_discovery_Home0
                               ORACLE_GROUP_NAME : Oracle - oracle_sysman_oh_12_1_0_1_0_discovery_Home0
KEY_OraClient11g_home1         ORACLE_HOME        : D:\oracle\product\11.2.0\client_1
                               ORACLE_HOME_NAME   : OraClient11g_home1
                               ORACLE_GROUP_NAME  : Oracle - OraClient11g_home1
                               ORACLE_BUNDLE_NAME : Enterprise
                               NLS_LANG           : AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8MSWIN1252
                               OLEDB              : D:\oracle\product\11.2.0\client_1\oledb\mesg
                               ORACLE_HOME_KEY    : SOFTWARE\ORACLE\KEY_OraClient11g_home1
                               MSHELP_TOOLS       : D:\oracle\product\11.2.0\client_1\MSHELP
                               SQLPATH            : D:\oracle\product\11.2.0\client_1\dbs
KEY_OraGtw11g_home1            ORACLE_HOME        : D:\oracle\product\11.2.0\tg_1
                               ORACLE_HOME_NAME   : OraGtw11g_home1
                               ORACLE_GROUP_NAME  : Oracle - OraGtw11g_home1
                               NLS_LANG           : AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8MSWIN1252
                               ORACLE_BUNDLE_NAME : Enterprise
                               MSHELP_TOOLS       : D:\oracle\product\11.2.0\tg_1\MSHELP
                               SQLPATH            : D:\oracle\product\11.2.0\tg_1\dbs
                               ORACLE_HOME_KEY    : SOFTWARE\ORACLE\KEY_OraGtw11g_home1
KEY_sbin12c1                   ORACLE_HOME       : D:\oracle\sbin
                               ORACLE_HOME_NAME  : sbin12c1
                               ORACLE_GROUP_NAME : Oracle - sbin12c1
ODP.NET
remexecservicectr              remaining_time : 120000
SYSMAN

How do I set my Oracle Home?

Actually if you enter a command like “lsnrctl start”, the OS will search in the PATH for lsnrctl and determines the Oracle Home name accordingly.

Therefore, the only thing you must do to change your default Oracle Home is to set the PATH environment variable. Only then your LSNRCTL START will find the right binary and right parameter file to start your listener.

BUILD DEFERRED allow you to build an empty materialized view and refresh it later. But this may still takes ages.

SQL> create materialized view mv1 build deferred as select count(*) c from emp,emp,emp,emp,emp,emp,emp;

Materialized view created.

Elapsed: 00:00:17.28
SQL> select * from mv1;

no rows selected

No data collected, but still a long time (17sec here, but much worst in real life)

A workaround is to use ON PREBUILT TABLE on an empty table, just add a few WHERE 1=0 in your subqueries

SQL> create table mv1 as select * from (select count(*) c from emp,emp,emp,emp,emp,emp,emp where 1=0) where 1=0;

Table created.

Elapsed: 00:00:00.04
SQL> create materialized view mv1 on prebuilt table as select count(*) c from emp,emp,emp,emp,emp,emp,emp;

Materialized view created.

Elapsed: 00:00:00.15
SQL> select * from mv1;

no rows selected

Elapsed: 00:00:00.00

Much faster !

RMAN> duplicate target database to DB02
  until time "to_date('2013-01-29_00:00:00','YYYY-MM-DD_HH24:MI:SS')"
  nofilenamecheck ;

DBGSQL:     TARGET> select 2013-01-29_00:00:00 from sys.dual
DBGSQL:        sqlcode = 911
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of Duplicate Db command at 02/01/2013 17:58:23
RMAN-05501: aborting duplication of target database
ORA-01861: literal does not match format string

I have not found anything useful except bug Bug 9351175 which is fixed in 11.2 (and I have 11.2.0.2/aix), but I could workaround the problem with

unset NLS_DATE_FORMAT

Because I do like to have readable timestamp (with seconds) in my RMAN logs, I set NLS_DATE_FORMAT in my spfile

alter system set nls_date_format='YYYY-MM-DD_HH24:MI:SS';

Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c: Managing Data Center Chaos

It is a book about Enterprise Manager, but also a book about the Chaos.

There is no separation of roles [...] there is no DBA Designer (the Senior DBA) [...] and no DBA Operator (the Junior DBA). The Senior [...] does not even have the time [...] the Junior then decides to try out different things

It is also a book about em. And about 12c. No mention of 12cR2, which is massively more performant.

I have been using 12c for about one year and multiple topics are covered. There is not much said on the Incident Manager, which seems to be powerfull but it is for me more time consuming than acknowledging the alerts in 10g/11g.

There is a huge advantage of using 12c, to deploy new agents and new targets in very large shops.

I have setup the software library in offline mode (download with pc from metalink and load in em with emcli), the offline fashion is not documented. In all the places where I have been working, an internet communication between outside world (oracle.com) and database server is banned.

Lot’s of screenshots on Exadata. Not sure where the author could try it, the domain were grayed out (why not edit to example.com with Photoshop? )

There is a lot of content (almost 400 pages), to mention only a few : Real Time ADDM, Real Application Testing, Database deployment, data masking.

At the end of book you will enjoy the case studies. Reading thru the lines, it is not always success stories, but rather expectations that em will do the job

The bank also wanted to ensure that their data center was in compliance with security best practices.

As in any IT book, you do not have to read it from page 1 to page 379, myself I have no DB Machine so I could skip the largest chapter which is on Exadata. But it is a pleasant lecture.

The book is very friendly with Oracle. I have experienced awful performance in 12cR1 and Internet Explorer, some annoying and unavoidable java exceptions in the web interface and the dumbest requirement for me was to install cygwin, bash, ssh on one windows server only to deploy the agent!

I recommend the book, it is a good book

Without catalog :

select to_char(d,'"W"IW-IYYY') compl, sum(b)/1024/1024/1024*8192 GB 
from 
(
  select max(DATAFILE_BLOCKS) b, trunc(completion_time,'IW') d 
  from v$backup_datafile 
  group by FILE# ,trunc(completion_time,'IW')
) 
group by d 
order by d;

COMPL        GB
-------- ------
W30-2012   3.73
W31-2012   4.84
W32-2012   5.00
W33-2012   5.05
W34-2012   5.35
W35-2012   5.80
W36-2012   6.12
W37-2012   6.39
W38-2012    .93
W39-2012   7.02
W40-2012   7.56
W41-2012   7.72
W42-2012   7.88
W43-2012   8.08
W44-2012   8.83
W45-2012   9.03
W46-2012   9.45
W47-2012   9.61
W48-2012  10.11
W49-2012  10.29
W50-2012  10.38

The history mostly depends on control_file_record_keep_time. If you do not use an rman catalog, set it to a high value like 93 (3M) or 366 (1Y)

With the rman catalog, use the RC_ view

select DB_NAME,to_char(d,'"W"IW-IYYY') compl, sum(b)/1024/1024/1024*8192 GB 
from 
(
  select DB_NAME,max(DATAFILE_BLOCKS) b, trunc(completion_time,'IW') d 
  from rc_backup_datafile 
  group by DB_NAME,FILE# ,trunc(completion_time,'IW')
) 
group by DB_NAME,d 
order by DB_NAME,d;

DB_NAME  COMPL        GB
-------- -------- ------
DB01     W30-2012   3.73
DB01     W31-2012   4.83
DB01     W32-2012   5.00
DB01     W33-2012   5.05
DB01     W34-2012   5.34
DB01     W35-2012   5.79
DB01     W36-2012   6.11
DB01     W37-2012   6.39
DB01     W38-2012    .93
DB01     W39-2012   7.01
DB01     W40-2012   7.56
DB01     W41-2012   7.71
DB01     W42-2012   7.87
DB01     W43-2012   8.08
DB01     W44-2012   8.82
DB01     W45-2012   9.02
DB01     W46-2012   9.44
DB01     W47-2012   9.60
DB01     W48-2012  10.10
DB01     W49-2012  10.28
DB01     W50-2012  10.37

If you need to check which table grows the most, check How big was my table yesterday. But remember, RMAN backup is free to use, AWR and the WRI$ tables require the diagnostic pack and the Enterprise edition