george laframboise

The Magazine for the Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group • Vol 73 • Winter 2013

Rocky Mountain Oracle Users GroupPO Box 621942Littleton, CO 80162

Change Service Requested

Non-ProfitOrganization

U.S. Postage PaidSan Dimas, CAPermit No. 410

Member Focus - Rene AntunezBoard Focus - Mark James

Training Days 2014 Preview

George LaframboiseOracle 12c Multitenant Architecture

Jeff SmithSQL Developer - How We Decide What’s Next

Faun deHenryCulture Eats Strategy For Breakfast

Carlos Sierra & Mauro PaganoSQL Health Check to Save Your Day

2 SQL>UPDATE • Winter 2013

Volunteer for Training Days 2014 !Room Ambassadors Receive Full Registration

Registration Ambassadors Receive 1/2 Registration FeeFor questions about Training Days, contact [email protected].

February 5-7, 2014Information & Updates Available On http://www.rmoug.org

Contact [email protected] to Volunteer

SQL>UPDATE • Winter 2013 3

On the Cover:“View From The Backcountry” The cover photo was taken

during a hut trip in March 2013 while snowshoeing down from the Section House on Boreas pass outside of Breckenridge, CO. It was built at 11,481ft in 1882 to house railroad workers and was recently restored to be a part of the 10th mountain division huts in Summit county for winter backcountry users. The photog-rapher was Shelley Laughery, a 12 year Oracle and SQL Server DBA originally from Erie, PA (go Steelers!) and currently working at Janus Capital Group. When not on-call she enjoys snowboard-ing, wakeboarding, hiking, mountain biking, and overall loving beautiful Colorado!

c o n t e n t s

Editor & dirEctorPat Van Buskirk

[email protected]

SUBScriPtioNS & tEchNical adviSor

Heidi [email protected]

coNtriBUtiNg WritErSRene AntunezFaun deHenryMark James

George LaframboiseMauro PaganoCarlos Sierra

Jeff Smith

SQL>Update is published quarterly by

Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group4869 S Coors Ct

Morrison, CO 80465 (303) 929-6266

Email: [email protected]

Please submit advertising and editorial mate-rial to the [email protected]. RMOUG reserves the right to edit, revise or reject all mate-rial submitted for publication. Liability for errors in ads will not be greater than the cost of the advertising space. ©2013 Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group

features

monthly features

4 Letter From Our President5 Stan Yellott Scholarship Fund28 RMOUG Board of Directors30 RMOUG Calendar of Events30 November 2013 QEW

A special Thank You to Heidi Kuhn, Tim Gorman and Kellyn Pot’Vin, without whose continuing help, this publication would not be possible.

6 Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast! by Faun deHenry

Culture - Defined

10 Oracle SQL Developer by Jeff Smith How We Decide “What’s Next”

20 SQL Health Check by Carlos Sierra & Mauro Pagano How It Can Save Your Day

12 Oracle 12c by George Laframboise Multitenant Architecture Jump Start

departments

16 Photos From Our Members23 TD 2014 - A Sample 24 RMOUG Member Focus Rene Antunez26 RMOUG Board Focus Mark James


History Being MadeIn the 30 years since its founding in 1984, RMOUG has been

a busy and productive group of people, and somehow it seems that time has slipped behind us and we will be holding the 25th “Training Days” conference this coming February!

Last year, I was provided a copy of the agenda from the second annual “Training Day” conference on 25-January 1991 at the old US West training facility in Lakewood featuring two tracks and four time slots of 90 minutes apiece...

Time Title Presenter

8:30am-10:00am Intro To RDB and SQL Dick Cross 8:30am-10:00am Database Normalization Martin Greer10:15am-11:15am Intro to SQL*Forms 3.0 Bob Suehrstedt10:15am-11:15am Fully Dynamic Queries Using PRO*C Doug Faughnan 1:00pm-2:30pm Using Oracle On A LAN & Using Oracle w/ Lotus 1-2-3 Kent Graziano and Phil Rice 1:00pm-2:30pm Entity Relationship Modeling Rik Williams 2:45pm-4:30pm Distributed Database Management and SQL*Net Ann Horton 2:45pm-4:30pm SQL*Plus Scripts and Advanced Reporting Rex Walker

Many of these names are familiar in the Oracle community in Colorado. Dick Cross and Bob Suehrstedt still come to the confer-ence and to RMOUG events. Kent lives in Houston now, but he is still active with RMOUG and presents at “Training Days”. Ann Horton also presents regularly and has been active as RMOUG’s liaison to Oracle Corporation for the past several years. Rik works at Oracle and still lives locally. Rex has moved to the Bay Area but still works with Oracle technology. Doug passed away in 2001 and RMOUG named its lifetime achievement award for him in 2002.

It was a one-day conference in those early years, but it grew into a two-day conference by 1996, and expanded a bit more to two-and-a-half days in 2007. We started at the old USWest Training Center in Lakewood, but outgrew it and moved to the Holiday Inn Conference Center off Chambers and I-70 by 1997, and then moved to downtown to the Colorado Convention Center by the turn of the century.

New This YearWe have a new mascot for the confer-

ence, Rocky the OWL, whose name also stands for “Oracle Without Limits”.

For the upcoming 25th conference, we still have the early-bird registation ending Monday 13-January 2014, the

From The President Tim Gorman

standard registration from Tuesday 14-January through Monday 03-February, and after that the late or walk-in registration.

For those of you that are stretched for time and are only able to take one day away for the conference, we will offer a single-day registration, along with our full 2 1/2 day registration. With the single-day pass, you will miss out on the 2-hour deep-dive sessions on Wednesday afternoon, but if you’ve only got one day to spend at the conference, you’ll have the choice of either of the two full days of one-hour technical sessions on Thursday or Friday. There will be no more sharing of conference passes, so hopefully single-day passes makes things simpler and easier for those who cannot get away from the office for the entire conference.

Attendees who buy a full conference pass will be able to attend any session of the two-hour “Deep Dive” sessions on Wednesday afternoon (05-Feb), or any of the one-hour technical sessions on Thursday (06-Feb) or Friday (07-Feb). One great rate gets you into all of these sessions across the vast two-and-a-half day conference. A better bargain in professional technical education simply doesn’t exist, anywhere. And we have it right here in Colorado, every year for the past 25 years.

For more information, visit the registration web-page at “http://www.rmoug.org/training/training-days-2014-registration/”.

Stay-cation During The Conference At The HyattRMOUG has negotiated a low rate of $149/night at the Hyatt

Regency, right across the street from the conference within the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. As you know, the Hyatt is a pretty swank joint, so $149/night is a pretty sweet rate. Why not bring your spouse to stay over for a night or two in beautiful and lively downtown Denver while you spend the day at the conference?

For more information, visit the registation web-page at “http://www.rmoug.org/training/training-days-2014-registration/#hotel”.

Keynote By Oracle’s “AskTom”!This year, the keynote address will be held at 9:45am on

Thursday (06-Feb) and features Tom Kyte, who will set the tone for the conference with his address on “The Long And Winding Road - Where We’ve Been And Where We’re Going”, which is right on-target for our 25th conference and RMOUG’s 30th anniversary!

For more information, visit the RMOUG website at “http://www.rmoug.org/training/training-days-2014-keynote/” and also see Tom’s salutory video about his keynote on RMOUG’s YouTube Channel at “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWEwWeJjo_E”.

Incredible AgendaIt is the incredible lineup of fantastic speakers that makes

RMOUG “Training Days” one of the half-dozen most highly-regard-ed Oracle users group conferences in the entire world, alongside


Open World, Collaborate, KScope, and the UKOUG.Check out this year’s Schedule At A Glance at “http://bit.

ly/15FK5Ld” and read biographies for the speakers at “http://www.rmoug.org/training/2014-presenter-biographies/”. Of the 95+ speak-ers at the conference, 13 are Oracle ACEs and 15 are Oracle ACE Directors.

Volunteering At The ConferenceAs was true 25 years ago, this conference exists because of

our dedicated and wonderful volunteers. Fellow RMOUG members staff the registration booth and serve as room ambassadors during the sessions. These volunteers have fun and receive full and partial registrations as compensation for volunteering. If you’re interested, please check with the volunteer coordinator at “[email protected]”.

Also, as an RMOUG tradition, fellow members provide rides from and to the airport for visiting out-of-state speakers. Besides welcoming them to our beautiful state, providing rides also gives members an opportunity to chat and get to know the bright and interesting people who share their knowledge at our conference. If you’re interested in helping, please check with the ride coordinator at “[email protected]”.

After-Conference WeekendOver the years, many of our out-of-state visitors have taken

advantage of the opportunity to extend their stay with us in order to go skiing or enjoy the mountains of Colorado. This year, I am organizing an after-conference weekend in Glenwood Springs on the weekend immediately following the conference. We plan to ride Amtrak’s “California Zephyr” from downtown Denver through the 30+ tunnels of the wintery Rocky Mountains to the lovely hot springs resort city of Glenwood Springs, where we have negotiated a group rate at the Hot Springs Lodge. If you’re interested in joining, please check at “http://evdbt.com/rmoug-td2014-afterconf/”.

An important disclaimer: This is a private event intended for anyone associated with RMOUG and the Training Days 2014 conference. It is not sponsored by RMOUG and RMOUG is not responsible for anything to do with this after-conference event.

Come join us, for just a day, or the entire two-and-a-half days, or the following weekend as well! Learn the lat-est, network, catch up with old friends. Take advantage of your RMOUG community, an incred-ible resource!

RMOUG Scholarship Mission

To provide educational opportunities to members of the organization about the information technology indus-try in general, and in particular the technology of Oracle Corporation to include databases, storage, networking and application development, specifically the products and services of the Oracle Corporation.

To collect, post and distribute information about Oracle technologies and other related technologies to members.

To provide members with the ability to help their peers maximize their knowledge and skills working with products in information technology and in particular Oracle products.

To provide a consolidated channel of communication, con-veying needs, concerns, and suggestions, for members of the organization, to Oracle Corporation and other vendor corpora-tions involved with Oracle related technology.

To encourage members to present their information technology experiences using Oracle and other products and services.

To provide a consolidated channel of communication between members of the RMOUG and other communities in related information technology industries.

To promote educational opportunities for students of information technology through directed funding and services for educational purposes.

RMOUG is committed to supporting others in the pursuit of technical knowledge.

The Scholarship Fund started in 2001 to encourage future IT professional in their efforts to broaden their knowledge. In 2007, RMOUG voted to rename the scholarship fund to honor the memory of Stan Yellott. Stan was a long time member of RMOUG where he supported the user community by serving on the RMOUG board. Stan focused on expanding Oracle educational opportunities. Stan’s vision was to include high school and college students as the next generation of IT pro-fessionals.

For Details, Visit the RMOUG Websitewww.rmoug.org

Stan Yellott Scholarship Fund


Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast!1

by Faun deHenry, President & CEO, FMT Systems of Texas, Inc.

“[N]one of these lessons is simple because, in the end, real organizations founded and

run by real people are not simple.”2

Much is written about the importance of business strategy. Modern business practitioners believe that an organization cannot succeed without an effective strategy.

What about an enterprise’s culture? More and more it is apparent that business culture affects employees and their work efforts in ways that are barely discernible on a conscious level. Our engagements for business process, business intelligence (data warehousing), ERP transactional system, and CRM transactional system efforts over the last two decades has taught everyone at FMTSI that ignoring an organization’s culture means that attempts to accomplish our goals with a client will result in failure.

“Why should I Care What My Company’s Culture Is?”

It matters because a bad cultural fit between a company and a new employee creates a failure for everyone. A manager spends her precious time and energy developing a new hire so that she is maximally productive in the organization, only for the new hire to leave. The new employee invests her time and energy trying to fit in. Then she starts over with another organization, while the man-ager must find another recruit who better fits the environment. This is a very costly process for both parties.

When a poor fit occurs in a merger or acquisition, the result can be devastating. For example, the acquisition of the ASK Group by Computer Associates in 1994 provides a cautionary tale regard-ing corporate culture and the issue of fit.

Upon the signing of the agreement between Computer Associates (CA) and the ASK Group (ASK) an “all hands” meet-ing was called with three hours’ notice. All ASK employees were instructed to appear at the Santa Clara Convention Center for a presentation and Q&A session with CA’s CEO, Charles Wang, and his senior management team. Already rumors were floating around the engineering floor in Alameda about how CA would be a “step back” for the ASK engineers. When Mr. Wang took the stage for the Q&A, an ASK engineer inquired about CA’s plans for con-tinuing domestic partner insurance coverage.

ASK Group had been one of the more progressive companies in the Bay Area with respect to employee benefits. Mr. Wang was not only unprepared for the question, but he was openly critical of domestic partnerships, and in the next five minutes 200 engi-

neers, a substantial portion of ASK’s technical “brain trust” walked out of the Convention Center and away from the merged entity.3

From the viewpoint of building an analytic culture to support an ongoing business intelligence program, ignoring corporate cul-ture issues can doom the program to failure. The result: A pointless expenditure of time and funds, as well as potentially affecting the overall financial and market position of the enterprise.

The reality of making changes successfully in an organiza-tion’s culture remains an elusive goal for leaders and managers of countless entities, in both commercial and public sectors, across the globe.

Remember the light bulb jokes that were so popular for a while?

How many engineers does it take to change a light bulb? It take four, one to hold the light bulb and three to turn the chair.

How many nuclear engineers does it take to change a light bulb? It takes seven, one to install the new bulb and six to fig-ure out what to do with the old one for the next 10,000 years.

How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? It takes just one, but the bulb must really want to change!

We laugh at these jokes because there is an element of truth in them, despite their sometimes painful perspective on human behavior.

Change is hard! This is true irrespective of whether it is cultur-al, organizational, or personal. Aside from death and taxes, change is a constant that accompanies us and touches every aspect of our lives. “…[I]t is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environ-ment in which it finds itself.”4 [emphasis added] This is reality, not only for every species on the planet, but also for every commercial entity that wants to remain on the economic landscape.

Culture – DefinedThe notion of culture has evolved over time. Concurrent with

the changing definition is the ever growing community of experts who seek to influence how we think and define the concept of culture. One modern attempt at a written explanation of culture is from Sir Edward Tylor who wrote in in the late nineteenth cen-tury:


“Culture, or civilization, taken in its broad, ethnographic sense, is that COMPLEX whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”5

Today, the American Anthropological Association (AAA) defines “culture” as follows.

Culture represents the entire database of knowledge, values, and traditional ways of viewing the world, which have been trans-mitted from one generation ahead to the next — nongenetically, apart from DNA — through words, concepts, and symbols.6

Examine Tylor’s nineteenth century description of culture and compare it with the AAA’s 20th century definition. In those defini-tions separated by a little more than 100 years, some similarities appear — knowledge, morals, (Tylor); and knowledge, values (AAA) — as well as some differences — law, custom (Tylor) and traditional ways of viewing the world (AAA).

It is conventional wisdom that nations and their citizens have distinct cultures. For example, Americans are viewed in other parts of the world as being a happy people and somewhat naïve politi-cally. Conversely, many Americans view Europeans as being more concerned with formalities and protocol. As countries have notice-able cultures, so do business entities.

Organizational CultureIn the formal study of business organizations and manage-

ment, academicians make a distinction between organizational and corporate culture. Further, the academic definition of organizational culture is varied depending upon perspective of the promulgator(s) of the definition. Hill and Jones in Strategic Management refer to organizational culture as “the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization.”7 Others have defined organizational culture as “[a] pattern of shared basic assumptions that was learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way you perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.”8 [emphasis added]

Although many definitions of organizational culture exist, all of them focus on the same themes: collective experience, routine, beliefs, values, goals, and systems. These cultural components are learned and re-learned, passed on to new employees, and continue as part of an organization’s central identity.

Corporate CultureCorporate culture is the total sum of the values, customs,

traditions, and meanings that make a company unique. Corporate culture is often called “the character of an organization,” since it embodies the vision of the company’s founders. The values of a cor-porate culture influence the ethical standards within a corporation, as well as managerial behavior.9

At the most elemental level, corporate culture may be viewed as simply as “how things are done around here,” as described by the company’s leadership. It guides how employees think, act, and feel. Corporate culture defines the unique personality or character of a particular company and includes such elements as core values and beliefs, corporate ethics, and rules of behavior. Corporate culture can be expressed in the company’s mission statement and other communications, in the architectural style or interior decor of

offices, by what people wear to work, by how people address each other, and in the titles given to various employees.

Tracy Kidder in his book, Soul of a New Machine, describes the executive offices of Data General as “ostentation in reverse.” Is it any wonder then that this company was frequently referred to in the press as “the upstarts” and had a reputation for frugality and brash behavior? Remember the dark (or gray) suit and white shirt that was the standard public uniform for IBM employees? In a different arena — advertising — one particular company, Chiat/Day, was known for its employees’ dedication and enthusiasm to the extent that the company was referred to both internally and externally as “Chiat Day and Night.”

Who Defines Corporate CultureInitially, founders define the culture for a business. They

define it as a result of their personal values, world view, and prin-ciples. Founders set the tone for the culture of their enterprise. In his book DEC is Dead, Long Live DEC, Edgar Schein describes the relationship between Ken Olsen’s personal world view and that of DEC’s.

Olsen came from the engineering culture and hired people who fit in. What is often called DEC’s “arrogance” was a natural attitude in a group of people with a particular point of view toward the world and a particular set of goals to revolutionize the nature of computing.10

For a more recent example of how a founder’s values influence and create corporate culture, it is instructive to read comments made by Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos.

We wanted to have a customer-focused culture. We con-sciously tried to get that. Part of a culture is also who the early employees are. Part of company culture is path-dependent—it’s the lessons you learn along the way. One piece of the culture here that is true of my personality is that I have never believed that you couldn’t be serious and have fun at the same time. It’s perhaps most important to have fun when stumbling. It is harder.11

Bezos’ remarks also point to how founders use initial manage-rial hires to assist them in the formation of a corporate culture.

Senior management often plays a dual role when it comes to corporate culture. In the entrepreneurial company these individuals are hired usually because they hold values and a world view that is consistent with the founder’s. In more established enterprises, it is the senior managers who must model the corporate culture for the organization’s employees. Further, it is the CEO, the most senior manager, who holds responsibility for not only furthering the enter-prise’s corporate culture, but also instituting a course correction when the situation, whether external or internal, demands it.

Employees, especially the early hires in an entrepreneurial business, also contribute to the formation of corporate. As Bezos said they are brought in to the company because their values, work ethics, and world views are consistent with and support those of the founder(s). The below remarks from MG Siegler, writer from TechCrunch, illustrate further how early employee hires help with the formation and perpetuation of corporate culture.

The magic at TechCrunch happens because the writers have very little oversight. Instead, the emphasis is placed on hiring the right writers in the first place and putting


them through a trial-by-fire to see who emerges. Those that have, my peers, are the best at what they do. And that’s why TechCrunch has soared.

Mike Arrington has enabled all of this. He brought in Heather, he brought in Erick, he brought in the rest of us. He built TechCrunch out of thin air.12

Corporate Culture Development and Transmission

If a corporate culture is the outgrowth of the founder’s personal values and formed through her initial senior management and early employee hires, how is it developed further and transmitted to new hires as the enterprise moves forward and grows? There are a vari-ety of avenues through which corporate culture is developed and embedded into the fabric of the business entity. Schein takes all of those activities and categorizes them into two channels.

Leaders’ reactions to external events•Leaders’ management of internal integration of corporate •values into the organization13

Corporate culture develops and is transmitted by how •leaders behave and act as well as how employees within the enterprise observe, and make sense of, their behavior and actions.

Companies do not exist in a vacuum. They are subject to forces outside of their boundaries and not within their control. These forces may be due to regulatory, market, or environmental changes. How leaders react and respond to these changes help shape and either strengthen or weaken their business’s culture.

As these external events unfold several communities — employees, shareholders, customers, and suppliers — are watch-ing for evidence of their enterprise leaders’ focus. The nature and selection of their focus lets these communities know what, and how much, a particular event is of concern. How those leaders respond to the event provides further evidence to these same communities as to the depth of the leaders’ commitment to a particular culture.

Another set of activities that help embed corporate culture into the commercial entity is in the area of measurement and control. What do the company’s leaders measure? Where do they exert the most control? Answers to these questions provide further insight into the development of a corporate culture.

Finally, how leaders respond to and behave during critical events and organizational crises are significant developmental components of corporate culture. Numerous business news stories exist that provide ample proof to this assertion. Some examples are listed below.

Odwalla CEO’s handling of the e coli contamination in its •juices.14

Johnson & Johnson’s handling of the Tylenol capsule con-•tamination in Chicago15

JetBlue CEO’s handling of the Valentine’s Day crisis in •New York16

In every one of these events, the CEO, along with senior man-agement, stepped in to handle the critical event, reaffirmed the val-ues of the organization, and demonstrated consistency regarding

the corporate culture to their concerned communities, both internal and external.

Management of internal integrationInternal integration of corporate culture revolves around a dif-

ferent set of activities, which include:

Modelling, teaching, and coaching for desired behavior and •actionsAllocating rewards and status in a manner that is aligned •with performance of behaviors and actionsApplying consistent criteria for recruiting, selecting , pro-•moting, retiring, and excommunicating members of the corporate body

These activities are often referred to colloquially in business settings as “walking the talk.” When leaders take the time to ensure that they: (1) lead by example; and (2) establish human capital management and operational systems that are aligned to the corpo-rate culture with consistent application of policies, processes, and procedures; not only do they build trust and confidence, but they lay the foundation for a strong corporate culture.

Again, there are numerous business examples that provide ample evidence of how this dynamic works. Perhaps one of the most notable is GE under the leadership of Jack Welch.

In 20 years, we really had only four initiatives — Globalization, Services, Six Sigma, and E-business. Initiatives live forever. They create fundamental change in a company. They build on one another. Everything in the GE operating system reinforces them.17

Although other examples of strong corporate cultures exist — Southwest Airlines, IBM, Pixar, and Patagonia, Inc., each one of these businesses has a corporate culture that evolved from the personal values of the founders. These corporate cultures were further developed and embedded into their respective cor-porate bodies by leaders maintaining consistent behavior and actions with regard to external events and internal integration. The anecdote below serves as another example of how one leader has demonstrated that he can “walk the talk” in his business activi-ties.

Kelleher rejected the conventional notion of putting the customer first. At Southwest, employees come first, in the belief that a company with happy and productive workers will have happy, paying customers. He loves to tell the story of an executive who complained it was easier for a baggage handler to get in to see the Chief Executive than it was for him. Kelleher told the executive that was because the baggage handler was more important.18

The paradox of a strong corporate culture is that it is power-fully resistant to change. Schein, in talking about Digital, described it using a biological analogy that very effectively explains the chal-lenge. The DEC organization’s immune system generated antibod-ies that destroyed hybrids, mutants, or outsider influences that were not consistent with the existing cultural DNA.19


See Bibliography on page 11

Culture ChangeWhen Peter Drucker made the comment that “culture eats

strategy for breakfast,” he was advocating that corporations not embark on massive change efforts, but that they seek to make changes that are incremental, and preferably within the existing boundaries of the current corporate culture, a gradual course cor-rection. His perspective regarding culture change arose from an understanding of the paradox of strong cultures.

An effort as ostensibly small as a gradual course correction can require substantial time and energy to be embedded success-fully into an existing strong corporate culture. Further there is agreement among professionals working in this arena regarding the essential components for a successful transition.

Leadership•Stories that illustrate desired new behaviors and actions•Measurement that aligns with the requirements of the •course correctionCompensation criteria, reward system, and training that •both supports the requirements and aligns with the course correctionPeer pressure to support and reinforce the desired new •behaviors and actions

None of these components alone can help a company through a cultural transition, or course correction. Exclude one of these com-ponents and the corporate body reacts with distrust and cynicism making the next course correction even more difficult and costly. Together they comprise a potent arsenal of tools for incrementally moving the culture of an enterprise to a new place.

Culture versus StrategyIs it really an “either or” situation? Is corporate culture more

important than strategy? Or is it the opposite?Peter Drucker originally made the statement, “Culture eats

strategy for breakfast!” in the context of an organizational culture’s ability to impact strategy. Drucker was discouraging leaders and managers from making radical changes to their corporate culture or implementing strategies that were inconsistent with their exist-ing culture.

Jack Welch said after his experience with GE’s acquisition of Kidder Peabody, “Culture matters!”

In 2003 a group of researchers at Harvard Business School completed a ten year study examining management practices at 160 organizations. They found that culture can enhance or prove detri-mental to corporate performance. Organizations with strong perfor-mance-oriented cultures witnessed far better financials growth.

Strategy matters! Companies with good strategies prosper. Those without good strategies perform poorly or, at worst, close their doors.

Bob Frisch in his article “Culture Vs. Strategy is a False Choice” mentions several companies with winning strategies and corporate cultures — Southwest Airlines and Zappos. He also includes companies that are known as strong performers without superior corporate cultures — McDonald’s and Walmart.

However, what about having a strong corporate culture as part of your business strategy? During a recent Twitter conversa-tion Fred Cuellar (@fredcuellar) suggested this in one of his tweets. “My money is on culture as a strategy! Environment regulates behavior!”

Leslie Bradshaw, President, COO, and Co-founder for JESS3 said it best in her video for 30 Second MBA as she described the importance of culture for her organization.

“…[C]ulture is actually the fiber that brings us all together so that we can execute against the strategy once we have it.”

Fred and Leslie are on the right track and they are taking a similar approach to that used by Ken Olsen in building DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation). The company’s strong innovation culture helped propel it to stellar heights during the 60’s, 70’s, and part of the 80’s.

It was also DEC’s same culture that, when the technology arena changed, prevented it from adopting a successful strategy that would allow it to compete effectively in the new technology marketplace. DEC’s strong corporate culture “ate” every new idea, proposal, and strategy that could not fit its existing paradigm. The result: DEC went into a downward spiral and was acquired by Compaq, which was acquired by Hewlett Packard.

SummaryThe relationship between corporate culture and strategy goes

further and deeper than most corporate leaders imagine. Not only that, but in volatile markets, the connectedness between these two can be fraught with complications.

If an organization is an incumbent in an industry that has a disruptive newcomer, adaptability becomes paramount. Yet, strong corporate cultures are typically less adaptable. To use Edgar Schein’s analogy, strong corporate cultures possess antibodies that protect them from “foreign” ideas or proposals. 20 Therefore, it is critical that leaders heed Drucker’s warning and remember the les-son of DEC as they attempt to change a corporate culture so that it can function harmoniously with a new strategy.

Culture and strategy must fit and work together to move an organization’s performance forward. Without harmony between culture and strategy, the organization suffers and, eventually, dies.

Think back to a time when a project went over budget or was delayed or, possibly, halted. Was the CIO the only senior manager involved? Did the project have the potential to change how employ-ees in the company would perform their work? Was there the pos-sibility that automation would entail a reduction in the company’s workforce? A “yes” response to any one of these questions can doom an effort . . . without a plan.

Faun deHenry is President and CEO of FMT Systems of Texas, Inc. (FMTSI). Ms. deHenry has worked for 20 years operating regional and national consult-ing organizations. Faun is a recognized speaker and author on topics including customer focused process innovation, leading practices for globally distrib-uted organizations, sustaining competi-tive advantage, strategic planning, and business intelligence. Ms deHenry is a past Chair for the OAUG Education Committee, as well as holiding member-ships in ASTD, International Process and Performance Institute (IPAPI), Association of Business Process Management Professionals (ABPM), and The Data Warehouse Institute (TDWI).


Oracle SQL DeveloperHow We Decide “What’s Next”

by Jeff Smith, Senior Principal Product Manager, Oracle Corp.

Oracle SQL Developer is the Oracle Database Interactive Developer Environment (IDE) and Graphical User Interface (GUI). That is, it allows developers, DBAs, and IT professionals to interact with the database from a familiar point-click-and type interface running as a program on their computer.

With a very active user base, approximately 3.3 million users worldwide, you can imagine we receive a lot of input on what the tool should be or should do. How do we decide what goes in, and what goes to the ‘maybe later’ pile?

Before I answer that question directly, I’d like to share where we get our user input from. Perhaps you’d like to have an impact on the next version? If so, here’s where you can be heard:

OTN Forums • https://forums.oracle.com/community/devel-oper/english/development_tools/application_development_in_pl_sql/sql_developer_%28not_for_general_sql_plsql_questions%29My Oracle Support (MOS) • https://support.oracle.comThe Exchange • https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=43135:1Conferences and User Groups•Social Media•Your Oracle Account Management Team•

Please don’t insinuate any sort of ordering or prefer-ence in the above list; it’s just how it managed to fall into this article! Now a few notes regarding your avenues:

MOSEven though the tool is a no-cost item, full support is provided

via your Database license. So if you want to file an enhancement request with MOS, then please do!

ForumsThe forums are primarily for asking

questions, not for logging enhancement requests. However, if enough people are asking the same question, that will often lead to a feature being created or augmented to solve that ‘pain.’ Don’t expect to be told formally if and when a Forum post leads to your request being implemented.

The ExchangeHere you can browse existing

requests, vote them up, or add your own. We monitor this site closely. Since SQL Developer was launched in 2006,

we’ve managed to implement over 650 of your ideas!

Conferences and User GroupsWe send our management team and developers to customer

facing events. This is your chance to share your feedback directly to ‘the source.’ I’ve seen at least once where a developer implemented a request on the spot. If this happens to you, don’t forget to tip your server

Social MediaA few of us on the team, myself included, are addicted to

Twitter. We frequently get questions, requests, and complaints here. We do our best to address all of those. And depending on our mood, you might even like our answers! This is a fairly new medium, or at least a fairly new avenue for users to take when it comes to sharing their experiences with their vendors. It’s also a good way to find out about all ‘the cool stuff’ before it’s released via more traditional channels.

Your Sales RepYou can always share your feedback with these folks – they in

fact WANT to know if you’re not happy. It will get back to us. You can even use them to request a SQL Developer webinar if your team would appreciate a 60 minute free overview or Tips and Tricks type web presentation. Don’t be afraid to ask for stuff!


So You Have All This Data, What Do You Do With It?

I think the biggest advantage our team has derives from the broad career backgrounds of everyone involved. Many of the devel-opers come from our real world performance teams. They know what happens in the field, they know what drives you nuts, and they want to build features that make annoying tasks less annoy-ing. My boss has said several times, ‘Oh, I built that feature for me.’ It just so happens that you and he share a LOT in common.

Personally, I’ve been helping Oracle customers get the most from their database tools for more than 12 years now. I use that experience to gauge the potential impact a new feature or ‘tweak’ will have on our user base.

Maybe most importantly, we employ the famous ’80/20 rule,’ or perhaps a slight derivation of it. Simply stated, we try to prioritize features that will speak to 80% of our user base. While it would be nice if the tool could be ‘all things to all people,’ we also want to keep the tool as simple and as accessible as possible. I’ve found that a majority of our users only use approximately 15% of the tool’s capabilities, anyways!

Now Go Use It!Now that you know what goes into building the next genera-

tion of your database development tools, I’d like to invite you to try out version v4.0 of Oracle SQL Developer http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/sql-developer/overview/index.html. Depending on the publication date of this newsletter, you’ll find it as an Early Adopter (Beta) or as the current official release. Many tens of thousands of downloads and many kicks of the tires have led to what we think is the best version of SQL Developer yet!

Of course you may disagree. But now you know how to contrib-ute to the next version. Thanks to all of our users for helping make this release happen!

Jeff Smith is a Senior Principal Product Manager at Oracle Corp and manages the SQL Developer and SQL Developer Data Modeler products. With more than 12 years of experience in the database development tools space, Jeff is obsessed with productivity and saving customers as much time and energy as possible with Oracle’s development and administration tools.

You can find Jeff presenting at Training Days 2014 on ‘Oracle SQL Developer Tips & Tricks’, ‘What’s New in Oracle SQL Developer and SQL Developer Data Modeler’ and co-presenting with Kellyn Pot’Vin on ‘Social Media for the Techie.’

Jeff blogs regularly on SQL Developer at http://www.thatjeffsmith.com and you can follow him on Twitter @thatjeffsmith.

Be sure to see Jeff at RMOUG’s 2014 Training Days on Friday 2/7/14 at 2:45 pm. His topic will be What’s New In Oracle SQL Developer and SQL Developer Data Model.

Bibliography (Faun deHenry, continued from page 9...Burman, R. and Evans, A.J., “Target Zero: A Culture of Safety,”

Defence Aviation SafetyCentre Journal, 2008, pp. 22-27.Cummings, Thomas G. and Worley, Christopher G., Organization

Development and Change, 8th Ed., Thomson South-Western College Publishing, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2005. ISBN 0-3242-6060-1

Deal, Terrence E. and Kennedy, Allan A., Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life, Perseus Books Publishing, New York, 2000. ISBN 0-7382-0330-0

Handy, Charles B., Understanding Organizations, 3rd Edition, Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, New York, 1985.

Kidder, J. Tracy, Soul of a New Machine, Little, Brown and Company, New York, 1981. ISBN 978-0-316-20455-2

Kotter, John, and Heskett, James L., Corporate Culture and Performance, Free Press, New York, 1992. ISBN 0-02-918467-3

McGuire, Stephen J.J., Entrepreneurial Organizational Culture: Construct Definition and Instrument Development and Validation, Ph.D. Dissertation, The George Washington University, Washington, DC., 2003.

Schein, Edgar H., et al, DEC is Dead, Long Live DEC: The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, 2003.

Schein, Edgar H., Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Ed., Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2005. ISBN 0-7879-7597-4

Senge, Peter, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Doubleday, New York, 1990.

(Endnotes)Attributed to Peter Drucker1. Schein, Edgar H. et al, 2. DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC: The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, 2003.Private interviews with former ASK Group, Inc. employees, 1994 3. – 2000.Megginson, Leon C., “Lessons from Europe for American Business,” 4. Southwestern Social Science Quarterly (1963) 44(1): 3-13, at p. 4.Tylor, Edward, 5. Primitive Culture. New York: J.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1871American Anthropological Association6. Hill, Charles W. L. and Jones, Gareth R., 7. Strategic Management, Houghton Mifflin, 2001.Schein, Edgar H., 8. Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Ed., Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2005. ISBN 0-7879-7597-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_culture#Corporate_cul-9. ture_vs._organizational_cultureSchein, Edgar H., 10. DEC is Dead, Long Live DEC: The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation, Berrett- Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, 2003Lagesse, David, “America’s Best Leaders: Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com 11. CEO,” U.S. News and World Report, online edition, 19 November 2008 (http://www.usnews.com/news/best-leaders/articles/2008/11/19/americas-best- leaders-jeff-bezos-amazoncom-ceo_print.html)Siegler, MG, “TechCrunch As We Know It May Be Over,” AOL 12. TechCrunch online magazine, 6 September 2011, (http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/06/the-end/)Schein, Edgar H., 13. The Corporate Culture Survival Guide, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1999.Baker, Mallen, “Companies in Crisis: What to do when it all goes 14. wrong,” online mallenbaker.net, accessed 6 September 2011 (http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/crisis05.html)Analysis “Case Study: The Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Crisis,” 15. Crisis Communication Strategies, online (http://www.ou.edu/dept-comm/dodjcc/groups/02C2/Johnson%20&%20Johnson.htm)Hanna, Julia, “JetBlue’s Valentine’s Day Crisis,” HBS Working 16. Knowledge, online magazine, 31 March 2008 (http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5880.html)Welch, Jack; Byrne, John A., 17. Jack: Straight from the Gut, Kindle Edition, (2003-10-01). (Kindle Locations 5849-5852). “Lasting Leadership: Lessons from the 25 Most Influential Business 18. People of Our Times,” Knowledge@Wharton, Wharton School Publishing, 20 October 2004, online edition, accessed 2 September 2011Schein, Edgar H., 19. DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC: The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation (p. 192). Kindle Edition.Schein, Edgar H., 20. DEC is Dead, Long Live DEC: The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation (p. 192). Kindle Edition.


smon, pmon, dbwr etc. processes that are common to the root, seed and all the pluggable4 databases. That does restrict the “alter system” commands that can be performed by a local SYSDBA in a pluggable data-base. The initialization parameters that may be changed are listed in the v$system_parameter view where the “is_pdb_modifiable” column is set to “TRUE”. Other system commands that may affect individual pluggable databases are listed in the DBA Administrators Guide and include opera-

tions such as flushing the shared pool, the buffer cache, etc5.Figure 1 - Container Database with Root,

Seed and Up To 252 Pluggable Databases

Advantages to the Multitenant ArchitectureOracle’s new architecture has multiple advantages to it. It

allows for easier resource management. It is much easier and quicker to create a pluggable database from the seed database or another pluggable database. It makes it possible to convert a non-container database into a pluggable database and use that as a seed database or just use the converted non-container database as a pluggable database. It is also easier to manage the processes run-ning on the container database from the root container since they are common processes.

Administration of the set of databases takes on interesting advantages. The Sys and System users are common users with common roles6. Therefore any user able to log into Sys or System in the root container may access any of the pluggable databases and manage those databases. You may also set up users with administration privileges locally in any of the pluggable databases. You might set up a local user

4 See Plugging and Unplugging databases later in this paper.5 The commands include flush shared_pool, flush buffer_cache, enable/dis-

able restricted session, set use_stored_outlines, suspend, resume, checkpoint, check datafiles, register, kill session and disconnect session.

6 See Common Users and Common Roles later in this paper.

Abstract

This paper is a very high-level summary of the differences between Oracle 12c and earlier versions of Oracle. It does

not attempt to explain every difference in detail but will point you in the right direction. It is intended make you aware of areas that you need to further explore so that you can quickly seek out the details of specific operations when you need to perform them. The changes are significant however given a good overall understand-ing of previous versions of Oracle this paper will hopefully serve to make your transition to Oracle 12c smoother. The details of the specific high-level changes will have to await upcoming papers.

IntroductionThe Oracle Database has undergone a significant evolution to

a Multitenant Architecture with version 12c. Oracle 12c allows up to 252 pluggable databases within the same container database1. The container database (CDB$Root) functions as a metadata-database and also houses pluggable databases with metadata links that access the data dictionary in the root container database.

Application Tables cannot be stored within the root container. In fact, quota consuming data may not be stored within the root database at all. Data may only be stored in the pluggable data-bases.

The Container database includes an Oracle supplied read-only seed database (PDB$Seed) that may be used to create other plug-gable databases. Any other pluggable databases, whether local or remote, can also be used to create other pluggable databases. You may also convert existing non-container databases into pluggable databases that can then be used as seed template databases.2

Customer created pluggable databases appear to Oracle Net Clients like any other non-CDB databases and can be used to house any application and data that is normally associated with an Oracle database. Pluggable databases cannot be connected to directly by users who have not been defined as “common users” in the container database.3

All of the databases within a container database share boot-strap files (control files, init.ora, spfile.ora), the redo log, the undo tablespace and optionally may share a temporary tablespace. However each pluggable database within the CDB has its own System and SysAux tablespace. All of the databases share the pro-cesses used to run the databases. In other words, there is one set of

1 Base installs allow one pluggable database, additional pluggable databases require additional licensing fees.

2 The root container, seed database and pluggable databases must share the same character set.

3 Sys and System are predefined common users although other common users may be defined. See Common Users later in this paper.

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exactly the same users, structures and code; however, name colli-sions may not occur since they are separate databases even though they reside in the same container database.

The biggest advantage to the multi-tenant architecture is the sharing of resources. Since the root and all the pluggable data-bases share the same processes to run the database; there are more resources available to users. In a non-multitenant database computer, resources are no longer used to maintain a second set of processes to run a completely separate database which leaves more available resources for the pluggable databases.

The Oracle 12c Data Dictionary Views The Oracle 12c physical data dictionary originally had three

types of views: the “DBA” views (all the objects in the database), the “All” views (all objects accessible to a specific user), and the User Views (an individual user’s objects). With the multitenant architecture a new type of data dictionary view has evolved, namely “CDB” views. These views show all the objects in the container database including all the pluggable databases. For every “DBA” view you are aware of there is a corresponding CDB view. A column called “con_id” has been added to these views to allow you to deter-mine the database that the object exists in. The Root Container, CDB$Root, has a con_id = 1, PDB$Seed has a con_id = 2 and each pluggable database is numbered up from there at the time of its creation. You will occasionally run across a con_id of 0 and that indicates that the data dictionary information being displayed is common to the entire container database. If you aren’t sure which container is which then query the v$containers view. You can also “show con_id” or “show con_name” from the SQL*Plus prompt to determine the current container.

The quirk in this new data dictionary comes from where you access it. If you access cdb_users from the root container, all users in every other database in the container are displayed along with their con_id.11 If on the other hand you access cdb_users from one of the pluggable databases then you will see only the users in that pluggable database where the con_id is the con_id of the PDB you are connected to.

There are at least two reasons for this. The first is consistency of data dictionary views across all the containers. The second reason is security. Since you are operating in a multi-tenant architecture then you may not want the local users in one of the pluggable data-bases to have access to data in any of the other pluggable databases so they shouldn’t have access to the data beyond the pluggable database.12 This is accomplished by restricting the data dictionary to the current container’s objects. When you are connected to the root con-tainer then the pluggable databases are considered to be objects in the CDB but when you are connected to a pluggable database the only objects owned by the pluggable database are the objects residing in the pluggable database itself. The PDB certainly does not own any other pluggable database nor the root nor the seed and therefore may not view any data in them.

All of the same X$, V$ and GV$ dynamic performance views exist in the Multi-Tenant architecture. There are a few new perfor-mance views but most are the same.

11 Common users appear multiple times along with the con_id of each plug-gable database. E.g. Sys appears multiple times in a container db, once each for the root, the seed and once each for each pluggable database (up to 254 total rows returned).

12 Especially if you are providing a cloud environment that has multiple copies of the same database but different sets of users.

called “PDBSys” in a pluggable database that is restricted to that specific PDB only and grant that user as few or as many administrative privileges as you feel comfortable with.7

Patching is much easier for a container database. Patching a con-tainer database is done from the root container. When the root is patched, all pluggable databases in the container are patched at the same time. This can be very handy in a development and test environment. It does present some problems in production. You may technically test a patch in a separate environment and then upgrade a container database and all of its pluggable databases in production with a single application of the patch.8 This obviously increases the risks in applying the patch. Another method is to create a new container database without pluggable data-bases and upgrade it first. Once the new container is upgraded then you could “unplug” each of the PDBs one at a time and plug them into the new production container to decrease the risk of upgrading your entire set of production databases all at once9.

The ability to create other databases from seed databases allows much easier standardization. This is very valuable in moving a database from development to test and eventually production from a template seed database. It can also be valuable in a cloud environment where you might host multiple copies of the same database for different clients. Keep in mind that there is no way to force a newly created database to remain exactly the same as the seed it was created from. Databases created from seeds may diverge from the objects used to create them. If it is your goal to have several databases that have the same data structures and code objects you will still need to manage these databases closely to ensure they remain exact structural copies after creation. 10

It is also easier for a single DBA to administer multiple appli-cations. Pluggable databases may be shut down independently of the root database and may, if desired, have separate local user database administers that are able to only administer a specific pluggable database while not having access to the root database or any other pluggable database.

Point in time recovery is also much easier than with schema based consolidated databases. If it has been the standard of your organization to consolidate multiple applications within the same database it is very difficult to recover any single application to a specific point in time without interfering with other applications within the same database.

This is especially important since the pluggable databases need not share the same time zone settings. For example, one plug-gable database may be set on east coast time, one on west cost time and yet another one to a European time zone. If you couldn’t sepa-rately point in time recover the different pluggable databases data recovery could cause more problems that it solved.

There is also no possibility of name collisions with other appli-cations within the same container since pluggable databases do not share namespaces with the other databases within the same container. As a simple example, two pluggable databases may have

7 It is not recommended to change the grants or anything else, except pass-words for any Oracle Maintained User such as Sys or System. See the oracle_main-tained column in the cdb_users view.

8 Note that this means that you will need to test every application installed in the container database thoroughly to ensure that they will work if you intend to upgrade the production database all at once. Given up to 252 pluggable databases that may not be a feasible upgrade method.

9 See Plugging and Unplugging databases later in this paper. By the way, you don’t have to change pluggable db file locations when unplugging and plugging PDBs into the new container database.

10 For example you might set up a scheduled job that compares the seed database structures and code with other databases that you wish you be exact copies of the seed and react accordingly.


The Oracle 12c ListenerThe Listener is a critical feature of Oracle 12c. Local Application

users may only connect to pluggable databases through an Oracle Net connection. If the listener is down, only common users may con-nect to the pluggable databases. The listener.ora file remains the same as before and contains the configuration of the container data-base. The contents of the tnsnames.ora file are different though. As I am sure you remember the tnsnames.ora file is used by connecting clients. You could list all pluggable databases in any tnsnames.ora file that you provide to a user. However, providing only the entries for the pluggable databases that a client would have a valid account on will provide much better security. In other words, if you are pro-viding a cloud service and prefer to make your cloud more secure by making the container look like one database rather than a container with multiple pluggable databases then providing only those entries to your clients where they have valid accounts will give you better security. The new pluggable database entries in the tnsnames.ora file are the same as before.

Startup and Shutdown in Oracle 12cThe root container must be started first in an Oracle 12c data-

base. None of the pluggable databases or the seed database can be started before the root container. Think of the root container as the master control database. It has to be started before any other data-base can be started in the container. All the same startup options are available and the root container goes through the same stages (nomount, mount and open) on the way to being started.

The new quirk with pluggable databases is that pluggable databases are started in mount stage when the root container is opened. Pluggable databases aren’t opened until the “alter plug-gable database <pdb_name> open” command is issued. The reason-ing behind this is that when starting any database the first stage of starting is “nomount”. “Startup nomount” reads the initialization files, allocates memory for the databases and starts the background processes. All the containers (root, seed and pluggable databases) share the initialization files, the memory and the background processes. Since all of the databases have these files, memory, and processes in common they all must cycle through the nomount and mount stages at the same time.

All of the containers share the control file so that when the mount stage is reached in the root container, the control file used by the root and all the containers is read and the datafiles for the root located but not opened. Note that the datafiles for the pluggable databases are not located at that point and are not opened.13

The open stage is next and only the root database datafiles are accessed and checked for consistency. The pluggable databases are left in mount stage and it is up to the person starting the database to open any or all of the pluggable databases. “Alter pluggable database [all|pdb_name] open” will start all or a specific pluggable database. Note that the root container can still be started if a plug-gable database file or a seed database file is missing or corrupt.

Creating a Database Creating a database in Oracle 12c is slightly different

from database creation in previous versions of Oracle. There are now two types of databases. There are container databases and there are pluggable databases that exist within container databas-

13 A missing data file in a pluggable database should not be allowed to stop the root container from starting.

es. If you are starting with a pre-created container database14 then you will create databases within the container database with the “create pluggable database” statement which will create a pluggable database from some other pluggable database that you have designated as a seed15 for the creation.

On the other hand, if you didn’t create the container DB when you installed the software for the first time you will use a “create database” SQL statement to create a container database16.

Creating a Container Database (CDB)The process for creating a container database remains essen-

tially the same in version 12c as it was in earlier versions of Oracle. The first step is to set up environment variables17, then configure the initialization file18, ensure you have created all the directories referenced in the initialization file and the create database statement and then create the database either with DBCA or a SQL script that includes the “ENABLE PLUGGABLE DATABASE” statement.

If you do not create the database with the “ENABLE PLUGGABLE DATABASE” statement then you will never be able to create pluggable databases within the database that you have just created. The database you created is not a container database and the root and seed databases have not been created. You can check whether a database is a container database by checking the value of the CDB column in the v$database view.

Once you have created the container database you still need to cre-ate the data dictionary and product user profile tables by running catalog.sql, catproc.sql and pupbld.sql

Creating a Pluggable DatabaseOnce the Container database is created you can create up to

252 pluggable databases within the container. Just as with a con-tainer database, there are several tools that you can use to create a pluggable database. You could use DBCA, OEM Cloud Control or a SQL script.

Creating a pluggable database involves copying another pluggable database. You can use the Oracle supplied PDB$Seed database in the container database or you could create the new PDB from another pluggable database or you could convert a non-container database into a pluggable database and use that as a seed or you could even use a non-container database as a seed to create a pluggable database. In any case, note that you are not creating any databases from scratch, you are copying some other pluggable database and it is a much easier and faster process.

You must be connected to the root container to create a plug-gable database and you must have the “create pluggable database” system privilege. The simplest SQL that you can use to create a PDB involves defining an admin user for the PDB and using a file name convert clause to inform the system what db you are using as a seed and where the new database will be created from the seed files.

Unplugging Databases Pluggable databases may be unplugged from one con-

tainer database and plugged into another container database fairly

14 Created during software installation for example.15 Either the Oracle provided PDB$Seed or some other pluggable database

you provide.16 Or if you prefer you can still use the DBCA utility.17 ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_SID, LD_LIBRARY_PATH AND PATH18 init.ora or spfile.ora

SQL>UPDATE • Winter 2013

Pallavicini at A-Basin, 2012 by Mark Parkins

Ron Bich’s Front Yard in Pine, CO

Gate to Caribou Ranch, Peak-to-Peak Highway by Jim Secor

Rocky Mountain National Park by Jeff Stephenson

Ice Lake South of Silverton, CO by Joe Boncha

Cameron Pass by Rick Lynch

Over the years, we’ve had some gorgeous photos submitted to us by our RMOUG members. We wanted to share a few of them with you. Thanks so much to all our members who contribute so much to RMOUG!

SQL>UPDATE • Winter 2013

Black Canyon of The Gunnison by Vincent Giasolli

Colorado Cabin by Brad Brown

Rocky Mountain National Park by Jeff Stephenson

Ice Lake South of Silverton, CO by Joe Boncha

Cameron Pass by Rick Lynch


database and may connect to all of the pluggable databases where they have been granted “create session”. They will have the same identity in every pluggable database as well as any pluggable database created in the CDB in the future. Common users may be granted the same privileges in every pluggable database but that is not necessary. You may configure the group of pluggable databases so that a common user may have different privileges in different pluggable databases. In fact, common users may lack the “create session privilege” in some databases and not be able to connect to specific pluggable databases. You can do this by granting privileges or roles locally to common users.

Sys and System are Oracle Maintained common users and they may “alter session” to connect to specific pluggable databases, in fact, any common user may alter their session to connect to any pluggable database where the “create session” privilege has been granted to them. Common users must have their user name pre-fixed with “c##” to indicate that they are common users22. Keep in mind that creating a common user in the root container does not grant any privileges to that common user in any existing database and those users will not be able to connect until they are granted the “create ses-sion” privilege.

Local RolesLocal Roles in Oracle 12c pluggable databases are the same as

roles in previous Oracle databases. They are grouping of privileges and are constrained to the current container. The creating user must have the “create role” privilege. That only allows them to cre-ate a role (e.g. “create role myRole container=current”). The new wrinkle in this case is the container keyword. If you are creating a local role “container=current” is implied and is optional. You must be connected to the database where the role will be created. Once the role is created you may add privileges to the role so that you grant multiple privileges to users by granting them the role.

Common Roles Common roles have many of same sort of characteristics

that are found for common users. Common roles are groups of privileges that may only be created from the root container and they must be named with the prefix “C##” or “c##” (e.g. create role c##myCommonRole container=all”)23. The difference between common roles and local roles is that they may be granted to any local or common user and will be automatically defined in any future container. A common role must be granted from the root container. Any role created while connected to a container other than root will be a local role.

The other point to be aware of is that any Oracle supplied role in the root container (DBA, SYSOPER etc.) is a common role even though Oracle does not prefix the name of the roles with [C|c]##.

Connecting to the DatabasesCommon Users may connect directly to the root database in

SQL*Plus in the usual manner assuming that their ORACLE_SID is set to the SID of the root container and the rest of their environ-ment variables (“ORACLE_HOME” and “PATH”) are set appropri-ately. Common users may also connect to any pluggable database where they have been granted “create session” by altering their ses-

22 You could change this with the hidden system parameter “_common_user_prefix” if you want but it is definitely not recommended. Having the c## in the common user name provides an easy way to identify common users.

23 “Container = all” is the only option for the container keyword and common roles.

easily. There are several methods of doing it but they all involve making an XML manifest file from the root container and using the XML file and the PDB datafiles to plug the database into another CDB. The XML file contains only the metadata describing the unplugged database. Don’t make the mistake of unplugging a PDB and expecting to plug it in to another database thinking that the data is contained in the XML file. It is not.

The easiest method to unplug a database involves logging into SQL*Plus as a sysdba in the root container, closing the PDB (alter pluggable database <pdb> close immediate), unplugging it (alter pluggable database <pdb> unplug into <filename.xml>) and then dropping it from the original container while keeping the datafiles (drop pluggable database <pdb> keep datafiles).

It is very important to keep the datafiles if you wish to plug the database you unplugged into another CDB. If you drop the PDB and don’t keep the datafiles you will lose the data in the pluggable database.

Plugging In DatabasesNow that you have unplugged a database, plugging it into

another container database is easy. First however you need to make sure it is compatible with the new container. The datafiles must be written in the same endian format19 and have the same database options. Verifying compatibility is done with the check_plug_com-patibility function (returns a Boolean) in the DBMS_PDB package in the database you will be plugging the database into. The func-tion returns a Boolean and places details of incompatibilities in the PDB_PLUG_IN_VIOLATIONS data dictionary view.

Once you know that the unplugged database is compatible you can plug it into the new container. You will use the “Create Pluggable Database” command to plug the database into the new container along with the XML manifest file you created and the datafiles you copied to the new area along with a “file_name_con-vert” clause to inform the new database where to find the new PDB files.

Local UsersLocal users may be created in a pluggable database by any

user granted the necessary grants20. Local users only exist in the plug-gable database where they were created. These types of users are exactly like any user account previously seen in Oracle Databases. Local users do not have privileges in any other database in the container. They may not be created in the root database.

Local users are created in the usual way with the “create user…” SQL statement. They are granted privileges, assigned temporary tablespaces, default tablespaces etc. A local user may only connect to the pluggable database through oracle net.

The only quirk about local users is that you cannot create a local user in the Root Container21; a local user may not have a user name that begins with “c##” or C## and you may only specify that “container=current” which is the default for a local user anyway so you don’t need that if you want to shorten your SQL.

Common UsersCommon users may only be created or dropped from the root

19 Big Endian vs. Little Endian formats. The format of the original data files must be the same as the data files in the new database.

20 The creating user has been granted the privileges to create users and cre-ate session at a minimum.

21 You can’t create any users of any kind in PDB$Seed, it is a read-only database.


To all our great members of RMOUG!

We appreciate you and all your contributions to this wonderful organization!

base creation, the ability to unplug a database from one container database and plug it into another container has also been provided. New data dictionary views have been provided as well as common users that may have access to all pluggable databases within the container database or to as few as desired.

George Laframboise is an Oracle Certified DBA with more than 20 years of Oracle Consulting Experience. His specialties include Data Modeling, Data Architecture, Data Base Administration, Java/J2EE Programmimng and Education. He is presently work-ing as a Senior Data Architect for the Health Care Consulting Division of Policy Studies, Denver CO and can be reached at [email protected].

sion with the command: “alter session set container=<pdb>” where “pdb” is the name of the container that they wish to connect to. Common users may alter their session at any point and jump back and forth between containers without going to CDB$ROOT as long as they have initially connected to the root container first and have been authorized. Note that authorization is not necessary once the common user has been authorized during the initial connection.

Common users may also use Oracle Net to connect to any container directly without first connecting to CDB$ROOT. For example, “sqlplus user/pwd@pdb” will connect to the pdb container. Once connected a common user may jump to any other pdb with the alter session command previously described assuming that they have been granted “create session” in the container they are trying to connect to or they may also issue another “connect user/pwd@con-nect_string” command from the SQL*Plus command line.

Local users may not connect to any database except the data-base where they were created and they may only connect through Oracle Net. This means that if Oracle Net is not running then only common users will be able to connect.

Backup and Recovery ImplicationsBacking up and recovering a database is much the same in

Oracle 12c as it was in previous versions. RMAN is still available and there is also a new web based interface called Enterprise Manager Cloud Control that you can use for backup and recovery.

24

The major change is that you can backup and recover the entire container database along with all of the pluggable data-bases in one backup/recovery operation or you can just backup and recover CDB$Root or you can backup and recover one or more pluggable databases in one operation. How you accomplish these operations will determine where you connect for the backup or recovery.

If you connect to the root container as a user with backup/recovery privileges you can either backup the entire container or you can backup/recover one or more pluggable databases with the same command. If on the other hand your environment has differ-ent backup requirements for different pluggable databases then you can set up a local user in the pluggable database you want to backup and backup just the pluggable database after connecting to it with either RMAN or OEM Cloud Control.

The command that you use to backup a pluggable database will depend on where you are connected. If you a connected to the root container and want to backup pdb1, 2 and 3 with one command then you will use “backup pluggable database pdb1 pdb2 pdb3 …”. If on the other hand you are connected as a local user to pdb2 and want to back it up you will use “backup database …”.

ConclusionOracle 12c contains a major architectural change from previous

versions of Oracle. It is now possible to administer multiple data-bases more easily than before while providing better performance with fewer resources due to those changes. Databases may now be created from an Oracle provided seed database or from a seed data-base that your organization configures. In addition to easier data-

24 OEM Cloud Control is not only a backup and recovery tool. It provides much of the same functionality as previous versions of OEM as well as the ability to manage individual pluggable databases and can be configured to manage older versions of Oracle also. It should not be confused with OEM Database Express 12c which is a web product built into the Oracle 12c database. OEM Cloud Control is a separate product and requires its own installation.

Quarterly Education Workshops•Special Annual Training Days Rates•Database Labs•List Server Subscriptions•SQL>Update Magazine•

www.rmoug.org/member.htm

Become A Member For These Outstanding Benefits


It is Friday afternoon and you are getting ready for a much-needed break. One of your users calls you with some bad news: A screen is timing out! You look at Top Activity and discovered what it seems to be a SQL from that particular on-line transaction. After a few minutes you confirm this one SQL is holding the transaction your user complained about. This SQL has worked well for months! You look at your watch: Almost 4pm… Sounds familiar? It seems this is a common reality for many DBAs like you. A SQL going mad and you are the lucky one that has to provide an explanation.

About SQLHCDid you know that Oracle offers a free tool called SQLHC,

which basically performs a Health-Check on a given SQL? You can download it from My Oracle Support (MOS) under Document ID 1366133.1.

SQLHC consists of 3 SQL scripts: sqlhc.sql, sqlhcxec.sql and sqldx.sql. Before going into the details of what it does for you, we first share some good news:

SQLHC is a free tool! (free is always nice)•SQLHC installs nothing on your database•

SQLHC DescriptionSQLHC is a script that inputs one SQL in the form of its

ID, in other words it inputs a SQL_ID. Then after a few minutes it produces one large ZIP file that contains some others. Among these files you will see one with a name that looks like this: sqlhc_20131002_194806_f995z9antmhxn_1_health_check.html. Notice the number 1 before the words “health check”. This is the first file you want to review.

SQLHC takes the SQL_ID provided as a parameter and extracts lots of metadata about this SQL. SQLHC does not extract application data. After the SQL metadata is extracted, it is ana-lyzed with over 100 health-checks. Anything that seems kind of “abnormal” is reported into the “Observations” section of the main report (the one with the number “1” on its title).

Health-Checks ExamplesWith over a hundred health-checks it is hard to decide which

ones to use as examples. We mention just 4 here so we can keep this article short:

Plan 1682040226 has operations with Cost 0 and Card •1. Possible incorrect Selectivity. This means a particular execution plan has at least one operation where the CBO has determined it costs “nothing” to read data, while one or zero rows are expected. Even if no rows are returned, the

SQL execution engine has to do some work either travers-ing an index or performing a full scan on an apparently empty table. In either case there must probably be a cost associated to this operation, unless the CBO statistics for this particular operation have zeroes.Table has 1 index(es) with DOP different than its table. •Why do we care? Well, it is possible that we recently reor-ganized an index using parallel execution and forgot to reset the index attribute to NOPARALLEL, so the Degree of Parallelism (DOP) between Table and Index no longer matches. If it happens that an execution plan is driven by a fast full index scan (FFIS) on this index, then the plan will be executed using a parallel execution instead of a serial execution. In other words, this DOP on an index has the potential to change execution plans.Table contains 1 column(s) where the number of distinct •values does not match the number of buckets. What is this? If you have a column with Frequency Histograms then the number of distinct values on this column should match the number of buckets on its Frequency Histogram. If not, then it means the CBO may have to guess the selectivity of those predicates that reference the missing value. In most cases this “guess” is fine, but in some corner cases an execution plan may change and become suboptimal.Index referenced by an Execution Plan no longer exists.• This should make you fall off your chair! How is it possible the index is not there anymore? Maybe it was dropped by mistake or you assumed no SQL was using that index and you dropped it, well it’s possible you got it wrong and that missing index is exactly what you need back to make this SQL runs well again.

These 4 examples above are just to illustrate the kind of health checks this SQLHC script does for you. Remember it does more than 100!

Figure 1 shows an actual output from SQLHC with a list of the health-check results for one SQL.

What do you do with all the flags raised by SQLHC? That is really up to you. In most cases you only need to drill in and do some investigation in one or two that look “suspicious” to you. It is quite common that taking some action in those that have a strong mean-ing to you may actually solve the issue reported.

What Else Do I Get From SQLHCWhen SQLHC was born, back in October 2011, it contained

only a few SQL health-checks. But as many good tools, as it was

How a SQL Health CheckCan Save Your Day

by Carlos Sierra (enkitec) and Mauro Pagano (Oracle)


How Does SQLHC Compare To SQLT?This is a question we get all the time. In a nutshell:

SQLT (MOS 215187.1) requires installing a couple of sche-•mas into your database while SQLHC (MOS 1366133.1) installs nothing.SQLT provides a lot more diagnostics than SQLHC, in •addition to a Test Case for your SQL.

In our opinion, SQLT and SQLHC are like sisters. SQLT is older and wiser while SQLHC is more dynamic and lighter. Both are great tools and both have their function. For a quick view of what is going on with your SQL then SQLHC is a good option. For a more in-depth analysis then SQLT is the champion. Just be aware that if your issue needs to be worked by Oracle Support, most prob-ably you will be requested to upload SQLT, so having it ready may save some time. But again, SQLHC is a good starting point and if you find the root cause of the problem with it, then it may just have saved your day!

What Are The Other Two Scripts?We almost forget. Remember we mentioned SQLHC is com-

posed of 3 scripts? We just described the main one, the sqlhc.sql script.

The second is the sqlhcxec.sql. This is very similar to sqlhc.sql but it inputs a script with your SQL instead of the SQL_ID. This script may contain binds but it must be able to execute stand-alone. Basically the sqlhcxec.sql will take some snapshot of V$ performance metrics before and after executing your script, so it can provide you with some valuable statistics counts.

One additional file is added to the final zip file when you use sqlhcxec.sql: 7_tkprof. This tkprof is provided because sqlhxcex.sql created a SQL Trace of your SQL while executing it.

Almost nobody knows about this 2nd script and that is OK. We use in most cases the sqlhc.sql, which simply inputs a SQL_ID.

So, what is the 3rd and last script? The sqldx.sql script is a SQL dynamic generator. It is called by SQLT and also by SQLHC. It can also be used stand-alone if needed. The best way to describe it is by looking at its output.

The SQLDX sub-tool, for lack of a better name, takes a SQL_ID and looks for all statics and dynamic views in the data diction-ary that contain a column named SQL_ID. Once all these views are selected, the SQLDX generates dynamic SQL to extract rows with SQL_ID matching the value passed. Then it produces a set of reports in both HTML and CSV formats. It complements these reports with Tables accessed by the SQL, and it also generates some extra reports using the SIGNATURE of the SQL.

used by an increasing number of Customers and Oracle Support Engineers, naturally expected “enhancements” found their way to us. Then, little by little, this SQLHC tool has growth into something more than its original function. These days SQLHC is mature in terms of health checks, but still growing in other areas. We are referring here to Performance Diagnostics.

If you pay attention to all the files it produces you will notice it includes 2_diagnostics, 3_execution_plans, 4_sql_detail, 5_sql_mon-itor, 6_10053_trace_from_cursor, 8_sqldx and 9_log. Not all these files will be present in every execution, but at least you will get files with numbers 1, 2, 3 and 9. That is plenty for most cases.

Since a picture can say more than a thousand words, we pres-ent here some screen snapshots of some relevant pieces, like some menus.

Figure 1: Health-Checks on one SQL

Figure 2: Contents of a ZIP file out of SQLHC

Figure 3: Menu from the 2-Diagnostics Report

Figure 4: Output from SQLDX


We use the SQLDX set of reports when we need to do some data mining like with ASH data, or when the dynamic/static view is not included in any of the other base reports.

Brief History of SQLHCBack in 2011, Mauro Pagano suggested the creation of a

lightweight tool, one that could provide a sub-set of the SQL health-checks provided already by SQLTXPLAIN (SQLT), but with no installation whatsoever. In those days Carlos Sierra’s duties included the maintenance of SQLTXPLAIN, a tool that he had ini-tially developed for the Oracle community (SQLT was first released in October 2002). Mauro and Carlos discussed with their manage-ment team the need of this new lightweight tool, and it was decided to create it and make it available to Oracle Customers. Then Carlos Sierra developed SQLHC and first released it on October 2011. And this is how SQLHC was born. So we can say SQLT is a “mature” pre-teen while SQLHC is still a “dynamic” toddler.

Since August 2013, Mauro Pagano’s duties include the main-tenance of these two widely used tools (SQLT and SQLHC). Enhancements to them continue fluid, and they get a new release about once a month. Rapid life cycle is one of the key features of SQLT and SQLHC. They have become quite popular in the past two years.

ConclusionThe SQLHC tool provides a set of health-checks about one

SQL, and in some cases these health-checks help to identify the root cause of a problematic SQL. But is also provides tons of valu-able diagnostics about the SQL of concern. It is free and easy to use. Then, if it may save your day, why not trying it?

Carlos Sierra works for Enkitec – an Oracle Platinum Partner. Carlos specializes in Performance Tuning in general and in SQL Tuning in particular. These days he acts as a Technical Consultant for Enterprise Oracle Customers. Before Enkitec, Carlos contrib-uted to Oracle for 17 years. Carlos Sierra is the author of some well-known tools, like SQLTXPLAIN (SQLT), SQL Health-Check (SQLHC) and Trace Analyzer (TRCANZLR TRCA). He is a regular speaker at Oracle Users Groups (including RMOUG) and at OOW.

Mauro Pagano has worked for Oracle since 2004. He has collaborated to several LOBs and geographies. Mauro joined Oracle Consulting in Italy and moved to Oracle Support in the USA in February 2009. During the last few years Mauro has delivered several classes and webcasts on SQL Tuning topics to both Oracle engineers and selected customers. Mauro is now part of the “bug diagnosis and escalations” (BDE) team and the new devel-oper behind SQLTXPLAIN.

Be sure to see Carlos at RMOUG’s 2014 Training Days. His DBA Deep Dive is scheduled for Wednesday 2/5/14 at 3:15 pm, Combining Adaptive Cursor Sharing Flexibility with SQL Plan Management Stability.

2014 Training DaysConference Highlights

RMOUG is excited to be celebrating Training Days’ 25th anniversary! Since its first conference in 1990 (check this), Training Days has grown to be the largest regional user group conference in the United States. Every year, this event draws world-class speak-ers, including Oracle’s Maria Colgan, Oracle ACE Stewart Bryson, Oracle ACE Director Alex Gorbachev, Oracle ACE Director Jonathan Lewis, and, of course, the 2014 keynote presenter, Tom Kyte. Tom will be presenting “The Long and Winding Road—Where We’ve Been and Where We Are Going.” This presentation will take a look at how the industry has changed over the years, and how it will continue to evolve in the future.

In celebration of this milestone, RMOUG has added a few new additions to Training Days this year. With that, let us intro-duce you to Rocky, the RMOUG Training Days mascot.

Meet RockyRocky is a Rocky Mountain

Great Horned Owl. This feathered gent was selected not only for his striking good looks, but for his wise demeanor. O.W.L stands for Oracle Without Limits, and that’s exactly what Training Days delivers. Held in the great city of Denver, Training Days has a proven record of limitless content, knowledgeable speakers, and affordable prices.

In the spirit of Training Days, RMOUG wanted the O.W.L. to be a true reflection of its members. As part of the Name the O.W.L. Contest, clues were given about the O.W.L.’s personality. He’s described as direct, intelligent, quirky, funny, and educated. He’s a problem-solver who likes to travel, after he remembers to DVR his favorite sci-fi shows.

For such a dynamic chap, he needed a memorable name. Galo Balda, who is presenting at Training Days, submitted the winning moniker of Rocky. Be sure to give him a pat on the back!

New Hyperion TrackFor the first time in Training Days history, we’ve included a

Hyperion track along with all of our other great Oracle content. We’ll be welcoming six amazing speakers to deliver eight presenta-tions. We are very excited about this new addition!

Women in Technology PanelDue its success last year, Training Days will have an encore of

the Women in Technology Panel. Led by RMOUG Training Days Conference Chair Kellyn Pot’Vin, the panel will discuss how to get more women involved in local user groups and how to interest young women in pursuing technical fields. Men and women are encouraged to attend.


Here is just a sample of what’s in store for RMOUG Training Days 2014. Check out www.rmoug.org for a complete schedule and to register for this exciting conference!!

Date/Time Title Presenter

February 5, 20141:00 pm-3:00 pm

Practical & Efficient SQL Performance Tuning Vlado Barun

Dimension Modeling Design Patterns: Beyond Basics Jason Horner

Hadoop Internals for Oracle DBAs Tanel Poder

Certifying Application Performance on Exadata - A Real-World Case Study Gaja Vaidyanatha

NoSQL and Big Data for the Oracle DBA: Can RDBMS Handle the Performance, Scalability, and Availability Demands of a Wired World?

Iggy Fernandez

That’s Not Where I Want That! Jorge Rimblas

February 5, 20143:15 pm-5:15 pm

ADF On-Ramp: What You Need to Know to Use ADF Peter Koletzke

Selectivity and How Oracle Calculates It Jonathan Lewis

Advanced ASH Architecture and Usage Graham Wood

And more....including Jennifer Kreie, Alex Gorbachev, Carlos Sierra, Joe Huang

February 6, 20148:30 am-9:30 am

Java Performance, Scalability, Availability & Security with Oracle Database12c Kuassi Mensah

Learn to Love the Oracle Data Dictionary Andy Weiss

Troubleshooting Some Complex Performance Issues I’ve Seen Tanel Poder

PL/SQL Enhancements in Oracle Database 12c Bryn Llewellyn

Upgrade-A-Palooza: Best Practices for Upgrading and Migrating to EPM 11.1.2.x Fusion Eric Helmer

And more....including Dan Hotka, Iordan Iotzov, Steven Karam, Stewart Bryson and Vikram Pesati

February 6, 201411:15 am-12:15 pm

SQL Pattern Matching in Oracle 12c Galo Balda

Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c, Oracle Database 12c, and You! Bobby Curtis

Automating EPMA Sarah Craynon Zumbrum

Common Exadata Mistakes Andy Colvin

ExtremeBI: Agile, Real-Time BI with Oracle Business Intelligence, Oracle Data Integrator, and Oracle GoldenGate

Stewart Bryson

Tips and Tricks for Upgrading EM12c Pete Sharman

And more....incluidng Kyle Hailey, Lynn Munsinger, John King & Bjoern Rost

February 6, 20141:15 pm-2:15 pm

Women In Technology Panel Kellyn Pot’Vin

February 6, 20142:30 pm-3:30 pm

Oracle SQL Developer Tips & Tricks Jeff Smith

Reducing Cost and Risk: The Critical Value of IT Planning in EPM/BI Eric Helmer

The Revolution of Histograms Jonathan Lewis

Oracle Database In-Memory Maria Colgan

Which Database Cloud is Right for You? Rick Greenwald

And more....including Shay Shmeltzer, Jared Still, Kyaw Than, Mike Dean and Tyler Muth

February 6, 20144:00 pm-5:00 pm

Using Analytic Functions and Oracle Pivot to Display Time-Related Data John Anderson

Dueling Duplications ñ Physical vs. Virtual Data Cloning Steven Karam

NOW What’s Up with DBMS_STATS Terry Sutton

And more....including Mark Drake, Dustin Ruehle, Gregory Opie, Tom Kyte, Dominic Delmolino, Karl Arao and Chris Ostrowski

February 7, 20148:30 am-9:30 am

Instrumenting Oracle CPU Activity: The Missing Link Craig Shallahamer

See www.rmoug.org for further details

February 7, 20149:45 am-10:45 am

Self-Provisioning Pluggable Databases Using PL/SQL Bryn Llewellyn

Using Corrective Actions in Cloud Control 12c We Can Automate Resolutions for Alerts Javier Ruiz

Getting Analytical for Free Peter Scott

Hyperion Financial Management 11.1.2: Using Enterprise Performance Management Architect Utilities to Manage Metadata Like a Pro!

Aaron Bolshoun


February 7, 201411:15 am-12:15 pm

Branding Yourself for a Dream Job Steve Jones

Social Media for the Techie Kellyn Pot’Vin



by Rene AntunezRMOUG Member Focus

I have always believed that

life is full of coincid-ing moments, occasions where you occupy the same relative space as another person, and all of these moments make up your life. They are either good or bad. I believe that every moment I have had in life leads me to the next, and all of those moments are what have led me to be writing this small article.

So I will write about the moment that led me to this point. I come from a background of two hard working parents, and especially one very awesome, hard-working mom. I grew up in the town of Chihuahua, yes like the dog, in a humble household, where sometimes the only thing we had to eat was a watermelon and once, at Christmas time, I was told I was old enough to understand that there were not going to be gifts for me, just my younger brother. But through all of this, the only thing that I could see was how hard my mom worked. She went to night school to get her B.A., and this is what got me started on my jour-ney to being a DBA.

She always had the necessity to leave us somewhere when she went to school, so I was always in some type of afternoon class, and in one of those afternoon classes, when I was about seven years old, I got intro-duced to LOGO programming language. If you don’t remember it, this was a turtle that you could guide and you can draw objects with the commands you gave it. I fell in love with it, and I knew right then and there that I would be doing something with computers for the rest of my life.

The years passed on, and when it came the time to decide what I would

do, I decided to study Computer Science Engineering as my bachelor’s major. This eventually led me to my first job working for ICHISAL, which is a government branch in charge of the State’s Health Hospitals in Chihuahua. This is where I made the first

jump becoming a DBA, as what I was doing there was programming in PL/SQL and PHP, and there really wasn’t a DBA to manage the Databases of ICHISAL. So I was asked if I could start doing that, and once I started to do that, I fell into the place I hadn’t searched for.

Later on in life I started to work for a con-sulting company

called Softtek, in which I gave service to some top five Fortune 500 companies. But what was interesting enough about this engagement was that it gave me the oppor-tunity to start growing the DBA business for Softtek in China. So I left with my wife


RMOUG Member Focus

and two suitcases to China and it has been one of the most interesting experiences in life I have had and probably will ever have. It taught me more than professional skills. It taught me to view life in a different way and to never close your mind to anything, to always be prepared for something dif-ferent, and most of all to adapt to harsh communicating conditions.

While being in China, I started to ramp up my Oracle blog in Spanish, http://oracleenespanol.blogspot.com, and in one of my long talks that I had with a great friend and former boss, he pushed me to join Twitter and this snowballed into read-ing a tweet from Yury Velikanov that you could be invited as a blogger to Oracle Open World. So I decided to submit my blog for this type of invitee, and it got accepted.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this article, life is full of moments, as two things happened while on this trip. I heard Leighton Nelson, a now great friend, talk about how he got started speaking, which is what got me started in my now active speaking activities, like Collaborate

and Oracle Open World . The second one was while walking down Market street I overheard a couple talk that there was going to be a party for bloggers in a bar called Jillians on Wednesday afternoon. So I decided to make my way to this party, and

it was there where I met Greg Leger and Paul Vallée (The Pythian group founder), who convinced me to post for a position within Pythian, and 3 months later got me working for my current company, in which the diversity of things I am doing with Oracle doesn’t stop - either one day work-ing with an Exadata to the next looking for a better way to setup a EM 12c with a load balancer, or setting an ODA for a client. I would say that in the now eight months that I have been working for them, there hasn’t been a day that I would define as boring.

My life as I would consider it, has been full adversities and roadblocks, but also full of great adventures and experiences. One of the best lessons that I was taught was to do things well or not do them at all. I love that I can use as fuel that as a kid, I used to accompany my dad to deliver food and help him clean the floors at nights of the newly opened Colorado Convention Center. This year I gave a talk in Collaborate in the very same floors that we used to clean. I can only hope that the following moments of my life are as rich as the previous ones and that yours are too.


As one of the newest members of the Rocky Mountain Oracle Users

Group (RMOUG) Board of Directors (BOD) for the 2013/2014 year, I wanted to intro-duce myself to our RMOUG SQL>UPDATE readership. My name is Mark James and as of earlier this year I submitted my campaign for and was inducted into the RMOUG BOD. At the time the RMOUG BOD was a little thin on members and had some new BOD Roles and/or Previous BOD Roles that they wanted to fill. Although over the last 14 years of being a Database Administrator (DBA), with an on-and-off again record of membership, I had never really put much thought into the BOD that organized and presented such excellent training opportunities and user support through events like their Annual Training Days in February, Quarterly Educational Workshops (QEW) and Special Interest Groups (SIGS).

That was until at least this year when a good friend of mine and former co-worker Brad Blake sent me an email with Tim Gorman’s solicitation for BOD Campaigns. Through a little email dialogue and catch-ing up with Brad on work, family and life, unbeknownst to me, he had recently served on the BOD for two years. Brad and I had both graduated from Regis University’s Master’s of Science in Computer Information Systems (MSCIS) Program with a concen-tration in Database Technologies and for the most part started our DBA careers with the same company InfoNow Corporation, as well as accepting Affiliate Faculty positions in the Regis MSCIS Program all at about the same time. After some thought on the matter, I realized I couldn’t let Brad “one up” me like that (just joking of course) and set my mind on building and submitting my BOD Campaign. Actually, I had one other situation that had brought the RMOUG BOD to mind around that same time, as I was working with a very motivated student of mine, Kumar Annamnidu (Sruthi), who had recently attended a RMOUG BOD meeting and had met Tim Gorman and

26 SQL>UPDATE • Fall 2013

other BOD members and had expressed admiration of the group, its members and their mission, as well as his desire to com-plete his Masters of Science in Information, Communications and Technology (MSCIT) at the University of Denver (DU) concen-trating in Database Administration where I had also taken an Affiliate Faculty posi-tion back in 2006. I am pleased to say that Sruthi is also now considered a BOD Member At Large. So various culminating factors had my mind clicking and I took the plunge.

During our first couple of BOD meet-ings we socialized the various positions and some of their responsibilities and took some time to think about what BOD role we might want to take on. Being a little nervous about the commitment I was mak-ing, keeping in mind that I was a rela-tively new father to a 6 year old son and 3 year old daughter, working full time as a Senior Technical Engineer/Sr. DBA for IHS Corporation with a rotating on-call respon-sibility and teaching for DU, I volunteered for either the Director of Member Relations or the Director of Scholarship positions. Dr. Bob Mason had also submitted his BOD Campaign and had been inducted as a new member this year as well. Dr. Mason and I had a fairly long standing relationship, as he was one of my instructors and one of my mentors in my MSCIS Program at Regis University and later as Affiliate Faculty Members for Regis as well. With both of us volunteering for some of the same roles, we

decided to accept a primary role and be a backup to each other, thus my acceptance of the Director of Member Relations and backup assistant to Dr. Mason as Director of Scholarship and vise versa.

I didn’t start my career in IT and migrated from Accounting and Finance, where I held a BS in Accounting from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA and an MBA Concentrating in Accounting and Finance from Regis University in Denver, CO. During that time I

worked for companies like United Artists Theatre Circuit, INVESCO Funds Group and SunGard Insurance Systems. Realizing how much I preferred IT over Accounting and Finance, I decided to go back to Regis and get my MSCIS degree concentrating in Database Technologies. Over the years that followed, I worked for multiple companies/universities like InfoNow, Time Warner Telecom, MDC Holdings, HeathTrans, Regis and DU. Currently I work for IHS, which is a company that provides a lot of data and analysis for several large product domains such as Oil/Gas/Energy, Defense/Security, Maritime, Automotive, Chemicals, Environmental/Heath/Safety, among sev-eral others. Much of our growth has been

by Mark JamesRMOUG Board Focus

SQL>UPDATE • Winter 2013 27 SQL>UPDATE • Fall 2013 27

RMOUG Board Focus

through mergers and acquisitions which have posed a challenge in integrating so many disparate IT systems and products under the IHS umbrella. Our most recent and largest acquisition to date was R.L. Polk that brings with it the CarFax brand and will be integrated into our Automotive Suite of products sometime in the future. You will also see us often in various news media with our industry analyst providing insight on the economy, defense matters and much more.

The history of companies that I have worked for as a Database Administrator, my educational background and my Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) status have all lead me to become a fairly skilled Oracle DBA as well as for MS SQL Server and a smattering of other database systems such as MySQL, IBM DB2, Sybase and so forth. It has also taught me a lot about other IT disciplines such as System and Network Administration, Solutions Engineering, Software Development and a whole host of other IT technologies.

On a more personal note, my wife and I actually met each other while working on our MSCIS degrees at Regis and after com-pleting the program challenged ourselves to obtain our OCP status for Oracle 8i and then upgrade to Oracle 9i within a fairly short amount of time, with the reward not only being certified, but also that we would head to the Bahamas for a scuba diving vacation. That all worked out swimmingly and I got to do my first shark feeding dives. My wife opted out on those dives but we did

see sharks on some of our other dives. I have gone on to become an OCP on 10g and 11g as well and have been looking for a carrot to dangle in front of my wife for her to catch up. She was hired into the DBA position I left at InfoNow and later started working for CitiGroup and moved more down the database development path where she is now a Sr. Software Developer. In an excellent turn of events, CitiGroup let her whole team start working remote-ly fulltime just three weeks after she

returned from a very generous 13 weeks of maternity leave at full pay after our son was born.

Our 6 year old son, Zach, is in first grade this year and is involved in lots of extracurricular activities including chess club, cub scouts, and takes swimming and Taekwondo lessons. Our daughter, Zoe, is 3 years old, attends preschool and takes swimming and beginner gymnastics classes. Swimming lessons are the most important to me as I would like to get them scuba certified as soon as they are eligible so that we can take them on some more exotic adventures around the world. My mother-in-law lives in Indonesia so Bali is high on the list and my father-in-law lives in Australia so the Great Barrier Reef is in my targets. I typically say that a vacation is not a vacation unless it is at the beach! Our family vacation this year was to Ft. Lauderdale, FL in October.

In September I had the privilege to attend my first Oracle OpenWorld (OOW) conference in San Francisco, CA and we turned that into a partial family vacation with my wife, children and mother-in-law (built in babysitter) in tow. That allowed my wife and me to attend some of the social networking events in the evenings like our Regional Oracle Users Group Social Event at the Cartoon Art Museum where we got to see other former colleagues, Regis MSCIS Alumni, RMOUG members and Oracle Representatives along with a cast of Super Heroes. We also got to go to the Oracle Appreciation Event on Treasure Island featuring Maroon 5 and The Black Keys in concert. The conference offered a mind-boggling array of session topics, keynotes, networking opportunities and so forth and was an excellent experience, how-ever I still think RMOUG’s Training Days brings in all the most important content of OOW while not completely overwhelming you.

I hope that I will bring honor to the Director of Membership position I hold with the RMOUG BOD and that I bring more value to our members. I have already started working with various committees within the BOD in order to make your membership better and more valuable to you. I hope to see ALL of you at RMOUG Training Days 2014 on February 5-7, 2014. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at [email protected] or visit our website at www.rmoug.org.


Meet Your Board

Tim GormanPresident E-mail: [email protected]

John PetersonVice President

E-mail: [email protected]

Ron BichSecretaryE-mail: [email protected]

Thomas GreenTreasurer


Mark JamesBob Mason-AssistantMember Relations DirectorE-mail: [email protected]

Carolyn FrycVice President & Programs DirectorE-mail: [email protected]

RMOUG Board of Directors

Pat Van BuskirkNewsletter Director


Art MarshallWeb DirectorE-mail: [email protected]

Chris OstrowskiVendor Relations DirectorE-mail: [email protected]

Dan HotkaEducation Director


SQL>UPDATE • Fall 2013 28

SQL>UPDATE • Winter 2013 29 SQL>UPDATE • Fall 2013 29

RMOUG Board of Directors

Kellyn Pot’vinTraining Days DirectorE-mail: [email protected]

Bobby CurtisSocial Media DirectorE-mail: [email protected]

Kathy RobbBoard Member Emeritus

Arisant, LLCE-mail: [email protected]

Heidi KuhnExecutive DirectorVoice Mail: (303) 948-1786Fax: (303) 933-6603E-mail: [email protected]

Vince GiasolliSpecial Interest Groups/Meetup DirectorE-mail: [email protected]

Bob MasonMark James-Assistant

Scholarships DirectorE-mail: [email protected]

Kumar AnnamniduMemberAt Large


John JeunnetteBoard Member Emeritus


Peggy KingPast PresidentE-mail: [email protected]


RMOUG Events Calendar

Breakfast Discounted Total Cost Ad Rate 1/4 Page $350.00 $175.00 $ 525.001/2 Page $350.00 $312.50 $ 662.50Full Page $350.00 $500.00 $ 850.00Inside Cover $350.00 $625.00 $ 975.00Back Cover $350.00 $750.00 $1,100.00

Contact Carolyn Fryc - Programs Director - 720-221-4432 - [email protected]

Join Us May 16, 2014 at the Oracle DTC Campus!

More Details www.rmoug.org

SPONSOR A QUARTERLY EDUCATION WORKSHOP AND RECEIVE A HALF

PRICE AD IN SQL>UPDATE

Tell Us About YourselfJoin us in sharing your Oracle experiences with other RMOUG members!

Tell us about your life, your job, or share your amusing Oracle anecdotes, tips and secrets!Share your favorite photos with our members and have the chance to be published on our cover!

Prior to each issue, we ask members to present their favorite photo, regional to the Rocky Mountains and not previously published. Each issue has a theme - Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter - and we need a minimum format of 300 dpi at least 8.75” x 11.25”. So

turn your camera vertically and imagine the words RMOUG SQL>UPDATE across the top!

Please submit all material to [email protected]

12/10/13 OTD Oracle Innovation Day in Denver, CO (www.rmoug.org and http://bit.ly/Ih602L)12/11/13 BOD RMOUG Board Of Directors meeting (mailto:[email protected])1/8/14 BOD RMOUG Board Of Directors meeting (mailto:[email protected])1/15/14 SQL>Update Call for Articles & Cover Photo Submissions, Spring 2014 Issue1/22/14 KCOUG KCOUG meeting, Kansas City MO (http://www.ioug.org/kcoug)1/30/14 OUG Dallas OUG Database Forum, Irving TX (http://www.doug.org)2/5-7/14 Training Days RMOUG Training Days 2014, Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO (www.rmoug.org)2/15/14 SQL>Update Article Deadline, Spring 2014 Issue2/20/14 NoCOUG Winter Conference at Oracle HQ, Redwood Shores CA (http://www.nocoug.org/)3/2-6/14 Hotsos Symposium 2014, Omni Mandalay, Iiving TX (www.hotsos.com)3/12-13/14 UTOUG Training Days 2014, Sandy UT (http://www.utoug.org and http://bit.ly/Ip42On)3/15/14 SQL>Update Publication, Spring 2014 Issue3/20/14 RMOUG CIO/CTO Panel on IT Education”, an evening Q&A experts panel at the Regis DTC campus 3/20/14 COAUG First Meeting, TBD LinkedIn Group URL: http://linkd.in/1hPEtoj4/7-11/13 Collaborate 2014 in Las Vegas, NV (http://collaborate14.ioug.org/)5/16/14 RMOUG QEW (Quarterly Educational Workshop) at Oracle DTC campus (http://www.rmoug.org)6/22-26/14 ODTUG KScope14 in Seattle WA (http://www.kscope14.com)


Index To AdvertisersArisant .................................................................................. 13Confio ................................................................................... 31DBAK .................................................................................... 2Quarterly Education Workshop Sponsorship ..................... 30RMOUG Membership .......................................................... 19SQL>Update Opportunities ................................................. 30Training Days 2014 Sample ................................................ 23Training Days 2014 .............................................................. 32Training Days 2014 Volunteers ........................................... 2

Reach A Targeted Oracle Audience Advertise Now!

A full page, full color ad in RMOUG SQL>UPDATE costs as little as 70 cents per printed magazine and even less for smaller ads.

Contact [email protected]

george laframboise

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