I don’t pretend to be an Oracle DBA but I can fuddle my way through most of it without too much of an issue, but there are some really odd things with how Oracle works that drive me crazy.  One of the things that drives me crazy is cloning.  In SQL Server I can clone a database very easily and usually very quickly.  Oracle NOT so much.  I have written a procedure to follow for cloning in the past that is missing a very critical element so I am updated that post and also writing it here for future reference.

When I clone the database I simply copy my data directory with houses my temp and perm tablespaces, and the recreate statement I use puts all the permanent tablespaces back in, but the temporary ones need to be re-added as well.  This can be done with the command:

ALTER tablespace {TableSpaceName} add TEMPFILE ‘{Directory Path/TableSpace.dbf}’ reuse;

If you look in the dump file that is mentioned in the cloning post, at the bottom you should find the TEMPFILE reuse statements for the database.  Just copy them and change the paths and add that to the create script or run the steps manually in sqlplus and you will be good to go!

Okay now this is going to be relatively uncommon for most people, but often times in recent years PeopleSoft requires that we install 32 bit & 64 bit versions of the Oracle Client in order to make everything work as PeopleSoft has been transitioning from 32 bit Windows to 64 bit Windows.

So if you are flying through the installation of a new machine and you put the 32 bit version on without a problem and then try to install the 64 bit version you might run into an error. There are a few reasons this might happen but for me the problem was with a service called:  “OracleRemExecService”.  This service gets created during installation of 32 bit and 64 bit clients, but for some reason doesn’t remove itself cleanly in all situations.  If you stop the service it should stop cleanly and then delete itself.

Continue with your other installation!

Well, it has been one of those weeks.  Correction, it has been one of those months.  I am finally sitting back in my home office ready to jump on a clients VPN and Cisco AnyConnect decides that today is NOT the day.

So off to Google we go and sure enough there are a lot of blogs with comments about Cisco AnyConnect failing to initialize subsystem.  A common one I say said to set the GlobalUser default of I.E. to disabled in the registry or set the I.E. to work online.  However, that did not fix my problem.

A little more reading and I found Chris Tierney’s blog with the solution that worked for me.  Basically with the patches/hot fixes that Windows released over the weekend it messed with the compatibility modes.  So once you change the vpnui.exe to Windows 8 compatibility mode everything works like on charm.

Big Smiles….. Big Smiles…….

Oracle Database: Oracle Performance Secret

When working with a new Oracle Database on a Windows 2012R2 server running Oracle 11.2.0.4.  The PeopleTools Upgrade process was on the last step which is to do a Final Alter Audit (FNLALTAUD).  This Upgrade Step looks at all the tables within the system and determines if the metadata is in sync with what is actually in the database.

14 hours into the process and has to be done, but as per usual it is next to impossible to tell with PeopleSoft.  Since this really should not take anymore than an hour or two, the process is killed and the following Oracle Performance Secret is executed in SQLPlus:

analyze table sys.CDEF$ delete statistics;
analyze table sys.CON$ delete statistics;
analyze table sys.USER$ delete statistics;

Rerunning the Upgrade Task after apply the Oracle Performance Secret and it is now running in:  29 minutes.  That is much more acceptable.

What is the SYS Schema?

The SYS schema stores all of the base tables and views for the Oracle Database’s Data Dictionary.  The Data Dictionary is critical to the operation of Oracle Database.  It is imperative to maintain the integrity of the data dictionary, so manipulation of the Data Dictionary should only be done by Oracle itself.

Where did this fix come from?

During upgrades of environments there has been some reported cases of very poor performance using Oracle PeopleSoft Data Mover to import data into the new environment.  We have experienced this problem while upgrading environments specifically the Final Table Audit (or Initial Audit) Upgrade Tasks.  PeopleSoft has a very high number of constraints (Finance v9.2, I just queried had 2.7 million rows), which are stored on the CDEF$ & CON$ Data Dictionary Tables. If the Cost Based Optimizer (COB) has bad statistics to work from it is often seen that the optimization plan will come up with Full Table Scans which are extremely poor performing.  Patch #4618615 & #5103126 from Oracle apparently address this issue, and so the problem should be limited to Oracle Database 10.2 to 11.0.  However, often times when poor performance is effecting an environment we apply this Oracle Performance Secret and performance typically is greatly improved.

Smart Thinking Newsletter

Choosing the Right ERP Software for Your Business

Investing in ERP software is a huge decision, one that has long-lasting consequences for your business and it’s bottom line. Learn about what you should look for when evaluating your ERP software options, including versatility, customization, and reporting