latency heatmaps in D3 and Highcharts

August 12th, 2013
See Brendan Gregg's blog on how important and cool heatmaps can be for showing latency information and how average latency hides what is really going on:   Now if we want to create heatmap graphics, how can we do it? Two popular web methods for displaying graphics are Highcharts and D3. Two colleges of mine whipped up some quick examples in both Highcharts and D3 to show latency heatmaps and those two examples are shown below. The data in the charts is random just for the purposes of showing examples of these graphics in actions.     Highcharts Heatmap [iframe src="http://jsfiddle.net/vladiweb/GNd3G/2/embedded/result/" width="100%" height="380"] see code at http://jsfiddle.net/vladiweb/GNd3G/       D3 ...


Uncategorized

Popularity vs Productivity vs Performance

July 22nd, 2013
This is a reposting with some updates of a post from a couple of years ago. It is a huge decision to make at the beginning of a project as to which language to use and why. As the founder of Slideshare said  when asked if he regretted not using Java instead of Ruby his response was that the question was mute, that he wouldn't even be there talking if he had use Java. Sure Java would have scaled better and Ruby had concurrency issues but  Slideshare would not have succeeded, at least not  as fast,  or possibly not even existed ...


Uncategorized

SQL joins visualized in a surprising way

June 26th, 2013
see more at: SQL tuning with VST Saw a good posting on SQL joins today that echoes a classic image of SQL joins: I loved this graphic when I first saw it. Seeing the graphic made me think "wow, I can actually wrap my mind around these crazy SQL joins." But there is more to SQL joins than meets the eye, at least in these pictures. These pictures leave out the effects of projection and amplification. For example, just taking the simplest case of a two table join (an inner join): The intersection in the above graphic makes sense and looks simple, but to ...


Uncategorized

KScope 2013: win DB Optimizer License at SQL Tuning presentation

June 24th, 2013
SQL Tuning Methodology    Wednesday, June 26th  Session 13, Bayside C from 11:15 – 12:15 on    Giving way 2 free copies of DB Optimizer at presentation ($4000 of software) On Wednesday 11:15  at ODTUG aka KSCOPE 2013 in New Orleans I'll be giving away 2 copies of Embarcadero's DB Optimizer which automates SQL tuning analysis as presented in the book SQL Tuning by Dan Tow. Dan Tow has developed  a step by step methodology to find an optimal execution plan for a SQL query. The core of Dan's SQL tuning methodology is based on a visual approach. The visual approach lays out the SQL query ...


Uncategorized

Webcast June 19th: Jonathan Lewis – Expert Look at Delphix

June 12th, 2013
Live webcast: Jonathan Lewis – An Oracle Expert’s Look at the Delphix Technology Date: Wednesday, June 19 @ 9am PT Click Here to Register Jonathan Lewis joins us for the 2nd webcast of 3 in his series on Delphix technology and his experiences. Jonathan came out to the Delphix offices in California in March and kicked the tires on the product for a few days and had a chance to talk to some of the creators of Delphix, ZFS, DTrace and Active Dataguard at the Delphix offices. The first webcast was an informal discussion of his experiences. This second webcast will also be informal but more ...


Uncategorized

Colored Heat Maps in SQL*Plus

May 10th, 2013
The above is so cool. The graphic shows the latency heatmap of "log file sync". I was running a swingbench load and at the same time throttling I/O such that latencies started off good then got worse and then back to normal. All I did was type sqlplus / as sysdba @OraLatencyMap_event 3 "log file sync" This was created by Luca Canali , see http://externaltable.blogspot.com/2013/05/latency-heat-map-in-sqlplus-with.htm Now if we combine this monitoring, with the I/O throttling documeted by Frits Hoogland here https://fritshoogland.wordpress.com/2012/12/15/throttling-io-with-linux/ , we can really have some fun and even draw latency words: The above words in latency heat maps are from  http://dtrace.org/blogs/brendan/2009/03/17/heat-map-analytics/ where there is information on heat maps. In the graphic at ...


Uncategorized

May 22, 2013: Full day of Oracle hands on labs, free! (bay area)

May 1st, 2013
Oracle OTN is hosting a full day of  free*  hands on Oracle labs on May 22, 2013 in Pleasanton, Ca Re-engineering Your Database Using Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler 3.1 Learn how to use SQL Developer Data Modeler to import your database schema, make changes and generate the modified DDL. Testing and Debugging Procedures using SQL Developer 3.1 Learn how to use Application Express to load data into your database, create an application with a variety of page types (including a interactive report, calendar and data load wizard). Building an Application using Oracle Application Express: Part 1 and part 2 Learn how to use Application Express ...


Uncategorized

Installing OEM for second instance

April 21st, 2013
Had a machine running the default database from the Oracle 11.2.0.3 installer. This instance was called o1123. I then created a second database by hand (with crdb.sh for swingbench and slob tests) instead of dbca (maybe that was a mistake) and then I wanted to acccess OEM. The second instance was called SOE60G ( a 60GB swingbench dataset database) First tried to start up dbconsole: $ emctl start dbconsole OC4J Configuration issue. /home/oracle/oracle1123/product/oc4j/j2ee/OC4J_DBConsole_perf234-target1.delphix.com_SOE60G not found. OK, missing file. EM wasn't configured for this database, make sense. Let's configure it $ emca -config dbcontrol db -repos create ... SEVERE: Dbcontrol Repository already exists.  Fix the error(s) and run EM ...


Uncategorized

Join Me at COLLABORATE 13

April 5th, 2013
I'll be speaking on Mon, Wednesday and Thursday: Boosting performance on reporting and development databases April 8, 2:30-3:30pm (Mile High Ballroom 2B) Database virtualization: accelerating application development April 10,1:00-2:00pm (Mile High Ballroom 2B) NFS tuning for Oracle April 11, 8:30-9:30am (Mile High Ballroom 3A) Attend COLLABORATE online IOUG Forum for the Best in User-Driven Oracle Education and Networking Have you made your Oracle training plans for 2013? As an IOUG RUG leader, I’d like to extend a personal invitation to the conference that I continue to attend for truly valuable personal and professional growth- COLLABORATE 13 – IOUG Forum, April 7-11 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, ...


Uncategorized

Where to begin with Oracle and SQL

March 22nd, 2013
Seeing more and more questions on "where do I start with Oracle if I want to be a DBA?"  My perspective is a bit off since I've been surrounded by Oracle for over 20 years.  I hardly remember what it was like to start with Oracle and starting with Oracle now in 2013 is quite different than starting with Oracle in 1990. Here is my list and everything on this list is excellent. I'm sure I missed a few good ones, but maybe people can add them in the comments. Start with Oracle Docs, they are free and good! http://www.oracle.com/pls/db112/homepage Get the best ...


Uncategorized