It's out and about now! As I posted yesterday, Oracle Database 12c has come out in all it's glory. Some of the new features that you might find of interest (this is a partial list):
1. Multi-Tennant Databases
2. The ability to move databases across most platforms, using transportable tablespaces, regardless of endian byte format.
3. Native outer join enhancements.
4. PL/SQL object "white" lists.
5. New dbms_utility.expand_sql_text function. (replace views with tables in your queries!)
6. Use a PL/SQL function in your WITH clause!
7. Temporal validity - no, a TARDIS is not included with Oracle Database 12c, but you can define the temporal validity of a given set of data based on a set of dates. If your designs include a lot of effective_date, end_date types of columns, then you will be interested in this one!
8. Identity columns. Also the ability to define a sequence as the default value for a column.
9. Default values for columns when there are NULL values inserted.
10. VARCHAR2, NVARCHAR2 and RAW data types can now accommodate up to 32k.
11. Recover a table using RMAN! That's right, I said a TABLE!!!!
12. Cascading TRUNCATE statements.
13. Adaptive query optimization and SQL plan management. Get better execution plans at run-time!
That's just a glimpse, and there are many, many more features. Once you have looked through Oracle Database 12c I'd love to hear what your favorite features are. Many more posts on Oracle Database 12c will be coming! Keep an eye out!
Also, my book Oracle Database 12c New Features will be coming out soon! It's available on Amazon for pre-orders now!
Exadata Patching
It's coming! The next Exadata Quarterly Full Stack Download Patch (QFSDP) is due in July! I've been to a number of customers installing the April QFSDP and one common thing I've found is lots of questions and confusion on what to patch, how to patch and so on. In the next few weeks I'll be providing some thoughts on applying the QFSDP's, what to do before, during and after the patches to get you ready for the patching season.
Right now, let me suggest that you run Exacheck on your system. In almost every client I've been too in the last quarter I've found at least one Exacheck item that needed to be addressed before patches could be applied. If you are on Platinum support, then this might be less of an issue. If you are not on Platinum support or if you are not setup for ASR, this is a critical must-do before you patch your Engineered System.
What are your big Exadata Patching headaches? Leave me a comment and let's talk about it!
If you shut up truth and
bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such
explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up
everything in its way.
EMILE ZOLA
