{"id":1267,"date":"2007-05-18T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-18T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/?p=1267"},"modified":"2007-05-18T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-18T12:00:00","slug":"log-buffer-45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/18\/log-buffer-45\/","title":{"rendered":"Log Buffer #45"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s my turn again and, looking back at Log Buffer #4<\/a>, I was amazed to realise that we’re up to number 45 already and that my previous attempt was last August<\/i>. Good work from Dave Edwards, who bears the organisational burden every week. Sooner him than me!<\/p>\n

I’ll kick off this week with a discussion of the MySQL PBXT Storage Engine<\/a> over on the MySQL Performance Blog<\/a>. I find the availability of different storage engines one of the more fascinating aspects of MySQL, though I have to admit that when I start reading the functional details I tend to break out in a cold sweat. <\/p>\n

“PBXT does not offer Durable transactions (meaning you can lose
\ncommitted transactions if power goes down) furthermore in case of crash
\ndatabase may become corrupted, just as with MyISAM, and you might need
\nto repair tables.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Still, as I keep being told; ‘it’s just a website, who cares if you lose a couple of transactions?’<\/p>\n

Then again, software is rarely completely reliable. How’s this<\/i> for a bizarre bug<\/a> in some versions of Oracle? Thanks to Peter K<\/a> for that one.<\/p>\n

Another old hand (he says, at the risk of upsetting both Peter and Noons) illustrates the all-round skills and imagination a DBA needs in a typical scenario of working with multiple versions and different problems.<\/a> I always enjoy Nuno’s blog<\/a> – he has a wealth of experience, a distinctive voice and takes a mean photograph, too.<\/p>\n

Actually, I have some sympathy with Jay Jannsen’s point of view that MySQL is to Oracle as vi is to emacs<\/a> or, to put it another way … <\/p>\n

“I’m simply saying that these technologies seem to represent<\/span> a particular way of looking at developing software over time.<\/i>” <\/p>\n

However,
\nthat doesn’t really explain why, in editors, web development tools and
\nany personal software, I desire the simplest possible solution (e.g.
\nI’m quite happy with vi), but in the enterprise software I use at work,
\nI want flexibility, which implies at least some complexity. Jay wraps
\nup by asking of different technology geeks – ‘Can’t we all just get along?<\/i>‘.<\/p>\n

Erm, no 😉<\/p>\n

As someone who has a slightly sad obsession with database server configuration standards, I noted Jeremy Schneider’s posting about the naming of Oracle’s redo log files<\/a>, for which most people use a .log extension. I suppose I could imagine that sys admins are likely to view a .log file as a prime candidate for deletion, but isn’t the underlying problem here to do with documentation, privileges, training and file locations? I can’t say I’ve ever thought of it as a big risk, and I don’t recall anyone deleting them because they looked like output logs, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt to use .rdo and .arc for the archived versions, just to be sure. In any case, I really like the look of Jeremy’s blog<\/a>, which was a new discovery for me this week. <\/p>\n

Back to MySQL again and the xaprb blog<\/a> has a useful post discussing an approach to avoid problems with MySQL statement-based replication caused by temporary tables<\/a><\/p>\n

DB2 next, with a review<\/a> of the IDUG (International DB2 User Group) North American conference, courtesy of scotdb<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

On to a subject that might seem a little dull to some but is central to the most successful database implementations – data integrity constraints. Craig Mullins<\/a> is asking people to participate in a survey on database constraints<\/a> over on his blog. It looks like the enquiry extends beyond the basic primary, unique and foreign key constraints, too.<\/p>\n

Speaking of constraints, I’m not sure about this one<\/a> from the Decipher Info Systems<\/a> blog! Enforcing uniqueness across two tables suggests to me that there’s something wrong with the database design and for further discussion and alternative views, see this thread<\/a> at Tom Kyte’s asktom.oracle.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Minor insanity<\/a>, of the best kind, from Lucas Jellema on the Amis blog<\/a>. Remember when computing used to be *fun*? Oh, and once the monster is released from it’s cage, there’s no stopping it<\/a>! Look, David Moloney over at SQLTeam.com<\/a> is even starting on Chess<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Moving on to more practical SQL work over at Howard Rogers’<\/a> blog, where he discusses the workings and importance of the MINUS set operator<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sticking with SQL, here are are a couple of puzzles for you – the first<\/a> is courtesy of Dominic Delmolino<\/a>. Dominic’s blog is always a source of wisdom, regardless of the particular DBMS you use. The next<\/a> is from thecodist{}<\/a>, with a response<\/a> on Jeff’s SQL Server Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Laurent Schneider<\/a> has a brief overview of the Oracle MERGE statement<\/a>. What I particularly like about it is that, unusually, he shows examples that only perform an INSERT or only perform an UPDATE and shows how the syntax can help clarify conditional examples of those actions.<\/p>\n

Oh, look! Check this out! Do you remember Database Appliances<\/a>? 😉 Well, it appears that this particular idea keeps popping it’s head up<\/a> periodically and thanks to Lewis Cunningham<\/a> for the latest sighting. In fairness, I can understand the attraction for small businesses who are looking for an easily managed solution, although I might have a few better suggestions later.<\/p>\n

To finish off, I’m going to go all Web 2.0 on you – just to prove I can 😉<\/p>\n

First, Paul Gallagher has an interesting review<\/a> of Oracle Technology Network’s Semantic Web<\/a> offering – an alternative source of weekly blog postings if your interests are limited to Oracle-related blogs.<\/p>\n

\n

Archive Log<\/h3>\n

And now for something completely different. I’ve had some recent communication with the Techdirt Insight Community<\/a>, which is an attempt to build a more formal (and paid) dialogue between business and bloggers. Take a look at one of the open ‘challenge issues’<\/a> of the moment. As a died-in-the-wool enterprise DBA, Web 2.0 developments don’t light my flame, but who’s to say that one of these online database builders isn’t going to be just what smaller companies are looking for? Hey, you don’t get much more Web 2.0 than that! Take a look.<\/p>\n

Now it’s time I went back to working on my presentation for the Miracle Scotland Database Forum<\/a> (MSDBF). I’m looking forward to it, although I don’t think Oracle guys are going to win any beauty contests<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Finally, in the spirit of platform-neutral DBA friendship, I leave you with – Pizza Beer<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s my turn again and, looking back at Log Buffer #4, I was amazed to realise that we’re up to number 45 already and that my previous attempt was last August. Good work from Dave Edwards, who bears the organisational burden every week. Sooner him than me! I’ll kick off this week with a discussion… Continue reading Log Buffer #45<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1042,"url":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/04\/log-buffer-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":1267,"position":0},"title":"Log Buffer #4","date":"August 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to the fourth edition of Log Buffer.Maybe it's the summer holiday season and DBA-land is a little quiet, but navel-gazing seems popular this week. During a conference keynote speech by Ray Lane I attended earlier this year, he highlighted how much the software industry likes to talk about itself\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 7 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1297,"url":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/16\/todays-links\/","url_meta":{"origin":1267,"position":1},"title":"Today’s Links","date":"July 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are a few interesting blog postings I've been reading this week.Jonathan Lewis on another Statspack example.Nuno Souto on SQL Server - in three parts. What I particularly like about these postings is that the man has used both and is honest about their relative strengths and weaknesses, rather than\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1026,"url":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/2006\/07\/16\/log-buffer\/","url_meta":{"origin":1267,"position":2},"title":"Log Buffer","date":"July 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This looks like an interesting concept - a weekly collection of interesting items for the DBA community. It's not unusual to see blogs like this from individual bloggers. I'm not averse to the odd one myself. What might make this a bit more interesting for me is that there'll be\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1023,"url":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/2006\/07\/15\/i-dont-want-to-see-html-for-a-long-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":1267,"position":3},"title":"I don’t want to see HTML for a long time","date":"July 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"If I'm honest, I'm sure most of my problems have been self-inflicted and my 'solution' is little more than an unsatisfactory hack but if it means I don't have to look at any HTML for a few weeks, it will do.I eventually tracked down this problem to a difference between\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1156,"url":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/2006\/12\/07\/a-more-complex-statspack-example-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1267,"position":4},"title":"A More Complex Statspack Example – Part 2","date":"December 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"So far we're barely into the comparison of the Statspack reports from the two different test environments and they look quite different already.Next up, the Instance Efficiency Percentages. I have to confess that I rarely find these very useful because the numbers are always near 100% on most databases I\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 13 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1155,"url":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/2006\/12\/06\/a-more-complex-statspack-example-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":1267,"position":5},"title":"A More Complex Statspack Example – Part 1","date":"December 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Following on from the last Statspack example, up popped an example at work this week of another common reason I use Statspack - comparing the performance of different environments. It's also a nice illustration of some of Statspack's limitations.Because a Statspack report contains a lot of information and this particular\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 8 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orcldoug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}