tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81243046075500205962011-10-17T20:56:26.969-04:00Possibly random thoughts of a oddly organized dba with a very short attention spanRobynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.comBlogger601100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-16032136436642266072011-08-25T04:45:00.003-04:002011-08-25T09:36:22.448-04:00

As Steve Jobs resigns his role at Apple, perhaps the most appropriate send off is remembering another innovator/inventor who changed our lives, while we recognize that delivering on an acknowledged need isn't innovation. In the words of Henry Ford: 'If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.' If Jobs had asked you what you wanted in Y2K, what would you have told

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-20866959250948346402010-12-02T17:41:00.002-05:002010-12-02T17:44:59.647-05:00

Hello Readers … that is, if I still have any readers out left out there. I have few topics that have been on my mind lately and they will become posts in the near future. After all, this blog does have a purpose other than re-broadcasting my favorite xkcd's.First order of business is to let you know what I've been up to lately. As you may have already learned from other blogs and adverts,

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-7363610829537230462010-10-26T10:09:00.002-04:002010-10-26T11:06:39.179-04:00

Rather than send the usual email or IM, I stopped by to see one of our developers this morning and discuss his testing needs for a set of code changes in the database. He wasn't there, but a copy of the Manifesto for Half-Arsed Agile Software Development was hanging just outside the entrance to his cubicle.The perfect concise description of the phenomenon I have been trying to describe: the

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-90894782370915483622010-08-09T19:38:00.003-04:002010-08-09T19:43:57.409-04:00

from xkcd:I tried to resist but just couldn't ....(and btw ... my mother was from Louisville. thank god for my Nordic relatives)

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-11596950132012782622010-06-18T01:40:00.013-04:002010-07-11T12:04:12.669-04:00

Those who have read my previous posts know I've got a few favorite topics:1. Data Models2. Measuring3. Variance4. InstrumentationThis post will be short but it touches on all of my favorite things. Over the last year and a half, I've had the opportunity to redesign a not-so-great application working with the amazingly great developers at Method-R. In the process, we redesigned the data model,

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-62954236720582272232010-06-06T10:12:00.009-04:002010-06-06T14:11:37.779-04:00

I got up early so I could plant a few things in the garden before I settled down to some writing this afternoon. I was on my way out the door, returned to my room to get my socks and noticed something long and black on the floor near my bed. Then I realize the thing was alive and flicking it's tongue at me:Interesting start to a Sunday morning: a 3 foot long black snake on my bedroom floor.

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-51937298287882913962010-05-30T14:35:00.004-04:002010-06-03T22:38:53.298-04:00

Developing software has many things in common with aircraft development, depending of course, on how you look at it. In both cases, getting technical innovations to market as quickly as possible is key to success and while our users may not fall from the sky if our software fails, there are many software products that have enormous dollar and human cost when they don't work as they should. Even

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-74833410536988777972010-05-30T13:24:00.008-04:002010-05-30T18:17:24.923-04:00

Kelly Johnson's 14 Rules of Management, in their original form (highlighting added by me):--------------------------------------------------------1. The Skunk Works manager must be delegated practically complete control of his program in all aspects. He should report to a division president or higher. 2. Strong but small project offices must be provided both by the military and industry. 3

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-69680870132133015522010-04-27T10:04:00.002-04:002010-04-27T10:27:47.854-04:00

I spent an afternoon at the Nobel Museum in Stockholm and found myself writing notes furiously at the very first exhibit. "The mere formulation of a problem is often far more essential than it's solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill. To raise a new question, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-86654391748349807642010-02-19T13:22:00.003-05:002010-02-19T14:12:04.683-05:00

For anyone who is interested in recording the process and cpu elapsed via instrumentation, I have made the elapsed time collection module I'm currently using available at the Expert Oracle Practices: Database Administration from the Oak Table source code download site.The first step is to download the Instrumentation Library for Oracle (ILO) version 2.3 from SourceForge.Next, install ILO per the

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-33513097148050570282010-02-04T10:35:00.003-05:002010-02-04T10:39:52.407-05:00

If 'Premature optimization is the root of all evil.'then 'Premature automation is the propagator of many evils.'else 'Failure to optimize is the abyss.'end;

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-23541369322524144522010-01-13T22:19:00.008-05:002010-01-13T23:23:09.725-05:00

I have several presentations coming up, but due to a dramatic set of circumstances in Denmark, I will be posting about them in reverse order. Miracle OpenWorld has been renamed due to possible 'mark' infringements on the term 'OpenWorld'.Therefore, I am pleased to announce that I will be giving a presentation on 'Measuring for Robust Performance' in April at Miracle Åben Verden! You can hear all

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-5912222877529553042010-01-02T00:47:00.002-05:002010-01-02T15:28:34.721-05:00

I did manage to publish a link to this blog post, 'Releasing early is not always good? Heresy!' at about 3:00 am on Jan 1st. The plan was that I'd close out 2009 by getting the last few posts related to Agile design off of my mind so I could start 2010 ready to return my focus to measurement. Fail.I woke up late that morning, drank my coffee and thought about problems in the design and

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-9197197699538216592009-12-31T11:00:00.005-05:002010-01-02T13:43:59.387-05:00

It's the day before the new year and I have two topics related to development that I am hoping to complete today to wrap up 2009. Then I plan to refocus this blog on its originally intended topic - measurement. I can't promise not to wander off topic again but I will do my best.A few weeks ago, Cary Millsap sent me a link to The Fable of the User-Centered Designer. It's short and an enjoyable

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-2251669585985817972009-12-05T10:07:00.004-05:002010-01-02T13:43:29.522-05:00

I am back from my third visit to UKOUG and as always, the trip was wonderful, the conference was excellent and if I could have stayed, I would have. Of course, after dealing with trains all morning and then being stuck in an airplane seat watching movies for hours on end, sleeping in my own bed last night was absolute heaven. But the UK must be a wonderful place to live: the people are lovely,

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-46825346190765059462009-11-29T18:29:00.003-05:002010-01-02T13:43:00.908-05:00

The past year has been well, many words come to mind but let's go with challenging. It's also been interesting, frustrating, enlightening, exhausting, but right about now, it feels like it was a very, very good year. Those of you that have read through the previous posts will remember that, right around the time I left for the Miracle Oracle Open World conference in October of 2008, I was

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-21082206919436585552009-11-25T19:01:00.001-05:002010-01-02T13:51:30.766-05:00

I read through several posts that I had saved as drafts today. Some were close to done but are no longer relevant. Others were nothing more than a sentence or a link, and now I don't recall where I intended to take the story. I had saved only the link for this one and it's non-technical, but I liked the article and considering some of the churning over MOS, it seemed appropriate. (Draw your

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-57520614909218231932009-11-25T10:45:00.008-05:002010-01-02T13:47:09.440-05:00

Nuno's post today coincided with an email I received from Oracle Support, expressing a sentiment similar to that in the email Nuno received from KEH. I won't attempt to post the entire email from Oracle Support, as it's full of pictures and links, but here's the 'thank you for your patience' section:Thank you for your patience during this transition period. We recognize that some customers

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-82817271523272273492009-11-07T08:56:00.005-05:002010-01-02T13:41:28.165-05:00

I was reading news stories on Reuter's this morning and came across a new study. Researchers have determined that men who work in unchallenging jobs with little control over their future tend to be less active off the job as well.Now, I don't doubt that there is a relationship between a passive work role and the amount of activity someone engages in off the job. However there are a few quotes

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-28655049157693842242009-09-26T22:17:00.003-04:002009-09-26T23:35:36.468-04:00

I was doing a little light reading on my Saturday night in my Oxford Dictionary of Statistics by Graham Upton and Ian Cook and came across this definition:nonsense correlation: A term used to describe a situation where two variables (X and Y, say) are correlated without being causally related to one another. The usual explanation is that they are both related to a third variable, Z. Often the

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-59147102910025654672009-09-19T12:32:00.003-04:002009-09-19T13:45:27.160-04:00

(I can't talk about planes going off on tangents but I've moved them all to the end this time. Read them in whatever order works for your brain - or skip 'em. They're not crucial to the post.)While I didn't get to work on the SR-71 or the F-117, I had the opportunity to work with men who did. One particular man, Walt Paskowietz, became something of a mentor/champion for me and taught me about

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-77836129925470694862009-08-17T07:13:00.001-04:002009-08-17T10:35:00.221-04:00

I think I've mentioned this somewhere on my blog before, but last year right before I left for the Miracle Oracle Open World conference, I found myself unexpectedly responsible for a new system. Up until that point, I was working in an 'advisory' role for the project - available to answer questions, offer guidance, etc. I had no authority to direct the work, it was just assumed that the other

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-19936345638785927652009-07-10T16:39:00.004-04:002010-01-02T13:47:31.493-05:00

(from thisisindexed.com)My take on this one has nothing to do with Bernie and everything to do with recent events on the big project. If I could add a small red 'x' in the middle of 'Doom' with an arrow and a 'You are Here' message, it would be perfect ...

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-55446591467241166732009-06-15T06:24:00.001-04:002009-06-15T12:36:01.280-04:00

If you're expecting something in favor Agile development, you're on the wrong blog. You'll notice that my 'agile' uses a little 'a' - I'm referring to the adjective agile, defined on answers.com as: 1. Characterized by quickness, lightness, and ease of movement; nimble. 2. Mentally quick or alert: an agile mind.or in the Merriam-Webster dictionary: 1 : marked by ready ability to move with

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-84914707065486157752009-05-31T13:26:00.004-04:002010-01-02T13:42:10.046-05:00

An article written by Bert Scalzo was published in Information Management this week. The topic is 'Is Data Modeling Still Relavant?': it's short, to the point and well worth reading.The article doesn't recommend a specific tool, it simply recommends the practice of capturing a model of the data at rest (old school approach) in addition to the newer techniques that focus on capturing the data in

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-1200510570524320352009-05-22T10:26:00.005-04:002009-05-22T10:46:38.586-04:00

This has got to be one of the worst office faux pas ever.I was downloading a Nine Inch Nails cd while verifying a set of instances I'd built yesterday.  I had my big headphones on - the big puffy ones I bought to cut down on the noise around me.  I pulled the headphones off and realized the music wasn't playing in my headphones, it was playing on the laptop, loudly enough to hear over the

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-50061595134110448752009-05-03T18:31:00.006-04:002009-05-03T20:40:04.847-04:00

My role at work has been shifting over the past six months and I'm still not sure how I feel about this. In theory, I'm supposed to be 'architecting' but most of the time, I feel like I'm somewhere between a technical writer and a hostage negotiator, with the hostage alternating at turns between the integrity of the database and my sanity. Tensions have been high for everyone, the project is

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-85927091864659756582009-03-23T19:31:00.005-04:002010-01-02T13:44:57.192-05:00

This was my sixth Hotsos Symposium as an attendee, my second as a speaker, and this gathering has become something of a spring time ritual for me. Others may look at the temperature, the dogwoods or the daffodils, but Hotsos is how I know spring is here, even if it did snow in Texas last year.I can divide my life as a DBA into three distinct phases:Phase one: I was given a server (DEC Alpha 2100

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-44915131098129341122009-03-18T20:00:00.001-04:002009-03-23T23:12:58.865-04:00

Ever have one of those meetings? The ones where you *think* everyone is on the same page and is ready to bust out in the right direction to do great things, but there's a big old wet blanket that derails the whole thing?I had one of those last week and I returned to my desk utterly frustrated and questioning the role I'm expected to play these days. To get my mental state back on track, I

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-45347536769560611382009-02-15T21:01:00.004-05:002010-01-02T13:45:17.349-05:00

RMOUG Training Days was once again a fantastic experience. It is an amazing value for the cost, and Denver is such a beautiful place to visit. The dehydration thing seriously effects me though ... you'd think I'd remember that and start chugging water before I'm 24 hours into it. Maybe next year I'll do better :)Highlights of the conference for me included:Tim Gorman's AWR session: I've used

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-73529881608351953202009-01-26T22:38:00.007-05:002010-01-02T13:45:59.476-05:00

So ... not really 30 days (21 to be precise) but it feels like forever.Late November, early December (while I was in the U.K.) several sites were installed with an updated version of one of the tools. Everything seemed to be going well, until all the databases ran out of space roughly around the same time. (We lost a team member a few months ago and he used to monitor sites until they achieved

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-14123342710172123352009-01-11T05:53:00.001-05:002010-01-02T13:52:18.379-05:00

--- just found this one. I wrote it in Jan 09 and didn't publish it: I think I planned on adding a lot of links and ran out of time. Publishing it under the original date, but if you've been here before, you didn't miss it the first time. I slipped it in ... oh no! I've cheated on the version control system !! :)For the past month, my work has been somewhat disconnected from the database.

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-67604891206559984372008-12-26T19:19:00.005-05:002008-12-28T21:39:49.066-05:00

As Doug hinted in a recent comment, I have been invited to join the Oak Table and I have enthusiastically accepted. It's quite an honor and also, somewhat ironic.At different times in my career, I have found myself in employment discussions with Oracle. However, like star crossed lovers, when one of us was interested, the other was involved elsewhere. At some point, I decided it just wasn't

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-24959805131205439032008-12-20T03:02:00.001-05:002010-01-02T13:46:33.060-05:00

Unbelievable ... it's already been two weeks since I returned from UKOUG. I enjoyed this year's conference even more than last year, in part because I paced myself better. I was reunited with many wonderful friends and made some new ones too. Add to that a week of top notch presentations, some excellent dinners with good company and it was absolutely perfect.So here are a few of the

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-84038387065272049982008-11-14T09:15:00.005-05:002008-12-21T11:04:23.128-05:00

One of the challenges of finding the root cause of a problem when working with complex (and even not so complex) systems is the delayed effect of a particular cause. Even though I mention in my presentation that changes to parameters can result in effects that might not be seen until later, I still got bit by just that this week.One of our existing products has been redesigned and is being

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-65340932008643052422008-11-05T00:57:00.005-05:002010-01-02T13:52:37.189-05:00

To my Danish friends: thank you for the kind offers of political asylum made by several of you while I was in Denmark at the Miracle Oracle Open World event, however due to the outcome of today's election, I think I'll stay put for now. I most certainly hope to have the chance to visit your lovely country again but I also have hope again in America and Americans.Today the ideals that this

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-91036026259396564532008-10-27T22:58:00.003-04:002010-01-02T13:48:16.166-05:00

I have just returned from Denmark and it was an amazing experience. The conference was excellent: the smallest I've attended in number of attendees, but by far the largest when considering the knowledge exchange.Visiting Denmark and seeing Copenhagen was phenomenal. The city was beautiful and I was offered the opportunity to stay at the home of Anette and Mogens. Their home is very welcoming;

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-6331264340723370182008-09-25T11:13:00.004-04:002008-09-25T12:19:56.967-04:00

So I'm not at Oracle Open World but I have been waiting anxiously for the expected announcement from Larry, plus all the other interesting stuff that usually gets posted about OOW. Hearing about Exadata is pretty exciting for me as we've been considering some projects that would be well suited to this type of platform.Late last year, I began researching some of the competing vendors for very

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-35682589552005391912008-09-06T19:32:00.002-04:002008-09-06T19:37:53.342-04:00

... Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1856This is the long overdue follow up to the post on the Apollo Root Cause book. It's so far overdue in fact that I had to go back and reread (well, skim) the chapter. I knew there were points I wanted to remember, just couldn't remember exactly what they were.Anyway, according to Gano, there is a cause and effect principle and it consists of 4 characteristics:1. Cause

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-14405088293791921882008-08-23T11:07:00.001-04:002010-01-02T13:48:48.620-05:00

Scheduled Presentations:Virginia Oracle User's GroupOct 10th An Industrial Engineers Approach ....Miracle Oracle Open WorldOct 23rd Variance as a Tool: Measuring for Robust PerformanceOct 24th Stopping the Madness with RCAUKOUG 2008Dec 4th Variance as a Tool: Measuring for Robust PerformanceDec 4th Stopping the Madness with RCAI've bought all my plane tickets and everything ...

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-400532254756993592008-08-12T19:11:00.014-04:002009-01-29T22:31:46.899-05:00

I re-executed the analysis of the data warehouse job completion times for FY08 and found the results to be very consistent with last year - this in spite of a major hardware and application upgrade.Here are the steps:I'm using 11g so I used a virtual column to calculate the elapsed time:alter table nightly_job_history add (elapsed_time as ((date_run - start_dat_time)*24*3600)) ;Once the column

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-44273254142599882312008-07-23T18:26:00.003-04:002008-07-23T19:13:39.662-04:00

I'm reading another new book ... The Logic of Failure:  Recognizing and Avoiding Errors in Complex Situations by Dietrich Dorner. I am enthralled.The book begins by describing experiments in which individuals were put in charge of a computer model community and given enormous power to influence decisions.   Participants were either the dictator of a farming community (Tanaland) and the mayor of

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-48178862764192006272008-07-21T20:04:00.006-04:002008-09-02T17:53:11.311-04:00

Ignorance is a most wonderful thing.It facilitates magic.It allows the masses to be led.It provides answers when there are none.It allows happiness in the presence of danger.All this, while the pursuit of knowledge can only destroy the illusion. Is it any wonder mankind chooses ignorance?from 'Apollo Root Cause Analysis'It seemed prudent to look for some more recent thoughts on RCA, so I picked

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-41959032015453603202008-07-12T23:17:00.008-04:002008-08-16T21:58:53.957-04:00

So maybe it seems like I'm drifting a bit from the main topic, but I'm not. What do the last few posts have in common? Variation.A partition management job that starts behaving differently is one type of variation. The cause? A simple human failure ... actually two of them. One was the late install of the vm tool set and one was the code that only added one partition at a time, regardless of

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-27719274142744030422008-07-11T17:39:00.006-04:002009-01-29T22:36:26.956-05:00

In the previous post, we found our root cause but in the process of investigating, I connected to one of the other test servers housing a build of this same product at the same release level. The partition creation records showed that someone had executed the partition job manually on Jun 18th at 9:40 am. Was this an indication that the problem was more widespread than originally thought?On

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-41038592820891950092008-07-11T17:29:00.004-04:002009-01-29T22:41:10.952-05:00

Of course, this isn't always true, but frequently, if you use a root cause analysis (RCA) approach to resolving an issue, the necessary corrections end up being very simple, as the cause is simply human failure. The trick to RCA is not allowing yourself start thinking about the answer before you finish asking the questions.A bug report was assigned to me this week. A product is close to

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-41407655971636237712008-07-08T19:16:00.001-04:002009-01-29T22:56:24.403-05:00

Was able to repeat the distinct key test with 10.2.0.4 and had some interesting results. Although the distinct keys were more accurate overall when using auto_sample_size, one distinct key value was still off by 98%!I suspect that this might be related to the fact that it's a date/time stamp column but this is *gasp* just a guess. It has been true that the date columns were most likely to

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-38158025724634291052008-06-22T21:13:00.027-04:002009-01-29T23:15:30.123-05:00

If you read my last post, you will recall that I was looking into a statistics issue for a 9.2.0.6 database. Summarization jobs were randomly choosing a less than optimal plan, causing a query capable of completing in about 4 minutes to occasionally take over 7 hours. One oddity was that the sample sizes seemed to be getting progressively smaller. While researching the issue, I found a post at

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-38691457558214835562008-06-17T17:02:00.007-04:002008-07-23T19:16:04.734-04:00

Immediately after I post that I like the dbms_stats.auto_sample_size, it suddenly fails me. Over the past few years, my usual approach to statistics gathering has been:1. enable table monitoring2. collect the initial set of statistics using the following settings estimate_percent=>DBMS_STATS.AUTO_SAMPLE_SIZE method_opt =>'FOR ALL COLUMNS SIZE 1'3. schedule a job to collect stale stats for the

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-91903294436006884442008-06-02T17:32:00.006-04:002008-07-23T16:13:40.252-04:00

A comment from Alex spurred me to get something on the blog about variation ... after all, variance is the key concept from my presentations and I haven't said much about it here. However, I have a (semi) valid reason for this - before you can begin to use variance as a tool, you must first minimize unnecessary variation and I'm finding a lot of unexplained and undocumented variation in the

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-58263314231533511642008-05-06T16:48:00.010-04:002010-01-02T13:50:09.341-05:00

If there is a primary concept behind my paper and presentations, it's the use of manufacturing and quality techniques in a non-manufacturing venue - the management of database systems. Lean manufacturing techniques were originated by Toyota out of a need to do more with scare resources and were a major component of my college studies. (think late 1980's) Then there was a lean fad throughout the

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-39463305875825530882008-04-16T20:19:00.015-04:002008-07-07T21:25:20.969-04:00

Last summer, I worked extensively on a project to upgrade all Oracle 9.2.0.8 instances to Oracle 10g. The initial test upgrade on a copy of a development instance was impacted by multiple bugs, some of which had no documented solution at that time. Recently several friends have experienced similar problems and the issue was mentioned on Oracle-L, so I thought I’d post a little history.The

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-37430291820332903142008-04-15T13:47:00.006-04:002008-07-07T21:48:33.475-04:00

This question is asked frequently on multiple lists and there are always a wide range of answers. I've been asked directly by individuals who would like to become DBA's and by managers who want to evaluate people for DBA potential. In some cases, there is just a sense that someone would be really good at the job, and sometimes, the opposite is true. In the past, it's been hard to specify

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-17600021931840789432008-03-13T19:49:00.009-04:002008-07-23T19:16:24.739-04:00

My presentation at the Hotsos Symposium was on March 5th and I received quite a bit of positive feedback on my topic. It seems that there is enough interest to continue pursuing this line of thinking and I'm very excited about the possibilities. However, in an ironic turn of events, I have a pilot that will be perfect for further testing on variation but the details can't be posted due to

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-53542772639547163562008-02-24T19:26:00.006-05:002008-07-07T21:49:05.299-04:00

Value Engineering (VE) is a systematic problem solving approach that makes use of function-based techniques developed by Lawrence D. Miles in 1947. Value is defined as the ratio of function to cost, therefore value can only be increased by adding functionality or reducing cost. Every Federal agency is required to maintain a value engineering program and the Department of Defense uses value

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-57901409543793594112008-02-02T23:38:00.001-05:002008-02-17T21:13:04.178-05:00

In 1917, Frederick Winlow Taylor published his work 'The Principles of Scientific Management' and the image of the Industrial Engineer standing alongside an assembly line worker was born. Taylor's ascertation was that by analyzing each movement of a worker, a more efficient method could be found, therefore reducing the amount of time to produce a product. Taylor had many detractor's; his methods

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-33701128988220612122008-01-25T20:12:00.001-05:002008-04-15T18:46:43.580-04:00

So when the topic of OFA comes up, why do everyone focus on the file system naming conventions? Sure it's an important part of OFA, but it is only one component of the standard - a means to accomplishing an end. The goals of OFA are far broader than the typical debate about 'u01' or 'oracle' or 'oradata' or where the instance name should and should not be used.The 'F' is for Flexible as in, if

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-77456599391829803722008-01-13T09:57:00.001-05:002010-01-02T13:49:20.323-05:00

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-50572574108281722172007-12-31T20:34:00.003-05:002008-07-07T21:38:57.864-04:00

Long ago and far away, products were made by craftsman and each item was unique. Perhaps the products should have been called art and their makers artisans for these objects could not be mass produced and their makers did not scale.People being what we are, gun creation was the first thing someone decided to improve. If your gun broke it either went back to the gunsmith for repairs or it was

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8124304607550020596.post-6518641331242480442007-12-30T11:53:00.004-05:002008-07-07T21:51:19.263-04:00

I've thought about starting a blog in the past, but worried that I'd run out of things to say, or worse, would forget to post and leave large gaps in my pages, or still worse, would become obsessed by posting and forget about things like sleep.However, I've got a few ideas that need working out and this seems like a good way to proceed. Having been in the computer industry for over 10 years now,

Robynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09012591669491677657noreply@blogger.com0