JULY/AUGUST 2010

Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g New release delivers business-driven IT management / 21 Deriving and Sharing BI Metadata Integrate Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2 information with Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition / 59 Automating Parallelism Take the guesswork out of setting the degree of parallelism for queries / 63 On Connecting, Pivoting, and Learning New Things Our technologist bypasses TNSNAMES.ORA, turns rows to columns, and ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE meets the NO_DATA_FOUND exception / 69 THE VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE From desktop to datacenter, Oracle o ers a complete virtualization solution Strategize. Plan. Execute. Gain more insight with Oracle’s enhanced enterprise performance management solution Hits the Road Learn the latest from Java luminaries as the Java Bus goes from code to coast One City, One Week, Three Conferences Oracle OpenWorld, JavaOne, and Oracle Develop converge on San Francisco September 19–23

JA10_cover_R1.indd 2 5/25/10 2:30:41 PM Untitled-2 1 3/22/10 8:42 PM Untitled-2 2 3/22/10 8:42 PM Oracle development PL/SQL Developer by Allround Automations. everywhere...

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THE VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE /36 Virtualization—of desktop, server, or storage resources—requires a reliable infrastructure, solid plan, and strategic management. The payoffs include IT flexibility and efficiency, as well as server consolidation and lower energy costs. Learn how Oracle’s desktop-to-datacenter solutions can virtualize your enterprise. —By David A. Kelly Cover: I-Hua Chen

Strategize. Plan. Execute. / 45 Java Hits the Road / 48

Planning for the future—based on analytics rather From language to platform, than guesswork—is important for both public and Java is used by millions private organizations. See how new features of of developers and runs on Oracle’s enterprise performance management billions of devices. Find applications can improve confidence in financial out more about Oracle’s reporting and enhance budget management and commitment to Java by profitability. —By Marta Bright following the Java bus as it travels to 20 cities from code to coast. Meet Java experts, One City, One Week, Three Conferences / 33 ask questions, check out the Java user groups, and watch Oracle and Java technologists will want to be in demonstrations of the latest San Francisco, California, September 19–23, when Java technologies. the city hosts three conferences simultaneously— —By Janice J. Heiss Oracle OpenWorld, JavaOne, and Oracle Develop. From sessions on Oracle’s complete technology stack to all things Java, plus hands-on labs, exhibits, and community celebrations, these conferences have something for everyone in the technology chain. —By Caroline Kvitka

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O-78MG6_SW_PrintAd_EN-US.indd 1 4/19/10 10:11 AM 6 Departments Volume XXIV - Issue 4

up front / 8 community / 26 technology / 51 comment / 74 frOm Our partner / 26 perfOrmance in the fielD / 74 reaDers / 8 BOOk Beat / 26 testing / 51 serving your community Readers tell us what high-performance Oracle From schools to software, cOmmunity they think. systems for Business volunteers make the world a Bulletin / 29 intelligence workloads frOm the better place. —Mike Riley a new look for Oracle oracle’s sun systems deliver eDitOr / 9 technology network in the fielD / 75 responsive and reliable BI committed to the right Fixed width, new header who Drives the Decision? environments. —Sherry Yu, word —Tom Haunert improve user experience. Changes in business Chad Prucha, and / 11 —Justin Kestelyn processes need management. mashup Yumiko Hata News, views, trends, tools architect / 30 —David Ferguson framewOrks / 55 panning for gold analyst’s compelling Dialog Finding value in enterprise cOrner / 76 at Oracle / 13 Call bounded task flows as architecture conversations infrastructure software inline pop-ups. events / 13 —Bob Rhubart and virtualization Find out about upcoming —Steve Muench organizations improve up clOse / 31 Business flexibility with software technology and industry a northern light events. intelligence / 59 appliances and templates. oracle user group Finland’s resOurces / 15 Deriving and sharing —David Baum Heli Helskyaho Business intelligence your guide to oracle —Jeff Erickson metadata Webcasts, podcasts, , peer-tO-peer / 32 Integrate oracle Warehouse and more solving puzzles Builder 11g Release 2 Briefs / 18 Iggy Fernandez, murali information with oracle the latest product news Vallath, matjaz B. Juric Business Intelligence news / 21 —Blair Campbell enterprise edition. Business-Driven it —Mark Rittman management parallel Query / 63 oracle enterprise manager automating parallelism 11g connects business, take the guesswork out technology, and It. of setting the degree of —Carol Hildebrand parallelism for queries. interview / 23 —Arup Nanda Open for Business ask tOm / 69 oracle’s edward screven On connecting, pivoting, on open source and open and learning new things standards —Rich Schwerin our technologist bypasses tNsNAmes .oRA, turns rows to columns, and meets the No_DAtA_Fou ND exception. —Tom Kyte

July/August 2010 Oracle.cOm/Oraclemagazine

JA10_TOC.indd 6 5/21/10 12:08:27 PM 7

editorial PuBliShing editor in chief Publisher tom Haunert [email protected] Jeff spicer [email protected] Senior managing editor Production director and associate Publisher Caroline Kvitka [email protected] Jennifer Hamilton [email protected] +1.650.506.3794 Features editor Senior manager, audience development and operations Kay Keppler [email protected] Karin Kinnear [email protected] +1.650.506.1985 contributing editor and Writer Blair Campbell advertiSing SaleS associate Publisher editor in chief, oracle technology network Kyle Walkenhorst [email protected] +1.323.340.8585 Justin Kestelyn [email protected] northwest & central u.S. technology advisor tom Cometa [email protected] +1.510.339.2403 tom Kyte Southwest u.S. and lad contributors shaun Mehr [email protected] +1.949.923.1660 Marta Bright, Ed DeJesus, Jeff Erickson, Fred sandsmark, leslie steere northeast u.S. and emea/aPac deSign Mark Makinney [email protected] +1.805.709.4745 Senior creative director mailing-list rentals Francisco g Delgadillo Contact your sales representative. design director Richard Merchán reSourceS oracle Products contributing designer +1.800.367.8674 (u.s./Canada) Rob Martin oracle Services Production designer +1.888.283.0591 sheila Brennan oracle Press Books editorial Board www.oraclepress.com Ian Abramson, Karen Cannell, Andrew Clarke, Chris Claterbos, Karthika Devi, Kimberly Floss, Kent graziano, taqi Hasan, tony Jambu, tony Jedlinski, copyright © 2010, oracle and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication Ari Kaplan, Val Kavi, John King, steve lemme, Carol Mcgury, sumit sengupta, may be reprinted or other wise reproduced without permission from the editors. ORACLE MAGAZINE Jonathan Vincenzo, Dan Vlamis Is PROVIDED ON AN “As Is” BAsIs. ORAClE EXPREssly DIsClAIMs All WARRANtIEs, WHEtHER EXPREss OR IMPlIED. IN NO EVENt sHAll ORAClE BE lIABlE FOR ANy DAMAgEs SuBScriPtion inFormation OF ANy KIND ARIsINg FROM yOuR usE OF OR RElIANCE ON ANy INFORMAtION PROVIDED subscriptions are complimentary for qualified individuals who complete the HEREIN. the information is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for subscription card found in each issue or online at oracle.com/oraclemagazine. information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment For change of address, mail in label with the new address to: Oracle Magazine, to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing P.O. Box 1263, skokie, Il 60076-8263. decisions. the development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle magazine cuStomer Service Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. [email protected] Fax +1.847.763.9638 Phone +1.847.763.9635 Oracle Magazine (IssN 1065-3171) is published bimonthly with a free subscription price by: Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Ms OPl-3C, Redwood City, CA 94065-1600. Periodicals Postage Paid at Privacy Redwood City, CA, and additional mailing offices. • POstMAstER: send address changes to: Oracle Oracle Publishing allows sharing of its mailing list with selected third parties. Magazine, P.O. Box 1263, skokie, Il 60076-8263. If you prefer that your mailing address or e-mail address not be included in this program, contact Customer service at [email protected]. Printed by Brown Printing

Product indeX Product name Page Product name Page Product name Page Product name Page Java 15, 23, 29, Oracle data integration 15 Oracle Instant Client for Microsoft 18 Oracle VM templates 18, 36, 76 33, 48 Windows InnoDB 23 Oracle Data Mining 33 Oracle JDeveloper 55 Oracle VM VirtualBox 36 JavaFX 18, 33, 48 Oracle Data Provider for .NEt 26 Oracle JRockit 26 Oracle Warehouse Builder 15, 18, 59 JavaFX sDK 18 Oracle Database 15, 18, 26, Oracle JRockit Virtual Edition 18 Oracle Waveset 15 32, 33, 36, 51, 63, 69 MysQl 15, 23 Oracle Database lite Mobile server 26 Oracle Projects 26 Oracle WebCenter 23, 26 MysQl Cluster 18 Oracle Database Vault 26 Oracle Real Application Clusters 26, 36 Oracle Weblogic server 18 OpenOffice 23 Oracle E-Business suite 26, 36 Oracle Real user Experience Insight 18 Oracle Weblogic suite Virtualization Option 18 Oracle Application Development Framework 15, 26, 55 Oracle Enterprise 36 Oracle sOA suite 15, 26 Oracle’s Agile product lifecycle management 26 Oracle Application Integration Architecture 18 Oracle Enterprise Manager 15, 18, 21, 15, 29, 36, Oracle’s Hyperion performance management 18, 33 Foundation Pack 26, 33, 36 48, 51, 76 and business intelligence solutions Oracle Application server 36 Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse 18 Oracle solaris Coolthreads–based servers 51 Oracle’s Peoplesoft applications 26, 36 Oracle Application testing suite 18 Oracle enterprise performance 26, 45 Oracle spatial 15, 36 Oracle’s Primavera P6 Enterprise Project 18 management Portfolio Management Oracle Automatic storage Management 36 Oracle Exadata storage server 35 Oracle sQl Developer 18 Oracle’s sun storage F5100 Flash 51 Array storage Oracle Berkeley DB 18 Oracle Forms 26 Oracle sQl Developer Data Modeler 18 Oracle’s Autovue Enterprise Visualization 15 Oracle Business Intelligence 36, 59 Oracle Fusion Middleware 15, 23, Oracle tutor 18 Oracle’s JD Edwards applications 33 Enterprise Edition 26, 33 Oracle business intelligence solutions 15, 26, 36 Oracle goldengate 15 Oracle user Productivity Kit 18 Oracle’s Primavera 26 Oracle Business Intelligence standard 26 Oracle HttP server 18 Oracle user Productivity Kit Professional 18 Oracle’s sun server and storage systems 15, 33, Edition One 36, 51 Oracle Coherence 15 Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance 18 Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder 18 Clients 36 Management system Oracle Content Management 15 Oracle Identity Management 15, 36 Oracle VM 18, 23, 36 sun Ray software 36 Oracle CRM On Demand 15, 18, 26, 3

oracle magazine July/August 2010

JA10_TOC.indd 7 5/21/10 12:09:21 PM 8 FROM OUR READERS

Your corrections, your opinions, and your requests: Here’s your forum for telling us what’s right and wrong in each issue of Oracle Magazine, and for letting us know what you want to read.

MORE FORMS industry chatter aimed primarily at CEOs or IT in the organization; it’s how effective you can be Regarding “Converting Forms” by David Peake department managers, Oracle Magazine has in using the power of communication, negotia- (Oracle Magazine, May/June 2009, oracle articles that are useful to Oracle developers and tion, organizational change management, and .com/technology/oramag/oracle/09-may/ administrators. The other articles also provide influence to affect technology in the end! o39browser.html), if Oracle still supports Oracle valuable information on what is going on in the You ! Forms, why doesn’t the company enhance it or Oracle community. Vidhya Shyamsunder introduce new releases? Also, what would you The technical articles by Steven Feuerstein, [email protected] recommend to Oracle developers—continue Jonathan Gennick, and Tom Kyte are especially with Oracle Forms, or migrate to new tools such useful because they provide tips and examples SO DOES STEVEN as Oracle Application Development Framework of code that are relevant to my work. Just last Thanks a lot for the tips (“On BULK COLLECT,” (Oracle ADF)? month, I found one of Steven’s dynamic SQL by Steven Feuerstein, Oracle Magazine, March/ Adel Ibrahim Mohamed programs that allowed me to easily copy trigger April 2008, oracle.com/technology/oramag/ [email protected] :NEW and :OLD record values to a package for oracle/08-mar/o28plsql.html). You have no idea further processing. how much it helped me today. My code faced a David Peake replies: Oracle Forms 11g was By the way, I am one of those people who performance issue, and all the solutions I was released in July 2009: oracle.com/technology/ prefer to read technical journals on a printed looking for were in this column! products/forms. page, not a computer screen, so please keep the Vidya Chandrasekhar I suggest you read the Oracle Forms magazines coming to my mailbox. [email protected] Statement of Direction: oracle.com/technology/ Scott G. Lloyd products/forms/pdf/10g/toolssod.pdf. [email protected] Regarding Steven Feuerstein’s “On BULK Oracle has a variety of development tools COLLECT,” I just ran into the same problem that allow you to build applications. The sort of BOB ROCKS he mentions with BULK COLLECT and LIMIT. applications and the skill set of your develop- I came across Bob Rhubart’s “Lip Service” Steven’s examples are very helpful. ment team will often dictate which Oracle tools (Oracle Magazine, May/June 2010, oracle.com/ Irina Kisina are most appropriate for that development. technology/oramag/oracle/10-may/ [email protected] I recommend Oracle Forms developers learn o30architect .html) and cried out, “Thank you!” tools such as Oracle Application Express (oracle Finally someone wrote something realistic about SEND MAIL TO THE EDITORS .com/technology/apex) plus Oracle JDeveloper the importance of communication and change and Oracle ADF (oracle.com/technology/ management in the world of enterprise architec- Send your opinions about what you read in Oracle Magazine, and suggestions for possible technical products/jdev) to gain additional skills that are ture. This is something I’ve been preaching to my articles, to [email protected]. Or click in more demand than Oracle Forms. enterprise architecture team, but I don’t seem the Write the Editors link on our Website, oracle to get traction. Their answer is, “We should .com/oraclemagazine. You can also follow our @magazineoracle feed or join us MORE IN GENERAL be reporting directly to the CIO to make things on at bit.ly/cpY2Z9. Letters may be Oracle Magazine is one of the few IT magazines happen,” so that they can use “The CIO said so, edited for length and clarity and may be pub- that I read, use, and keep for future refer- so just do it.” lished in any medium. We consider any communi- cations we receive publishable. ence. Whereas most of what comes my way is Thank you, Bob. It’s not where one is located

JULY/AUGUST 2010 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

JA10_Readers.indd 8 5/17/10 4:30:44 PM From The ediTor 9 committed to the right Word Confirming a commitment to open source technologies

s a magazine editor, I look at word kernel. Driving the future of a technology—or Achoices—and more specifically, I look to helping to develop a bug fix in the present— see whether this magazine’s editorial content through organized community processes is makes use of the “right words.” A quota- certainly committed participation. tion attributed to Mark Twain describes the Going beyond the level of participation importance of the right word: “The difference and contribution, the organizations that build between the right word and the almost right on, drive, and own open source technology word is the difference between lightning and a projects are committed to open source tech- lightning bug.” nology at the highest level. And this level of For some time, I had questioned whether resource investment is easily measured. commitment was exactly the right word Oracle has built on, contributed to, and to describe a company’s or community’s participated in open source projects for relationship with open source, community- many years. Early on, Oracle added Java developed, and free software technology. I support to Oracle Database, used Java to was accustomed to seeing a commitment to Web-enable applications, and later used Java software or technology clearly demonstrated to build Oracle Fusion Middleware. Oracle by the financial investment of one technology- has participated in the Java Community creating company and that technology’s Process and driven and supported many Java licensees. So how do you quantify or confirm Specification Requests. Oracle has also con- commitment to open source, community- tributed multiple technologies to the Linux developed, and free technology? kernel. Oracle has actively developed and The use of an open source technology can delivered multiple releases of its open source be a commitment, but how the technology is Berkeley DB and InnoDB product lines. And used and why it’s used are key. In my mind, since the recent arrival of Java and MySQL, using an open source technology for business Oracle has already released new products in processes that are not mission-critical is not those product families. a significant commitment to that technology. In 2010, I’m now quite sure that when we And pledging at the business level to use open write about Oracle’s commitment to open source technology is a commitment to a busi- source, commitment is exactly (not almost) ness model for software, but not a commit- the right word. ment to the individual technologies used. To me, the transition from being a casual More CoMMitMent nexT STepS or even committed user of an open source Continuing an annual commitment, technology to being truly committed to that Oracle OpenWorld, JavaOne, and Oracle learn more about oracle’s commitment to technology begins with participation and Develop come to San Francisco, California, open source technology oracle.com/opensource contribution. The Java Community Process September 19–23. Come, contribute, partici- aTTend oracle openWorld, Javaone, (jcp.org), for example, is a mechanism for pate, and build on the experience. and oracle develop participation in and contribution to Java. And oracle.com/openworld the Linux Kernel Organization (kernel.org) is tom Haunert, editor in Chief oracle.com/us/javaonedevelop a mechanism for contribution to the Linux [email protected]

oracle magazine July/August 2010

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technology Events oraclE UsEr groUPs UKoUg DBms sig meeting Conferences and sessions to help you stay July 1, london, England on the cutting edge ukoug.org Dallas oracle Users group Bi/EPm Forum July 15, Plano, texas insync10 doug.org august 16–17, melbourne, australia ohio oracle Users group meeting three independent user groups in Australia and New July 15, Dublin, Ohio Zealand come together to present one conference ooug.org featuring information on Oracle database, middleware, UKoUg Partner Forum and applications products. Enterprise performance July 15, london, England management and business intelligence are among the ukoug.org many breakout topics. More than half of the 100-plus Houston oracle Users sessions will be delivered by Oracle customers and group meetings users. get details and sign up at insync10.com.au. July 20 and August 17, Houston, texas houg.org

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gEtty IMAgEs provided by these tools and utilities. Nearly 500 CIOs and senior It directors will

oraclE magazinE July/August 2010

JA10_events.indd 13 5/18/10 5:27:57 PM 14 events

fbit.ly/d0sBs9 this conference focuses on the importance of integrating mobility processes into daily opera- tions and using mobile solutions to generate more business opportunities.

tDWi World conference august 15–20, san Diego, california ftdwi.org this weeklong forum held by the Data Warehousing Institute (tDWI) helps business and technology professionals learn about business intelligence and data ware- Don’t miss the tDWi World conference, august 15–20, in san Diego, california. housing through full- and half-day courses, one-on-one consulting, peer networking, and gather for keynotes, case studies, user panels, and collaboration. Dozens of advanced work- an exhibit hall. and company presentations. the summit will be shops are also available. preceded by a one-day CIO master class on July iDc Brazil Financial insights 19, limited to 25 participants. gartner sOa and conference 2010 application Development and august 17, são Paulo, Brazil Quest northeast conference integration summit fbit.ly/dafy10 July 21–22, Uncasville, connecticut July 28–29, sydney, australia this conference provides an opportunity to see f bit.ly/9Qneny fgartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1304222 case studies and learn about the best practices Quest International users group partners with this summit will help attendees address crit- of banks and insurance companies that have five regional user groups from the Northeastern ical sOA challenges including governance, best gained a competitive edge and operational excel- u.s. on this conference, which offers more than practices, organizational and cultural changes, lence through the use of technology. 100 educational opportunities that explore new and the changing ways that applications are Oracle Applications product and service offerings. developed. Research findings will be presented minnesota Digital government in the areas of cloud computing, Web-oriented summit 2010 ciO Business congress architecture, and application development. august 17, saint Paul, minnesota July 22–24, goa, india fgovtech.com/events/minnesotadgs2010 fciobusinesscongress.com/home.html montana Digital government see the latest digital government solutions, learn this gathering focuses on seven industry ver- summit 2010 about current policy issues, and network with tical markets: banking, financial services, and august 4, Helena, montana state and local government It executives and insurance; public sector, including education; fgovtech.com/events/montanadgs2010 technologists at this summit. telecom; healthcare, including pharmaceuticals; Information technology in state and local govern- energy and utilities; transportation and logistics; ment is the focus of this summit. sessions will Quest midwest conference and It-enabled services. explore It’s use as a strategic tool for managers, august 17–18, rosemont, illinois executives, and policymakers. fbit.ly/cgde5r Burton group catalyst conference this fourth annual conference presents more July 26–30, san Diego, california comptia Breakaway 2010 than 100 sessions and more than 60 exhibitors fcatalyst.burtongroup.com/na10 august 9–12, san antonio, texas focused on the needs of Oracle’s Peoplesoft, With a keynote presentation by computing fcomptia.org/breakaway Hyperion, and JD Edwards users in the mid- pioneer John seely Brown, this conference fea- this event, designed for It channel partners, western u.s. Keynotes, town hall Q&A sessions tures eight tracks including sOA, virtualization, includes peer-to-peer reseller discussions, with Oracle executives, and networking opportu- industry analyst panels, workshops, and spon- nities complete the agenda. sored presentations, along with many net- register for working opportunities. events lOcatOr Oracle OpenWorld 2010 oracle.com/openworld JavaOne iDc mexico 3rd enterprise mobility Oracle events oracle.com/us/javaonedevelop/062264.html and Unified communications oracle.com/events Oracle Develop conference 2010 locate User groups oracle.com/us/javaonedevelop/062265.html oracle.com/technology/community/user_groups

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July/August 2010 Oracle.cOm/Oraclemagazine

JA10_events.indd 14 5/18/10 5:28:26 PM ResouRces 15 What’s new at oracle the latest videos, podcasts, blogs, and more

ViDeos How Continuous Intelligence Improves Your the Web video series where you can see our End-to-End Imaging with Oracle Content Business Processes Oracle Enterprise Manager hero in action. Management 11g fbit.ly/oramag-contintel fbit.ly/aemcj8 Every new process-improvement and application- oracle Data integration Resource Kit see the latest developments around Oracle’s solu- development project offers an opportunity to sig- fbit.ly/d6bwQo tion for end-to-end document imaging from Andy nificantly improve user visibility into the business. this kit includes comprehensive information on MacMillan, vice president of product management gartner analyst Roy schulte shares strategies Oracle data integration products, including white at Oracle. to capitalize on this opportunity by applying the papers, customer success stories, podcasts, emerging discipline of event processing. product demos, and on-demand Webcasts. WeBcasTs Gaining Operational Excellence and Strategic Blogs PoDcasTs Agility Through Enterprise Architecture The Designer experience Communicating Enterprise Architecture, foracle.com/goto/eawebcast fblogs.oracle.com/experience Parts 1–3 Find out how to build an adaptable and flexible It this from the graphx team, a group of fbit.ly/9fYzKm architecture that can support today’s constant five interaction designers at Oracle, discusses In this three-part series, enterprise architects change and innovation. the team’s experience building an Oracle discuss the challenges of communicating enter- Application Development Framework applica- Upgrading to Oracle Database 11g Release 2 tion. the team’s primary goal is to improve oracle Direct fbit.ly/ajYedz the application building toolset, logging bugs For Oracle product information, call the number for your region. Oracle Database expert tom Kyte discusses against the products as they build an internal counTRY Phone numBeR u.s. and Canada 1.800.367.8674 highlights of Oracle Database 11g Release 2 and icon-management application. Australia 1800.735.467 shares best practices, hints, and tips for suc- Austria 0800.29.7626 cessful upgrades to Oracle Database 11g. oracle’s autoVue enterprise Belgium 0800.73280 Visualization Blog Brazil 0800.901.985 China 800.810.0161 How to Accelerate Your SOA with Real-Time fblogs.oracle.com/enterprisevisualization Denmark 8088.1068 Data Integration this blog, written by members of Oracle’s Finland 0800.113.573 fbit.ly/beJicm AutoVue Enterprise Visualization group, covers the France 0800.905.805 germany 0800.1.810.111 Oracle data integration product and solution latest AutoVue news and information. greece 00800.353.12020 experts discuss maximizing sOA benefits and Hong Kong 3002.1246 increasing ROI with real-time data integration oracle soa Best Practice and India 1600.44.6725 Indonesia 001.800.1.672.253 architectures. Troubleshooting Ireland 1850.672253 fblogs.oracle.com/soa_how_to Italy 8008.74720 A Checklist for Effective Operational Data Pete Wang, principal technical support engineer Japan 0120.155.096 Integration Solutions at Oracle, shares tips and tricks for Oracle sOA Malaysia 1800.80.1837 Mexico 01800.221.7321 fbit.ly/aj9ioV suite, Oracle Coherence, and other products in the Netherlands 0800.0827 Find out about the top five criteria for deploying Oracle’s sOA family. New Zealand 0508.555.215 high-performance operational data integration Norway 800.14411 Philippines 811.5831 solutions. ResouRce KiTs anD cenTeRs Portugal 800.853.021 oracle enterprise manager 11g singapore 1800.6722.531 Four Secrets to Innovating with Packaged foracle.com/enterprisemanager11g south Africa 0800.994.225 south Korea 080.2194.114 Applications learn about Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g’s spain 900.952900 fbit.ly/oramag-Foursecrets business-driven It management approach in sweden 020.798798 learn the four innovation secrets that every this resource center and find out how to improve switzerland 0800.55.2574 taiwan 0800.672.253 applications customer needs to know about and customer satisfaction, increase It efficiency, and thailand 001800.441.0545 gain insight into why each of them improves achieve ROI of up to 149 percent in three years. turkey 00800.353.90014 investment returns. Don’t miss episodes of The Enterprise Manager, u.K. 0870.5.332200

oRacle magazine July/August 2010

JA10_RESOURCES.indd 15 5/14/10 4:58:51 PM 16 resOurces

OverHearD Bridging the Divide Between SaaS and Enterprise Datacenters “The fluid nature of the cloud paradigm means that insider fbit.ly/Oramag-saas-ent-Datactrs threats and proving compliance with regulations becomes learn how to leverage Oracle Fusion Middleware that much harder. There is a real danger of administrators to bridge the divide between software as a service (saas) and on-premises infrastructures granting themselves and other users excessive privileges.” to gain business agility in even the most hybrid —nishant Kaushik, Identity Management Product Architect at Oracle, in the Identity Management for of environments. Cloud Computing podcast (bit.ly/dgxu3A) Training prise architecture up and down the organizational Author Michael Lairson on Oracle CRM Oracle university Training and certification food chain, strategies for getting stakeholders On Demand for Oracle’s sun Technology on board, and social computing’s potential for fbit.ly/dcxF5Q foracle.com/education/sun meeting these communication challenges. Michael lairson, author of Oracle CRM On Oracle university offers courses featuring Java, Demand Reporting (Oracle Press, 2008), dis- Oracle solaris, MysQl, Oracle Waveset, Oracle’s The Red Room Interview, Parts 1–3 cusses several ways to add measurable business sun server and storage systems, and other fbit.ly/9fYzKm value through designing and generating reports in related products and technologies from Oracle. Bloggers from the Red Room—the Oracle Oracle CRM On Demand. Customers will get the same quality training they Australia and New Zealand middleware and tech- came to expect as sun customers, now backed by nology blog—check sOA’s pulse and share their Envista Coordinates Infrastructure Projects Oracle university’s 100% student satisfaction insight on the importance of service reuse. with Oracle Spatial 11g program. top courses include Java Programming foracle.com/database/podcasts.html language, system Administration for Oracle Architecture in a Post-SOA World Hear how Envista uses Oracle Database 11g solaris 10 Parts 1 and 2, MysQl for Database fbit.ly/9fYzKm with Oracle spatial to provide a Web-based Administrators, and Developing Applications for Oracle ACE Director Hajo Normann, sOA author solution that enables the coordination of the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 6. Jeff Davies, and enterprise architect Pat shepherd infrastructure projects among utility, telecom- Oracle university is now offering all-inclusive Java discuss form, function, and the future of enter- munications, and local government public and Oracle solaris Certification Value Packages prise architecture. works organizations. that include training and certification. In addition, these packages include a free certification retake What Is Service-Oriented Security? Identity Management for Cloud Computing so you can take the exam a second time if you f bit.ly/dgxu3a fbit.ly/dgxu3a don’t pass on your first try. Rohit gupta, vice president of identity manage- Nishant Kaushik, identity management product ment at Oracle, explains why service-oriented architect at Oracle, and Vadim lander, chief security is the next frontier in identity manage- identity architect at Oracle, provide insight into WeB lOcaTOr ment and how it promises to radically ease appli- challenges, requirements, and benefits of cloud cation security. security and how to leverage Oracle Identity Oracle Blog center Management solutions in these environments. oracle.com/blogs Author Bryan Wise on Oracle Security Oracle consulting oracle.com/consulting fbit.ly/dcxF5Q WHiTe PaPers Oracle events and Webcasts Bryan Wise, author of Applied Oracle Security Zero-Downtime Database Upgrades Using oracle.com/events (Oracle Press, 2009), discusses cutting-edge Oracle GoldenGate Oracle Podcast center techniques for secure Oracle business intel- fbit.ly/bKBxD7 oracle.com/podcasts ligence solutions. this technical white paper describes how to use Oracle newsletters Oracle goldengate to enable zero-downtime oracle.com/newsletters Author Robert Griesemer on database upgrades with bidirectional replication Oracle university oracle.com/education Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g for immediate failback. Oracle on Twitter fbit.ly/dcxF5Q twitter.com/oracle Robert griesemer, author of Oracle Warehouse SOA Anti-Patterns: How Not to Do Service- Oracle support Builder 11g: Getting Started (Packt Publishing, Oriented Architecture oracle.com/support 2009), talks about trends in data integration and foracle.com/goto/soaantipatterns my Oracle support how Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g can help cus- Read about common management and organiza- myoraclesupport.com tomers improve efficiency in building and loading tional pitfalls and the lessons learned in deploying my Oracle support communities communities.oracle.com their data warehouses. enterprise sOA.

July/August 2010 Oracle.cOm/Oraclemagazine

JA10_RESOURCES.indd 16 5/14/10 4:59:23 PM A new generation of intelligent server processors.

The new PRIMERGY BX900. Dynamic Infrastructure in a cube.

This blade server infrastructure can be dynamically adapted to different IT requirements, thereby reducing costs while increasing your IT agility. It does so thanks to its high density, accommodating up to 18 server blades equipped with Intel® Xeon® Processor, and through its dynamic energy and cooling efficiency combined with extreme virtualization capabilities. The PRIMERGY BX900’s scalable and fully redundant design ensure a complete investment protection. Find out more about the heart of your infrastructure at www.fujitsu.com/ts/dynamiccube

Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. 18 Product Resources

neW DOWnlOaDS JavaFX 1.3 Platform Released `` oracle.com/technology/software JavaFX 1.3, the latest release of the Java plat- tioning and binding the sizes of scenegraph JavaFX Production suite and JavaFX sDK form for creating and delivering rich internet nodes. This release brings the semantics for NetBeans IDE 6.9 Beta applications for desktop, browser, and the two styles of layout together. Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g grid Control mobile phones, is now available. The new Other new features in this release include Release 1 for linux x86/x86-64 platform features a range of performance performance improvements in the JavaFX Oracle’s Hyperion performance manage- and functional improvements. Runtime; a new NetBeans IDE 6.9 Beta ment and business intelligence solutions JavaFX 1.3 offers new and enhanced with improved editing and an updated Oracle Application testing suite 9.1.0 support for cascading stylesheets (CSS) skin- JavaFX Composer plug-in; new features and Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse 11g ning, programmatic layout, and user interface enhanced performance in JavaFX Production Release 1 (UI) controls. It significantly improves CSS Suite; a native JavaFX font family called Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2 for and programmatic layout, making it faster, Amble; support for the development of TV Windows (32-bit) smaller, and more powerful. The existing applications, including a new TV emulator; Oracle Real user Experience Insight 6.5.0 UI controls have been rewritten to take full and a mobile emulator on the Mac platform. Oracle Instant Client for Microsoft advantage of the new CSS support, resulting “JavaFX is the best software for creating Windows 11.2.0.1.0 (32- and 64-bit) in simpler UI controls. The release includes expressive and feature-rich cross-platform Oracle Database 11g Release 2 for the addition or upgrade of nine controls, plus applications,” says Octavian Tanase, vice (32- and 64-bit) previews of another eight controls. JavaFX 1.3 president of Java development at Oracle. Oracle Berkeley DB 11g Release 2 also changes the semantics of programmatic “By enabling developers to build rich layout containers. In previous releases, there internet applications on top of the Java DemOS were two different layout paradigms: using platform, we’re empowering millions of Java `` oracle.com/demos layout containers, and developers to leverage their existing skills Primavera P6 enterprise Project using absolute layout to create advanced client applications that Portfolio management by manually posi- exceed user experience expectations.” see how Oracle’s Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management helps orga- nizations manage their project portfolio life- Running Java applications in Virtualized environments now easier cycle and stay on schedule and on budget. To make running Java applications in a JRockit Virtual Edition enables Oracle Oracle cRm On Demand Sales virtualized environment easy and prac- WebLogic Server to run directly on Oracle VM Productivity Solutions tical, Oracle has released Oracle Virtual without an operating system. see how three salespeople use Oracle CRM Assembly Builder and Oracle WebLogic Suite In a virtualized environment, Oracle On Demand to spend more time selling Virtualization Option. JRockit Virtual Edition handles essential and less time on administration. Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder is operating system functions including designed to help organizations quickly and TCP/IP, hardware device interaction, file TUTORialS easily deploy multitier enterprise applica- I/O, and process scheduling. It frees up installing and configuring ePm tions in virtualized environments. It also hardware and management resources by System 11.1.2 with SSl enabled enables administrators to quickly configure removing operating system capabilities that on all layers and provision these applications. are not essential for enterprise Java applica- `` oracle.com/technology/obe/hyp_epm/ Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder provides tions. Used together, Oracle JRockit Virtual ssl_11.1.2 a framework for automatically capturing the Edition and Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder learn how to install and configure Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance configuration of existing software compo- can drive deployment and runtime efficien- Management system 11.1.2 with secure nents and packaging them as self-contained cies and deliver both operational and capital sockets layer (ssl) enabled on all layers, building blocks, known as appliances. In cost savings. with Oracle Weblogic server 11g Release 1 addition, it enables administrators to easily “Oracle has made virtualization a reality and Oracle HttP server. connect appliances as pluggable building for Java enterprise applications. Moreover, Re-engineering Your Database blocks, known as assemblies, which can be we are the only vendor to empower cus- Using Oracle SQl Developer used to create multitier applications. tomers with this kind of comprehensive Data modeler Oracle WebLogic Suite Virtualization solution,” says Steven G. Harris, senior vice `` bit.ly/dpQ3uT Option combines Oracle WebLogic Server president of product development at Oracle. learn how to update a database with the with Oracle JRockit Virtual Edition in a “With Oracle WebLogic Server running on changes made to its relational model using new application server release optimized Oracle JRockit Virtual Edition, we have elimi- Oracle sQl Developer Data Modeler and for virtualized environments and able to nated the trade-off of server density and per- Oracle sQl Developer. deliver higher application performance formance by bringing the world’s #1 applica- and increased hardware utilization. Oracle tion server to virtualized environments.”

July/August 2010 ORacle.cOm/ORaclemagazine

JA10_Briefs_R1.indd 18 5/20/10 12:59:48 PM Briefs 19

oracle crm on Demand 17 Unveiled mysQl cluster 7.1 released

Now available, Oracle CRM On Demand 17 agement functionality in Oracle CRM On Oracle has unveiled MySQL Cluster 7.1, the is the latest release of Oracle’s on-demand Demand 17 supports partner-delegated latest release of its real-time relational customer relationship management (CRM) administration and analytics for deal regis- database with no single point of failure. service. It introduces extensive forecasting tration, funding, and pipeline. MySQL Cluster 7.1 includes MySQL Cluster and analytics capabilities. Also available, Oracle CRM On Demand Manager, a new solution that simplifies and New forecasting capabilities include flex- Life Sciences Edition supports rapid sales automates the management of the MySQL ible fiscal calendars for more-productive presentations and simplified sample Cluster database and enables administra- business operations, the ability to perform management and reporting. As a result, tors to respond quickly to changing market both revenue and product quantity fore- pharmaceutical companies can make every conditions and stringent service-level agree- casting, and real-time information compari- interaction count, reduce costs, increase dis- ments. MySQL Cluster Manager allows users sons against current and historical forecasts tribution, and deploy everywhere. The Oracle to manage a cluster of many nodes, and an for proactive pipeline management. CRM On Demand Life Sciences Edition automated management capability reduces To increase sales productivity, Oracle CRM offline client is both sales representative– the risk of database downtime resulting from On Demand 17 introduces usability enhance- and customer-facing. manual configuration errors. ments and a newly redesigned user interface “When debating a new CRM system or an Another new feature, MySQL Cluster that enables sales teams to resize the solu- upgrade, the core question asked in many Connector for Java, helps accelerate tion to their preference, quickly navigate to organizations today simply comes down to development cycles and time to market relevant information, better manage lists, this: ‘When will we see the payback?’” says and enables higher throughput and lower and customize field labels in Oracle Mobile Robert P. Mahowald, vice president of IDC. latency for Java-based services. MySQL Sales Assistant. “A hosted CRM service that provides proven Cluster Connector for Java allows devel- The new release maximizes pipeline man- sales team productivity, analytics, and out- opers to write Java applications that can agement with automated time-based work- of-the-box industry-ready applications will use JDBC or the Java Persistence API to flows to manage sales, marketing, service, have most users supplying the answer to communicate directly with MySQL Cluster, and channels. It also helps reduce adminis- their own question: ‘Right now.’” making it easier to take advantage of the tration time through automated migration Oracle President Charles Phillips says, database’s high-performance and high- and data loader tools, including an on- “Oracle CRM On Demand 17 will help availability features. demand migration tool to migrate customiza- customers gain more-actionable insight, MySQL Cluster 7.1 also features ndbinfo, tions from one environment to another and increase sales productivity, and achieve cost which presents real-time status and usage an on-demand data loader to create, update, savings, and [it] showcases how Oracle solves statistics from the MySQL Cluster Data and delete massive data volumes. organizations’ essential requirements to Nodes as SQL tables and views, providing Extended partner relationship man- advance business opportunities and results.” developers and administrators with a simple and consistent means of proactively moni- new oracle application integration architecture toring and optimizing database performance and availability. foundation Pack available MySQL Cluster 7.1 delivers enhanced Oracle has released Oracle Application offers simplified installation of composite database scalability to handle unpredictable Integration Architecture (Oracle AIA) business processes through the creation of a workloads through support for in-memory Foundation Pack 11g Release 1. With this pack, comprehensive bill of materials that captures and disk-based data, automatic data parti- Oracle partners and customers can leverage the dependencies between services and the tioning with load balancing, and the ability their existing application investments and autogeneration of deployment plans based to add nodes to a running cluster with zero jumpstart new application integration proj- on the customer’s environment. downtime. It provides high availability and ects on Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g for The pack also gives customers and part- predictable millisecond response times, increased business value and agility. ners access to more than 130 prebuilt objects which allow telecom and embedded users to Using the pack, architects can capture and more than 1,200 services. meet their most demanding real-time appli- definition and proposal of new services “Designed to promote rapid deployment, cation requirements. through the decomposition of business reusability, and configurability of business “Beating the competition to market process models processes, Oracle AIA Foundation Pack matters for every business,” says Edward in an integration 11g Release 1 saves time, effort, and cost Screven, chief corporate architect at Oracle. project workbench. compared to building integrations from the “With the new MySQL Cluster 7.1 release It includes wizards ground up, while realizing the value of a sus- enhancing high availability and simplifying and templates that tainable, enterprise-class SOA,” says Michael management of real-time telecom and automate the creation Weingartner, vice president of development embedded applications, companies can

lindy groening lindy of new services. It also for Oracle AIA and Oracle SOA Suite. deliver new services faster and more reliably.”

oracle magazine July/August 2010

JA10_Briefs.indd 19 5/17/10 10:47:35 AM 20 Briefs

Oracle Vm Templates released Oracle agrees to Buy

Oracle VM Templates are now available for and predictably deploy the JD Edwards Phase forward Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.0 update and JD Edwards Oracle has agreed to buy Phase Forward, EnterpriseOne, and Oracle’s PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne Tools 9.98 update 2. The which makes software used to manage applications. These templates, based on user simply copies the preconfigured virtual clinical drug trials. Oracle plans to merge Oracle Enterprise Linux, provide prein- machines containing the operating system, the Waltham, Massachusetts–based stalled and preconfigured enterprise virtual database, Web server, and JD Edwards company into its Health Sciences unit. machines that help eliminate the need to EnterpriseOne tools and applications and Oracle expects that the combination will install new software from scratch. executes a “run once” script. help researchers, physicians, regulators, Oracle VM Templates for Oracle Oracle VM Templates for PeopleSoft and patients share and access drug data. E-Business Suite 12.1.1 automate the instal- human capital management (HCM) 9.1 Phase Forward’s software has been used in lation and configuration of the operating applications and PeopleTools 8.50 contain more than 10,000 clinical trials. Customers system as well as Oracle E-Business Suite the three tiers required for a PeopleSoft include AstraZeneca, Boston Scientific, Eli applications. Customers can also create their deployment—database, application server, Lilly and Company, and the U.S. Food and own templates for their configurations and and PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture. Drug Administration. deploy them in a virtualized environment. This allows for a PeopleSoft HCM environment “The life sciences and healthcare indus- Oracle VM Templates for JD Edwards to be deployed by simply starting the three tries are converging as they seek to control EnterpriseOne provide a method to rapidly virtual machines provided. costs while accelerating patient-centered innovation,” says Neil de Crescenzo, senior new releases of Oracle User Productivity Kit and Oracle Tutor vice president and general manager, Oracle Health Sciences. “Phase Forward brings out- support the creation of Dynamic, interactive content standing products and employees with sig- Oracle has unveiled Oracle User Productivity Both Oracle User Productivity Kit releases nificant expertise to Oracle, which will help Kit 3.6.1 and Oracle User Productivity Kit include a sound editor that allows users to enable the delivery of personalized medicine Professional 6.3, new releases of its content incorporate sound in their content through and value-based healthcare.”  development platforms for creating and deliv- sound recording, editing, and playback. ering documentation, simulations, and in- Oracle Tutor 12.2 features enhanced, application performance support for custom, customizable user-facing HTML documents WeB lOcaTOr Oracle, and third-party enterprise applica- with introduction, task, and flowchart tabs tions. Oracle has also released Oracle Tutor that allow users to quickly navigate between JavafX 1.3 .com 12.2, an update to its word processor–based policy and procedure information. Oracle Virtual assembly Builder business process “The latest updates of Oracle User bit.ly/b0Myxv documentation tool. Productivity Kit and Oracle Tutor continue Oracle Weblogic suite Virtualization Option Used together, these to meet customer demands for enhanced bit.ly/a7gC9Q tools help content deployment capabilities and standardization Oracle crm On Demand 17 developers to create of knowledge capture and deployment across crmondemand.oracle.com/en/products/ 064866.html dynamic and interac- the enterprise,” says Stuart Dunsmore, senior Oracle aia foundation Packs tive content. director, applications development, at Oracle. oracle.com/us/products/applications/ 054252.html new release of Oracle Berkeley DB available mysQl cluster .com/products/database/cluster/ mysql-cluster-datasheet.pdf Oracle has launched Oracle Berkeley DB support for JDBC and ODBC connections Oracle Vm Templates 11g Release 2, the latest version of its high- to Oracle Berkeley DB. In addition, Oracle oracle.com/technology/products/vm/templates performance, small-footprint open source Berkeley DB 11g Release 2 introduces support Oracle User Productivity Kit embeddable database engine for mission- for the Android platform, offering developers oracle.com/applications/tutor/ critical “edge” applications. This release the ability to develop and deploy a wide user-productivity-kit.html introduces a new SQL API, based on SQLite, range of applications. Oracle User Productivity Kit Professional oracle.com/applications/tutor/ which helps simplify application develop- “With new SQL capabilities and Android user-productivity-kit-pro.html ment. With SQLite Tools integration, all tools support, Oracle Berkeley DB 11g Release 2 Oracle Tutor that work with SQLite also work with Oracle makes it easier for developers to quickly oracle.com/applications/tutor Berkeley DB, making it easier to develop, develop and deploy new edge applications Oracle Berkeley DB deploy, and manage Oracle Berkeley DB that meet users’ high-performance and scal- oracle.com/database/berkeley-db/db applications and databases. ability demands,” says Marie-Anne Neimat, Oracle and Phase forward oracle.com/phaseforward

Other new features in the release include vice president of development at Oracle. groening lindy

July/August 2010 Oracle.cOm/Oraclemagazine

JA10_Briefs.indd 20 5/17/10 10:50:32 AM NEWS by Carol Hildebrand 21 Business-Driven iT management oracle enterprise Manager 11g connects business, technology, and it for an integrated approach to it management.

t a launch event at the Guggenheim “it’s about finally sarily correlate to the concerns of business AMuseum in New York City in April, Oracle managers, who are more focused on key unveiled Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g, its getting control of performance indicators such as order history next-generation integrated management and processing. “It’s a classic business-IT solution based on open standards and this complex thing disconnect,” said Richard Sarwal, senior vice engineered to work throughout the called iT.” president at Oracle, at the launch event. “If technology stack. IT tells a business owner that server response — Oracle President Charles Phillips The latest release of Oracle Enterprise time is 90 percent, that’s not what they want Manager is an important step forward to know. They want to know the status of in Oracle’s overall strategy, said Oracle application-to-disk management, and inte- order processing for their most important President Charles Phillips at the event. “In grated systems management and support. customer. Oracle wants to provide the tools many ways, it is a summary of our strategy to solve that disconnect and have business and why we did the Sun acquisition,” he Business-Driven ApplicAtion and IT speaking the same language.” said. “It’s about finally getting control of this MAnAgeMent By providing deep visibility into business complex thing called IT and trying to manage As the adoption of grid computing, cloud, transactions, Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g the entire stack differently than we have in SOA, and composite applications distrib- enables IT departments to manage applica- the past.” utes applications and business processes tions from a business perspective, allowing Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g delivers across multiple systems, system-specific IT them to better prioritize IT activities and the industry’s most comprehensive metrics such as CPU utilization no longer enhance end-user experience. For example, business-driven IT management capabili- reliably measure overall application health. Oracle Real User Experience Insight, the user ties. As companies wrestle with the ongoing What’s more, such metrics don’t neces- experience management feature in Oracle question of how to use and manage tech- Enterprise Manager 11g, is designed to identify nology effectively to meet their business and resolve user experience issues before they goals, Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g helps affect the business. Application support staff maximize business agility and productivity can pinpoint exactly which users are having through an integrated approach to IT man- problems by identifying technical exceptions, agement, Phillips said. such as which users experience technical “We’ve built a complete stack and built the performance errors, as well as business excep- management into that stack upfront,” he said. tions such as “product out of stock” messages. “With management tools that allow compa- As applications have increasingly become a nies to manage the entire stack together, we conduit for business transactions, managing can add value not only through management them from a business perspective is critical, but also performance and security.” Sarwal said. For example, an order placed on With its integrated approach, Oracle a Website could result in the invocation of the Enterprise Manager 11g allows IT staff to credit check service, inventory check service, respond to real business needs rather than workflow approval service, and, finally, a ship- arbitrary technology service levels. It delivers ping service. Any of these could face issues an integrated set of management capabilities that slow performance, and companies need

through three critical components: business- oracle President charles Phillips describes oracle an end-to-end view of transactions based on

Voltaire yap Voltaire driven application management, integrated Enterprise manager 11g’s integrated approach. business content in order to adjust perfor-

oraclE magaziNE July/august 2010

JA10_news.indd 21 5/17/10 11:33:46 AM 22 NEWS

mance to best meet business goals. To fulfill “Oracle wants to provide the tools to solve this need, Oracle Enterprise Manager’s busi- ness transaction management capabilities that disconnect and have business and iT provide sophisticated instrumentation for real-time detection, alerting, and remedia- speaking the same language.” tion of various types of unexpected business —Richard Sarwal, Senior Vice President, Oracle or technical conditions. Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g delivers end-to-end visibility of an integrated set of tools that comprehen- Oracle Enterprise Manager itself.” in-flight transactions across multiple tiers sively manage each tier of the stack, creating Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g has and applications, and IT staff can search an IT infrastructure that is increasingly self- full integration with My Oracle Support, transactions based on message content and managing and allows complex multitier diag- enhancing Oracle Enterprise Manager’s ability context, allowing them to manage applica- nostic issues to be addressed, Sarwal said. to serve as a single interface for managing tion performance in accordance with business That integrated stack is now even and supporting the enterprise. It provides needs. “For example, you can set service levels deeper, said Sarwal. “Our acquisition of seamless access to My Oracle Support pages based on customer type in addition to transac- Sun has helped us deepen the stack, and for managing service requests, deploying tion latency, allowing you to make sure that we now support [Oracle] Solaris and Sun- patches, and accessing knowledgebase mate- your platinum customers are getting the best specific virtual capabilities,” he said. “You rial. Moreover, Oracle Enterprise Manager can service levels,” said Sarwal. can look for more integration in the future automatically upload configuration informa- Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g also between [Oracle] Ops Center and Oracle tion to My Oracle Support, providing Oracle provides complete lifecycle management Enterprise Manager.” Support staff with instant access to the com- capabilities for business services. This allows Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g provides a prehensive configuration data they need. IT administrators to better understand appli- single solution for all aspects of middleware By unifying the information in Oracle cation topology and configuration, monitor and database administration, such as per- Enterprise Manager and My Oracle Support, the health of business services, and take cor- formance management, change and config- Oracle is able to take advantage of a global rective measures in response to a problem— uration management, testing, provisioning, configuration database containing the including adding capacity on demand. “By and patching. In addition, it includes full configuration information of all customers bringing together real user monitoring, busi- management capabilities for new Oracle who opt in. Combining this configuration ness transaction management, and business Database 11g Release 2 and Oracle Fusion data with service request data allows Oracle services management, Oracle Enterprise Middleware 11g features. to proactively detect problems in customer Manager 11g provides a unique and compel- It also spans the lifecycle of systems environments based on the experiences of ling business-driven application manage- management activities, from provisioning other customers running similar configura- ment capability,” Sarwal said. test environments through functional and tions, including specific recommendations load testing and subsequent deployment for patches that should be applied. Integrated applIcatIon-to-dIsk into production, including maintenance Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g helps ManageMent and upgrades. The management functions organizations reduce the cost and lower Managing a complex technology stack, enabled by Oracle Enterprise Manager include the complexity of managing applications, including application software, middleware, application performance management, con- while improving IT efficiencies. “We have a SOA, operating systems, storage, and hard- figuration management, lifecycle manage- business-driven focus on IT management,” ware, can present a troublesome challenge, ment, and application quality management. said Sarwal, “and we have the comprehen- especially when different vendors use dif- sive tools to help companies maximize their ferent tools to manage each area of the stack. Integrated systeMs ManageMent business investments.”  Oracle’s goal, said Sarwal, is to centralize and support management by presenting a unified tech- IT operations are split into two worlds: nology stack. “We’ve always taken a slightly systems management and vendor support carol Hildebrand is a freelance writer based different tack to management, because we services, said Sarwal. IT staff with questions in Massachusetts. own all the components of the stack,” he said. about their management tools commonly NExT STEpS Because Oracle develops a complete tech- interact with vendor support through portals nology stack, the system management devel- that allow them to download patches and lEarN more about Oracle Enterprise opment team can work directly with system updates and log service requests. “It’s our manager 11g and application developers to build manage- view that these operations really don’t need oracle.com/enterprisemanager11g ability into the core infrastructure and appli- to be as separated,” he said. “What we are DOWNlOaD Oracle Enterprise cations. Instead of “bolted-on” management working on is taking capabilities within our manager 11g oracle.com/technology/software/products/oem tools, Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g provides support systems and bringing them into

July/August 2010 OraclE.cOm/OraclEmagaziNE

JA10_news.indd 22 5/17/10 11:34:28 AM IntervIew by Rich SchweRin 23 open for Business Oracle chief corporate Architect edward Screven on the importance of open source and open standards

ith the integration of Sun earlier this “our strategy is to nology. It’s by far the most widely deployed Wyear, Oracle renewed its commitment transactional storage engine underneath to open source technology. Today, Oracle continue to push MySQL. When we acquired it, I think a lot of supports a wide range of open source people thought that perhaps we did it as a technologies—from MySQL, GlassFish, and the boundaries way to somehow attack MySQL, but that’s OpenOffice.org to Linux, NetBeans, and of [Java].” not at all why we bought it. We bought it many more. Oracle Magazine contributor because it was an interesting technology, — Oracle Chief Corporate Architect Rich Schwerin sat down with Oracle Chief Edward Screven and when we acquired it we doubled the Corporate Architect Edward Screven to number of engineers and improved its per- discuss Oracle’s long-standing dedication formance and functionality. to open source and open standards. The experience for MySQL that they get with Now, as a side effect of acquiring Sun, following is an excerpt from that interview. Oracle Database. we have both MySQL and InnoDB together, Download a podcast of the full interview at Finally, we want to make MySQL more and that’s going to be a very good thing for oracle.com/magcasts. integrated with the rest of the Oracle stack. MySQL users because it means that those Oracle Magazine: What is Oracle’s open So, for example, it makes a lot of sense for us two development teams can merge together source strategy? in the long run to make MySQL manageable and that we can deliver innovations in the Screven: The first thing that I want to point through Oracle Enterprise Manager, to make storage engine to MySQL customers faster. out is that Oracle doesn’t really have an MySQL backup coordinated through Oracle Oracle Magazine: Let’s discuss what some open source–specific strategy. What we have Secure Backup, and to make MySQL auditing have described as the software development is an overall company strategy: to deliver records delivered into Oracle Audit Vault. crown jewel of the Sun acquisition: Java. complete, open, integrated solutions to our Oracle Magazine: Several years ago, Oracle What is Oracle’s Java strategy? customers. Stacks of software and hardware acquired InnoDB, an open source storage Screven: Java is really one of the most that are built together and tested together engine. How does InnoDB fit into Oracle’s important computing technologies ever. and serviced together. And open source is open source portfolio? It’s a programming environment and lan- part of that. Screven: InnoDB is a very interesting tech- guage technology that is extremely widely Open source is both a development meth- deployed both in terms of number of devices odology and a business model for software, and computers—literally billions. And there which is different from conventional soft- are different scopes of deployment—for ware and conventional hardware but still a example, very small Java implementa- very effective way to build components that tions that run on smart cards and then Java are valuable for our customers. implementations that run on the largest Oracle Magazine: Of the many open source SMP [symmetric multiprocessing] boxes. technologies Oracle obtained via the Sun That ubiquity of the programming lan- acquisition, one in particular has drawn a guage and programming model is very lot of attention: MySQL. What is Oracle’s powerful for customers and developers. Our strategy for MySQL? strategy is to continue to push the bound- Screven: We have three major thrusts. One aries of that. So, continue to enhance the is to make MySQL a better product. So add programming model and the APIs. Continue features, add functionality, make it perform to invest in Java as a technology at every better, improve its quality. The second is to single scope, at every single scale. To try make MySQL support better. To make sure to make sure that Java remains, by far, the that customers who are getting support premier development programming lan- from Oracle for MySQL and also other Oracle guage and programming environment on

bOb AdleR products get that same integrated support oracle chief corporate architect edward Screven the planet.

oracle magazIne July/AuguSt 2010

JA10_interview_R1.indd 23 5/20/10 1:04:44 PM 24 IntervIew

Oracle Magazine: How does Oracle Fusion “we have three major thrusts [for mySQl]. One Middleware use and support open source? Screven: Oracle Fusion Middleware is a is to make mySQl a better product. So add microcosm reflecting Oracle’s overall approach to open source. There are many features, add functionality, make it perform open source components that are part of better, improve its quality.” Oracle Fusion Middleware. For example, —Oracle Chief Corporate Architect Edward Screven many parts of Java itself are open source. The underlying Oracle WebCenter infra- structure of Oracle Fusion Middleware has by far the broadest range of virtualiza- into a given stack. It’s to offer customers is based on Apache. There are lots of tion products available in the marketplace. the benefit of having preintegrated compo- Apache components that are built into Oracle VM includes two major components: nents. But customers aren’t going to choose Oracle Fusion Middleware besides just Oracle VM Server, a Xen-based bare metal that stack if they feel that somehow they’re the Web listener. hypervisor for x86 and x86_64 for hosting locked into software only from Oracle. So GlassFish is an open source Java EE [Java guest VMs [virtual machines]; and Oracle it’s very important for us to base our soft- Platform, Enterprise Edition] reference imple- VM Manager, a Web-based management ware on open standards. And I think it’s very mentation. Eclipse is a development tool, and solution for centrally managing Oracle VM important for customers to choose software Oracle Fusion Middleware includes a lot of Servers and guest VMs. We also have some- that’s based on open standards. plug-ins for Eclipse. NetBeans IDE [integrated thing called Oracle VirtualBox, which is a Oracle Magazine: What does Oracle’s development environment] is another open hosted virtualization environment. It runs support for open standards mean for real- source product that continues to be a choice on Windows, Linux, and other operating world customer environments? for Oracle Fusion Middleware developers. systems. And it lets you get a virtualized Screven: Real-world customers have hetero- Oracle Magazine: Oracle has long supported environment right on your laptop or desktop. geneous environments. Focusing on open the open source Linux operating system, Oracle Magazine: We’ve discussed MySQL standards gives customers a way to create going back to the first database on Linux in and Java. Another open source product with an infrastructure where they have a chance 1998. What is the status of Oracle’s Linux a significant installed base is OpenOffice. to integrate things, where they can avoid commitment today? What does Oracle have in store for creating islands of applications and data- Screven: We’re as committed to Linux OpenOffice? bases that they cannot integrate unless they today as we were in 1998. Linux continues Screven: OpenOffice is an open standards– take extraordinary, expensive measures. So to be a base development platform for based office productivity suite. It’s being open standards reduce customers’ costs. Oracle. It continues to be a strategic plat- managed inside Oracle as a separate global That’s the bottom line.  form for us on x86. We have more Linux business unit, which means that its devel- engineers today than we’ve ever had, and opment team and its sales team are within we’ll continue to hire more. Linux is abso- their own special organization, and I think rich Schwerin is a lutely a central part of our complete, open, it’s a very compelling offering. It allows users senior product marketing integrated strategy. to share documents that are defined in an manager for linux and Oracle Magazine: What does Oracle con- open standards–based format, and there’s open source at Oracle. tribute to the open source Linux community? a new technology coming out of that group Screven: Our contributions are focused on called Oracle Cloud Office. Oracle Cloud technologies that make sense in server Office lets a customer manipulate standards- next StepS environments, for the most part. So, for based open-document-format documents example, Oracle Cluster File System 2, a through rich HTML user interfaces. And those reaD more about new file system called Btrfs, some clus- rich HTML user interfaces can be accessed Oracle’s support for open source and tering work, data integrity work, storage through a browser on your laptop or your open standards validation, asynchronous I/O—lots of desktop and also on browsers that are avail- oracle.com/us/technologies/opensource things that make enterprise software able today through smartphones. Oracle and linux oracle.com/us/technologies/linux faster and more reliable. Oracle Magazine: With today’s open stan- Oracle and virtualization Oracle Magazine: What is the status of dards, customers are able to run both open oracle.com/us/technologies/virtualization Oracle’s virtualization offerings? source and commercial software in produc- DOwnlOaD Screven: With the Sun acquisition, Oracle tion environments. What is Oracle’s view of Java the role and importance of open standards? java.com/en/download/manual.jsp lISten to the podcast Screven: Our goal in providing that com- mySQl oracle.com/magcasts mysql.com/downloads plete suite of software is not to lock people

July/August 2010 Oracle.cOm/OraclemagazIne

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Oracle JRockit: The Definitive Guide 11g Re1ease 1, with bonus information about Partners Achieve Platinum Status By Marcus Hirt and Release 2. It presents a complete method for Marcus Lagergren the design, installation, and configuration of Several Oracle partners have achieved Oracle RAC 11g. Packt Publishing Oracle Platinum Partner status in the Packed with real-world examples, expert packtpub.com Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), allowing tips, and troubleshooting advice, the book begins with an introduction to high avail- them to broaden their specialization areas, In this hands-on guide ability and Oracle RAC. It then dives deep receive priority placement in the OPN to Oracle JRockit, a high- into the world of Oracle RAC design, installa- Solutions Catalog, achieve Oracle Validated performance (JVM), you tion, and configuration. will learn how to boost the performance and Integration status for one solution, partici- stability of Java applications in virtual envi- Pro ODP.NET for Oracle pate in joint marketing and sales opportu- ronments. It covers using Oracle JRockit as Database 11g nities, and receive discounts on training. well as its internals, Oracle JRockit Mission By Edmund Zehoo Control, and Oracle JRockit Real Time to Oracle Platinum Partners can also access develop and run applications using Java. Apress dedicated support channels, and their apress.com The book starts by covering the basics queries receive top-priority handling. of a JVM and finishes with a concise guide Io Consulting was recognized for its to Oracle JRockit’s advanced analysis tools. Pro ODP.NET for Oracle Readers will gain an understanding of the Database 11g is a guide to expertise and excellence in implementing inner workings of a modern JVM as well using Oracle Data Provider and upgrading Oracle applications and as the knowledge to make development for .NET (ODP.NET) 11g. technology in higher education. The simpler and faster and applications fast, It covers the full set of features available in company provides that market with Oracle’s reliable, and robust. ODP.NET 11g, providing clear code examples for each. Readers will learn about common PeopleSoft applications, Oracle Fusion Oracle CRM On Demand programming pitfalls and how to apply suc- Middleware implementations, upgrades, Deployment Guide cessful design patterns to different ODP.NET integration, and training. usage scenarios. By Jeff Saenger, Mahindra Satyam was acknowledged for Tim Koehler, and The book begins with a look at the task its expertise in delivering enterprise applica- Louis Peters of connecting to a database, querying, and getting results back. It then moves on to fea- tions and providing accelerated business Oracle Press tures such as connection pooling, fetch size www.oraclepress.com transformation solutions. controls, ref cursors, bind variables, state- ment caching, and the client result cache. Optimum Solutions was recognized for Written by the original Strong emphasis is given to authentication its enterprisewide system implementation Oracle CRM On Demand and security. consulting team, this book details how to and consulting services related to Oracle successfully implement Oracle CRM On Oracle SOA Suite 11g R1 E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft Enterprise, and Demand, one of Oracle’s premier software- Developer’s Guide Oracle business intelligence solutions. as-a-service (SaaS) applications. The Projected Consulting, a provider of Oracle authors share best practices for planning a By Antony Reynolds and deployment and offer real-world examples Matt Wright Projects consultancy and training support for designing, configuring, and maintaining Packt Publishing in Europe, was recognized for the depth and Oracle CRM On Demand to meet any orga- packtpub.com breadth of its consultants’ knowledge and nization’s evolving sales, marketing, and expertise in a variety of Oracle products. service needs. The book features undocu- This book is a major mented best practices, winning designs, and update to Oracle SOA Version 1, an IT consulting and services hard-won lessons collected from hundreds Suite Developer’s Guide, specialist, is the first Oracle Platinum Partner of Oracle CRM On Demand projects. Chapter with a focus on Oracle SOA Suite 11g in Ireland. It implemented the first European topics include implementation planning, Release 1. With a full 40 percent of the book deployment of Oracle Business Intelligence design, Web services integration, and featuring new material, it includes detailed ongoing maintenance and administration. coverage of new components, including the Standard Edition One and the first Irish mediator, the new rules editor, the event deployment of Oracle Database Vault. Oracle 11g R1/R2 Real Application delivery network, service data objects, and Clusters Handbook the metadata repository. There is also a By Ben Prusinski, new chapter on advanced SOA that covers Oracle Partners Go Gold Guenadi Jilevski, and message delivery, transaction handling, and Syed Jaffar Hussain clustering considerations. Two Oracle partners have achieved Oracle Written by the same authors as the pre- Packt Publishing Gold Partner status. iWare Logic was noted vious edition, the book offers an introduction packtpub.com to Oracle SOA Suite, an in-depth practice as an enterprise business application con- guide, and considerations of testing and sulting company specializing in the resale, This handbook docu- administrating SOA applications. support, implementation, training, and ments the administration of complex Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g (Oracle RAC development markets. HMS Software was 11g) environments. Written for DBAs charged recognized for TimeControl, its time sheet with configuring and implementing Oracle Look for other Oracle books at oracle.com/ product that supports Oracle Database RAC, the book covers all areas of Oracle RAC technology/bookstore. and integrates with Oracle’s Primavera line of products.

JULY/AUGUST 2010 ORACLE.COM/ORACLEMAGAZINE

JA10_partner_R1.indd 26 5/20/10 1:07:36 PM Partner news 27

Unify | ciphersoft’s exodus integrates with oracle webcenter 11g oracle expands oPn offerings for

Unify | CipherSoft, a provider of legacy mod- Oracle’s Java EE–based environment. Because oracle enterprise manager ernization tools and services, has announced Exodus can convert Oracle Forms applications Oracle has announced new Oracle that its Exodus family of automated tools to code that integrates with Oracle WebCenter, PartnerNetwork (OPN) resources and for converting Oracle Forms to Java now pro- organizations can move applications to the partner-driven plug-ins and connectors for duces Java/Oracle Application Development Web and leverage Oracle WebCenter in a cost- Oracle Enterprise Manager. Framework code that integrates directly with effective way. Oracle WebCenter Framework, The new OPN Oracle Enterprise Manager Oracle WebCenter. a component of Oracle WebCenter, allows Ops Center Knowledge Zone allows partners Exodus automates the migration of Oracle developers to embed portlets, content, and to access tools, information, and commu- business logic from legacy applications to customizable components in applications. nity insight to develop, implement, and sell Oracle Enterprise Manager–based solutions. Primus Delphi group creates touchscreen interface for Using information in the Knowledge Zone, partners can work on Oracle Enterprise oracle e-Business suite Manager specialization by starting OPN cer- Primus Delphi Group, an Oracle Platinum screens to select records, enter numeric tifications for sales, presales, and support. Partner and Oracle’s largest consulting values, start processes, and save transactions. Additionally, partners with integrated partner in German-speaking Europe, has No mouse or keyboard is necessary. The Oracle Enterprise Manager plug-ins developed a touchscreen interface for Oracle touchscreen solution can be implemented and connectors can leverage the Oracle E-Business Suite. Targeted for production and quickly and can improve data entry speed Validated Integration program to review warehouse logistics uses, the interface relies and reduce errors. Primus Delphi Group can those integrations. Oracle Validated on simple data entry forms, with users tapping customize the input forms. Integration provides access to Oracle Applications, tools, technical resources, mobile Bis introduces route optimization system and training to assist partners in devel- oping integrations. Oracle and its partners Mobile BIS, a division of Oracle Certified including minimum distance, customer have delivered dozens of Oracle Enterprise Partner BIS Computer Solutions and creator priority, road conditions, truck capacity, and Manager plug-ins and connectors for of mobile technology services, has released other factors. Mobile BIS software defines monitoring IT technologies, interacting with software based on Oracle technology that business rules that govern shipping priori- management frameworks, and connecting enhances the efficiency ties, and based on those rules the system with service management systems. of multistop deliveries. automatically generates maps and Schedulers using reports for schedulers and drivers. zero wait-state Partners Mobile BIS software can Solutions from Mobile BIS are developed optimize route deliv- and implemented using Oracle Database 10g with goengineer eries based on variables and Oracle Database Lite Mobile Server. Zero Wait-State, an Oracle Certified Partner, is working with Oracle Gold Partner Quest Delivers oracle support to Visual studio 2010 GoEngineer to distribute DesignState, a connector for Oracle’s Agile product lifecycle Quest Software has launched the Toad using the extension can import Oracle data- management (PLM) applications. Under the Extension for Microsoft Visual Studio, a bases, modify and refactor databases, track agreement, GoEngineer will be an exclusive database schema provider that supports changes in Visual Studio Team Foundation master distributor of DesignState. application lifecycle management for Oracle Server, compare schemas and merge GoEngineer now resells Agile PLM appli- Database in Visual Studio 2010. changes, generate test data, and automate cations, the DesignState connector, and Toad Extension for Visual Studio enables daily builds. Dassault Systems’ SolidWorks product data developers to perform offline design, devel- Toad Extension for Visual Studio supports management software. The three products opment, and change management of Oracle Visual Studio 2010 Premium and Ultimate. A together offer customers the means to databases in Visual Studio. Developers freeware version is also available. streamline data management and leverage information across the enterprise. This Perficient acquires Kerdock consulting allows for full collaboration across an organi- zation and out to the supply chain. Oracle Certified Partner Perficient, an management consulting firm. Zero Wait-State provides engineering IT consulting firm serving customers Perficient is acquiring Kerdock’s team collaboration solutions for Agile PLM appli- throughout North America, has acquired of professionals, its client roster, and its cations. The company uses its DesignState Kerdock Consulting, an Oracle business expertise with Oracle’s Hyperion enterprise platform to help companies migrate from

lindy groening lindy intelligence and enterprise performance performance management tools. legacy systems to new solutions.

oracle magazine July/August 2010

JA10_partner.indd 27 5/17/10 2:31:42 PM 28 Partner news

Xynomix launches cloud-Based Disaster recovery Dms software technologies

Oracle Certified Partner Xynomix has devel- cloud environment. serves sri lanka oped a disaster recovery solution that takes Benefits of the solution include zero data DMS Software Technologies, an Oracle advantage of developments in cloud com- loss, database recovery time of less than 30 Certified Advantage Partner, has created an puting technology. The new offering provides minutes, and no hardware or license invest- Oracle Accelerate solution for midsize com- Xynomix clients with a real-time backup of ment. It provides protection against onsite panies in Sri Lanka. The solution combines their entire Oracle Database infrastructure, disasters such as fires and floods and is Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Business stored off-site in a dedicated, secure, virtual available to midsize enterprises. Accelerators, and geography-specific deploy- ment expertise. The offering is geared toward  Pricewaterhousecoopers and global computer enterprises team Up midsize companies in all industries. to Help Federal agencies weB lOcatOr PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), an experience in helping federal agencies assess Oracle Platinum Partner, and Global and implement governance, risk, and com- io consulting Computer Enterprises (GCE) are collabo- pliance solutions with GCE’s capability as io-consulting.com rating to create an Oracle technology–based shared-service provider for federal agencies. mahindra satyam governance, risk, and compliance solution The solution will help federal agencies mahindrasatyam.com for federal agencies. The solution, to be meet the U.S. Office of Management and Optimum solutions delivered on GCE’s federal Shared Service Budget’s Financial Management Line of optimumsolutions.com Provider Appliance, will combine PwC’s Business (FMLoB) requirements. Projected consulting projectedconsulting.com Version 1 topDown consulting resells Oracle University education version1.com iware logic TopDown Consulting, an Oracle Certified and self-paced online offerings. iwarelogic.com Advantage Partner, has entered an education TopDown Consulting is experienced in Hms software reseller partnership with Oracle University. implementing Oracle enterprise perfor- hmssoftware.ca TopDown Consulting will help its customers mance management and business intelli- Unify | ciphersoft ciphersoftinc.com develop Oracle enterprise performance gence solutions. Its services include strategy, Primus Delphi group management training plans using Oracle process improvement, change management, primus-delphi-group.com University’s instructor-led training, live implementation, training, and infrastructure mobile Bis virtual classes, self-study CD-ROM courses, technology solutions. mobilebis.com Quest software toadextensions.com F5 announces Oracle enterprise manager Plug-in Perficient perficient.com F5 Networks, a provider of application cooperation with Oracle, provides detailed Oracle enterprise manager Ops center delivery networking and an Oracle Gold prescriptive guidance for deploying Oracle Knowledge zone Partner, has announced an Oracle Enterprise Enterprise Manager with F5 BIG-IP solutions. oracle.com/partners/en/knowledge-zone/ Manager plug-in that optimizes the use of It also automatically server-storage/049231.html F5 BIG-IP application delivery controllers. tracks configuration zero wait-state zerowait-state.com With the plug-in, customers of F5 and changes and provides goengineer Oracle can improve application availability reports for problem diag- goengineer.com and manage their environments from a nosis, trend analysis, and Xynomix central location. The plug-in, developed in capacity planning. xynomix.com Pricewaterhousecoopers pwc.com gryphon Privacyadvisor earns Oracle Validation global computer enterprises gcefederal.com Oracle partner Gryphon Networks has CRM On Demand to deliver compliance with topDown consulting announced that the integration of its internal, state, and national privacy regula- topdownconsulting.com PrivacyAdvisor product with Oracle CRM tions in real time across all channels. It also F5 networks On Demand has been validated by Oracle offers bulk certification of leads prior to f5.com through the Oracle PartnerNetwork marketing or sales campaigns, guaranteed gryphon networks Application Integration Architecture for compliance with do-not-contact regula- gryphonnetworks.com Partners Initiative. tions, and analysis of exemptions to reduce Dms software technologies www.dmsswt.com

PrivacyAdvisor integrates with Oracle oversuppression. groening lindy

July/August 2010 Oracle.cOm/Oraclemagazine

JA10_partner.indd 28 5/17/10 2:32:11 PM Community Bulletin by Justin Kestelyn 29 a new look for oracle technology network From a fixed width to a new header, design changes provide a consistent user experience across Oracle Websites.

e’ve made several important changes If you like, you can now directly access WeB loCator Wto the Oracle Technology Network product overviews, Oracle University and Website since the last issue of this magazine, Oracle Support information, the Oracle Store, Bigadmin System administrator Community and I hope you like them as much as I do. Oracle partner information, Oracle corporate sun.com/bigadmin Blogs First of all, there’s a new URL for the information, and more from the Oracle blogs.oracle.com Oracle Technology Network home page: Technology Network site. This is also a first. Developer events Calendar oracle.com/technetwork. Keep in mind that we didn’t just make oracle.com/technology/events One of the biggest changes came this stuff up. Our new approach was Developer resources for Java technology in April, when we went fixed width. validated in extensive user testing. And java.sun.com This means that the borders of the although any new design takes some time Discussion Forums forums.oracle.com Website no longer dynamically change to get used to, I’m confident that in the long Documentation to accommodate your browser window. run, you’ll be more satisfied with your Oracle oracle.com/documentation There are several reasons for this change, Technology Network experience. Free Software Downloads including easier content management. You will soon see even more dramatic oracle.com/technology/software A week after the fixed-width change, we changes, involving not only the move to a oracle aCe Program rolled out a brand-new header—the first new content management system (Oracle oracle.com/technology/goto/oracle-ace step in what we call the “Mosaic Project,” Universal Content Management) but also the oracle Sample Code samplecode.oracle.com which is an effort to provide a consistent incorporation of a massive new content store oracle technology network Headlines user experience across all Oracle Websites. from Sun. If you’re a Java developer, every oracle.com/technology/pub/news (Going fixed width also supports this effort.) piece of information you need to build an oracle technology network Home The impact of this change is as follows: The application—from downloading the software oracle.com/technetwork pull-down menus on the Oracle Technology to exploring the Java APIs and learning coding oracle technology network on twitter Network Website have been removed, and practices—will be available from Oracle twitter.com/oracletechnet most of the links within them have moved Technology Network. This represents major Podcasts oracle.com/technology/techcasts into a “fly-out” menu in the header. (You new value for the community. Sun Developer network must have JavaScript enabled in your It’s not just about Java, of course; Oracle developers.sun.com browser to see this, of course.) Solaris has also become a first-class topic technical articles You can access the fly-out menu from any area for us. Thus the content formerly oracle.com/technology/pub/articles page on oracle.com or the Oracle Technology residing at sun.com/bigadmin is joining the technology Centers oracle.com/technology/tech Network site. And for the first time in several Oracle Technology Network family. And if years, you have direct access to the Downloads you’re an Oracle Solaris admin or developer, index from anywhere on oracle.com. you should subscribe to our new Oracle Justin Kestelyn The new “I am a . . .” menu takes you Solaris Community Newsletter this very (justin.kestelyn@oracle directly to resources specifically for DBAs/ second, at oracle.com/newsletters. .com) is senior director, application developers, Java developers, All in all, it’s a great time to be an Oracle Oracle technology architects, and system administrators/ Technology Network member. The horizons network and developer developers. I’m especially excited about this have expanded, and the possibilities are programs, as well as role-based navigation feature. endless.  Oracle technology network editor in chief.

oraCle magazine July/August 2010

JA10_OTN.indd 29 5/14/10 10:05:13 AM 30 architect By BoB RhuBARt Panning for gold Finding real value in conversations about enterprise architecture

verybody’s talking about enterprise until stakeholders can achieve a better Oracle ACE Director Basheer Khan, Earchitecture (EA). The conversations understanding of the IT processes involved founder and CEO of Innowave Technology, are happening in offices and meeting and a broader perspective that sees beyond believes that conversations about EA have rooms and on blogs and social networks a single project or domain. been too hardware- and platform-centric. and everywhere else IT professionals “Until then, the conversations will “It still has not sunk in for many congregate in the real and virtual worlds. continue to drill down to project-level, organizations that when they talk about And while all that jawboning does a great EA, about rationalizing hardware or job of increasing awareness of what “how do we create infrastructure, or about cloud computing most would agree is an issue of no small or virtualization, that there is bigger value importance, how much of it has any real more systemic in moving those discussions to a business value in helping organizations implement practices with an level,” Khan says. and benefit from EA? But times are changing, and Khan sees a There is gold buried in the growing enterprise scope?” new trend emerging. “The industry is slowly mountain of words about EA. But it is rare —Todd Biske, Enterprise Architect and Author moving away from IT architects to business and precious. architects,” he says. One problem, according to Oracle rather than enterprise-level, activities,” says In the end, finding real value in the ACE Director Jordan Braunstein, a SOA, Biske, “and the enterprise team will struggle multitude of conversations about EA can enterprise architecture, and middleware to show how they are adding value beyond be a lot like panning for gold. But there are partner at TUSC, is that much of the that project architect role.” nuggets to be found, each bringing the conversation about EA is too academic. Pat Shepherd, an enterprise architect dedicated seeker of EA value a step closer to “Some of our customers see EA as with Oracle’s enterprise solutions group, the mother lode.  an ivory tower type of fluff exercise,” believes that conversations about EA are says Braunstein. “They just want us to too short and too narrow, particularly when implement Oracle SOA Suite, crank out SOA is involved. business process models and workflows, “Sometimes the conversation leads to an Bob rhubart and get actual code out the door. It’s been agreement of what SOA means in general ([email protected]) a challenge trying to educate them, trying and what it means in relation to customer is manager of the to make them understand EA and not needs, or what it means to a specific architect community ignore it.” project,” Shepherd says. “But sometimes on oracle technology Todd Biske, a veteran enterprise architect that’s as far as the conversation goes.” Network, the host of the and SOA author, believes that conversations A project-level focus on SOA doesn’t oracle technology Network Arch2Arch podcast about EA are too infrequent and focus too serve the larger cause of EA, according series, and the author of the ArchBeat blog often on project architecture. to Shepherd. But SOA at the department (blogs.oracle.com/archbeat). “We still struggle at really defining the level can have value in the gradual enterprise piece of it,” Biske says. “IT still implementation of EA. “A department that next StePS operates on a project-by-project basis. And starts ubiquitously using SOA techniques admittedly, that’s where a lot of the focus will play better with the enterprise stuff liSten to the podcast bit.ly/cg2bBh is. But you can pick anything that has more when it comes along,” he says. reaD more rhubart of an enterprise moniker, be it application But sharing toys in the enterprise blogs.oracle.com/archbeat management or project management office sandbox means playing by enterprise rules. get more Oracle technology network activities. They all struggle with the same “I always tell my customers that you have architect information challenge: how do we create more systemic to get your own backyard in order before oracle.com/technology/architect practices with an enterprise scope?” That you look to move beyond your backyard,” reaD more about enterprise architecture oracle.com/technology/architect/entarch challenge will continue, Biske believes, says Shepherd.

July/August 2010 Oracle.cOm/Oraclemagazine

JA10_ARCHITECT.indd 30 5/17/10 2:41:00 PM Up Close By Jeff erickson 31 a northern light A finnish user group leader becomes a beacon for user group harmony.

will never be president,” said Heli you’re having a technology problem, you I Helskyaho on the day in 2001 when aren’t the only one in the world with that she joined the board of Oracle User Group problem,” she says. “In a small country, Finland (OUGF). But her energy and maybe no one has your same configuration, enthusiasm as a board member betrayed but someone from another country might her. In 2007, when the sitting president have a similar configuration. So it’s good to moved to a non-Oracle company, Helskyaho bring more people together to share their was the obvious successor. “The board said, problems and solutions.” ‘You’re the one,’” she recalls. “‘You’re it.’” Part of the mission for any user group is to She has been president ever since. communicate its members’ experiences and Helskyaho’s guidance and energy have needs to Oracle. “We get along with Oracle helped OUGF become a strong influence very well,” says Helskyaho. “For example, in the European user group community. I our members initially had problems with met her on the Oracle campus in Redwood My Oracle Support, and instead of just com- Shores, California, in early 2010, where as a plaining to each other, we organized a survey spokesperson for the Europe, Middle East, with other EMEA user groups and gave and Africa (EMEA) Oracle user community, that feedback to our contact at Oracle for she was meeting Oracle representatives and Heli Helskyaho, president, oracle User group Finland support issues. They were unbelievably great giving them EMEA’s user group feedback on about engaging our members and giving us support issues and product direction. Oracle Applications, Oracle’s Hyperion solu- answers. Oracle is very appreciative that we Helskyaho has thrived as a user group tions, and MySQL. provide that link into the user community.” leader, and the group has thrived with her EMEA Harmony 2010 was held in May in OUGF and Oracle have a solid working at the helm. Even during the economic Tallinn, Estonia, just three hours from Helsinki relationship. “When Oracle closed the Sun challenges of the past few years, OUGF by ferry, and it was hosted by four user groups: deal, Oracle Finland held a big welcome membership has grown, and sponsorships from Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Russia. event for Sun people,” says Helskyaho. “One for its conferences have increased. And she “Members of other Oracle user groups have of my friends from Sun who was at the event loves brokering solutions to technical prob- often asked to attend our spring conference, sent me a text message that a director from lems for users—making connections and and we have always said, ‘Of course, please Oracle was talking up our user group. Her smoothing pathways. come!’” says Helskyaho. “Then we thought, message said, ‘We are all joining the user “I like it,” she says of OUGF leadership. “I why not make it official? and so we made group now!’”  like finding the right people to help others. EMEA Harmony a regional conference.” If somebody is having a problem, I usually The conference is called EMEA Harmony Jeff erickson can’t help with the technical issue, but I know “because anyone is welcome and because (jeffrey.x.erickson@ somebody who knows somebody who can.” we hope it becomes a bigger event in the oracle.com) is a senior OUGF has served Finland’s Oracle users future,” Helskyaho says. Even the name of editor with oracle for 22 years, making it one of the world’s the conference speaks of intergroup coop- Publishing. oldest Oracle user groups. Its 600 active eration. “Ronan Miles, the chair for U.K. members, consisting mostly of DBAs and Oracle User Group, came up with the name,” developers, with a growing number of appli- she explains. nexT sTeps cations users, have two annual conferences Helskyaho believes there is room in to choose from—a large conference in the EMEA for a large annual conference such as reaD about oUgF spring (EMEA Harmony 2010) and a smaller the COLLABORATE conference in the U.S., ougf.fi conference in the fall. Members can also which is held by three cooperating user WaTCH Up Close Heli Helskyaho video oracle.com/oramag/upclose

JuliAnA HArkki/getty imAges JuliAnA HArkki/getty attend special interest group meetings for groups. “User groups work because when

oraCle magazine July/August 2010

JA10_UpClose.indd 31 5/17/10 4:42:26 PM 32 Peer-TO-Peer by bLAir CAmpbELL Solving Puzzles Oracle technologies help these peers with everything from sudoku to scalability.

iggy Fernandez murali VallaTh maTJaz B. Juric

company: Database specialists, a provider of company: summersky Enterprises, a consulting company: university of maribor, a higher database management services firm specializing in Oracle technology education institution with 16 faculties and Job title/description: senior consultant, Job title/description: independent consultant, 24,600 students handling all aspects of database administration responsible for high-availability solutions Job title/description: professor and head of location: Oakland, California location: bangalore, india the sOA Competency and Cloud Computing Centre, responsible for the development of Oracle credentials: Oracle Certified DbA Oracle credentials: Oracle Certified DbA sOA, business process management, and cloud (Oracle Database 10g), with 15 years of (Oracle8i Database, Oracle9i Database), with projects, as well as consulting, mentoring, experience using Oracle products 19 years of experience using Oracle products and research location: maribor, slovenia How did you get started in IT? My first IT job Which new features in Oracle Database are length of time using Oracle products: was in COBOL programming. When a DBA you currently finding most valuable? Several 16 years position opened up, I convinced my manager new features in Oracle Database 11g Release to let me try my hand at it—which eventually 2 have impressed me, but one really stands Tell us about your recent work related to led to learning Oracle technologies. This path out: the Server Pool feature. It allows for cloud computing. Last year we established has influenced my hiring philosophy, which dynamic provisioning of instances based on a SOA Competency and Cloud Computing is that we should simply give the smartest server availability and user-defined policies. Centre, where we research and develop new, people the chance and buy them as many Multiple databases can be configured across innovative applications. We all know how textbooks as they want. pools with prioritization, and when databases the internet has already changed our lives What’s your favorite technology on the job? need additional servers or when a server fails, and the way we communicate with business I enjoy discovering new features of SQL. Did Server Pool takes care of autoconfiguring the partners, but I think cloud computing offers you know that Sudoku puzzles can easily be instances. I’ve found this feature to provide undiscovered opportunities. In our center, solved with a single SQL statement? Anton great advantages with scalability. we’re researching some of these. Scheffer, a technologist from the Netherlands, What technology has most changed your What green practices do you use in your recently showed how to do this with recursive life? Use of search engines like Google. work? In the Cloud Computing Centre, common table expressions, a nifty new Reading and research have become much we’re working on an innovative solution for capability of Oracle Database 11g Release 2. easier, and people have started sharing their “smart heating,” which will use IT, mobile If you were going to the International Space knowledge in a more open manner. This has devices, wireless technologies, location, Station for six months and could only take also increased competition significantly, and other technologies to enable smarter one Oracle reference book, what would with more people than ever having in-depth use of energy for heating homes and it be? I’d be looking out the windows the knowledge of Oracle technologies. offices. At the same time, it will improve whole time! If I were on the cast of Survivor, What would you like to see Oracle, as a the quality of life. however, I’d trade the optional bar of soap for company, do more of? Just keep doing What would you like to see Oracle, as a Database System Concepts, by Henry Korth more of the same: from the true clustering company, do more of? Raise awareness and Abraham Silberschatz [McGraw-Hill, solutions now available on the database tier outside the IT industry. I think most non-IT 2005]. It’s not exactly an Oracle reference to the recent innovations in more-efficient people are still not aware how important book, but we should all understand the use of data storage and improvements in Oracle software is and how many businesses underlying theory of relational databases. high-speed processing power. it drives. 

Learn more about the Oracle ACE program at oracle.com/technology/community/oracle_ace.

JuLy/August 2010 Oracle.cOm/Oraclemagazine

JA10_peer.indd 32 5/17/10 5:27:32 PM One City, One Week, 33 three COnferenCes Oracle OpenWorld, JavaOne, and Oracle Develop converge on San Francisco September 19 –23.

his September, San Francisco, California, plays host to three and partners. It is your opportunity to meet live with experts, Tconferences simultaneously—Oracle OpenWorld, JavaOne, enthusiasts, business leaders, and innovators from every industry and Oracle Develop. With a complete technology stack from around the world. It is also your chance to meet with product applications to disk, Oracle has something to offer everyone and technology experts from every layer of Oracle’s complete in the technology chain, and the simultaneous events provide technology stack. You’ll hear from Oracle executives about a comprehensive selection of educational and networking Oracle’s strategy and roadmap, as well as from the experts who are opportunities for every role in the enterprise. For the first time, engineering Oracle’s products. You’ll get hands-on experience attendees can create a custom-fit conference experience with hardware and software that is engineered to work together that spans Oracle hardware and software sessions, Java and built to optimize your business from end to end. technologies, developer-specific hands-on labs, and Oracle’s recent acquisition of Sun brings a new dimension to everything in between—including partner exhibits and Oracle OpenWorld, and new opportunities for Oracle and Sun community celebrations. customers alike. “Oracle OpenWorld has become the IT industry conference. Oracle OpenWOrld The addition of Sun products and technologies to Oracle’s Oracle OpenWorld is the world’s largest and most important vast range of innovative offerings ensures that Oracle conference for Oracle technologists, business users, OpenWorld 2010 will be more comprehensive and more

By CarOline KvitKa Peter StemBer

OraCle magazine July/auguSt 2010

JA10_ConfFeature.indd 33 5/20/10 2:25:54 PM 34 attendees can create a custom- fit conference experience exciting for our customers one-on-one experience with than ever,” says Oracle that spans Oracle hardware the latest Oracle technology President Charles Phillips. and learn how to implement, “From Oracle Application and software sessions, Java manage, and innovate with Integration Architecture to technologies, and developer- Oracle products from the people Oracle Solaris ZFS, attendees who develop them. will have the opportunity to specific hands-on labs. Take a break between sessions hear from industry luminaries at the Callaway Experience booth and subject-matter experts, test-drive hardware and software in sponsored by Tata Consultancy Services, where you can play the Par hands-on labs, and exchange ideas with a wide variety of their 3 Challenge golf simulation game, participate in a putting challenge, peers from both technical and business communities.” and compete in a chipping contest using Callaway foam practice balls. Oracle OpenWorld offers 1,800 sessions, 420 partner exhibits, And don’t miss the Digital Playground, where you can enter a time almost 400 Oracle demos, hands-on labs, and several networking machine that takes you back to the days of Ms. Pac-Man and lets events. Always a conference highlight, keynotes from industry you experience the latest in interactive multimedia. While honing luminaries including Dell Inc. CEO Michael Dell and Oracle CEO your gaming skills, don’t forget to power up your phone at one of the Larry Ellison will provide insight into how to drive your business nearby charging stations. forward today and into the future. Whether you’re a seasoned Pavilions. Oracle OpenWorld pavilions bring together Oracle’s developer or DBA, a novice technologist, or a line-of-business partner and customer experts in one specific business focus

Oracle OpenWorld, JavaOne, and Develop will attract Oracle ceO larry ellison always draws a standing- appreciation event attendees are treated to world- Oracle and Java experts from around the globe. room-only crowd at his Oracle OpenWorld keynote. class entertainment from top musicians.

manager or executive, you’ll find how-tos, best-practice sessions, area to showcase best-in-class solutions and services, cutting- overviews, and customer roundtables targeted to your job role and edge technology, and product demos. Pavilions include Cloud level of expertise. Computing, CRM On Demand Inner Circle, Hyperion, JD Edwards, Sessions. Oracle OpenWorld’s 1,800 sessions are broken into and Project Portfolio Management. five streams that cover the full breadth of Oracle’s products and Don’t miss the America’s Cup Pavilion, where you can watch services. These streams, each with in-depth sessions led by Oracle behind-the-scenes video on the making of BMW ORACLE Racing’s experts, customers, and partners, are Applications, Database, trimaran, USA, and see how Oracle Data Mining gave the crew Industries, Middleware, and Server and Storage Systems. a technological advantage to win back the oldest trophy in Exhibition Halls. Head to one of the three themed exhibition halls for international sports. exhibitor booths, theaters, product demos, and games. The Moscone Networking events. It wouldn’t be Oracle OpenWorld without the South Exhibition Hall will focus on Oracle Applications, Oracle nightlife. With the Welcome Reception, the attendee-favorite Enterprise Manager for applications, and solutions for industries, Appreciation Event, and It’s a Wrap!, Oracle OpenWorld offers while the Moscone West Exhibition Hall will cover Oracle Database, plenty of opportunities for relaxation, networking, and music. As Oracle Fusion Middleware, and server and storage systems. In always, the Appreciation Event features big names from pop and these halls, you’ll have the opportunity to talk with experts about classic rock, performing on Treasure Island during the traditional your business challenges, see new products in action, and learn Wednesday night celebration. how to solve problems with Oracle technology and Oracle partner and customer solutions. Looking to dive deep into Java technology? JavaONE aNd dEvElOP Head to the Java Exhibition Hall, which will be located at the Hilton Whether you’re an Oracle diehard or a Java developer who has San Francisco Union Square. All three halls will house the Oracle never used an Oracle product, JavaOne and Develop are the DEMOgrounds, each with demo stations staffed by Oracle experts must-attend developer conferences of the year. Head to the

ready to lead you through interactive product demos. Get practical, Zone—San Francisco’s Hotel Nikko, Hilton San Francisco Union studios HArtmAnn

July/August 2010 Oracle.cOm/Oraclemagazine

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Javaone and oracle Develop: Highlights

JavaOne and Oracle Develop the hub of the Zone—the Mason Square, and Parc 55 hotels, attendees have access to all Oracle Street Tent—where attendees can Tracks. Dive deep into Java plus a tent the length of a city OpenWorld keynotes, exhibition meet up and exchange ideas with technology with more than block—for education, practical halls, and networking and nightlife their peers in a variety of devel- 350 sessions across eight events. Show highlights focused oper communities. hands-on sessions, Birds of on the developer community Unconference. Just say no to tracks, including Core Java a Feather (BOF) sessions, include the Mason Street Tent, the PowerPoint at the Unconference, Platform; Desktop Java; Java and plenty of entertainment, Unconference, and OTN Night. where Oracle OpenWorld, JavaOne, EE Web Profile and Platform exhibition Halls. Visit the Moscone and Develop attendees sign up geared exclusively toward South or Moscone West Exhibition to lead their own technical ses- Technologies; Enterprise the developer community. Hall (see main story for details), sions. Now in its third year, the Service Architectures and From Java and PL/SQL or head to the Java Exhibition Hall Unconference is a place for open, the Cloud; JavaFX and Rich at the Hilton San Francisco Union free-form discussion—and very developers to creators of rich Square for hands-on demos, few rules. User Experience; Java ME and internet applications and SOA discussions of the latest Java tech- OTn night. Join hundreds of your Mobile; Java for Devices, Card, architects, JavaOne and Develop nologies, and all things Java—from peers for a free attitude adjustment and TV; and the Java Frontier. developer tools, frameworks, and at Oracle Technology Network’s have something for everyone. management utilities to applica- notoriously raucous annual Join expert tutorials on JavaFX, “For the first time ever, the tions and services developed with Monday night community blowout. profiles, OSGi, and more, and world’s two premier developer and for Java. Start the week off right as you see get practical insight and best The Mason Street Tent. Don’t miss old friends and make new ones. conferences—JavaOne and practices from user case studies. Develop—will take place at the same time in the same city,” says Thomas Kurian, executive DevelOp vice president of product development at Oracle. “This is an Join the world’s top development experts to learn about and discuss opportunity for Java and open source developers and those using next-generation development trends and technologies. Develop is Oracle technology to experience unrivaled learning from expert-led bigger and better in 2010, with the inclusion of Oracle Solaris and sessions, hands-on labs, and networking with peers—as well as Linux development tracks, and the opportunity for attendees to dive take a glimpse into the future of Java, open source technologies, into Java content at the colocated JavaOne. and Oracle software and hardware. These are exciting times, and “Develop attendees have an exciting conference to look forward we look forward to sharing all of this with customers and partners, to,” says Ted Farrell, chief architect and senior vice president at old and new, this September in San Francisco.” Oracle. “Among the highlights are the Zone, specifically created As separate, colocated conferences, JavaOne and Develop each to engage and entertain developers while they network with other have their own educational tracks but also offer opportunities for members of the community. Also, for the first time, Develop joint learning and networking. Attend only JavaOne sessions, or attendees will have full access to the JavaOne conference, which widen your scope with Develop content. One registration gets you has a wealth of Java content to complement the enterprise- into both conferences, so you can pick and choose the sessions that focused sessions and labs at Develop. And to appeal to more are right for you. developers, Develop has expanded its scope to include Oracle Solaris and Linux development tracks, in addition to the wealth JavaOne of information around technologies such as Oracle Database, Get ready to submerge yourself in Java as JavaOne goes back to .NET, Oracle Fusion Middleware, rich enterprise applications, and its roots, with a laser-like focus on Java technology and its related service-oriented architecture.” ecosystems. The global Java developer community will convene for a Tracks. Choose from more than 100 expert-led, in-depth technical week of education, debate, and networking. With eight in-depth Java sessions and advanced how-tos in seven tracks, including Database tracks and dedicated Java keynotes, JavaOne is the place to explore Development, .NET, Application Grid and Oracle WebLogic, Oracle the latest in Java technologies. Fusion Development, Rich Enterprise Applications, SOA, and Oracle “Oracle is focused on the future of Java technology and driving Solaris and Linux Development.  the evolution of the Java platform to support the world’s most- demanding enterprise environments—800 million desktop computers and 7 billion mobile and internet-connected devices,” caroline Kvitka is senior managing editor of Oracle Magazine. says Cameron Purdy, vice president of development at Oracle. next StepS “The 2010 JavaOne conference offers attendees a unique opportunity to hear from industry leaders and Java technology learn more and register for experts, from both inside and outside of Oracle, on topics ranging oracle openWorld from the core Java platform to mobile, JavaFX, and the Java oracle.com/openworld frontier. We are thrilled to be able to host JavaOne concurrent with Javaone Oracle OpenWorld and Develop, providing the global developer oracle.com/us/javaonedevelop/062264.html community with a full week of unparalleled education and top- oracle Develop oracle.com/us/javaonedevelop/062265.html notch networking opportunities.”

oracle magazine July/August 2010

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July/August 2010 Oracle.cOm/Oraclemagazine

JA10_Virtualization.indd 36 5/20/10 5:02:39 PM 37

BY DAVID A. KELLY THE VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE

From desktop to datacenter, Oracle offers a complete virtualization solution.

hen JP Morgan Chase Thiru Vadivelu, lead database Wacquired Bear Stearns architect at JP Morgan Chase. and Washington Mutual over a Vadivelu is part of the corporate 12-month period, it had to work systems infrastructure group hard and fast to integrate those within the company, which gathers large companies. requirements from the business “Acquisitions impact the units and designs infrastructure infrastructure layer in a big way, so solutions to implement and support you have to be constantly prepared those requirements. Vadivelu to accommodate those customers himself manages the database and the new databases, especially architecture, performance, and when we’re talking huge mergers capacity planning functions in like Washington Mutual,” says corporate technology. I-HUA CHEN I-HUA

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For Vadivelu and his corporate technology group, grid and and desktop virtualization, along with integrated management and virtualization technologies were a key part of the strategy for the ability to virtualize the full software and hardware stack from handling those challenges. application to disk. “Grid and virtualization are great technologies for consolidation “Oracle VM has helped companies achieve their virtualization and quick onboarding,” says Vadivelu. “They also help us reduce our objectives, but now with the combination of Sun and Oracle datacenter footprint, provide power savings, maximize the use of our solutions, we have the most-complete desktop-to-datacenter hardware, and improve overall cost efficiencies.” virtualization and the most-complete integration management and More companies are realizing the benefits that virtualization can support,” says Edward Screven, chief corporate architect at Oracle. “If achieve. And with the acquisition of Sun, Oracle now has a “desktop you choose that single stack from Oracle, you have one single place to datacenter” virtualization strategy that includes storage, server, to call for support. We think that’s a big win for the customer.” “Linux paves the way for VIRTUALIZATION NEEDS PLANNING Virtualization requires good planning, a reliable infrastructure, and a commoditizing clusters, cost solid management strategy. But the payoffs can be big—from server consolidation and lower energy costs to better hardware utilization. reduction, and virtualization.” And with even bigger payoffs in the form of IT flexibility, agility, and —Thiru Vadivelu, Lead Database Architect, JP Morgan Chase efficiency, virtualization can also mean a path to the future. “Cloud computing is forcing people to step back and think about what it means for their infrastructure in the longer term,” says Al Gillen, program vice president of system software at IDC. “They want to make sure that whatever new systems they deploy will be compatible with future infrastructure architectures. Any organization that wants to adopt cloud computing really needs to adopt virtualization first.” Gillen says that the biggest change with virtualization over the past few years is that the solutions have both matured and gotten less expensive. “Virtualization technologies are packaged for consumption today in a way that they simply weren’t even two years ago,” he says. The question for many companies, of course, is where to start. A good place is by understanding that there can be many aspects to virtualization, depending on technology infrastructure and corporate strategy. In fact, longtime Oracle solutions such as Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC)

With virtualization technologies such as instance caging, server pooling, and advanced compression, “Oracle provide virtualization capabilities, as

Database 11g Release 2 is a giant leap forward,” says Thiru Vadivelu, lead database architect at JP Morgan Chase. do new features such as instance caging GIBBONS CATHERINE

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and server pooling in Oracle Database 11g Release 2. Organizations comprehensive and consistent manner, it really needs to start, because can also advance to hypervisor-based solutions such as Oracle VM, that’s one dimension that goes hand-in-hand with virtualization,” or virtualization built into the operating system such as Oracle says Gillen. “You really shouldn’t virtualize your infrastructure without . putting together a good management plan as well.” But virtualization isn’t just about servers any more. With new solutions, organizations can virtualize everything from desktops GAINING VIRTUALIZATION BENEFITS FROM THE GRID (to increase security or decrease deployment issues) to storage (for JP Morgan Chase has made strategic plans to meet its business increased performance, reliability, and flexibility). (See the sidebar challenges—challenges that include the growth of data and “From the Desktop to Datacenter,” below.) computing requirements and the integration of acquired companies. A successful virtualization strategy requires organizations to take “One of our biggest challenges is supporting the exponential an integrated approach to both virtualization and management. IDC’s growth in data volumes and retention requirements,” says JP Gillen highlights the importance of management when it comes to Morgan Chase’s Vadivelu. “A few years ago a 1-terabyte database deploying a successful virtualized environment. was considered huge, but now databases larger than 100 or 200 “If an organization isn’t using systems management tools in a fairly terabytes are not surprising. We are now architecting a consolidated

From the Desktop to Datacenter

With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle now has a through Sun Ray Software. ment because all partitions reside in one OS complete virtualization solutions portfolio that • Oracle VM VirtualBox enables desktop or laptop instance. Containers are ideal for consolidating can virtualize and manage your full hardware and computers to run multiple operating systems many applications but with very little overhead. software stack, from applications to disk. simultaneously, allowing users to get the most • Dynamic Domains are hardware partitions Desktop virtualization. Virtualizing the desktop, flexibility and use from their PCs. Oracle VM in Oracle’s Sun SPARC Enterprise M-series which separates an individual desktop environ- VirtualBox supports many host and guest oper- servers. Dynamic Domains are completely ment from a physical machine so that all the ating systems and provides high performance fault-, service-, resource-, and security-isolated programs, applications, processes, and data and support for virtual appliances. partitions that are ideal for consolidating a used are kept and run centrally, improves secu- Server virtualization. Server virtualization masks wide variety of applications onto a single server, rity, reliability, maintenance costs, and man- server resources, including processors and operat- thereby improving system utilization. They can ageability. Oracle has four products to support ing systems, from server users. The administrator be resized dynamically to meet changing work- desktop virtualization. uses a virtual machine or virtualization at the load requirements. • Oracle Virtual Desktop Infrastructure provides operating system layer to divide one physical Virtualized storage. Storage virtualization hides, a solution for managing, hosting, and provid- server into multiple isolated virtual instances. abstracts, or isolates the functions of a storage ing access to virtualized desktop operating Oracle has three products for server virtualization. system from applications, hosts, or network systems hosted in the datacenter. • Oracle VM Server for x86 supports both Oracle services to enable network-independent man- • Oracle Secure Global Desktop provides secure and non-Oracle applications and Oracle agement of storage or data. Virtualization can access to centralized, server-hosted Windows, Enterprise Linux, Solaris x86, and Windows be applied to storage devices to aggregate func- UNIX, mainframe, and midrange applications operating systems and provides a single point tions or devices. Oracle has many solutions for from client devices such as Windows PCs, Mac of support for entire virtualization environ- storage virtualization. OS X systems, Oracle Solaris , ments, including Oracle Database, Oracle • Sun Storage, including tape and disk solu- Linux PCs, and thin clients. Oracle Secure Fusion Middleware, and Oracle Applications, tions, supports heterogeneous environments Global Desktop also provides access to full- as well as Sun Servers and Sun Storage, which and enables cost-effective virtual storage screen desktop environments, allowing admin- are certified with Oracle VM. Oracle VM infrastructures. istrators to use a single solution to provide Templates deliver rapid software deployment • Oracle Automatic Storage Management is an access to both server-based applications and and eliminate installation and configuration interface that is consistent across all server and server-hosted desktop environments. costs by providing preinstalled and preconfig- storage platforms. As a vertically integrated • Oracle’s Sun Ray Clients are low-cost devices ured software images. file system and volume manager, Oracle that display server-hosted virtual desktops. They • Oracle VM Server for SPARC provides virtual- Automatic Storage Management provides the work with Sun Ray Software and/or with Oracle ization capabilities for Sun SPARC Enterprise performance of asynchronous I/O with the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Sun Ray Software T-series servers with chip multithreading tech- easy management of a file system. offers Oracle Solaris or Linux desktop sessions nology, which allows up to 128 virtual servers to • Oracle Exadata Storage Server combines and can make remote connections to Windows be created on one system. Oracle’s smart storage software and Sun hard- Terminal Server (without Oracle Virtual Desktop • Oracle Solaris Containers allow organizations ware to deliver database storage performance. Infrastructure). Thus Sun Ray thin clients can to have many virtual partitions within a single • The Oracle VM Storage Connect Framework offer virtual desktops through Oracle Virtual Oracle Solaris instance. Each container appears feature provides integrated server and storage Desktop Infrastructure and Oracle Solaris, Linux, to the user as a separate operating system management and isolation between the or Windows Terminal Server sessions directly (OS) instance but provides simplified manage- underlying storage arrays and Oracle VM.

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database cluster environment “Virtualization technologies flexible computing grid that can for one of our business units adjust to dynamic computing in Connecticut with a storage are packaged for consumption requirements as business needs footprint of 200-plus terabytes change, while reducing costs. on Oracle Database 11g with today in a way that they simply “The new features allow us to Oracle Automatic Storage weren’t even two years ago.” maximize our infrastructure Management and Oracle RAC on utilization, saving us a significant —Al Gillen, Program Vice President of System Software, IDC Linux,” he says. amount of money by using our With those types of massive hardware resources in a more data requirements, it’s important not only to manage the databases efficient manner,” says Vadivelu. themselves efficiently, but to manage the storage costs efficiently Another key part of JP Morgan Chase’s grid computing and while providing terabytes of data to your customers in subsecond virtualization initiative is Oracle RAC, which goes well beyond response times. To do that, Vadivelu’s group is creating a more agile providing high availability. “We have one database that handles and more scalable architecture leveraging virtualization features in about 5,000 sessions at the same time,” says Vadivelu. “We Oracle Database 11g Release 2. use Oracle RAC to split those sessions across multiple nodes of “We can derive almost all the traditional benefits of virtualization a cluster without spanning a given transaction across multiple from the Oracle Database 11g Release 2 technologies,” says Vadivelu. nodes. We make use of these grid computing technologies to “Oracle Database 11g Release 2 is a giant leap forward and comes consolidate multiple databases within an Oracle RAC cluster while with great new technologies like instance caging, server pooling, still providing isolation and prioritization using the automatic Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System, and workload management and resource management features of advanced compression.” Oracle Database.” Oracle Database 11g Release 2 also enables JP Morgan to create a JP Morgan is looking to take its database grid and virtualization

Oracle’s Sun Oracle S Oracle VM torage Virtualizatio Storage Virtualization Oracle Exadata Automatic Storage Storage Connect Systems Management

Entire Desktop | Enterprise Applications | Industry Applications S

Oracle Solaris Linux Microsoft Windows erver Virtualizatio

Oracle Virtualization Layer

Oracle’s Sun x86 and Sun SPARC Servers n

Oracle Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Oracle Secure Global Desktop D Oracle’s Sun Ray Clients esktop Virtualizatio

Oracle Oracle VM VirtualBox n Storage virtualization hides, abstracts, or Virtualization With a virtualized isolates the functions desktop, the desktop of a storage system Oracle’s desktop-to-datacenter solutions environment is Server virtualization masks from applications, separated from a server resources, including hosts, or network can virtualize and manage your hardware physical machine. processors and operating services to enable All programs, systems, from server users. network-independent and software stack from applications to applications, and The administrator uses management of disk. Virtualization benefits include server data are stored and a virtual machine or storage or data. run from the datacenter; virtualization at the operating Virtualization can be consolidation, integrated support, and lower users can access the system layer to divide one applied to storage information from any physical server into multiple devices to aggregate

energy, facility, and labor costs. applicable device. n isolated virtual instances. functions or devices. I-HUA CHEN I-HUA

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strategy further with Oracle Exadata. “With an Oracle Database Machine, we are talking about Oracle Enterprise Linux clusters with locally attached storage without database I/O going to an outside frame,” says Vadivelu. “That leads not only to better performance, but also to the ability to use hybrid columnar compression for storage savings. As a result, we can store terabytes of information much more efficiently than before and still not take the huge cost hit we used to with mainframes or tier-one storage.” Underneath this agile infrastructure are highly scalable clusters of Linux servers. “Linux paves the way for commoditizing clusters, cost reduction, and virtualization,” says Vadivelu. “Linux has played a dominant role in developing our second-generation database pattern, which is based on Linux, Oracle Database 11g Release 2, Oracle Automatic Storage Management, and Oracle RAC. It helps us with the portability of the applications and allows us to achieve significant cost reductions through the use of commodity hardware.” Moreover, moving legacy systems to Linux-based grid environments has improved performance. “We’ve seen 40 percent to 60 percent performance improvements in certain applications when moving them from a single-instance configuration on a big iron to a Linux, Oracle RAC–based configuration,” says Vadivelu. Supplying the hardware and infrastructure environments for aPl’s development teams as fast as Virtualization: innoVation Based they needed them was once almost impossible, says raymond Payne, principal systems architect, oracle infrastructure. With oracle Vm, aPl can address changing needs quickly, Payne says. on experience Maintaining performance in times when resources heritage of creating innovative technologies for the U.S. Department could fluctuate was important for the Johns Hopkins University of Defense, NASA, and other government agencies. Today the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), which has been on the cutting organization is moving toward a virtualized IT infrastructure based edge of research and development since it was founded in the on Oracle technology. 1940s. One of several federally funded, university-affiliated research “We have a reputation for being an innovator and leader in and development centers across the country, APL has a long technical areas, and we operate in the role of trusted advisor to the

Virtualization and oracle Solaris

The Oracle Solaris operating system able to invest and make Oracle Fowler points to Oracle Solaris Dell, and others can’t match.” has innovative features that help Solaris the best possible environ- Containers, part of the Oracle Solaris The Oracle Solaris team has been customers meet business and tech- ment for running Oracle applica- functionality, which allow organiza- working on the next revision of the nical requirements such as lower tions, by working on everything tions to virtualize applications with operating system. costs, simplified system administra- from security to performance very high performance. In addition, “This upgrade will be major and tion, and high service levels—and to reliability,” says Fowler. A key he says, Oracle’s support for Oracle revolutionary, just as the Solaris it’s part of the stack that companies focus of that planned investment Solaris and Oracle Enterprise Linux 10 upgrade was in 2005,” says can use to build a virtualized envi- is virtualization. is unique. Fowler. “We’re reinventing every- ronment. According to John Fowler, “Oracle Solaris is designed “You can run a mixture of Oracle thing from packaging to core executive vice president of systems from the ground up to incorporate Solaris and Linux across both x86 scalability and reliability features. at Oracle, the Oracle Solaris operat- virtualization,” says Fowler. “It’s and SPARC servers and have a Oracle Solaris is a leading platform ing system will be strengthened been designed to operate at very common set of management tools for Oracle Database, and Oracle technically, even as the role of Oracle high levels of scale, to give world- and infrastructure that runs across is investing extensively in core Solaris grows as virtualization is class reliability, and to allow you to all of them, while ensuring that technologies around Oracle Solaris more heavily adopted. implement a world-class security Oracle applications run on top of to provide even more robust, “One of the great things about environment at levels used by mili- them,” says Fowler. “It’s a unique reliable, and high-performance joining Oracle is that now we’re tary and intelligence departments.” story in the industry that HP, IBM, options for customers.” DAviD DeAl DAviD

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U.S. government,” says Raymond Payne, principal systems architect, “Virtualization provides us with Oracle infrastructure, at APL. “We have a very large footprint of Oracle technology, so it’s a natural fit that we use Oracle technology significant benefits in terms of to support our critical business infrastructure and applications.” APL has deployed everything from Oracle Database and Oracle being able to respond quickly to RAC to Oracle business intelligence solutions, Oracle’s PeopleSoft our development team’s [needs].” applications, and Oracle Application Server. When APL was —Raymond Payne, Principal Systems Architect, Oracle Infrastructure, APL considering changes to its technical infrastructure, the organization used the Oracle Insight program to help match its future architecture to its business needs. One recommendation that came out of the “Virtualization allows us to consolidate some of our legacy study was to increase its use of x86-based servers running Linux. As applications into a single, Oracle E-Business Suite–centric a result, APL embraced the idea of a core computing infrastructure approach,” says Payne. built around low-cost hardware running Oracle Enterprise Linux. For APL, a key driver in adopting virtualization was the recognition “Oracle’s one-stop approach with its Unbreakable Linux support that in the future, the demand for computing resources would made Oracle Enterprise Linux a viable operating system platform for fluctuate greatly. If the organization wanted to react as quickly as its our enterprise applications,” says Payne. needs dictated, a commodity server–based architecture that could be Since then, APL has done two Oracle Insight implementation expanded efficiently and cost effectively would be necessary. studies on virtualization. One focused on using virtualization for the “Virtualization provides us with significant benefits in terms of technical infrastructure side of its operations; the other focused on being able to respond quickly to our development team’s need for using a virtualized environment for the deployment of applications. more resources or more-isolated resources,” says Payne. “We’ve

it used to take 6 to 10 weeks to provision a physical server, explains christine Varga, business systems analyst, Parks Victoria. But with Oracle Vm, she says, “we can have

a virtual machine up and running in 35 minutes.” She is pictured with Shaun levey (far left), consultant DBa, and Willem Popp, enterprise architect and support manager. Chris MAkridis

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effectively been provisioning virtual private is also required by law to operate in an snaPsHoTs clouds since before they became popular.” environmentally sound fashion—even when JP morgan chase Payne says that in the past, supplying the it comes to IT. As a result, when Parks Victoria jpmorganchase.com hardware and infrastructure environments location: Newark, Delaware undertook an upgrade to its 15-year-old for its development teams as quickly as industry: Financial services Oracle stack, it opted to adopt a virtualized they needed them was almost impossible. employees: 220,000 infrastructure approach. Specific development footprint needs for oracle products and services: Oracle “When we decided to deploy Oracle Database, Oracle Solaris, Java, Oracle projects would rise and fall over the course of E-Business Suite 12 as a fresh install and Clusterware, Oracle Enterprise Manager, a project. “Now, by using virtualization—and Oracle Audit Vault, PeopleSoft applications, implement Oracle Business Intelligence Oracle VM specifically—we can address Oracle WebLogic Suite, Oracle Essbase, Oracle Enterprise Edition and Oracle’s Hyperion those changing infrastructure needs very Reveleus, Oracle Support, Oracle Education, solutions, we first thought we’d need to quickly,” says Payne. Oracle Consulting purchase 16 new servers,” says Willem Popp, APL is also leveraging prepackaged enterprise architect and support manager The Johns Hopkins University applied VM Templates from Oracle to help deliver Physics laboratory at Parks Victoria. That would have been a virtualized solutions even faster. jhuapl.edu big investment. The servers would have “With the Oracle Virtual Machine, we can location: Laurel, Maryland been expensive to buy, and the hardware use existing Oracle VM Templates to build industry: Research and development and the racks to house the servers wouldn’t employees: 5,200 fully blown, fully installed, fully configured fit in the Parks Victoria server room. The oracle products and services: Oracle environments to support specific new Database, Oracle Real Application Clusters, electricity required to power and cool the technologies or development requirements,” Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle business servers would have been significant as well, says Payne. “We can simply grab a template intelligence solutions, PeopleSoft applica- increasing the size of the organization’s and have a fully deployable system very tions, Oracle Application Server, Oracle Solaris, carbon footprint. Oracle VM, Oracle Enterprise Linux, quickly. Also, the ability to create our own “Parks Victoria is a green organization, Oracle Insight templates is something we’re just getting and we need to maintain our green started with, but we think it will be a key Parks Victoria credentials,” Popp says. “That’s one reason capability for us moving forward.” parkweb.vic.gov.au we’ve been pushing for virtualization across For example, APL recently needed location: Melbourne, Australia our infrastructure. Because Oracle has a industry: Public sector to evaluate the talent acquisition and solution in this space, we could standardize employees: 1,200 management portions of Oracle’s PeopleSoft oracle products and services: Oracle on the Oracle VM platform.” 9.1 applications. In the past, several weeks Database, Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle The organization decided to virtualize typically would have been needed to get an Spatial, Oracle VM, Oracle Enterprise Manager, its operation and now runs its Oracle application administrator and DBA engaged Oracle Enterprise Linux, Oracle Hyperion solu- E-Business Suite environments, Oracle tions, Oracle Enterprise Linux support, and involved, to procure the necessary Business Intelligence Enterprise Oracle Advanced Customer Services hardware, and to configure and deploy Edition implementation, and Hyperion a suitable environment. Virtualization environments on 16 virtualized servers simplified that process. managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager. In the end, a total of 33 “We used a prepackaged Oracle VM Template for PeopleSoft, Oracle VM virtual servers were established to allow further expansion downloaded it into the Oracle VM environment, and by the end of the of Oracle projects, including Oracle Identity Management, Oracle second day we were able to deliver a fully functional PeopleSoft 9.1 Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control, and other Oracle products. environment to the development team for evaluation,” says Payne. “Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control is a fantastic “It saved us significant time.” tool,” says Christine Varga, business systems analyst, Oracle Payne says that the investment in defining, deploying, and applications, at Parks Victoria. “It simplifies some very complex managing virtualization pays off with a solid return. “In the end it’s tasks and has cut down on the time needed to manage the Oracle worth the challenge and effort,” he says. applications environment.” The end result has been an IT environment that can be Flexibility and PerFormance provisioned rapidly for new or changing business needs. Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, Parks Victoria is the “In the past, it used to take 6 to 10 weeks to provision a physical statutory authority for managing close to 4 million hectares server; with Oracle VM, we can have a virtual machine up and of Victoria’s parks and reserves, as well as numerous bays and running in 35 minutes,” Varga says. “This is achieved by using rivers—altogether, 17 percent of the total landmass of the state. The Oracle VM Templates developed by Oracle Advanced Customer organization is tasked with protecting Victoria’s natural heritage Services to Parks Victoria specifications, which delivers a consistent while also meeting the needs of visitors. and reliable build every time. The ability to build guest servers Focused on the conservation of natural resources, Parks Victoria rapidly is an advantage when we’ve had to move quickly to

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“Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g all the elements interacted smoothly, and benefit from support from one provider,” says Varga. “The main benefit of using Oracle Grid Control is a fantastic tool. Unbreakable Linux support is that support was coming directly from the company building the software, so we were sure the resolutions . . . It simplifies some very would work as designed.” complex tasks.” Parks Victoria has also leveraged the capabilities of Oracle —Christine Varga, Business Systems Analyst, Parks Victoria Automatic Storage Management to reduce database backup times and increase flexibility. “Oracle Automatic Storage Management accommodate new business needs.” automatically manages the way data is written to disk, addressing In addition, with its virtualized environment, Parks Victoria can read/writes directly to raw disk,” says Shaun Levey, consultant now manage maintenance work during business hours without DBA at Parks Victoria. “Since installing Oracle Automatic Storage impacting users. Using virtualization, the organization can migrate Management, previous I/O problems were greatly reduced. One users and applications from one physical server to another, allowing program that was taking 1.5 hours to back up can now be completed it to take down physical servers as needed for upgrades or repairs. in 25 minutes.” The virtual environment runs on Oracle Enterprise Linux. For Parks Victoria, the move to virtualization has delivered “Basically, we wanted to consolidate our infrastructure, make sure on its key promise of flexibility and help in reducing the number of potential servers the organization needs to deploy to support Making the Most of the Desktop dynamically changing business requirements. The adoption of Oracle VM enabled Parks Victoria to reduce physical server numbers, lower Desktop virtualization using Sun the smartcard, which can be Ray technology can make a huge the doctor’s badge—meet the amount of electricity needed to power and cool this hardware, impact on workflow. In medical Health Insurance Portability and and minimize the organization’s carbon footprint. Coupled with offices or hospitals, for example, Accountability Act and other Oracle Automatic Storage Management, virtualization has also led doctors or other medical techni- patient-data security regulations. cians using Sun Ray technology can In addition to improving ease to improvements in performance and availability, shortened backup move electronic patient records of use, Sun Ray architecture also windows, and reduced server provisioning times. from bedside to lab to office helps reduce IT management “The implementation of a virtual environment with Oracle VM has without breaking stride. overhead. Regular PC upgrades, This capability is enabled by maintenance, and repair usually been very smooth,” says Levey. “It is very easy to quickly implement the Sun Ray thin-client and server require that medical personnel will new servers, balance loads across multiple physical machines, functionality, including the use of lose some time waiting for these and migrate guest servers to different physical hosts. Moreover, Java smartcards. This combina- changes. Sun Ray Clients are never tion results in “hot desking”—the managed individually but with virtualization has enabled us to do some innovative things without capability to access instantly the Sun Ray Software or Oracle Virtual incurring huge expenses.” doctor’s session from any Sun Desktop Infrastructure. Large user The virtualization project has been so successful that the Ray Client. The smartcard allows communities, including hospitals a doctor to begin a session in the with thousands of Sun Ray Client organization is planning to migrate its entire suite of corporate patient’s exam room by insert- devices, can be managed from a applications to the environment. ing the smartcard into the Sun single interface, reducing manage- “Having an integrated Oracle infrastructure—from the operating Ray Client. The doctor takes notes ment overhead. or shows the patient an X-ray or “Using Oracle’s healthcare or system and enterprise applications to storage management and test results. When the exam is other specialized software, hos- virtualized servers—really makes a lot of sense,” says Popp.  completed and the patient needs pitals and clinics—or call centers, to dress, the doctor suspends the financial institutions, retail firms, session on the server by removing or other industries—can have David A. Kelly ([email protected]) is a business, technology, the smartcard and returns to the a full stack solution,” says Wim and travel writer who lives in West Newton, Massachusetts. office or lab, where the session Coekaerts, senior vice president of can be restarted at the same place Linux and virtualization engineer- NEXT STEPS by inserting the smartcard into ing at Oracle. Starting with Sun Ray another Sun Ray Client. thin-client hardware on the front This functionality is possible end connecting to Oracle Virtual READ more about Oracle’s virtualization strategy because data is stored and pro- Desktop Infrastructure or Sun Ray oracle.com/us/technologies/virtualization cessed on the server, so critical Software–based sessions, which DOWNLOAD information or applications are then connect to Oracle healthcare Oracle Database 11g Release 2 maintained and secured at a applications running against Oracle oracle.com/technology/software/products/database central location. Thus, sensitive Database on Oracle Solaris or information would not be lost, for Oracle Enterprise Linux on top of Oracle Enterprise Linux and Oracle VM example, if a laptop were stolen. Oracle servers and storage means edelivery.oracle.com/linux Moreover, two layers of authenti- that companies have ease of sim- Oracle Solaris cation—a login/password and plified integration, says Coekarts. sun.com/software/solaris/get.jsp

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STRATEGIZE. PLAN. EXECUTE. Oracle’s enterprise performance management solution provides analytics for success.

BY MARTA BRIGHT

anaging county business is a complex process. The many for each different fund—but the rules of defining each type of fund Mrules—from various sources—that are involved in accounting can be different.” for resources and expenditures make public sector accounting For example, governments always have a general fund, which complex. Planning, budgeting, and providing management reporting monies such as property taxes typically flow into and then out again for the provision of county services can be just as challenging. to pay for services such as public safety and portions of public health “The governing bodies—such as the Governmental Accounting and offices such as county clerks, the county treasurer, and the tax Standards Board (GASB) and local budget law—require us to account and assessment functions of the county. “If you happen to be a and budget for government expenditures by separate funds,” says government that is running a business-type service such as water Jeff White, chief financial officer of Marion County, Oregon. His office and sewer services, those are classified more like businesses, which oversees the accounting and budgeting processes for 38 separate are enterprise funds, and they have to be accounted for in a certain

I-HUA CHEN I-HUA funds for the county. “It’s almost like having your own set of books way,” says White.

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The complexity of planning, “Oracle Hyperion Public Sector budgeting, and management reporting Planning and Budgeting helps for so many types of services that are organizations represent their complex provided to the public, and the use of planning rules accurately within the various funds to account for all those budgeting system,” Subramanian services, has stressed Marion County’s says. “One example of this is the internally developed budget module allocation rules that govern how funds capabilities. “Our current budgeting are allocated across several programs system really isn’t adequate for all and positions within an agency or of those varying needs,” White says. department. It also helps them meet “The ability to forecast expenditures reporting and budget publication into future budget periods, keep requirements as mandated by law. our budget module updated due to For example, where previously an various supplemental budgets adopted agency might have taken several throughout the year, and produce months to put together a budget, with more-useful reporting information software like Oracle Hyperion Public from our module are all areas that we Sector Planning and Budgeting, that know could be improved.” time requirement could be reduced White expects that moving to anywhere from 20 to 50 percent.” Oracle’s enterprise performance Marion County’s White says that Oracle’s enterprise performance management system will help management (EPM) system release marion county, Oregon, improve the efficiency of the budget Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning 11.1.2 would provide solutions to process, says Jeff White, chief financial officer. and Budgeting would help him and his many of his current system needs. office provide better information and He participated in a customer validation workshop for Oracle improve the efficiency of the budget process. “Starting from where Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting, one of three new I am now to where the new Hyperion release is would take us leaps performance management applications—(the other two are Oracle and bounds ahead,” he says. “It is a great product.” Hyperion Disclosure Management and Oracle Hyperion Financial Close Management)—that are part of the release. Making Sure These applications accelerate data collection and aggregation, Like government agencies, companies providing insurance providing an environment for streamlining the planning, forecasting, and financial services have their own set of complex rules and and reporting processes. Together with Oracle Essbase, the online regulations. “Just for the insurance industry, there are statutory analytical processing (OLAP) server that supports data extraction requirements versus U.S. GAAP [Generally Accepted Accounting from Oracle Database 11g and other relational databases, they Principles],” says Lynn Murphy, senior director, systems analysis at are part of Oracle’s expanding range of enterprise performance CNO Financial Group (formerly Conseco Services). “So we maintain management solutions. two closing processes—one close process for GAAP with certain Bala Subramanian, director of EPM product management at deadlines, and our statutory closings, which are a little bit different.” Oracle, says that the new Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning Murphy and Susan Billman, senior director, finance close process and Budgeting product helps agencies and departments plan more at CNO, also participated in the customer validation workshop flexibly and improve user productivity, thus enhancing the overall for Oracle’s enterprise performance management system release planning and budgeting process. 11.1.2, testing the Oracle Hyperion Financial Close Management

new modules, Updates, and enhancements for Oracle’s enterprise Performance management System release 11.1.2

Oracle has added new modules to its enterprise E-Business Suite, Oracle Hyperion Financial • Oracle Hyperion Financial Management speeds performance management system release 11.1.2 Management, and other products to streamline deployments, eases upgrades, and improves and improved and updated others for the public the extended financial close process. financial governance through improved and private sectors. These modules include • Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management helps Microsoft Office support and integration with the following: create complex financial filings and supports Oracle’s governance, risk, and compliance • Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) applications. Budgeting, for financial and position budgeting, to streamline the financial filing process and • Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management improves budget management for federal agen- improve transparency. improves enterprise dimension management, cies, state and local government, higher educa- • Oracle Hyperion Planning, with enhanced eases deployment, and adds international tion, and healthcare organizations. process management and a new Web form support with a browser-based UI, role-based • Oracle Hyperion Financial Close Management designer, streamlines planning and forecasting access, real-time and batch validations, and leverages BPEL and works with Oracle and improves user productivity. improved navigation of large, flat hierarchies. getty imAges/CrAig mitChelldyer getty imAges/CrAig

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“Starting from where i am now to where the new Hyperion release is would take us leaps and bounds ahead.” —Jeff White, Chief Financial Officer, Marion County, Oregon

Murphy also appreciates that the Oracle Hyperion modules will work well in the company’s entire IT stack. “They will integrate with other products, so we can track tasks that are business process tasks, not just financial management tasks,” she says. Integration is also important for Billman—as well as the short learning curve she anticipates with the Oracle Hyperion modules. “I like that the Oracle products talk to Microsoft Outlook, which is what we use here at CNO,” she says. “And I think the Hyperion modules will be easy for people to pick up.” Billman says that strong integration means simplicity of use for CNO users. “Employees won’t have to log on to another product to see what their tasks are for the day,” she says. “That’s important, With oracle’s ePm system, cno Financial group can track its two closing processes more easily, says lynn murphy (right), senior director, systems because people are accustomed to looking at Microsoft Outlook analysis, pictured here with Susan Billman, senior director, finance close process. for their daily tasks. The integration with Oracle Hyperion modules mitigates the risk of people forgetting to sign into another product, and Oracle Hyperion Disclosure Management modules. “It gave us or learning another login.” an opportunity to test-drive the product, so we knew exactly what features we were getting,” Murphy says. “The close management Planning now SaveS Time laTer feature we saw while testing Hyperion will allow us to track those two These organizations, and others like them, are saving time and reporting bases—the GAAP and our statutory closings—more easily.” money—and gaining more flexibility, leveraging their investments, The new release will leverage CNO’s existing EPM investment and better managing risk—by planning and forecasting more and strengthen its overall integration. “We like Oracle’s direction accurately. And as regulatory demands increase, doing so is more on the integration of the various tools and components,” says important than ever. Murphy. “That helps us from a strategic standpoint. In addition, our “The standards of what we measure and how we measure it have integration costs will be lower by leveraging the tools that Oracle is been evolving and getting more detailed and are more demanding,” offering. That saves time from an IT standpoint, but it also saves time says Robert Kugel, senior vice president and research director at for our finance organization, because otherwise we would have to put Ventana Research, a benchmark research and advisory services firm data in two places for them to look at.” that helps organizations manage and optimize performance. “Having a system to put together plans and budgets increases accuracy, because the processes are supported by analysis rather than people SnaPSHotS taking their best guesses on what the numbers should be,” he says. marion county, oregon CNO’s Murphy doesn’t expect to rely on guesswork. “We’re co.marion.or.us looking at this tool [Oracle Hyperion Financial Close Management] to location: Salem, Oregon define the close process, understand all the components that go into industry: Government  employees: 1,450 it, and then try to shorten the close process over time,” she says. oracle products: Oracle E-Business Suite, including general ledger, purchasing, payroll, human resources, human capital management, and marta Bright ([email protected]) is a senior editor with advanced benefits applications Oracle Publishing. cno Financial group cnoinc.com next StePS location: Carmel, Indiana industry: Insurance/financial services reaD more about oracle enterprise performance management solutions employees: 3,500 oracle.com/us/solutions/ent-performance-bi oracle products: Oracle Hyperion Financial Management, Oracle Hyperion DoWnloaD oracle Hyperion applications Planning, Oracle Essbase Plus oracle.com/technology/software/products/bi/performance-management getty imAges/AJ mAst getty imAges/AJ

oracle magazine July/August 2010

JA10_EPM.indd 47 5/21/10 2:14:21 PM Join the Java bus as it goes on tour from code to coast.

BY JANICE J. HEISS “I think of the Java Road Trip as a big block party,” says Allan Davis, a leader of the Cajun JUG in New Orleans, Louisiana, and a Java developers, architects, member of the NetBeans Dream Team, a community-driven group of NetBeans users. “I’ve been working with Java for 12 years, and I’m programmers, and enthusiasts eager to see how Oracle will steward it into this new generation. I’m can drink up more of their very excited about the Java Road Trip and the opportunity for the members of our Java user group to meet up with the developers who favorite brew thanks to drive the Java platform.” Oracle’s Java bus, which hits A major stop on the road trip is the Kaleidoscope conference, held this year June 27 through July 1 in Washington DC. Kaleidoscope, the road this summer from New York, New sponsored by Oracle Development Tools User Group (ODTUG), is the York, on a high-tech cross-country Java Road known as tools conference for Oracle developers and architects. The Northern Virginia JUG, which has 2,000 members, was invited Trip slated to hit 20 cities by September. to participate in a day-long Java workshop at the conference June 30; The Java Road Trip: Code to Coast tour the Java bus stop coincides with the workshop. “We’re really excited about the Java Road Trip coming to demonstrates Oracle’s commitment to the Kaleidoscope,” says Mike Riley, president of ODTUG. “The Java Road Java programming language. Among the Trip demonstrates Oracle’s dedication to Java and the Java user community. From the developer perspective, it’s great to have the tour participants are distinguished Java entire middleware technology stack all under one roof. At Oracle, the technologists at Oracle—including Jeet Kaul, middleware stack has been getting more attention and has become more focused on the pieces of Java. As Oracle has begun moving vice president of Java development; Octavian from proprietary technology toward Java, many of our developers are Tanase, vice president of the Java platform; moving that way as well.” and Craig Gering, vice president of Java mobile DEMONSTRATED TECHNOLOGIES and embedded—who will demonstrate After its visits to New York City; Boston, Massachusetts; and Washington DC, the bus heads across the country, making major rich new Java technologies, support fellow stops in Atlanta, Georgia; New Orleans, Louisiana; Houston and developers at Java user group (JUG) meetings, Dallas, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Salt Lake City, Utah; Seattle, Washington; and San Jose, California, before it reaches San meet with enterprise developers and Francisco, California. At each stop along its route, the Java bus team consumers, and share the spirit of innovation will unpack its tents and show off recent developments in Java technology, including Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 6, which was that is the essence of Java. released in December 2009 with functionality that makes developing

and deploying enterprise and Web applications easier. CHEN I-HUA

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The Duke’s Choice Award Program Duke (Java’s mascot) is platform. The Java Road looking for winners! Each year at Trip: Code to Coast tour will look Other demonstrated technologies include four applications based the JavaOne conference, Duke’s for Duke’s Choice Award nomi- Choice Awards are presented nees, in anticipation of JavaOne. on the JavaFX platform, which provides a unified development and to celebrate the best and most For more information, go to deployment model for building expressive rich internet applications innovative projects using the Java java.com/en/dukeschoice. across browsers, desktops, mobile devices, and TVs. These include • JavaFX for TV, which provides an environment for developing and Tor Norbye, part of the “Java Posse”—a group of Java luminaries compiling JavaFX applications and for demonstrating them in an known for their podcasts, supersized cowboy hats, and technical emulated television environment. prowess—and now a member of the technical staff at Oracle, is • The JavaFX Authoring Tool, which offers a collaborative confident about Oracle’s steering the Java bus. “Oracle has made environment for visual content developers to create cloud- it clear that it will continue to develop Java,” he says. “I’m based, interactive rich applications. The tool allows importing convinced that Java will not only continue but will prosper, with and compositing of graphical, audio, and video assets. Authors even more resources.” can add interactions, animations, and visual effects to create experiences that can be deployed across browser, desktop, and IMPACT OF JAVA mobile devices. Java’s importance—and reach—cannot be overestimated. More • Two innovative JavaFX applications, built for the Vancouver 2010 than 9 million developers use the Java platform, now in its 15th year. Olympic Winter Games, which enabled sports enthusiasts around Java is deployed in every major industry and powers more than 7 the world to explore historical results from past Olympic Winter billion internet-connected devices, including 800 million desktop Games and follow results in real time. computers. Java is found on , datacenters, game consoles, The Java Road Trip: Code to Coast tour also showcases Java scientific supercomputers, cell phones, car navigation systems, technology’s use in embedded devices. From printers and routers to lottery terminals, medical devices, parking payment stations—and ATMs, large military and commercial aircraft to deli meat scales and the internet. If you’re living in the modern world, you’re using Java. home automation systems, Java’s feature set, built-in networking Oracle plans to support and grow that reach. “As stewards and security, and cross-platform portability power embedded of Java, we at Oracle want to continue to make Java the most computing. Oracle has ports of Java technology that run on a wide ubiquitous platform for developers in any environment,” says Hasan range of platforms, from ARM and PowerPC to MIPS and x86, Rizvi, senior vice president of Oracle Fusion Middleware and Java and on Linux, Oracle Solaris, and Windows Embedded products. “We want to make sure that Java continues to attract more operating environments. and more developers and continues to be used on more kinds of devices and platforms.” Rizvi says that Oracle’s success is linked to Java’s success. “Java is critical to our success—we have a huge investment in middleware Follow That Bus! and our application product portfolio, which is developed entirely Up-to-the-minute More ways to follow along: in Java,” he says. “We want to see the excitement and the rate of reports on the activities • A Twitter stream—@java— innovation in Java increase in the developer community in the of the Java Road Trip: Code to Coast promotes tour stops, shares Java are available at the Java Road Trip trivia, and rewards followers with coming months and years.”  Website, java.com/roadtrip, electronic items such as wallpaper which features daily video and and screen savers. blog reports from the bus and • A Facebook page—facebook.com/ interviews with members of the ilovejava—provides an interactive Janice J. Heiss is a Java acquisitions editor at Oracle who writes Java community. tour map and event photo albums. about the Java platform. She also writes about Oracle Solaris, scripting languages, and other dimensions of programming. What’s under the hood? Java Real-Time System, Oracle’s commercial implementation of the Real-Time Specification for Java NEXT STEPS (JSR-001), and Oracle Solaris on x86 power these embedded devices. For something completely different, perhaps you’ve tried an Amazon READ more about Java Kindle? What drives the Kindle display? Java Platform, Micro Edition oracle.com/java (Java ME) Connected Device Configuration. So whether you’re DOWNLOAD JavaFX controlling a small device or a large one, Oracle has the right Java to javafx.com get you started—and you can see it all on the Java bus. ATTEND JavaOne and Oracle Develop Other innovative Java technologies on display during the Java oracle.com/javaonedevelop Road Trip: Code to Coast tour include the Java Store, Music Explorer FOLLOW the Java bus java.com/roadtrip FX, and Oracle Application Development Framework.

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600 Sessions

45 JavaOne Rock Stars

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PUB NOTE: Please use center marks to align page. CUSTOM Job No.: 002407 Live: 7.125” x 9.75” APPROVALS BY DATE PRODUCTION NOTES READER File Name: CORP_OOW2010_2407_Java_OMag Trim: 7.875” x 10.5” Traffic Product: Corporate – OOW Bleed: 8.625” x 11.25” Production 01 Headline: REGISTER NOW Color: 4C 7.875” x 10.5” Proofing LASER% Date: Tues, May 18, 2010 12:00 PM Production: Graphic Mgr. Pub: Oracle Magazine Oracle Magazine Fonts: Traffic: HQ Adv. Mgr. Univers LT Std. Font Family RELEASED (July/August) Library Ref.: 002285 Buddy Check Please examine these publication materials carefully. Any questions regarding the materials, please contact Darci Terlizzi (650) 506-9775 System Administrator PerformAnce TeSTing By Sherry yu, Chad PruCha, and yumiko hata 51 High-Performance oracle Systems for Business intelligence Workloads a rigorous testing environment demonstrates that oracle’s Sun systems deliver responsive and reliable Bi environments for large numbers of users.

he simplest business intelligence (BI) ment, demonstrate the benefits of using Sun Storage F5100 Flash Array storage Tquery can generate a huge number of Oracle Solaris Containers for BI systems, is a high-performance, solid-state open transactions, and today’s BI requirements and demonstrate operational capability and storage solution designed to accelerate have queries coming from large numbers explore the upper limits of a cost-effective BI database operations at an affordable price. It of users. That creates significant demands environment using a standard configuration. was included to demonstrate the reliability on multiple subsystems—CPU, memory, We also wanted to find the optimal configu- and practicality of a low-power solid-state network, and storage—and across multiple ration of Oracle Solaris CoolThreads–based storage unit in high transactional workloads. software components—Web servers, appli- servers to support 1,000 to 4,000 concur- Oracle Solaris Containers isolate applica- cation servers, and databases. Extensive rent users, with no more than 10-second tions running in them and enable the system processing, networking, and storage response latency for 90 percent of the to dedicate resources without the abstrac- capacity are required, because data must requests. Finally, we wanted to demon- tion and resulting overhead of other virtual- be obtained from many subsystems and strate the cost/performance advantages of ization technologies. They enable the BI SAP then cross-referenced, cross-tabulated, and Oracle’s Sun CMT architecture. BusinessObjects Enterprise XI application processed. In addition, the resulting reports suite to achieve a high level of hardware might then require postprocessing for The PlaTform utilization while isolating applications on graphic presentation. Our test platform consisted of Oracle Solaris distinct virtual servers. Because they are complicated and multi- CoolThreads–based servers, Oracle’s Sun transactional, BI workloads benefit from Storage F5100 Flash Array storage, Oracle TesTing environmenT concurrent and parallel processing and I/O Solaris Containers, and Oracle Database. The We simulated virtual users of the BI suite, more than from raw serial execution and servers were based on the UltraSPARC T2 Plus simulating thousands of users performing storage speed. Oracle Solaris CoolThreads– and UltraSPARC T2 processors, available in simultaneous application transactions on based servers use chip multithreading rackmount and blade formats (see Figure 1). the client/server system. Because one of our (CMT) technology to avoid the bottlenecks encountered when workloads are dependent on large data transfers over a system bus, by keeping the critical components of the workload near the actual point of execution. Combined with Oracle’s solutions using both flash and conventional disk technologies, the Oracle Solaris oper- ating system, and Oracle Database, these servers provide an ideal platform for running a BI suite such as SAP’s BusinessObjects Enterprise XI. We implemented a BI test suite in such a configuration. Our objectives were to determine the maximum advisable load of the BI software suite on the test environ- figure 1: UltraSPArc T2 Plus processor–based servers

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objectives was to use a standard configura- firewall protection, running Windows 2003 on-chip threads. tion with standard components, all configu- over VMware. Load simulators running on The application tier consisted of the SAP ration settings of the test environment (see Windows 2003 controlled test conditions BusinessObjects applications running on Figure 2) were defaults as much as possible, that created virtual users, ran the tests, and Oracle Solaris 10 Update 7. The application and the tuning parameters were static. The reported the results. Finally, simulated user tier functionality was distributed on two environment was not redundant or weighted requests were generated on systems running physical servers and 124 hardware threads. for performance and had no hardware per- Windows 2003. The data tier consisted of two database formance enhancements. The Web tier of the SAP software suite servers running Oracle Solaris 10 Update The test environment was a normal SAP ran on an Apache Tomcat 5.5 Java appli- 7, each connected directly over a 4 Gb FC BusinessObjects Enterprise XI software cation server running on JDK 1.5.0-20 interface to its storage device, using a suite environment with a client tier, Web and Oracle Solaris 10 Update 7. The Java single-channel 4 Gb FC PCIe host adapter. tier, application tier, and data tier. As shown application server acted as the gateway The data tier’s two physical servers were in Figure 2, the client tier, Web tier, and between the Web server and the rest of the a dedicated Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 application tier were connected to a 1 Gigabit SAP software suite components and was server with 256 hardware threads for the (GbE) client network, and the Web, responsible for processing Web requests. content management system database application, and data tiers were connected to The Web tier functionality was distributed and 2 hardware threads from a Sun SPARC a 10 GbE application network. on two physical servers, using 126 hardware Enterprise T5120 server, which also hosted The client tier consisted of three com- threads partitioned into 18 Oracle Solaris part of the Web tier. The storage used by ponents, each running on its own server. A Containers. A Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 the data tier consisted of a Sun Storage virtualized test system management envi- server from Oracle was shared with the F5100 Flash Array and a StorageTek 2540 ronment provided remote access through reporting database component of the data array from Oracle, chosen for its simplicity, servers accessible from the internet without tier, which occupied 2 of its available 64 availability of standard interfaces, speed, and cost-effectiveness.

External Virtualized Test System TEST EXECUTION AND RESULTS Client Tier Access Management Environment We executed a total of five test runs, using a single data set, under five load simula- tions, of 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 3,500, and Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft 4,000 virtual users, respectively. Each Windows 2003 Windows 2003 Windows 2003 Windows 2003 Windows 2003 user simulation initiated a simple request to the application server to generate a typical report, including sales history and Client Network 1 GbE available inventory. The application load tests used a gradu- ally increasing number of concurrent users. Web Tier Oracle Oracle Solaris 10 Update 7 Solaris 10 Update 7 Four servers were used to simulate the users, and the tests were configured to simulate a multiuser business network via connection of the load simulators to the Application Tier SAP BusinessObjects SAP BusinessObjects same network as the test targets over 1 GbE, with no load balancing. We selected different workloads to rep- resent small, medium, and high loads while Application Network 10 GbE the system responsiveness was measured. We tested the configuration under varying degrees of stress, which exercised the dif- Data Tier Oracle Database 11g Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1.0.6.0) Release 1 (11.1.0.6.0) ferent SAP BusinessObjects applications more strenuously than they are in normal use. In a real-world business environment, the demand for resources is fairly low Flash Array Disk Array on average, with only a few intermittent demand spikes and fewer concurrent users. Figure 2: The test environment The results shown in Table 1 demonstrate

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the scalability and performance of the based server with 64 hardware threads. package that is optimally responsive for tested configuration as the application load With Oracle Solaris Containers, two virtual 3,000 users but can support more with increased. At the same time, the flexibility servers can be deployed on a single physical longer response times.  offered by Oracle Solaris Container–based server and achieve a much higher level of virtualization enables the precise alloca- overall utilization. tion of hardware resources to the varying The test demonstrates that a BI system sherry Yu is a software engineer in Oracle’s demands of the SAP BusinessObjects suite. running on Oracle Solaris CoolThreads– sun IsV group. chad prucha is an enterprise For example, without virtualization, an I/O- based servers can deliver a cost-efficient, computing specialist. Yumiko Hata is a senior bound application may reach its maximum reliable, and high-capacity solution. By performance and scalability specialist at saP. performance due to limited I/O capacity using the latest high-density servers from while utilizing only half the processing Oracle, a BI solution can deliver excellent next steps power of an Oracle Solaris CoolThreads– performance and scalability in a dense learn more about mean and 90th-percentile response times oracle solaris coolthreads–based servers oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/ Run# Virtual Users Response Times (Seconds) servers/-enterprise/cmt-servers Mean 90th Percentile oracle solaris 1 1,000 0.718 0.787 oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/solaris 2 2,000 0.914 1.030 oracle’s sun open storage solutions 3 3,000 1.127 1.228 oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/ 4 3,500 1.266 1.480 storage/open-storage 5 4,000 2.500 6.939 DoWnloaD oracle solaris sun.com/software/solaris/get.jsp table 1: test run results

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Leader in Business Intelligence

Leader in Business Analytics

Leader in Planning & Budgeting

Leader in Financial Consolidation

oracle.com/goto/epm or call 1.800.ORACLE.1

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Please examine these publication materials carefully. Any questions regarding the materials, please contact Jodi Cordova (650) 506-5482 or [email protected]. Java Developer Frameworks by Steve Muench 55

OrAcle JDevelOPer/OrAcle APPlIcAtIOn DevelOPMent FrAMeWOrK compelling Dialog call bounded task flows as inline pop-ups.

wo of the more interesting new features details bounded task flow to handle viewing, click the Manage Employees link to start the Tin the 11g release of Oracle Application editing, and creating an employee. The manage-employees task flow. When the Development Framework (Oracle ADF) are employee-details task flow is similar to the Manage Employees page appears, select an task flows and the ability to easily create one built in the September/October 2008 employee in the table and click the View link inline dialog boxes. Prior to the 11.1.1.2 Frameworks column (“Task and You Shall in the selected row to view the employee production maintenance release, however, Receive”), in that it uses a required mode details. This calls the employee-details task combining these two features was tedious parameter with an acceptable set of values. flow, passing “view” for the value of the and error-prone. In this column, you’ll see In this column’s project, the value must be mode parameter. Click OK to return to the how simple it is to invoke a bounded task “create,” “view,” or “edit.” In addition, it Manage Employees page. flow in an inline dialog box. This column accepts an empno parameter that provides If you click the Edit link next to a selected assumes that you have downloaded the the ID of the employee to view or edit. (See employee in the table, the task flow will be starter FrameworksJulAug2010 workspace the September/October 2008 Frameworks called in edit mode and you can modify the from oracle.com/technology/oramag/ column for more information about bounded employee data. To create a new employee, oracle/10-jul/o40frame.zip and that you versus unbounded task flows, if necessary.) click the New Employee button. This calls will follow along by using the Studio Edition Start by running the application to famil- the same task flow in create mode. Enter the of the Oracle JDeveloper 11.1.1.2 produc- iarize yourself with its basic functionality. details of a new employee, and click OK. tion release, available as a free download Right-click the ViewController project, and Note that in all three cases, the page at oracle.com/technology/jdev on Oracle choose Run. When the home page appears, of the called task flow replaces the calling Technology Network. After extracting the contents of the o40frame.zip file, open the FrameworksJulAug2010.jws workspace in Oracle JDeveloper. Before proceeding, adjust the proper- ties of the connection named scott in the Application Resources zone of the Application Navigator until you can successfully test a connection to a SCOTT schema. Run the pro- vided CreateDeptEmpTables.sql script in the Model project to create the necessary tables and sequence that the example requires. To find the script, expand the Application Sources folder in the Model project of the Application Navigator. To run the script, start by double-clicking the file to open it in the editor. Then, along the bottom left side of the editor window, click the SQL Worksheet tab. Use the list (with the database “can” icon) in the upper right corner of the editor to select the scott (FrameworksJulAug2010) con- nection. Finally, click the “Run Script” editor toolbar icon (the second from the left).

Overview The example includes a manage-employees bounded task flow that calls an employee- Figure 1: an inline dialog box bounded task flow

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page in the browser and the calling page is restored when the task flow completes or you cancel and return from the called task flow. By following the steps in this column, you’ll see how easy it is to render a called task flow as an inline dialog box rather than completely replacing the current page. As shown in Figure 1, with this technique in your application, your end users will see the calling page in the background as they interact with the related information in the pop-up dialog box.

Calling a Task Flow in a Dialog Box Start by opening the manage-employees task flow in the editor. To do this, expand the Page Flows folder inside the Web Content folder of the ViewController project in the Application Navigator and double- click the manage-employees node. Select the employee-details task flow call activity Figure 2: The afternewemployeeDialog and aftereditemployeeDialog methods in the diagram. Note that the employee- details task flow icon looks like a Web applicationModal. These three settings Overview tab to see the task flow overview. page linked to another Web page. Show configure the button to open the called task On the Parameters page, click the green this activity’s properties by choosing View flow in an inline pop-up dialog box that will plus (+) icon in the Return Value Definitions -> Property Inspector from the Oracle be modal with respect to the calling page. section to add a row to the table and define JDeveloper main menu. In the Behavior This means that users must dismiss the a named return value. In the new row, section, set the Run as Dialog property to pop-up dialog box before they’ll be able to double-click in the Name column to edit true and set the Display Type property to interact again with the calling page. Set the the name of the return value. Change the inline-popup. As you change these set- Window Height property to 210 and Window name to empnoReturned. In the Class tings, observe the icon on the task flow call Width to 210. Repeat these configuration column, enter oracle.jbo.domain activity as it changes from a Web page to a steps for the View link and the Edit link in the .Number to define the type of the return dialog box. This gives you visual feedback Actions column of the table. value, and in the Value column, enter that the called task flow will appear in a the expression language (EL) expression pop-up dialog box at runtime. ConFiguring reTurn Values #{pageFlowScope.empno}, and press Next, double-click the manageEmployees Sometimes you will find it useful to have a Enter. This defines a named return param- view activity in the diagram to open the called task flow return information to the eter whose value will be calculated by eval- page in the visual editor. You’ll need to calling task flow. For example, in a later uation of the supplied EL expression before perform the same few configuration steps step in this article, you will display a con- the task flow is exited. Given the expression for each command component that calls firmation message to the user, indicating you’ve entered, the return parameter will be the task flow, which, in our example, con- the employee number of a newly created equal to the value of the empno attribute sists of one button and two links. Start by employee returned from the called task in the page flow scope at the time the task selecting the New Employee button. In the flow. Accomplishing this task will be a flow completes. Behavior section of the Property Inspector, two-step process. In this section, you will Next you’ll configure the set the Partial Submit property to true. configure the employee-details task flow to setPropertyListener component on each of This ensures that the calling page will not have a return parameter. Then, in the next the two buttons on the employeeDetails “flicker” or repaint when calling the task flow section, you will reference the value of the .jspx page in the employee-details task flow in a pop-up dialog box. return parameter in a “return listener” event to copy a value into the empno attribute Next, lower in the Behavior section, handler in the calling page. in the page flow scope before the task flow find the Secondary Window group of Start by double-clicking the employee- is exited. Click back on the Diagram tab in properties and set Use Window to true, details task flow in the Application the lower left corner of the editor to see Window Embed Style to inlineDocument, Navigator to open it in the editor. At the the task flow diagram again. Double-click and Window Modality Type to bottom left side of the editor, click the the employeeDetails view activity to open

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the page in the editor. Right-click the OK Inspector, click the down-arrow to the You can see that with minimal work, button, and choose Insert inside Button -> right of the returnListener property and you’re now employing an attractive pop-up OK -> ADF Faces. In the Insert ADF Faces choose Edit. When the Edit Property: Return dialog box for viewing, editing, and creating Item dialog box, select Set Property Listener Listener dialog box appears, choose the employees. As you begin to experiment with and click OK. In the Insert Set Property ManageEmployees managed bean from the using this technique in your own applica- Listener dialog box, in the From field, enter Managed Bean list. (This bean was configured tions, keep in mind that for a bounded task the #{bindings.Empno.inputValue} ahead of time as part of the starter project.) flow to run as a dialog box, it must comprise EL expression; in the To field, enter the To define a new event handler method complete JSPX pages rather than page frag- #{pageFlowScope.empno} expression; and in this bean, click the New button to the ments. If you have already built your task set the Type to action. This step declara- right of the Method list. When the Create flow with fragments, not to worry: you can tively assigns the current value of the empno Method dialog box appears, enter convert it to a bounded task flow with pages, attribute to the page flow scope attribute afterNewEmployeeDialog as the using the handy Convert to Task Flow With named empno. Click OK to complete the lis- method name, click OK, and then click OK Pages option on the task flow diagram’s tener you’ve configured. again. To go to the backing bean class where right-mouse context menu.  Repeat these steps to insert a the event handler method was created, right- setPropertyListener component inside the click the New Employee button and choose Cancel button, using the same Go to -> ManageEmployeesPage.java. Inside steve muench is #{pageFlowScope.empno} EL expression the afterNewEmployeeDialog() method, at a consulting product for the To field and the same action setting the end of the file, add the following code: manager for Oracle for the Type field, but set the From field JDeveloper. He has to the expression #{null} and click OK to Number returnValue = developed and supported create the listener. This will assign the “null” (Number)returnEvent.getReturnValue(); Oracle tools and XMl value to the page flow scoped attribute if (returnValue != null) { technologies since 1990 and continues named empno when the user clicks Cancel. showMessage("New employee to evangelize them. Muench coauthored You’ll use this null return value as a signal "+returnValue+" created."); Oracle ADF Developer’s Guide for Forms/4GL that the user canceled the dialog box. } Developers (Oracle, 2006), wrote Building repaintTableAndMessageBox(); ImplementIng a RetuRn lIsteneR Oracle XML Applications (O’Reilly Media, 2000), and shares tips and tricks on Oracle On a page that launches a task flow in a The first two lines retrieve the dialog box technology Network (oracle.com/technetwork) dialog box, you can reference the value of return value from the dialog box return event and in his Dive into ADF blog (blogs.oracle.com/ one task flow return parameter as the dialog object. As you configured it above, this value smuenchadf). box return value. You will typically configure will reflect either the employee ID of the this for each command component that new employee created or “null” if the user next steps launches a task flow as a dialog box. To do canceled the dialog box. The next three lines this, start by configuring the task flow call conditionally invoke the showMessage() reaD more Frameworks activity to select the task flow return param- helper method and display a confirmation oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/ eter that will provide the dialog box return message on the page if the user did not frameworks value. Activate the manage-employees cancel the dialog box. The last line invokes a reaD more about task flow editor tab again, and select the helper method to cause the employees table oracle JDeveloper and oracle aDF oracle.com/technology/products/jdev employee-details task flow call activity. and message box UI components to repaint oracle.com/technology/products/jdev/tips/ In the Behavior section of the Property in the browser to reflect the latest data. muench/designpatterns Inspector, set Dialog Return Value to Repeat the steps above to create an Oracle Fusion Middleware Fusion Developer’s empnoReturned, the name of the return afterEditEmployeeDialog return listener Guide for Oracle Application Development Framework 11g parameter you defined in the previous step. event handler for the Edit link on the page, download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12839_01/ The next step is to configure an event but with an appropriate confirmation web.1111/b31974/toc.htm handler in a backing bean that will fire when message, such as oracle Fusion middleware the dialog box returns. You accomplish this download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12839_01/ oracle.com/technology/documentation by setting the returnListener property of showMessage("Employee "+ returnValue +" DownloaD the command component (button/link) updated."); oracle JDeveloper 11g that launches the dialog box. Activate the oracle.com/technology/software/products/jdev editor for the manageEmployees.jspx page, The completed settings look like those in the starter workspace for this column and then select the New Employee button. Figure 2. To test the application, right-click the oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/10-jul/ o40frame.zip In the Behavior section of the Property ViewController project and choose Run again.

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OraclE WarEhOusE buildEr 11g/OraclE businEss intElligEncE EntErprisE EditiOn Deriving and sharing Business intelligence metadata integrate Oracle Warehouse builder 11g release 2 information with Oracle business intelligence Enterprise Edition.

f you’ve developed a repository for use with download the Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g metadata layer. IOracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Release 2 metadata export file at oracle.com/ Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, you’ve been creating the repository technology/oramag/oracle/10-jul/o40bi.zip, Edition stores its metadata in a repository by using the Oracle Business Intelligence which contains a file called obiee_intgr.mdl. file comprising three layers: Enterprise Edition Administration tool. With • A physical layer, which contains metadata the release of Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Feature Overview on physical sources, including table defini- Release 2, however, you now have the option Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2 tions, primary and foreign keys, and data- of creating and maintaining a repository can derive or manually create BI metadata base types from within your Oracle Warehouse Builder for a wide range of datasources, but the • A business model and mapping layer, project, giving you the ability to develop your example in this column is based on an which holds the logical dimensional model business intelligence (BI) repository along- Oracle Database module that contains used by tools such as Oracle Business side your data warehouse, sharing the same dimensional metadata (dimensions, cubes, Intelligence Answers, together with calcu- metadata, business definitions, data lineage, and hierarchies) that Oracle Warehouse lations and other derived data and development environment. Builder will automatically translate into the • A presentation layer, which contains In this column, you will see how you can dimensional metadata that Oracle Business subsets of the business model and the use Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release Intelligence Enterprise Edition uses in its mapping layer 2 to create a repository for use with Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 10g Release 3. The Oracle Warehouse Builder project for the column contains an Oracle Database module from which I will automatically derive BI metadata into a corresponding Oracle Business Intelligence module—complete with dimensions, facts, and hierarchies—ready for deployment in the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition environment. The examples in this article require the following software to be installed in your environment: • Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2, either embedded in an Oracle Database 11g Release 2 instance or installed standalone • Oracle9i Database, Oracle Database 10g, or Oracle Database 11g • Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 10g Release 3 To execute the steps in this column, also Figure 1: selecting oracle Warehouse Builder database objects for derivation

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When Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Module dialog box will appear. Release 2 creates BI metadata for use with 3. In the Create Module dialog box, name Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise the module OBIEE_DEMO. Click Next to Edition, it can take the dimensions and proceed to the Connection Information cubes defined within an Oracle Database page in the wizard, and then enter module and translate these into the dimen- obiee_demo.udml as the filename, sional metadata used by the Oracle Business together with the connection details Intelligence Enterprise Edition repository, for either a file, FTP, HTTP, or HTTPS in a process called derivation. Once your BI location. This location is where Oracle metadata has been derived, you can add Warehouse Builder will deploy the to or enhance it with more calculations or obiee_demo.udml metadata exchange logical structures to meet the needs of your file that will be used to create your Oracle end users. Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Alternatively, if you do not have dimen- repository and typically either points to sions or cubes defined within your Oracle a directory on the same server on which Warehouse Builder project, you can create the Oracle Warehouse Builder is running or Oracle Business Intelligence module metadata to a location that is accessible to Oracle you require manually, mapping this metadata Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. to the relational structures in your Oracle Click Test Connection to check whether Figure 2: Derived business intelligence metadata objects in the Projects explorer Warehouse Builder project. This is a more the location is valid, and then click OK, complex process and is outside the scope of Next, and Finish to create the module. this article, but if you are interested in reading In the Projects Navigator, expand Database module that contains the data more about it, you can find detailed informa- the new OBIEE_DEMO Oracle Business warehouse metadata on which you want tion on manual BI metadata creation in Oracle Intelligence module you just created, and to base the BI metadata, right-click it, Warehouse Builder Sources and Targets Guide note that it has three subfolders: and select Derive. The Perform Derivation 11g Release 2. • logical tables, which contains the wizard will appear. logical fact and dimension table metadata 2. In the wizard, ensure that all of the Creating an OraCle Business that will populate the business model and dimensions, the relational tables, and the intelligenCe MOdule mapping layer in your Oracle Business cube are selected for derivation, as shown Before you can start creating metadata Intelligence Enterprise Edition repository in Figure 1. for use with Oracle Business Intelligence • dimension drill Paths, which contains 3. Click Next, and then select the DW Enterprise Edition, you must create an the dimensions that will also go into the catalog folder within the OBIEE_DEMO Oracle Business Intelligence module within business model and mapping layer Oracle Business Intelligence module as your Oracle Warehouse Builder project. • Catalog Folders, which holds the meta- the derivation target. 1. Log in to the Oracle Warehouse Builder data that will be used for the presentation 4. Click Next on the next four pages of the 11g Release 2 Design Center, connect layer in your Oracle Business Intelligence wizard, accepting the default values, and as a workspace owner, and locate the Enterprise Edition repository then click Finish. When the wizard steps Projects Navigator. From the Application Right-click the Catalog Folders are complete, Oracle Warehouse Builder menu, select File -> Import -> Oracle subfolder within your Oracle Business will derive the corresponding Oracle Warehouse Builder Metadata. When the Intelligence module, and select the New Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Import dialog box is displayed, use the Catalog Folder option. Name the new metadata objects for the objects in this Browse button to select the obiee_intgr folder DW, and click Next, Next, and Finish database module. .mdl metadata export file contained in to create it. 5. Navigating to the Business Intelligence -> the zip file you downloaded earlier, and Oracle Business Intelligence entry in the then click Import to load the project deriving OraCle Business Projects Explorer, expand all the entries metadata into your workspace. intelligenCe enterPrise editiOn in the OBIEE_DEMO module you created 2. From within the Projects Navigator, open Metadata earlier. You will see logical tables, dimen- the OBIEE_INTGR project you have just Now that you have a suitable Oracle Business sion drill paths, and catalog folder tables imported. Within the project, locate the Intelligence module, you can create meta- corresponding to the dimensions, tables, Business Intelligence entry, expand it, data for it. and cube you selected for derivation in the and then right-click the Oracle Business 1. In the Projects Navigator within the previous steps, as shown in Figure 2. Intelligence entry. Select New Oracle Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release Figure 2 shows BI metadata objects Business Intelligence, and the Create 2 Design Center, locate the DW Oracle at the table and dimension levels. To

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see the individual columns, levels, and Deploying the MoDel to Business Intelligence Server client tools hierarchies contained within them, you oracle Business intelligence are installed: can double-click them to open them for enterprise eDition viewing and editing. Deploying your Oracle Business Intelligence nqudmlexec –I c:\obiee_demo.udml –O 6. Double-click the SALES_FACT logical module is a two-stage process: first you OBIEE_DEMO.rpd table within the OBIEE_DEMO Oracle deploy the module to create a metadata Business Intelligence module, and click definition file, and then you use an Oracle The third step will generate a new Oracle the Items tab to see the logical columns Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition contained within it. This list contains utility to turn the file into a new repository repository that you can open and view, using two columns, AMOUNT and DISCOUNT, file. The repository file can then be used on the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise that you can use to create an additional its own or merged into an existing repository. Edition Administration tool. Figure 3 shows derived logical column within this logical To deploy your module and create the new the new repository. table. With the SALES_FACT table open repository, do the following: You can now use this repository on its for editing and with the Items tab active, 1. Within the Projects Navigator, locate own or use the File -> Merge feature within navigate to the end of the list of logical the OBIEE_DEMO Oracle Business the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise columns and enter AMOUNT_AFTER_ Intelligence module you created previ- Edition Administration tool to merge it into DISCOUNT as the name of a new logical ously, right-click it, and select Deploy. another repository, merging metadata from column at the end of the column list. 2. In the Log, check that no errors were your Oracle Warehouse Builder data ware- Then, with this new column selected, reported in the deployment. If there are house into an existing semantic model. locate the PropertiesInspector dialog errors, correct them and then redeploy box (typically on the right-hand side the module. Next, locate the obiee_ suMMary of the Oracle Warehouse Builder user demo.udml file that was generated as Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2 interface) and find the Expression Text part of the module deployment, and if delivers tight integration between your property. Click the ellipsis button next to necessary, copy or transfer it to the loca- data warehouse design and the metadata the Property text field, and then use the tion where Oracle Business Intelligence model used by Oracle Business Intelligence Expression Builder dialog box to enter the Enterprise Edition is installed. Enterprise Edition. Creating BI metadata expression AMOUNT – DISCOUNT. 3. In the location where Oracle Business within Oracle Warehouse Builder means that Click Validate to check that the expres- Intelligence Enterprise Edition is you have to define data warehouse facts, sion is valid, and then click OK to save the installed and where the obiee_demo dimensions, and calculations only once, logical column expression. .udml metadata definition file is now and any changes you make to your data 7. Finally, from the Oracle Warehouse Builder located, run the following command from warehouse project can be quickly and easily Application menu, select File -> the command line, using {ORACLE_BI} reflected in the BI metadata model your Save All to save your project changes. for the location where your Oracle reports use. 

mark rittman is an Oracle ACE director and cofounder of Rittman Mead Consulting, a U.K.–based Oracle partner providing specialized business intelligence, data warehousing, and performance management solutions.

next steps

reaD more about oracle Warehouse Builder 11g release 2 oracle.com/technology/products/warehouse oracle Business intelligence enterprise edition oracle.com/technology/products/bi/ enterprise-edition.html DoWnloaD the metadata export file for this column oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/10-jul/ Figure 3: oracle Business intelligence enterprise edition repository in the oracle Business intelligence o40bi.zip enterprise edition administration tool

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OrAcle dAtABAse 11g releAse 2 Automating Parallelism take the guesswork out of setting the degree of parallelism for queries.

arallel query, the essence of the “divide forcing other queries to get fewer parallel pro- load on the database, and a slew of other Pand conquer” technique in query pro- cesses than they actually need. You can also metrics—along with a healthy dose of luck. cessing, has been part of Oracle Database rely on hints to set the degree of parallelism, And there was no one-size-fits-all value; for quite a while. In general, parallel query but these can be hard to set correctly. you needed to set it carefully for each state- works by creating several parallel query So, although an optimal degree of paral- ment. Needless to say, all that work was too processes that divide the workload of a SQL lelism is extremely important for ensuring much to expect from a typically overworked statement. These processes operate on good performance, there has been very DBA. Furthermore, when working with objects in parallel and can therefore greatly little you could do to ensure the best packaged applications, you couldn’t even reduce overall execution time. A coordinator setting. The most effective determination change the code to add hints that modified session gets the output from each slave typically depended on your knowledge of parallel behavior. session and collates it to produce a com- the data pattern, the usage statistics, the Enter Oracle Database 11g Release 2, with bined output. The end result is the same as if the statement were processed serially, but code listing 1: execution plan for a query on a table without a default degree of parallelism* it usually completes much more quickly.

The degree of parallelism, or the number ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— of parallel processes used, depends on |Id|Operation |Name |Rows|Bytes|Cost |Time |Pstart|Pstop| several factors. They include the default ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— | 0|SELECT STATEMENT | | 1| 13| 1387|00:00:17| | | parallel degree of the table (set by the DBA) | 1| SORT AGGREGATE | | 1| 13| | | | | and the hints used in the statement by the |*2| FILTER | | | | | | | | user. The key to optimizing parallel query | 3| PARTITION RANGE ITERATOR| |229K|2916K| 1387|00:00:17| KEY | KEY| |*4| TABLE ACCESS FULL |SALES|229K|2916K| 1387|00:00:17| KEY | KEY| comes not just from understanding how it ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— works but also in setting the optimal degree of parallelism for a given statement. Predicate Information (identified by operation id): ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Simply setting a default degree of paral- lelism for a table may work in some cases. 2 - filter(TO_DATE('1-JAN-01')<=TO_DATE('31-DEC-10')) Note that whereas the default setting influ- 4 - filter("TIME_ID">='1-JAN-01' AND "TIME_ID"<='31-DEC-10')) ences the actual degree of parallelism used * for a query, other factors—such as system code listing 2: execution plan for a query on a table with a default degree of parallelism capabilities—also have an effect on the actual setting used. How do you choose the ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— best default degree of parallelism? For some |Id | Operation | Name |Rows|Bytes| TQ |IN-OUT|PQ Distrib| ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— statements, the default degree may be too | 0|SELECT STATEMENT | | 1 | 13| | | | small, producing a suboptimal result due to | 1| SORT AGGREGATE | | 1 | 13| | | | a dearth of parallel processes. Yet it may be |*2| PX COORDINATOR | | | | | | | | 3| PX SEND QC (RANDOM) |:TQ10000| 1 | 13|Q1,00| P->S |QC (RAND) | too large for other statements, causing the | 4| SORT AGGREGATE | | 1 | 13|Q1,00| PCWP | | overparallelized queries to underperform. |*5| FILTER | | | |Q1,00| PCWC | | And sometimes a serial statement finishes | 6| PX BLOCK ITERATOR | |229K|2916K|Q1,00| PCWC | | |*7| TABLE ACCESS FULL| SALES |229K|2916K|Q1,00| PCWP | | faster than the parallelized version. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— The parallel_max_servers initialization parameter defines the absolute maximum Predicate Information (identified by operation id): ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— number of parallel processes that run on the system. If this value is too high, queries may 2 - filter(TO_DATE('1-JAN-01')<=TO_DATE('31-DEC-10')) perform poorly and the system may over- 5 - filter(TO_DATE('1-JAN-01')<=TO_DATE('31-DEC-10')) 7 - filter("TIME_ID">='1-JAN-01' AND "TIME_ID"<='31-DEC-10')

liNdy grOeNiNg liNdy allocate parallel processes from the total pool,

*some columns have been removed from the output to fit the available space.

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a new feature that makes it much easier to 3 where table_name = 'SALES'; select sum(amount_sold) manage setting the degree of parallelism from sales for your queries. Using this feature, you can DEGREE where time_id between '1-JAN-01' and delegate the task of determining the exact ———————— '31-DEC-10'; number of parallel query processes to the 4 optimizer, which can compute the most select * from effective degree of parallelism for a specific You can see how increasing the default table(dbms_xplan.display()); SQL statement. In this article, you will learn parallel degree of the table affects the execu- how to enable and use this feature to make tion plan of the initial query: The output is shown in Listing 2. Note the most of parallel queries. explain plan for that the statement executed in parallel, as

Parallel Query OPtiOns code listing 3: Execution plan for a query with parallel hint* Consider the following query, based on the SALES table that comes as part of the Oracle —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— SH sample schema: |Id|Operation |Name |Rows|Bytes| TQ |IN-OUT| PQ Distrib| —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— explain plan for | 0|SELECT STATEMENT | | 1| 13| | | | | 1| SORT AGGREGATE | | 1| 13| | | | select sum(amount_sold) |*2| PX COORDINATOR | | | | | | | from sales | 3| PX SEND QC (RANDOM) |:TQ10000| 1| 13|Q1,00| P->S | QC (RAND) | where time_id between '1-JAN-01' and | 4| SORT AGGREGATE | | 1| 13|Q1,00| PCWP | | |*5| FILTER | | | |Q1,00| PCWC | | '31-DEC-10'; | 6| PX BLOCK ITERATOR | |229K|2916K|Q1,00| PCWC | | |*7| TABLE ACCESS FULL|SALES |229K|2916K|Q1,00| PCWP | | The explain plan command in the ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

first line directs the database not to actually Predicate Information (identified by operation id): execute the query but to produce the execu- ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— tion plan only. You can check the execution 2 - filter(TO_DATE('1-JAN-01')<=TO_DATE('31-DEC-10')) plan by issuing this SQL statement: 5 - filter(TO_DATE('1-JAN-01')<=TO_DATE('31-DEC-10')) 7 - filter("TIME_ID">='1-JAN-01' AND "TIME_ID"<='31-DEC-10') select * from Note table(dbms_xplan.display()); —————— - automatic DOP: Computed Degree of Parallelism is 2 The output in Listing 1 shows the execu- tion plan of the query. Note that there is code listing 4: Execution plan for a query with a degree-of-parallelism hint* no mention of PX-type operations in the

Operation column. The absence of these ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— operations indicates that the statement will |Id|Operation |Name |Rows|Bytes | TQ |IN-OUT|PQ Distrib | run serially and not in parallel. ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— | 0|SELECT STATEMENT | | 1| 13 | | | | Prior to Oracle Database 11g Release 2, | 1| SORT AGGREGATE | | 1| 13 | | | | the statement's degree of parallelism was |*2| PX COORDINATOR | | | | | | | set according to the default parallel degree of | 3| PX SEND QC (RANDOM) |:TQ10000| 1| 13 |Q1,00| P->S |QC (RAND) | | 4| SORT AGGREGATE | | 1| 13 |Q1,00| PCWP | | the table. The following example shows how |*5| FILTER | | | |Q1,00| PCWC | | you can set the default parallel degree of the | 6| PX BLOCK ITERATOR | |229K| 2916K|Q1,00| PCWC | | SALES table to 4. |*7| TABLE ACCESS FULL|SALES |229K| 2916K|Q1,00| PCWP | | ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

SQL> alter table sales parallel 4; Predicate Information (identified by operation id): ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Table altered. 2 - filter(TO_DATE('1-JAN-01')<=TO_DATE('31-DEC-10')) 5 - filter(TO_DATE('1-JAN-01')<=TO_DATE('31-DEC-10')) You can check the default parallel degree of 7 - filter("TIME_ID">='1-JAN-01' AND "TIME_ID"<='31-DEC-10')

the SALES table by using the following query: Note —————— SQL> select degree - automatic DOP: Computed Degree of Parallelism is 30 because of degree limit 2 from user_tables

*some columns have been removed from the output to fit the available space.

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evidenced by the PX operations (shown in the table’s parallel degree, and the optimizer the I/O load on the database host) or any bold) in the Operation column. does not use the automatic degree of paral- number greater than 0. If you want, you Suppose a table does not have a default lelism to find the best degree of parallelism can increase the limit to a numerical value, degree of parallelism. In that case, you can for a particular statement. Note that the such as 30, systemwide by issuing still force the query to perform a parallel default setting for this parameter is MANUAL. operation by using a hint, quite appropri- To take advantage of the new automatic par- alter system ately named “parallel.” To experience how allel query in Oracle Database 11g Release 2, set parallel_degree_limit = 30; it works, first remove the default degree of change the setting to LIMITED or AUTO. parallelism from the SALES table. Or, to alter the value in a specific session only, Limiting ParaLLeL Processes SQL> alter table sales noparallel; If a query requires parallel processes for alter session optimal execution but no processes are set parallel_degree_limit = 30; Table altered. free, query performance will suffer. So you may want to ensure that statements Note that even if you increase the If you now execute the same SELECT requiring many parallel processes are the parameter value, the automatically com- query shown earlier, you will get a serial exe- ones that receive the most performance puted degree of parallelism may not cution plan as shown in Listing 1. To force the benefit. Another initialization parameter— increase, because the database may deter- query to execute in parallel, place the parallel parallel_degree_limit—sets the maximum mine that the computed degree of paral- hint as shown below: degree of parallelism for a query. The lelism is sufficient. default value of this parameter is CPU (cal- In most cases, the computed degree explain plan for culated as the number of CPUs multiplied of parallelism will be quite accurate, but select /*+ parallel */ sum(amount_sold) by the parallel threads allowed per CPU). sometimes you may know the data well from sales This parameter can take other values, enough to justify a higher degree of paral- where time_id between '1-JAN-01' and such as IO (in which the limit depends on lelism. When that happens, how can you '31-DEC-10'; code listing 5: specifying the threshold of parallel query The execution plan is shown in Listing 3. Carefully study the plan: at the very end a SQL> alter session set parallel_min_time_threshold = 16; Note section (shown in bold) clearly shows that the “automatic DOP” feature was set Session altered. and the degree of parallelism was set to SQL> explain plan for 2. This is another enhancement in Oracle 2 select /*+ parallel */ sum(amount_sold) Database 11g Release 2: the execution plan 3 from sales t now shows the degree of parallelism used in 4 where time_id between '1-JAN-01' and '31-DEC-10'; the query. The execution plan output in Listing 3 PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT shows the computed degree of parallelism— ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Plan hash value: 2410956116 the degree of parallelism the optimizer calculated for this specific query. In this case, ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— it was 2, a value deemed to be optimal. The | Id|Operation |Name |Rows |Bytes |Cost (%CPU)|Time | ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— value chosen is influenced by an initializa- | 0|SELECT STATEMENT | | 1 | 13 | 1248 (2)|00:00:15| tion parameter, parallel_degree_policy, | 1| SORT AGGREGATE | | 1 | 13 | | | which is set to LIMITED in this example. |* 2| FILTER | | | | | | |* 3| TABLE ACCESS FULL|SALES | 229K| 2916K| 1248 (2)|00:00:15| When using this setting, the optimizer com- ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— putes the optimal degree-of-parallelism value based on estimated execution sta- Predicate Information (identified by operation id): ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— tistics. For a different statement, the value could be lower or higher. 2 - filter(TO_DATE('1-JAN-01')<=TO_DATE('31-DEC-10')) Another value for the parallel_degree_ 3 - filter("TIME_ID">='1-JAN-01' AND "TIME_ID"<='31-DEC-10')

policy parameter is MANUAL, which makes Note the optimizer behave as it did prior to Oracle —————— Database 11g Release 2. In this case, the - automatic DOP: Computed Degree of Parallelism is 1 because of parallel threshold degree of parallelism is strictly determined by

oracle magazine July/August 2010

JA10_parallel.indd 65 5/18/10 4:22:14 PM 66 Parallel Query

take advantage of more parallel query pro- work may actually make the overall execu- Compute cesses if they are available? You can force a tion take longer than running the query Degree higher degree of parallelism, such as 40, by serially. Therefore, the database always of Parallelism specifying a hint: performs a check by comparing the esti- mated execution time of a serial process explain plan for with a parallel one. If the estimated elapsed Generate Serial Plan select /*+ parallel (t,40) */ time of a query with parallel query is higher sum(amount_sold) than a certain threshold value, the query from sales t will be executed in parallel. This threshold Estimated where time_id between '1-JAN-01' and value is specified by a parallel_min_time_ Generate Elapsed Time > Yes Parallel Plan '31-DEC-10'; threshold initialization parameter, and Threshold? the default is 10 seconds. Note that you No When you examine the execution plan for can also specify AUTO as the value for this the above statement (shown in Listing 4), parameter, in which case the system calcu- Estimated Use No Elapsed Time < Serial Plan notice that the note at the end of the plan lates the threshold. Serial? states that the computed degree of paral- When a query is first parsed, the data- lelism was 30, even though the hint speci- base generates a plan that uses no paral- Yes fied 40. The reason for the reduced number lelism and estimates the execution time. is the parallel_degree_limit initialization If the execution time is more than this Use Parallel Plan parameter, which we set to 30 earlier. threshold value time, it generates a parallel The other parameter that affects the plan. Figure 1 shows the logic the optimizer Figure 1: Decision tree for query parallelization computed degree of parallelism is uses to decide the plan of action. You can _parallel_threads_per_cpu, which is cur- change the value of the parallel_min_ rently set to 30, with the CPU count for time_threshold parameter in a session and the parallel processes on different nodes this server set to 1. This parameter limits see the effect, as shown in Listing 5. Look send their result sets via the interconnect, the number of parallel query processes per at the boldface note at the end of the plan, there is a strong possibility that this added CPU. Without this restriction, the number which shows the computed degree of paral- traffic will introduce performance issues, of parallel query processes could skyrocket, lelism to be 1 (meaning that no parallelism especially related to global cache metrics. but they would just queue on the same CPU, was used) because the execution time In such cases, you may want to restrict the making them serially executed. Note that (15 seconds) was less than the threshold parallel processes to the node where the this parameter starts with an underscore (16 seconds). parallel query coordinator runs. Because all (_), meaning that this is considered hidden. the components of the query—the coor- In the prior releases of Oracle Database, this parallel query limiteD to one noDe dinator and the parallel processes—are in parameter was not hidden and was known of oracle real application clusters the same instance, there is no interinstance as parallel_threads_per_cpu. When a query is issued against an Oracle traffic and hence there are no global-cache- Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) related issues. Does parallel query Help? database with multiple nodes, the parallel The parallel_force_local parameter When a user issues a query against a processes may be spawned on different restricts parallel processes to a single large table, does it make sense to paral- nodes. This approach is used to ensure that instance. The default value is FALSE, lelize the query automatically? It depends. no one node becomes overloaded and that meaning that the parallel processes can go Parallelizing a query against a table the processing power of all nodes is utilized into any available instance. To restrict the requires additional work: the parallel query as efficiently as possible. parallel processes to a single instance, set coordinator must divide the work among However, under certain conditions, the the parallel_force_local parameter value the slaves, coordinate their efforts, and interinstance traffic in the Oracle RAC data- to TRUE. finally collate the results. This additional base may already be significantly high. As queuing

Objective Parameter allowed Values What happens when the parallel query pro- (Default is underlined.) cesses required for optimal execution are not to enable the automatic degree of parallelism parallel_degree_policy manual, limited, auto available? Should the optimizer reduce the to limit the automatic degree of parallelism for a single query parallel_degree_limit cpu, io, auto, number degree of parallelism, remove it altogether to specify the threshold for determining serial versus parallel query parallel_min_time_threshold auto, number to make it serial, or just abort the process? to force parallel query processes to one instance parallel_force_local true, false It does none of the above. Instead, Oracle Table 1: Objectives of parallel query and parameters that meet those objectives Database 11g Release 2 now defers the exe-

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cution of the query until the parallel query The subsequent statements will wait with Table 1 summarizes the main objectives you processes are available to satisfy the desired the event: may have when configuring parallel query, degree of parallelism. This is done transpar- along with the parameters that enable ently without any user intervention. The enq: JX - SQL statement queue. those objectives.  queuing mechanism ensures that all state- ments will run with the appropriate degree CONCLUSION of parallelism. If the database did not use Setting a query's degree of parallelism Arup Nanda (arup@ the queuing mechanism and instead simply is not an exact science. It’s fraught with proligence.com) has allowed the parallel processes to kick off, many potential errors and depends heavily been an Oracle DBA they would be queued at the CPU level with on the user's knowledge of data distribu- for more than 14 years, a deeper run queue, causing performance tion and on manual intervention that may handling all aspects of issues. Conversely, if the database started not be possible. Automatic parallel query database administration, statement execution with a reduced degree features in Oracle Database 11g Release 2 from performance tuning to security and of parallelism, the statement would perform alleviate this issue by shifting the burden disaster recovery. He was Oracle Magazine’s less efficiently than it would if it waited a of determining the degree of parallelism DBA of the Year in 2003. little longer to get the desired degree of from the users or DBAs to the optimizer. parallelism. The queuing process eliminates The optimizer is designed to make an effec- NEXT STEPS those risks. tive determination of the optimal parallel The first statement in the queue will wait settings for any given statement, not just READ more about parallel query with a special event: for a table or index. And all you have to do Oracle Database VLDB and Partitioning Guide to take advantage of this feature is set the download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11882_01/ server.112/e10837/toc.htm PX Queueing: statement queue. parallel_degree_policy parameter to AUTO.

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oRAcle DATAbAse on connecting, Pivoting, and learning new Things our technologist bypasses TNsNAmes.oRA, turns rows to columns, and meets the No_DATA_FouND exception.

am trying to use SQL*Plus to connect connect identifier specified (CONNECT_DATA=(SERVER=DEDICATED) I to an Oracle Database instance directly, (service_name=ora11gr2)))'

using just the connect string (that is, without That means that the Oracle client soft- … referencing tnsnames.ora). ware could not translate that connect string I have the following in my tnsnames.ora: into something that enabled you to find the This works nicely when you have no control listener. The problem lies in your sqlnet.ora over the configuration files at all and want POD=(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST=….)) file: you need to let the client software know to connect to a known host/instance. You that you want to use EZCONNECT as one of should note that in real life, there would be no and I can connect to the database with your naming methods. If you add line breaks, there would be no spaces in the SQL Plus command line, and you would have sqlplus USER/PASSWORD@POD NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH= to escape special characters based on the (TNSNAMES, EZCONNECT) shell (or command prompt) you were using. However, if I try to connect with to your sqlnet.ora configuration file on the PIvot Query examPles sqlplus USER/PASSWORD@// client (see download.oracle.com/docs/cd/ Please show an example of a pivot query—to HOST.NAME:1521/SVC E11882_01/network.112/e10836/naming turn rows into columns. Please also illustrate .htm#sthref473 for all the details), you’ll find a pivot query using varrays or nested tables. I see the following error message: that this method now works: I’ll show you a couple of techniques—an Oracle Database 11g Release 1 and above ORA-12154: TNS: could not resolve the $ sqlplus scott/tiger@//host/ora11g ANSI implementation and a technique that connect identifier specified works in Oracle Database 10g Release 2 SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.1.0 using DECODE (or CASE)—and how to use Is there any way I can connect to the data- Production on Fri Apr 2 10:30:33 the COLLECT aggregate built-in function in base without referring to tnsnames.ora? Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle. Oracle Database 10g and above to return a There are multiple answers to this—I’ll All rights reserved. collection of data. present two. First, you seem to be trying to use First, here’s the latest technique using the easy connect naming method introduced Connected to: the new PIVOT clause. (Note that the with Oracle Database 10g. This enables you to Oracle Database 11g Enterprise converse—UNPIVOT—turns columns into connect to a database—without using a TNS Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 – rows.) In Listing 1, I use the SCOTT.EMP connect string—by specifying the host and Production With the Partitioning, table with the goal of turning the DEPTNO database service to connect to. OLAP, Data Mining and Real data, which usually goes down the page in So you are receiving this error: Application Testing options rows, into columns. The key in this query is on line 5: the $ sqlplus scott/tiger@//host/ora11g Alternatively, if you want to connect new PIVOT keyword. It works a little like a without both a sqlnet.ora file and a WHERE clause and GROUP BY all in one. SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.1.0 tnsnames.ora file, you can put the details The query starts on lines 3 and 4, where I Production on Fri Apr 2 10:25:12 you would normally place in your tnsnames select the columns I want to work with— Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle. .ora file right on the command line: DEPTNO, JOB, and SAL. The PIVOT clause All rights reserved. includes SUM(SAL) to compute the aggre- $ sqlplus scott/tiger@'(DESCRIPTION= gate SUM(SAL) grouping implicitly by the ERROR: (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP) remaining columns (DEPTNO and JOB). ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the (HOST=localhost)(PORT=1521)) Normally, that result would look like this:

orAcle mAgAzine July/AugusT 2010

JA10_asktom.indd 69 5/18/10 8:55:31 AM 70 Ask Tom

SQL> select deptno, job, sum(sal) SQL> create or replace type I Learn SomethIng new 2 from emp 2 myScalarType as object I am known for saying, “I learn something 3 group by deptno, job 3 ( job varchar2(9), sal number ) new about Oracle Database pretty much 4 order by deptno, job 4 / every day.” Recently I learned something 5 / Type created. new about PL/SQL pipelined functions. I’ve been using pipelined functions since they DEPTNO JOB SUM(SAL) SQL> create or replace type were first introduced in Oracle9i Database, —————————————— ———————————— ————————————— 2 myTableType almost 10 years ago. I thought I knew every- 10 CLERK 1300 3 as table of myScalarType thing I needed to know about them, but I 10 MANAGER 2450 4 / was wrong. 10 PRESIDENT 5000 Type created. Recently on asktom.oracle.com, I was asked 20 ANALYST 6000 a question about the predefined exception 20 CLERK 1900 Now you have a collection that can repre- NO_DATA_NEEDED. At first I thought that it 20 MANAGER 2975 sent the job and the salary associated with was a typo and that the person really meant 30 CLERK 950 that job. You can modify your COLLECT query NO_DATA_FOUND, because I hadn’t heard of 30 MANAGER 2850 now to use it, as shown in Listing 5. And you or read about that exception. But in investi- 30 SALESMAN 5600 get the information you need. gating a little deeper, I discovered what it was. So, that shows three methods of “piv- NO_DATA_NEEDED is a very important 9 rows selected. oting” a result set—a very common topic on exception to be aware of if you ever write asktom.oracle.com. a pipelined function. In fact, if you haven’t Another way to pivot columns into rows that works in releases preceding Oracle code listing 1: using PIVOt to turn columns into rows Database 11g would be to use DECODE (or CASE) and an aggregation to pivot. SQL> select deptno, clerk, salesman, Using the last query, I’ll add the neces- 2 manager, analyst, president sary DECODE function call to achieve piv- 3 from (select deptno, job, sal 4 from emp ) oting. I’ll group only by DEPTNO this time, 5 pivot( sum(sal) for job in because the goal is to turn the three rows 6 ( 'CLERK' as clerk, for DEPTNO 10 into one row, as shown in 7 'SALESMAN' as salesman, 8 'MANAGER' as manager, Listing 2. 9 'ANALYST' as analyst, As you can see, the code in Listing 2 10 'PRESIDENT' as president ) ) achieved the same result as the new PIVOT 11 order by deptno 12 / clause (in Listing 1). The trick is to create a sparse matrix and then use aggregation to DEPTNO CLERK SALESMAN MANAGER ANALYST PRESIDENT collapse the redundant rows, aggregating ——————————————— ——————————————— ——————————————— ——————————————— ——————————————— ——————————————— 10 1300 2450 5000 the SAL column as you go along. Without 20 1900 2975 6000 the aggregation, the data would look like it 30 950 5600 2850 does in Listing 3. All you need to do after that is aggregate code listing 2: using DECODE and aggregation to turn columns into rows by DEPTNO (achieving the one row per

department) and sum up the salary. SQL> select deptno, The last request is to pivot with a collec- 2 sum( decode( job, 'CLERK', sal ) ) clerk, tion. Fortunately, the COLLECT aggregate 3 sum( decode( job, 'SALESMAN', sal ) ) salesman, 4 sum( decode( job, 'MANAGER', sal ) ) manager, built-in function has been available since 5 sum( decode( job, 'ANALYST', sal ) ) analyst, Oracle Database 10g. You might think you 6 sum( decode( job, 'PRESIDENT', sal ) ) president could use it as shown in Listing 4, but you’ll 7 from scott.emp 8 group by deptno notice a problem right away: you don’t know 9 order by deptno what jobs those salaries represent. They 10 / are ordered by the job, but you don’t know DEPTNO CLERK SALESMAN MANAGER ANALYST PRESIDENT the job they are associated with. In order to ——————————————— ——————————————— ——————————————— ——————————————— ——————————————— ——————————————— make that association, you need to go a step 10 1300 2450 5000 further and use your own types that preserve 20 1900 2975 6000 30 950 5600 2850 the needed information:

July/August 2010 orAcle.com/orAclemAgAzine

JA10_asktom.indd 70 5/18/10 8:57:23 AM 71

heard of it and you have written a pipelined 14 end loop; COLUMN_VALUE function, there is a very good chance you 15 dbms_output.put_line ———————————————— have a bug lurking in your code! This excep- 16 ( '===>>> CLEAN UP' ); 1 tion is raised only in the context of a pipe- 17 return; 2 lined PL/SQL function and only when the 18 end; pipelined function is willing to return more 19 / ===>>> INITIALIZE data but the invoking SQL statement doesn’t ===>>> PROCESS need any more data (hence the name Function created. ===>>> PROCESS NO_DATA_NEEDED). In general, a pipelined ===>>> CLEAN UP function would look like this: That is a pretty straightforward PL/SQL pipelined function. If you run it to comple- This is expected. But what if you don’t create or replace function tion, you will see this output: fetch two rows from that function; what if foo( inputs ... ) you fetch only one? return some_type SQL> select * PIPELINED 2 from table(generate_data(2)); SQL> select * as /* declaration */ code listing 3: using DECODE (without aggregation) to turn columns into rows begin /* initialization */ SQL> select deptno, 2 ( decode( job, 'CLERK', sal ) ) clerk, 3 ( decode( job, 'SALESMAN', sal ) ) salesman, /* process a loop */ 4 ( decode( job, 'MANAGER', sal ) ) manager, pipe row(i); 5 ( decode( job, 'ANALYST', sal ) ) analyst, end loop; 6 ( decode( job, 'PRESIDENT', sal ) ) president 7 from scott.emp 8 order by deptno /* clean up */ 9 / return; DEPTNO CLERK SALESMAN MANAGER ANALYST PRESIDENT end; ——————————————— ——————————————— ——————————————— ——————————————— ——————————————— ——————————————— / 10 2450 10 5000 10 1300 The /* clean up */ code would be used to 20 2975 release any resources allocated in the initial- 20 3000 ization code. For example, it would close any 20 1100 20 800 open cursors, close any open files, and close 20 3000 down any open resources cleanly. 30 1250 So what would happen if the /* clean up */ 30 1500 30 1600 code were not invoked—not because of an 30 950 error but because the calling SQL statement 30 2850 didn’t ever exhaust the output of the function? 30 1250 For example 14 rows selected.

SQL> create or replace function code listing 4: First attempt to pivot with the COllECt aggregate built-in function 2 generate_data( n in number ) 3 return sys.odciNumberList SQL> select deptno, 4 PIPELINED 2 cast(collect(sum_sal order by job) as sys.odciNumberList) sals 5 as 3 from (select deptno, job, sum(sal) sum_sal 6 begin 4 from emp 5 group by deptno, job ) 7 dbms_output.put_line 6 group by deptno 8 ( '===>>> INITIALIZE' ); 7 / 9 for i in 1..generate_data.n DEPTNO SALS 10 loop ——————————————— ———————————————————————————————————————————————— 11 dbms_output.put_line 10 ODCINUMBERLIST(1300, 2450, 5000) 12 ( '===>>> PROCESS' ); 20 ODCINUMBERLIST(6000, 1900, 2975) 30 ODCINUMBERLIST(950, 2850, 5600) 13 pipe row(i);

orAcle mAgAzine July/August 2010

JA10_asktom.indd 71 5/18/10 8:58:00 AM 72 Ask Tom

2 from table(generate_data(2)) code listing 5: using the COllECt aggregate built-in function—with types—to pivot 3 where rownum = 1;

SQL> select deptno, COLUMN_VALUE 2 cast( 3 collect( myScalarType(job,sum_sal) order by job ) ———————————————— 4 as myTableType) sals 1 5 from (select deptno, job, sum(sal) sum_sal 6 from emp group by deptno, job) 7 group by deptno ===>>> INITIALIZE 8 / ===>>> PROCESS DEPTNO SALS(JOB, SAL) As you can see, the generate_data ——————————————— ———————————————————————————————————————————————— 10 MYTABLETYPE(MYSCALARTYPE('CLERK' function was successfully initialized and , 1300), MYSCALARTYPE('MANAGER', completed one process bit of the code, but 2450), MYSCALARTYPE('PRESIDENT' the rest was just skipped over, because the , 5000))

invoking SQL statement did not need it. And 20 MYTABLETYPE(MYSCALARTYPE('ANALYST', I didn’t see any error message (I would have 6000), MYSCALARTYPE('CLERK', expected an unhandled exception to raise an 1900), MYSCALARTYPE('MANAGER', 2975)) error!), so the code appeared to have worked. An exception was raised, however. It was 30 MYTABLETYPE(MYSCALARTYPE('CLERK' an exception that does not have to be caught, , 950), MYSCALARTYPE('MANAGER', 2850), MYSCALARTYPE('SALESMAN', and it will be ignored entirely if it is not caught. It differs from every other exception in this regard: we would all expect an unhandled On line 19, I catch the predefined NO_ this exception—NO_DATA_NEEDED—is very exception to propagate to the client and DATA_NEEDED exception, and on line 21, I specifically for this purpose. appear as an error. Let’s see what happens announce that I am cleaning up (releasing So in the future, when you’re looking at with the code if I implement this error handler: any resources that need to be released). Now pipelined functions, remember NO_DATA_ when I run this pipelined function without NEEDED and use it when appropriate.  SQL> create or replace function exhausting it, I see 2 generate_data( n in number ) 3 return sys.odciNumberList SQL> select * Tom kyte is a database 4 PIPELINED 2 from table(generate_data(2)) evangelist in Oracle’s 5 as 3 where rownum = 1; server technologies 6 begin division and has worked 7 dbms_output.put_line COLUMN_VALUE for Oracle since 1993. He 8 ( '===>>> INITIALIZE' ); ———————————————— is the author of Expert 9 for i in 1..generate_data.n 1 Oracle Database Architecture: 9i and 10g 10 loop Programming Techniques and Solutions (Apress, 11 dbms_output.put_line ===>>> INITIALIZE 2005) and Effective Oracle by Design (Oracle 12 ( '===>>> PROCESS' ); ===>>> PROCESS Press, 2003), among other books. 13 pipe row(i); ***>>> CLEAN UP 14 end loop; nexT sTeps 15 dbms_output.put_line As you can see, my special cleanup code (I 16 ( '===>>> CLEAN UP' ); used ***>>> to announce it) was executed Ask Tom 17 return; and I could clean up any resources I allocated. tom Kyte answers your most difficult technology questions. Highlights from that forum appear in 18 exception Now this question might arise: what if I use this column. 19 when no_data_needed a WHEN OTHERS exception block instead? asktom.oracle.com 20 then The answer is, in this case, the output would reAD more Tom 21 dbms_output.put_line be the same as WHEN NO_DATA_NEEDED Oracle Database Concepts 11g Release 2 (11.2) download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11882_01/ 22 ( '***>>> CLEAN UP' ); was used, but it would be the wrong approach, server.112/e10713/toc.htm 23 return; the wrong way to code. WHEN OTHERS is far DoWnloAD oracle Database 11g 24 end; too powerful here and far too broad-ranging release 2 25 / in general. Here I would like to clean up when oracle.com/technology/software/products/ database Function created. the invoker does not need all the results, and

July/August 2010 orAcle.com/orAclemAgAzine

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10040384_2Dbarcode_SUBSCR_ad.indd 1 5/20/10 9:42:50 AM 74 in the Field by Mike Riley Serving Your community From schools to software, volunteers make the world a better place.

he heart of an independent user group greater good of the community we were Washington DC is our destination, and our Tis its volunteers—people who give their visiting. A side benefit was that we all got to tasks will include painting, gardening, and time to advance the organization. Some of know each other a bit better without feeling library work. As in previous years, interest is these volunteers might be board members the need to talk about technology. ODTUG high for this event, and we anticipate many who help guide the organization strategi- board members, Oracle product managers, attendees will turn out on the Saturday cally. Some might be meeting or conference vendors, and attendees alike all participated before the start of our conference. speakers who volunteer their time to help in this one-day event. The synergy that Community Service Day educate other attendees. Still others might creates is distinct and unique to the ODTUG be onsite volunteers, who help monitor Kaleidoscope conference. We pride ourselves rooms, pass out evaluations, and collect [community on the fact that we deliver this important lunch tickets, among other tasks. Service day] is aspect of volunteerism to the communities In this column, which customarily focuses we visit. It is our creative effort to help the on technology and the benefits of being our creative effort world in some small fashion. After all, if we a user group member, community service to help the world could all donate at least one day a year to usually means doing service for a technical volunteer in efforts such as these, think how or professional community. But of course in some small much better our world could truly be. there are many other kinds of communities We are always looking for personal or that depend on volunteers to meet the needs fashion. corporate sponsors for these events. And of their members—for example, painting if you are interested in participating in houses for the disadvantaged, handicapped, In 2009, our conference visited the com- Community Service Days as a volunteer, or elderly; working in your local library; munity of Monterey, California, where we keep a close eye on our conference Website reading to youngsters; or greeting new once again held a Community Service Day. for the next conference location and com- patients at a local hospital. Monterey is certainly different from New munity service event.  Oracle Development Tools User Group Orleans, and there we found a different but (ODTUG) set out on a mission to merge these still important cause to support: helping two types of volunteerism—serving your user the Big Sur Land Trust eradicate an invasive mike riley ([email protected]) group and serving your community—into a plant species, the South African Ice Plant, is the president of ODtug. Riley is a project single type focused on the communities that which is destroying much of the local Martin manager/DbA for Hortica insurance & play host to our annual conference. Dunes ecosystem. employee benefits in edwardsville, illinois, ODTUG started an initiative at our 2008 Once again, a large contingent of volun- where he has developed applications using Kaleidoscope conference that we called a teers gave their time for the good of the com- Oracle Database and Oracle tools for more than Community Service Day. That year, three munity, going to the dunes on a chilly day to 20 years. Riley was ODtug’s vice president in years after Hurricane Katrina devastated get on their hands and knees and pull weeds. 2007 and 2008 and the 2008 kaleidoscope the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, the The day provided another great opportunity conference chair. ODTUG community banded together to help to share our passion for volunteerism, and rehabilitate a school that was in desperate we capped the event with a picnic lunch right next StepS need of repair, refurbishing, and cleaning in the middle of the dunes area. up. More than 80 volunteers braved the As this issue of Oracle Magazine goes to JOin OdtUg odtug.com midsummer heat and humidity of the Gulf press, we are looking forward to June 26, attend OdtUg events Coast of the U.S. to start this renovation 2010, when ODTUG Kaleidoscope plays Kaleidoscope project. These members of the technology host to its third annual Community Service odtugkaleidoscope.com community arrived a day before the start Day. Coordinating with the organization community Service day of the conference to volunteer their time. Greater DC Cares, we are again going back odtugkaleidoscope.com/ communityserviceday.html It was a unique opportunity to work for the to school: Ronald H. Brown Middle School in

July/August 2010 Oracle.cOm/Oraclemagazine

JA10_InTheField.indd 74 5/18/10 9:11:16 AM In the FIeld By DaviD Ferguson 75 Who drives the decision? Changes in business processes need management.

veryone has opinions about the timing integrated software packages specifically approved, measured against the business Eand execution of enterprise technology designed for industry verticals will fall case as the project unfolds. decisions. The IT department has an short of the mark at times. When that Technology and change will come at opinion. All your solution providers have happens, do you change the software or the you in waves. When multiple projects are opinions. The competition may be using process? At times, the choice is between undertaken in parallel, or when projects your indecision to form opinions about your a shorter-term project with broader impact are introduced coincidentally with other company’s capabilities in the marketplace. and one that is much longer with dimin- systemic changes taking place, a different Your customers may express their opinions ishing returns. dynamic occurs. The organization’s capacity on how easy it is to do business with you. for change is challenged. Regulatory agencies publish opinions on If associates are If associates are overwhelmed with how compliance changes will impact your change, productivity can grind to a halt. Is reporting systems. Your employees may overwhelmed your new system upgrade occurring at the have opinions and may be pressuring you to same time a new product release is sched- provide more features and functionality to with change, uled to occur? Are there too many system help them be more productive. productivity can changes occurring back-to-back with little Each of these perspectives is important time for assimilation into the organization? and demands understanding. Each one is a grind to a halt. How radical is the change for those in the source of input for the decision-maker, but line of fire? Without careful consideration should not be mistaken for the decision- What about functions missing from the for the human behavioral aspects of change maker. The responsibility for making the predefined package that differentiate you and a counterbalancing management decision lies squarely with those who set from your competition? Are you willing to approach, you can end up with a systemic the company’s strategic direction. forgo these changes until the software pro- mess on your hands. From my many years of process improve- vider catches up? These decisions come at For these four reasons and many others ment work, I offer four time-tested observa- a price and are never easy or without risk to not mentioned, the people on the func- tions in support of making functional-side the business. tional side of the house are both respon- leadership both responsible and account- Technology decisions at the enterprise sible and accountable for getting to the able for key technology decisions. level are all about strategic priorities. The right answer on technology. The decisions Technology implemented correctly is a leadership team needs to be aligned and are ultimately theirs to make. Don’t let process enabler. Technology can accelerate demonstrating its support for the projects them off the hook!  your process throughput. If your processes it has approved in the portfolio. What are well thought out and mirror best prac- management makes important, associates david Ferguson ([email protected]) tices, the results can be an order of magni- make important. is president of oracle applications users tude above previous performance levels. The prospective project list itself requires group (oaug). Ferguson is a business process However, the opposite is also true. If you constant care and feeding. What are the manager with more than 25 years of experience have poorly constructed processes, auto- most important projects? What projects working with enterprise technologies and mation will expose the inherent problems promote the company’s strategic plan? applications within customer service and sales more quickly. Do you have the time and Where do the investment dollars bring the operations. resources to work through each issue as it greatest return to the organization? As we surfaces? Nothing will kill the execution of have experienced over the past year, the next StepS a key strategy faster than improper plan- dollars available to invest are not limitless. ning for what is perceived to be an indis- Not every project will make the cut. JoIn oaUg pensable improvement. The leadership team needs to provide the oaug.com Off-the-shelf technology will, by default, proper context and focus around those that read about oracle business process establish operational boundaries for the do make it. Each project proposal should management solutions oracle.com/us/technologies/bpm business. One size rarely fits all. Yes, even be supported by a business case and, if

oracle magazIne July/august 2010

JA10_inthefield_Ferguson.indd 75 5/18/10 9:15:58 AM 76 analyst’s cOrner by DAVID bAuM infrastructure software and Virtualization Organizations improve flexibility with software appliances and templates.

racle Magazine spoke with Al Gillen, appliance is a preintegrated collection of infrastructure during those refresh cycles. So Oprogram vice president of system software assets, which typically includes an you can look at the next five years as a likely software at International Data Corporation operating system and some layer of func- time during which virtualization technolo- (IDC), about how software appliances and tionality such as application software and gies will become more prevalent. virtualization technologies are transforming a database. Traditionally, this collection of Oracle Magazine: What skill sets do IT profes- hardware and software infrastructures. software components was installed and inte- sionals need for a virtualized infrastructure? Oracle Magazine: What does virtualization grated by IT professionals or consultants at Gillen: Systems management is important mean to most IT professionals? the customer’s deployment site. Oracle VM and goes hand in hand with virtualization, Gillen: Virtualization is the creation of a Templates take all those components and because virtualization does not simplify virtual rather than actual version of some- integrate them into a single virtual machine management—it complicates it. System thing, such as an operating system, server, that can be installed on a hypervisor and administrators must be aware of the busi- storage device, or network resources. Since literally turned on. Templates and software ness requirements and expected service the introduction of virtualization software appliances can also be prepackaged with levels of each application. That’s easier to to the x86 server market, the industry has hardware, which gives customers a fully inte- do when each application resides on its own recognized the advantages of executing soft- grated solution that can be put to work right server. Ironically, virtualization often makes ware in an environment separated from the away. With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle more servers more—rather than less— underlying hardware resources. But there’s now has all the software and hardware com- business critical. We now have capable man- more to it than simply abstracting an oper- ponents it needs to put solutions together agement software tools that can automate ating system from the hardware it runs on. in a template form based on Linux, Oracle provisioning decisions, but administrators There are other benefits including flexibility, Solaris on x86, and SPARC architectures. This also need to change their thinking about how speed of deployment, availability, disaster is a good example for how virtualization can the resources fit together. You’re doing your- recovery, and of course the ability to provi- be a tool for simplification. self a disservice by virtualizing without first sion workloads to servers more efficiently. Oracle Magazine: What are the advantages to addressing these management issues.  Oracle Magazine: How have virtualization packaging up hardware and software func- technologies changed over the years? tionality in this way? David Baum ([email protected]) is Gillen: Gillen: For one thing, they have become less Customers obtain a one-stop shop for a freelance business writer based in santa expensive. There are also a lot more players acquiring their software stack and support. barbara, California. in the market now that the technologies A single company handles the integration, have matured. However, in parallel, we are regression testing, impact analysis, and so IDC (idc.com) is the premier global provider seeing the base virtualization technologies forth on all the layers. of market intelligence, advisory services, increasingly integrated into the core oper- Oracle Magazine: What changes do you see and events for the information technology, ating systems. Thus you no longer have to go in the virtualization landscape over the next telecommunications, and consumer out and buy virtualization as a standalone three to five years? technology markets. solution—although many customers con- Gillen: Despite all the hype about virtualiza- next steps tinue to select best-of-breed products from tion, the penetration of these technologies multiple suppliers. is less than 20 percent on the installed base Visit the Oracle Virtualization center Oracle Magazine: How have these develop- of servers across the industry. Customer oracle.com/us/technologies/virtualization ments affected Oracle’s technology stack? use of virtualization is growing as existing DOWnlOaD Oracle Vm Gillen: We see Oracle working to leverage vir- installed-base systems are turned over, but edelivery.oracle.com/oraclevm tualization to simplify IT for customers. Take, customers typically replace their server plat- WatcH Oracle’s virtualization for instance, Oracle’s work with templates forms every three to five years and deploy strategy Webcast bit.ly/a480Vi to create software appliances. A software new operating systems and a virtualized

July/August 2010 Oracle.cOm/Oraclemagazine

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