Input/Output - October 1995

Welcome to OTJ!

If you've ever been to Oracle headquarters in Redwood Shores, California, you'll know what I mean when I say one word: flashy. The five cylindrical buildings are covered with smooth, mirrored glass, the main reception area is a tribute to slate, granite, and marble, and the grounds are perfectly neat and manicured. Oracle headquarters stands on what used to be a wildlife park, but now a tall fountain spouts in the center of a small lagoon (the same lagoon where, as a little kid, I used to watch elephants spout water as they bathed -- it's funny how things work out). The image is the epitome of Oracle: stable, wealthy, polished, and a little bit flashy.

But that's not what OTJ is all about. It's not about a flashy image, and it's not about marketing -- let the other magazines worry about that. Rather, OTJ is about ripping off the mirrored glass and exposing the girders underneath; it's about tearing off the marble floor and accessing the building's foundation; it's about turning off the fountain and revealing the plumbing hardware at the bottom of the pool. OTJ's goal is to help the Oracle developer access and understand the bare metal of their Oracle-based systems -- everything from the nuts and bolts to the overall engine.

With this goal in mind, this premier issue of OTJ contains several hard-hitting, technical articles to help you develop, tune, and maintain your Oracle system. These articles are not for novices. For example, Michael Abbey's article on page 7, "Beyond the Oracle Installer Session," examines what DBAs should do after they install or upgrade Oracle server software and components. In addition to discussing the basic post-orainst checks and balances, Abbey provides scripts that you can use to recompile database triggers, stored procedures, functions, and packages after an Oracle install. Also on the server side, Dan Dechichio provides practical tips for tuning Oracle I/O (page 23). Use this framework as a guide to achieve top performance.

Another must-read for Oracle DBAs and system administrators is Willard Baird's article, "Ensuring a Safe Recovery" (page 35). There are two kinds of Oracle systems: those that have just had an emergency recovery situation, and those that are about to. Therefore, a formal backup and recovery strategy is critical for systems whose businesses depend on near 24 3 7 uptime. This article outlines how to set up such a strategy.

On the application side of things, you'll find in-depth articles on data warehousing, application development with Oracle Forms 4.5, and Oracle CASE. In the product section, we've outlined some of the newest "add ons and updates" from Oracle and third-party vendors. We also showcase some of the things you should watch out for at International Oracle Users Week (Sept. 17 to 22 in Philadelphia).

Also, OTJ is not a one-shot deal (watch for quarterly issues next year), so please take some time to fill out the reader survey inside. This questionaire will help us "tune our system" to cover the technical issues with which you are grappling.

Enough editorial hype (I know, I promised no marketing) -- get out your wrenches, it's time to get into the bare metal of your Oracle systems. Enjoy!

Theresa Rigney