perfstat/perfstat, OScanner reveals them all

Unfortunately, creating database accounts like “create user test identified by test” is common practice. Leaving default accounts with default passwords open is as common too. OScanner reveals those weak points mercilessly.

Oracle Scanner 1.0.6 by patrik@cqure.net
————————————————–
[-] Checking host 120.23.45.104
[-] Checking sid (t432) for common passwords
[x] Got IO Exception
[-] Checking sid (t433) for common [...]

Oracle Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA)

Oracle Remote Diagnostic Agent is a great tool to collect detailed information about an oracle database and its environment. It’s not only a great tool for troubleshooting but also very helpful for documenting an Oracle environment, for example after installation, production start, etc.

Installing and configuring RDA takes a few easy steps. Installation and configuration is [...]

Materialized View Replication

This post is for my friend Gerry, who - as a newby to Oracle - has to support a replicated environment. Gerry is my successor at Kanton Luzern. Management didn’t look for a new DBA because they said it’s hopeless to find somebody. Instead they decided to give somebody inhouse the opportunity. Gerry is highly [...]

People Say Database When They Mean Schema

On my current job I manage 111 databases on 28 servers. Some are mid size and clustered but most of them are quite tiny. My predecessor created databases for every customer and application, and test databases for all production databases. That means a good deal of those 111 databases aren’t production.
The tiniest of my databases [...]

Static Data Dictionary Views

Static Data Dictionary Views and Dynamic Performance Views are the core of database administration. They are of crucial importance. Whoever wants to learn Oracle database administration has to get familiar with these views. I began to compile a list of most important Static Data Dictionary Views here. There are hundreds more but those in my [...]

Oracle 11g Available for Download

Oracle 11g linux x86 is now available for download. Product documentation can be found here. And here’s an overview of 11g new features.

Oracle Database 11g Launch - Live Webcast

Tomorrow July 11 at 04:00 AM CET or 10:00 AM ET Oracle will launch its 11g Database. The launch event will be webcastet live here.

APEX on Port 80

The Oracle HTTP Server used by APEX defaults to port 7777. If this port is otherwise used, OHS defaults to 7778, and so on. Now perhaps you don’t want to run your Application on a cryptic URL like http://apex-s10bas.youdomain.com:7777/pls/apex, but rather on www.apex.yourdomain.com/pls/apex. On this matter the Oracle HTTP Server or APEX Documentation will not [...]

11g Mentioned in Oracle Apex Documentation

Oracle Database 11g is already mentioned on many pages of the Oracle Application Express (Apex) 3.0 Documentation which was released on March 16, 2007. This is because Oracle Database 11g seems to have HTTP server and PL/SQL gateway built into the DBMS itself.
Oracle Application Express (Apex) Documentation Library

Killing Oracle Sessions of a User

We are hosting around a hundred websites for the public administration on a web content management system which is built on top of an Oracle database. There is a stage and a live environment with snapshot replication. Sometimes websites on the live environment have to be dropped and recreated. One website is represented by one [...]

Learning the vi Editor

I know basic commands of vi, and would like to learn advanced editing. I found Learning the vi Editor to be the best book on the subject.

Most IT books outdate rather quickly. The last edition of this one is from 1998, and it still is very useful. Table of contents can be found here, sample [...]

Removing Duplicate Rows

Oracle
For our example we need to insert a duplicate row into HR.EMPLOYEES first. The new row has to be identical on first_name, last_name, email and department_id columns. To insert such a row, we have to disable the unique constraint on the HR.EMPLOYEES table.
ALTER TABLE employees DISABLE CONSTRAINT emp_email_uk;
INSERT INTO employees (
EMPLOYEE_ID, FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, EMAIL, PHONE_NUMBER,
HIRE_DATE, [...]

Nightly Full Export Without Showing SYSTEM Password Using Data Pump

In addition to RMAN backup I have a full export batch running every night on all databases. The SYSTEM password has been kept in the batch script. Whoever can logon to the system and read the file knows the SYSTEM password.
In 10g with DBMS_DATAPUMP called from a simple PL/SQL package I can schedule the nightly [...]