One of the most common TOAD questions or problem areas is with connecting to remote and/or local databases. The process and requirements are actually quite simple – yet this remains a high frequency question that seems to cause remarkable confusion. And not just for new Oracle or new TOAD users, as sometimes even old pros can forget and ask. They just often do a Homer Simpson “

Many TOAD users ask “How can I run my SQL script against a collection or even all my databases all at once (i.e. in a single step)?” The problem is they generally ask this question while in the Editor – which by definition works with but a single active database connection at a time. But if you simply save the editor contents to a SQL script file – you can then use the TOAD Script Manager to execute that script ...

Often database professionals need good freeware tools to get their job done. Sometimes it’s because there’s no funding for software. And in some cases a tool is needed to replace the purchased tool that ends up not being able to do the job. Finally in today’s world of open source, some people just hate to pay for tools – even if there is budget and/or the job clearly could benefit from commercial qua ...

It’s been a while since I wrote my data warehousing book, so I wanted to read something hip and new on the topic. Lucky for me someone suggested that I examine “

Many people these days have to work on both traditional “online transactional processing” (i.e. OLTP) systems as well as data warehouses. But just what is a data warehouse? Generally speaking a data warehouse is nothing more than a specialized business reporting system used by mid to senior level manag ...

TOAD offers three distinct ways to connect to your database, as shown by the three tabs circled below on the connection screen. In this week’s blog we’ll examine the differences between the first two: TNS and Direct. No matter which of the three methods you choose, TOAD requires the Oracle “SQL*Net” client to be on your PC. TOAD needs to talk over the network to your database, and that requires certain ...

Last week’s blog was part 2 of a 3 part series about techniques for optimizing a notebook PC for running Oracle database within a virtual machine. In

Last week’s blog was part 1 of a 3 part series about techniques for optimizing a notebook PC for running Oracle database within a virtual machine. In

People have often asked me “How do I optimize my Oracle virtual machines running on my meager notebook PC?” So I decided to put together this quick checklist to assist with just that question.

 

Let's assume that you have the typical recent or last generation of notebook PC, that is one with a dual core CPU and say a max 4 GB of RAM. Her ...

While TOAD offers numerous capabilities, many people often spend a majority of their time simply “browsing” existing table data. Even when writing SQL or PL/SQL code to perform some business function or action, developers need to see what the data looks like in order to write the code. And of course business analysts and managers often look at the data in order to spot patterns or drive rep ...

I have written a book about Optimizing Oracle on VMware, plus have both a paper and

One critical task for DBA's is maintaining their database versioning history. For example the database objects were in some specified state (in terms of their construction) on such and such a date. The key reason this is critical is that application updates and bug fixes often require database modifications. So the DBA must maintain a database versioning history that matches such changes. There are two chief re ...

Sometimes information systems professionals can get “caught up” in our own worlds. For example, project managers and their developers might focus on latest and greatest application development methodologies such as Extreme Programming (XP) or Agile Development. Likewise enterprise architects might be adopting some new or updated modeling conventions. While database administrators (DBA’s) ar ...

Dan Hotka and I wrote the TOAD Handbook back in 2003. Of course since then TOAD has changed quite a bit – both in terms of the graphical user interface and functionality. Thus we have updated the content and created th ...

There are always those DBA’s who refuse to use GUI tools because they prefer scripts. And that’s OK – it’s a personal preference. But recently I’ve seen some stuff posted on the web and sent in email blasts suggesting that people who do use DBA GUI tools like TOAD and OEM are somehow suspect as to their skill levels. And yes, I am sure there are some people who might not know Oracle very well but get along just ...

Sometimes people will have a problem getting a TOAD feature to work – such as the PL/SQL debugger or profiler. For example a user might run TOAD and not be able to select or highlight the debugger icon on the main toolbar. So when they’re in the editor they cannot seemingly invoke or use the debugger. The initial conclusion is that TOAD must have a bug. But 90% of the time, it’s actually a database setup issue. ...

The last two posts have covered popular misconceptions or “urban myths” myths when measuring and performing benchmarks. That might seem like the “whole enchilada”, but there's yet one more critical aspect to successful benchmarking – preparation. I encounter numerous people who believe that they can simply assemble the necessary hardware, install the OS, install the database software, creat ...

The title says it all – there is no such thing. This is the second benchmarking myth or “urban legend” that needs exposed. However this is the most prevalent frustration or exasperation that people attempting database benchmarks experience – and experience the hard way (i.e. their efforts majorly or totally fail to meet their initial expectations).

 

Ther ...

As with many facets of life, database benchmarking has several myths or “urban legends” that need summarily dispelled. So I’m going to write a few short blogs focusing one by one on some of these misunderstood database benchmarking issues. Note that I am not preaching that database benchmarking is a worthwhile task, because there are many who feel it’s not. In fact I recently read an excellent Forreste ...

A lot of times people will ask the Toad Yahoo discussion group or live at Toad Tips & Tricks events whether Toad can do something. Specifically, the question might be more like can Toad version X support this very cool new Oracle feature I’d like to leverage.

 

For example, a user might ask does Toad 8.0 offer a screen for Oracle AWR. If you look ...

The joint IOUG and OAUG Collaborate 2009 conference is a just over two months away. Not only is Collaborate a premier event for Oracle database technology and applications technical sessions, it’s a good format for hobnobbing with fellow database professionals.

 

This year’s event is being held Sunday, May 3^rd, through Thursday, May ...

Like most things in life, there are prerequisites and preparations for Oracle databases.  Regardless of version, this is especially true for application access and usage. Oracle is a highly scalable and configurable database, therefore DBAs must configure their database for how it will be used to guarantee meeting their users’ expectations – including database developers. Failure to do so can lead to p ...

The Oracle 11g database is nothing short of a modern technical marvel. From the features it offers to the many platforms it runs upon – it’s amazing how far they’ve come. But as a “true enterprise” database, Oracle 11g requires some DBA oversight to be applied when creating databases. Although Oracle supplies a very simple and yet fully capable database creation ...

We don’t get this particular question per se as often as one would expect, but we do see enough user problems where this fundamental issue becomes the underlying question to answer for problem resolution. Below is a chart for the release dates for both Toad and Oracle. The “blue highlighted” dates are when Oracle first releases a major new version, such as Oracle 10g in January of 2004. But it’s the “red highli ...

I’ve got Toad Freeware installed and running on my Ubuntu 8.10 Linux machine – and so far, not a single problem has yet occurred (knock on wood).

 

Here are the basic steps that I had to perform in order to “

Many business analysts rely heavily upon Microsoft Excel as one of their primary tools for manipulating and reporting upon their business data. Sometimes they will send data extraction requests to their information systems (IS) people to perform and then deliver, sometimes they’ll instead access it themselves in place via the external data interface within Excel, and sometimes they’ll extract the data ...

Lately I’ve been seeing what I think might be an interesting yet disturbing new trend: whenever there’s a problem that initially seems unusual and/or unexplainable, it’s not uncommon to quickly question virtualization as a potential source of the issue. I fully understand that virtualization adds a new variable to the basic equation – and represents greater complexity due to more moving parts. But it seems to b ...

Just a very brief blog this Thanksgiving week (my favorite holiday of the year) – part 2 of last week’s relatively easy suggestions on how to make Oracle run as fast as possible on minimal computer setup. As before, my goal is simply to squeeze as much performance blood from the Oracle turnip as possible when ...

Lot’s of people have asked “How can I setup Toad to run off a flash drive?” The reason for this question varies in nature and intent by requestor – but the general concept is that some users need the ability to carry Toad with them. Some are contractors who must use whatever computer and/or desk is open that day. Some are database developers who must travel around their company to perform or assist w ...

Just a quick blog this week – some relatively easy suggestions on how to make Oracle run as fast as possible on minimal computer setups such as a notebook PC. My goal is simply to squeeze as much performance blood from the Oracle turnip as possible when deployed on limited capacity equipment. The suggestions below should work for most operating systems, including Windows, Mac-OS and Linux – simply interpret and ...

Catchy title – huh? But don’t laugh, in today’s hectic world many database professionals (whether DBA’s or developers – and sometimes even end users) just wish that the Oracle database would go faster. That may seem self evident – but let’s just accept that premise for now. So what does this mean for Toad users?

 

Toad offers numerous database monitoring, ...

I’ve always been a huge fan of Cary Millsap’s “Method-R” technique for Optimizing Oracle Performance via detailed analysis of all of the business proc ...

A few weeks ago I wrote about how simply adjusting various virtualized infrastructure default settings that a database could perform up to 440% better. Of course “your mileage” will vary, but the key po ...

Last week I wrote about how simply adjusting various virtualized infrastructure default settings that a database could perform up to 440% better. Of course “your mileage” will vary, but the key point is ...

Many people swore that database on a virtual machine would not fly – or at best, would be accepted very, very slowly. I was not one of those people – so I wrote a new book on just that subject: Oracle on VMware: Expert tips for Database Virtualization. However I don’t expect people in these tough economic times to jus ...

On many occasions, people will email or call me to get help with perceived RAC connectivity issues for various client applications – Toad and other Quest products included. Now some times they may have setups that we’ve not pre-tested, so they have a potential bug – or at least another regression testing scenario for us. But many times, it’s simply a SQL*Net configuration issue. While it’s easy to dr ...

It’s not uncommon for software to increase in install size and memory footprint over the years – and Toad is no exception. But, that does not mean that these newer versions have to run more slowly. We take great pride in keeping Toad expedient as it matures. Thus do not simply assume that if your Toad is running slower these days – that it’s just the “cost of progress”. Most often t ...

Last week’s blog was the third in a series about how to make Toad run scripts and/or commands against multiple databases at once. Lots of people did not know that there are multiple ways in Toad to do this. This week I will highlight the fourth and fin ...

Last week’s blog was the second in a series about how to make Toad run scripts or commands against multiple databases at once. Lots of people did not know that there are multiple ways in Toad to do this. This week I’ll highlight the third method of running scripts against multiple databases using the & ...

Last week’s blog was the first in a series about how to make Toad run scripts or commands against multiple databases at once. Lots of people did not know that there are multiple ways in Toad to do this. This week I’ll highlight the second method of running scripts against databases using th ...

One of the more frequent questions people ask me is why can’t Toad run scripts or commands against multiple databases at once? Of course as usual the answer is Toad already can – so I’m going to dedicate the next couple weeks’ blogs to this topic. 
 
This week I’ll highlight the first method of running scripts for multiple databases using the “Toad Script Manager”. It ...