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Blogs
Toad and Database Commentaries |
Toad World blogs are a mix of insightful how-tos from Quest experts as well as their commentary on experiences with new database technologies. Have some views of your own to share? Post your comments! Note: Comments are restricted to registered Toad World users.
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Author: |
Bert |
Created: |
Monday, October 30, 2006 2:02 PM |
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Bert Scalzo is a product architect for Quest Software and a member of the Toad™ team. He has worked with Oracle databases for well over two decades; his key areas of interest are data modeling, database benchmarking, database tuning and optimization, "Star Schema" data warehouses and Linux. Bert is the author of several books and has written articles for many online outlets and publications, including Oracle’s Technology Network (OTN), Oracle Magazine and PC Week (eWeek), and has presented at numerous Oracle conferences and user groups.
Bert was recently added to the list of Oracle ACEs. Oracle ACEs are known for their strong credentials as Oracle community enthusiasts and advocates, with candidates nominated by anyone in the Oracle Technology and Applications communities.
Bert's blog provides useful “how to” and “tips and tricks” covering topics such as database admin and d |
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Are Database GUI Tools Evil? |
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Bert
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Wednesday, July 01, 2009 1:01 PM
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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 ...
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TOAD Database Setup Wizard |
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Bert
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009 6:07 AM
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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. ...
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Benchmarking Myths Continued |
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Bert
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009 5:33 PM
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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 ...
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Push Button Benchmarking |
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Bert
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Thursday, May 14, 2009 5:56 AM
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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 ...
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The Myth of Transactions per Second (TPS) |
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Bert
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Wednesday, May 06, 2009 5:27 AM
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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 ...
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Can Toad Do That? |
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Bert
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009 4:28 AM
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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 ...
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Collaborate Coming – with Special Toad Tips & Tricks |
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Bert
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Wednesday, February 25, 2009 6:11 AM
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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 3rd, through Thursday, May ...
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Oracle Configuration for Toad Usage |
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Bert
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009 8:04 AM
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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 ...
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Creating a minimalist Oracle 11g database |
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Bert
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Wednesday, February 04, 2009 8:09 AM
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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 ...
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What Version of Toad Should We Use? |
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Bert
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009 6:39 AM
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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 ...
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Toad “Explains” It Best |
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Bert
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009 7:31 AM
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Oracle explain plans – they are considered by many as critical when optimizing or tuning SQL statements (I however prefer to look at trace data in conjunction with explain plans). For those who prefer primarily to rely on explain plan interpretation, comprehension and improvement – Toad offers numerous capabilities to make the entire process simpler and more productive. Because let’s face it, explain plans are li ...
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Run Toad Freeware on Linux! |
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Bert
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Wednesday, January 07, 2009 7:48 AM
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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 “
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Toad + Excel = Easy Data Access |
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Bert
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Wednesday, December 17, 2008 6:27 AM
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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 ...
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Virtual Paranoia? |
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Bert
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Wednesday, December 10, 2008 7:24 AM
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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 ...
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Oracle + VMware = Success Part IV |
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Bert
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Wednesday, December 03, 2008 10:47 AM
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A few weeks ago I wrote Part III of this series – and fortunately (or unfortunately for my poor ego) an astute reader wrote to ask for some clarification on my Excel chart. Ends up my Excel formula had a mistake – so many than ...
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Run Toad off a USB Flash Drive |
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Bert
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Wednesday, November 19, 2008 1:32 PM
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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 ...
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Speeding-Up Oracle on Your Notebook PC |
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Bert
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Wednesday, November 19, 2008 7:29 AM
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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 ...
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Just Make Oracle Go Faster |
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Bert
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Wednesday, November 12, 2008 8:25 AM
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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, ...
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