Robert G. Freeman's Blog

First real IFR This last weekend - Great flight!!

2009-06-22T09:54:00.001-07:00

So, in all my IFR training I managed to actually fly IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions - or in the clouds) about 30 minutes. The rest of the time was under a "hood", which restricts your vision to just the instruments. This is not an unusual thing but I think every newly minted instrument pilot (got my certificate in November) waits excitedly for his first real "in the clouds" experience. In Utah it's even harder because lots of times the clouds have ice in them, which one wants to avoid. So, after getting my IFR ticket, I was very much looking forward to an opportunity to fly some real IFR.

This weekend, I got mine!!

I decided to take myself to Wendover, UT. (that's where the airport is, the city is in Nevada) on Saturday. If you have been watching the weather you might have noticed that Utah has gotten a lot of rain of late. Saturday's weather was cloudy and rainy. Perfect!

I filed my IFR flight plan on my computer and took off for Wendover. My intention was to catch my clearance in the air which is what I did. Now, the MEA (minimum en route altitude) between South Valley regional (U42) in Salt Lake City and Wendover (ENV) is 9,000, which means I have to fly at or above 9,000 feet to go IFR. A Cessna-150 isn't a fast climber, particularity when you are full fuel. I was pretty much at the edge of the Salt Lake City (SLC) class B airspace when I finally hit 9k. At 9k I got my clearance from Center and I was on my way.

About 30 miles or so from SLC, I hit clouds for the first time. it was a line of very light precipitation .... the clouds enveloped me, light rain falling on my windshield and briefly looking outside (you want to be constantly scanning your instruments of course) it looked like I was enveloped in marshmallow or something.

At some points you could look down and see the roads below. This is really a pretty good route for single engine instrument flying... there are a few mountains, but you are pretty much following I-80 the whole way... and for the most part are flying along a valley (with one good ridge to pass). You can see the map of my route here (this is known as a sectional chart).

Also, click on this link and you will see the low altitude en-route chart that I used for my flight.

This is the low altitude en-route map at SkyVector.com

The ceilings were at about 8-10k MSL for the most part (but at some points seemed much lower), so if I had a problem I'd have lots of visibility to land on the highway. I also have a nice GPS which shows me the highway, terrain and the like, so coming down in an emergency would be a reasonable experience.

It took me a while to really get my scan going well, and I was hitting some light chop too. Also there was some lateral sheer trying to move me too and fro. After a while I got things settled down and pretty much did a good job of staying on the airway. The airplane was filled with Fuel. Originally I filed for 10k, but could only get it to climb to 9.5k. Center was nice enough to let me go down to 9k and fly the rest of the route. When it's heavy, that 150 does not want to climb fast at all!

The Outside air temperature (OAT) was about 40 degrees, so there was no risk of icing of course. However while in the clouds I did experience a brief and slight loss of power. I applied some carb heat and that took care of the problem. That was my second experience with carb ice... it can be a bit scary, but if you know what to do, it's not a big deal avoiding it. The only problem is that in applying carb heat, you loose some engine power. This can make holding altitude difficult if you are already barely holding it. I didn't have too much of a problem at 9k, but I suspect that I'd have not been able to maintain 10k with carb heat applied.

I exited the clouds about 25 miles east of ENV or so.... Excited for my first IMC experience. I proceeded to do a visual approach into ENV which went smoothly. I ate some lunch at ENV and then started the return trip.

On the way back, it became clear that I'd have to file IFR again. I dialed up Cedar City Radio and opened the IFR flight plan with them. I then called Center, got my clearance and was again on my way. On the trip back, I hit clouds again for about 20 minutes or so. it was a thrilling and exciting experience! Entering the Class B airspace, I canceled IFT and returned to SLC and my home airport South Valley Regional (U42) via a normal visual approach.

It is this kind of flying that I got my instrument ticket for! Had I been VFR only, I'd have not been able to go because of mountain obscuration and some low ceilings that, with mountains present, probably would have caused me to scrub the trip. I'm not into scud running with mountains around that you can't see the tops of. As it was, with my little C150, my VOR and a GPS as a backup I safely made my trip and enjoyed a great high that few pilots really get to experience.

I can't wait to do it again!

If I didn't already like the Black Eyed Peas, now I really do.

2009-06-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

While I can't quite say I've been a ravid fan of the Black Eyed Peas, I've enjoyed their music in the past and I very much like their new album (The E.N.D.), especially the songs BOOM BOOM POW and I Gotta Feeling. Now, having read this news post, I'm even more of a fan.

Anyone who will stand up to Perez Hilton is just A-OK in my book. In my mind Perez is one of many things wrong with America. While violence is not a good thing, and I sure don't support assault and do support self-control, I'm sure that there are those that feel Perez probably more than deserved what he got.

RSS Feed is back...

2009-06-15T12:06:00.001-07:00

I re-added the RSS feed button at the bottom of the Blog page. It was lost when I changed to the new Blog template.... lemme know if something is still broken!

MERGE ME BABY!! A Contest for a new book!!

2009-06-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

At the end of this post I'm starting a contest. So read the post and maybe you will win a book!!

So, I've had occasion to work with the MERGE command of late. In my travels I've found the MERGE command to be a way under utilized command. It's been a while since I used it, to be honest, and I had to re-learn a few things. I think in the process I have a few interesting tid-bits to share.

Let's take a case where we have a table that we want to store all objects with a status of INVALID in. For the sake of keeping things clear later, we will call the table MERGE_TARGET. Here is the DDL for this table:

Drop table merge_target;
create table merge_target
as select object_id, object_name, object_type, status
from user_objects
where status = 'INVALID';
Alter table merge_target
Add constraint pk_merge_target primary key (object_id);

Now, let's create an object and invalidate it. We will create a table, then create a view dependent on that table. Finally we drop the table making the view invalid.

Drop table dodo;
Create table dodo (id number);
Create view view_dodo as select * from dodo;
Drop table dodo;

Excellent, now we have an invalid object called view_dodo. We can see this by querying the user_objects view as seen here:

select object_name, status
from user_objects
where status='INVALID';

OBJECT_NAME STATUS
-------------------- -------
VIEW_DODO INVALID

The problem is that our merge_target table is not up to date:

select * from merge_target;
no rows selected

How do we update it. Clearly we can use the insert command but what happens as time goes on and records change ... we will have to do inserts, updates and deletes. This is where the merge command comes in. With one simple command we can get the table updated. Here is our first crack at a merge command. Don't stop here though, becuase this does not take care of every possible situation that might occur:

merge into merge_target mt
using user_objects uo
on (uo.object_id=mt.object_id)
when matched then
update set mt.object_name=uo.object_name,
mt.object_type=uo.object_type,
mt.status=uo.status
where uo.status='INVALID'
when not matched then
insert (mt.object_id, mt.object_name, mt.object_type, mt.status)
values(uo.object_id, uo.object_name, uo.object_type, uo.status)
where uo.status='INVALID';

Now look at merge_target:
SQL> select * from merge_target;

OBJECT_ID OBJECT_NAME OBJECT_TYPE STATUS
---------- -------------------- ------------------- -------
70803 VIEW_DODO VIEW INVALID

So what if the view is renamed, but still invalid?

rename view_dodo to dodo_view;
select object_name, status
from user_objects
where status='INVALID';

OBJECT_NAME STATUS
-------------------- -------
DODO_VIEW INVALID

select * from merge_target;

OBJECT_ID OBJECT_NAME OBJECT_TYPE STATUS
---------- -------------------- ------------------- -------
70803 VIEW_DODO VIEW INVALID

Let's issue the MERGE command again and see what happens!

merge into merge_target mt
using user_objects uo
on (uo.object_id=mt.object_id)
when matched then
update set mt.object_name=uo.object_name,
mt.object_type=uo.object_type,
mt.status=uo.status
where uo.status='INVALID'
when not matched then
insert (mt.object_id, mt.object_name, mt.object_type, mt.status)
values(uo.object_id, uo.object_name, uo.object_type, uo.status)
where uo.status='INVALID';
commit;

select * from merge_target;

OBJECT_ID OBJECT_NAME OBJECT_TYPE STATUS
---------- -------------------- ------------------- -------
70803 DODO_VIEW VIEW INVALID

Wow! Cool. It seems that Merge does an insert, and then also does updates!
So what happens if the view becomes valid again? Let's see:

Create table dodo (id number);
alter view dodo_view compile;
select object_name, status
from user_objects
where status='INVALID';
no rows selected

Sweet, now there is nothing in USER_OBJECTS that is invalid. What about the merge_target view though, it still has VIEW_DODO in it. What do we do? We issue the MERGE command again!

merge into merge_target mt
using user_objects uo
on (uo.object_id=mt.object_id)
when matched then
update set mt.object_name=uo.object_name,
mt.object_type=uo.object_type,
mt.status=uo.status
where uo.status='INVALID'
when not matched then
insert (mt.object_id, mt.object_name, mt.object_type, mt.status)
values(uo.object_id, uo.object_name, uo.object_type, uo.status)
where uo.status='INVALID';

SQL> select * from merge_target;

OBJECT_ID OBJECT_NAME OBJECT_TYPE STATUS
---------- -------------------- ------------------- -------
70803 DODO_VIEW VIEW INVALID

Woops, that didn't work so well. If you are not running Oracle Database 10g and later, this is a problem you will need to deal with manually. However, there is a solution in Oracle Database 10g. To use it, we have to update the Merge command just slightly to that seen here:

merge into merge_target mt
using user_objects uo
on (uo.object_id=mt.object_id)
when matched then
update set mt.object_name=uo.object_name,
mt.object_type=uo.object_type,
mt.status=uo.status
where uo.status='VALID' or uo.status= 'INVALID'
delete where (uo.status='VALID')
when not matched then
insert (mt.object_id, mt.object_name, mt.object_type, mt.status)
values(uo.object_id, uo.object_name, uo.object_type, uo.status)
where uo.status='INVALID';

Now, let's see what happens!

select * from merge_target;
no rows selected

Great!! Note that we added a delete clause under the update clause. Also note that the where clause in the update clause is now changed to include updates of both VALID and INVALID records. That's the rub with the delete clause, it ONLY works on records that have actually passed through the update clause. So we have to process all of the VALID records as an update, before we can actually process them for a delete. That was something that tripped me up for a while before I got it figured out, so learn from my mistake. :-)

Finally, there is still a problem. What happens if we do this?

-- we drop the table, invalidating the view
drop table dodo;

-- Re-populate merge_target with the invalid view again
merge into merge_target mt
using user_objects uo
on (uo.object_id=mt.object_id)
when matched then
update set mt.object_name=uo.object_name,
mt.object_type=uo.object_type,
mt.status=uo.status
where uo.status='VALID' or uo.status= 'INVALID'
delete where (uo.status='VALID')
when not matched then
insert (mt.object_id, mt.object_name, mt.object_type, mt.status)
values(uo.object_id, uo.object_name, uo.object_type, uo.status)
where uo.status='INVALID';

select * from merge_target;

OBJECT_ID OBJECT_NAME OBJECT_TYPE STATUS
---------- -------------------- ------------------- -------
70803 DODO_VIEW VIEW INVALID

Now, what happens if we drop the view completely?

drop view dodo_view;

select object_name, status
from user_objects
where status='INVALID';

no rows selected

Let's update merge_target now. Once this is done, it should be empty, right?

merge into merge_target mt
using user_objects uo
on (uo.object_id=mt.object_id)
when matched then
update set mt.object_name=uo.object_name,
mt.object_type=uo.object_type,
mt.status=uo.status
where uo.status='VALID' or uo.status= 'INVALID'
delete where (uo.status='VALID')
when not matched then
insert (mt.object_id, mt.object_name, mt.object_type, mt.status)
values(uo.object_id, uo.object_name, uo.object_type, uo.status)
where uo.status='INVALID';

select * from merge_target;

OBJECT_ID OBJECT_NAME OBJECT_TYPE STATUS
---------- -------------------- ------------------- -------
70803 DODO_VIEW VIEW INVALID

Oh BLAST! We have found another hole in our logic somewhere. Can you find the answer? The answer results in a somewhat more sophisticated version of the merge command.

So, here is what I'm going to do.

For the next 90 days, I'm not going to post the answer to this question. For the first person who posts a comment to this blog with the correct answer to this question will go one free copy of our 11g RMAN Backup and Recovery book when it comes out!! I will not post comments that have the correct answer until the contest is over. Once the contest is over, I'll post the winners name and you will need to send me your mailing address so I can ship you your book.

All shipping costs on me unless you live outside the current solar system! ON September 15th in a separate BLOG post I will post the answer to this query. If you have an urgent need for the answer you can write me at robertgfreeman@yahoo.com, but you will not be eligible for the book. Of course this offer does not apply anywhere that it is illegal to make such an offer, you are responsible for the tax ramifications, etc...etc.... This is a personal contest and has no association with Oracle, Oracle Press, Santa Clause, the North Pole, any of my employers past or present or anyone else in the world living, dead, half-dead, in Zombie format, who may live in the future or who might be a fantasy in someones head. My family is not eligible (like they know anything about Oracle) nor is anyone at any of my employers within the last 5 years. Any employee of Oracle Corp. is also not eligible or anyone with Oracle Press.

Can you make something too simple?

2009-06-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

I'm working on the new revised edition of our Oracle Database Backup and Recovery book for Oracle Database 11g ... I've been looking at some comments here and there that have been made about the book, and also comments about the competition. What I find interesting is that the approach that the competition has taken, the recipe approach if you will, seems to be popular with some. I suppose that makes sense. Everyone wants something to be easy. But that's the rub, can you take something as complex as backup and recovery and make it too simple?

In the recipe book, in the first two chapters they have you do a backup recipe and a restore recipe. Now the Junior DBA (or perhaps the overworked senior DBA) might say, FANTASTIC, I backed up my database and I restored my database, I'm set. They might just setup a script, start backups and off they go, not fully realizing what they have just done.

For in the book, they fail to mention some salient points.

1. That the recipe will have you backing up into ORACLE_HOME by default. Since there is no previous recipe to configure the Flash Recovery Area, that is where your backups will go by default.

2. They do have a recipe for putting the database in ARCHIVELOG mode... However if you do that first and then follow the recipe for backing up your database, you might find yourself in a world of hurt. The backup recipe does not backup archived redo logs.

3. Since you are not backing them the archived redo logs, or removing them, guess what happens to the archive log destination directory?

So in an effort for simplicity the chapter falls short of the mark a bit. I know we all want simple solutions. Something we can craft out of the box without having to understand, without having to think, and that's all well and good. I'm not sure it's practical when dealing with backups of your database.

I'd love your feedback on how we can make our RMAN book better. I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have out there on how we can make it better, what we can add, modify or even delete.

The great SLC UFO on 5/27!!

2009-05-27T07:43:00.001-07:00

So... last night (5/27) I was taking my normal 10pm walk. My walk takes me through my neighborhood and I like to do it late at night when it's cool and quiet. My path involves me walking down a about four streets or so, and has a couple of annoying dogs along the way but otherwise is pretty uneventful.

The sky was crystal clear that night. I love the stars and space in general so often as I'm walking I'll have my IPod humming some tune and I'll be looking out at the sky in wonder. Of course all the street and house lighting really detracts from the view but what can you do? I'm also on the approach end of SLC 17, 16R and 16L... I need to go fly it someday, but I'm pretty sure the ILS to either 16R or 16L is smack dab over our house, as is an altitude step down. So we get a lot of aircraft traffic over the house as they approach the airport. The point is, I know what airplanes look like being a pilot and all that.

So last night I'm on the return leg to the house, almost done with my walk and I'm watching the sky when in the west I notice this VERY BRIGHT WHITE light in the sky. The light is moving from west to east at a fair clip, but I would not say it was the fastest thing I've ever seen. I'm telling you that an F-16 at the same altitude you are only maybe a mile away moves pretty darned fast.

So I'm watching this light move from West to kind of a South East trajectory. As I studied it I noticed there was no other lighting on whatever it was that I could see and it was quite high apparently.

My first thought was that it was a satellite being illuminated by the sky, but it seemed way to bright for that and it stayed lit for a long time. I've seen satellites in the sky before and they don't tend to stay lit up by the sun very long.

My second thought was that it might be a missile/rocket launch from CA. or somewhere in the Nevada desert. I've seen rocket engines lit up brightly, and this could have been a rocket engine. I also considered that it might have been some experimental aircraft (Aurora?), but then why would it be lit up so brightly.

The object disappeared into the horizon to the South East... what was truly interesting was just as the object was disappearing I saw another fast moving meteor fly in from the east to the west, seeming to converge with the bright which object. A truly fascinating show to watch in the sky.

So what was it I saw? I came home and did a bit of research. I looked to see if there were any rocket launches from Vandenberg AFB or anywhere, but saw nothing for that day. They mostly launch over the Pacific anyway I'm pretty sure. What I found was that the ISS (the International Space Station) was almost directly overhead at the time. So I'm like 99.99% sure that what I was was the ISS. The meteor was just a bonus object.

It was a fun experience.... I've always wanted to see some UFO before I die... a silent black triangle in the sky, or one of those glowing orbs that seem to float around in south Texas cities... but alas, I'm stuck with the ISS. Blasted Aliens!!

Well, I'm glad the place isn't on fire...

2009-05-21T11:49:00.001-07:00

I'm in Cleveland this week for a conference. I'm staying at the Embassy Suites hotel in Downtown Cleveland....... Supposed to be a nice hotel (and the room is nice except for the Wasp that attacked me when I got in last night.... it lives no more).

I'm on the 12th floor. Just now, two very large men got into some kind of an altercation on the floor. It was loud, and I was watching them, it looked like it had the potential to turn into a fight.

So, I try to call the front desk to see if they think it might be a good idea to get security up here.... ring, ring, ring, ring, ring... no answer. I tried to call the operator, same thing. The General manager, same thing.... and it's getting louder and they are running all over the floor. Do they have guns? This is Detroit, who knows? There is also a poor maid up here... so finally I punch the emergency button.... Ring... Ring...

Click.. (oh thank goodness, a human being)

Thank you for calling the downtown Embassy suites..... If you know which extension you would like to dial...

Thank goodness it's not a fire or a shooting. I'd be dead by now as would half the floor before someone would find out. Somehow I'm thinking the EMERGENCY button ought to get answered.

Oh... did I mention that fire trucks have now showed up at the hotel three times in a row....Twice last night at 3am and about 3:45 am and then just now.... Fortunately they did not evacuate the hotel last night.

And then there were the very loud, obnoxious people outside yelling at each other at 2am... I could hear them from my 12th story, closed window.

Wow... what a city.... :-)

Collaborate 2009 - Hello Orlando

2009-05-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

Greetings to you! I come to you from my University Session training room at Collaborate 2009 in Sunny (read hot and HUMID) Orlando, Florida!

I flew into Orlando last night. Lisa came with me but by way of a different airline. Somebody (who shall remain nameless) waited too long to buy her air and thus we ended up on different flights.

Flying from the West to the East is so painful. Changing two time zones, catching connections. I flew Delta from SLC to Atlanta, and then had all of 40... that's right, 4 - 0 minutes to catch my connection. Of course, I arrived in terminal A and had to catch my flight in terminal E. Of course my flights were at the far end of each concourse.

So my training class is on the 11g OCP. Today I realized that there might be a bit of a problem.... some in my class were expecting that the class would be on the 10g to 11g upgrade (1Z0-050) and some thought it was for the 10g OCP exam (1Z0-053). Oh boy..... So I'm scrambling to provide information to both groups. There is some cross over but then there is also a lot of basic stuff in the OCP that isn't in the Upgrade exam.

I still have not had time to do a proper post on Chile!! I had such a great time there and I really need to take the time and do a decent post on the experience. There were also some great pictures taken there.... The one you see attached to my blog now was taken by Hans Forbrich in Chile. He took some awesome pictures that I need to share with you all sometime soon.

While in Chile I got to meet so many new people for the first time. I met Hans of course, then there was Fernando (Ok... so his name is *really* Fransisco but for some reason I was calling him Fernando). I also met Daniel Morgan and Tim Hall for the first time, as well as Ben Prusinski and Graham Wood.... I'm sure I'm forgetting at least one or two others, so I hope you will forgive me!

Collaborate looks to be a great experience this week. I'll provide some more thoughts as the week progresses!

My blog has a new look...

2009-04-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

I've updated the template on my blog, so it has a bit of a new look. I'll be playing around with it a bit to make it look better soon! Hope you like the changes!

It's been a while! Transportable Database

2009-04-26T14:37:00.000-07:00

So, I'm working on a University session for Collaborate-09 in Orlando next week and I came across this little RMAN feature that I have not written about. So I thought I'd share it with you.

It's called Transportable Database. It's really an off-shoot of Transportable tablespaces except now you can move the whole database kit-and-kabootle over to a brand-new database on any supported Oracle platform. Transportable database is supported by RMAN. This is a new feature starting in Oracle Database 10g Release 2.

The steps to move the database between platforms is pretty straight forward:

1. Verify the prerequisites
2. Identify any external files and directories with DBMS_TDB.CHECK_EXTERNAL.
3. Shutdown (consistent) and restart the source database in READ ONLY mode.
4. Use DBMS_TDB.CHECK_DB to make sure the database is ready to be transported.
5. Run the RMAN convert database command.
6. Copy the converted files to the target database. Note that this implies that you will need 2x the storage on the source database for the converted files.
7. Copy the parameter file to the target database.
8. Adjust configuration files as required (parameter, listener.ora, tnsnames, etc).
9. Fire up the new database!

This can make for a much quicker and easier migration between platforms than the old IMPDP/EXPDP method!!

We are working on the 11g edition of the RMAN book ... look for it soon!

How many licks does it take...?

2009-04-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

The Oracle 11g OCP exam Beta is kind of making me think of the old cartoon where the kid asks around "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop". The idea is that it takes a LOT of licks, and that nobody could ever really be that patient. In the end, an Owl takes a few licks and CHOMPS on the thing, insisting that it only takes so many licks. Here is the video of the commercial.

You might ask, what does this have to do with Oracle? Well, it has something to do with the Oracle 11g OCP exam (1Z0-053) that has been in beta for a looong time. We are talking ages! If you look on Oracle's Beta web site it says that the dates for the exam are: April 12, 2008 to June 30, 2009..... I don't remember a beta taking so long!!

I'm presenting a University Semenar at Collaborate on the 11g OCP exam called the 11g OCP Exam Cram. When I submitted the abstract for the semenar, I figured that the beta would be over. But nooooo.... Of course the topic areas will probably remain the same, but I just think it's silly to have a beta exam that runs over a year.

When I wrote my new OCP Exam Preperation book for this test, I figured it would be out of beta by the time the book went to press. Not So!!

Wonder if they are waiting for something big with that June date.... hmmmmmmmm.....

Where in the world is Robert?

2009-04-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

I'm in Santiago, Chile this week for a meeting of the CLOUG (http://www.cloug.org/1.html). This is one of the things I love most about speaking... getting to go places I've never been before. I've never been south of the equator, so I'm looking forward to seeing a whole new set of stars tonight. Francisco Munoz wrote me and asked if I would attend.... So far this has been a wonderful trip. I'm in a very nice hotel with a great patio all to myself... just my luck that I get wonderful accommodations and I'm all by myself.

Today is a recover day for me. I've already managed to make trouble by blowing a fuse in my hotel room when I tried to plug something in. I thought I had the voltage thing worked out, but apparently not. Anyway... after a whiff of ozone and a call to maintenance, they got right up and fixed my problem and educated me on Chilean electricity.

The airport here in Santiago is very modern and having traveled internationally a bit, I find it to be one of the easiest to traverse for incomming travelers. I don't speak spanish, but thus far that has been no issue. I had a representitive of one of the airport cab companies pretty much accost me right out of customs, but he was quite nice and honestly, very helpful. The Cabbie (need to find out what they really call them here) was quite nice, telling me the names of the different places as we passed them and trying to teach me some elementry spanish. I know a little spanish but certanly not enough to be conversant. The poor man just didn't seem to realize that I'm language ... whats the word, hampered... constrained... basicly I don't learn languages well at all (just ask Lisa!!). He was trying to talk to me in some basic Spanish... I figured out his family lives in New Orleans (I knew the word for family, but didn't get New Orleans for a while). It took me a while before I realized he was asking me if I was from California. He didn't know exactly where Utah was, but he seemed to understand when I said Next to California (well, not really, but close enough).

So, here I am in Chile.... I'm looking forward to meeting Oracle professionals here and talking to them about RMAN!!!

10g RAC Bug

2009-04-05T00:13:00.000-07:00

So, we ran into a nasty bug last night. We are running 10g (various releases) RAC on 3 or 4 node clusters. In this particular configuration we had a 4 node cluster, with an instance for this database on each node. 2 instances were active, two were configured but not running.

DBA went to make redo log adjustments (adding a new group) and database crashed. There is a bug in 10g (and apparently 11g) with respect to this kind of configuration. If you are running an active/passive kind of RAC configuration, you will want to read up on the bug. Be very careful making any online redo log changes if you are running in such an environment.

Metalink bug number is 6786022 and it's public. We understand patch is in QA to correct. There is also an event you can set to avoid the problem. See the bug on Metalink for more information.

So, check out the bug and make sure your system is not vulnerable.

Where has Robert gone?

2009-03-01T13:34:00.000-08:00

It has been a looong time since I've done a blog entry. Way to long in fact. There are a number of reasons why...

So, I have a number of things I'd like to put in this post, and then I'll do my best to try to keep up with this blog better.

First, I've had a few people tell me that the email link on the blog page is not working right. I'll look into that. You can email me at:

robertgfreeman@yahoo.com
or
dbaoracle@aol.com

any time. I love your emails. I'm available for speaking if you like, for training engagements (I love doing RMAN, New Features and DBA kinds of training), light consulting and the like.

I'm happy to reply to any email. I do have one rule though. If you have an Oracle related question, please post it on a newsgroup instead. Oracle-L is one that I'm on among others. I've not had the time to keep up with newsgroups along with this blog I'm afraid. Why do I ask you to go to the newsgroups? #1, you get your answers quicker. #2 you get access to a number of Oracle professionals, many of whom know more about Oracle than I do. #3, the world will benefit from the question you have asked.

I love your emails though. I'm available for speaking if you like, for training engagements (I love doing RMAN, New Features and DBA kinds of training), light consulting and the like.

I just finished my newest book..... I'ts for Sybex and it's called OCP Oracle Database 11g Certified Professional Study Guide. It's a prep guide for the Oracle Database 11g OCP Exam (Exam 1Z0-053) and I'm very excited about it. I love teaching and helping people learn new things, and I hope that all of you who seek for your 11g OCP will benefit from this book. I worked with my old friend Charles Pack on this book and I think it's turned out to be a great book.

I'm getting ready to start on my next book, Oracle Database 11g RMAN Backup and Recovery. It is my hope that this book will *continue* to be the go-to book for RMAN and Oracle. The book will be the most up to date RMAN book out in the market. Look for more information on this book to be forthcoming here in this blog. I can tell you we are going to be adding lots of content and will clean up a lot of stuff too. If you liked the RMAN book before, trust me, this copy will be even better.

I suppose thats it for now. I plan on being better at posting in my blogspace. It's an interesting time for us all. In closing let me say that in these hard times, it's easy to loose sight of the really important things. When the economy is nose diving, when so many things seem to be working against us, it's east to loose track of basic principles that are important. Remember that liberty and freedom are the foundations to everything else, including prosperity. There will always be those who abuse those liberties, to be sure. We just have to realize that in spite of those few abuses that liberty is the right of every human being, it is a gift of God given to each of us. We must fight for it at every turn, even if we fight for a cause we disagree with. We must preserve liberty, freedom, our right to speak and choose without constraint (within some pretty wide constraints perhaps, you still can't scream fire in a theatre)....

Abraham Lincoln on Prohibition...

2008-12-30T11:00:00.000-08:00

I saw this quote on another website somewhere. I thought it was very well put and addresses so much of the "Nanny-state" types of activities you see going on these days (for example, the proposed 18% tax on "Sugary" drinks in New York). To me, this quote applies to a great many things.

"Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded."

Abraham Lincoln (1809-65), U.S. President.
Speech, 18 Dec. 1840, to Illinois House of Representatives

My latest project comes to a happy conclusion...

2008-11-17T14:28:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed that I've been somewhat absent of late. Part of this (but not all) was due to the fact that I had significantly increased the heat on a project that had been languishing for way too long (and writing a book and working and....). Today that project has come to it's happy conclusion and I am glad that it's complete.

That project is the acquisition of my instrument rating. I got my private pilot certificate many many years ago. As you will find on other posts in my blog, I gave it up for a while and then took it back up about 4 years ago with the purchase of my first airplane, N7598U. After I bought my airplane I decided that the next step was to get my instrument rating. So about 3 years or more ago I started on this long journey.

Over 3 Years, 5 instructors and one stressful check-ride later (some stress self-induced and other stress of external sources) I can now happily report I am an instrument rated private pilot!!! I took my check-ride today with Lynn French out of Salt Lake City Number 2 airport (U42 for the aviation minded). Lynn passed me and I think probably immediately issued a NOTAM to warn the flying world, "Watch out! Freeman has his rating".

So, the morning didn't start too well. While waiting for Lynn to arrive (he was flying in this morning from Colorado) my instructor Randy and I were checking out the log books for the airplane I was going to use. As I was reviewing the logs, I discovered to my horror that the attitude indicator was out on the airplane I was going to take. Holly Smortals! The "sister plane" to the one I was going to use was supposed to be in by 10am. So, it would be coming in while we were doing the Oral and we could take the sister plane out for the exam. Ah.... Joy. Flying in a plane I have not ever flown in for my checkride. It's a sister plane, sure.... yeah.... right....

Lynn owns a bed and breakfast in Colorado with his wife, and I am given to understand that he has his own private strip and a number of different airplanes. So, at the outset, I am jealous of Lynn! :-) Lynn is your quintessential check pilot. Hours out the ears, asking great questions, providing great insight and making me sweat the pre-requisite amount during the process (check the PTS, there are sweat requirements). I enjoyed the Oral with Lynn though it was not quite what I expected.

First, I was nervous so I'm trying to answer questions, and the words are coming out of my mouth a mile a minute. I'm also trying to give "textbook" answers, and Lynn is looking for more practical thinking. Me? Practical? Common! That caused some communication mis-understandings on my part at first. Once I settled down, I think I started to get it. In the end the Oral was a great learning experience and I'm the better pilot because of it. I think I'd have done much better if it was just a regular conversation and not an Oral/Check-Ride. Everyone said "Just have fun.... don't stress"... yeah, right. They do not know me. I don't stress in emergencies (like window iced over in unforcast and unexpected icing, and loosing my alternator all at the same time while flying from Chicago to Salt Lake City)... I handle those things OK I think. It's TESTS that I don't handle well. Tests of any type.

So, after the Oral, Lynn and I load up in the "Sister" plane. The airplane actually starts (yeah, there is a good sign) and I set the radios and so on. As I'm setting up the GPS the bells began to ring for the theme of the flight, "WE CAN'T MAKE THE GPS WORK!! BLAST IT!!". Up until the very end (where we figured out how to do the GPS approach for U42) we were sunk with respect to getting the approaches to work in the plane. Now in retrospect, I think I know how to have done it but that does you no good when you are on the flightline with the engine running and an examiner on the clock.

Lynn and I flew to Provo where we shot our approaches. We did a hold at FFU, did a DME ARC (part of the ILS and VOR/DME approach) and did our thing. My approaches were, frankly, pretty lame. They were within limits but I've done much better in the past. Lynn was very patient with me (I think he recognized I was nervous) and I'm thankful for that.

Finally we did some unusual attitudes and headed back to U42 where he finally managed to get the GPS to work and we shot that approach.

All in all, I was exhausted when we landed. When Lynn told me I passed I just wanted to jump up and down and shout to the heavens. Over 3 years of hard work, countless money and occasional frustration came to a fruitful end with my new rating, Insturment Airplane.

Wow.... now I need a nap!

The dangers or RMAN Autocataloging...

2008-10-11T13:26:00.000-07:00

In later versions of RMAN (at least 11g) when you perform certain types of database recoveries and duplications RMAN will catalog the backups for you. This is handy if you have a newly recovered control file, since it will get all of the archived redo logs and backup sets cataloged for you.

I do a lot of RMAN testing where I create databases, drop them, re-create them, recover them, etc... I've noticed that this can have some odd impacts sometimes if you have old backups or archived redo logs from a previous version of that database. Say, for example you create an ORCL database, do a lot of stuff with it, delete it and create a new ORCL database. Sometimes RMAN will get weirded out when it tries to catalog the old backups or old archived redo logs.

I have not taken the time to try to figure out all the dynamics on what is going on here but I would recommend that anytime you remove a database and intend to re-create it, that you move the backups and old archived redo logs out of the FRA or the archivelog destination directories somewhere else if you need to keep them. This will make your RMAN life much easier.

Flying ....

2008-09-20T07:16:00.001-07:00

So, we are in Seattle right now, getting ready for a nice two week vacation. We had a nice, bumpy flight to Seattle, skimming the tops of clouds and the like. During the flight a few thoughts came to mind...

First, why on the pre-flight safety video don't they actually show things how they will be? Realism is good. For example, when the oxygen masks come down, why don't they show the aircraft in some unusual attitude and the passengers panicking, fighting each other over the lone oxygen mask that actually fell from the ceiling? "Yes, there are three other masks, they just didn't manage to fall", the announcer should say, "rather than fight your seatmate for the one that did fall, simply reach up and pull the other mask down." This segment should end in the two passengers falling out of their seats fighting for the lone mask. While we are at it, we need to see an appropriate level of panic in passengers faces... I mean, if the masks come flying down, and the aircraft it pitched 45 degrees nose down trying to get below 10,000 feet, wouldn't you feel some panic?

Then there is always the scene of the mother or father calmly putting the mask on their very calm, very still, child. Um, yeah, there is reality. Again, 45 degree, nose down pitch, the floor falling out from under them, I doubt those kids are going to be calm, still or quiet.

But thats just me....

Rather, perhaps, the child should be screaming, looking all around in panic and shouting "WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!!" now that would be reality. Oh, and perhaps to add a touch of realisim we should some cheerios orbiting in the simulated zero G as the airplane plummets to an uncertain fate.

What is it with people who think that the sign that means "put on your seatbelt" actually means "it's ok to get up and go to the bathroom now"? I am constantly amazed.... 2 minutes after take off, Yule Gibbins gets up and shuffles to the bathrom. Now, not only is Yule not supposed to get up (and doing so actually breaks a federal law) BUT Yule is not exactly a young man... a young man might be able to grab onto something should we hit turblance, and survive (I'll not address the possible state of the bathroom after a severe turbulence hit... let's just say that pooping at zero G isn't a good thing). Yule, instead, will be flung around to and fro, his poor hairpiece will be all that will be left of the poor man.

On our flight to Seattle, fully 20 to 30% of the people on the flight got up to use the bathroom when the fasten seatbelt sign was on. Now, honestly, turblance was not too bad (light) but apparently the captian expected it might become bad enough that he had the flight attendents discontinue food service and had them sit and buckle up. THAT should be a clue.

And I also notice that it's always the people who are not all that physicaly able to withstand a 2000 foot drop in altitude and the attending loss of gravitational pull that will ensue. Like I said, Yule Gibbins.

I can see the CNN story now.... An airliner lands and the emergency support personel are called to scrape twenty elderly folks off of the ceiling of the airplane.

I fully understand needing to go, and needing to go *badly*, but did it ever occur to these folks to go *before* you get on the airplane. One might think to ones self, "Self.... I'm going to be captive in an airplane for two hours, maybe I should go now, when it's actually safe to go."

Some people don't understand the risk of flight even in severe clear. It's real, we call it CAT or Clear Air Turblance. In rare cases, with CAT, you could encounter a sudden drop of altitude of several hundred or even (in very rare cases) thousand feet very quickly. Trust me, you don't want to be out of your seatbelt if that happens. I've been though CAT in my little airplanes at low altitude, it's no fun.

So, anyway, we are in Seattle now.... I love Seattle....

More govenmental stupidity....

2008-09-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

More clear evidence that we have way to much time on our hands...

Here is a boy who's pencil sharpener apparently broke, who had the razor blade part of that tool in his hand is suspended. Suspended for 2 days, doesn't this kid sound dangerous. This is the intelligence of "No tolerance" which in my mind equates to "No Thinking". No tolerance just abdicates administrators of any requirement to think or act. It's lazy.

Then there is this Gem. First of all, I think helmet laws are a farce. It's just another way the state manages to control us. I think helmets are a good idea, don't misunderstand me, but we live in a free country, right? In my mind, in a free country, the jackbooted thugs don't have the right to tell you that you must wear a helmet. Of course, it's the law. Which means some mamby pamby, let's protect you from everything, body of law makers decided it was best for us all...

When will we realize how important the concept of individual freedom and liberty really is. We have forgotten that. Politicians, under the guise of protecting us and making society better, slowly curtail our freedoms and load us up with to-do's. Next thing you know, we will be required to wear helmets just to go out for a walk, lest we fall down and hit our head.

Book stuff..

2008-09-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

My latest book has shown up on Amazon. It's the OCP prep guide for Oracle Database 11g. I'm pretty excited about it, and I think it's going to be a bang up book!

My old friend and co-author from back in the Coriolis days, Charles Pack (who is also author of an Oracle Press book), is co-authoring this book with me. Charles is a great writer and fantastic Oracle guy. I'm looking forward to his work on this project.

Writing books is a love hate affair for me. Sometimes I love the work, sometimes I hate the work. For 3-4 months it's deadline, schedule, write, deadline, write, deadline, etc... then, there are the edits.

Every chapter you write goes to a technical editor and then a copy editor. These folks take your hard work and turn it on its ear. In the end, it makes a much better product, but it also tends to make authors sick (at least it does me sometimes). Once these daemons of the dark have done their work, you have to go back through, review their changes and questions and fix any mistakes. There is more to the process, but maybe I'll comment on later processes as we get on down the line.

Book writing is an amazing process, and it's a wonder but mistakes do still get though, sometimes big ones. Nothing makes me sicker than to pull a brand spanking new book out of the box, open it up and then find the first mistake. Ackkkkkk!!!!

Then, there are the reviews. Oh man, maybe that's a whole different post too. Suffice to say, your first sweet review makes for a great day. The first sour review makes you swear you will never write another word. They can be painful.

For those of you who think that those of us who write get rich off of the deal, please think again. I've written 13 books now (I think).... for the first 4 I didn't see any royalties. Yes, I did get some advances, but if you figure out how many hours you write and divide it by the advances... well I just calculated it out and it comes to maybe 15 to 20 dollars an hour (and thats being very liberal with how much time I spend per chapter). I can tell you that if you have a popular book, you can make more than that, but you don't sell books in the millions like Steven King. Royalty checks are nice, but there is never any guarentee.

So, why do I write? One, I like it. Two, I have to admit that the emails I get on a regular basis about my RMAN book in particualr are very motivating. I've had people tell me that my book pulled their database from certain death. That is very motivating. I also find it keeps me up on the latest and greatest. I think it's too easy to be complaciant in our DBA jobs. Doing what we do, the normal way we do it. Well, the technology and the job is a-changin'... I want to be there as it does and be a part of it.

Finally, lest you think writing is easy work, I can probably find a writing project for you if you are glutting for punishment and can write. :-) You will hate me after six months probably.

Hail Oracle!!

Do they actually check facts...

2008-09-04T20:32:00.000-07:00

So, for some reason I'm reading the (in my opinion) leftest leaning Newsweek magazine. The old adage know your enemy comes to mind. I'm left with the question, do they hire fact checkers anymore and do they bother to even try to get facts right. This isn't even about a political comment, no, it's about an airplane!

If you read page 16 in the "Special Republican Convention Issue" of Newsweek you will find that Andrew Romano has been flying around on a Boeing A321. That pretty hard since Boeing does not make the A321, Airbus does. Hey Andrew, did you check you facts there buddy. The emergency briefing card in the seat pocket in front of you would have told you it's not a Boeing airplane there buddy. It's a Boeing competitor, Airbus, that builds the A321.

Now, if they will screw something that mundane up, how badly can they screw up other things I wonder.

This should make your blood boil...

2008-08-27T21:07:00.001-07:00

I for one get a bit tired of the press at times. Still, this is a free country right? Yeah, right. Read this link. Here we have an ABC reporter on a *public* sidewalk, being arrested. Make sure you check out the video, it will make your blood boil. What the heck is wrong with the Denver police? Someone needs to loose their job over this.

UKOUG...

2008-08-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

I was reading Dan Norris's blog Here and got a twang of sadness realizing I've not been to the UKOUG in at least 3 years now. I think the UKOUG is perhaps my favorite user conference (excepting, perhaps, when Collaborate is at Disney). The folks at the UKOUG know how to put on a conference and everyone is quite nice. The UKOUG draws the cream of the crop, with the likes of Tom Kyte, Jonathan Lewis and many others. Why they ever selected little old me I'll never know!

The only down side to the UKOUG is that it's typically in or around December and it can be COLD there. I remember one year I was there and I'd never felt such cold. Wow!!

The Hyatt there is a very nice hotel. None of this small Europe hotel room here. This is a hotel with space!! The food is fantastic and there is enough to do to keep you busy in the evenings. During December they usually will have a little winter type of carnival there too.

Plus I love the UK. It's just a wonderful place. London is just a great place to be, and if I could live there I just might do so (though I love America!!). My wife loves Paris, so being close to Paris would be heaven to her too!!

Ahhhh.... UKOUG, missing you today!

Is this freedom? The fairness doctrine...

2008-08-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

Is this freedom?

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20080812160747.aspx

The "Fairness" doctrine is nothing but an attempt to silence us. Note in the article above how the slippery slope is already being warned about. Perhaps those of you who don't like Rush Limbaugh or the other right wing talk show hosts think that the fairness doctrine is a great weapon, but I'm telling you that this weapon is the destruction of one of our principle freedoms, the ability to say what we think, when we wish and in a manner that we wish.

Personally, I have seen little that I think places this country and our principles of freedom more at risk than the "Fairness" doctrine. It is in our best interests to contact our congressmen and make sure they understand that the fareness doctrine is nothing of the sort.

I must confess... it makes me oddly happy

2008-08-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

So, looking at Drudge Report today, I find that Nancy Pelosi's book, out for two weeks now, has only sold 5,333 copies. Ya know, technical books don't sell a lot of copies, but it's nice to know that *I* have more than one title that's sold more copies than Nancy has. I'd even suggest that my books are more worth while reading. Just my thinking.