Steve Callan

Like the sandworms in Beetlejuice (you know they’re out there, and you hate ’em too), many DBAs avoid Oracle’s response files. The fact of the matter is this: they can be harnessed and used to your advantage. Buried in an installation directory, and not given that much press in installation guides, combined with what I […]

Trivia question of the day: Did Alan Ludden, the host of the 1970’s game show Password, ever use "password" as the secret password? If you missed out on that TV game show classic, not to worry. Oracle has a password game you can play. At one level, the rounds are easy, but in the bonus […]

Part one of this series covered some important aspects of Oracle administration (MetaLink and licensing). Part two highlights the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) and Oracle sales/reselling. Most DBAs will not have occasion to work directly with either of these programs, even though they may directly benefit from them. Some of those benefits are personal in nature […]

For most DBAs, not only is there Oracle database administration to deal with, but there are Oracle administration issues as well. What do I mean by "Oracle administration?" Depending on your role within your company, "administration" can encompass several areas related to the use and licensing of Oracle’s software. Some of these areas include MetaLink […]

One thing that Oracle and UPS have in common is that they both deal with wrapped packages. Why bother with wrapping packages? One obvious reason is to hide the contents from prying eyes. You can wrap a real package with nondescript wrapping paper or use transparent cellophane. This idea of a choice between hiding and […]

If someone asked me what learning Oracle performance tuning is like initially, I would have to say the title of this article aptly describes the process. Moreover, to make matters worse, it is not even one pool, but several pools in which the novice tuner can drown. Knowing what defines poor performance, how to recognize […]

In this third article about Oracle on Windows, we will take a look at the registry. Generally speaking, the registry is a database that stores information about the setup and configuration of a PC. If you are not a Windows administrator, and want to stay in the Oracle world, so to speak, there are two […]

Somebody has to say it, so it may as well be me. It is not too late to pursue the Oracle8i Certified Professional Database Administrator certification. If this is something you want to do and you are relatively new to Oracle and you have not started yet, today (this was published at the end of […]

Oracle’s LogMiner utility has been around for several years now, and it originally appeared as a new feature (as opposed to being an improvement of something else). Each major release of Oracle typically ushers in a new set of features, some of which are actually useful and can make your job as a DBA even […]

Did you know that Oracle’s "Scott" schema is slated for the bone yard? How many thousands of people have learned SQL, SQL*Plus, and PL/SQL on the back of poor old Scott? I would venture to say that the current generation of Oracle DBAs and developers are all familiar with the Scott schema and the schema […]

To secure sensitive data, Oracle provides developers with the DBMS_OBFUSCATION_TOOLKIT. This supplied PL/SQL package, available in both the Standard and Enterprise editions, is the industrial strength version of the DBMS_RANDOM package. Upon reading Oracle’s documentation about this package, you will need a decoder just to keep track of all the acronyms and to decrypt the […]

Connecting with Oracle can be quite a challenge for new users and DBA’s. Once you’ve learned the ins and outs of configuration files and Oracle Net, connecting via SQL*Plus or another Oracle application is a piece of cake. However, as a new Oracle DBA in a small to medium sized business where all of your […]