This article explains how to configure Oracle API Gateway as a cluster on Solaris SPARC. The software can be download from the Oracle Technology Network. Before installing the API Gateway, you need to consider which components you require. Some components — for example, API Gateway Analytics — have additional requirements, such as a database. There are different components that could be installed, too, such as Policy Studio. There is not much documentation that discusses how to configure the Cluster for this product, so I chose to write one and be the first. The version of the API Gateway used in this article is Release 11.1.2.4.0, which is the latest at the time of writing.

This article, part one of a three-part series, explores a DBAs journey to APEX.

The frenetic pace of application development in modern IT organizations means it’s not unusual to demand an application be built with minimal requirement gathering—literally, from a napkin-based sketch—to a working first draft of the app within extremely short time frames—even a weekend!—with production deployment to follow just a few days later.
This article – the first in a series – demonstrates a real-life application development scenario: the creation of a mobile application that gives election canvassers a tool to identify, classify and inform voters in a huge suburban Chicago voting district – using the latest Oracle application development UI, data modeling tools, and database technology. Along the way, we’ll show how Oracle APEX makes short work of building a working application while the Oracle DBA leverages her newest tools—SQL Developer and Data Modeler—to build a secure, reliable, scalable application for her development team.

There are several methods used and developed over the years/decades since the Oracle Database has been around to migrate or clone your databases. Most of the methods have required us to use Data Guard or GoldenGate to achieve the same with minimal downtime or RMAN Backup files/Database Datafiles for regular cloning.

With the 12cR1 version of the database, remote cloning was introduced but still required to place the source non-CDB or PDB into Read-Only mode before initiating the cloning. With 12cR2, one has the ability to clone a database (also known as hot-cloning) without the restriction of read-only or downtime on the source. Also, hot-cloning can be achieved without an existing backup of the source.

We’ve all been there. When the rubber meets the road, it seems like the database, operations and development teams are never quite in-sync. No matter how thoroughly executed, tested, documented and validated, something in the production environment is never quite the same as the lower environments – be it a hardware inconsistency, a code mismatch, or even the dreaded typoed command. To add insult to injury, code always seems to change between the time it leaves a developer’s laptop and when it is deployed to a mission-critical system.
Solving these issues is the primary motivator behind DevOps. Often misinterpreted as a buzzword endorsing development teams taking over platform and infrastructure roles, DevOps is all about development and operational modernization. Rather than operating as siloed, asynchronous teams as has been the norm for decades, DevOps represents a fundamental, holistic, organization-wide shift not only in processes and tools, but in people and culture.

Every now and again I come across the question: How can we lower latency and speed up data delivery? Irrespective of the target database, the desirable answer for the person responsible for implementing the data integration strategy may be to employ parallel processing. However, in many cases the decision to parallelize is the best answer only if better options have first been exhausted, and organizations don’t always explore those options.

In an age where increased productivity is the gold standard, DBAs continuously seek new ways to become more efficient in their daily work. Amazon Web Services (AWS), an IOUG partner, recognizes this need and recently announced two new features to reduce and optimize vCPUs on the Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for Oracle Database.

Whether you’re an Oracle system/database administrator, an IT manager/executive or even just an end user/customer, security should be a key focus. Security breaches have happened at all levels within the industry. From the executive level to the end customer whose data is leaked, none of us want to be associated with a breach.

While you may or may not be considering a cloud migration or implementation of the Autonomous Cloud Data Warehouse via a Proof of Concept (PoC) or even a flushed-out roadmap, that activity is likely future looking or at best a work in progress. Security concerns are immediate, as well as future-facing.

So are there action items we can take right now? The answer is definitely yes!

This article, part three of a three-part series, explores Exadata storage maintenance.
Managing an Exadata Server is a great way to jump from being a normal DBA to great DMA (Database Machine Administrator), and get into the nitty-gritty details of storage administration. This tip will share some Exadata Storage maintenance jobs, how to manage them and at which logs to look.

In part three of this three-part series, learn about sharding in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 - the architecture and components, deployment, and management of the sharding configuration.

Database Security is important to understand and implement for data protection from insider and external threats. The cloud is another environment to make sure that the data is secure in the cloud and in transit. There are options and products available in the Oracle Cloud that can be utilized and DBAs and Security Professionals should…