Slashdot Mirror
Review: Oracle Database 12c
snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Riyaj Shamsudeen offers an in-depth look at Oracle Database 12c, which he calls a 'true cloud database,' bringing a new level of efficiency and ease to database consolidation. 'In development for roughly four years, Oracle Database 12c introduces so many important new capabilities in so many areas — database consolidation, query optimization, performance tuning, high availability, partitioning, backup and recovery — that even a lengthy review has to cut corners. Nevertheless, in addition to covering the big ticket items, I'll give a number of the lesser enhancements their due,' writes Riyaj Shamsudeen. 'Having worked with the beta for many months, I can tell you that the quality of software is also impressive, starting with a smooth RAC cluster installation. As with any new software release, I did encounter a few minor bugs. Hopefully these have been resolved in the production release that arrived yesterday.'"
My company just decided to upgrade from 8i to 10g :(
Oh well maybe on 2030 ill be on this one.
Shouldn't shill articles be over on SlashBusinessCrap or whatever?
Backup and restore are new features in this latest version of the Oracle Database??
How on earth did they manage before?! Seriously? Is it just me or am I the only person who writes programs from scratch with data security, portability and safety in mind? Gosh, My data has been separate from the program since I was loading out to 90-minute Type II's!
I mean, seriously, from this article can we assume that mysqldump offered a more sensible backup than every version of the mega-expensive Oracle, until this version?
This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
Wow. What a blatant advertisement. Slashdot has really sunk.
Wait what. He wrote a review about Oracle, gave an 8 for value, and didn't mention pricing? Is this some kind of shill or such?
Even for a shill I would at least expect a line like
'Yes, a license for a normal octocore setup costs more than your home, but...'
or 'After going through the 2 hour cost calculation matrix, the resulting price seemed a tad steep, but'
I wouldn't call this a review so much as an annotated version of a changelog. To me, the word review implies some level of critical analysis, but this article just describes what Oracle intended to achieve without examining how well the changes work. To the article's credit, it does at least briefly mention the techniques being used, but it would be a more effective advertisement if it included actual numbers rather than just gushing praise when describing improved query optimization and availability.
maybe they have some sort of hobbyest program, like mysql or something?
RAC is not the end all be all of database scalability and availability. :)
Well good luck getting MySQL or MariaDB to run 24/7 on a multi terrabyte database with 99.999% uptime including doing backups.
...this earthy smell, I do like it!
"smooth RAC cluster installation". That would make a pleasant change.
Another version the DBA's will rave about, take years to put in, be afraid to actually use to fail-over because it doesn't actually address failing over the application that runs on it, spend all their time and system resources pounding the shit out of the system for backups they are afraid to use because it takes to long to restore and in the end rely on the real SYSADMINS and SAN ADMINS for flash copies and snapshots and then ask us why the systems are running slow. Can't wait.
I just get 4 pages of advert.
The correct one:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa384649(v=vs.85).aspx
For a list of in-box (Windows' own internal VSS writers that ensure disk consistency) see here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb968827(v=vs.85).aspx
Oracle is an external VSS writer. Has supported VSS for many years.
Reading slashdot one-liner: (irm http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot).rdf.item | fl title,desc*
There is not so much cloud in the review, but marketing - a lot !
It gives percentages and bombastic sentences about how good the new Oracle is. It looks like the whole review is not intended for an engineers.
All in all, looks like a product intended to squeeze more money out of DB cash cow, with limited innovation.
99% of database users have no need at all to give money to One Rich Asshole Called Larry Ellison.
Yes, there are a tiny handful of applications where Oracle outshines the alternatives. Yours probably isn't one of them. If you're running a small website, MySQL/MariaDB will almost certainly work just fine. (Or the free version of MS SQL Server, if you're developing in ASP.NET.) For larger applications, PostgreSQL can do the vast majority of what Oracle can do at no cost. If you're not working with absolutely massive datasets, and don't need the specific enterprise features the system offers, Oracle is probably a waste of your money.
Too many companies throw their money away just because it's "standard", even though it really isn't – other databases are more widely used as well as being cheaper and easier to administer. Anyone who wants to buy Oracle should have to justify with clear and specific reasons (not just marketing buzzwords) why they need it and how the massive expense is going to benefit the company compared to the alternatives.
The syntax is:
alter database recover datafile '/path/to/restored/file.dat';
alter datafile '/path/to/restored/file.dat' online;
I used that on an Oracle 7 database about 2 months ago.
A processor license for Oracle Enterprise database is $47,500.
http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/technology-price-list-070617.pdf
Currently, this lets you run on a dual-core x86, or a single core RISC/Itanium. The SPARC Niagra line had some real discount wierdness, since they present 64 cores to the OS.
Ok that article was nice marketing fluff. When the new version comes out the community tends to pick it apart. There are a significant number of people who dig into various new features. Its hard to find the good articles buried under the 'copy and paste of the documentation' guys who pretend like they are doing stuff to get attention. The best place to go for this is the oracle-l@freelists.org listserv. The guys on there tend to pick this stuff apart and talk about what work sand what doesn't with details.
BTW, as far as price. No one pays list price. Everyone gets a discount and pays a fraction of that price. Its not uncommon for smaller companies to literally pay 10% of the listed price (or less) since they want to make the sale. It is still expensive, but its not as expensive as you think. Also, I agree if your running a small website or something like that Oracle is a waste of money. If you know how to exploit the features for a large high end system its pretty robust. I'm not an evangelist and Larry doesn't pay so I won't say that Oracle is always the best choice. I am on a project now where we are using oracle for our core central DB and then an open source DB for downstream data stores. The open source DBs have significant limitations, but its in the 'good enough cause its free' category.
I have never been hired to work on small to medium size systems. All the projects looking for Oracle DBAs are large high end systems. They make the vast bulk of their money off of these systems.
PostgreSQL can do the vast majority of what Oracle can do at no cost
And PG year after year is much, MUCH easier to install,backup,and maintain.
People use Oracle because either they use something that depends on it (some other Oracle product, like their ERP, which has some value for certain high end segments of retail), or because they're extremely high end, where a support contract and the license cost is irrelevent compared to a very specific feature they need.
Its niche, but its a big buck niche with enough customers to prevent Oracle from dying...
Now there's all the medium sized companies that got suckered into using Oracle for no good reason. I feel for them.
PostgreSQL can do the vast majority of what Oracle can do at no cost
And PG year after year is much, MUCH easier to install,backup,and maintain.
Not sure when you got your Oracle experience, but this certainly isn't the case now. Oracle install on Linux takes ~10 minutes, DB create ~10 minutes, and backup? Hot backups are as simple as typing the word 'backup'. Too difficult?
I read it as "Oracle Database : price 12 cents".
You'd get two for a quarter and a penny change!
Don't blame me, it's usually 2 in the morning when I post