Our Real World Database Upgrade and Migration Workshop Is Back on the Road

Now that Oracle CloudWorld 2024 is over, we have time to spare, so it is time to re-ignite our full-day workshop:

Real World Database Upgrade and Migration 19c and 23ai

Next stops on our tour:

Berlin, 14 October
Zurich, 15 October
Oslo, 22 October

Click on the city name to sign up – for free! Save your seat before the workshop fills up.

Mike Dietrich, Rodrigo Jorge, and I will present in English. It is an in-person event only.

What Is It?

It is your chance to meet with our product management team for a full day:

How to take full advantage of the new features and options in Oracle Database 19c and 23ai
The smoothest and fully unattended migration to the CDB architecture
Real World Best Practices and Customer Cases
Database and Grid Infrastructure Patching Best Practices
Performance Stability Prescription and Tips
The coolest new features in Oracle Database 23ai for DBAs and Developers

I hope to see you there.

All tech, no marketing!

Oracle CloudWorld 2024 – It’s a Wrap

I can’t believe Oracle CloudWorld is already over. Although it has been very intense, it feels like it has just started. I love being amongst our customers and helping them use the Oracle Database in the best possible way.

I still feel the thrill from the conference, but I know that post-conference blues are soon kicking in.

Slides

I encourage you to look at the slides from our presentations. We did present some new cool enhancements.

Even Newer Features of Oracle Data Pump 23ai – Check out the index and constraint enhancements. They can make a huge difference to your Data Pump import.
Migrating the Beast – It’s always interesting to hear the stories from the trenches. The beast refers to a massive 180 TB database generating a staggering 15 TB/day.
Patch and Upgrade Your Database Like a Hero – We made AutoUpgrade Patching so much cooler. One command to download the recommended patches from My Oracle Support, build a new Oracle home, and patch your database. So simple!
Upgrade to Oracle Database 23ai – Because you must upgrade eventually.

Try Our Hands-On Labs

This year, we launched two brand-new hands-on labs:

You can try them as well in Oracle LiveLabs – FOR FREE!

Thanks

Thanks to you – our valued customer – for coming to our conference and engaging with us.

Thanks to my team: Mike, Rodrigo and Alex. All the content we deliver is a genuine team effort.

What’s Next

Stay tuned for more information about Oracle CloudWorld Tour. In early 2025, we will bring Oracle CloudWorld to your neighborhood.

I hope to see you next year at Oracle CloudWorld, 13-16 October 2025.

Save $100 by subscribing to updates about CloudWorld 2025.

Oracle CloudWorld Day 3+4

Day 3 is the day of The Party. This year, with legendary The Journey playing.

Besides the music, all kinds of fun went on.

The Sphere

I had a few hours before The Party, so I went to catch a show at The Sphere. It’s an amazing event venue – the exterior is almost as impressing as the interior.

I saw the most amazing U2 concert – recorded specially for the huge indoor screen. There is literally screens all over the place, so it’s like being right in the middle of it.

Next time you come to Oracle CloudWorld, be sure to book a show.

Announcements

In our Data Pump talk, we had several new features to present:

Faster creation of indexes
Instantly adding new constraints in NOVALIDATE mode

From the smiling faces in the audience, those new features were really well received. Stay tuned for more information.

The Beast

I also had the chance to present a story from the trenches.

Migrating The Beast

An interesting case about a 180 TB database generating 15 TB/day – moving from SPARC Solaris to Exadata. A great achievement by our friends from Entain.

Over the last years I’ve learned so much from working with this project. Never hesitate to reach out to a product manager when you have big projects ahead of you.

We love these kinds of projects!

Oracle CloudWorld Day 2

The big show started at Oracle CloudWorld 2024. The keynotes happened, and Larry announced Oracle Database@AWS.

The next important announcement: AutoUpgrade Patching is now ready with superpowers. One command and it will:

Download the patches from My Oracle Support.
Build a new Oracle home.
Patch your Oracle Database.

You don’t even need to specify patch numbers; just tell us you want the latest patches. Patching has never been easier.

CloudWorld Hub

The CloudWorld hub is open, and there’s plenty to do:

Check out the F1 racer and try one of the race simulators. It’s right behind the database demo booths.
Relax with pinball, table football, and Guitar Hero. The pinball machine does bring back a lot of childhood memories. It’s right after the entrance on the right.
Get an AI generated avatar for your profile pictures. The machine takes a picture and comes back with an AI generated picture of you on the Premiere League football pitch, F1 racing court, cricket game or sailboat.
Get a bunch of stickers from all around and generate your own sticker at the database demo booth.
Pet the dogs. Relax yourself by playing with some of the dogs. Yup, that’s right. There are dogs to give you a good amount of paw-love. Plus, the PS Websolutions booth has Kirby the Chihuahua, who’s also looking for someone to pet him.
Claim your fair share of the swag.

Enjoy!

Oracle CloudWorld Day 1

That’s the end of the first day of Oracle CloudWorld 2024.

My team and I spent the day in a full-day workshop about upgrade to Oracle Database 23ai and migration to the multitenant architecture.

Pro Tips

Today was a kind of warm-up for tomorrow. Get the most out of the conference with these pro tips:

You get the best coffee by far at Dandelion Chocolate near the front desk. Second best is at Zeppola Cafe at Sct. Marks Square.
Get the Oracle Events app. It’s your trusted companion.
Pick up your badge in good time. The lines for badge pick-up on Tuesday morning will be long.
Bring a light sweater or jacket. The A/C is brutal in some places.
Show up for the sessions in good time. Although you registered for a session, they let people in on a first-come-first-served basis. Don’t miss a seat by showing up late.
Rate the sessions and leave feedback. We want to improve and ensure you get the most out of it.
If you signed up for a hands-on lab or tutorial, be sure to bring your laptop. We do have loaners, but not everyone likes a US keyboard.
Come to the CloudWorld hub and visit the demo booths. Product Managers from all areas are present and they are eager to answers all your questions. Engage with us, please.
While at the CloudWorld hub, stop by the ACE lounge and ask one of the ACEs why you should become the next Oracle ACE. You’ll not regret joining the community. And ask when the chocolate tasting takes place.
Stop by the merchandise shop and arm yourself with cool accessories.
Take the 2024 Database Developer Survey. Swing by the Swag booth to claim your prize.

What’s your favorite pro tip? Leave a comment and enhance everyone’s CloudWorld experience.

Enjoy!

An Intense Learning Experience with the Product Management Team

Are you considering coming to Oracle DatabaseWorld at CloudWorld, or have you already secured your ticket? Here’s a great opportunity for you.

Imagine being in a room with the very people who design and develop the Oracle Database you use every day. The pre-event training at Oracle CloudWorld offers this unique opportunity. My team will be there, and guide you through the upgrade and migration to Oracle Database 23ai.

Optimizing Oracle Database 23ai Multitenant Upgrade

On Monday, September 9, 2024
From 9:00 to 17:00
At Oracle DatabaseWorld at CloudWorld, Las Vegas

Enroll here for the price of $795.

What’s In It?

This is more than just a regular session. It’s an opportunity to dive deep into upgrade and migration to Oracle Database 23ai, understanding the why and the how directly from the source. It is 8 hours of intense training.

By attending our pre-event training, you’ll have the rare chance to learn directly from Mike Dietrich, Rodrigo Jorge, Alex Zaballa, and me. This isn’t just about listening to a keynote – this is hands-on, immersive training where you can ask questions, solve real-world problems, and gain practical skills that you can apply immediately.

This is the agenda that we’ve prepared for you.

After this training, you have the skills needed to upgrade to Oracle Database 23ai and migrate to the multitenant architecture.

Don’t Miss Out

Supercharge your Oracle CloudWorld experience — start with our pre-event training!

See you there!

The Best Questions on Oracle Multitenant

In late June, my team hosted our 20th webinar in our Virtual Classroom series.

You can now get a curated version of the Q&A. It contains many good questions and answers that give you deeper insight into Oracle Multitenant architecture.

The Best Questions

Consider these questions and answers a little appetizer. You find many more in the Q&A document.

Do I need to convert my database to a PDB before I upgrade to Oracle Database 23ai? No. You can do it as part of the upgrade to Oracle Database 23ai. It is easiest to use AutoUpgrade for the process

Does catcon.pl parallelism require Enterprise Edition like many other parallel options? No. You can use parallel threads in catcon.pl on a Standard Edition 2 database

Any good idea on how to avoid service name collision on a server when two CDBs tries to create a PDB with the same name? We’ve seen several customers implement procedures that create unique names for each PDB. The name of the PDB should not include information about the server or CDB because you often move PDBs around, and then it is impractical to update the PDB name. One customer we worked with created a small PL/SQL function backed by a simple table. When called, the function returned a unique PDB name. The customer used ORDS to expose the function as a web service.

Do you recommend Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning (FPP) in a small, but complex, environment? The bigger the environment, the more benefit you get from FPP. Especially if you are using Exadata Database Machine as well. AutoUpgrade is our preferred tool for smaller environments, but the complexity talks towards FPP. FPP comes with a license cost that you must take into consideration as well.

Did You Miss It

In case you missed it, you can find the recording on our YouTube channel and get the slides.

I Love Questions

One of the reasons I like doing webinars is that I get questions from the audience. I love that for several reasons:

Many questions about a specific topics is an indication that I didn’t explain a topic very well. I use this as feedback to improve for the next presentation.
I can use it to tell where our product has weakness that we can improve.
It tells me something about how customers use our product. I always get amazed about the creativity with which our customers use Oracle Database.
I find gaps in my own knowledge and I can learn new things.
It allows me to help other people.

Please – always ask questions! :)

Help Me Grow My Skills

I received a question the other day:

I want to grow my skills in Oracle Database. Can you help me get started?

Here’s my suggestion.

Conferences and User Groups

You should engage in your local user group. Attending meetups and conferences is a good way of learning and boosts your network. If you need to find your local user group, try to contact one of the local Oracle ACEs.
Come to Oracle DatabaseWorld at CloudWorld. It takes place in Las Vegas in September. Three days of intense learning, plus a pre-conference training day.
If you’re based in Europe, you can attend one of the major user group events.
- DOAG 2024 Conference + Exhibition hosted by the German user group, DOAG. Many sessions are in English, even if you don’t know German it is definitely worth a visit.
- UKOUG Conference ’24 hosted by the UK user group, UKOUG.
- On other continents, I assume there are similar conferences, but I’m mostly familiar with the ones in Europe.

Oracle University and Certification

You can find a lot of courses at Oracle University. A good way to learn is to work towards a certification.
For a DBA, it makes sense to get the Oracle Database Administrator Certified Professional.
You can also get a Technology Learning Subscription which gives you access to the entire portfolio. Thanks to Sven-Olaf for the hint.

Oracle LiveLabs

Oracle has tons of hands-on labs that you can try out for free. It’s called Oracle LiveLabs.
You don’t need to install anything. It all runs in Oracle Cloud and typically you just connect with a browser.
My team has several labs available:
- Hitchhiker’s Guide for Upgrading to Oracle Database 19c
- Patch me if you can
- Data Pump Cross-Platform Migration
- At Oracle DatabaseWorld at CloudWorld 2024 we launch new versions for Oracle Database 23ai. Another good reason to come to Las Vegas.

Webinars

My team has 20 webinars on YouTube that you can access at any time. It’s all tech, no marketing.
Further, the DBA Masterclasses has many very good webinars as well.

Documentation

Borys suggests reading the Oracle Documentation.
Oracle Interactive Technical Architecture Diagrams gives a good overview of the concepts and details in Oracle Database.
Use the New Features guide to get an overview of new topics to learn.

What Else?

Do you have any other ideas? How do you sharpen your skills? Share your approach by leaving a comment.

Never stop learning!

It’s a Wrap – MakeIT 2024

In the last days of May, I had the absolute pleasure of attending the MakeIT 2024 conference. Once again, the conference was held in the beautiful seaside city of Portorož, Slovenia.

The conference is a joint venture with the JCON conference, so you can catch one or two sessions on Java as well. I really value learning about related technologies as well. This year I listened in on caching options in Java and the use of JDBC driver.

You should come next year. There is also a good selection of English speakers, so even for foreigners, there is a reason to travel.

The Slides

Workshop – Patching Oracle Database

This is a full workshop on patching Oracle Database. It includes a hands-on lab, so you can try it on your own.

You should flip through the slides if you want a deep dive on patching.

You can also try the hands-on lab for free.

Best Practices for Upgrade to Oracle Database 23ai

This session and the slides help you prepare for the next long-term support release of Oracle Database.

Patch Me If You Can

This session and the slides give a quick fly-over of the essentials of patching.

Oracle Data Pump – News, Internals, Tips and Tricks

I had the pleasure of talking about Oracle Data Pump and presenting some new features. If you’re curious about a faster way of creating indexes and adding constraints, you can flip through the slides.

Thanks

Thanks to the organizer of MakeIT 2024 for pulling off yet another successful conference, to the sponsors for making it all possible, and to everyone who attended my sessions or the conference in general.

Impressions

Quote of the conference

My Data Pump talk

Going to conference is hard

Low hanging clouds at the airport

It’s a Wrap – Workshops and DOAG 2024 Datenbank

I’m on way back from the conference DOAG Datenbank 2024 in Düsseldorf. Before that I had workshops in Stockholm, Copenhagen and Frankfurt. I’d like to share some slides and impressions from the events.

Slides

Out-of-place Patching – The answers to the questions of the universe

You really should be using out-of-place patching. Why? It is much safer, takes work out of the maintenance window and so much more.

Get the slides to read about all the benefits and how you can make patching super easy with Fleet Patching and Provisioning.

Real World Oracle Database Upgrade and Migration 19c & 23ai

A huge compilation of useful information about patching, upgrades, how to avoid changing execution plans and a lot of cool stuff from Oracle Database 23ai.

That and lots more in the slides.

Are You Coming?

The German Oracle user group is called DOAG and they organize several great events throughout the year. I just came from the database-specific one, but in November their big conference is coming. It is really a great conference, so talk to your manager and see if you can come. Many sessions are in English, so you don’t have to speak German to come.

Will I see you there at DOAG 2024 Conference + Exhibition?

Impressions

How do you avoid burning down the house when you upgrade?

Attentive audience

Beautiful wheater for a take-off