My day with the Ohio Oracle Users Group

Thanks so much to everyone who attended the Ohio Oracle User's Group event with me on July 18. I really enjoyed the opportunity to be there. The group appears to be vibrant and growing and everyone involved made it a top-notch experience (for me at least!).

My topic for the day was "SQL Stuff You Should Know" and was a mash-up of lots of different bits and pieces of information about SQL Tuning and the Oracle Optimizer. Links to my presentation slides will be made available on the OOUG web site, but I thought I'd also provide them here.

Downloads:
Presentation slides
Scripts

User groups are a fantastic way to network and have easily accessible and inexpensive opportunities to learn. I'm always happy to be invited to participate in an event and even more happy when I see a thriving community of my Oracle peers! Thanks again OOUG!!

Follow-up: Visual SQL Tuning Webinar

Thanks to everyone who attended my Visual SQL Tuning webinar. My goal was to keep it simple and show the value of using VST to help you know what execution plans "should" do.

Presentation PDF
Webinar recording


I want to thank:
Kyle Hailey for his extensive work on the subject and his recent great detailed VST presentation from KScope13.
Craig Martin for his building join order diagram I used but incorrectly attributed authorship to Kyle (sorry Craig!).

I hope to see everyone in September for my next webinar! Stay tuned for details.

Visual SQL Tuning - July 23 Webinar

Register now and join me on July 23 to discover how Visual SQL Tuning can help you understand execution plans and diagnose performance problems. During the webinar I'll cover:

• Visual SQL Tuning basics and how to create a VST diagram
• How to evaluate execution plan effectiveness with Visual SQL Tuning diagrams 
• How to identify problems with performance statistics, SQL syntax, etc. 
• Tools to accelerate the use of Visual SQL Tuning

Hope you'll join me!

Follow-up: Using Optimizer Hints for Oracle Performance Tuning Webinar

Thanks to everyone who attended my webinar on using hints for Oracle testing and performance tuning. As usual, it was a great event and I appreciate the comments and questions.

Downloads:
Presentation PDF
Related scripts
Webinar recording


I'll be back in the saddle again in July so keep your eyes open for the announcement of that event. Thanks again and hope to see you then!

Using Optimizer Hints for Oracle Performance Tuning

My next Embarcadero sponsored webinar will be on May 14 and is entitled Using Optimizer Hints for Oracle Performance Tuning.

Register now!


Hints are excellent database performance tuning tools that direct the Oracle optimizer to utilize specific operations in SQL execution plans. We often use hints because the Oracle optimizer doesn’t always come up with the execution plan we want on its own. When used correctly, hints can help stabilize an execution plan to use the same operations over and over allowing the SQL to perform the way we desire.

In this webinar, I'll take a look at using hints specifically for testing. Hints are great, and often overlooked, testing tools.

Register for Optimizer Hints for Oracle Performance Tuning webinar to learn:

• The basics of using optimizer hints to choose desired plan operations 
• How to setup and compare tests using different optimizer hints for changes in response time and resource consumption 
• How to create and maintain an information repository of testing results to be used for problem analysis in the future 
• Tools for applying and testing a broad range of hints 

Thanks again to Embarcadero (@DBPowerStudio) for their sponsorship of these webinars.

I hope to see you there!

Back to the Future AWR Mining Webinar Followup

Thanks to everyone who attended my webinar and thanks to Embarcadero (@DBPowerStudio) for hosting it. The presentation and scripts can be downloaded from the following links:

Presentation (PDF)
Scripts (ZIP)
Webinar recording


Stay tuned for my next webinar coming in May!

Webinar - Back to the Future: Oracle SQL Performance Firefighting using AWR

It's webinar time again! On March 26, Embarcadero will once again provide sponsorship for my webinar entitled "Back to the Future: Mining AWR Data for Oracle SQL Performance".

Abstract
Most of us have been in the situation where, for no apparent reason, performance for key SQL takes a nose-dive after having previously performed well. So, how do you handle this situation and stabilize performance back to acceptable levels? One approach is to go back in time using execution data stored in AWR. In many cases, AWR may contain what you need to revert your problem SQL to a better performing alternative.

Register for the webinar now to learn:

• How to mine and analyze AWR data to review the SQL's performance over time
• How to validate that the SQL is using the "good" execution plan
• Tools to accelerate your analysis of AWR data and SQL code

There are two sessions (one at 10am EDT and one at 2pm EDT). I hope to see you there!