RMOUG Training Days 2007
February 14th-15th

Presentation Summaries

Click on a presenter name to view summaries.

Adams | Aldridge | Arseneau | Ault | Baker | Baxter | Beresniewicz | Blake | Briggs | Brooks | Brown B | Brown T | Burleson D | Burleson J | Carlson | Caviness | Closson | Cunningham | Dacko | de Visser | Deshpande | Dijcks | Dorsey | Engel |Fink | Fons | Freeman | Fuston | Garmany | Haastrup |
Hailey | Haisley | Hall | Hay | Hichwa | Hotka | Ioan | Jackson | Jenne | Jeunnette | Karam| Katsaris | King | Koletzke | Koopmann | Kurtz | Kutrovsky | Leal | Lemme | Likarish | Looney | Marx | Millsap | Mishek | Moore | Moskovitz | Munsinger | Nanda | Ostrowski | Pal | Peters | Phillips | Presser | Pystynen | Reading | Rice | Richards | Scheerer | Schrag | Senegacnik | Still | Sutton | Sweeney |Swing | Than | Thater | Tierstein | Turner-Underwood | Vaidyanatha | Vallath | Weaver | Wille | Wimsatt | Wood |

Vendor Presentations

Click on vendor name to view summaries.

DataMirror | GoldenGate Software | ImageNow | ReadSoft | Sanity Solutions

 

Antonio Adams

 
Streams, I Gotcha

This presentation is based on the lessons I learned from installing Streams for Oracle 9i Streams.  We had several goals that we wanted to accomplish: upgrade our database to 9i, replicate data from instance to instance, and set up an Active-Active Mode Streams environment.  What we had to do next will surprise you!

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David Aldridge, Independent Consultant Administrator - UNIX/Linux systems
Linux 2.6 I/O Schedulers and Data Warehousing

The Linux 2.6 kernel allows the choice of four different i/o schedulers, which give priority to reads and writes in different ways. Conventional wisdom is that the CFQ scheduler represents the best compromise choice for many application types, but the anticipatory scheduler is in fact superior for systems characterized by multiple large sequential read requests of contiguous data—in other words, Oracle data warehouses. This presentation explains the scheduler types available, demonstrates how they react to a parallel query environment, and how the read bandwidth of devices varies with increasing degree of parallelism.

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Randy Arseneau, BEZ Systems Administrator - DBA
BEZ Systems—Extending OEM 10g Grid Control Functionality with Plug-Ins

Within Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control R2, Oracle now maintains a central repository of performance data available for access by end users. This data is fed into the central repository from OEM collection agents deployed on each monitored server. This presentation will focus on two key areas of interest within the OEM framework: the standard "Oracle Instance" target type and the use of Management Plug-Ins to extend OEM data collection capabilities. Attendees will learn which Oracle Instance data are persisted within the OEM central repository and which data are retrieved and displayed dynamically. Scheduling and purging considerations for this data will also be reviewed.

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Michael Ault, Quest Software Administrator - Performance Tuning
Testing to Destruction—Performance Testing Your Oracle System

In this presentation, I will cover methods to test your Oracle system to determine capacity and performance limitations. Using real-world examples, I will show how various testing tools can be utilized to determine just what to expect from your Oracle system under load.

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Jim Baker, bivio Software, Inc. Administrator - Data Warehousing / ETL
Introducing Python

Whether you use it as a full-featured dynamic language or an elegant scripting language, Python is a great complement when working with Oracle. And it's a fun and elegant language too! After a quick overview of the language, comparing it to PL/SQL, C, and Java, this presentation will introduce use of Python to write robust, efficient, and flexible database code. In particular, it will describe mapping cursors against Python's equally strong support for iteration constructs; error handling; specific built-in data structures like sets and dictionaries which are especially useful for data cleaning and ETL; and support for character encodings, XML, LOBs, dates, timestamps, and other data types. We will then present specific examples drawn from real ETL and Web applications.

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Robert Baxter, Denver Newspaper Agency

Administrator
Server Virtualization

Applications that run on dedicated servers frequently do not require all the computer power of their associated servers. The applications have the advantage being isolated from each other, but dedicated systems frequently are not the most efficient way to use computing resources. Server virtualization may be a solution to this predicament. Virtualization allows multiple applications to be consolidated across fewer servers, while keeping each application isolated in its own operating environment. This presentation will discuss using virtualization as a tool to aid in server consolidation and disaster recovery, different virtualization software products, and virtualization caveats.

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John Beresniewicz, Oracle USA Adminstrator - DBA
Average Active Sessions—The Magic Metric?

The Oracle 10g RDBMS exposes a conceptual, architectural and user-interface framework for identifying and diagnosing performance problems that uses database time as the core measure of performance impact.  The wait-model performance analysis approach now in wide use by experienced DBAs has been formally embedded into Oracle 10g.  One key new concept introduced is that of the time-normalized DB time, referred to formally as Average Active Sessions.  This presentation will discuss the origin and meaning of Average Active Sessions and its visibility and usage in Oracle 10g, including ASH, AWR, V$ tables, sysmetrics and server alerts, and Enterprise Manager.  We will focus on both theoretical and practical aspects of this important number.

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Brad Blake, Pharmion Corporation Administrator - DBA
Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g—Migrating from Database Control to Grid Control

This presentation will demonstrate how to install and implement a central management server running Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control. It will discuss how to migrate from Database Control to Grid Control, allowing the organization to have one interface to manage all Oracle systems, with the capability to monitor much more.

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Chip Briggs Administrator - DBA
RMAN 101b (Crashes & Working Demos)

Recovery Manager (RMAN) concepts will be described and demonstrated along with audience participation questions: configuration; hot and cold backup; and various recovery scenarios, including media failure, corruption, and accidental problems (e.g. drop user, rm *, truncate table, and utl_file).

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Steve Brooks , Oracle Corporation Professional – Technical Management
Integrating the Enterprise Security Infrastructure: Unifying Physical and IT Access Control with Oracle Identity Management

This presentation describes how Oracle Identity Management has been integrated with physical access control systems to manage common identities and access privileges across the physical and logical security domains. Some of the usage cases for such integration we will discuss include automating the user on-boarding and off-boarding processes, leveraging events and user status changes across the physical and logical domains, introducing delegated administration for controlling access to physical resources, and improving accountability of access to all resources with reports and attestation. We will also describe technologies developed by Oracle and others for integrating Oracle Identity Management with physical access control systems, and provide some customer case studies. This presentation is appropriate for security administrators and planners as well as anyone responsible for physical and/or logical security. No specialized product knowledge is required.

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Bradley Brown, TUSC Administrator
Advanced Oracle Application Express (formerly HTMLDB) Tips and Techniques

Application Express is a powerful and comprehensive tool. Numerous advanced tips and techniques will be covered in this presentation. These topics include pop-up windows, complex searches, document management, indexing and searching,"tool tip" or hints, e-mail links, page 0, help text, background jobs,"add to my calendar" feature, saving contacts (VCF), sending mass e-mails, and more.

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Bradley Brown, TUSC Developer
Changing the World with Oracle Web Services and the Service-oriented Architecture

Web Services are the next logical step in application development. They provide a major step forward in the Internet computing model. There are so many components and continual research going on in this area. This presentation will focus on the things you really need to know and care about with Web Services. This presentation will focus on a practical example of a Web service application of the future.

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Tom Brown, ESRI Developer
Building an Integrated Spatial Type Within Oracle

ESRI has utilized Oracle's Object Type and Extensible Indexing to develop and release a commercial ISO compliant spatial type. This presentation delves into the new object type and domain index, discussing what was involved to implement the storage behavior, the domain index strategy and developing the necessary constructors and spatial/relational operators.

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Donald Burleson, Burleson Consulting Developer
Hypercharge your Oracle SQL

This dynamic and in-depth presentation will focus on real-world techniques for improving the speed of SQL queries with a focus on the new Oracle 10g features. The topics will include the new Oracle parameters that affect SQL performance, the use of hints to change SQL execution plans, re-writing SQL queries in more efficient forms and the use of advanced techniques such as Materialized Views, replacing SQL with PL/SQL, the new automated CBO statistics collection, and using the new Oracle 10g CPU costing approach. This presentation will show actual case studies to illustrate the performance differences with these approaches to SQL tuning. Best of all, the presenter will share his proven SQL tuning secrets that ensure optimal SQL execution.

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Donald Burleson, Burleson Consulting Developer
Insider Tips for Oracle Application Express (fomerly HTMLDB)

ApEx (HTMLDB) has become a wildly popular system development platform and Oracle has always emphasized how HTMLDB can be used to quickly create working applications. However, ApEx can be extended easily into a fully robust tool that can be used to deploy super sophisticated systems. This presentation will show little-known techniques for performing complex screen interfaces and leveraging Java, and special techniques for large scale systems development. Topics will include cascading menus, dynamic included content, updateable repeating display and much more.

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Donald Burleson, Burleson Consulting Professional
Oracle 2020:  A Look at the Future of Oracle Database Management

The advances in hardware and Oracle automation features are going to have a huge impact on the job duties of the Oracle professional.  This presentation explores the two-day DBA training program, the rapid server consolidation movement and other industry trends to show how the job of the DBA will move beyond compartmentalized duties and into a broader spectrum. The Oracle Professional of the 21st Century will be relieved of the tedium of monitoring and tuning and be free to concentrate on other important database administration activities.  This fun and interesting presentation will give the attendees a look into how their jobs are going to change, sooner than they think. Key Points understand Oracle job consolidation; prepare for the role changes and save your job; see how Oracle will adapt to upcoming hardware advances; and see how the Oracle Professional jobs will expand into new areas.

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Janet Burleson, Burleson Consulting Developer
Screen Ergonomics for Oracle Developers

Most Oracle professionals understand the technical mechanisms of Oracle tools such as SQL*Forms, HTMLDB and JDeveloper to write applications, but many are not aware of the rules of ergonomics. When online screens are used by thousands of people everyday, the Oracle application must optimize the interaction and allow the end user to complete their task with a minimum amount of work. This presentation will show real-world examples of Oracle ergonomic design, illustrate techniques for improving end user satisfaction and improving productivity. We will show time-saving techniques, best practices for screen design and how to minimize typing and maximize throughput. This session is ideal for system development managers and Oracle developers who want to understand how to deliver robust, easy-to-use applications.

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Jay Caviness, McKesson Provider Technologies Administrator - DBA
Oracle 10g ASM: Tips, Tricks and Quirks

Oracle's Automated Storage Manager (ASM) is new with Oracle 10g. ASM has enabled simplified storage management for both RAC and stand-alone databases. It has advantages over a file system or raw devices for storage, but it does have "quirks". This presentation is geared to the DBA who already uses ASM or may be considering its use and will review best practices for implementation, and tips and techniques to streamline the use of ASM.

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Kevin Closson Administrator - UNIX/Linux systems
Why Does Oracle Have a Third Party Clusterware Validation Program for Linux, and Why Should I Care?

Oracle Real Application Clusters has shipped with Oracle-provided "clusterware" on Linux and Windows since the initial release of 9i RAC. While the name has changed from OCMS to CRS, and then Clusterware, few people actually know what it does or how it is implemented. RAC has been available for more than five years and it is as easy as ever to become confused where clusterware is concerned. All legacy RISC platforms support integrated Vendor clusterware packages along with Oracle Clusterware, and now Oracle has a Third Party Clusterware Validation Program for Linux. Why? This session introduces the new third party clusterware validation program, why you should care, and such important RAC-related concepts as fencing, node-membership services and high-speed interconnects.

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Kevin Closson Professional - Technical Management
Introducing the Flexible Database Cluster Architecture for Server Consolidation

The datacenter trend towards server consolidation is occurring at a rapid pace. The motivating factors behind server consolidation include agility, availability, security and regulatory compliance. But risk avoidance is important since applications don't always coexist. Choosing an architecture for consolidation that offers manageability, flexibility, and application isolation is essential. Modern commodity Linux-based clustered systems can be a powerful and effective architecture for consolidation. This presentation covers a Proof of Concept by consolidating 60 Oracle 10g databases into a manageable 14-node Linux-based cluster. Focusing on architecture, deployment techniques, monitoring, SLAs, and low-impact server repurposing makes this presentation a must-see for any IT organization planning a server consolidation effort.

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Randy Cunningham, SageLogix, Inc Administrator - DBA
Inside Oracle: Using Diagnostic Events

This presentation provides practical, useful information focused on the productive use of Oracle diagnostic events. In addition to gaining an overview of what diagnostic events are, participants will gain practical, immediately usable information on how to enable and disable events for the current session, another session and for a database instance. Syntax, locating event trace files, troubleshooting database errors, event codes, and tools for analyzing and formatting trace output will be discussed. Best practices for using events, including situations where events should never be used. Properly used, Oracle diagnostic events can help to increase productivity, system availability and service levels.

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Piet de Visser, LogicaCMG  
High Availability—How to Keep It Simple

The High demand for "always-up" has prompted many vendors to offer products, add-ons and "solutions," some of which are downright complicated. This presentation will offer tips for what you, the Oracle DBA, and your architects can do to keep your systems highly available and manageable. You name it, you can simplify it. Because of our (Oracle) database background, the presentation will focus on two "connected" items: first, the application and how to make it failover-ready (not just TAF) while maintaining simplicity; then the database with the focus on simplicity in both design and deployment. The main secret to a highly available system is to resist using too many tools and tricks.

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Kirtikumar Deshpande, Idearc Media Administrator - DBA
Oracle 10g Streams: Data Replication Made Easy Part One

Oracle 9i Database Release 2 introduced Oracle Streams as a simplified solution for information
Sharing. Oracle Database 10g includes several enhancements to Oracle Streams. Using Oracle Streams you can propagate data, transactions, user defined events and messages in a stream of information within a database, or from one database to another. Oracle Streams offers more flexibility than other replication solutions in capturing, propagating and applying the information to other databases or applications. In this session, you will learn about Streams architecture, configuration, administration and monitoring. I will share with you some of the tricks and tips from my experience with Oracle10g, and Oracle 9i, and Streams that would help you navigate Oracle Streams safely. Finally, a small demonstration will show you data replication using Oracle10g Streams.

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Kirtikumar Deshpande, Idearc Media Administrator - DBA
Oracle 10g Streams: Data Replication Made Easy Part Two

Oracle 9i Database Release 2 introduced Oracle Streams as a simplified solution for information
Sharing. Oracle Database 10g includes several enhancements to Oracle Streams. Using Oracle Streams you can propagate data, transactions, user defined events and messages in a stream of information within a database, or from one database to another. Oracle Streams offers more flexibility than other replication solutions in capturing, propagating and applying the information to other databases or applications. In this session, you will learn about Streams architecture, configuration, administration and monitoring. I will share with you some of the tricks and tips from my experience with Oracle10g, and Oracle 9i, and Streams that would help you navigate Oracle Streams safely. Finally, a small demonstration will show you data replication using Oracle10g Streams.

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Jean-Pierre Dijcks, Oracle Corporation Analyst - Business Intelligence / OLAP / Mining
Driving Your Data Integration Through Business Rules with OWB 10gR2

We've seen and heard it before, but can you really do enterprise class ETL driven by business rules? With Warehouse Builder 10gR2 the answer is a definite yes. In this paper and demonstration you will see how you can create business rules in Warehouse Builder and then apply them to real world ETL problems. You will see how changing a business rule will change the ETL logic with a few simple clicks. You will see how you can create error handlers completely driven by business rules. As an extension of the rules in ETL we will show you how to validate your rules on your actual source data, to ensure that the rules are in fact correct and supported by your data. After this session you will understand that business rules can have a real impact on a developer's life. Maintenance of ETL logic becomes simpler and error routines can be modified in minutes. After this session you will probably see many new applications for business rules in your environment when using Warehouse Builder.

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Jean-Pierre Dijcks, Oracle Corporation Analyst - Business Intelligence / OLAP / Mining
Data Quality Inspector and Oracle Warehouse Builder—A New and Winning Combination

Let's face it, we need to involve our business users in the data quality process to make data quality projects a true success. That is why Oracle has integrated the Data Quality Inspector and Oracle Warehouse Builder into a single comprehensive offering. The combination of the products deliver robust Data Quality functionality for both the IT staff and for the business users. Business users directly influence the actions that will be taken on their data by reviewing the findings and suggesting fixes. The session will demonstrate the key benefits to the business and to the IT staff of this integrated offering. You will learn how you can implement a total quality process within your organization, and see all the software live in action. After this session you will understand where and how business users should (and can) be involved in data quality. You will see a concrete solution, not just a dream of what should have been.

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Paul Dorsey, Dulcian, Inc. Analyst - E-Business Suites R11i
The Path to Oracle Fusion

For anyone working with databases and the applications that interact with them, Oracle Fusion Middleware is likely to be a significant part of your development environment. What does this mean technically for your organization? Must you use the Oracle DBMS and/or the Oracle Application Server (OAS)? Can you integrate with any existing .Net applications? What products/technologies do you need to learn to use? This presentation will clarify the different parts of the Oracle Fusion technology stack, discuss what this stack means to your organization, and provide a strategy for retraining and retooling in order to take advantage of Oracle Fusion Middleware capabilities.

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Paul Dorsey, Dulcian, Inc. Developer - Java
Sophisticated UI Development Using ADF Faces

ADF Faces delivers the capability of building applications that have near client/server look-and-feel. This presentation will demonstrate some of the sophisticated features of Faces, such as tree controls, pages with dynamically changing content elements and complex page flow.

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Carel-Jan Engel, DBA!ert Administrator - DBA
Data Guard, At What Cost?

Data Guard could have a dramatic impact on your database depending on the configuration choices you make. Physical and logical standby use fairly different transport techniques between primary and standby sites and each comes with a distinct footprint. Performance and scalability may vary widely. Ideally, however, your high-availability deployment will not impact frontline applications. To ensure that, you need the facts. This presentation will discuss the various Data Guard options and their influence on the performance and scalability of your database environment to help you decide for the optimal configuration that meets your busnisess' needs.

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Carel-Jan Engel, DBA!ert Administrator - DBA
Data Guard—All You Wanted to Know But Didn't Have Time to Find Out

Running Data Guard out of the box is a piece of cake. GUI driven, a couple of mouse clicks, and voila! But what’s going on behind the scenes? How do you determine the right settings of the LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n parameters? SYNC/ASYNC, LGWR/ARCH — there are some 50 pages of documentation to explain one parameter.  What is important, what isn’t?  What is a robust setup of init.ora, listener.ora, tnsnames.ora, to enable easy switchovers and failovers? How do you tune the redo transport between primary and standby? How do you split the network traffic of redo and application? How do you deal with a setup with two standbys? There are many more questions to be answered when setting up Data Guard. Having set up more than 50 Data Guard configurations at more ethan 30 sites, Carel-Jan has developed a robust approach that can deal with complex environments, but can also be scaled down for straightforward primary/standby setups. During this University Session he will share his insight with you, illustrated with demonstrations of setups, failovers and switchovers.

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Carel-Jan Engel, DBA!ert  
Carol Dacko, University of Michigan  
Size Matters

The hilarious duo Carol & Carel (5' 2" and 6' 7" tall, respectively) will talk about all kinds of Oracle-related topics that relate to sizing and sizes, e.g. block sizes, disk sizes, stripe sizes, segment sizes, memory sizes, word sizes, and so on. The sheer fact of the confusing visual interchangeability of the presenters will probably make you laugh every now and then, but despite the tongue in cheek contents the undertone will be very serious!

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Daniel Fink, 7S Consulting Administrator

No Mogens, We Are STILL Not Tuning the Right SQL Statements

Mogens Nǿrgaard, Oracle performance technician and visionary, recently discussed the current state of performance optimization and the shortcomings of the Method R approach. Mogens contends that it is not always the longest running statement that is the problem, it might be another statement that is causing the first statement to perform poorly, and we must focus on the statement causing the problem to address the issue. But what if you fix both of these statements and performance is still unacceptable? We have not found the root cause of our performance issue. Focusing on these issues often masks a very complex and frustrating issue for technology and business alike—that they are often disconnected from each other as well as disconnected internally. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as walking up to a user and saying, "I'm from IT and I'm here to help." To properly address performance issues, we need to step away from technology and step toward the business. This presentation will examine the current state of performance optimization, where the approaches are succeeding and where they are failing, and what changes we, as technologists, need to start making to have a positive impact within an organization. This presentation focuses on the strategic, business, and personal issues of database systems, development, and optimization.

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Michael Fons, Graebel Companies, Inc. Developer - Forms/Reports
Metamorphosis from Forms to Java: A Technical Lead's Perspective

Our company, perhaps like others, is currently being forced to leave Oracle Forms/Reports and work with JDeveloper, ADF, JSF, and other technologies—all in an SOA framework. Despite the many good publications and demos for Oracle Java-based technologies, this transition is troublesome. This presentation aims to give an overview of such transitions and to give advice on how to overcome the obstacles that come with them. This perspective is that of a developer and team leader.

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Robert Freeman Administrator - DBA
RMAN Backup and Recovery—A Beginner's Guide

More and more Oracle sites are using RMAN as their prefered backup and recovery solution. In this four-hour University session, the author of Oracle Database 10g RMAN Backup and Recovery will walk you through the setup and use of RMAN. You will leave the session having learned how to setup and configure RMAN, what a recovery catalog is and when to use it, and how to backup your database with RMAN. Most important, you will learn how to recover your database from all those nasty, late night failures that never come at a convenient time.

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David Fuston, Linium Analyst - E-Business Suites R11i
Oracle Applications Reporting—How Can I Get What I Need?

Most organizations find their reporting solution does not provide the level or degree of information they want after their Oracle Apps implementation. We will discuss the causes and results, alternative strategies for solutions, approach methodologies, and how to avoid these reporting frustrations.

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David Fuston, Linium Administrator - Data Warehousing / ETL
Oracle Applications and Data Warehousing—An Oxymoron?

We will look at the flexibility of five possible packaged data warehousing solutions to integrate with Oracle Applications, PeopleSoft Enterprise, and EnterpriseOne (formerly known as J.D. Edwards 5). This will entail a discussion of Oracle EDW, Jaros, DecisionPoint, Noetix, and Cognos applications.

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John Garmany, Burleson Consulting Administrator - DBA
The Power of Indexing

Indexes are the easiest way to get great performance gains. However, indexing pitfalls are many. This presentation will cover indexes in the Oracle database, focusing on when and how to add indexes, the different types of indexes and when to use each type. It will also cover common indexing errors found in many database configurations. It includes a discussion of tools that will allow you to determine if your index is used correctly by the SQL that needs it. Lastly it will demonstrate using the Oracle 10g Automatic Workload repository to monitor and diagnose indexing problems.

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John Garmany, Burleson Consulting Developer - PL/SQL
Being Regular with Regular Expressions

This presentation will explain the why and how of using regular expression with Oracle. Unix SAs know the power of matching with regular expression and now the Oracle DBA and Developer can put that power to use. But regular expressions are not the only or even the best answer in all situations. We will cover your regular expression options in the SQL, PL/SQL and Java. While most DBAs do not use Java, it does provide a rich and powerful regular expressions capabilities that SQL and PL/SQL do not have. Similarly, improper use of regular expression can have a large negative impact on database performance. The presentation will explain the pros and cons of each method and when they can best be utilized to provide you with high performance matching capability.

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Peter Haastrup, PA Consulting Group Analyst - Business Intelligence / OLAP / Mining
Implementation of a Data Warehouse in the Energy Sector

Energinet.dk, which is responsible for the regulation of the energy sector in Denmark, has implemented a Data Warehouse (DW) using Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB) as the tool used when constructing the DW, and Oracle Discoverer as the presentation layer to the users. The DW is being used extensively to provide reporting to all areas of the business, including marketing, operations and the financial department. The technical charter of the project catered for a 100% implementation of the DW in OWB, making the various parts of the Data Warehouse as uniform as possible with respect to the individual developer's choice when implementing a specific part of the DW, and additionally making further development and maintenance as seamless as possible. This presentation will illustrate in detail how this DW was constructed using Oracle Warehouse Builder illustrating the strengths of, and challenges in following this approach.

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Kyle Hailey, Independent Consultant Administrator - Performance Tuning
Wait Events and the Geeks Who Love Them

The wait interface method for tuning Oracle databases has become well known. Unfortunately the exact meaning of the wait events themselves is still shrouded in mystery. Now for the first time, each of the top 30 wait events will be explained in detail and examples of typical causes and solutions given. The top 30 wait events represent 99.9 percent of the wait time reported in Oracle customer databases. Note: the lecture is aimed at version 7 through 9, though some version 10 wait events will be discussed. Lecture excludes RAC and OPS wait events.

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Stephan Haisley, Oracle Corporation Administrator - DBA
Common Diagnostic Practices When "IT" Hits the Fan

In nearly all production environments there comes a time when something unexpected happens. The biggest problem comes when the database crashes for an unknown reason, doesn't come up straight and gives way to a slew of error codes. Other problems crop up when jobs or reports fail or perform slowly for no reason. This presentation aims to provide a list of common problem scenarios that can occur along with a list of diagnostic data to gather. Once this data has been gathered I will provide a methodology to using it to help determine causes and provide solutions. All this can be done quickly before raising a Service Request (SR) with Oracle Support Services. In the case when an SR is raised, the data gathered will go a long way to helping the support engineer identify a cause and provide a solution.

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Liz Hall, Pinnacol Assurance Developer - Forms/Reports
Oracle Forms: Bugs and Bloopers

Oracle Forms is widely used, yet widely misused. This session will discuss pointers for writing easy to maintain, easy to debug and not so easy to break Forms code. Learn how to configure and use the Forms Debugger tool, add DML code in the correct place, see triggers as they fire, and other Forms "gotchas."

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David Hay, Essential Strategies, Inc Analyst - Designer / Data Modeling
Data Modeling, RDF, and OWL

Data modeling, business rule modeling, and ultimately, database design to filter bad information—these approaches use logical constructs and an enterprise's semantics to make assertions about what is true, and therefore what data should be accepted into a database. The new world of ontology has produced languages (RDF and OWL) that are intended to analyze large bodies of information, also in terms of logical constructs and an enterprise's semantics, but this time in order to make inferences. The two approaches are profoundly different, but closely related. This presentation will take a sample data model, convert it to RDF and OWL, and use this exercise to demonstrate what is new and what is not new in this wonderful new world of ontology and semantics.

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Mike Hichwa, Oracle Corporation Developer - ApEx (Application Express)
End the Microsoft Access Chaos—Your Simplified Path to Oracle Application Express

Many companies have large numbers of Access applications which have become unmanageable. They are looking for better solutions to maintain, secure and consolidate these applications. Oracle Application Express is one such solution. Using the Oracle Migration Workbench you can migrate a Microsoft Access schema and data today, but what about the application? This was a manual process, but with the introduction of Application Express 3.0, help is at hand. An important feature of Application Express 3.0 is the new Application Migration Workshop.

In this demonstration rich workshop, we will briefly position Oracle Application Express 3.0 and then walk through a series of tasks that a developer might do in migrating an Access application to Oracle Application Express following an appropriate migration methodology to ensure your migration is successful. In closing we’ll look at a few plans for the future as to how this capability could be extended or applied to other targets and outline our strategy for migration tools going forward.

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Dan Hotka Developer - SQL Developer
Oracle SQL Developer Tips and Techniques

Learn more about this exciting new environment from Oracle. This presentation will include a live demonstration on various tips and techniques in using this tool to work with SQL, scripts, data and database objects. This presentation will be packed full of practical examples from Dan's book, The Oracle SQL Developer Handbook and is a "must see" for anyone involved with Oracle development.

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Dan Hotka Analyst - Business Intelligence / OLAP / Mining
Discoverer 10g Tips and Techniques

This is a live-demo presentation of new functions in the latest release of the Oracle Discoverer product from an experienced trainer who will demonstrate a variety of new and neat features of this reporting/drilldown tool. The attendee will gain valuable insights as to the many features of the latest version of Oracle Discoverer 10g.

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Cosmin Ioan, Bridge-Tech.Com, Inc. Developer - PL/SQL
The 10 Oracle (Development) Commandments: Architecting Thy System

1. Thou shalt comment all thy code. 2. Thou shalt use proper indexes. 3. Thou shalt maximize SQL and minimize PL/SQL. 4. Thou shalt instrument thy code. 5. Thou shalt benchmark thy code. 6. Thou shalt debug code efficiently. 7. Thou shalt stress test with significant data. 8. Thou shalt make use of bulk processing. 9. Thou shalt minimize client code and maximize server code. 10. Thou shalt review code with peers. Three to six case studies of everyday poor implementations of both OLTP and OLAP systems will be used.

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Bill Jackson, Raytheon Systems Company Professional - Project Management
Agile Contortions and Extreme Distortions: Things to Know About XP and Agile Before Trying Them

Agile development and Extreme Programming (XP) have been hailed as the answer to many common development woes by providing a way to liberate developers and allow them to develop software. Although Agile and XP offer many innovations, the truth remains: "There are no silver bullets." This presentation will introduce managers, developers, and anyone new to the Agile/XP world to the terminologies, advantages, and pitfalls. The tips presented, including what to keep and what to throw away are based on actual experience rather than just theory. The audience will be invited to share some of their experiences on the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of Agile and XP.

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David Jenne, InfoNow Corporation Administrator - Performance Tuning
Tuning Sense

Poor query performance can sometimes indicate problems with the logic of the SQL statement itself. Tuning SQL queries should be an iterative process involving database administrators, developers and users. Poorly-performing queries can come to light through testing, monitoring database performance and user input. Common techniques for measuring and improving SQL query performance can include explaining plans, tracing sessions, indexing selected columns, and gathering statistics. Using these techniques, query performance can often be dramatically improved. However, when trying to tune a query, it may be important to ask, "Does this query make sense?"

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Carol Jeunnette, Prairie Systems Group, Limited Professional - Professional Development
Navigating Relationship Systems: The Human Kind

After many years of exposure to "computer kinds" of people, it has become obvious that there are times that these folks are much more comfortable navigating complex computer systems than human relationship systems. A broad lens on human behavior is offered by the natural systems theory developed by Dr. Murray Bowen. Moving away from models that locate problems within individuals, a systems perspective posits that individual functioning cannot be understood outside the context of larger relationship systems. Several concepts of Bowen's theory will be presented, including anxiety, emotional triangles and differentiation of self. An awareness of dynamics in relationship systems, as well as attention to the ways in which one's own behavior can impact the functioning of the larger group, broadens one's repertoire of responses to complex relationship systems. Interestingly, better navigation of human relationship systems might make it easier to concentrate on the computer systems.

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Steve Karam, Burleson Consulting and Training Professional - Technical Management
To RAC or not to RAC? A Manager's View

To a DBA, RAC is very tempting; you will get scalability, high availability, and performance load balancing, not to mention a great mark on your resume, all in one fell swoop. However, going to RAC can be costly. In order to attain the money, man-hours, and training necessary to implement RAC in your environment, you will most likely need manager approval. This presentation targets the manager of a database shop where RAC may be under consideration. We will discuss costs, pros and cons, and the full impact it will have on your staff, training, data center, and company.

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Steve Karam, Burleson Consulting and Training Developer - ApEx (Application Express)
Putting the Express Back Into Oracle Application Express with Ajax

When Oracle changed the name of HTMLDB to Oracle Application Express (ApEx), many people wondered just where the "express" came from. Sure, it's easy to make quick and dirty applications that handle large amounts of data, but it's just so bulky for the end user! This presentation will show how to use emerging Asynchronous Javascript and XML (Ajax) technology to make your ApEx applications lightning fast for your users. We will examine the use of Ajax in submitting forms and retrieving data, both as single fields and even in complex reports. By pairing Ajax with DHTML, we can build advanced screens that retrieve data on the fly without a single page refresh.

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Andreas Katsaris, Arisant, LLC. Administrator - Data Warehousing / ETL
Data Warehouse—Optimizing Data Loading, and Data Querying

The presentation is geared toward intermediate-level DBAs who support Data Warehouse projects. The presentation will focus on three major topics: Oracle-centric techniques that may be used to move large amounts of data from source systems to a warehouse, design tips for optimal performance of such loads, and SQL tips for querying large warehouse tables. It will discuss the different tools available to the DBA, the pros and cons of each, and how to determine the best option. Also discussed are design techniques and a simple methodology for optimizing data load times, as well as techniques used to optimize warehouse querying.

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John King, King Training Resources Developer - Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
SOA What? Introduction to Service-oriented Architecture

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a standards-based framework that represents business functions as a set of shared, reusable services. Services can in turn be combined and orchestrated to produce composite services and business processes. The Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) provides the backbone of SOA. The ESB is a standards-based integration platform that combines middleware and services on the network. This presentation introduces the basic concepts and terminology of a Service-oriented architecture (SOA) and its importance to IT. The session will provide the basic information necessary to help you enthusiastically participate in the implementation of SOA at your organization. Upon completion of this session you should be able to: explain the concepts and principles of SOA, explain the benefits of the SOA approach, and describe the basic function of an ESB.

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John King, King Training Resources Developer - PL/SQL
"Futurecast" with SQL Model

Today the ability to project future data plays a large part in management planning. Oracle 10g added the SQL Model clause making complex "projection" calculations easier to create and use. Model is an extension to the SQL Select statement defining a multidimensional array by mapping query columns into three groups: partition, dimension, and measure columns. This presentation demonstrates the creation and use of "future" values via SQL using the Model clause.

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John King, King Training Resources Developer
Oracle 10g for Developers: What You Need to Know

Attendees are introduced to new and improved features of Oracle 10g that directly impact application development. Special emphasis is placed on features that reduce development time, make development simpler, improve performance, or improve deployment. Attendees will be better equipped to create applications that take full advantage of Oracle 10g.

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Peter Koletzke, Quovera Developer - Forms/Reports
JDeveloper 10g with ADF Faces and JHeadstart—Is It Oracle Forms Developer Yet?

This presentation describes Application Development Framework (ADF), ADF Faces, and how they can assist with development of a Java-based application. It also shows the various tools in JDeveloper that support the "ADF development method" and how they ease the task of connecting Java front-end code to the database. In addition, the presentation provides an overview of the JHeadstart plugin and shows how its declarative environment might rival that of Oracle Forms Builder. Finally, the presentation offers insight about what type of development shop will benefit the most from ADF, ADF Faces, and JHeadstart and whether it really is possible to achieve the productivity of an Oracle Forms environment by using ADF Faces with JHeadstart.

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Peter Koletzke, Quovera Developer - Java
The Tie That Binds: An Introduction to ADF Bindings

This presentation briefly reviews where ADF Model (ADFm) fits and how one of its components, ADF Bindings, allows you to quickly connect components from any user interface library such as ADF Faces and JSF Reference Implementation to business services such as ADF Business Components. The presentation provides details of how ADF bindings work, how to automatically bind data elements to visual elements, what types of bindings are available, and where binding code appears. It also explains the basics of the expression language used to bind Model layer components to View layer components.

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Peter Koletzke, Quovera Developer - Forms/Reports
Web Development with JDeveloper 10g for Forms and PL/SQL Developers

It is often difficult to select among the myriad of technologies available for Web applications deployed in the J2EE environment. In addition, development work for this environment is very different from the “traditional” paths Forms and PL/SQL developers are accustomed to. This university session offers a solid introduction to a recommended set of technologies that provide a development experience as close to Forms as possible—ADF Business Components, JSF, and ADF Faces. It briefly explains where these technologies fit in the J2EE world and how to create code using Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) in JDeveloper 10g. Students then obtain an introduction in how to use ADF Business Components to create a code layer to access the database for queries and updates. The presentation focusses on how to create a Web user interface using JavaServer Faces (JSF) and ADF Faces that connects to the data access layer. Concepts discussed include J2EE architectures, Web languages, converting Forms applications to J2EE, ADF architecture, the ADF Model layer, entity objects, view objects, database-centric development, bindings, and data controls.

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James Koopmann, LSI Logic Inc. Administrator - DBA
Hardware Assisted Backups for Oracle

User-managed backups in Oracle are alive and well. Most DBAs, at one time or another, have used a script based approach with or without RMAN to backup an Oracle database. But there is another side of user-managed backups not often ventured. Hardware assisted backups can provide unique benefits that are often overlooked. This session will take a look at the hardware requirements of such systems and provide insight on how to effectively use hardware Snapshots, Volume Copies, and Remote Mirroring to properly backup an Oracle database and provide the high availability our enterprise databases require.

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David Kurtz, Go-Faster Consultancy Ltd. Analyst - PeopleSoft
PeopleSoft: A Properly Instrumented Application

Most Oracle professionals now realize that timed based metrics rather than ratios are THE reliable way to diagnose performance problems. It is ironic that as this change has come about, the effectiveness of the Oracle timed-event instrumentation has been degraded because more time is spent in the ever-increasing layers of middleware. Database idle time may actually be application busy time. We know what to do when the problem is in the database, but what about when most of the response time is "SQL Net message from client?" This presentation will look at how PeopleSoft (before it was acquired by Oracle) sought to address the problems of measuring application performance with its Performance Monitor utility, and whether it was successful.

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David Kurtz, Go-Faster Consultancy Ltd. Administrator - DBA
An introduction to SQL*Trace, TKPROF and Execution Plans

If you are trying to resolve performance problems, then you need to work out how your application is spending its time, and why. If your problem is SQL-related then you need to know how Oracle is executing that SQL and why. Sometimes you need to be able to show that the problem is not in the database. This session will introduce you to Oracle's SQL Trace facility, including how to enable SQL trace, what is in the SQL trace file, how to process it with TKPROF, how to read an execution plan, techniques to make sense of execution plans, limitations of TKPROF, and avoiding TKPROF traps.

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David Kurtz, Go-Faster Consultancy Ltd. Analyst
Worst Packaged Application Design Decisions

Just because you have bought a packaged application from a large company don't assume that its authors have made sensible design decisions.  They probably haven't, in which case your problems are even worse, because even if you can fix the problem, will the vendor support your change?  Probably not.  This presentation will discuss some of the things that PeopleSoft did that were really not a good idea.  Some of them you can do something about, some you have to live with, some not.

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Christo Kutrovsky, The Pythian Group Administrator - DBA
The Answer to Free Memory, Swap, Oracle and Everything

This presentation covers in detail different types of memory, how to monitor memory, and how to optimally use it with Oracle in mind. Examples demonstrate how certain actions on the database side cause different memory areas to be allocated and used on the OS side. Key differences in operating systems' approaches to managing memory will be highlighted with attention given to Linux, Solaris, and Windows. Using Linux as an example, this presentation explains how to effectively use tools such as "top," "vmstat," and "/proc/meminfo" to gain visibility into a system's allocation and use of memory. Attendees will leave with good understanding of how memory is used by an Oracle database server and should be able to apply this knowledge to optimally configure their servers regardless of the underlying operating system.

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Alvaro Leal Administrator - Data Warehousing / ETL
Discoverer Administration Simplified with OWB 2.0

The integration between OWB 2.0 and Discoverer Admin 10g presents significant benefits to Discoverer administrators when used to its fullest extent. This presentation will demonstrate how OWB provides both short and long-term productivity gains in the design and management of the EUL for Discoverer administrators. Live examples will show how EUL objects that are time consuming and mundane to create and manage within Discoverer Administrator client can incubate within OWB into pleasing visual content, and conclude in Discoverer EUL. Execution of OWB Experts will demonstrate achievement of productivity gains for Discoverer administration with automated creation of EUL-compliant objects in OWB and deployment into Discoverer.

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Steve Lemme, Computer Associates Administrator
Top Practices for Managing Fusion & Applications Unlimited Databases

Size and complexity of managing databases has increased significantly, further challenging the duties of database administrators. Business transformation and project initiatives like ITIL and Cobit further increase the pressure on DBAs as ways are sought to reduce costs and still effectively manage the myriad of databases supporting business.  New manageability technologies in databases like Oracle are available to help yet DBAs need the time to learn about them and apply them to resolve real business problems. Challenged with one of these or another?  Need to centralize and consolidate management of Oracle, SQL Server, or DB2 databases?  Need to manage more databases without an increase in hardware or training budget?  Need to eliminate problem determination finger pointing between Operations and DBAs?  This presentation focuses on the new challenges, technologies and methods to managing relational databases on the way or for Oracle Fusion. This session will provide practices and technologies a DBA can use to move past database finger-pointing and firefighting 101.

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Daniel Likarish, Hood River Associates Administrator - Windows systems
Architectural Considerations During the Implementation of the Storage Tier in an Enterprise Network

Regis University has an established Storage Array Networking curriculum that provides database and system engineering students with an opportunity to obtain hands-on virtual storage labs. The talk will review the architectural design process that was used to install, configure, support and manage the Hitachi Data Systems V9585 Thunder.

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Jason Looney, Echostar Analyst - Designer / Data Modeling
Application Design Using Abstraction and Integrity Layers

The presentation will provide an overview of designing and developing multi-layered applications starting with the database and PL/SQL. It will also cover the most common pitfalls in using this approach, such as dealing with application developers and debugging large amounts of PL/SQL code. Code generators and logging package will be provided.

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Dustin Marx, Raytheon Company  
Ruby on Rails Revisited

Ruby on Rails is a framework intended for rapid Web application development. This presentation is based on the presentation "Riding Rails to Ruby and Riches" that was presented at RMOUG Training Days 2006, but adds significant code examples and demonstration of rapid development with Rails. Topics discussed during the course of the presentation include using convention rather than configuration, overriding Rails' conventions for use with legacy database schemas, using and overriding Rails' scaffolding, Rails' support for easier use of XMLHttpRequest (often called Ajax or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), and three approaches to accessing Oracle stored procedures from Rails.

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Dustin Marx, Raytheon Company  
Scott Carlson, Paragon Dynamics, Inc.  
Ajax, A Real Modern Day Web Development Hero

One of the hottest trends in web development in recent years has been the naming and widespread use of the collection of technologies commonly known as Ajax. This is an introductory presentation and is aimed at developers, administrators, technical managers, and others who wish to learn more about Ajax and why Ajax is so popular today. Ajax is more than just a fad and this presentation will point out some reasons why it is more than a fad.

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Cary Millsap, Hotsos Enterprises, Ltd. Administrator - Performance Tuning
Questioning Method R

In the years since the publication of Optimizing Oracle Performance in 2003, we've learned a little bit about performance problem diagnosis and quite a bit about how many ways it's possible to misunderstand what Jeff Holt and I tried to write in our book. This session describes topics including the following: "Method R is reactive" ...What about a method for "preventing" performance problems? Can you use Method R if you can't prioritize your business tasks? Do you have to use Oracle extended SQL trace data to use Method R? Do you have to own Hotsos products to use Method R? Does Method R work in complicated multi-tier environments? Is it practical to use detailed profile data as a primary diagnostic data source? Does Method R work with prepackaged applications? Does Method R ignore session interdependencies? Can Method R help diagnose performance problems that are outside the Oracle tier? How is Method R different from other educators' writings and teachings about the so-called Oracle Wait Interface? How does Method R compare to Anjo Kolk's YAPP Method? Is Method R consistent with principles of bottleneck analysis?

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Timothy Mishek, RJV Administrator - DBA
How to Involve the Database Administrator in the Software Development Process

As a Database Administrator, it is becoming more important that we have a role in the software development process. In many cases, the DBA has to try and solve issues that most likely could have been prevented. This session will show the interaction between the role of the DBA and the Capability Maturity Model or CMM. Discussions will also include ideas on how to politically pursue and build relationships within the development organization.

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Erik Moore Professional - Technical Management
Ad Hoc iSCSI SANs

This report presents research on the use of iSCSI SAN technology to create ad hoc networks for development environments, emergency provisioning, and training scenarios. Included in the topics analyzed are VMware environments, low bandwidth trials, and the use of TOE devices to support scalability. While the primary experience of the author is in software targets, hardware targets and multi-purpose devices will also be discussed.

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Peter Moskovits, Oracle Corporation Developer - Java
Build a Killer Portal Using JavaServer Faces

JavaServer Faces provide a rich, component-based framework for portal development. By attending this session, portal and JavaServer Faces technology developers will gain the knowledge to effectively build a portal presence using JavaServer Faces. Specifically, this session explores in detail how you can make your Faces applications customizable and how to add portal capabilities, such as JSR 168/WSRP portlets and site management. You will learn how to declaratively secure your components using Java Enterprise Edition 5 (Java EE 5) and JAAS security. You will also see how using JavaServer Faces can enhance the end-user experience beyond traditional portals with rich components and built-in services.

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Lynn Munsinger, Oracle Corporation Professional - Technical Management
Oracle Fusion Development Experience—Sneak Preview and Roadmap

Oracle Fusion is the next generation of Oracle applications/Peoplesoft/JDE. This session will cover the technology that Oracle Fusion is based upon, focusing mainly on the development experience with JDeveloper and the Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF). We will present a technical overview of the Fusion architecture and will demonstrate the end-to-end development experience when building a composite application—combining J2EE, Web Services, BPEL, Portal and Business Intelligence using a single integrated design time environment. We will show how declarative development can be with JDeveloper and ADF and how customers can already take advantage of these Fusion Middleware technologies to simplify and increase productivity for their existing SOA development.

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Lynn Munsinger, Oracle Corporation Developer - Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
Developing Secure J2EE Web Applications with Oracle ADF and JavaServer Faces

Security is an afterthought in many development projects. Few would argue that leaving the doors of your car unlocked and the keys in the ignition is a bad idea, but deploying J2EE applications to the Web without some level of security is no less careless. Security is a critical part of both your application design and development. It is important for developers and architects to understand that security is on the critical success path of Web application development. This session explains Web application security fundamentals and how to apply J2EE security to Web applications built with Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) and JavaServer Faces (JSF).

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Arup Nanda, Starwood Hotels Administrator - DBA
Intrusion Detection in Oracle

Using concrete scripts and examples, this session will explore, with concrete scripts and examples, different methods to identify intrusion detection in an Oracle database to satisfy most security and privacy regulations and mandates. Attendees will learn the different types of intrusion and the sources of information to detect them. Topics will include: hacking attacks against the listener—denial of service, buffer overflow, etc.; attacks against the database—malicious entry, unauthorized access and denial of service attacks; mining information from listener log to know about listener attacks; simple and advanced Oracle auditing; and many more. All topics will be shown with live working demonstrations.

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Arup Nanda, Starwood Hotels Administrator - DBA
Data Pump: Not Just for Data Movement

Oracle Data Pump Export and Import, introduced in Oracle 10g Release 1, has been touted as tool for data movement across databases, but it's so much more than that. It has vast potentials to be used a backup and archival tool, moving stored code such as procedures and packages, and a remote data access enabler. In this session, attendees will learn the basic and advanced operations of the DP tool. Topics include: setting up DP, running in two modes (Interactive and Batch), performance monitoring, using external tables in DP, enable metadata movement, creating user objects using DP, and creating backup of user source code to satisfy compliance.