Re: RMAN impact

On 11/2/06, Mark Brinsmead <pythianbrinsmead_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Some people eat broken glass, too. ;-)

Yum!

Yes, some apps (like SAP) do implement their own constraints. But the
> underlying Oracle database is no longer "relational". In fact, with SAP, it
> is not even close... (As I recall, it is commonplace to see multiuple
> "record types" in the same Oracle table -- not even 1NF.)

Well, I never claimed that SAP does anything in a relational manner. If Oracle were a child, Larry could charge SAP with abuse.

Just look at SAP 'Pool' and 'Cluster' tables. Ugh.

In effect, SAP has simply implemented thier own RDMBS that uses Oracle is a
> big, expensive disk drive. Sort of. (At least, this is how I understand
> it.)

Pretty much.

And, yes, if there are no indexes at the Oracle level in your SAP database,
> you are pretty much screwed when the "logical corruption fairy" comes to
> visit. ;-) (It's too long since I last looked at an SAP database -- don't
> recall how the data is indexed, but I would not be at all surprised to learn
> that the application "handles" that as well...)

SAP does use indexes, it would be pretty difficult to avoid that.

Just today I discovered that in some cases SAP's BW doesn't have the good sense to
drop BITMAP indexes before loading a table. More abuse.

SAP now claims that they are on the verge of eliminating the use of a database, but that is another story.

-- 
Jared Still
Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist

--
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