Re: OCP Exam 1Z0-040: Installation Performance

On 9/13/07, Owen Smith <owensmith99_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> OCP People,
>
> I'm looking at topic areas for the OCP Exam 1Z0-040.
>
> I'm curious about this topic:
>
> "Installation Performance Enhancements"
>
> What should I know about it?
>
> Do many Oracle DBAs think that Oracle 8i,9i installation is too slow?
>
> Perhaps 10g installation is faster?
>
> When I see the term "Performance Enhancements", assuming I'm not reading a
> spam,
> I expect a discussion about speed.
>
> Perhaps there is more to it?
>
> Maybe aside from duration, the 10g install is less likely to error out
> or provide a better installation experience?
>
> This could actually be a broad topic. I'm not sure what parts of it
> the author of OCP Exam 1Z0-040 wants me to focus upon.
>
> Thoughts anyone?
>
> -Owen
>
>

Owen,

The most recent release installation is faster due to Moore's Law. In the Intel / AMD space (x86):

8.1.7 was likely installed in 2000 (733 MHz CPU , 133 MHz memory). 9.2.0 was likely installed in 2002 (1.4 GHz CPU, 266 MHz memory). 10.1 was likely installed in 2004 (2.4 GHz CPU, PC400 memory, hyperthreading).
10.2 was likely installed in 2006 (3.2 GHz CPU, PC533 memory, multiple cores).

Speed issues aside ...
8.1.7 puked on the Pentium IV processor (Java issue in OUI). This was fixed in the 9.2.0 base release (and in a one-off patch). The 9.2.0.1 base release for Linux x86 was so buggy that it was re-released as 9.2.0.4.
No Metalink subscription was required.
The 9.2 release occupied 3 CDs, before patchsets.

The 10g R1 base release fit on a single CDROM, with the companion CD occupying another CD.
This was due to an effort to reduce the footprint of the base release. It still didn't change the fact that the 10.1.0.4 patchset was pretty much required before it was ready for production usage.

The problem with the 10g R1 installation was that it ignored the prior ORACLE_HOMEs.
That created additional fun where one was still using 8.1.7 and 9.2 along with a 10.1 home.
It did add the ability to have multiple homes of the same release installed, a pre-requisite for using ASM out of its own home.

The current version of OPatch is clearly better than earlier patch tools, such as writing one's own scripts. Being able to query the inventory directly is invaluable.

The database creation assistant (dbca) has seen improvements, such as locking down all accounts except for sys and system.

I still don't think that we'll ever again see the rock-solid stability of 7.3.4.5.x.

Paul

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