Re: Oracle: Naked King in database land?

Anne <anne_at_thereistoomuchspam.com> wrote:

> is the problem?) and win NT, Win2K and WinXP as client. Oracle 9.01 and
> 9.02. The problems below occur only when using tables larger than about 250
> 000 records, but on amounts below that I would really consider using

> Problems encountered in the last few weeks:
> * crashing the whole database running an insert query, having to reinstall
> and rebuild the whole thing (once)
> * spontaneous shutdown of the database running an insert query (twice)
> * constantly having ORA4030 (out of memory errors) when using Designer
> created insert-triggers
> * very time-consuming TAR handling, having to install patch on patch on
> patch and sending trace after trace after trace until you give up (I would
> prefer to send them script + data and get replies only when they solve the
> easily reproducible, common case, problem).
> * internal errors ORA00600 when using "order by" on indexed 1.5 million
> record tables
> * internal errors ORA00600 when creating indexes on large tables
> * does "end of communication channel" sound familiar?

I'm nowhere near the expert some of the people on these groups are, but all of the above have been great rarities in my experience. I'm sure others can give better indication of various possibilities for things like 00600's, but it sounds to me like you're having some sort of serious problems with your instance, OS, or hardware. I've never seen the database just "shutdown" without a fine reason...and never seen anything where a successful install needed to be reinstalled. (Perhaps this is paucity of experience).  

What has Oracle support told you? Is there other indications of problems? What do your logs tell you?  

If you have an easily reproducible common case problem that can be isolated to a reasonable test, can you post it?

> * prehistoric net client. Why not use dns + port by default and invent those
> error prone tnsnames workarounds only for "probably better but much less
> used" alternative network systems? Why install thousands of files and
> millions of bytes as smallest version oracle net client and not include an
> odbc driver by default on the 98% most used OS in the world?

Oracle network setup can be confusing at first, but I don't consider it "prehistoric." It's actually pretty simple once you get the terms. I admit that we're long overdue for a more cut-down client install.

> * so what is revolutionary about having multiple long/blob columns in a
> single table?

You can have multiple BLOBS in a single table...longs are silly.

> * queries crash when autoextending tablespaces start to autoextend even on
> lots of empty disk space

Crash with what error?

> * getting a "processor too fast" diagnose for (a previous version) oracle
> installer

That one is new to me maybe others can chime in.

> * query optimizer clearly less intelligent than MS-Access and MySQL on some
> cases. Never found to be more intelligent.(Oracle workaround: analyze tables
> compute statistics, forcing use of indexes by removing wrongly used ones,
> forcing change of query execution plan by using nested queries).

I think you'd have to give us some examples of this. I'm sure there are specific situations where a query goes slower on equivalent boxes and equivalent data...but that's not necessarily a problem with the query plan...

> * unable to first-time connect to oracle from a new process within 1 second
> (necessary for standard websever cgi implementations). As comparison:
> MS-Access and MySQL connect times are negligable.
> * etc.

You're talking about accessing what's essentially a structured file vs. a database. I guess this goes back to your original statements...if you don't care that Oracle does "enterprise" stuff...maybe it's not right for your application.

Sometimes you want to use something like berkeleydb...because what you really want is just something better than a flat file.

Subsecond is certainly possible...it entirely depends on your architecture. From a webserver you'd want to use something like connection pooling wouldn't you?

> Then why, you may ask, am I still using Oracle?
> * my boss tells me to and our customers believe they will have a very robust
> and stable database solution
> * after spending a huge amount of time on building and tuning the database,
> I must admit, the lookup-queries are quite fast
> * Oracle being the largest and best known database software, I am probably
> too much of a newbee and after some more experience I hope to find the yet
> undiscovered but must-be-there goodies of the software

> Are you, as an Oracle user, dba or developer constantly solving such
> problems as I mentioned above or are you, not like me, able to spend your
> time on creating new queries, views and reports, making easy backups and
> only very occasional but successfull restores, easily importing and
> exporting data to all kinds of sources, integrating the software in all
> sorts of environments and doing more such productive work as the sales
> department has promised when the database was sold to you? Or is Oracle, as
> I am starting to suspect, the Naked King in database land?

I don't have the problems you mentioned above, and I'd like to think that I spend my time creating new queries and reports, although truth be told it's mostly spent doing email. :)

Jer Smith Received on Tue Apr 01 2003 - 19:44:07 CST