Re: Boss is asking for 'root cause analysis'

"Ed Stevens" <nospam_at_noway.nohow> wrote in message news:fisvavkkqg27geo128vr9qgcu6e0oqb9st_at_4ax.com...
> On 30 Apr 2003 15:01:58 GMT, ctcgag_at_hotmail.com wrote:
>
> >Ed Stevens <nospam_at_noway.nohow> wrote:
> >
> >> Now my manager is pressing for a root cause analysis and preventative
> >> measures. When the question is asked regarding why did things
> >> suddenly fall over and break, the only response the DBA that found the
> >> solution can give is that perhaps we passed some sort of threshold.
> >
> >Do you have a test environment, identical or very similar to the
production
> >environment, that you can play with? If not, then tell your manager to
put
> >his money where his mouth is. If so, then restore test to the state that
> >production was in just before it went bad, and capture some explain plans
> >for the queries, load more data until it breaks, then capture explain
plans
> >of the now broken queries. Then set STAR_TRANSFORMATION_ENABLED=TRUE,
> >and capture more explain plans. Compare and contrast amongst the three
> >sets.
> >
> >Xho
>
>
> Ah, and therein lies the problem! There *is* no test system, and no
> available server big enough to build one. DBA and the application
> developer have been complaining about this from Day One (this app is
> about six years old) to no avail. What you suggest is essentially
> what my mgr was also suggesting before we found the solution. He's
> the new kid on the block -- been here less than a month -- and was
> appropriately surprised to find we run this system with no failover,
> no test system, and only a daily server-level disk backup. All
> because the client isn't willing to fund the necessary hardware.

Well then, surely there is your root cause analysis. If you don't have a test environment, you have to do it by trial and error in production; obviously not a good idea.
Your client must choose; either make available resources for a pre-production test, or put production at risk. What constantly amazes me is that (as we all know) none of this requires any specialist Oracle knowledge; it's just plain common sense.

Regards,
Paul Received on Wed Apr 30 2003 - 14:40:26 CDT