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  • Lights-out management console on Supermicro boards

    So this is slightly off topic, as it doesn’t deal with anything directly related to Oracle, it’s more a reference to those who are using Supermicro boards like I do. The nice thing about professional hardware is that you do not need a keyboard or mouse, or even a monitor. The board I have comes…

  • Why ESXi 5 has become my new standard hypervisor

    OK so I have to admit that I was very sceptical at first about any non-paravirtualised hypervisors. Mainly because my knowledge about virtualisation seems to have become a little dated. I thought that anything that’s para-virtualised will clearly outrun anything else. Based on my experience with my older hardware this was actually true. However, a…

  • Get a feel for enterprise block level replication using drbd

    I didn’t really have a lot of exposure to block-level replication on the storage level before an engagement in the banking industry. I’m an Oracle DBA, and I always thought: why would I want to use anything but Oracle technology for replicating my data from one data centre to another? I need to be in…

  • How to set up data guard broker for RAC

    This is pretty much a note to myself on how to set up Data Guard broker for RAC 11.2.0.2+. UPDATE: Please note that a lot of this has changed in 12.1, as described in a different blog post of mine (Little things worth knowing: Data Guard Broker Setup changes in 12c). If you are looking for…

  • Little things worth knowing-static and dynamic listener registration

    As part of  a recent project to remove a vulnerability in relation to CVE-2012-1675 it became apparent that there are certain misconceptions around dynamic and static listener registration which are hard to get rid of. The below is applicable for single instance Oracle only! Now let’s start with a quiz: what does the following output…

  • How to use vi-style editing in SQL*Plus

    This post is nothing new, and I created it after a little discussion on twitter about how to use readline support in SQL*Plus. The idea is not new, and I have compiled and used rlwrap for quite some time. At the time, Frits Hoogland asked me why I didn’t use the EPEL package-and I had…

  • Kernel UEK 2 on Oracle Linux 6.2 fixed lab server memory loss

    A few days ago I wrote about my new lab server and the misfortune with kernel UEK (aka 2.6.32 + backports). It simply wouldn’t recognise the memory in the server: Ouch. Today I gave it another go, especially since my new M4 SSD has arrived. My first idea was to upgrade to UEK2. And indeed,…

  • The new lab server has arrived

    Update: the Oracle Linux memory problem is solved: https://martincarstenbach.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/kernel-uek2-on-oracle-linux-6-2-fixed-lab-server-memory-loss/ As part of an on-going research project I have invested a little bit of money towards a new lab server. Sadly my Phenom II X6 with 16GB RAM was not on the HCL for ESXi 5 which I required. Before I knew that ESXi can itself be virtualised…

  • Performance testing with Virident PCIe SCM

    Thanks to the kind introduction from Kevin Closson I was given the opportunity to benchmark the Virident PCIe flash cards. I have written a little review of the testing conducted, mainly using SLOB. To my great surprise Virident gave me access to a Westmere-EP system running a top of the line 2s12c24t system with lots…

  • OT: I want this (WordPress) theme

    Apologies for a completely non-technical blog item – feel free to skip! However, if you have used a Mac SE like I have, running on System 6, then you’d love this WordPress theme I just discovered: Unfortunately I can’t use it as most of the source code I’m posting is too wide. I can almost hear…