Oracle 11g new Features Oracle 11g Tips by Burleson Consulting

24 October 2006 - Updated July 27, 2007

At Oracle OpenWorld 2006, Oracle announced some exciting new features of Oracle 11g, and they promise 482 new Oracle11g features.  For me, the most exciting new features relate to tools that automate the well-structured DBA tasks, freeing-up the DBA to pursue more challenging work. 

For complete details, see the book "Oracle 11g New Features" authored by John Garmany, with Oracle ACE's Steve Karam, Lutz Hartmann, Brian Carr with V. J. Jain.

Oracle 11g Release 2 Tips

• Oracle SQL Join Factorization Transformation (JFT) Tips
• Oracle 11g r2 new parallel query management enhancements
• Recursive subquery factoring using the SQL WITH clause
• Oracle Instance Caging tips
• Oracle Omotion tips
• RAC One Node
• Oracle 11gr2 column level compression - September 5, 2009
• Oracle flash_cache tips - September 5, 2009
• Oracle USM (Universal Storage Management) tips
• ASM Cluster Filesystem (ACFS) in 11gR2 -  August 11, 2008
• Oracle 11g release 2: Cluster Voting Disk and Cluster Registry in ASM -  August 11, 2008
• Oracle 11g R2: ASM Dynamic Volume Manager -  August 11, 2008
• ASM Cluster File System Snapshots -  August 11, 2008
• ASM Optimal Disk Placement (ODP) -  August 11, 2008
• Renaming ASM Disk Groups -  August 11, 2008

Oracle 11g release 1 features:

• Oracle 11g fully automated SQL tuning tips - January 17, 2008
• Oracle 11g SQL performance analyzer concepts - January 16, 2008
• 11g SQL Plan baseline tips - January 16, 2008

• Oracle 11g SQL tuning transformations

• 11g SQL execution plan management tips

• 11g extended optimizer statistics

• Inside Oracle 11g Database replay

• Oracle 11g diagnostic_dest parameter tips

• Oracle 11g Healthchecks service

• Inside the 11g SQL Performance Advisor

• Oracle 11g Database Management for Business Intelligence

• Oracle 11g Data Compression Tips for the Database Administrator

• Oracle 11g function-based virtual columns

• Oracle 11g memory_target parameter

• Using result_cache hints

• Oracle 11g changes to OFA structure

• Oracle 11g RAC Provisioning Pack tips

Here is my Oracle11g new features list which I continually update as new Oracle11g new feature information is released:

• 11g SQL new features

• 11g language support new features

• 11g PL/SQL New Features

• 11g DBA features

• 11g RAC new features & enhancements

• 11g performance features

• 11g security new features

• 11g Enterprise Manager new features

As of 2007, the commercial database market is very mature and expectations are high.  All of the leading databases do a good job in storing and retrieving data, and customers are now demanding self-tuning databases, intelligent engines that detect and correct sub-optimal conditions.

Oracle 11g is the clear leader in this area.  Oracle has invested heavily into self-tuning capabilities including automated storage and memory management and intelligent tuning advisors.  Now in 11g, Oracle closes the loop and offers intelligent automation tools to create a self-healing database.  The most important 11g new automation features include a SQL tuning advisor that automatically tunes SQL statements.

• Automatic Memory Tuning - Automatic PGA tuning was introduced in Oracle 9i. Automatic SGA tuning was introduced in Oracle 10g. In 11g, all memory can be tuned automatically by setting one parameter.  PGA Update:  Oracle technology is constantly changing, so don't miss my new notes on updates to Oracle PGA behavior.   Also see these important notes on over-riding the Oracle PGA defaults.
   

• SQL Performance Analyzer (Fully Automatic SQL Tuning) - Using SPA, you can tell 11g to automatically apply SQL profiles for statements where the suggested profile give 3-times better performance that the existing statement. The performance comparisons are done by a new administrative task during a user-specified maintenance window.  See Inside the 11g SQL Performance Advisor.
   

• Automated Storage Load balancing - Oracle?s Automatic Storage Management (ASM) now enables a single storage pool to be shared by multiple databases for optimal load balancing. Shared disk storage resources can alternatively be assigned to individual databases and easily moved from one database to another as processing requirements change.
   

• Automatic Diagnostic Repository - When critical errors are detected, Oracle automatically creates an ?incident? ticket, notifying the DBA instantly.
   

Let's get started with the Oracle11g new features for general database administration:

Oracle 11g DBA new features

• Enhanced ILM - Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) has been around for decades, but Oracle has made a push to codify the approach in 11g.  Read more about Oracle 11g ILM here:  Inside Oracle 11g ILM - Information lifecycle management.
   

• Table-level control of CBO statistics refresh threshold - (source Lutz Hartmann) When Oracle automatically enables statistics collection, the default "staleness" threshold of 10% can now be changed with the dbms_stats.set_table_prefs procedure:

exec dbms_stats.set_table_prefs(?HR?, EMPS?, ?STALE_PERCENT?, ?15′)

 There are three new arguments to the set_table_prefs procedure, designed to allow the DBA more control over the freshness of their statistics:

stale_percent - overrides the one-size-fits-all value of 10%

incremental - Incremental statistics gathering for partitions

publish - Allows the DBA to test new statistics before publishing them to the data dictionary

This is an important 11g new feature because the DBA can now control the quality of optimizer statistics at the table level, thereby improving the behavior of the SQL optimizer to always choose the ?best? execution plan for any query.

• File Group Repository - Oracle introduced an exciting new feature in 10gr2 dubbed the Oracle File Group Repository (FGR).  The FGR allows the DBA to define a logically-related group of files and build a version control infrastructure.  The working of the Oracle file group repository were created to support Oracle Streams, and they mimic the functionality of an IBM mainframe generation data group (GDG), in that you can specify relative incarnations of the file sets (e.g. generation 0, generation -3).
   

• Interval partitioning for tables - This is a new 11g partitioning scheme that automatically creates time-based partitions as new data is added. Source: Mark Rittman  This is a marvelous one ! You can now partition by date, one partition per month for example, with automatic partition creation. Source: Laurent Schneider
   

• New load balancing utilities -There are several new load balancing utilities in 11g (first introduced in 10gr2):

• Web server load balancing - The web cache component includes Apache extension to load-balance transactions to the least-highly-loaded Oracle HTTP server (OHS).
   
• RAC instance load balancing - Staring in Oracle 10g release 2, Oracle JDBC and ODP.NET provide connection pool load balancing facilities through integration with the new ?load balancing advisory? tool.  This replaces the more-cumbersome listener-based load balancing technique.
   
• Automated Storage Load balancing - Oracle?s Automatic Storage Management (SAM) now enables a single storage pool to be shared by multiple databases for optimal load balancing.  Shared disk storage resources can alternatively be assigned to individual databases and easily moved from one database to another as processing requirements change.
   
• Data Guard Load Balancing ? Oracle Data Guard allows for load balancing between standby databases.
   
• Listener Load Balancing - If advanced features such as load balancing and automatic failover are desired, there are optional sections of the listener.ora file that must be present

• New table Data Type "simple_integer" - A new 11g datatype dubbed simple_integer is introduced. The simple_integer data type is always NOT NULL, wraps instead of overflows and is faster than PLS_INTEGER. Source: Lewis Cunningham
   

• Improved table/index compression - Segment compression now works for all DML, not just direct-path loads, so you can create tables compressed and use them for regular OLTP work. Also supports column add/drop. Mark Rittman
   

• Faster DML triggers - DML triggers are up to 25% faster. This especially impacts row level triggers doing updates against other tables (think Audit trigger). Source: Lewis Cunningham
   

• Improved NFS data file management - Kevin Closson has some great notes on Oracle 11g improvement in Networked Attached Storage (NAS). "I?ve already blogged that 11g ?might? have an Oracle-provided NFS client. Why is this? It?s because Oracle knows full well that taking dozens of commodity servers and saddling them up with multi-protocol connectivity is a mess.
   

• Server-side connection pooling - In 11g server-side connection pooling, an additional layer to the shared server, to enable faster [actually to bypass] session creation. Source: Laurent Schneider  Server-side connection pooling allows multiple Oracle clients to share a server-side pool of sessions (USERIDs must match). Clients can connect and disconnect (think PHP applications) at will without the cost of creating a new server session - shared server removes the process creation cost but not the session creation cost. Mark Rittman
   

• RMAN UNDO bypass - RMAN backup can bypass undo. Undo tablespaces are getting huge, but contain lots of useless information. Now RMAN can bypass those types of tablespace. Great for exporting a tablespace from backup. Source: Laurent Schneider
   

• Capture/replay database workloads - Sounds appealing. You can capture the workload in prod and apply it in development. Oracle is moving toward more workload-based optimization, adjusting SQL execution plans based on existing server-side stress.  This can be very useful for Oracle regression testing. Source: Laurent Schneider
   

• Scalability Enhancements - The features in 11g focused on scalability and performance can be grouped into four areas: Scalable execution, scalable storage, scalable availability and scalable management. Mark Rittman
   

• Virtual columns - Oracle 11g virtual table columns are columns that are actually functions ("create table t1 (c1 number, c2 number, c3 as (c1+c2) virtual"), and similarly, virtual indexes that are based on functions.  Also see Oracle 11g function-based virtual columns.  Source: Source: Mark Rittman
   

• REF partitioning - The 11g REF partitioning allows you to partition a table based on the values of columns within other tables. Source: Mark Rittman
   

• A "super" object-oriented DDL keyword - This is used with OO Oracle when instantiating a derivative type (overloading), to refer to the superclass from whence the class was derived.
   

• Oracle 11g XML data storage - Starting in 11g, you can store XML either as a CLOB or a binary data type, adding flexibility.  Oracle11g will support query mechanisms for XML including XQuery and SQL XML, emerging standards for querying XML data stored inside tables. 
   

• New Trigger features - A new type of "compound" trigger will have sections for BEFORE, ROW and AFTER processing, very helpful for avoiding errors, and maintaining states between each section. 
   

• Partitioning - partitioning by logical object and automated partition creation.
   

• LOB's - New high-performance LOB features.
   

• Automatic Diagnostic Repository (ADR) - When critical errors are detected, they automatically create an ?incident?. Information relating to the incident is automatically captured, the DBA is notified and certain health checks are run automatically. This information can be packaged to be sent to Oracle support (see following). Source: Dr. Tim Hall  The ADR can be accessed via OEM or a command-line interface.
   

• Hangman Utility ? The Hang Manager (hangman) utility is a new 11g tool to detect database bottlenecks.  An extension of the dba_waiters and dba_blockers views, the hangman tables have a ?hang chain? that allow the DBA to find the source of ?hangs?, such as the ?deadly embrace? where mutually blocking locks or latches hang a process.   In 11g, the hangman utility is installed on all RAC nodes by default, allowing for easier inter-node hang diagnostics.
   

• Health Monitor (HM) utility - The Health Monitor utility is an automation of the dbms_repair corruption detection utility.  When a corruption-like problem happens, the HR utility will checks for possible corruption within database blocks, redo log blocks, undo segments, or dictionary table blocks.
   
• Incident Packaging Service (IPS) - This wraps up all information about an incident, requests further tests and information if necessary, and allows you to send the whole package to Oracle Support. Source: Dr. Tim Hall
   
• Feature Based Patching - All one-off patches will be classified as to which feature they affect. This allows you to easily identify which patches are necessary for the features you are using. EM will allow you to subscribe to a feature based patching service, so EM automatically scans for available patches for the features you are using. Source: Dr. Tim Hall
   
• New Oracle11g Advisors - New 11g Oracle Streams Performance Advisor and Partitioning Advisor. Source: Mark Rittman
   

• Enhanced Read only tables -
   

• Table trigger firing order - Oracle 11g PL/SQL and beyond will allow you to specify trigger firing order with the "precedes" and "follows" clauses.   See trigger firing order tips
   

• Invisible indexes - Rich Niemiec claims that the new 11g "invisible indexes" are a great new feature.  It appears that the invisible indexes will still exist, that they can just be marked as "invisible" so that they cannot be considered by the SQL optimizer. With the overhead of maintaining the index intact, I don't see why this is very useful.  Also see 11g Function-based columns.
   

Oracle11g High Availability & RAC new features

Oracle continues to enhance Real Application Clusters in Oracle11g and we see some exciting new features in RAC manageability and enhanced performance:

• Oracle 11g RAC parallel upgrades - Oracle 11g promises to have a rolling upgrade features whereby RAC database can be upgraded without any downtime.  Ellison first promised this feature in 2002, and it is a very challenging and complex 11g new feature.
   

• Oracle RAC load balancing advisor - Starting in 10gr2 we see a RAC load balancing advisor utility.  Oracle says that the 11g RAC load balancing advisor is only available with clients which use .NET, ODBC, or the Oracle Call Interface (OCI).
   

• ADDM for RAC - Oracle will incorporate RAC into the automatic database diagnostic monitor, for cross-node advisories.
   

• Interval Partitioning - Robert Freeman notes that 11g "interval Partitioning makes it easier to manage partitions:

"Wouldn't it be nice if you could just tell Oracle you wanted to partition every month and it would create the partitions for you? That is exactly what interval partitioning does. Here is an example:

create table selling_stuff_daily
( prod_id number not null, cust_id number not null
, sale_dt date not null, qty_sold number(3) not null
, unit_sale_pr number(10,2) not null
, total_sale_pr number(10,2) not null
, total_disc number(10,2) not null)
partition by range (sale_dt)
interval (numtoyminterval(1,'MONTH'))
( partition p_before_1_jan_2007 values
less than (to_date('01-01-2007','dd-mm-yyyy')));

Note the interval keyword. This defines the interval that you want each partition to represent. In this case, Oracle will create the next partition for dates less than 02-01-2007 when the first record that belongs in that partition is created."

• ADR command-line tool - Virag Sharma notes that the Oracle Automatic Diagnostic repository (ADR) has a new command-line interface dubbed ADRCI, the ADR Command Interface.  Sharma notes that ADRCI can be used to access the 11g alert log:

$adrci

adrci> set editor vi

adrci> show alert ( it will open alert in vi editor )

adrci> show alert -tail ( Similar to Unix tail command )

adrci> show alert -tail 200 ( Similar to Unix Command tail -200 )

adrci> show alert -tail -f ( Similar to Unix command tail -f )

To list all the "ORA-" error run following command

adrci> show alert -P "MESSAGE_TEXT LIKE '%ORA-%'"
 

• Optimized RAC cache fusion protocols - moves on from the general cache fusion protocols in 10g to deal with specific scenarios where the protocols could be further optimized. Source: Mark Rittman
   

• Oracle 11g RAC Grid provisioning - The Oracle grid control provisioning pack allows you to "blow-out" a RAC node without the time-consuming install, using a pre-installed "footprint".  See Oracle 11g RAC Provisioning Pack tips.
   

• Hot patching - Zero downtime patch application.
   

• Data Guard - Standby snapshot - The new standby snapshot feature allows you to encapsulate a snapshot for regression testing.  You can collect a standby snapshot and move it into your QA database, ensuring that your regression test uses real production data.
   

• Quick Fault Resolution - Automatic capture of diagnostics (dumps) for a fault.
   

• -ocr and voting disk are in asm
  -No need to take backup of voting disk
  -GSD is offline
  -Gloabl AWR
  -scan listern
  -one node rac
  -oracle restart
  -HAS
  -server pooling
  
  

   

Oracle 11g OEM new features

Oracle 11g programming language support New Features

• PHP - Improved PHP driver for Oracle.
   

• Compilers - Improved native Java & PL/SQL compilers.
   

• Oracle 11g XML Enhancements - Oracle 11g will also support Content Repository API for Java Technology (JSR 170).  Oracle 11g has XML "duality", meaning that you can also embed XML directives inside PL/SQL and embed PL/SQL inside XML code.  Oracle 11g XML will also support schema-based document Type Definitions (DTD's), to describe internal structure of the XML document.
   

• Scalable Java - The next scalable execution feature is automatic creation of "native" Java code, with just one parameter for each type with an "on/off" value. This apparently provides a 100% performance boost for pure Java code, and a 10%-30% boost for code containing SQL. Mark Rittman
   

• Improved sequence management - A new features of Oracle 11g will bypass DML (sequence.nextval) and allow normal assignments on sequence values.
   

• Intra-unit inlining. In C, you can write a macro that gets inlined when called. Now any stored procedure is eligible for inlining if Oracle thinks it will improve performance. No change to your code is required. Now you have no reason for not making everything a subroutine! Source: Lewis Cunningham
   

Oracle 11g PL/SQL New Features

• PL/SQL "continue" keyword - This will allow a "C-Like" continue in a loop, skipping an iteration to bypass any "else" Boolean conditions.  A nasty PL/SQL GOTO statement is no longer required to exit a Boolean within a loop.  Oracle professional Jurgen Kemmelings has an excellent PL/SQL example of the PL/SQL continue clause in-action:

begin
  for i in 1..3
  loop
    dbms_output.put_line(?i=?||to_char(i));
    if ( i = 2 )
    then
      continue;
    end if;
    dbms_output.put_line(?Only if i is not equal to 2′);
  end loop;
end;
 

• Disabled state for PL/SQL - Another 11g new feature is a "disabled" state for PL/SQL (as opposed to "enabled" and "invalid" in dba_objects).
   

• Easy PL/SQL compiling - Native Compilation no longer requires a C compiler to compile your PL/SQL. Your code goes directly to a shared library. Source: Lewis Cunningham
   

• Improved PL/SQL stored procedure invalidation mechanism - A new 11g features will be fine grained dependency tracking, reducing the number of objects which become invalid as a result of DDL.
   

• Scalable PL/SQL - The next scalable execution feature is automatic creation of "native" PL/SQL (and Java code), with just one parameter for each type with an "on/off" value. This apparently provides a 100% performance boost for pure PL/SQL code, and a 10%-30% performance boost for code containing SQL. Mark Rittman
   

• Enhanced PL/SQL warnings - The 11g PL/SQL compiler will issue a warning for a "when others" with no raise.
   

• Stored Procedure named notation - Named notation is now supported when calling a stored procedure from SQL.

Oracle 11g SQL New Features

• New "pivot" SQL clause - The new "pivot" SQL clause will allow quick rollup, similar to an MS-Excel pivot table, where you can display multiple rows on one column with SQL.  MS SQL Server 2005 also introduced a pivot clause. Laurent Schneider notes that the new SQL "pivot" syntax is great for converting rows-to-columns and columns-to-rows.
   

• The /*+result_cache*/ SQL hint - This suggests that the result data will be cached in the data buffers, and not the intermediate data blocks that were accessed to obtain the query results.  You can cache SQL and PL/SQL results for super-fast subsequent retrieval.  The "result cache" ties into the "scalable execution" concept.  There are three areas of the result cache:

  • The SQL query result cache - This is an area of SGA memory for storing query results.
     

  • The PL/SQL function result cache - This result cache can store the results from a PL/SQL function call.
     

  • The OCI client result cache - This cache retains results from OCI calls, both for SQL queries or PL/SQL functions.
     

• Scalable Execution - This 11g feature consists of a number of features, the first of which is query results caching; this feature automatically caches the results of an SQL query as opposed to the data blocks normally cached by the buffer cache, and works both client (OCI) and server side - this was described as "buffer cache taken to the next level". The DBA sets the size of the results cache and turns the feature on at a table level with the command "alter table DEPT cache results", the per-process cache is shared across multiple session and at the client level, is available with all 11g OCI-based clients. Mark Rittman
   

• XML SQL queries - Oracle11g will support query mechanisms for XML including XQuery and SQL XML, emerging standards for querying XML data stored inside tables. 
   

• SQL Replay - Similar to the previous feature, but this only captures and applies the SQL workload, not total workload. Source: Dr. Tim Hall
   
• Improved optimizer statistics collection speed - Oracle 11g has improved the dbms_stats performance, allowing for an order of magnitude faster CBO statistics creation.  Oracle 11g has also separated-out the "gather" and "publish" operations, allowing CBO statistics to be retained for later use. Also, Oracle 11g introduces multi-column statistics to give the CBO the ability to more accurately select rows when the WHERE clause contains multi-column conditions or joins.
   
• SQL execution Plan Management - Oracle 11g SQL will allow you to fix execution plans (explain plan) for specific statements, regardless of statistics or database version changes. See Inside the 11g SQL Performance Advisor.
   

• Dynamic SQL. DBMS_SQL is here to stay. It's faster and is being enhanced. DBMS_SQL and NDS can now accept CLOBs (no more 32k limit on NDS). A ref cursor can become a DBMS_SQL cursor and vice versa. DBMS_SQL now supprts user defined types and bulk operations. Source: Lewis Cunningham
   

• SQL Performance Advisor - You can tell 11g to automatically apply SQL profiles for statements where the suggested profile give 3-times better performance that the existing statement. The performance comparisons are done by a new administrative task during a user-specified maintenance window.
   
• Improved SQL Access Advisor - The 11g SQL Access Advisor gives partitioning advice, including advice on the new interval partitioning. Interval partitioning is an automated version of range partitioning, where new equally-sized partitions are automatically created when needed. Both range and interval partitions can exist for a single table, and range partitioned tables can be converted to interval partitioned tables.
   
• Oracle 11g SQL tuning transformations

Oracle 11g security & auditing new features

• Enhanced Password - Pete Finnigan notes some new Oracle 11g security features "[Oracle 11g] will have case sensitive passwords and also the password algorithm has changed to SHA-1 instead of the old DES based hashing used."
   

• Oracle SecureFiles - replacement for LOBs that are faster than Unix files to read/write. Lots of potential benefit for OLAP analytic workspaces, as the LOBs used to hold AWs have historically been slower to write to than the old Express .db files. Mark Rittman Securefiles are a huge improvement to BLOB data types. Faster, with compression, encryption. Source: Laurent Schneider
   

• Oracle 11g audit vault - Oracle Audit Vault is a new feature that will provide a solution to help customers address the most difficult security problems remaining today, protecting against insider threat and meeting regulatory compliance requirements.
   

• Proxy connect for SQL*Plus - New with 10r2 proxy identification in SQL*Plus, the "connect" command has been enhanced to allow for a "proxy", to aid applications that always connect with the same user ID:
  
         connect sapr3[scott]/tiger
   

• FGAC for UTL_SMTP, UTL_TCP and UTL_HTTP. You can define security on ports and URLs. Source: Lewis Cunningham
   

• Fine Grained Dependency Tracking (FGDT). This means that when you add a column to a table, or a cursor to a package spec, you don't invalidate objects that are dependant on them. Sweet! Source: Lewis Cunningham
   

• Database Workload Replay - Oracle "Replay" allows the total database workload to be captured, transferred to a test database created from a backup or standby database, then replayed to test the affects of an upgrade or system change.

You specify the SQL tuning sets similar to the 10g offering and use the dbms_sqlpa package (SQL performance analyzer) to manage the SQL each "analyzer task" with dbms_sqlpa procedures (create_analysis_task, cancel_analysis_task, drop_analysis_task, reset_analysis_task, report_analysis_task, resume_analysis_task, interrupt_analysis_task).

Currently, they are working to a capture performance overhead of 5%, so you could conceivably capture real production workloads. Source: Dr. Tim Hall

Oracle 11g new RMAN features

This blog by George Trujillo notes many new 11g features:

• A Virtual Private Catalog can now make sure an RMAN user can only see databases they are authorized to use.

• Archive log management for Streams and Data Guard

• Network aware DUPLICATE

• Optimized undo backup

• Improved corrupt block detection

Java, PL/SQL, XML, .NET, PHP, APEX

• PL/SQL Native Compilation Without Needing a Third-Party C Compiler.

• Native PL/SQL use of Seq.Nextval in a PL/SQL program.

• PL/SQL can use CLOBs to get around 32KB limitation of SQL character strings.

• Enhanced PL/SQL warnings and error messages.

• PLSTIMER identifies hotspots and performance tuning opportunities in PL/SQL.

• New package DBMS_HPROF controls the recording of raw PLSTIMER data.

• Continued support of standards with JDBC 4.0 and JVM 5.0. Capability to upgrade to JVM 6.0 will be available in the future.

• Oracle JVM JIT supports transparent native Java compilation without a C Compiler.

• Significant performance improvements with JDBC performance especially with Advanced Queuing.

• JDBC supports server side result cache alone with OCI client side result cache. Additional things I liked included the "big" improvements in the JIT and RAC support for JDBC.

• New command line interface to OracleJVM making it a lot easier to work with the JDK in the database.

• Support for database resident JARs.

• JDBC support for starting and shutting down the database.

• Performance enhancements to XPath query for Java.

• XML applications can now process larger XML documents by loading and saving .

• DOM nodes in memory and using a page manager for physical binary data management.

• Unified Java API for XML allows mid-tier Java programs to leverage lazily loading by allowing a disconnected mode of operation that allows a XMLType to be used with a session pool model of connection management.
   

HTML-DB 11g enhancements

• APEX will be standard with an embedded PL/SQL gateway.

• APEX will have an application packager for packing and deployment of APEX applications.

• Data Pump Enhancements to use when you're moving data

• Compression and encryption enhancements

• Support for XML Schemas and schema-based tables.

• Transportable partitions
   

• Change assurance new features of Database Replay and SQL Replay can play a large role in reducing costs, testing and issues when migrating to Oracle Database 11g. This is one of the best new features in this release.
   
• Database replay - captures actual production workload and replays it on a separate system.
   
• SQL performance analyzer - finds and fixes SQL performance degradations
   
• 10gR2 will have a patch set, that will allow the replay to occur.
   

• Eliminates need for file systems. Very fast access of files.
   
• Just as fast as file systems with all the capabilities of the Oracle database (it?s a new LOB type). It is very fast at accessing the files from a file system.
   
• Store all your data in the database with one consistent:, Security and auditing model
   
• Backup and recovery mechanism
   
• Storage management (ASM)
   
• Transaction and concurrency model
   
• Interface and protocol
   
• Values added services like encryption, compression, and de-duplication

Oracle 11g Business Intelligence & OLAP

Mark Rittman notes some of the upcoming features with Oracle 11g BI suite and OLAP:

Integration of materialized view query rewrite with OLAP - Rittman notes:

"However, in 10g OLAP although you could register a view over aggregated data in an analytic workspace with query rewrite, ?normal? queries that used SUM(), AVG() and other aggregation functions, together with GROUP BY, wouldn?t get rewritten as the SQL views used over analytic workspaces were based on fully-solved cubes, i.e. the view contained all levels of aggregation and measures were already aggregated. . .

Now, with this forthcoming release of Oracle OLAP, you can just check a box in Analytic Workspace Manager to enable queries against the source tables for your analytic workspace to be re-written against the summary data in your analytic workspace, and your OLAP cube will then act in the same way as a regular materialized view, meaning the two technologies (in theory) will be interchangeable as a way of summarizing warehouse data. "

 

Oracle 11g data mining

With the release of the first book on ODM "Oracle Data Mining", we see increased interest in data mining within 11g and there are rumors that ODM will be greatly enhanced, moving data mining objects into the dictionary and improving the interface for complex analytics.

ASM new features in 11g

-asmca introduction
-disk can be force mount/delete
-metadata backup
-asm and cluster in same software
-asm disk check
-fast start mirror resync
-sysasm role

RMAN new features in 11g

-rman undo bypass
-backup of flash recovery area to disk
-virtual catalog
-recovery advisor
-Duplicate database from backup with out connecting to source database
-Undrop tablespace

Data Guard new features in 11g

- Fast-Start Failover for Maximum Performance Mode in a Data Guard Configuration
- Compression of Redo Traffic (Only for Gap Resolution) Over the Network in a Data Guard Configuration
- Real-Time Query Capability of Physical Standby Database
- Fast Role Transitions in a Data Guard Configuration
- Data Guard Integration, Simplification, and Performance
- Dynamic Setting of Oracle Data Guard SQL Apply Parameters
- Enhanced Data Guard Broker Based Management Framework
- Histogram for Redo Transport Response Time in a Data Guard Configuration
- Snapshot Standby
- Strong Authentication for Data Guard Redo Transport
- Enhanced DDL Handling in Oracle Data Guard SQL Apply
- Enhanced Oracle RAC Switchover Support for Logical Standby Databases
- Data Guard Logical Apply Completeness
- Oracle Scheduler Support in Data Guard SQL Apply
- Support Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) with Data Guard SQL Apply
- Support XMLType Data Type (Only CLOB) in Data Guard SQL Apply
- Virtual Private Database (VPD) Support in Data Guard SQL Apply 

BC is a leader in providing expert assistance and support for implementing Oracle11g new features.

Oracle Training from Don Burleson  The best on site "Oracle training classes" are just a phone call away! You can get personalized Oracle training by Donald Burleson, right at your shop!