Is faster hardware a
legitimate Oracle tuning option?
There are some great cartoons here, illustrating the current issues
within Oracle tuning:
http://www.dba-oracle.com/oracle_cartoons.htm In this
SearchOracle article we see arguments for the “practical” approach
to Oracle tuning, and the growing trend to use fast, cheap hardware
to correct an Oracle performance problem:
http://searchoracle.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid41_gci1034639,00.html?track=NL-93&ad=506386
Throwing hardware at an Oracle problem is a legitimate management
decision, and in some cases a cost-effective one, especially when
the database required a huge amount of manual effort.
For example, when the schema design is messed-up, even materialized
views may fail to correct the performance issues. In my experience,
IT management DOES NOT want to hear about an expensive re-design of
the database for several reasons:
-
Fear of Blame -- No manager wants to admit that a bad database
design was implemented under their watch.
-
High Downtime -- The time to re-implement a table re-design can
mean DAYS of downtime
-
High Cost -- If the crappy implementation costs $200k, what do
you think the chances are that management will spend the money
all over again to re-design the system properly? Zero.
These are the shops that want a fast, save-face approach to
improving performance, and like it or not, it happens every day.
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