Category: Database

Database, Shell Scripts, SQL | PLSQL, Tools

Scheduler Job for OS Audit Trail Cleanup Routine

Hello all!
As you all know, most of OS files generated by oracle, like traces and logs can be cleared/managed using ADRCI. However, more than once, I saw filesystem get full of Audit Trail files.
In general, I see DBAs and companies implementing shell scripts to house keep those files. Usually some variation of the find with rm I posted some weeks ago. However, we have a very good “official” solition for this, using the DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT.

Basically we can create Scheduler Jobs in our databases to keep track on this. The advantages are seveal. The job clear in both nodes, this keep all Oracle information correctly updated, you may receive OEM notification for failure if monitoring jobs, etc.
You can see more detaiils here in MOS Note 731908.1 New Feature DBMS_AUDIT_MGMT to Manage and Purge Audit Information.

How I did?

1. Initial Cleanup to clear files older than a week.
2. Set last archive to a week ago.
3. Created Purge Job, purging older than a week

As per:

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Database, Security, SQL | PLSQL

12c New Feature: Unused Privileges

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Did you know 12c now has a mechanism to examine which privileges are actually being used by an user, module or for the database as a whole, as opposed to merely the privileges granted?
This is a great security improvement in order give users the privileges that they need precisely without granting too much.

Here’s how is works?

1. First you have to set up a capture process using the new package DBMS_PRIVILEGE_CAPTURE.

# Example:

BEGIN 
DBMS_PRIVILEGE_CAPTURE.CREATE_CAPTURE( 
        name         => 'all_priv_analysis_pol', 
        description  => 'database-wide policy to analyze all privileges', 
        type         => DBMS_PRIVILEGE_CAPTURE.G_DATABASE); 
END;
/

This starts the capture process database wide. Let it run for a bit.

2. Now you can either generate a report:

# Example

BEGIN 
DBMS_PRIVILEGE_CAPTURE.GENERATE_RESULT( 
        name         => 'all_priv_analysis_pol'); 
END;
/

Or examine the new views:

DBA_USED_PRIVS 
DBA_UNUSED_PRIVS 
DBA_USED_OBJPRIVS 
DBA_UNUSED_OBJPRIVS

3. To turn off you proceed with the following:

BEGIN 
DBMS_PRIVILEGE_CAPTURE.DROP_CAPTURE( 
        name         => 'all_priv_analysis_pol'); 
END;
/

So now you ensure that you use the best practice of least privilege for users.

Cheers!

Database

Database Resident Connection Pool (DRCP)

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Hi All!
I was reviewing some features in Oracle and, basically, every single time I review them I find something new. Seems Oracle Databases’ features are near to infinite and we frequently find some that can really add value to our solutions.

So I decided to make a serie of posts with really quick notes about each one of them.
You can see all posts in this serie in my page of posts and some others more.

Ready? Here it goes:

Database Resident Connection Pool

The database resident connection pool (DRCP) reduces the resource requirements of applications that currently don’t support connection pooling, either because it is not supported by the application infrastructure, or it has not been implemented. DRCP is only supported for database connections using the OCI driver.

The pool is managed using the DBMS_CONNECTION_POOL package. he DRCP is started and stopped using the START_POOL and STOP_POOL procedures respectively.

SQL> EXEC DBMS_CONNECTION_POOL.start_pool;

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL> EXEC DBMS_CONNECTION_POOL.stop_pool;

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

The ALTER_PARAM procedure allows you to configure an individual pool parameter, while the CONFIGURE_POOL allows you to configure all pool parameters in one call. The default settings are restored using the RESTORE_DEFAULTS procedure. The pool parameters that are currently supported are listed below:

PROCEDURE CONFIGURE_POOL
 Argument Name                  Type                    In/Out Default?
 ------------------------------ ----------------------- ------ --------
 POOL_NAME                      VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 MINSIZE                        BINARY_INTEGER          IN     DEFAULT
 MAXSIZE                        BINARY_INTEGER          IN     DEFAULT
 INCRSIZE                       BINARY_INTEGER          IN     DEFAULT
 SESSION_CACHED_CURSORS         BINARY_INTEGER          IN     DEFAULT
 INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT             BINARY_INTEGER          IN     DEFAULT
 MAX_THINK_TIME                 BINARY_INTEGER          IN     DEFAULT
 MAX_USE_SESSION                BINARY_INTEGER          IN     DEFAULT
 MAX_LIFETIME_SESSION           BINARY_INTEGER          IN     DEFAULT

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Cloud Services, Cloud Services | Exadata | Linux, Database, SQL | PLSQL, Tools

Database in Cloud: Quickest Procedure to Clone a Schema

Hey all!
So, we all know that operating with files/dump files can be tricky when using DBaaS in Public Cloud. In some situations, like Amazon RDS service, we simply don’t have access to SO.

In this scenario, how can we quickly clone a schema in the database? Using IMPDP with Database Link.

Also note that when working on AWS environments, avoiding to use dumpfiles when dealing with expdp/impdp is also encouraged to save IOPS from local disks (it is capped based on machine type).

This is, of course, also valid for On-Premise environments with limited area for dump files.

For this to work, we only need to create a database link pointing to the same database.
Also, of course, it is mandatory to use remap_schema, with optional clause remap_tablespace.

In the following example the link name is loop and proceed with impdp from a jumpbox with an Oracle client and tns configuration to RDS database.

1. Creating Database Link:

SQL> create database link loop connect to my_sysdba identified by "***" using '(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=localhost)(PORT=1521))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=service-name)))';

Database link created.

SQL> select * from dual@loop;

D
-
X

2. Running IMPDP:

[oracle@jumpbox ~]$ impdp schemas=ORIGINAL_SCHEMA network_link=loop remap_schema=ORIGINAL_SCHEMA:NEW_SCHEMA remap_tablespace=ORIGINAL_TBS:NEW_TBS TRANSFORM=oid:n directory=ANY_DIR logfile=duplicate_original.log

Import: Release 11.2.0.4.0 - Production on Wed Fev 7 21:03:54 2018

Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Username: / as sysdba

Connected to: Oracle Database 11g Release 11.2.0.4.0 - 64bit Production
Starting "SYS"."SYS_IMPORT_SCHEMA_02": /******** AS SYSDBA schemas=ORIGINAL_SCHEMA network_link=loop remap_schema=ORIGINAL_SCHEMA:NEW_SCHEMA remap_tablespace=ORIGINAL_TBS:NEW_TBS TRANSFORM=oid:n directory=ANY_DIR logfile=duplicate_original.log
Estimate in progress using BLOCKS method...
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/TABLE_DATA
Total estimation using BLOCKS method: 1.481 GB
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/USER
ORA-31684: Object type USER:"NEW_SCHEMA" already exists
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/SYSTEM_GRANT
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/ROLE_GRANT
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/DEFAULT_ROLE
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLESPACE_QUOTA
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/PRE_SCHEMA/PROCACT_SCHEMA
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TYPE/TYPE_SPEC
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/SEQUENCE/SEQUENCE
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/TABLE
...
. . imported "NEW_SCHEMA"."TABLE1" 0 rows
. . imported "NEW_SCHEMA"."TABLE2" 0 rows
. . imported "NEW_SCHEMA"."TABLE3" 0 rows
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/FUNCTION/FUNCTION
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/PROCEDURE/PROCEDURE
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/FUNCTION/ALTER_FUNCTION
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/PROCEDURE/ALTER_PROCEDURE
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/INDEX/INDEX
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/CONSTRAINT/CONSTRAINT
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/INDEX/STATISTICS/INDEX_STATISTICS
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/CONSTRAINT/REF_CONSTRAINT
Processing object type SCHEMA_EXPORT/TABLE/STATISTICS/TABLE_STATISTICS
Job "SYS"."SYS_IMPORT_SCHEMA_02" completed with 1 error(s) at Wed Fev 7 21:08:52 2018 elapsed 0 00:04:54

Hope it helps,
Cheers!

Cloud Services | Exadata | Linux, Database, Errors and Bugs, Oracle Engineered Systems | Exadata, RAC | Data Guard

Exacheck: The bundle patch version installed does not match the bundle patch version registered in the database

Hi all!
So, running Exacheck on a recently created database, found this error:

 FAIL => The bundle patch version installed does not match the bundle patch version registered in the database: [host]:[sid],...

This means that a boundle patch with sqlpatch was applied to OH and not to this database. Happens because Exacheck try to match the patch info stored in oraInventory with the patch info stored in dba_registry_sqlpatch.

Also note in some situations, running datapatch may require the database to be in upgrade mode and if you are patching Exadata , which is generally a RAC based environment, you need to set the cluster_database=false and at least 1 job_queue_process before starting the database using startup upgrade command. This should be described in readme on related patch.

When checking for this, I found a really interesting validation script here. As per:

opatch_bp=$($ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/opatch lspatches 2>/dev/null|grep -iwv javavm|grep -wi database|head -1|awk -F';' '{print $1}') 
database_bp_status=$(echo -e "set heading off feedback off timing off \n select STATUS from dba_registry_sqlpatch where PATCH_ID = $opatch_bp;"|$ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus -s " / as sysdba" | sed -e '/^ *$/d')
if [ "$database_bp_status" == SUCCESS ]
then
      echo "SUCCESS: Bundle patch installed in the database matches the software home and is installed successfully."
else
      echo "FAILURE: Bundle patch installed in the database does not match the software home, or is installed with errors." 
 fi

To fix, just set environment variables to correct database, go to $ORACLE_HOME/OPatch and run:

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Errors and Bugs, Java | DevOps | APEX | Scripts

Application Named Variables Returning ORA-01008: not all variables bound

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Hi all,
I saw it a long time ago and last week I was involved in a discussion for this same error. So, this deserve a post for future reference. 🙂

Imagine the situation: You are building an application or a module to perform queries on database. You want to use variables in the query and fill the values using text fields on application. Sounds easy and works fine for SQLServer and others, but Oracle database is returning:

ORA-01008: not all variables bound

What to do?

Fist let’s clear the issue: this is not related to database layer or oracle interpreter/parser. This error happens when a bind variable being used on SQL have no value. The official reasoning is:

Cause: A SQL statement containing substitution variables was executed without all variables bound. All substitution variables must have a substituted value before the SQL statement is executed.

In my case ODP.Net with C# (but apply to other languages). Interesting fact:
“ODP.Net provider from oracle uses bind by position as default. To change the behavior to bind by name, set property BindByName to true.”

This means Oracle may be waiting for “:1”, “:2” as bind variables and this can also not being set correctly by application.
In this case, please try to set BindByName to true in application code for Oracle command. Example below:

using(OracleCommand cmd = con.CreateCommand()) {
    ...
    cmd.BindByName = true;
    ...
}

Now, try again. 🙂

Hope this helps you!
Cheers!

Database, RAC | Data Guard, SQL | PLSQL

Trace on Standby: Tracing MRP Process

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Hey all!
Recently I got the following error when trying to start a trace in a standby. The idea was to start a trace in MRP to check on performance, but when trying to use DBMS_MONITOR.session_trace_enable:

oracle:standby-srvr /tmp: sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 12.1.0.2.0 Production on Fri Jan 19 14:07:56 2018

Copyright (c) 1982, 2014, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Connected to:
Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition Release 12.1.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, Real Application Clusters, Automatic Storage Management, OLAP,
Advanced Analytics and Real Application Testing options

SQL> exec DBMS_MONITOR.session_trace_enable(session_id =>1970, serial_num=>55126, waits=>TRUE, binds=>TRUE);
BEGIN DBMS_MONITOR.session_trace_enable(session_id =>1970, serial_num=>55126, waits=>TRUE, binds=>TRUE); END;

*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-06550: line 1, column 7:
PLS-00201: identifier 'DBMS_MONITOR.SESSION_TRACE_ENABLE' must be declared
ORA-06550: line 1, column 7:
PL/SQL: Statement ignored

OMG!
Don’t panic, you can accomplish the same using oradebug:

-- In my case:
SQL> select process,pid from V$managed_standby where process like '%MRP%';

PROCESS PID
--------- ------------------------
MRP0 45693

SQL> oradebug setospid 19564
Oracle pid: 105, Unix process pid: 19564, image: oracle@standby-srvr (MRP0)
SQL> oradebug unlimit
Statement processed.
SQL> oradebug Event 10046 trace name context forever, level 12
Statement processed.
SQL>

You can apply same for any process/sid you need.

In case you desire to get the spid from a sid:

col machine format a30
col process format 999999
select p.spid,b.sid, p.pid
from v$session b, v$process p
where b.paddr=p.addr
and sid=&sid
/

Ok, and how to stop then?
Easy:

SQL> oradebug setospid 19564
SQL> oradebug Event 10046 trace name context off
SQL> oradebug tracefile_name

Enjoy!

Backup and Restore, Database, Errors and Bugs, RAC | Data Guard

RAC: ORA-01265: Unable to delete ARCHIVED LOG

Weird?
Found that some time ago. This error was reported because a run condition given by the 2 instances was trying to delete the same archivelog file. This can vary to more than 2 instances, depending on your RAC configuration, of course.

This is a quick way to identify if you are in presence of the same situation and ignore the error, using the sequence number reported on the error (SEQ) and the last line number reported by grep (LINE):

# Node1:

grep -n SEQ /oracle/greporadb/diag/rdbms/greporadb/greporadb2/trace/alert_greporadb1.log | tail
tail -n +(LINE-10) oracle/greporadb/diag/rdbms/greporadb/greporadb2/trace/alert_greporadb1.log| head

# Node2:

grep -n SEQ /oracle/greporadb/diag/rdbms/greporadb/greporadb2/trace/alert_greporadb2.log | tail
tail -n +(LINE-10) oracle/greporadb/diag/rdbms/greporadb/greporadb2/trace/alert_greporadb2.log| head

The result should be the archivelog sequence deleted on one of the nodes and the error reported on the other, at the same timestamp.

Hope it helps!

Errors and Bugs, GoldenGate

ERROR OGG-03533: Conversion from character set {???} of source column {???}

Hi.

If you need to replicate data using Goldengate, between different databases types, you may get the following error.

” ERROR OGG-03533: Conversion from character set {???} of source column {???} to character set {???} of target column {???} failed because the source column contains a character ‘{?}’ at offset {?}  that is not available in the target character set. “

To replace charset not accepted on the target, try using the replication parameter: REPLACEBADCHAR.

In my case, I set up a data replication between MS-SQLServer and ORACLE, this bases uses charset windows-1252 and US-ASCII respectively.

” ERROR OGG-03533 Conversion from character set windows-1252 of source column CATEGORY to character set US-ASCII of target column CATEGORY failed because the source column contains a character ‘d3’ at offset 2 that is not available in the target character set. “

I am using the following parameter in replicat:
REPLACEBADCHAR ESCAPE
Replication works and no data loss.

See you!

Community, SQL | PLSQL, Tools

Guru99: PL/SQL 101 Completely Free!

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Hey all!
Just passing by today to share something I found really inetresting, and the best: it’s all free!
Do you know Guru99?

It’s a preety nice repository with lots of free tutorials and guides for PLSQL, SQL and several other languages, plus some other IT-related knowledge, like Big Data, PMP and etc.

It’s not rare to have people asking me “How to Start learning SQL” or saying “All material (including grepora :D) is too much specific, we don’t have good general documentation”.
Even Oracle having a pretty nice documentation on the products and features, general concepts are usually forgotten. Aaaaand, now I have something to link on those cases! 😀

Having a look on Guru99, First I found this guide PL/SQL First Program: Hello World, including detailed steps on:
– How to access SQL* Plus
– Connecting to Database
– How to write a simple program using PL/SQL
– Declaring and usage of variables in program
– Commenting Codes

Then found an entire category PL/SQL Tutorials. Talking to Alex (Editor), seems over 120 hours were spent on it. And they were well spent, the material is really very easy to read and understand. Chapters on this Course are:
1. Introduction to PL/SQL
2. Blocks in PL/SQL
3. PL SQL First Program: Hello World
4. PL/SQL Data Types
5. Complex Data Types in PL/SQL
6. PL/SQL Decision Making Statements
7. Loops in PL/SQL
8. Subprograms: Procedures and Functions in PL/SQL
9. Exception Handling in PL/SQL
10. SQL in PL/SQL
11. Packages in PL/SQL
12. Triggers in PL/SQL
13. Object Types in PL/SQL
14. Dynamic SQL in PL/SQL
15. Nested Blocks in Pl/Sql
16. PL/SQL Identifiers

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