Oracle + Open Source

two worlds inexorably colliding

Archive for category oracle

Oracle HA On A Budget: Manual Standby Database

Oct 17

Posted by Sean Hull in abstract, collaborate, oracle | 1 Comment

This is the second in a series of abstracts I’ve submitted for the Collaborate 2008 conference in Denver CO.

A little known fact is that Oracle’s standby technology – the stuff DataGuard is built on top of – is available in Standard Edition of Oracle. With a little elbow grease, and some simple scripts, we can have a rudimentary and functioning HA solution in Oracle SE.

1. Intro
2. Anatomy of a Standby Database
3. What’s there in Oracle SE
4. Setup standby
5. Shipping logs
6. Applying logs
7. Verifying setup
8. Manual Failover
9. Conclusions

Unbreakable or Hackable: How Does Oracle Measure Up?

Oct 17

Posted by Sean Hull in abstract, collaborate, oracle | 1 Comment

This is the first in a series of abstracts I’ve submitted for Collaborate 2008 in Denver CO.

Marketing is one thing, bulletproof technology is quite another. Operating Systems have bugs, Database Software has bugs, and so does your application, probably. A better question is how hackable are you? We’ll look at some of the nefarious ways intruders can get in, so you’ll better know how secure your systems really are.

1. Unbreakable As a Pie In the Sky
2. OS level
3. Database level
4. Application level
5. Conclusions

DBJ: Oracle, MySQL, Postgres Compared

Oct 15

Posted by Sean Hull in databasejournal, mysql, oracle, postgres | No Comments

If you’re interested in how these three databases measure up in terms of feature sets, take a look at part one in a two part series I wrote over at Database Journal.

I discuss stored procedures, views, materialized views or snapshots, triggers, and security. Stored procedures and functions are supported on all three databases, as are views and triggers. Although MySQL and Postgres aren’t there in terms of default snapshot support, there are ways to get that functionality in a somewhat roundabout way.

Security is always a tricky question, as all the bugs out there aren’t always publicized. It’s sort of a cat and mouse game. All three databases support user based authentication to login to the database, and various privilege levels to control access to objects and data. Oracle also supports FGA or fine grained access control for column level control.

That said I might tend to say that open-source products in general have better security, their source being an open book and all.