Secrets of the Oracle Database is the definitive guide to undocumented and partially-documented features of the Oracle Database server. Covering useful but little-known features from Oracle Database 9through Oracle Database 11, this book will improve your efficiency as an Oracle database administrator or developer. Norbert Debes shines the light of day on features that help you master more difficult administrative, tuning, and troubleshooting tasks than you ever thought possible.

Finally, in one place, you have at your fingertips knowledge that previously had to be acquired through years of experience and word of mouth through knowing the right people. What Norbert writes is accurate, well-tested, well-illustrated by clear examples, and sure to improve your ability to make an impact on your day-to-day work with Oracle. Table of Contents Partially Documented Parameters Hidden Initialization Parameters Introduction to Data Dictionary Base Tables IND$, V$OBJECT_USAGE, and Index Monitoring Event 10027 and Deadlock Diagnosis Event 10046 and Extended SQL Trace Event 10053 and the Cost Based Optimizer Event 10079 and Oracle Net Packet Contents Introduction to X$ Fixed Tables X$BH and Latch Contention X$KSLED and Enhanced Session Wait Data X$KFFXP and ASM Metadata ALTER SESSION/SYSTEM SET EVENTS ALTER SESSION SET CURRENT_SCHEMA ALTER USER IDENTIFIED BY VALUES SELECT FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED DBMS_BACKUP_RESTORE DBMS_IJOB DBMS_SCHEDULER DBMS_SYSTEM DBMS_UTILITY Perl DBI and DBD:: Oracle Application Instrumentation and End-to-End Tracing Extended SQL Trace File Format Reference Statspack Integrating Extended SQL Trace and AWR ESQLTRCPROF Extended SQL Trace Profiler The MERITS Performance Optimization Method TNS Listener IP Address Binding and IP=FIRST TNS Listener TCP/IP Valid Node Checking Local Naming Parameter ENABLE=BROKEN Default Host Name in Oracle Net Configurations Session Disconnection, Load Rebalancing, and TAF Removing the RAC Option Without Reinstalling OERR Recovery Manager Pipe Interface ORADEBUG SQL*Plus Command

Secret ORACLE is the definitive guide to undocumented and partially documented features of the ORACLE database server. This book will improve your efficiency as an ORACLE database administrator and enable you to master more difficult administrative, tuning, and troubleshooting tasks than you ever thought possible. Topics covered include: The MERITS performance optimization method, which extends the state-of-the-art wait event tuning paradigm. Controlling processes of an ORACLE instance with the fragmentarily documented ORADEBUG command to trace SQL statements as well as wait events and dump process state, call stack, and hang analysis information. Tracing the cost based optimizer to understand its cost calculations and decisions. Understanding hidden parameters that govern Automatic PGA Memory Management. Leveraging undocumented features of the Oracle10g/11g scheduler and other partially or fully undocumented PL/SQL packages, such as DBMS_SYSTEM, DBMS_SUPPORT, and DBMS_UTILITY.