Database Performance Tuning - the Sensible Way: Collaborative Strategies, Clear Metrics, and Tested Changes

23/01/2025

Database Performance Tuning – the Sensible Way: Collaborative Strategies, Clear Metrics, and Tested Changes

Databases are either the invisible workhorse that keeps everything running smoothly or the ticking time bomb that wakes you at 3 a.m. with catastrophic slowdowns. There’s rarely a middle ground. Performance tuning makes all the difference—especially when you combine actual metrics, meaningful collaboration, and a dash of common sense. A few checks here and there can save hours of panic later on, and nothing beats a stable, responsive system for making you look like the hero of the IT team. 

Of course, it helps to have a reliable way to see what’s going on under the hood while performance tuning, keep everyone on the same page, and avoid applying fixes blindly. After all, a well-tuned database is happier, and so are the people who rely on it every day.

ORA-01555: How to Preserve Undo Data and Keep Queries Consistent

16/01/2025

ORA-01555: How to Preserve Undo Data and Keep Queries Consistent

Oracle database has many problems and often recurring ORA-01555 is one of them. It is known as the “snapshot too old” error, and occurs when Oracle cannot provide a consistent read of the data that existed at the query’s start time. Oracle attempts to use undo data to roll back any changes made after the query began. If that undo information has been overwritten or otherwise lost, Oracle can no longer reconstruct its older version. This leads to the ORA-01555 exception.

Performance Monitor 2024.4: What’s New

09/01/2025

Performance Monitor 2024.4: What’s New

Managing database performance is rarely straightforward, and the demands only keep multiplying. In response, DBPLUS Performance Monitor 2024.4 introduces new features that help you see exactly how queries behave across different platforms, track CPU usage at a glance, refine how and when alerts reach you, and unify session data.

If you prefer a monitoring tool that shows critical insights with less hassle, the latest version deserves your attention.

ORA-06512

02/01/2025

ORA-06512 Explained: Locating PL/SQL Errors the Right Way

ORA-06512 is often misunderstood as the primary cause of an Oracle error, when in reality it just pinpoints where an exception occurred in your PL/SQL code. The true issue usually lies in a preceding error, such as an unhandled exception or data mismatch, hidden earlier in the stack. 

In contrary to ORA-12154 or ORA-00600—which typically point to direct connectivity or internal database failures—ORA-06512 simply acts as a line-number reference. It tells you where an error occurred, not why. But let’s start from the beginning.

Databases in 2025: New Architectures, Smarter AI, and Stronger Security

19/12/2024

Databases in 2025: New Architectures, Smarter AI, and Stronger Security

The year is 2025, and the databases that once seemed so clever have gotten old and cranky. They’re no longer content with sitting there, quietly holding onto rows and columns like good little librarians. Nope. Now they’ve got opinions. They’ve got styles. They’ve got ideas about how to organize themselves, how to spread out across the clouds, how to speak human language, and how to lock the door behind you when you’re done rummaging through their shelves.

The old way of doing things — shoving everything into a single warehouse and hoping for the best — is about as appealing as canned spinach.  So, what will we do instead?

ORA-12154

05/12/2024

ORA-12154: TNS:Could not Resolve the Connect Identifier Specified

Encountering the ORA-12154 error can halt productivity and disrupt critical database operations. This error arises when Oracle cannot resolve a specified connect identifier, often due to configuration oversights or network issues. Without an understanding of the root causes, users find themselves stumbling in the dark, trying to rectify an issue without knowing where to start