According to Oracle10g R2 Reference Guide LOG_BUFFER parameter is not modifiable any more. This is correct.

Guide is also saying that the default value is: 512 KB or 128 KB * CPU_COUNT, whichever is greater

This information is wrong (and the same documentation error is present in 11g R1 Reference Guide) .

According to Metalink note 351857.1 “The Log_buffer Cannot be Changed In 10g R2”, they changed the way how log buffer is allocated. Oracle 10g R2 combines fixed SGA and redo log buffer. Free space that is left after fixed sized SGA is allocated in the memory granule, Oracle dedicates to LOG_BUFFER.
This is why on all our systems log_buffer is around 14MB (our granule is 16MB, according to _ksmg_granule_size parameter, and fixed size SGA is around 2MB).

SQL> show release
release 1002000300
SQL> show sga

Total System Global Area 9697230848 bytes
Fixed Size                  2070776 bytes
Variable Size            1291847432 bytes
Database Buffers         8388608000 bytes
Redo Buffers               14704640 bytes

I think this is a good move by Oracle. A lot of awkward “rules of thumb” for LOG_BUFFER sizing are now obsolete.

I’m not sure who is to blame – it must be the new kids on the block at Oracle HQ….

What do you think about 11g new defaults for Oracle base on Windows?

They propose (silly in it’s own way!) default Oracle base directory with this explanation:

Specify a base location for storing all Oracle software and configuration-related files. This location is the
Oracle base directory. Create one Oracle Base for each operating system user. By default, software and configuration files are installed by version and database name in the Oracle Base directory.

Oracle Base: D:\app\scott

Path: D:\apps\scott\product\11.1.0\db_1

What is wrong with simple, yet universally understandable Oracle base, such as D:\ORACLE, for example. Why APPS, why OS user name?

It must be that someone is smoking the wrong stuff.

Regards,
Ales

After you apply CPUOCT2007 (Patch 12) on top of Oracle 10.2.0.3 you’ll get error during full database export, such as the one shown below:

. about to export SYSTEM's tables via Direct Path ...
. . exporting table                    DEF$_AQCALL
EXP-00008: ORACLE error 6550 encountered
ORA-06550: line 1, column 18:
PLS-00201: identifier 'SYS.DBMS_DEFER_IMPORT_INTERNAL' must be declared
ORA-06550: line 1, column 7:
PL/SQL: Statement ignored
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_SYS_SQL", line 1204
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_SQL", line 323
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_EXPORT_EXTENSION", line 97
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_EXPORT_EXTENSION", line 126
ORA-06512: at line 1

Bug is documented in Metalink note:
464672.1 “ORA-06512 SYS.DBMS_EXPORT_EXTENSION And PLS-00201 SYS.DBMS_DEFER_IMPORT_INTERNAL in 11g Export Or After OCTCPU2007”

The recommended workaround is to grant the missing privileges:

GRANT EXECUTE ON SYS.DBMS_DEFER_IMPORT_INTERNAL TO user_doing_export;
GRANT EXECUTE ON SYS.DBMS_EXPORT_EXTENSION TO user_doing_export;

By the way, a short tip: we’re running full export with rows=n on a daily basis. Why? Because we’re keeping those dumps long-term, if anyone wants to get some DDL definition or PL/SQL procedure/package from the past, we can extract the source with the excellent free utility DDL Wizard. DDL Wizard can parse empty (rows=n) export dump files.

A sequence:

1) clean installation of 32-bit Oracle 10.2.0.1 client with Windows components/interfaces (ODBC, OLEDB …) on Windows XP (SP2)
2) installation of patchset 10.2.0.3

If you try to run “Data Sources Administrator” (Control Panel -> Administrative tools) to to add system DSN, selecting Oracle ODBC driver, you’ll receive error: SQORAS32: An Unsupported operation was attempted.

You have to apply Patch 5699495 on top of Patchset 10.2.0.3 (p5699495_10203_WINNT.zip). Patch installation is done simply by replacing some files with the ones from the patch 5699495. Refer to readme.txt for instructions.

I thought we could benefit from the central list of articles about Oracle Internet Directory (OID), that I used (and will be using) to prepare test environment for OID. As you know Oracle Names server is deprecated and replaced by Oracle Internet Directory – a beast in it’s own. My main goal was to setup Oracle OID for resolving Oracle services (to replace local TNSNAMES.ORA files on our client machines).
Note, that you can use OID as a replacement for Oracle Names Server free of charge! The second goal is to test out OID as a central LDAP directory for user authentication – OID in this role needs appropriate license.

Articles:

• the first article that I read was the one from Howard Rogers, “Implementing Oracle Internet Directory”. An excellent starting point. My OS was fresh installation of Windows 2003 Standard Edition instead of CentOS from the article. Despite of that an installation was trouble free. Article is so well written that you can’t go wrong if you follow instructions (and use some mojo between the ears ;-).
• OTN How-to article: How to set up Enterprise User Security
• OTN White Paper: Enterprise User Security With Oracle Database 10g, by Dan Norris, TUSC [PDF]
• Oracle manual: Oracle® Database Enterprise User Administrator’s Guide