DBA’s, Oracle Designer and the Development Life Cycle By Peter Wilkinson, Mercury International Ltd. Leslie Tierstein, SCI Consulting, Inc

Why Designer Is Useless for a DBA  Always need to reengineer data model  Not up to date  No links to other monitoring tools  Cannot record new database properties  Cannot refine indexes for use  A lot to learn just for a pretty ERD  Expensive

What Can Designer Do for Me?  Can it:  Monitor the database?  Automatically inform me of changes?  Analyze indexes?  Suggest new ones?  Reorganize/partition tables?  Quickly add users?  Integrate with other tools I (may/will) have.

What Can Designer Do for Me  Designer shows what SHOULD be in the database – not what currently is in it  Record and document changes made

Starting with the Server…

Give Me a Good Example  User maintenance  How is user information currently recorded?  Who should have a valid login?  What privileges should they have?  When were changes made?  When did users leave?

User Maintenance

What About Buffer Pools! Got You!  A new property in 8i  Expanded in 9i  Not found in Designer  Very useful to a DBA for tuning table access

User Extensions (1)  Add extra properties to an existing Designer object  Up to 20 extra properties per object  Basic editing properties (numeric/character/date, length)  Define additional objects  Define associations between objects

User Extensions (2)  Where are they stored?  Refer to the document.\CDOC72\model\el_defs\outer_frame2_de.htm  Or use the F5 key in the Design Editor  How can they be used?

Defining a User Extension

SQL> desc ci_table_implementations Name Null? Type CACHED VARCHAR2(1) CHANGED_BY VARCHAR2(30) COMPLETE_FLAG NOT NULL VARCHAR2(1) CREATED_BY NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30) DATABASE_USER_REFERENCE NOT NULL NUMBER(38) ……. STORAGE_DEFINITION_REFERENCE NUMBER(38) TABLE_DEFINITION_REFERENCE NUMBER(38) TABLESPACE_REFERENCE NUMBER(38) TYPES NOT NULL NUMBER(38) USER_DEFINED_PROPERTY_0 VARCHAR2(240) USER_DEFINED_PROPERTY_1 VARCHAR2(240) USER_DEFINED_PROPERTY_ 10 VARCHAR2(240) USER_DEFINED_PROPERTY_11 VARCHAR2(240) …….

User Extensions - Code Generation  Using SQL, log into Designer and access your workarea  Work out which tables/views hold your data  Must be familiar with Designer metamodel  Use the CI_ views  Create a SQL script to generate an implementation script

PROMPT Connect to Designer database CONNECT SELECT name FROM sdd_workareas ORDER BY 1; ACCEPT p_wa PROMPT 'Select Workarea from above ' EXEC jr_context.set_workarea('&p_wa') Using User Extensions (1)  Connect to the Designer database and workarea

SELECT name FROM ci_application_systems ORDER BY 1; ACCEPT p_app PROMPT 'Select Application System from above ' SELECT orad.name FROM ci_app_sys_databases asda,ci_oracle_databases orad,ci_application_systems apps WHERE orad.id = asda.database_reference AND apps.id = asda.application_system_reference AND apps.name = '&p_app' ORDER BY 1; ACCEPT p_db PROMPT 'Select Master Definition Database from above ' Using User Extensions (2)  Select the application system and database

Using User Extensions (3) REM Store the id of the database to save a join VARIABLE c_orad_id NUMBER BEGIN SELECT orad.id INTO :c_orad_id FROM ci_application_systems apps,ci_app_sys_databases asda,ci_oracle_databases orad WHERE asda.application_system_reference=apps.id AND asda.database_reference=orad.id AND apps.name = '&p_app' AND orad.name = '&p_db'; END; /  Store to ID of the database for later use

SPOOL s:\replication\bms_1\buffer_pools1.sql SELECT 'PROMPT Set buffer pool for ' || dboi.global_synonym_name || chr(10) || 'ALTER TABLE ' || datu.name || '.' || dboi.global_synonym_name || chr(10) || ‘ STORAGE (BUFFER_POOL ' || nvl(dboi.user_defined_property_0,'default') || ');' FROM ci_oracle_databases orad,ci_replication_groups repg,ci_db_object_implementations dboi,ci_database_users datu WHERE orad.id = :c_orad_id AND repg.parent_ivid = orad.ivid AND dboi.replication_group_reference = repg.id AND dboi.complete_flag = 'Y' AND dboi.object_implementation_type = 'TBI' AND dboi.global_synonym_name IS NOT NULL AND datu.id = dboi.database_user_reference ORDER BY datu.name,dboi.global_synonym_name; Using User Extensions (4)

PROMPT Set Buffer Pool for BMS_ANALYSIS_JOBS ALTER TABLE BMS.BMS_ANALYSIS_JOBS STORAGE (BUFFER_POOL RECYCLE); Using User Extensions (5)  The result is a simple, syntactically correct, statement for every table you want to implement

Impress Me Again!  Advanced replication – real generation scripts  Create new properties for priority groups and values  Create new properties for conflict resolution columns  Define databases and replication groups  Define common procedures for handling conflicts

Go On….  Write scripts to  Create database links and initialize the propagator  Install common procedures  Create notification (conflict resolution) packages  Create replication groups and priority groups  Assign database objects (tables/index/packages) to replication groups  Assign default column groups to tables

Getting the Picture…  Write SQL scripts to  Add conflict resolution to tables  Generate replication support  Add table triggers  Add new master sites  Use DBA studio to monitor scripts and tidy up (push/purge jobs)  Finally upload the scripts into your workarea

How is this Done?  Either  Designers will have completed applications in Designer to be implemented in the database  Reverse engineer an existing application  Have your own login and versioning branch  Create your own DBA workarea and application  Grant relevant access to applications you have to manage  Must have VERSIONING

… And Versioning Means What?  Keeps a records of the database before major (or minor) improvements are done  Preserves the techniques used to improve indexes etc. so they can be shown to other DBAs or as a reminder for future work  Useful if new changes do not work out  Designers can learn from your work  Scripts can be stored and versioned

Storing Documents  Your can store many types of documents (ASCII, Word etc.) into Designer where they are safe and versioned  Examples  Project plans  Implementation procedures/notes  Init.ora  Listener.ora

Uploading Files

Merging  Merging versioned objects  Changes from bug fixes, amendments, DBA analysis  Automatic merging (for the brave)  Manual merging (for everyone else)  Shown in Version History Viewer

Merge Window

DBA Benefits  Self documenting  Central control point  Share information with other DBA’s  Feedback to developers  Scripts and other documents are safely stored

Developer Benefits  Can see how their application actually gets implemented  See how their original index/table specifications have been improved  Improve their own design based on how the application is currently implemented  Improve communication between design and DBA groups

Management Benefits  Increase team cooptation and communications  Leverage cost benefits  DBA knowledge is now stored and shareable  Better management/auditing reports  Increase efficiency  Company procedures (defined)/followed

Questions and Answers  Now is the time to ask questions  This is a real project with real data  Thank you all for listening and participating The End

About the Authors  Leslie Tierstein is a Senior Technical Manager at SCI Consulting, Inc. She can be reached at  Peter Wilkinson is a DBA at Mercury International LTD.