Re: Clone tool

From: Mladen Gogala <gogala.mladen_at_gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2016 23:13:12 -0400
Message-ID: <571EDCC8.806_at_gmail.com>



On 04/25/2016 09:06 PM, Steve Karam wrote:
> Full disclosure: I am a Delphix employee and have been watching from
> the sidelines but ran out of popcorn.
>
> Mladen, this is getting kind of “damned if you do, damned if you
> don’t” isn’t it?

I can't help but agree here. That is what I called "an awkward situation".

>
> The original question was: "I would like to Know from your experience
> what you do for cloning a large database(10TB) fastly ? iam
> using duplicate or restore with RMAN but it takes too much time !.”

Agreed. That, indeed, was the question.

>
> Tim is a well respected, long time member of this group. His knowledge
> in Oracle topics and the myriad tools out there is unquestionable.

I met Tim in person, I respect him very much and I have even recommended him on several occasions. Tim can tell you about it, when he finds some time. For the full disclosure, I have also collaborated with you, when we were both editing books for Don Burleson, although I didn't have a privilege to meet you in person. I would like that very much and I do respect you very much, too.

> He works at Delphix because Delphix likes to hire people with these
> qualities, just like any other company. And thus *from his
> experience* what does he do for cloning a large database (10TB)? He
> uses, and helps companies use, Delphix. That’s the whole basis behind
> the platform. And simply putting it out there is not marketing.
Steve, here is the problem: when somebody asks me what do I do to clone 10TB database, my reply includes Commvault. I help companies use and configure Commvault, the very same way that Tim helps them with Delphix. As a matter of fact, Tim and me are doing exactly the same job for two different companies. And I do consider advising someone who doesn't own Commvault to buy Commvault, in order to clone 10 TB database quickly - marketing. The same criteria that I apply to myself, I also apply to Tim: if he says "Delphix can solve your problems" to someone who doesn't already have Delphix, that IS marketing. Actually, that is very definition of marketing.
> The fact that Kyle and I are also Delphix employees isn’t marketing,
> it’s where we work, and where we started working long after we became
> members of the Oracle community.

Of course that isn't marketing. The same also goes for Tim and me. Me being a Commvault employee isn't marketing. Me suggesting Commvault to the members of this group - is marketing.

>
> Since this topic began, we’ve been treated to several Commvault
> whitepapers, loads of information about what Commvault can and can’t
> do (it can back up email, it can back up HANA, it has Oracle
> Archiving, it has snapshots, it slices, it dices!), loads of
> assumptions about what Delphix can’t do, assertions that everything
> Delphix says are marketing terms, and assertions that Tim did some
> sort of feature by feature comparison.

The assumptions are from Delphix page. I am following the product very carefully, precisely because I am aware of the high quality of the team. I read the announcement about supporting SQL Server, in the beginning it was only Oracle. I know that you also support DB2. The last thing that I read about Delphix and HANA is the statement that HANA is on the Delphix roadmap, by your CTO, his name is Adam, if I remember correctly. I do apologize if my assumption was incorrect.

>
> Look….if someone had come on and said “how can I find the latch
> holding up my SQL statement” and Tim came back and said “You can use
> Delphix’s patended Data Virtualization Engine (R) to instantly
> provision Virtual Databases in near real time for a variety of
> platforms, then perform mission critical QA and Performance Testing
> 10x faster achieving a 150% ROI” I’d be right behind you and
> mercilessly make fun of Tim at our next all hands call. But that’s not
> what happened. Someone asked for a tool that can clone a 10TB database
> quickly. Delphix can clone a 10TB database in a few minutes. Other
> products can too and I’d expect people with knowledge of those
> products to speak up and tell us about it. End of story.

OK, that sounds perfectly acceptable to me. However, I would like to avoid awkward situations like this in the future. If it is acceptable to recommend products to the potential customers on this group, then it has to be tolerated in a gentleman-like way. Once upon a time, I was accused of pushing Commvault on this group and I refrained from it ever since. I have nothing against anybody recommending Delphix, as long as there will be no hostile reaction to my recommending Commvault, in the same context. If I understand you correctly, that is precisely what you suggest. The fact of the matter is that there is a significant overlap between Delphix and Commvault, when it comes to Oracle.

-- 
Mladen Gogala
Oracle DBA
http://mgogala.freehostia.com


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Received on Tue Apr 26 2016 - 05:13:12 CEST

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