Re: Performance of Oracle Workgroup on NT

On Sat, 7 Feb 1998, Bryan Lenihan wrote:

>
> I would recommend that you go to Unix because NT is still not a very stable
> platform, and I do not have much hopes for 5.0. I would also recommend that
> you get Oracle Support, not for tuning purposes, but for trouble shooting -
> they have excellent technical support, and not high school students helping
> you out.
>

You're right I finally managed to tune the performance to an acceptable level. Unforutanely as far as Oracle Support is concerned I don't have any good experiences with them - and I do have some:

• while still at my 'old' (it was - 1995/1996) company we bought Oracle along with a maintenance contract. They were also to come and install the software for us. When they arrived it seemed it was their first time to even have a look at the Installation Guide. They didn't manage to install all the requested options that day. Promised to come back later. Never did.
• we couldn't get SQL Net to work correctly. I tried using the config tool but it kept crashing, I tried configuring it manually - without success. I called their support, sent them all the config files, all the logs. They suggested some changes, I tried, it didn't work, I sent them new logs - a couple of iterations like that - still not working. After a couple of weeks they started to ignore my calls and emails. Finally a person from another company also using Oracle came over, and corrected the config files - took him half an hour.

All of that happened in Poland.
Then I started working with a company from Sweden. We encountered those INSERT/UPDATE performance problems. As I was still working from Poland we decided to attack the problem in parallel. The customer in Sweden called Oracle to have someone come over and do the tuning or suggest some application changes. The person spent a day and did nothing. No suggestions, no improvement.

I, in turn, got a newer trial version of Oracle (7.1.3) to see if things were any better. They weren't. On Oracle Website there was a note encouraging users of the trial version to call Oracle support if they had questions or problems. That's what I did, and guess what - they demanded Oracle support contract number before answering any questions. Support contract for the trial version!! That's a very good idea.

The Swedish customer did have the support contract, but my vivid memories of the recent encounters with Oracle Support in Poland kept me from any further involvement with them.
Instead, I studied the performance guide myself, looked upsome performance tuning articles on the internet, and after a two weeks time went to the customer to do the tuning myself. The outcome? The bulk load and update, that previously took 15 hours went down to 20 minutes! After a week's study!

Now tell me those people at Oracle Support are competent!

> If you need any assistance, please do not hesitate to call on me. I love to
> work in Oracle!!!
>

Thanks, I will.

Overall I've also grown to like and appreciate Oracle RDBMS, but I've also learnt their "Support" is more of a joke than any help.

Regards,
Pawel Pietrusinski

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