RE: PTC Windchill

Rich,

        "I don't know if there's an Admin page of
"Logged in users", but I imagine this is a common issue for many web apps
that use Oracle."

        Don't bet on it, it's more of a rarity.

Dick Goulet
Senior Oracle DBA
Oracle Certified 8i DBA

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 11:34 AM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Yeah, I thought about expounding upon the OFA-lessness a bit more (especially given my recent posts on OFA dislike), but I'm sure who ever has Windchill will understand how much even a hint of OFA-ness would have been welcome! :)

When you talk about the "Oracle Home selector", I assume you're running Windohs? We run it on Solaris. Actually, the Windchill software is on a different Solaris server than the DB, so our Oracle Homes work just fine (we're also running 8.1.7.3, but don't tell PTC Support!). The Solaris choice gave some folks fits because the Unix install isn't a matter of "just click here", but I think it worked for the best in the end.

One final sort of a "gotcha" with managing the DB: Windchill uses the 8i
"JDBC-1.0-Client". This has a known bug of reporting only "jdbcclient" for
the MACHINE column of V$SESSION, so you really won't know who's logged into the DB. It's not that big of a deal since all sessions come from the webserver, but it does pose a bit of an issue when you want to know what users will be affected if you need an emergency shutdown or such. Not knowing squat about the app, I don't know if there's an Admin page of
"Logged in users", but I imagine this is a common issue for many web apps
that use Oracle.

Rich

Rich Jesse                           System/Database Administrator
rjesse_at_qtiworld.com                  Quad/Tech Inc, Sussex, WI USA

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 6:54 PM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Non OFA?!

That doesn't begin to describe how non-standard the Oracle installation is.

If you install another Oracle based app on the box, you will have to create a new Oracle home, even if using the same Oracle version.

To allow the Oracle Home selector to work, you will need to modify the the PTC Oracle keys to look more like Oracle's standard install.

It can be done, but seems like unnecessary pain.

Jared

"Jesse, Rich" <Rich.Jesse_at_qtiworld.com>
Sent by: ml-errors_at_fatcity.com
 08/13/2003 09:49 AM
 Please respond to ORACLE-L

        
        To:        Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
<ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com> 
        cc:         
        Subject:        RE: PTC Windchill

I can't comment on the product itself since I've never used it. Strictly speaking from the DB end of Windchill, ignore most of what PTC says about setting up Oracle. It's a bare bones install with no tuning whatsoever. The Oracle software comes as a fixed, non-patchable, non-OFA version. The default DB setup puts all files on the same mountpoint as the software. I'm trying to remember if archivelog mode is suported or not (yes, you heard that correctly). It may depend on if there's external vaulting or not. There's no RI in the schema. This has been my experience with most vendor product implementations on Oracle. Hopefully, I'm remebering this correctly!

This being said, I've not touched the production DB for tuning or downtime since I created it back in October. After the software was installed (which also installs their version of Oracle and the DB) and re-installed several times prior to production, we moved the DB to a proper 6-way RAID 10 (or is it 0+1? I forget) and some smaller mirrored stripes, splitting up data from control from redo from archive, and all's been well WITH THE DB ever since. I used what I consider "standard" items in the init.ora (CBO, archivelog, etc) and haven't needed to tune it. I haven't even (yet) needed to apply Tim Gorman's optimizer index parameter fixes. The only thing I've needed to watch for is the growth of the LOBs. YMMV!

Also, our account rep has been VERY receptive in our feedback, and they are using some of our suggestions in versions since (and for other customers). I'll give them credit for that.

One final note: Not every place is going to have a dedicated DBA. Most vendors that I've dealt with want to set things up in a simple generic fashion, probably in an effort to reduce initial problems. I think that may be a little short-sighted in some cases, as I think performance is a major cause of support calls ("The system's slow") and can be very difficult to correctly troubleshoot and remedy remotely a year or two after implementation. Just my $.02 on that...

HTH! GL! :) Rich

Rich Jesse                           System/Database Administrator
rjesse_at_qtiworld.com                  Quad/Tech Inc, Sussex, WI USA

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