Oracle 8 crashing a system?

We have a billing system that loads data into an Oracle 8 database on a Sequent numa box. there have been all kinds of problems with this database since it was installed last month (upgraded from 7.3.4). But yesterday we apparently stumbled across something new. I'm running a fairly straightforward query into one table in the database, all it does is a select. The table isn't huge compared to the rest of the tables in the database. Yesterday when I ran this query our sysadmin noticed a big dip in performance and then several of the links that feed into the database from outside disconnected. He and the vendor are insisting that my select query must have caused the problem, they are saying that they think that there is some kind of clash between the program that is writing to the table that i'm querying and my query. I thought that oracle was designed so that problems like that couldn't happen? i.e. my query locks my information, the insert can go on its merry way without affecting me and vice versa. Any thoughts?

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Ebeth Jones

"TV news and bogus statistics -- was there ever a marriage more heavenly made?" -- JoAnne Schmitz Received on Sat Apr 10 1999 - 09:30:34 CDT