Oracle8 Notes
Upgrading
Nearly effortless from latest maintenance release of 7.1, 7.2, or 7.3. The amounto ftime needed is not dependant on the database size, but on the size of the data catalog - the data dictionary is rebuilt and the and control and log files are converted.
New Features
- Data Partitioning - a partion is a small manageable pice of a large table and/or index - tables can be partitioned by data values - its 3 main advantages are higher availability, reduced impact of database failures, and improved performance (SQL statements can be run against selected partitions only)
- Server Managed Backup and Recovery - Oracle8 maintains detailed information on when backups were perfomed and exactly which parts of the databse were backup up - if a recovery is necessary Oracle8 automatically performs the recovery.
- Advanced Queuing - a features that eliminates bottlenecks associated with network downtimeand application failures. Helps increase application concurrency by reduc9ing resource contention and it also increases application availability by storing updates for a later delivery.
- Object Relational Technology - user-defined datatypes, support for multimedia and large data types, compatibility with SQL and curretn RDBMS standards, support for CORBA and DCOM, "Object Views" allow a user to integrate object oriented applications with relational data
- Heterogeneous Services
- Index only tables
- Binary Large Objects (BLOBs) - can be stored in separate tablespaces or on separate devices such as CD-ROM drives
- Connection Manager (Net8 Feature) - concentrates multiple clients into a singl;e multiplexed data connection even if the clients use different protocols - best used for users who need to use applications continuously.
- Connection Pooling (Net8 Feature) - reassigns physical connections from idle users, placing the idle users in a quiesced mode until they become active again (i.e. long email user connection).
Enhanced Features
- Increased Database Size - hundreds of terabytes for a database, 64-256M of data files, and up to 1000 columns per table
- Multimedia Datatype Support
- Replication - parallel propogation increases replication scalability - advanced subsetting allows the ability to replicate customized selections of data to a vast number of sites (great for SFA applications).
- Improved TP Monitor Support
- Enhanced Security Services - Oracle Security Services is a new component in Oracle8 - it enhances user authentication and user administration - it offers an API that enables applications to "sign" documents with digital signatures (great for the Web).
