Lesson 1

This course introduces you to the features in Oracle, which are designed to help you get better database performance.This course covers the latest improvements in Oracle Network Services such as multiplexing and load balancing. It covers new features for distributed database such as support for LOB datatypes, deferred replication activity, and specialized offline snapshot maintenance. It also covers enhancements for parallel servers such as dynamic load balancing. Taken in conjunction with the other courses in this series, this course will prepare you to pass the Oracle Features for Administrators certification exam. Along the way, you will work on a series of course projects and exercises that will give you a chance to put your new skills to use in the context of actual business scenarios.

Question: How do multiplexing and load balancing increase database performance in Oracle 11g?
Multiplexing and load balancing are two critical techniques used in Oracle 11g to enhance database performance.

1. Multiplexing: Oracle 11g employs multiplexing to improve the reliability and performance of I/O operations. This technique involves creating multiple copies of redo log files and control files. Each time Oracle writes to a file, it writes the same data to its multiplexed copies simultaneously, ensuring data integrity and minimizing the risk of data loss due to media failure. Multiplexing also helps optimize I/O operations by spreading out the physical write operations over different disks, reducing I/O contention and enhancing the overall database performance.
2. Load Balancing: Load balancing in Oracle 11g is about evenly distributing workloads across available resources to ensure optimal usage and avoid overloading. There are two types of load balancing: client-side and server-side.
   
   1. Client-side Load Balancing: This involves distributing connection requests evenly across all available listener processes. It ensures that no single listener process is overwhelmed with connection requests, improving the overall responsiveness and availability of the database system.
   2. Server-side Load Balancing: This is where the listener directs a client's connection request to the least loaded instance in an Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) environment. It helps balance workloads, ensures efficient utilization of resources, and optimizes the performance of Oracle 11g RAC databases.

Both multiplexing and load balancing contribute to Oracle 11g's high resilience, scalability, and performance. By understanding how these techniques function, database administrators can better tune their Oracle environments to achieve improved throughput and responsiveness.

After completing the course, you will be able to:

1. Set up multiplexing and connection pooling.
2. Work with Oracle Net Manager to create new nodes
3. Understand the changes in tnsnames.ora configuration file that support Oracle Network Services features.
4. Describe new replication features such as updateable snapshots, snapshot templates, and deferred constraints.
5. Create partitioned tables, including object tables and tables with LOB data.
6. Set up a database to use parallel execution of queries and DML and write parallel queries and parallel DML statements.
7. Describe and implement connection load balancing.
8. Configure and use the Enterprise Manager.

In the next lesson, you will learn about the prerequisites for this course.