Creating Order in the Database Patching Chaos

Have you ever found yourself staring at a list of patches and wondering what to do? What patch should I install? What are the risks? Is there anything I should do after the patch? This becomes even more stressful in a complex environment: How to install patches on RAC? What about standby databases? This session will try to put things in order and help create a roadmap for patching databases. We will discuss the different types of patches (RU, RUR, DBBP, PSU, OJVM, One-off), installation types (RAC rolling patches, standby first patches), known issues and where to find them, and how to plan the patch installation in order to have as few surprises as possible.

Better Designed Than Sorry – Let’s Design Our DB Schema

Schema design is an important part of any application design. It can affect performance, the development process and even your SQL queries. Thinking about design in advance is very important as design is not something we can easily change down the road. Yet, sometimes we get fixated on a specific design without thoroughly considering other, potentially better, options. In this session I hope to challenge your design mindset by discussing a few design challenges and a few ways to solve them. What are the implications of each solution? Which way is the best? Is there even a "best" way to solve these cases?