This New Year 2011, Help Akshaya Patra feed schoolchildren in India

Happy New Year 2011 to all my readers and their families!

All the Best for the New Year.

This New Year 2011, Help Akshaya Patra feed schoolchildren and increase education in India. Your one-off donation (not a big amount) actually feeds a midday meal to 1 or more children for a full year. This is the best value we have seen, thanks to help from the government of India.

http://www.foodforeducation.org/index.php?content=31

It only takes $11.50 to feed a child in India for an ENTIRE school year, to ensure that she stays in school and continues her education. If you have an Indian bank account, you can pay in Indian Rupees from your bank.

World Currency or Paypal

http://www.foodforeducation.org/index.php?content=9

Indian Rupees

http://www.akshayapatra.org/individual-donors

Their website mentions: "Realizing that a nutritious school meal is an effective means of getting underprivileged children come to school and complete their education, we formed a not-for-profit organization in June 2000 to take up this cause. Our purpose - to provide "unlimited food for education", thus freeing children from the vicious cycle of poverty and ensuring them an education.

It was only right that we named our organization Akshaya Patra – a vessel from which unlimited amounts of food may be drawn.

We started as a pilot project in five schools in Bangalore, feeding 1,500 children and have now grown into a mammoth endeavor reaching out to over a million children in 17 locations across seven states in India.

Today, we firmly believe that feeding and educating an underprivileged child is not charity; it’s our social responsibility."

Cristobal's blog entry on my new Oracle EM Book

Cristobal Soto of Oracle has blogged about my new EM book on his Oracle Technologies blog.

Thanks Cristobal for your kind words.

http://blogs.oracle.com/csoto/2010/12/new_oracle_em_book_oracle_enterprise_manager_grid_control_advanced_oem_techniques_for_the_real_world.html

Leave a comment with Shroff Publishers in India for India Edition

A Friend from India said:

After going through table of contents , I feel like buying your EM book. I
will definitely buy if it's available in India. I also recommend to my
colleagues. Keep up the good work and good luck.

My reply:

Thanks a lot for your appreciation. The book will be republished by Shroff Publishers in India. This normally takes 1 or 2 months after the USA edition but you can put a comment on their side to request the book, that will make them do it faster. You can put the comment on:
http://www.shroffpublishers.com/contact.aspx

There, just ask them to republish the Ramapant book soon, give them the link:
http://www.rampant-books.com/book_1001_advanced_techniques_oem_grid_control.htm

Have a Great New Year 2011. All the Best.

Blog Post on New book

Thanks to Aman Sharma for his blog post on my new book:

http://blog.aristadba.com/?p=167

A Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year: Feed small schoolchildren in India

A Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our readers all over the world. All the Best to you in your personal and professional lives.

As part of our social responsibilities:

Please help to feed small schoolchildren in India and support education of the masses. Akshaya Patra is doing a marvellous job in India, please help.

http://www.akshayapatra.org/weshallovercome/

1 meal per day is all it takes to increase education and uplift India, please join hands with Akshay Patra to support children’s development in India.

Shared loader directory, RAC and WebLogic Clustering

A friend wrote:

I was reading your paper on OTN http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/havewala-gridcontrol-088685.html Its a very interesting paper and well written. I am doing a similar implemention using OEM 11g on a RAC environment and had a few questions..

1. In the paper you reference about using an IP configuration to load balance between a RAC environment. In this option, uses will round robin between the two management servers running on the two instances. In this case, what happens to the feeds that come from the managed agents to the EM cluster. the feed from the agent is only received by one instance and the certain data such as the log details are available only on one instance.. how does the data get over to the other instances. Can i use ACFS to locate these files so that they are visible to both servers.

2. Have you tried to cluster the weblogic servers so that they make the OMS highly available? the Weblogic server that comes with the GC download is not complete and many of the features are not available. however if the organization has weblogic can this be used, what are the implications with use this option, specifically with respect to future OEM upgrades etc.Is weblogic clustering supported for OEM implementation?

My reply:

Thanks for your kind words. RAC is optional. Even the load balancer is optional. The feed from the agents also goes to the load balancer on a different port and it is routed to the available management server. In normal case, this is ok. If there is a failure, that is where the concept of the shared loader directory is used - so other management servers can be used to pick up the load. This concept is explained in the advanced EM manual. You should be able to use ACFS for the shared loader directory, however it is not certified or supported for use for this purpose. See the manual for the additional steps to set up the shared loader directory.

WebLogic Clustering will not be used by EM GC 11g Release 1.

Good Luck for the implementation. My tip is, keep it as simple as possible. My idea would be to first put this on a single database with Data Guard, and then upgrade to RAC after EM GC has settled down.

Regards,

Porus.

Oracle Database 11g Interactive Quick Reference

Oracle has just released the Oracle Database 11g Interactive Quick Reference, which is sure to be a big hit among DBAs. You can download it from this link:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/sbpozvrb7yn9wf8/db11g-interactivequickref-187977.zip

This is an interactive quick reference for the many DBA views, architecture and Background Processes in 11g.

OTN Bulletin "popular author"

Just noticed this OTN Bulletin in which Justin Kestelyn (OTN Editor in Chief) mentions:

"Although he’s relatively new to the OTN editorial scene, Oracle ACE Director Porus Homi Havewala became a popular author in 2009. His articles about the optimal use of Oracle Enterprise Manager for enterprise management have proven to be crowd-pleasers."

Thanks Justin for calling me a popular author, and thank you my readers for making me one!

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2010/10-mar/o20bulletin-088115.html

Now an Oracle Certified Master

Friends,

I am pleased to announce I have passed the practical 2 day OCM exam and am now an Oracle Certified Master. I received my certificate today.

My OCM details are here. This link was updated later on.

This is from the Oracle University website:

The Oracle Database 10g Administrator Certified Master Exam (OCM) is the industry's most advanced Database Administrator certification. The OCM is a two-day performance test that requires participants to complete a series of scenarios and resolve technical and failure problems within a live Oracle 10g database environment. An Oracle Certified Master is a top-level Oracle expert who has in depth technical knowledge of the Oracle data server and industry experience managing mission critical Oracle database systems and applications. An OCM is looked upon as an expert within their organization, amongst their peers and across the industry.

Regards,

Porus.

Another News Article on my new book

Another News Article on my new book. Thanks to Fahd Mirza for this story.

http://itnewscast.com/database/oracle-grid-control-book-porus-homi-havewala-maestro-work

Kamran's blog

Thanks to Kamran for his great post as well:

http://kamranagayev.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/my-friend-porus-havewalas-first-em-book-can-be-ordered-now/

A top expert's blog

Thanks a lot Vivek (my Oracle Colleague and a top performance expert)

http://viveklsharma.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/oracle-enterprise-manager-grid-control-a-must-read-book/

New article on OTN: Overview of EM Packs

A new article of mine has been published on the OTN in December 2010:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/oem-packs-overview-195704.html

Overview of Oracle Enterprise Manager Management Packs

Regards,

Porus.

My EM Book can be pre-ordered

I am pleased to say my first EM book is in the printing run and you can pre-order now. Thanks to all my readers for their patience. The book is not very expensive, only $19.95 USD (30% off if ordered now).

http://www.rampant-books.com/book_1001_advanced_techniques_oem_grid_control.htm

Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control
Advanced OEM Techniques for the Real World

Oracle’s Enterprise Manager Grid Control is recognized as the IT Industry’s leading Oracle database administration and management tool. It is unrivalled in its ability to monitor, manage, maintain and report on entire enterprise grids that comprise hundreds (if not thousands) of Oracle databases and servers following an approach that is consistent and repeatable.

However, Enterprise Manager Grid Control may seem daunting even to the most advanced Oracle Administrator. The problem is you know about the power of Enterprise Manager but how do you unleash that power amongst what initially appears to be a maze of GUI-based screens that feature a myriad of links to reports and management tasks that in turn lead you to even more reports and management tasks?

This book shows you how to unleash that power.

Based on the Author’s considerable and practical Oracle database and Enterprise Manager Grid Control experience you will learn through illustrated examples how to create and schedule RMAN backups, generate Data Guard Standbys, clone databases and Oracle Homes and patch databases across hundreds and thousands of databases. You will learn how you can unlock the power of the Enterprise Manager Grid Control Packs, PlugIns and Connectors to simplify your database administration across your company’s database network, as also the management and monitoring of important Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and the nuances of all important real-time change control using Enterprise Manager.

There are other books on the market that describe how to install and configure Enterprise Manager but until now they haven’t explained using a simple and illustrated approach how to get the most out of your Enterprise Manager. This book does just that.

Covers the NEW Enterprise Manager Grid Control 11g.

Thanks to Fahd Mirza for the nice review on his blog:
http://fahdmirza.blogspot.com/2010/12/oracle-grid-control-book-by-porus-homi.html

Regards,

Porus.

EM Blog sponsors well in India

The Enterprise Manager Blog, as a part of its social responsibilities, decided to sponsor the construction of a well in India to quench the thirst of village people. A photo has been received. This was through Chaitanya (an excellent educational trust) and the link: http://www.cerds-india.org/index.html/


It took only 5000 Indian Rs. Hope you can also do the same. Do send this to your friends as well.

For foreign currency donations using a credit card, please use this website:
http://www.giveindia.org/p-3255-install-a-bore-well-with-platform-for-30-disadvantaged-rural-families.aspx

We are sharing this in the hope it will inspire readers of the blog to help their brethen in India.

Regards,

Porus.