Oracle TimesTen and other Oracle Technologies

Chapter 2 - Basic Concepts

This chapter contains brief description about TOGAF. The key points are the following:

What is TOGAF - The Open Group Architecture Framework. TOGAF is a tool. The key to TOGAF is the method - ADM (Architecture Development Method).
Structure of TOGAF document (7 points):

Introduction
ADM
ADM Guidelines and Techniques
Architecture Content Framework (ABBs)
Enterprise Continuum and Tools
TOGAF Reference Models (TFM and III RM)
Architecture Capability Framework

What is Enterprise, Architecture, Why do you need Enterprise Architecture (a lot of reasons)
Architecture Domains Supported by TOGAF

Business
Data
Application
Technology

Well, the test at the end was not very difficult, so I got 100% again, but the topic is quite unusual for me, therefore I need to sleep on the info I've read from this chapter (maybe will read it again).

Chapter 1 - Introduction

The first chapter of the book consists of general information about TOGAF certification: certification levels (this I already covered in the previous post), TOGAF certification principles (Openness, Fairness, Market Relevance, Learning Support, Quality, Best Practice).

Additionally, there is a lot of information about the exam. The exam consists of 40 questions and you have 60 minutes to go though all of them. Each question has only one right answer. To pass the OG0-091 test you should answer for at least 55% of all questions. It means that you should answer correctly for at least 22 questions out of 40. The exam cost is $320. The majority of the questions are about ADM phases.

So, this chapter was quite easy to read, because it doesn't contain any difficult information (but I have to remember the list of all topic areas). Test is passed on 100%. Looking forward for the second chapter.

NEW CHALLENGE - TOGAF

Have not written a lot since I found new job - new people, new environment, new business etc., plus I am a very lazy person :), but now I have decided to struggle with my inactivity and start a new challenge - take two exams for becoming a TOGAF certified member (about TOGAF certification you can read here ) . This should help me with my carrier (not sure about it to be honest :) ). So let's start.

TOGAF certification consists of two levels:

TOGAF Foundation (level 1)
TOGAF Certified (level 2)

The highest level is the TOGAF Certification. There are two ways to get this certification:

TOGAF Part 1 exam (OG0-091) + TOGAF Part 2 exam (OG0-092)
TOGAF 9 Combined Part 1 and 2 exam ((OG0-093 - for advanced people)

I am not an advanced person, therefore I am following by the first option. Start from TOGAF Part 1 exam. There are a lot of documents about this exam, so I just downloaded one preparation book. This book contains 13 chapters and I am going to read one chapter each day (max 2 days) and write about it in this blog - this will help me with exam preparation and additionally, help me to do something at all :)

"Let the Seventy-forth Hunger Games begin" - quotes from "Hunger games" book.

Oracle TimesTen 11.2.2.7.0 is released

Oracle introduced 11.2.2.7.0 version ( available on OTN ).

The key new feature in this release in my opinion is the following:

"In this release, checkpoint files can be read in parallel. Checkpoint reads use the value of the RecoveryThreads connection attribute when that value is greater than one. The maximum number of threads used for parallel checkpoint read is eight, regardless of the value of RecoveryThreads. Parallel checkpoint reads can improve load time when reading from Solid State Disks (SSD)." This could improve the load time for big databases, but to be honest, there are no major changes in this release. Still waiting the 12C version.

All new features you can find here.

Oracle PL/SQL code execution from Timesten

As you know, TimesTen has opportunity to execute SQL statements directly from Oracle DB (using Passthrough). What about PL/SQL? Unfortunately, documentation says:

"A PL/SQL block cannot be passed through to the Oracle database for execution.
Also, you cannot pass through to Oracle for execution a reference to a stored procedure or function that is
defined in the Oracle database but not in the TimesTen database."

It is true, you can not use passthrough feature for PL/SQL, but you can use it for SQL. It means that you can execute PL/SQL from Oracle DB which could be executed from SQL. For example:

Suppose, we have a function in Oracle which we would like to execute:

SQL> create function test_r return number
is
begin
  return 1;
end;
/

Function created.

SQL> select test_r from dual;

    TEST_R
----------
         1

SQL>

Create one table which doesn't exist in TimesTen side.

SQL> create table tt (id number);

Table created.

SQL> select * from tt;

no rows selected

SQL> insert into tt values (3);

1 row created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

SQL>

In TimesTen:

 
Command> select test_r from dual;
 2211: Referenced column TEST_R not found
The command failed.
Command> 
Command> set autocommit 0;
Command> call ttOptSetFlag('PassThrough', 1);
Command> select * from oratt.tt;
< 3 >
1 row found.
Command> select oratt.test_r from oratt.tt;
< 1 >
1 row found.

This method, of course, has some restrictions for PL/SQL execution, but in any case, it is better than nothing :)

Oracle TimesTen 11.2.2.5.0 was released

To be honest I was expecting the new 12c TimesTen release, but now Oracle decided to introduce 11.2.2.5.0 version ( available on OTN ).

Some of the new features:

TimesTen has added the CommitBufferSizeMax connection attribute to allow users to configure the size of the transaction commit buffer to improve the performance of commit or rollback of large transactions
TimesTen now supports B-tree indexes
A new utility, ttStats, provides the ability to monitor TimesTen database activities
TimesTen now supports statement level inline optimizer hints.

All new features you can find here.