There is a problem with a performance analysis that essentially says this: "If we do X, the performance of the overall system and the key SQL statements will significantly improve." There is no compelling story, no convincing cause and effect chain, no inspiring visuals, and worst of all there is no underlining quantitative analysis resulting in specific performance expectations. Should we be surprised when this analysis is met with skepticism? If you want to take your analysis career to the next level, then this class is for you!

About This Course:

This course starts with your list of technically valid solutions. We creatively combine key Oracle performance statistics, users objectives, and proven operations research concepts creating a simple performance model. We then inject a performance solution into the model and observe the effect; visually and numerically. This enables everyone to engage in an objective discussion resulting in the best course of action. We also focus on how to communicate recommendations in simple easy to understand ways.

If the above seems simple, well...it's not. To do this type of analysis we need more than an hour of step-by-step instructions (this is how the course begins). The course provides you with a deeper understanding of topics such as operations research, workload analysis, parallelism, scalability, elapsed time analysis, and much more. We are extremely careful to ensure the more theoretical topics are practically applied in your work. To reinforce and practice what you have learned, there are lively class discussions, many exercises, and five hours of final case studies.

Upon leaving this class you will be equipped to stand in front of management and your peers, confidently showing why your chosen solution should be implemented; including the anticipated impact...down to the SQL statement level. You will do this using straightforward visuals and when challenged, you can incrementally increase the detail all the way down to the initial performance statistics collection and the stated problem.

Bonus: Students are encouraged to bring an AWR or Statspack report to reference during the class. As an added bonus, students are welcome to contact Craig following the course for a one-time free QA of their performance analysis work. All queries, scripts, tools, spreadsheets, and templates referenced are free and downloadable at OraPub's web site.

Course Creator and Teacher:

This industry-unique class was developed by Oracle guru Craig Shallahamer, author of the books Oracle Performance Firefighting and Forecasting Oracle Performance and the insightful blog, A Wider View. Craig is a gifted teacher and has a knack for integrating complex topics and making them come alive while being day-to-day practical. He specifically created this course to inspire and empower DBAs to become Quantitative Oracle Performance Analysts.

View Course Materials On-Line: You can view large thumbnails of the courseware on-line by clicking here.

• How to unite quantitative operations research and Oracle performance analysis into a powerful analytical process.
• How a specific solution change ripples through a specific SQL statement, a user's experience, batch process duration, and the system as a whole.
• How to break down any solution into requirement change; work, CPU, IO, memory, network, and concurrency.
• How to abstract any Oracle system into a simple mathematical model.
• How to inject solution change into the abstracted Oracle system.
• How to observe, understand, use, and communicate the injection results.
• How to motivate change by effectively presenting your recommendations.
• Develop a deeper understanding of operations research, elapsed time variations, parallelization, and scalability.

• Less time is spent arguing over possible solutions because they can be scientifically ranked.
• Management can quickly endorse your solutions because they quickly grasp the situation.
• There is much less risk in implementing a performance solution that does not improve the situation.
• Economic and goodwill loss is minimized because the time from problem conception to true resolution is minimized.
• Consensus and collaboration is increased because why and how solutions work is crystal clear.

This is the companion and sequel course to our Oracle Performance Firefighting class. We typically offer these two courses back-to-back and offer a multiple course registration discount. If you have attended our firefighting course or read Craig's book, Oracle Performance Firefighting, then you are prepared for this course. Students must be familiar with Oracle's wait interface, architecture, and internals. This is not an Oracle internals or SQL tuning course, and is not Oracle version specific. A laptop with MS Excel is required and sometimes provided in the classroom. Oracle software is not required.

Database Administrators, Oracle Developers, Technical Consultants, Performance Specialists/Analysts

Introduction to Oracle System Behavior Analysis provides you with the foundational concepts and experience (via exercises) to unite Oracle time based analysis with Operations Reserach resulting in powerful analystical capabilities.

Setting Up the Fully Quantified Analysis teaches you how to retrieve and calculate the necessary performance data, how to specifically abstract your system into a real-world quantitative model, and surveys the free tools available to help get the job done.

Executing the Quantitative Performance Analysis and Solution Evaluation completes the necessary groundwork enabling you to successfully unite quantitative Operations Research and Oracle time-based performance analysis into a powerful analytical process. Topics include Operations Research concepts (workload analysis, service time, queue time, response time, servers, utilization, etc.), anticipating elapsed time [change], how every solution changes at least one core model parameter, gathering and anticipating elapsed time with limited information, and how to effectively communicate using comultive time bar charts, response time curves, and histograms. We also delve into parallelization and scalability relating them to the previous material/concepts. Many of these topics may seem theoretical but they integrate directly into the core material, the exercises, the case studies... and ultimately your production systems.

Anticipating Solution Impact Case Studies comprises the last five hours of class. You will apply everything learned using real production Oracle system data. With each case study, the difficulty increases. Craig divides the class into groups of two or three. Then each group quantifies the performance situation and comes up with a list of possible solutions. As a class the general solutions are discussed. Craig assigns each group one or two solutions to fully analyze. Each group will abstract the system into a quantified model, determine the solution requirement changes, inject the requirement change into the model, observe the effect, communicate this verbally and visually, and make a final recommendation...to the class! It's a wonderful experience for everyone and prepares you to do everything presented in the class back in your workplace.

We hope you can join us!

OraPub courses are designed and delivered by Craig Shallahamer, author of: