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May 21, 2008
Bookstore Gets New Equipment
I'm so happy - the bookstore has ordered a new printer (which replaces the Lexmark printer from hell), and also a new POS controller. The controller is a small PC which keeps tabs on all the cash registers, verifies credit card tenders, and a bunch of other tasks. We need a new controller primarily to run the encryption software that will keep us in compliance with the requirements for handling confidential data like credit card numbers. The new controller should arrive next Tuesday, and I'll be replacing the old controller on Wednesday after the store closes. Also, the cash registers need to have RAM memory added to them so that they can run their side of the encryption software.
But the real news is that we're replacing our printer that has been a headache from day one with a new HP LaserJet. These are good steps in bringing the bookstore's hardware up to date.
Posted by rossm at 8:59 AM | Comments (0)
ASTRA Welcomes Campus Residences
Astra implementation is moving forward "with alacrity" - which means it's really rolling along. This week I added John Rushing as a user, and gave him a copy of the client install. We'll be working on adding some residence hall users and rooms in the near future. Astra will then be used to schedule the meeting areas in the residence halls, as well as the rest of campus. Next week we have a big training scheduled. Jill Summers is going to pass on her event scheduling expertise to the newer system users. Although the conversion of event management to Astra is a huge undertaking, we have definitely passed through some sort of barrier, and Astra is really taking off on its own. As more and more people on campus become aware of Astra's benefits, it's use is snowballing. It really is a great advantage to look in one place and see everything that's scheduled all across campus.
We will continue to add users across campus in the coming weeks, and then we'll add in "resources", which is Nathan Sauer's area - classroom equipment.
Posted by rossm at 8:48 AM | Comments (0)
AERO Flying Straight
Well, AERO is really shaping up nicely. I can't overstate how much help the web based Enterprise Manager is in helping to keep the database in tip-top shape. Every week I find something new that helps with the database management.
A couple weeks ago I implemented RMAN backups on AERO, using a standard backup schedule. I got a little wild and created a flashback area that is 50 GB huge. However, at this size I have nearly two weeks of entire database flashback time. I've never tried to recover using the flashback area, but hope to do that soon. One thing that still needs to be done is to move the RMAN backups to tape and delete the backups once they're on tape. We have a meeting coming up soon with the Unix gurus to work on this. Also, Michael Ellis and I finally got all the pieces put together to move Viking onto a "special" 10gR1 database. Once this is done, we will have a server to put our development instance on. That will allow us to do some testing of our backups, and develop our recovery skills.
One sour note is that our server that is never supposed to go down crashed again - second time in about a month. Of course, the database crashed right along with the server, but I understand it came right back up (I was gone when this occurred).
Posted by rossm at 8:38 AM | Comments (0)
Bugs Goes On a Trip
Last week was my wife's birthday, so we took a few days off and drove our Miata convertible (named Bugs because the license plate is 123 BGS) to Victoria, B.C. We weren't too sure whether taking the convertible would work out very well, but it added to the adventure so we gave it a try. It worked out great. The weather was so nice we had the top down nearly all the time. We found a curvy two lane blacktop that wound about 40 miles into the back country and that was really fun. Bugs never gave us any trouble at all and got about 30 mpg. You can not take any extra stuff along because the trunk is not too big, but you can take along enough junk for four or five days if you cram it in. I did learn that if you drive all the way home from Seattle with the top down and no sun screen on you will get sunburned.
If you've never been to Butchart Gardens, then you owe it to yourself to go there some time soon. It is one of the most beautiful gardens you'll ever see - they have literally millions of flowers and plants in bloom all the time. You can have "Afternoon Tea" while looking out over the beautiful grounds - very elegant!
Anway, this thread is mostly about alternative transportation, and Bugs fits in here even though it is an automobile. When I purchased it, I was realy focusing on fun and going fast. An added bonus is that it gets really great gas mileage, and is comfortable enough for even long trips.
Posted by rossm at 8:26 AM | Comments (0)
May 7, 2008
A New POS Controller and Encryption Software
We are working with MBS to bring the bookstore practices with regard to credit card numbers into compliance with OUS requirements, which are quite stringent. We are making every effort to protect sensitive information in our possession, even for the shortest of times. One big step in this effort is to encrypt internal network traffic between the POS controller (which monitors all the cash registers in use) and the cash registers. In order to implement the encryption the cash register memory needs to be increased, and the controller needs to be upgraded. We have ordered the new controller and the encryption software. The controller will be here soon, but the encryption software is not available yet from MBS. Our plan of attack is to get the new controller in place and upgrade the cash registers now. Then, once the software is available we will be ready to install that item only - we'll have all the hardware already in place. The bookstore has already taken all other steps necessary to be in compliance with the new credit card handling rules.
Posted by rossm at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)
ASTRA - Still Rolling
This week I set up the notification area (called workflow in Astra-ese) with the help of Astra support. We will be using internal communication to handle all event requests from the web. Once again Astra has been pretty impressive. It will send the web event request to the person responsible for the particular room requested. That person looks over the request and either approves or denies it. If approved, Astra automatically creates the event using the info from the web. Slick! The way it is set up Nan receives notification on every event request (she handles tons of these all across campus), and for certain buildings/rooms the person responsible for the space gets the notification. It is a bit complicated, but this means we can have individuals retain control over their area, but still create approved events in Astra pretty easily.
Once we get this round of setup completed, then we'll configure the email section, which will be used to notify service areas of the need for such things as table and chair setup, parking, HVAC, custodial, and so forth. Is that a light at the end of the tunnel I see??
Posted by rossm at 9:54 AM | Comments (0)
10gR1 Instance - Clogged Files and Enterprise Manager
We have a second Oracle database instance, which is a 10gR1 version. It is used to run a dining application, and we are hoping to put Viking on it. So, we have been spending some time making it ready for Viking. It has some definite maintenance issues. Clayton just returned from vacation and was a big help in identifying and getting rid of a 31GB alert log file that had jammed up the works. This db has not been managed up to this point, and of course things don't tend to get better over time especially with regard to the ever growing log files.
We did finally get the HTTP server from our production instance to connect to this instance. Looking back, the setup was pretty straight forward - add a DAD that points to the 10gR1 instance, add in connect information to the tnsnames file, and presto! Since we weren't sure how to set everything up, it did require a lot of trial and error to get it all synched up. But it works now! That is sweet! We only need to have one Apache style web server this way.
The EM console would really be a great help for managing this instance, but what a mess that is. I've gotten as far as getting a repository created and the dbconsole running, but could not connect to the db. So, back to the drawing board, drop the repository and start all over. Unfortunately, this requires the db to be in "quiesce" mode, which messes with the users. Fortunately, there aren't a lot of users on this db. I'm hopeful that one more round of dropping and recreating the EM repository will get EM going to help mange this instance. In the mean time, it is being managed by hand which isn't nearly as good. I am a big fan of the new EM console, but it is a bear to get it set up correctly.
Posted by rossm at 9:38 AM | Comments (0)
AERO Doing Well
The AERO database survived this month's maintenance window, which was last Thursday night, despite my best efforts. Dale and I went through many of the tablespaces and reorganized them to have auto segment management. We reorganized all of the tablespaces that we could - some had data types or dropped tables in the flashback area so weren't able to be reorganized. This will make tablespace management much easier. It did have one drawback - wow, we generated a ton of redo logs! These will soon pass through the system, and will not be a long term problem.
The other thing we did during the maintenance window was to multiplex our redo logs. This simply means we make two redo logs instead of one, so we have redo logs on more than one disk - just in case. Our previous setup was three redo log groups, with one member log file per group. We still have three redo log groups, but now there are two members per group. Now AERO enjoys multiplexed redo logs, control files, and archive log files. I'm thinking of turning off the duplication of the archive logs and relying on our tape backups, but for now we're creating two sets.
In addition to all the multiplexing we're now doing on the production db, we also have a huge (possibly too huge - 50 GB) flashback area that is fully functional. Dale is running a test on how long of a time we have to flashback dropped tables. He dropped some tables last week, and can still flashback all of them. At some point they will age out of the flashback area, but so far they haven't. We have also implemented RMAN backups, which use the flashback area, too.
All in all, we've really ramped up our db stability. All the multiplexing really will help in the event of a disaster. The flashback area can be used to restore dropped tables (and many other dropped objects), and also can flashback individual tablespaces or even the entire database in case of corruption. Add to these improvements the tuning we've been able to do, and AERO is really in tiptop shape!
Posted by rossm at 9:13 AM | Comments (0)