Oracle 11g Database New Features Interview Questions and Answers

1. Database Replay
2. The SQL Performance Analyzer
3. Online Patching in Oracle Database Control
4. Automatic Diagnostic Repository (ADR)
5. Data Recovery Advisor
6. Automatic Memory Management
7. Invisible Indexes
8. Read-Only Tables
9. Shrinking Temporary Tablespaces and Tempfiles
10. Server Result Cache
11. SQL Tuning Automation
12. SQL Plan Management
13. Database ADDM
14. New SYSASM Privilege for ASM Administration
15. Enhanced Block Media Recovery
16. VALIDATE Command
17. Configuring an Archived Redo Log Deletion Policy
18. Active Database Duplication
19. Virtual Private Catalogs
20. ASM Restricted Mode
21. Checking Diskgroup
22. The FORCE option with Drop Diskgroup Command
23. Active Data Guard is a new option for Oracle Database 11g Enterprise
Edition
ASM Rolling Upgrades
Database Replay
Database Replay (sometimes named as Workload Replay) feature in Oracle11g
allows you to reproduce the
production database conditions in a testing environment.In other words,
with this feature you can capture the
actual workload on a production system and replay it in a test system.
This way, you can analyze the condition of the production database without
working on the actual production database.
This feature enables you to test the impact of applying changes on a
production database. These changes could be database upgrades, switching
to RAC, application upgrades, operating system upgrades or storage system
changes.
The SQL Performance Analyzer
The SQL Performance Analyzer (SPA) aims at measuring the impact of
applying any change on the database on the performance of the SQL
statements execution. If it finds out performance degradation in one or

more SQL statements, it provides you recommendations on how to improve

their performance.
This is very useful for a DBA to analyze how a change on the database
(including database upgrade) may affect the execution efficiency of SQL
statements. Using this tool is explained here because you may consider
using it to study the effect of upgrading an Oracle database 10g release 2
to 11g.
Note:
If you plan to use SPA on a test database, it is highly recommended to
make the test database resemble the production database as closely as
possible. You can use the RMAN duplicate command for this purpose.
Online Patching in Oracle Database Control
Patching through Database Control is enhanced in Oracle 11g. With Oracle
11g online patching (or called hot patching),you can apply or roll back a
database patch while the instance is running. Also it can detect conflicts
between two online patches.On the other hand, online patching consumes
more memory than the conventional method.
In UNIX systems, you use the script $ORACLE_HOME/OPatch/opatch to invoke
the online patching.
Automatic Diagnostic Repository (ADR)
The Automatic Diagnostic Repository (ADR) is a file system repository to
store diagnostic data source such as alter log, trace files, user and
background dump files, and also new types of troubleshooting files such as
Health Monitor reports, Incident packages, SQL test cases and Data repair
records.
In Oracle 11g, there is a new framework (named as fault diagnosability
infrastructure) consisting of many tools for diagnosing and repairing the
errors in the database. All those tools refer to the ADR in their
operation.
ADR is developed to provide the following advantages:
1.Diagnosis data, because it is stored in file system, is available even
when the database is down.
2.It is easier to provide Oracle support with diagnosis data when a
problem occurs in the database.
3.ADR has diagnosis data not only for the database instance. It has
troubleshooting data for other Oracle components such as ASM and CRS.
Note:
For each database instance two alert log files are generated: one as text
file and one with xml

format. Contents of the xml-formatted file can be examined using adrci

tool.
Also the xml-formatted alert log is saved in the ADR and specifically in
the directory
$ORACLE_BASE/diag/rdbms/$INSTANCE_NAME/$ORACLE_SID/alert
Data Recovery Advisor
Data Recovery Advisor is an Oracle Database 11g tool that automatically
diagnoses data failures, determines and presents appropriate repair
options,and executes repairs at the user's request. Data Recovery Advisor
can diagnose failures such as the following:
1. Inaccessible components like datafiles and control files.
2. Physical corruptions such as block checksum failures and invalid block
header
3. Field values
4. Inconsistent datafiles (online and offline)
5. I/O failures
The advisor however doe not recover from failures on standby databases or
RAC environment. This advisor can be used through RMAN or the Enterprise
Manager.
Automatic Memory Management
In Oracle 11g, a new parameter named as MEMORY_TARGET is added to automate
memory allocation for both the SGA and PGA. When this parameter is set,
the SGA and the PGA memory sizes are automatically determined by the
instance based on the database workload.
This parameter is dynamic and can be alter using the ALTER SYSTEM command
as shown below:
ALTER SYSTEM SET MEMORY_TARGET = 1024M ;
However, if the database is not configured to use this parameter and you
want to use it, you must restart the
database after setting the parameter.
Invisible Indexes
Invisible index is an index that is not considered by the optimizer when
creating the execution plans. This can be used to test the effect of
adding an index to a table on a query (using index hint) without actually
being used by the other queries.
When using invisible indexes, consider the following:
- If you rebuild an invisible index, the resulting operation will make the
index visible.

- If you want the optimizer to consider the invisible indexes in its

operation, you can set the new initialization
parameter OPTIMIZER_USE_INVISIBLE_INDEXES to TRUE (the default is FALSE).
You can set the parameter in the system and session levels.
Read-Only Tables
In Oracle 11g, you can set a table to be read only,i.e. users can only
query from the table but no DML
statement is allowed on the table.
Shrinking Temporary Tablespaces and Tempfiles
In Oracle 11g, you can shrink temporary tablespaces and tempfiles.
Server Result Cache
In Oracle 11g, there is a new SGA component called result cache, which is
used cache SQL query and PL/SQL function results. The database serves the
results for the executed SQL queries and PL/SQL functions from the cache
instead of re-executing the actual query. Of course,the target is to
obtain high response time. The cached results stored become invalid when
data in the dependent database objects is modified.
As clear from its concept, result cache is mostly useful in for frequently
executed queries with rare changes on the retrieved data.
SQL Tuning Automation
The SQL Tuning Advisor is run by default every night during the automated
maintenance window. Basically, the advisor catches the SQL statements from
AWR that are candidate for tuning (they are called buckets) during four
different time periods.It then automatically creates SQL profile for any
poor SQL statement, if that helps. Tuned plans are automatically added to
the SQL plan baselines by the automatic SQL tuning task.
The advisor also may recommend actions like creating new indexes,
refreshing statistics or re-writing the statement. These actions, however,
are not automatically implemented by the advisor.
On Oracle 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.2), a new package named as
DBMS_AUTO_SQLTUNE should be used instead of the DBMS_SQLTUNE package. The
new package provides more restrictive access to the Automatic SQL Tuning
feature.
To use the DBMS_AUTO_SQLTUNE package, you must have the DBA role, or have
EXECUTE privileges granted by an administrator. The only exception is the
EXECUTE_AUTO_TUNING_TASK procedure, which can only be run by SYS.
SQL Plan Management
SQL plan management (SPM), is a new feature in Oracle 11g that prevents

performance regressions resulting from sudden changes to the execution

plan of a SQL statement by providing components for capturing, selecting,
and evolving SQL plan information.Changes to the execution plan may be
resulted from database upgrades,system and data changes, application
upgrade or bug fixes.
When SPM is enabled, the system maintains a plan history that contains all
plans generated by the optimizer and store them in a component called plan
baseline. Among the plan history in the plan baseline, plans that are
verified not to cause performance regression are marked as acceptable. The
plan baseline is used by the optimizer to decide on the best plan to use
when compiling a SQL statement.
Repository stored in data dictionary of plan baselines and statement log
maintained by the optimizer is called
SQL management base(SMB).
SQL Plan management is implemented by undertaking the following phases:
1.Capturing SQL Plan Baselines: this can be done automatically or
manually.
2.Selecting SQL Plan Baselines by the optimizer
3.Evolving SQL Plan Baselines
Database ADDM
Oracle Database 11g has added a new layer of analysis to ADDM called
Database ADDM. The mode ADDM was working in Oracle 10g is now called
instance ADDM. The main target of database ADDM is to analyze and report
on RAC environment. To enable Database ADDM, you set the parameter
INSTANCES in DBMS_ADVISOR.
New SYSASM Privilege for ASM Administration
SYSASM is a new privilege introduced in Oracle 11g. Users who are granted
this privilege can perform ASM administration tasks. The idea behind this
privilege is to separate database management and the storage management
responsibilities.
Backup and Recovery New Features:Enhanced Block Media Recovery
In Oracle Database 11g, there is a new command to perform block media
recovery, named the recover ...
blockcommand replacing the old blockrecover command. The new command is
more efficient since because it searches the flashback logs for older
uncorrupted versions of the corrupt blocks. This requires the database to
work in archivelog mode and has the Database Flashback enabled.
While the block media recovery is going on, any attempt by users to access

data in the corrupt blocks will result in an error message, telling the
user that the data block is corrupt.
VALIDATE Command
You can use the new command VALIDATE to manually check for physical and
logical corruptions in datafiles,backup sets, and even individual data
blocks. The comma nd by default checks for physical corruption. You can
optionally specify CHECK LOGICAL . Corrupted blocks are reported in
V$DATABASE_BLOCK_CORRUPTION.
Configuring an Archived Redo Log Deletion Policy
You can use RMAN to create a persistent configuration that controls when
archived redo logs are eligible for
deletion from disk or tape. This deletion policy applies to all archiving
destinations, including the flash recovery area. When the policy is
configured, it applies on the automatic deletion of the logs in the flash
recovery area and the manual deletion by the BACKUP ... DELETE and DELETE
... ARCHIVELOG commands.
To enable an archived redo log deletion policy, run the CONFIGURE
ARCHIVELOG DELETION POLICY BACKED UP n TIMES command with the desired
options.
Active Database Duplication
In Oracle Database 11g, you can directly duplicate a data base over the
network without having to back up and provide the source database files.
This direct database duplication is called active database duplication. It
can be done either with Database Control or through RMAN. Instance that
runs the duplicated database is called auxiliary instance.
Virtual Private Catalogs
In Oracle Database 11g, you can restrict access to the recovery catalog by
granting access to only a subset of the metadata in the recovery catalog.
The subset that a user has read/write access to is termed as virtual
private catalog, or just virtual catalog. The central or source recovery
catalog is now called the base recovery catalog.
ASM Restricted Mode
In Oracle 11g, you can start the ASM instance in restricted mode. When in
restricted mode, databases will not be permitted to access the ASM
instance. Also, individual diskgroup can be set in restricted mode.
Checking Diskgroup
Starting from Oracle Database 11g, you can validate the internal
consistency of ASM diskgroup metadata using the ALTER DISKGROUP ... CHECK

command. Summary of errors is logged in the ASM alert log file.

The FORCE option with Drop Diskgroup Command
If a disk is destroyed beyond repair, you want to drop it. But because the
disk is practically damaged, you cannot mount it and thus you cannot issue
the DROP DISKGROUP command against it. In such a condition, Oracle 11g
provides the FORCE INCLUDING CONTENTS option to drop the diskgroup even if
it is not mounted.
SQL>DROP DISKGROUP <DISKGROUP_NAME> FORCE INCLUDING CONTENTS;
ASM Rolling Upgrades
ASM rolling upgrades enable you to independently upgrade or patch
clustered ASM nodes without affecting
database availability, thus providing greater uptime. Rolling upgrade
means that all of the features of a clustered ASM environment function
when one or more of the nodes in the cluster use different software
versions.
Active Data Guard is a new option for Oracle Database 11g Enterprise
Edition
An Active Data Guard standby database is an exact copy of the primary that
is open read-only while it continuously applies changes transmitted by the
primary database. An active standby can offload ad-hoc queries, reporting,
and fast incremental backups from the primary database, improving
performance and scalability while preventing data loss or downtime due to
data corruptions, database and site failures, human error, or natural
disaster. Oracle Active Data Guard enables read-only access to a physical
standby database.
With Oracle Active Data Guard, a physical standby database can be used for
real-time reporting, with minimal latency between reporting and production
data. Compared with traditional replication methods, Active Data Guard is
very simple to use, transparently supports all datatypes, and offers very
high performance. Oracle Active Data Guard also allows backup operations
to be off-loaded to the standby database, and be done very fast using
intelligent incremental backups.
Active Dataguard Features:
1. Physical Standby with Real-time Query
2. Fast Incremental Backup on Physical Standby.
3. Automatic Block Repair.