If you’ve ever needed a load generator to test system loads you might
want to give Swingbench a try. I’ve used this tool on many occasions to
stress disk subsystems, performance tools, and general new features
within Oracle. Setup can be done within your own $HOME directory,
without pestering a system administrator or DBA.

Since I had a need (testing Oracle internals) I thought it would be a good idea to introduce and explain the installation process. Swingbench has different types of benchmarks you can run. For this post I’ve concentrated on the Calling Circle Benchmark (CC).

1. Download Swingbench here.

2. Download Java here.

3. FTP files to your system–placing them in the $HOME directory of the user

4. Uncompress the swingbench file
unzip swingbench230391.zip

5. Change to the swingbench directory
cd swingbench

6. Install the Jave Runtime Environment that was downloaded from java.sun.com. This was done by placing the self-extracting JRE file in the $HOME/swingbench directory—this allows for portability of a complete swingbench environment, just in case you’d like to move it between systems. Currently that directory is:$HOME/swingbench/jre1.6.0_12
mv ../jre-6u12-linux-i586.bin .
./jre-6u12-linux-i586.bin

7. Edit the swingbench.env file to reflect current Oracle environment. I changed the following two lines:
#!/bin/bash
# Set the following to reflect the root directory of your Java installation
export JAVAHOME=$HOME/swingbench/jre1.6.0_12
# Set the following to the directory where you installed swingbench
export SWINGHOME=/home/oracle/swingbench

8. Edit swingbench/bin/ccwizard.xml. A key parameter in this file is the “LightsOut” argument. This allows swingbench to be run in character mode–very helpful to schedule runs through crontab. This file also contains connect information to the Oracle database but is dependent on where and how Oracle  has been installed. Most arguments are self explanatory but care should be taken to set the argument values for datafiles of the data and index files to a directory that exists on the database server. I’d also recommend keeping the Mode=InterActive to validate configuration file changes or if you get errors during the process.

Mode of LightsOut will allow you to run from command line, keep as InterActive if you want to use the GUI
Increasing the number of accounts will increase the size of the datasets
Increasing the transaction count will increase the runtime of the benchmark

<?xml version=’1.0′ encoding=’windows-1252′?>
<WizardConfig Name=”Calling Circle Wizard” Mode=”LightsOut“>
  <WizardSteps RunnableStep=”5″>
    <WizardStep SourceFile=”com.dom.benchmarking.swingbench.wizards.cc.Step0″/>
    <WizardStep SourceFile=”com.dom.benchmarking.swingbench.wizards.cc.Step1″/>
    <WizardStep SourceFile=”com.dom.benchmarking.swingbench.wizards.cc.Step2″/>
    <WizardStep SourceFile=”com.dom.benchmarking.swingbench.wizards.cc.Step3″/>
    <WizardStep SourceFile=”com.dom.benchmarking.swingbench.wizards.cc.Step4″/>
    <WizardStep SourceFile=”com.dom.benchmarking.swingbench.wizards.cc.Step5″/>
    <WizardStep SourceFile=”com.dom.benchmarking.swingbench.wizards.cc.Step6″/>
    <WizardStep SourceFile=”com.dom.benchmarking.swingbench.wizards.cc.Step7″/>
    <WizardStep SourceFile=”com.dom.benchmarking.swingbench.wizards.cc.Step8″/>
    <WizardStep SourceFile=”com.dom.benchmarking.swingbench.wizards.cc.Step9″/>
    <WizardStep SourceFile=”com.dom.benchmarking.swingbench.wizards.cc.Step10″/>
  </WizardSteps>
  <DefaultParameters>
    <Parameter Key=”operation” Value=”create”/>
    <Parameter Key=”dbausername” Value=”sys as sysdba”/>
    <Parameter Key=”dbapassword” Value=”password”/>
    <Parameter Key=”username” Value=”CC”/>
    <Parameter Key=”password” Value=”CC”/>
    <Parameter Key=”connectionstring” Value=”//ludwig:1521/db11FS”/>
    <Parameter Key=”connectiontype” Value=”oci”/>
    <Parameter Key=”datatablespace” Value=”ccdata”/>
    <Parameter Key=”datadatafile” Value=”/oradata/db11FS/ccdata.dbf”/>
    <Parameter Key=”indextablespace” Value=”ccindex”/>
    <Parameter Key=”indexdatafile” Value=”/oradata/db11FS/ccindex.dbf”/>
    <Parameter Key=”directories” Value=”data/”/>
    <Parameter Key=”transactioncount” Value=”10000″/>
    <Parameter Key=”nocustaccounts” Value=”100000″/>
  </DefaultParameters>
</WizardConfig>

8. Create drop, create, and generate ccwizzrd xml files. For simplicity and possibly creating extra scripts to automate the process of running swingbench, the following three files should be created from the ccwizard.xml file edited above.

cd bin
cp ccwizard.xml ccwizard.xml-drop
cp ccwizard.xml ccwizard.xml-create
cp ccwizard.xml ccwizard.xml-generate

You then need to edit one line in each of these three files, such that:

ccwizard.xml-drop:
<Parameter Key=”operation” Value=”drop”/>

ccwizard.xml-create:
<Parameter Key=”operation” Value=”create”/>

ccwizard.xml-generate:
<Parameter Key=”operation” Value=”generate”/>

9. Create/Modify ccconfig.xml for running benchmarks. There is a sample ccconfig.xml in the swingbench/bin/sample directory. This file should be copied to the swingbench/bin directory and modified to suite the magnatude of benchmark being run. For instance you might want to change the NumberOfUsers.
cp sample/ccconfig.xml .

I changed the following lines in the ccconfig.xml file:
<UserName>CC</UserName>
      <Password>CC</Password>
      <ConnectString>//ludwig/db11FS</ConnectString>

11. You may want/need to make changes to your Oracle installation. The following commands are suggested areas to alter a default installation of Oracle. The actual directory path to specific files may be different depending on the mount point and Oracle SID.

alter database datafile ‘/oradata/db11FS/system01.dbf’ resize 1024m;
alter database tempfile ‘/oradata/db11FS/temp01.dbf’ resize 2048m;
alter database datafile ‘/oradata/db11FS/users01.dbf’ resize 500m;
alter database datafile ‘/oradata/db11FS/undotbs01.dbf’ resize 2048m;

ALTER DATABASE DEFAULT TABLESPACE “USERS”;
ALTER SYSTEM SET open_cursors=5000 SCOPE=BOTH;
ALTER SYSTEM SET sessions=2000 SCOPE=SPFILE;
ALTER SYSTEM SET processes=5000 SCOPE=SPFILE;
ALTER SYSTEM SET sga_target=’1536M’ SCOPE=BOTH;

11. Validate sqlnet.ora file on database server. The sqlnet.ora file is in the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin directory and should have the EZCONNECT entry as shown below. If there is no sqlnet.ora file that is acceptable also.

NAMES.DIRECTORY_PATH= (TNSNAMES, EZCONNECT)

12. Create the tables for the benchmarks.
cp ccwizard.xml-create ccwizard.xml
./ccwizard
SwingBench Wizard
Author  :        Dominic Giles
Version :        2.3.0.391

Running in Lights Out Mode using config file : ccwizard.xml

13. Generate data for a benchmark run
cp ccwizard.xml-generate ccwizard.xml
./ccwizard
SwingBench Wizard
Author  :        Dominic Giles
Version :        2.3.0.391

Running in Lights Out Mode using config file : ccwizard.xml

14. Run a benchmark with minibench. This is a small GUI that gives displays the status of your benchmark run. minibench uses the configuration file swingconfig.xml. Since there are multiple types of benchmarks Swingbench is capable of we need to copy our benchmark to this file.
cp ccconfig.xml swingconfig.xml
./minibench

15. Optionally run the character based benchmark tool
./charbench -c ccconfig.xml
Author  :        Dominic Giles
Version :        2.3.0.391

Time            Users   TPM     TPS
12:48:31 PM     20      143     6        

Quite a few years ago I came across a short British film from the
1920’s that has become a German New Year’s tradition. This film has
somewhat of a cult status and I have adopted it to be one of my own for
New Year’s eve.

Take a look at it for yourself, it cracks me up every year. Maybe you’ll make it one of your traditions as well.

Prost!

James

I’ll be the first to admit that, while I was at work, watched cats scamper across a treadmill on YouTube today. And I have started to be more active in the number of webinars, video conferences, and news reals I watch. I would say my usage has at least doubled in the last 6 months where I’m watching something at least every three days or so.

I think our infatuation and willingness to watch something online is probably two fold. One, we are simply in front of the computer for so long these days (I spent 73 hours this week) that we just want a quick break now and then to relieve stress or gain some quick information without reading. The second reason is somewhat related in that we are so involved with online content and detached that social networking creates, as it is intended to do, a common bond between online people, thus pulling us deeper and deeper into accepting more and more content.

While I’m sure I haven’t touched on every aspect of what is driving us to become more accepting of online content, Gartner has a current press release in which they state “The popularity of video among consumers will fuel a similar interest in video within enterprises, leading to the severe disruption of existing content strategies“. A couple important take-aways form this press release would be:

• Software for managing images and video is the fastest growing segment of the content management market
• Video use is growing with about 73% of Internet users watching a video at least once a month

While the take-aways are very positive and, in my opinion, show some exciting times ahead. I’m personally thinking, and making a note, to see how fesible it might be to have some bite-size videos now and then instead of simply writing out a blog post. I wonder if we will get to that point where our blogsphere will begin recording instead of typing. Will our chat truely chat instead of limiting ourselves to bursts of keystrokes?

One can hopefully see the benefit here as communities evolve into constant video conferences. Imagine having multiple video feeds going at the same time and maintaining multiple conversations. Sounds a bit confusing and almost impossible to maintain. But don’t you think that our inginuity can solve that problem. I never thought I could maintain multiple chat sessions going, be typing a blog, and listening to a conferance call all at the same time before. But now I do it with much ease.

My mind is overwhelmed with possibilities here–thinking that there will also have to be some grand infrastructure to keep this new revolution of video going. Imagine the networking issues, the storage issues, the application interfaces, and the list goes on. While the Internet has been around for a while, oh how it has grown, we are, in my opinion, only on the begining edge of realizing how to facilitate and handle informaiton flow.

Go take a look at what others are making in your profession. Although, I’m always surprised at the amount. Seems that IT salaries are staying somewhat constant. Read, going against inflation. Out on the ComputerWorld.com site there are additional articles that give a glimpse into the job/paying market. Read one statement that IT is finally coming to grips with the fact that we can no longer expect the high salaries that we have enjoyed for the last decade. REALLY! Don’t you think that salaries HAVE been in the dumps for the last decade. Personally I experienced my greatest salary over 10 years ago and it HAS remained constant, if not less, over the last decade. Although I could be a unique and single case. But I don’t think so.

Regardless, there is a cool Smart Salary Tool that let’s you check salary ranges. It’s a great tool as I’ve not seen this much ease extracting salary data before. Usually you have to give 20+ webforms you email address before getting at some pdf. Not here! Go take a look.

If you are like many, you’ve worried at least a little bit about the current financial crisis. Surely it is hitting too close to home for many in the U.S. and abroad. I was very interested to see that Europe as a whole has also put in a whopping 2.3 trillion to help their banking infrastructure.

Many of us are wondering just how it will impact us in the field of IT. Will it claim my job? Will it help my job?

Take a look at a special report put out on InfoWorld: IT and the financial crisis. There are quite a few angles that will either help or escalate your tension levels.

For me, I’m just plugging away and enjoying the ride. How about you?

©cheetah100

In a rose garden ceremony President Bush signed a bill that grants immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the U.S. spy on Americans in suspected terrorism cases. And it overhauls rules about government eavesdropping.

By my standards this smells like something else than a rose garden. I will agree, this is landmark legislation. It makes me wonder if the already unpopular lame-duck president will now go down in some history books as the mother-hen president that opened the doors to limiting free speech and stripping the U.S. of one of its more precious rights. Who in their right mind will now, speak, email, surf, chat, or text anything derogatory about our beloved U.S.? Will we now have specialized sniffer applications within the telecom industry that searches every transmission? Will there now be a sleeper telecom company that steps up to the plate and offers non-tapping communication? Will high-powered personal communication devices hit the market? Watch out U.S.! This could get interesting.

Full Story at: Bush signs new rules on government wiretapping