2 Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.3) New Features

This chapter contains descriptions of all of the features that are new to Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.3).

2.1 General

The following sections describe the new features for Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.3).

2.1.1 Support Hybrid Columnar Compression on Pillar Axiom and Sun ZFSSA

Oracle's Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC) technology is a new (to Oracle Database 11g Release 2) method for organizing data within a database block. HCC utilizes a combination of both row and columnar methods for storing data. A logical construct called the compression unit is used to store a set of HCC-compressed rows. When data is loaded, groups of rows are stored in columnar format, with the values for a given column stored and compressed together. After the column data for a set of rows has been compressed, it is fit into the compression unit. Storing column data together, with the same data type and similar characteristics, dramatically increases the storage savings achieved from compression. This feature extends Hybrid Columnar Compression to Pillar Axiom and Sun ZFS Storage Appliance (ZFSSA) storage.

The support of Hybrid Columnar Compression on Pillar and ZFSSA enables Oracle Database users to utilize Oracle's Hybrid Columnar Compression on Pillar Axiom and Sun ZFS Storage Appliance (ZFSSA) storage hardware. This provides the storage benefits of Oracle's Hybrid Columnar Compression, which had previously been exclusive to the Oracle Exadata platform, to Oracle Database users who use Pillar Axiom or Sun ZFSSA storage (or both), enabling compression ratios of 10x to 50x, depending on the data and the compression level chosen by the user.

See Also:

Oracle Database Concepts for details

2.1.2 Support for SHA-2 Certificate Signatures

With this new feature, the database can handle SHA-2 (256 bit) signed certificates in addition to older SHA-1 signed certificates. These certificates are issued by a separate certificate authority and are exchanged between the database and a client when a secure database connection is being established (for example, where certificate-based network encryption and authentication are being used).

This enhancement is particularly critical for customers who are facing deadlines for when their certificate authorities will stop issuing older SHA-1 signed certificates.

2.1.3 TDE Hardware Acceleration for Solaris

Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) can automatically detect whether the database host machine includes specialized cryptographic silicon that accelerates the encryption or decryption processing. When detected, TDE uses the specialized silicon for cryptographic processing accelerating the overall cryptographic performance significantly.

In prior releases, cryptographic hardware acceleration for TDE was only available on Intel Xeon, and only for Linux. With release 11.2.0.3 and later releases, it works with the current versions of Solaris 11 running on both SPARC T-Series and Intel Xeon.

2.1.4 Support for Multiple Certificates on Smart Card

Consider the scenario, a database user inserts a card containing one or more digital certificates into a card reader device and manually enters a corresponding personal identification number (PIN). Oracle has supported card-based authentication to the database and, starting with release 11.2.0.3, can now handle situations where multiple certificates are contained on the card. The database attempts to intelligently select which certificate to read and, if it cannot figure out which one to read, a selection box pops up on the Windows client machine.

This is an important enhancement for customers who use card-based, two-factor authentication to log in to Oracle Database. In August 2004, the Homeland Security Presidential Directive Number 12 (HSPD-12) was issued to unify the government's identification badge systems. The new guidelines are dictating the deployment of Common Access Cards (CAC) that contain digital certificates.

2.1.5 QoS Management Support for Oracle RAC Enterprise Edition

Oracle Database Quality of Service (QoS) Management allows system administrators to directly measure application service levels hosted on Oracle RAC Enterprise Edition databases. Using a policy-based architecture, QoS Management correlates accurate run-time performance and resource metrics based on user-defined workload classes. QoS Management then presents them in an integrated Enterprise Manager dashboard to review real-time performance of consolidated applications. In conjunction with Cluster Health Monitor (CHM), QoS Management's memory guard detects nodes that are at risk of failure due to the over commitment of memory. OoS Management responds by automatically preventing new connections thus preserving existing workloads and restores connectivity once sufficient memory is available again.

The benefits of this feature aids in the schema and database consolidation of applications within Oracle Real Application Clusters yielding information technology efficiency and cost savings. This feature also actively protects application availability under high memory conditions with memory guard.

2.1.6 QoS Management Support for Instance Caging on Oracle Exadata

Oracle Database Quality of Service (QoS) Management allows system administrators to directly measure application service levels hosted on Oracle RAC Enterprise Edition databases. Using a policy-based architecture, QoS Management correlates accurate run-time performance and resource metrics based on user-defined workload classes, analyzes this data with its expert system to identify bottlenecks, and produces recommended resource adjustments to meet and maintain performance objectives under dynamic load conditions. QoS Management then presents the findings in an integrated Enterprise Manager dashboard to review real-time performance of consolidated applications. Along with moving the server between server pools, QoS Management now also supports moving CPUs between databases within the same pool to better manage performance in consolidated Oracle Exadata deployments.

This new support manages service-level agreements (SLA) for Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) database applications consolidated on Oracle Exadata yielding information technology efficiency and cost savings.

2.1.7 Oracle ACFS Snapshot Enhancements

The read/write snapshot feature for Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS) adds support for fast creation of an Oracle ACFS snapshot image that can be both read and written without impacting the state of the Oracle ACFS primary file system hosting the snapshot images.

With this enhancement, you can test new versions of application software on production file data reflected in the read/write snapshot image without modifying the original production file system.

You can also run what-if scenarios on a real data set without modifying the original file system.

2.1.8 Oracle ACFS Security and Encryption Features

The Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS) security feature provides realm-based security for Oracle ACFS.

The Oracle ACFS encryption feature enables data stored on disk (data-at-rest) to be encrypted.

Oracle ACFS security feature provides the ability to create realms to specify security policies for users or groups for accessing file system objects. The Oracle ACFS security feature provides finer-grained access control on top of the access control provided by the operating system.

Oracle ACFS encryption feature provides the ability to keep data in an Oracle ACFS file system in encrypted format to prevent unauthorized use of data in the case of data loss or theft.

2.1.9 Support for ACFS Replication and Tagging on Windows

Support for replication and tagging functionality is now available on the Windows platform.

Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS) replication enables replication of Oracle ACFS file systems across the network to a remote site, providing disaster recovery capability for the file system.

Oracle ACFS tagging assigns a common naming attribute to a group of files. Oracle ACFS replication can use this tag to select files with a unique tag name for replication to a different remote cluster site. The tagging option avoids having to replicate an entire Oracle ACFS file system.

2.1.10 Oracle LogMiner Support for Binary XML

This feature extends Oracle LogMiner data type support to include support for XMLType columns and tables stored in binary format.

Oracle LogMiner can now be used with applications having XML stored using binary format.

See Also:

Oracle Database Utilities for details

2.1.11 SQL Apply Support for Binary XML

This feature extends SQL Apply data type support to include support for XMLType columns and tables stored in binary format.

SQL Apply can now be used with applications having XML stored using binary format.

2.1.12 Oracle LogMiner Support for Object Relational Model

This feature extends Oracle LogMiner data type support to include support for XMLType columns and tables stored using the Object Relational (O/R) model.

Oracle LogMiner can now be used with applications having Oracle XML stored using the O/R model.

See Also:

Oracle Database Utilities for details

2.1.13 SQL Apply Support for Object Relational Model

This feature extends SQL Apply data type support to include support for XMLType columns and tables stored using the Object Relational (O/R) model.

SQL Apply can now be used with applications having XML stored using the O/R model.

2.1.14 Deprecation of Obsolete Oracle XML DB Functions and Packages

The following Oracle XML DB constructs are deprecated in Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.3):

PL/SQL procedure DBMS_XDB_ADMIN.createRepositoryXMLIndex
PL/SQL procedure DBMS_XDB_ADMIN.XMLIndexAddPath
PL/SQL procedure DBMS_XDB_ADMIN.XMLIndexRemovePath
PL/SQL procedure DBMS_XDB_ADMIN.dropRepositoryXMLIndex
XML schema annotation (attribute) csx:encodingType
XMLIndex index on CLOB portions of hybrid XMLType storage, that is, on CLOB data that is embedded within object relational storage

These constructs are still supported in 11.2.0.3 for backward compatibility, but Oracle recommends that you do not use them in new applications.

2.1.15 Oracle Warehouse Builder Support for Partition DML

In this release, Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB) can now generate DML specific to manipulating database partitions. This allows OWB users to perform extract, transform, and load (ETL) operations with all types of partitioned tables.

This feature enables fuller exploitation of database resources and capabilities, and improves developer and DBA productivity by making these capabilities available from within OWB.