Welcome to Oracle Database 10g New Features! This chapter is the place to start in your effort to learn all about Oracle Database 10g. In this chapter, we will first look at the “Grid” and see what it is all about. Then we move on to explain how to upgrade to Oracle Database 10g. The following are the specific topics that are covered: The "Grid", Upgrading to Oracle Database 10g, the SYSAUX tablespace and Automatic Storage Management (ASM).

Welcome to Oracle Database 10g and the “Grid”

Oracle Database 10g. If you are wondering what that g is all about, it stands for this rather murky concept of the “Grid.” As I was writing this book, I asked some fellow DBAs what they thought the Grid was. There were those who had some idea, and those who were not so sure. In fact, I did a search in the Oracle Beta documentation set, and found little or no reference to the Grid. I did determine that the final release will contain a book that provides concept, configuration, and administration guidance for the Grid, however.

A new concept and little documentation—what is a DBA to do? Never fear, Oracle Database 10g New Features is here! So, what is the Grid? The Grid is all about the synergies that can be achieved by aligning the Oracle technologies with the capabilities of existing and future hardware. As Larry Ellison put it, the Grid is “…capacity on demand made up of low-cost parts.” The Grid enables you to do
the following:

• Leverage components made available to the Grid - Through Oracle Real Application Clusters, Automatic Storage Management (ASM), and Ultra-Large Data Files (all of which are discussed in this book), Oracle allows you to take advantage of your hardware investment in a much more efficient manner.
  
• Load-balance across the enterprise-Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle Streams, and Oracle distributed database technologies support this concept.
  
• Share information regardless of its location-This concept is supported through new transportable tablespace features, Oracle Streams (e.g., Replication), external tables, and distributed SQL queries.
  
• Schedule resources across the Grid-The new features of the Oracle scheduler and the Oracle Database Resource Manager help the DBA to effectively take better advantage of the Grid.

The Grid may not be 100 percent there with Oracle Database 10g, but it's certainly a start. Oracle Database 10g is full of new features that more fully align it with the concepts of the Grid. In this book, we will look at these new features, and a number of other new features that make Oracle Database 10g an interesting upgrade indeed!

This chapter is from Oracle Database 10g New Features, by Robert Freeman (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004, ISBN: 0072229470). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now.