Oracle Tips - January 2007

Here are my Oracle Tips columns published at TechRepublic.com during January, 2007:

Resize BIGFILE Tablespaces Directly using ALTER TABLESPACE - January 9, 2007
Database administrators can now resize Oracle datafiles at the tablespace level using the BIGFILE tablespace feature in 10g.

Convert Databases to Different Platforms using RMAN - January 16, 2007
The Oracle Database supports the direct movement of tablespaces from one instance of Oracle to another. In the past, the destination was required to use the same operating system platform as the original. Oracle 10g contains tools in the Recovery Manager (RMAN) to extend these moves to other platforms.

Detect Hierarchy Loops with Oracle 10g's New Hierarchy Pseudocolumns - January 23,2007
Hierarchical queries sometimes fail because the data contain rows that reference each other: a loop. Oracle 10g has syntax and two new pseudocolumns to aid in finding such loops.

Look Inside ASM Disk Groups with Oracle 10gR2's ASMCMD - January 30, 2007
In Oracle 10g Release 2, Oracle introduced a new command line tool called ASMCMD that lets you look inside Automatic Storage Management (ASM) volumes. Get an overview of the ASMCMD commands, and learn about a few of the tool's quirks.