Configuring Oracle XE For Performance Testing
If you put any serious load on Oracle XE, connections tend to fail almost randomly and you'll see this:
ORA-12516 TNS:listener could not find available handler with matching protocol stack
ORA-12520: TNS:listener could not find available handler for requested type of server
Initially I thought it was a limitation of the product as it is supposed to be a lightweight version of Oracle. This is certainly not the case though. XE is installed to take up little resources and and this is one of the side effects. To allow it to take heavier load, do the following:
- login as oracle: 'su - oracle'
- connect to sqlplus: 'sqlplus / as sysdba'
- run 'show parameter processes'
- you should be able to see that the default value for processes is '40'
- run 'alter system set processes=100 scope=spfile;'
- restart XE by running 'shutdown immediate' and then 'startup'
- confirm the new setting by running (3) again
This will increase the number of processes to XE, allowing it to take a higher load.
Cheers.
Accidental Theme Update
Imagine the shock when I realized the theme to this blog changed overnight. I've been viewing it on my machine but I guess that was just cache(?). I remember fooling around with the themes. Looks like the fooling around is now permanent. Wanted a new look anyway.
Cheers.
Maxis Broadband, Yet Another Case
I can't believe what Maxis does to its customers. See how a certain Yow Chuan went through almost a year of headaches with Maxis. If you're having any issue at all, I suggest reading through his experience. In short, Maxis plays hard ball and only hard ball. No point chasing shadows - head straight to MCMC.
Link: The Maxis Broadband Chronicle
Good Time For Palm OS Owners
First there's news that CrashPro and Skinner from 79bmedia GmbH is now freeware. There a web-based key generator provided by the company. Then there was the 48 hours upgrade offer for Documents To Go 11 Premium upgrade ($7.99, usual price $29.99). SkinUI has also been freeware for quite a while now, allowing Palm OS UI to be souped-up for free. I've also come across other deals - TakePhone for $2.99 and Weather unlimited-subscription for $4.99 - and many more.
P/S: Currently PalmInfocenter is currently having a Palm OS software sale.
Not bad till the new Pre comes out, eh?
Oracle Buys Sun
So, what does it mean? I think it's all really too early to tell. Some say [put your fav Sun tech here] will die/advance but really, who knows what Ellison is thinking? I use a lot of Sun products at work; Java, Solaris and OpenOffice being at the top of the list. So it's certainly in my best interest to keep things going as they are. Will Oracle kill anything on purpose? Not too sure. Will things change, for better of for worse? You bet.
However, I feel that in the immediate future, things will go on as they always have. The Java ecosystem is too big for anything to stand in its way. If Oracle mismanages any Sun related asset it recently acquired, you can bet that the open-source community will do something about it (say, fork any GPL-ed code). Think about it though, it's actually also in Oracle's best interest to keep Java alive and well. Much of their middle-ware use desktop Java. JEE is also a big industry, mostly because there is no alternative, so why kill a good thing?
On the other hand, Oracle is a much more commercial company than Sun ever was. What does this mean? Well, if something is not earning any dollars, it probably would not survive Oracle's cost-cutting measures. I hope in the end Sun is alive as an entity in Oracle and Java and its related technologies continue to be managed by that entity. Oracle can (and should) keep things in check by ensuring Java can be monetized without jeopardizing its status as an open-source product. God knows there's no better PR than being open-source (looks what's happening to Microsoft).
Side note: It's been a while since I've blogged about anything. Busy with work as usual. Good thing is, work has been interesting.
