Oracle University Podcast
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Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Oracle University Podcast episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Oracle University Podcast for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Oracle University Podcast episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Integrating APEX with OCI AI Services
Oracle University Podcast
04/22/25 • 20 min
00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started!
00:25
Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast. I’m Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs with Oracle University, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services.
Nikita: Hi everyone! Last week, we looked at how generative AI powers Oracle APEX and in today’s episode, we’re going to focus on integrating APEX with OCI AI Services.
Lois: That’s right, Niki. We’re going to look at how you can use Oracle AI services like OCI Vision, Oracle Digital Assistant, Document Understanding, OCI Generative AI, and more to enhance your APEX apps.
01:03
Nikita: And to help us with it all, we’ve got three amazing experts with us, Chaitanya Koratamaddi, Director of Product Management at Oracle, and senior product managers, Apoorva Srinivas and Toufiq Mohammed. In today’s episode, we’ll go through each Oracle AI service and look at how it interacts with APEX. Apoorva, let’s start with you. Can you explain what the OCI Vision service is?
Apoorva: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Vision is a serverless multi-tenant service accessible using the console or REST APIs. You can upload images to detect and classify objects in them. With prebuilt models available, developers can quickly build image recognition into their applications without machine learning expertise.
OCI Vision service provides a fully managed model infrastructure. With complete integration with OCI Data Labeling, you can build custom models easily. OCI Vision service provides pretrained models-- Image Classification, Object Detection, Face Detection, and Text Recognition. You can build custom models for Image Classification and Object Detection.
02:24
Lois: Ok. What about its use cases? How can OCI Vision make APEX apps more powerful?
Apoorva: Using OCI Vision, you can make images and videos discoverable and searchable in your APEX app.
You can use OCI Vision to detect and classify objects in the images. OCI Vision also highlights the objects using a red rectangular box. This comes in handy in use cases such as detecting vehicles that have violated the rules in traffic images.
You can use OCI Vision to identify visual anomalies in your data. This is a very popular use case where you can detect anomalies in cancer X-ray images to detect cancer. These are some of the most popular use cases of using OCI Vision with your APEX app. But the possibilities are endless and you can use OCI Vision for any of your image analysis.
03:29
Nikita: Let’s shift gears to Oracle Digital Assistant. Chaitanya, can you tell us what it’s all about?
Chaitanya: Oracle Digital Assistant is a low-code conversational AI platform that allows businesses to build and deploy AI assistants. It provides natural language understanding, automatic speech recognition, and text-to-speech capabilities to enable human-like interactions with customers and employees. Oracle Digital Assistant comes with prebuilt templates for you to get started.
04:00
Lois: What are its key features and benefits, Chaitanya? How does it enhance the user experience?
Chaitanya: Oracle Digital Assistant provides conversational AI capabilities that include generative AI features, natural language understanding and ...
Blockchain Tables
Oracle University Podcast
07/30/24 • 16 min
00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started!
00:26
Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast. I’m Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs with Oracle University, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Principal Technical Editor.
Nikita: Hi everyone! Thank you for joining us as we begin a new season of the podcast. For the next few weeks, we’re going to explore all the new features in Oracle Database 23ai, previously known as 23c. These episodes will be great for you if you’re a database administrator, a developer, or even a database architect.
Lois: Right Niki, and while anyone can listen to the podcast, you’re probably going to get the most out of this season if you have prior knowledge or experience with the previous versions of Oracle Database and have used SQL to manage Oracle Databases. Throughout this season, we’ll discuss new features in database availability, architecture, manageability, performance, and security.
01:21
Nikita: Exactly. Today, we're diving into the world of blockchain tables and the new features introduced. First, we'll try to get an overview of blockchain tables that were introduced in 21c. Then, we'll discuss the new features in 23ai, including row versions, user chains, delegate signer, and countersignature.
Lois: So, let’s get started. To take us through all this, we are joined today by Bill Millar. Bill is a Senior Principal Database & MySQL Instructor with Oracle University. Hi Bill! Thanks for joining us. To begin, what is a blockchain table?
01:59
Bill: Well, a blockchain table provides the means for recording transactions where only insert operations are allowed. And rows are protected or restricted based on time as defined when the table is created. This makes the rows tamper-resistant with their chaining algorithms.
02:16
Nikita: Bill, take us through some common attributes of a blockchain table.
Bill: They are append only, protects the current data in the table. Made tamper-resistant with their hashing algorithm. And optionally, they can be digitally signed. However, they are mandatory in blockchain platform transactions. Transaction logs, audit trails, compliance information, they can most benefit from using blockchain tables.
02:44
Lois: Bill, let’s talk for a minute about the blockchain tables being tamper-resistant. What makes a blockchain table tamper-proof?
Bill: Well, with the insert only tables, each row is going to be chained to the previous row, except the first row. There's nothing to change it to. So once a row is added, it changes it to the previous row, to the previous row. Rows are linked when the transaction commits. We don't link them beforehand because you might roll back.
03:13
Nikita: Do we have some considerations or guidelines for managing blockchain tables?
Bill: One, they may be partitioned. You can specify retention at a table level, the blockchain table itself. You can use the no drop clause. And you can also define it blockchain tables at the row level when you create that blockchain table. Defining a retention period for the table itself or a retention period for the rows.
03:41
Nikita: And are there any restrictions when using blockc...
Introduction to OCI Container Engine for Kubernetes
Oracle University Podcast
06/25/24 • 17 min
00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started!
00:25
Nikita: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast. I’m Nikita Abraham, Principal Technical Editor with Oracle University, and with me is Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs.
Lois: Hi there! If you’ve been listening to us these last few weeks, you’ll know we’ve been discussing containerization, the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Registry, and the basics of Kubernetes. Today, we’ll dive into the world of OCI Container Engine for Kubernetes, also referred to as OKE.
Nikita: We’re joined by Mahendra Mehra, a senior OCI instructor with Oracle University, who will take us through the key features and benefits of OKE and also talk about working with managed nodes. Hi Mahendra! Thanks for joining us today.
01:09
Lois: So, Mahendra, what is OKE exactly?
Mahendra: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Container Engine for Kubernetes is a fully managed, scalable, and highly available service that empowers you to effortlessly deploy your containerized applications to the cloud.
But that's just the beginning. OKE can transform the way you and your development team build, deploy, and manage cloud native applications.
01:36
Nikita: What would you say are some of its most defining features? Mahendra: One of the defining features of OKE is the flexibility it offers. You can specify whether you want to run your applications on virtual nodes or opt for managed nodes.
Regardless of your choice, Container Engine for Kubernetes will efficiently provision them within your existing OCI tenancy on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Creating OKE cluster is a breeze, and you have a couple of fantastic tools at your disposal-- the console and the rest API. These make it super easy to get started.
OKE relies on Kubernetes, which is an open-source system that simplifies the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications across clusters of hosts.
Kubernetes is an incredible system that groups containers into logical units known as pods. And these pods make managing and discovering your applications very simple.
Not to mention, Container Engine for Kubernetes uses Kubernetes versions that are certified as conformant by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, also abbreviated as CNCF. And here's the icing on the cake. Container Engine for Kubernetes is ISO-compliant. The other two ISO-IEC standards—27001, 27017, and 27018. That's your guarantee of a secure and reliable platform. 03:08
Lois: That’s great. But how do you access all this power?
Mahendra: You can define and create your Kubernetes cluster using the intuitive console and the robust rest API. Once your clusters are up and running, you can manage them using the Kubernetes command line, also known as kubectl, the user-friendly Kubernetes dashboard, and the powerful Kubernetes API.
03:32
Nikita: I love the idea of an intuitive console and being able to manage everything from a centralized place.
Lois: Yeah, that’s fantastic! Mahendra, can you talk us through the magic that happens behind the scenes? What’s Oracle’s role in all this?
Mahendra: All the master nodes or control plane nodes are managed by Oracle. This includes components like etcd, the API server, and the con...
Best of 2024: Developing Redwood Applications
Oracle University Podcast
12/10/24 • 21 min
00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started.
00:26
Nikita: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I’m Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services with Oracle University, and with me is Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs.
Lois: Hi everyone! Thanks for joining us for this Best of 2024 series, where we’re playing for you our four most popular episodes of the year. Nikita: Today’s episode is #3 of 4 and is a throwback to another conversation with Joe Greenwald, our Senior Principal OCI Instructor. We asked Joe about Oracle’s Redwood design system and how it helps us create stunning, world-class enterprise applications and user experiences.
01:04
Lois: Yeah, Redwood is the basis for all the new Oracle Cloud Applications being re-designed, developed, and delivered. Joe is the best person to ask about all of this because he’s been working with our Oracle software development tools since the early 90s and is responsible for OU’s Visual Builder Studio and Redwood course content. So, let’s dive right in!
Joe: Hi Lois. Hi Niki. I am excited to join you on this episode because with the release of 24A Fusion applications, we are encouraging all our customers to adopt the new Redwood design system and components, and take advantage of the world-class look and feel of the new Redwood user experience.
Redwood represents a new approach and direction for us at Oracle, and we’re excited to have our customers benefit from it.
01:49
Nikita: Joe, you’ve been working with Oracle user interface development tools and frameworks for a long time. How and why is Redwood different?
Joe: I joined Oracle in 1992, and the first Oracle user interface I experienced was Oracle Forms. And that was the character mode. I came from a background of Smalltalk and its amazing, pioneering graphical user interface (GUI) design capabilities. I worked at Apple and I developed my own GUIs for a few years on PCs and Macs. So, Character Mode Forms, what we used to call DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) screens, was a shock, to say the least. Since then, I’ve worked with almost every user interface and development platform Oracle has created: Character Mode Forms, GUI Forms, Power Objects, HyperCard on the Macintosh, that was pre-OS X by the way, Sedona, written in native C++ and ActiveX and OLE, which didn’t make it to a product but appeared in other things later, ADF Faces, which uses Java to generate HTML pages, and APEX, which uses PL/SQL to generate HTML pages. And I’ve worked with and wrote training classes for Java Swing, an excellent GUI framework for event-driven desktop and enterprise applications, but it wasn’t designed for the web.
So, it’s with pleasure that I introduce you to the Redwood design system, easily the best effort I’ve ever seen, from the look and feel of holistic user-goal-centered design philosophy and approach to the cutting-edge WYSIWYG design tools.
03:16
Lois: Joe, is Redwood just another set of styles, colors, and fonts, albeit v...
Oracle AI Vector Search: Part 1
Oracle University Podcast
10/22/24 • 13 min
00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started!
00:26
Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I’m Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs here at Oracle University. Joining me as always is our Team Lead of our Editorial Services, Nikita Abraham.
Nikita: Hi everyone! Thanks for tuning in over the last few months as we’ve been discussing all the Oracle Database 23ai new features. We’re coming to the end of the season, and to close things off, in this episode and the next one, we’re going to be talking about the fundamentals of Oracle AI Vector Search. In today’s episode, we’ll try to get an overview of what vector search is, why Oracle Vector Search stands out, and dive into the new vector data type. We’ll also get insights into vector embedding models and the vector workflow.
01:11
Lois: To take us through all of this, we’re joined by Brent Dayley, who is a Senior Principal APEX and Apps Development Instructor with Oracle University. Hi Brent! Thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us about the new vector data type?
Brent: So this data type was introduced in Oracle Database 23ai. And it allows you to store vector embeddings alongside other business data. Now, the vector data type allows a foundation to store vector embeddings.
01:42
Lois: And what are vector embeddings, Brent?
Brent: Vector embeddings are mathematical representations of data points. They assign mathematical representations based on meaning and context of your unstructured data. You have to generate vector embeddings from your unstructured data either outside or within the Oracle Database. In order to get vector embeddings, you can either use ONNX embedding machine learning models or access third-party REST APIs. Embeddings can be used to represent almost any type of data, including text, audio, or visual, such as pictures. And they are used in proximity searches.
02:28
Nikita: Hmmm, proximity search. And similarity search, right? Can you break down what similarity search is and how it functions?
Brent: So vector data tends to be unevenly distributed and clustered into groups that are semantically related. Doing a similarity search based on a given query vector is equivalent to retrieving the k nearest vectors to your query vector in your vector space. What this means is that basically you need to find an ordered list of vectors by ranking them, where the first row is the closest or most similar vector to the query vector. The second row in the list would be the second closest vector to the query vector, and so on, depending on your data set. What we need to do is to find the relative order of distances. And that's really what matters rather than the actual distance.
Now, similarity searches tend to get data from one or more clusters, depending on the value of the query vector and the fetch size. Approximate searches using vector indexes can limit the searches to specific clusters. Exact searches visit vectors across all clusters.
03:44
Lois: Ok. I want to move on to vector embedding models. What are they and why are they valuable?
Brent: Vector emb...
Working with OKE Virtual Nodes
Oracle University Podcast
07/02/24 • 14 min
00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started!
00:25
Lois: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I’m Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs with Oracle University, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Principal Technical Editor.
Nikita: Hey everyone! In our last episode, we examined OCI Container Engine for Kubernetes, including its key features and benefits.
Lois: Yeah, that was an interesting one. Today, we’re going to discuss virtual nodes and their role in enhancing Kubernetes deployments in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Nikita: We’re going to compare virtual nodes and managed nodes, and look at their differences and advantages. To take us through all this, we have Mahendra Mehra with us. Mahendra is a senior OCI instructor with Oracle University.
01:09
Lois: Hi Mahendra! From our discussion last week, we know that when creating a node pool with Container Engine for Kubernetes, we have the option of specifying the type of Oracle nodes as either managed nodes or virtual nodes. But I’m sure there are some key differences in the features supported by each type, right?
Mahendra: The primary point of differentiation between virtual nodes and managed nodes is in their management approach. When it comes to managed nodes, users are responsible for managing the nodes. They have the flexibility to configure them to meet the specific requirements.
Users are also responsible for upgrading Kubernetes on managed nodes and for managing cluster capacity. You can create managed nodes and node pools in both basic clusters and enhanced clusters, whereas in virtual nodes, virtual nodes provide a serverless Kubernetes, experience, enabling users to run containerized applications at scale. The Kubernetes software is upgraded and security patches are applied while respecting application's availability requirements. You can only create virtual nodes and virtual node pools in enhanced clusters.
02:17
Nikita: What about differences in terms of resource allocation? Are there any differences we should be aware of?
Mahendra: When it comes to managed nodes, the resource allocation is at the node pool level and the users specify CPU and memory resource requirements for a given node pool. In the virtual nodes, the resource allocation is done at the pod level, where you can specify the CPU and memory resource requirements, but this time, as requests and limits in the pod specification.
02:45
Lois: What about differences in the approach to load balancing?
Mahendra: When it comes to managed nodes, load balancing is between the worker nodes, whereas in virtual nodes, load balancing is between pods.
Also, load balancer security list management is never enabled, and you always must manually configure security rules. When using virtual nodes, load balances distribute traffic among pods' IP addresses and then assign node port.
03:12
Lois: And when it comes to pod networking?
Mahendra: Under managed nodes, both the VCN-Native Pod Networking CNI plugin and the flannel CNI plugin are supported. When it comes to virtual nodes, only VCN-Native Pod Networking is supported.
Also, only one VNIC is attached to each virtual node. Remember, IP addresses are not pre-allocated before pods are created. And the VCN-Native Pod Networking CNI plugin is not shown...
Best of 2024: Autonomous Database on Serverless Infrastructure
Oracle University Podcast
12/17/24 • 17 min
00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started.
00:26
Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I’m Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs with Oracle University, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services.
Nikita: Hi everyone! We hope you’ve been enjoying these last few weeks as we’ve been revisiting our most popular episodes of the year.
Lois: Today’s episode is the last one in this series and is a throwback to a conversation on Autonomous Databases on Serverless Infrastructure with three experts in the field: Hannah Nguyen, Sean Stacey, and Kay Malcolm. Hannah is a Staff Cloud Engineer, Sean is the Director of Platform Technology Solutions, and Kay is Vice President of Database Product Management. For this episode, we’ll be sharing portions of our conversations with them.
01:14
Nikita: We began by asking Hannah how Oracle Cloud handles the process of provisioning an Autonomous Database. So, let’s jump right in!
Hannah: The Oracle Cloud automates the process of provisioning an Autonomous Database, and it automatically provisions for you a highly scalable, highly secure, and a highly available database very simply out of the box.
01:35
Lois: Hannah, what are the components and architecture involved when provisioning an Autonomous Database in Oracle Cloud?
Hannah: Provisioning the database involves very few steps. But it's important to understand the components that are part of the provisioned environment. When provisioning a database, the number of CPUs in increments of 1 for serverless, storage in increments of 1 terabyte, and backup are automatically provisioned and enabled in the database. In the background, an Oracle 19c pluggable database is being added to the container database that manages all the user's Autonomous Databases. Because this Autonomous Database runs on Exadata systems, Real Application Clusters is also provisioned in the background to support the on-demand CPU scalability of the service. This is transparent to the user and administrator of the service. But be aware it is there.
02:28
Nikita: Ok...So, what sort of flexibility does the Autonomous Database provide when it comes to managing resource usage and costs, you know... especially in terms of starting, stopping, and scaling instances?
Hannah: The Autonomous Database allows you to start your instance very rapidly on demand. It also allows you to stop your instance on demand as well to conserve resources and to pause billing. Do be aware that when you do pause billing, you will not be charged for any CPU cycles because your instance will be stopped. However, you'll still be incurring charges for your monthly billing for your storage. In addition to allowing you to start and stop your instance on demand, it's also possible to scale your database instance on demand as well. All of this can be done very easily using the Database Cloud Console.
...Oracle AI in Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management
Oracle University Podcast
11/19/24 • 31 min
In this special episode of the Oracle University Podcast, Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham, along with Principal HCM Instructor Jeff Schuster, delve into the intersection of HCM and AI, exploring the practical applications and implications of this technology in human resources.
Jeff shares his insights on bias and fairness, the importance of human involvement, and the need for explainability and transparency in AI systems. The discussion also covers the various AI features embedded in HCM and their impact on talent acquisition, performance management, and succession planning.
Oracle AI in Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/learning-path/oracle-ai-in-fusion-cloud-human-capital-management-hcm/136722
Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM: Dynamic Skills: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-fusion-cloud-hcm-dynamic-skills/116654/
Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Oracle_Edu
Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.
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00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started!
00:26
Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I’m Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs here at Oracle University, and with me, is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead of Editorial Services.
Nikita: Hi everyone! Last week’s conversation was all about Oracle Database 23ai backup and recovery, where we dove into instance recovery and effective recovery strategies. Today’s episode is a really special one, isn’t it, Lois?
00:53
Lois: It is, indeed, Niki. Of course, all of our AI episodes are special. But today, we have our friend and colleague Jeff Schuster with us. I think our listeners are really going to enjoy what Jeff has to share with us.
Nikita: Yeah definitely! Jeff is a Principal HCM Instructor at Oracle University. He recently put together this really fantastic course on MyLearn, all about the intersection of HCM and AI, and that’s what we want to pick his brain about today. Hi Jeff! We’re so excited to have you here.
01:22
Jeff: Hey Niki! Hi Lois! I feel special already. Thanks you guys so much for having me.
Nikita: You’ve had a couple of busy months, haven’t you?
01:29
Jeff: I have! It’s been a busy couple of months with live classes. I try and do one on AI in HCM at least once a month or so so that we can keep up with the latest/greatest stuff in that area. And I also got to spend a few days at Cloud World teaching a few live classes (about artificial intelligence in HCM, as a matter of fact) and meeting our customers and partners. So yeah, absolutely great week. A good time was had by me.
01:55
Lois: I’m sure. Cloud World is such a great experience. And just to clarify, do you think our customers and partners also had a good time, Jeff? It wasn’t just you, right?
Jeff: Haha! I don’t think it was just me, Lois. But, you know, HCM is always a big deal, and now with all the embedded AI functionality, it really wasn’t hard to find people who wanted to spend a little extra time talking about AI in the context of our HCM apps. So, there are more than 30 separate AI-powered features in HCM. AI features for candidates to find the right jobs; for hiring managers to find the right candidates; skills, talent, performance management, succession planning— all of it is there and it really covers everything across the Attract/Grow/Keep buckets of the things that HR professionals do for a living. So, anyway, yeah, lots to talk about with a lot of people!
There’s the functional part that people want to know about—what are these features and how do they work? But obviously, AI carries with it all this cultural significance these days. There’s so much uncertainty that comes from this pace of development in that area. So in fact, my Cloud World talk always starts with this really silly intro that we put in place just to knock down that anxiety and get to the more practical, ...
Monitoring MySQL and HeatWave
Oracle University Podcast
02/25/25 • 21 min
00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started!
00:25
Lois: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I’m Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs with Oracle University, and with me today is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services.
Nikita: Hey everyone! In our last two episodes, we spoke about MySQL backups, exploring their critical role in data recovery, error correction, data migration, and more.
Lois: Today, we’re switching gears to talk about monitoring MySQL instances. We’ll also explore the features and benefits of HeatWave with Perside Foster, a MySQL Principal Solution Engineer at Oracle.
01:02
Nikita: Hi, Perside! We’re thrilled to have you here for one last time this season. So, let’s start by discussing the importance of monitoring systems in general, especially when it comes to MySQL.
Perside: Database administrators face a lot of challenges, and these sometimes appear in the form of questions that a DBA must answer. One of the most basic question is, why is the database slow? To address this, the next step is to determine which queries are taking the longest. Queries that take a long time might be because they are not correctly indexed. Then we get to some environmental queries or questions. How can we find out if our replicas are out of date? If lag is too much of a problem? Can I restore my last backup? Is the database storage likely to fill up any time soon? Can and should we consider adding more servers and scaling out the system?
And when it comes to users and making sure they're behaving correctly, has the database structure changed? And if so, who did it and what did they do? And more generally, what security issues have arisen? How can I see what has happened and how can I fix it? Performance is always at the top of the list of things a DBA worries about. The underlying hardware will always be a factor but is one of the things a DBA has the least flexibility with changing over the short time. The database structure, choice of data types and the overall size of retained data in the active data set can be a problem.
03:01
Nikita: What are some common performance issues that database administrators encounter?
Perside: The sort of SQL queries that the application runs can be an issue. 90% of performance problems come from the SQL index and schema group.
03:18
Lois: Perside, can you give us a checklist of the things we should monitor?
Perside: Make sure your system is working. Monitor performance continually. Make sure replication is working. Check your backup. Keep an eye on disk space and how it grows over time. Check when long running queries block your application and identify those queries. Protect your database structure from unauthorized changes. Make sure the operating system itself is working fine and check that nothing unusual happened at that level. Keep aware of security vulnerabilities in your software and operating system and ensure that they are kept updated. Verify that your database memory usage is under control.
04:14
Lois: That’s a great list, Perside. Thanks for that. Now, what tools can we use to effectively monitor MySQL?
Perside: The slow query log is a simple way to monitor long running queries. Two variables control the log queries. Long_query_time. If a query takes longer than this many seconds, it gets logged. And then there's min_exam_row_lim...
MySQL Security - Part 1
Oracle University Podcast
01/28/25 • 13 min
00:00
Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we’ll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let’s get started!
00:25
Lois: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I’m Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs with Oracle University, and with me today is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead of Editorial Services.
Nikita: Hey everyone! In our last episode, we took a look at MySQL database design. Today is the first of a two-part episode on MySQL security.
Lois: In Part 1, we’ll discuss how MySQL supports regulatory compliance and how to spot and handle common security risks.
00:55
Nikita: Joining us today is Ravish Patel, a MySQL Solution Engineer at Oracle. Hi Ravish! Let’s start by talking about how MySQL supports regulatory compliance.
01:06
Ravish: Some of the most important international regulations that we have surrounding data and organizations include the GDPR, HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, the UK Data Protection Act, and the NIS2.
Although each regulatory framework differs in the details, in general, you must be able to comply with certain key requirements and all of which are enabled by MySQL. First, you must be able to monitor user activity on the system, which includes keeping track of when new users are created, when the schema changes, and when backups are taken and used. You must protect data, for example, by ensuring that databases that are stored on disk are encrypted at REST and ensuring that only authorized users have privileges to access and modify the data.
You must have the appropriate retention policies in place for your data, ensuring that backups are held securely and used only for the purpose intended. You must be able to audit access to the data so that you can trace which users gained access to records or when they were modified. All of these facilities are available in MySQL, either as part of the core community edition features or made available through enterprise features.
02:21
Lois: What kind of risks might we encounter, Ravish, and how can we address them?
Ravish: As your system grows in complexity, you're likely going to have more risks associated with it. Some of those risks are associated with the human factors that come with any computer system. These might be errors that are introduced when people perform work on the system, either administrative work on the environment or database or work that developers and testers perform when working on a changing system. You might even have malicious users trying to exploit the system or good faith users or support staff who make changes without proper consideration or protection from knock-on effects.
At the foundation are the necessary components of the system, each of which might be vulnerable to human error or malicious actors. Every piece of the system exposes possible risks, whether that's the application presented to users, the underlying database, the operating system or network that it works on, or processes such as backups that place copies of your data in other locations.
More complex environments add more risks. High availability architectures multiply the number of active systems. Consolidating multiple application databases on a single server exposes every database to multiple vectors for bugs and human error. Older, less well supported applications might give more challenges for maintenance. Engaging external contractors might reduce your control over authorized users. And working in the cloud ca...
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FAQ
How many episodes does Oracle University Podcast have?
Oracle University Podcast currently has 114 episodes available.
What topics does Oracle University Podcast cover?
The podcast is about Oracle, Podcasts, Technology, Education and Java.
What is the most popular episode on Oracle University Podcast?
The episode title 'Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Registry' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Oracle University Podcast?
The average episode length on Oracle University Podcast is 16 minutes.
How often are episodes of Oracle University Podcast released?
Episodes of Oracle University Podcast are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of Oracle University Podcast?
The first episode of Oracle University Podcast was released on Feb 7, 2023.
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