Query Rewrite: What is MySQL Doing To My Queries?

The Impact of Query Rewrite on MySQL Query Optimization When processing a query, every relational database vendor takes a number of similar steps to parse, validate, and optimize a query. MySQL does the following: Validates the query syntax — does it use valid operators, are the clauses in the proper order, etc. Validates the query […]

Database Security: Is Your Database Vulnerable To Internal Attack?

Enforcing Least Privilege To Enhance Database Security The principle of least privilege refers to the practice of ensuring that each individual has only the privilege and access that is necessary to perform their job function. In most IT shops that run an Oracle database, there are a group of individuals that need administrative access to the operating system and […]

Database Security Issues in the Cloud, Part 2: Regulatory Compliance

As the number of databases moving to public, private and hybrid cloud computing infrastructure increases, security concerns are a significant and growing problem. Organizations will do well to scrutinize the security practices of cloud providers and other third parties that store their data. But wherever databases are running, responsibility for the security and integrity of […]

Advantages and Disadvantages of Disk-Based Backup and Recovery

Data Backup Advantages & Disadvantages While tape-based backup approaches may still be optimal for long-term data retention, more and more database storage/backup administrators are moving from tape to disk technology for everyday data backup and data recovery. This is not surprising as disk is faster to write to and faster to recover from, as well […]

Why I Avoid Database Hints: a followup

In an earlier blog post about database hints, I gave a number of reasons why I dont like to use hints in SQL queries. Today I wanted to follow up to share one situation where I think hints are OK, even necessary. As described very well in an article in an article by Andrew Kelly […]

Secure The Database, Inside and Out

It has been a relatively short time since I wrote my last post on database security but so many breaches have occurred since then that it seems like much longer. In just the past few months, Sony’s gaming system was shut down for two weeks, a nuclear facility in Iran was physically damaged by nefarious code […]

Oracle Security: Oracle’s Audit All Command Doesn’t Really Audit All

When attempting to make their Oracle database as secure as possible, many organizations turn on Oracle’s auditing feature. Oracle has a very robust auditing feature that enables us to log every action taken in the database. We can audit connections, object creation, data updates, deletes, and many other database activities. Some organizations turn on auditing […]

Bridge the Gap Between Database Security and Application Security

Strong Database Security Today’s database systems have sophisticated security mechanisms designed to enable the protection of data and the tracking of the viewing and modification of the data. For example, Oracle has database roles that govern what database objects a user can see and edit.  Oracle also has auditing features that enable us to track […]

Database Security Issues in the Cloud: Part 1

Cloud Database Security Issues And Challenges The benefits of cloud computing, including reduced IT ownership and operating costs and improved resource utilization, are just too good for many organizations to pass up. More and more businesses of all sizes are moving a wide range of applications to cloud environments. But database security concerns remain a […]

Five Leading Causes of Oracle Database Performance Problems

As we evaluate our clients’ Oracle databases and help them solve problems relating to performance and stability, we see many causes for these issues. However, there are a small number of basic issues that tend to cause problems on the majority of systems. Our Tech Tips document describes these issues and discusses methods of identifying them and resolving […]