With Oracle 11g now well on its way in the market, I wanted to comment on one of the best new options available: Real Application Testing. Oracle 11g now allows DBAs the ability to capture their exisiting workload on a production system and play it back on a test system exactly as it behaved on production. Sound too good to be true? It isn't. In fact, its very easy to do. Oracle 11g RAT is able to capture the workload on an Oracle 10g database then replay it on an 11g database to see what has improved, remain unchanged, and what has regressed. With the release of Oracle 10g's 10.2.0.4 patchset, all Oracle 10g production databases can have their workload replayed on an Oracle 11g database and find issues before actually upgrading. What a great way to minimize risk. With the 11g RAT, there are two steps to take:
1. Database Replay
2. SQL Performance Analyzer (SPA)
The Database Replay feature enables users to perform real-world testing by capturing the actual database workload on the production system and replaying it on the test system. The replay on the test system can be done with production characteristics including timing and concurrency. It also provides analysis and reporting to highlight potential problems and recommend ways to remedy the problems. You also have the ability to perform load testing with Database Replay. By running the captured workload in parallel or quickening thr execution rate, the captured workload will simiulate real-world load testing. With either option, you decide how long you want to capture your production workload and when you want to capture your production workload. For example, if you were running a batch load at 4am to 5am, you can capture the entire batch process. Or if you are interested in capture the daily transactions from 11am to 1pm, Database Replay will create a job and execute during the times you are interested in capturing.

~Linda
http://linda-smith.blogspot.com (See 11.11.2007 entry)

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