Carlos Sierra's Tools and Tips

New tool sqld360 is now available! Mauro Pagano released this cool new tool a few hours ago. And yes, it is free for all!

So, what is sqld360? Well, it is an install-nothing free software that tells you a lot about one SQL statement. And if your site has an Oracle Tuning Pack or Diagnostics Pack license, then you get a lot more from sqld360. Sample snapshot below shows you the dynamic menu for a simple SQL. This sqld360 new tool uses similar techniques than edb360, so it displays information as html, text, csv and in some cases it uses some cool Google charts.

The obvious question is why would I use this sqld360 instead of SQLT or SQLHC? The answer is: you can use them all. What makes sqld360 different to SQLT is that sqld360 installs nothing on the database. And what makes sqld360 different to SQLHC is that sqld360 is available as free software on a GitHub repository, so you don’t have to have a MOS account available. Any Oracle user can download and use sqld360 starting today!

In terms of content, I can say that SQLHC gives you some Observations and sqld360 does not (yet). Besides that, I think sqld360 is superior to SQLHC simply because it is more mature and developed from scratch using newer techniques.

SQLT is a different animal. It provides tons of functionality developed over a decade. This sqld360 is on its first release, but it will certainly grow over time but only in the right directions. From the beginning, sqld360 focuses on what is important for tuners and for those in need to diagnose a SQL misbehaving. So simply put, sqld360 is faster and better focused than SQLT and SQLHC. We can call it “the next generation”.

Why free? The answer is: Why not? When Mauro and I started discussing sqld360, we decided to continue developing cool scripts and tools on our own personal time, on our own hardware, and without taking anything from anyone. So this is kind of our contribution to our Oracle community. I have provided edb360 and Mauro is providing sqld360. Mauro and myself would love to blog more often, but if we have to decide where to put our personal time, we both are more inclined to invest on free tools (after of course our family duties).

It is hard to appreciate with a sample execution from one of our systems, but if you look at chart below you may get to see how a SQL of interest compares to the system load. This kind of chart is helpful when you are trying to understand how a particular SQL affects a given load for a certain time window. Or when you need to documents your findings to business leaders.

I could continue telling more about sqld360, but the best way to appreciate it is by actually trying it on one of your own SQL statements. You can go to Mauro’s blog post about sqld360 and download this tool following instructions there. Then give it a shot, after all you have nothing to loose.

Forgot to mention this: sqld360 as well as edb360 work through a SQL*Plus connection, either on the database server or on a PC client. This is important since quite often we road-warriors and even in-house developers may not have access to OEM or some other persistently-connected tools. Then, with sqld360 and edb360, using a SQL*Plus connection you can extract enough metadata to analyze and comprehend what is happening on the entire database or around one particular SQL, all without having to be persistently-connected to the database. Yes, you can do all your analysis remotely from home! yay!

And, by the way, as of today edb360 calls sqld360 on SQL of interest. So if you are already using edb360 you may want to download version v1504 dated February 15, 2015. This edb360 v1504 contains sqld360.

I hope you enjoy both tools. Life is Good!