difference between versions

[mgl70]

Hello,
Does anybody know about the difference between oracle versions

oracle 10g to 9i
9i to 8i
8 8i
8 7
7 6
for pl/sql , forms and reports.

where can I get the information about these versions

I think higher versions, have more features

I know little bit on this. I donot know the exact

difference.Some we canot do in lowerversions.

if anybody knows, please post the link.



thanks,

 

[SantaMufasa]

MGL70,

When I Google'd just now, here were my results:

"Oracle 6 New Features": 0 hits (probably since Oracle 6 was "new" in the late 1980s.)
"Oracle 7 New Features": 4 hits
"Oracle 8 New Features": 184 hits
"Oracle 8i New Features": 1,220 hits
"Oracle 9 New Features": 2 hits
"Oracle 9i New Features": 2,550 hits
"Oracle 10 New Features": 8 hits
"Oracle 10g New Features": 529 hits

I'm guessing that similar queries for "pl/sql , forms and reports" will yield more specific results for your need. But you will find the result most satisfying when you do the searching yourself. If you put together a nice "Features Comparison Matrix for Oracle Versions 6 through 10g", you will have a very valuable product which you could either market or make available on the Internet, receiving kudos from us all !

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA @ 19:07 (26Jul04) UTC (aka "GMT" and "Zulu"), 12:07 (26Jul04) Mountain Time)

 

[mgl70]

thank you very much for the nice advice. But still I am not getting some information on older versions.

o.k I will find out slowly and share with you.

thanks,

 

[mgl70]

hi Musafa,
I still need the oracle 6 and oracle 7 features. as you said there are no hits in the google search.
thanks,

 

[SantaMufasa]

MGL70,

Next, I would check out "

http://www.otn.oracle.com"

and search for your topics. Not to discourage you, but my initial searches on "

http://www.otn.oracle.com"

turned up very little about Oracle 6 and Oracle 7 as far as a feature listing is concerned. Another site to check is

http://tahiti.oracle.com/pls/tahiti/tahiti.homepage.

Keep us informed of your adventure.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA @ 00:12 (28Jul04) UTC (aka "GMT" and "Zulu"), 17:12 (27Jul04) Mountain Time)

 

[HimanB]

Hi,
Here is the Required Info for you.

Regards
Himanshu

Differences between Releases

· Differences Between Version 6 and Release 7.0
· Differences Between Release 7.0 and Release 7.1
· Differences Between Release 7.1 and Release 7.2
· Differences Between Release 7.2 and Release 7.3
· Differences Between Release 7.3 and Release 8.0.3
· Differences Between Release 8.0.3 and Release 8.0.4
· Differences Between 8.1 and 8.1.6


Differences Between Version 6 and Release 7.0

Version Compatibility

The Parallel Server Option for Version 6 is upwardly compatible with Oracle7 with one exception. In Version 6 all instances share the same set of redo log files, whereas in Oracle7 each instance has its own set of redo log files

File Operations

While the database is mounted in parallel mode, Oracle7 supports the following file operations that Oracle Version 6 only supported in exclusive mode:
· Adding, renaming, or dropping a data file
· Taking a data file offline or online
· Creating, altering, or dropping a tablespace
· Taking a tablespace offline or online

The instance that executes these operations may have the database open, as well as mounted

A redo log file cannot be dropped when it is active, or when dropping it would reduce the number of groups for that thread below two. When taking a data file online or offline in Oracle7, the instance can have the database either open or closed and mounted. If any other instance has the database open, the instance taking the file online or offline must also have the database open.

Deferred Rollback Segments

Version 6 does not support taking tablespaces offline in parallel mode, so the initialization parameter GC_SAVE_ROLLBACK_LOCKS is not necessary in Oracle Version 6. In Oracle7, this parameter is required for deferred rollback segments.
The global constant parameter GC_SAVE_ROLLBACK_LOCKS reserves distributed locks for deferred rollback segments, which contain rollback entries for transactions in tablespaces that were taken offline

Redo Logs

In Oracle Version 6, all instances share the same set of online redo log files and each instance writes to the space allocated to it within the current redo log file.

In Oracle7, each instance has its own set of redo log files. A set of redo log files is called a thread of redo. Thread numbers are associated with redo log files when the files are added to the database, and each instance acquires a thread number when it starts up. Log switches are performed on a per-instance basis in Oracle7; log switches in Oracle Version 6 apply to all instances, because the instances share redo log files

Oracle7 introduces mirroring of online redo log files. The degree of mirroring is determined on a per-instance basis. This allows you to specify mirroring according to the requirements of the applications that run on each instance.

ALTER SYSTEM SWITCH LOGFILE

In Oracle Version 6, all instances shared one set of online redo log files. Therefore, the ALTER SYSTEM SWITCH LOGFILE statement forced all instances to do a log switch to the new redo log file.

No global option for this SQL statement in Oracle7, but you can force all instances to switch log files (and archive all online log files up to the switch) by using the ALTER SYSTEM ARCHIVE
LOG CURRENT statement

Initialization Parameters

The LOG_ALLOCATION parameter of Oracle Version 6 is obsolete in Oracle7. Oracle7 includes the new initialization parameter THREAD, which associates a set of redo log files with a particular instance at startup

Free Space Lists

Space Freed by Deletions and Updates

In Oracle Version 6, blocks freed by deletions or by updates that shrank rows are added to the common pool of free space. In Oracle7, blocks will go to the free list and free list group of the process that deletes them

Free Lists for Clusters

In Oracle Version 6, the FREELISTS and FREELIST GROUPS storage options are not available for the CREATE CLUSTER statement, and the ALLOCATE EXTENT clause is not available for the ALTER CLUSTER statement.

In Oracle7, clusters (except for most hash clusters) can use multiple free lists by specifying the FREELISTS and FREELIST GROUPS storage options of CREATE CLUSTER and by assigning extents to instances with the statement ALTER CLUSTER ALLOCATE EXTENT
(INSTANCE n).

Initialization Parameters

The FREELISTS and FREELIST GROUPS storage options replace the initialization parameters FREE_LIST_INST and FREE_LIST_PROC of Oracle Version 6.


SQL*DBA

STARTUP and SHUTDOWN must be done while disconnected in Version 6. In Oracle7, Release 7.0, STARTUP and SHUTDOWN must be issued while connected as INTERNAL, or as SYSDBA or SYSOPER

Initialization Parameters

New Parameters

The new initialization parameter THREAD associates a set of redo log files with a particular instance at startup



Obsolete Parameters

The following initialization parameters used in earlier versions of the Parallel Server Option are now obsolete in Oracle7.

· ENQUEUE_DEBUG_MULTI_INSTANCE
· FREE_LIST_INST
· FREE_LIST_PROC
· GC_SORT_LOCKS
· INSTANCES
· LANGUAGE
· LOG_ALLOCATION
· LOG_DEBUG_MULTI_INSTANCE
· MI_BG_PROCS (renamed to GC_LCK_PROCS)
· ROW_CACHE_ENQUEUE
· ROW_CACHE_MULTI_INSTANCE



Differences between Release 7.0 and Release 7.1

Initialization Parameters

CACHE_SIZE_THRESHOLD was added

Dynamic Performance Views

The following views changed:
· V$BH
· V$CACHE
· V$PING
· V$LOCK_ACTIVITY


Differences between Release 7.1 and Release 7.2

Pre-Allocating Space Unnecessary

For most parallel server configurations it is no longer necessary to pre-allocate data blocks to retain partitioning of data across free list groups. When a row is inserted, a group of data blocks is allocated to the appropriate free list group for an instance.

Data Dictionary Views

The following views were added specifically for the Parallel Server Option:
· FILE_LOCK
· FILE_PING


Dynamic Performance Views

The following views changed:
· V$BH
· V$CACHE
· V$PING
· V$LOCK_ACTIVITY

The following views were added:
· V$FALSE_PING
· V$LOCKS_WITH_COLLISIONS
· V$LOCK_ELEMENT

Table Locks

It is now possible to disable the ability for a user to lock a table using the command:
ALTER TABLE table_name DISABLE TABLE LOCK

Re-enabling table locks is accomplished using the following command:
ALTER TABLE table_name ENABLE TABLE LOCK

Lock Processes

The PCM locks held by a failing instance are now recovered by the lock processes of the instance recovering for the failed instance


Differences between Release 7.2 and Release 7.3

Initialization Parameters

The following initialization parameters were added specifically for the Parallel Server Option:
· CLEANUP_ROLLBACK_ENTRIES
· DELAYED_LOGGING_BLOCK_CLEANOUTS
· GC_FREELIST_GROUPS
· GC_RELEASABLE_LOCKS

Data Dictionary Views

The following view was added specifically for the Parallel Server Option:
· FILE_LOCK

Dynamic Performance Views

The following view changed:
· V$BH

The following views were added:
· V$SORT_SEGMENT
· V$ACTIVE_INSTANCES
Free List Groups

You can now set free list groups for indexes, as well as for tables and clusters

Instance Registration

This feature enables each instance to register itself and certain of its attributes, and to establish contact with any other instance. Instance registration is transparent to the user, except in the case of parallel execution failure on remote instances of a parallel server. If a parallel query dies due to an error on a remote instance, the failed instance is now identified in the error message.

Sort Improvements

This release offers a more efficient way of allocating sort temporary space, which reduces serialization and cross-instance pinging.

Deferred Transaction Recovery

Transaction recovery behavior has changed to allow:
· Greater database availability during startup
· Transactions to be recovered in parallel, if needed
· Recovery of long transactions without interfering with recovery of short transactions

Fast Warmstart

In previous releases, the database could not be opened until complete transaction recovery was performed after a failure. As of release 7.3, the database is opened for connections as soon as cache recovery is completed.

This means that active transactions as of the time of the failure are not yet rolled back; they appear active (holding row locks) to users of the system. Furthermore, all transactions system-wide that were active as of the time of failure are marked DEAD and the rollback segments containing these transactions are marked PARTIALLY AVAILABLE. These transactions are recovered as part of SMON recovery in the background, or by foreground processes that may encounter them, as described in the next section. The rollback segment is available for onlining.

Bypassing Cache for Sort Operations

The default value for the SORT_DIRECT_WRITES initialization parameter is now AUTO; it will turn itself on if your sort area is a certain size or greater. This will improve performance


Differences Between Release 7.3 and Release 8.0.3

New Initialization Parameters

The following parameters were added specifically for Oracle Parallel Server:
· FREEZE_DB_FOR_FAST_INSTANCE_RECOVERY
· LM_LOCKS
· LM_PROCS
· LM_RESS
· INSTANCE_GROUPS
· PARALLEL_INSTANCE_GROUP
· OPS_ADMIN_GROUP
· ALLOW_PARTIAL_SN_RESULTS

Obsolete GC_* Parameters

The following global cache lock initialization parameters are obsolete:
· GC_DB_LOCKS parameter
· GC_FREELIST_GROUPS parameter
· GC_ROLLBACK_SEGMENTS parameter
· GC_SAVE_ROLLBACK_LOCKS parameter
· GC_SEGMENTS parameter
· GC_TABLESPACES parameter

Changed GC_* Parameters

The following parameters have changed:
· GC_FILES_TO_LOCKS
· GC_ROLLBACK_LOCKS
· GC_RELEASABLE_LOCKS

Dynamic Performance Views

The following views are new:
· V$RESOURCE_LIMIT
· V$DLM_CONVERT_LOCAL
· V$DLM_CONVERT_REMOTE
· V$DLM_LATCH
· V$DLM_MISC
· V$FILE_PING
· V$CLASS_PING

The following views changed:
· V$BH
· V$SESSIONS
· V$SYSSTAT

Global Dynamic Performance Views

Global dynamic performance views (GV$ fixed views) were added, corresponding to each of the V$ views except for V$ROLLNAME

Distributed Lock Manager

Oracle Parallel Server release 8.0 is not dependent on an external Distributed Lock Manager. The lock management facility is now internal to Oracle. The Integrated Distributed Lock Manager is dependent on an external node monitor
LMON and LMDn processes have been added

Instance Groups

The ability to logically group instances together and perform operations upon all of the associated instances was added

Fine Grain Locking

In Oracle Parallel Server release 8.0, fine grain locking is available on all platforms. It is enabled by default

Client-Side Application Failover

Oracle8 supports the ability of the application to automatically reconnect if the connection to the database is broken.

Recovery Manager

Recovery Manager (RMAN) is now the preferred method of recovery from media failure.



Differences between Release 8.0.3 and Release 8.0.4

New Initialization Parameters

The following initialization parameters were added for Oracle Parallel Server:
· OGMS_HOME
· GC_LATCHES
· PARALLEL_SERVER

Obsolete Initialization Parameters

The following initialization parameters are obsolete:
· MTS_LISTENER_ADDRESS
· MTS_MULTIPLE_LISTENERS

Obsolete Startup Parameters

· PARALLEL
· EXCLUSIVE

Dynamic Performance Views

The following view has changed:
· V$DLM_LOCKS



Differences Between 8.0.4 and 8.1

Cache Fusion Architecture Changes

When one instance requests a consistent-read (CR) on a block held by another instance, Cache Fusion processing sends a CR copy of the requested block directly to the requesting instance by way of the interconnect. This greatly reduces cache coherency contention among instances during read/write conflicts.

Implementation of Cache Fusion requires that some background and foreground processes, namely LMON and LCK, now communicate directly from one instance to another over the interconnect. A new process, the Block Server Process (BSP), rolls back uncommitted transactions and copies CR server blocks for transmission to requesting instances. This reduces the pinging required to maintain cache coherency, thereby greatly improving performance

New Views

The following views are new:
· V$DLM_ALL_LOCKS view is new and shows statistics on locks whether they are blocking or blocked locks as well as all other lock types.
· V$DLM_RESS view is new and shows all resources associated with a lock according to lock type.
· V$DLM_CONVERT_LOCAL view is new and shows lock conversion statistics for locks opened on the local node.
· V$DLM_CONVERT_REMOTE view is new and shows lock conversion statistics for locks opened on remote nodes.
· V$DLM_MISC view is new and shows DLM message information.

Parallel Transaction Recovery is now "Fast-Start Parallel Rollback"

The name of the feature "Parallel Transaction Recovery" is now called "Fast-Start Parallel Rollback." In addition to the name change, in 8.0, SMON serially processed rollback segment recovery. This lead to extended rollback recovery periods. In 8.1, Fast-start parallel rollback reduces recovery time thus making the database available sooner. Parallel rollback uses multiple processes to recover rollback segments when the value for the parameter FAST_START_PARALLEL_ROLLBACK, previously known as PARALLEL_TRANSACTION_RECOVERY, is greater than one.

Changes to Instance Registration

The single name previously used to identify a service (SID) is replaced by three levels of addressing. The new parameters for instance registration are:

PRIVATE SERVICE_NAME Name of highest level view of the service, specified in TNSNAMES.ORA. May span instances or nodes.
SERVICE_NAMES Instance name of the service that can span several nodes. This parameter is specified in INIT.ORA
INSTANCE_NAME Name of mid-level tier of the service. Corresponds to the ORACLE_SID of an instance.


Listener Load Balancing

The TNS listener now performs load balancing over distributed services spanning multiple nodes. The service, instance, and handler names are used to determine the load balancing behavior.
· A client program specifies the name of the service it wants to connect to.
· The listener finds the least loaded instance in the service.
· The listener finds the least loaded handler in the instance.
· The listener redirects the client to the optimal handler.

Diagnostic Enhancements

Oradebug is a utility used by consulting and support personnel to diagnose and troubleshoot problematic systems at runtime. Oradebug functionality is extended for the Oracle Parallel Server

Oracle Parallel Server Management (OPSM)

OPSM is an option that simplifies parallel server administration. OPSM's 8.1 enhancements provide a single generic interface for administering parallel servers on any platform

Obsolete Parameters

The following parameters are obsolete as of release 8.1:
· GC_LCK_PROCS
· GC_LATCHES
· PARALLEL_DEFAULT_MAX_INSTANCES
· LOG_FILES
· OPS_ADMIN_GROUP
· CACHE_SIZE_THRESHOLD
· OGMS_HOME
· ALLOW_PARTIAL_SN_RESULTS
· SEQUENCE_CACHE_ENTRIES


Differences Between 8.1 and 8.1.6

New Features

· Primary/Secondary Instance - You can implement a basic high availability configuration using the Primary/Secondary Instance feature. This feature serves two-node Oracle Parallel Server environments. The primary instance on one node accepts user connections while the secondary instance on the other node only accepts connections when the primary node fails

Obsolete Parameters

The LM_PROCS parameter is obsolete

Obsolete Statistics

The following statistics are obsolete:
· global cache consistent read from disk
· global cache fairness down converts

New Statistics

The following statistics are new:
· "global cache cr block send time" - total time to send the block.
· "global cache cr block log flushes" - number of log flushes.
· "global cache cr block log flush time" - total time log flushes took.
· "global cache prepare failures" - number of prepares which failed.

Changes in Default Parameter Settings

The default setting for GC_ROLLBACK_LOCKS is "0-128=32!8REACH" This protects rollback segments 0 through 129 with locks

LM_LOCKS and LM_RESS Automatically Set by Oracle

Oracle automatically sets values for LM_LOCKS and LM_RESS based on settings in your initialization parameter files.

Oracle: For Operating Systems

OS/390
Oracle for OS/390 (MVS) Mainframes and MVS OpenEdition Unix Systems Services
Unix
Linux
Oracle for Linux and FreeBSD

Windows NT and 2000

Novell NetWare
VMS

 

[mgl70]

Hi Himanshu,
You gave us detailed collected information.
Thank you very much.

regards,

 

[mgl70]

Hi Himanshu,
I read all the information which you posted. It is very useful for DBA's. But I need major differences in sql,plsql,forms and reports in all versions since I am an entry level programmer/developer.
thanks,
regards,

 

[HimanB]

Mgl70,
This is a list which my Team compiled for our reference.
In order to look for the differences you may please refer to OTN and look for New fetaures Documentation of each version.

Regards
Himanshu

 

[mgl70]

Thank you Hima . I will do that.
regards,