Production-grade Oracle DBA insights from a practising ACE Apprentice. Exadata, RAC, AWR, GoldenGate, OCI — the hard problems, solved in writing.https://oradiscuss.com/en-ushttps://oradiscuss.com/oci/part-3-of-3-updating-the-agents-from-ru5-to-ru8-one-estate-one-version-via-the-oem-patching-tool/https://oradiscuss.com/oci/part-3-of-3-updating-the-agents-from-ru5-to-ru8-one-estate-one-version-via-the-oem-patching-tool/The final post in the OEM 24ai RU5 to RU8 upgrade series, the mass agent update via OEM Agent Patching, off-peak batching across DEV, UAT, and PROD, and the validation queries that confirm every host in the estate is on the new RU.Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTociocioemoem-24aiupgradepatch-planpatchingMahmoud Darwishhttps://oradiscuss.com/oci/part-2-of-3-upgrading-the-oms-to-24108-using-zdt--three-tools-one-window-no-downtime/https://oradiscuss.com/oci/part-2-of-3-upgrading-the-oms-to-24108-using-zdt--three-tools-one-window-no-downtime/This is the 2nd part of the upgrade guide for OMS to 24ai R1 RU8 which just released this April.Thu, 07 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTociocioemoem-24aiupgradezdt-patchingomspatcherMahmoud Darwishhttps://oradiscuss.com/oci/from-ru5-to-ru8-upgrading-oem-24ai-the-right-way-part-1-of-3-start-with-the-foundation-patching-the-omr-database-on-oci/https://oradiscuss.com/oci/from-ru5-to-ru8-upgrading-oem-24ai-the-right-way-part-1-of-3-start-with-the-foundation-patching-the-omr-database-on-oci/This will be your only detailed guide to upgrade your OEM RU5 to RU8 correctly without making huge downtime.Sun, 03 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTociocioemoem-24aiupgradepatchingexadata19cMahmoud Darwishhttps://oradiscuss.com/oci/oracle-enterprise-manager-24ai-an-old-friend-got-a-serious-update/https://oradiscuss.com/oci/oracle-enterprise-manager-24ai-an-old-friend-got-a-serious-update/Do you know about the new features in 24ai, absolutely Yes, but have you tried it, it worths your time to do so...Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTociocioemoem-24aiperformanceMahmoud Darwishhttps://oradiscuss.com/dba/awr-is-talking-are-you-listening/https://oradiscuss.com/dba/awr-is-talking-are-you-listening/How to read an AWR report as a conversation rather than a symptom lookup — context, load profile, wait-event patterns, SQL and segments.Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTdbaoracle-databaseawrperformancewait-eventsdiagnosticsMahmoud Darwishhttps://oradiscuss.com/oci/dbcs-to-exacs-migration-untold-story/https://oradiscuss.com/oci/dbcs-to-exacs-migration-untold-story/Lessons from migrating production Oracle databases from DBCS to Exadata Cloud Service — the things the official guide skips.Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTociociexadataexacsdbcsmigrationdata-guardMahmoud Darwishhttps://oradiscuss.com/dba/gc-buffer-busy-acquired-rac/https://oradiscuss.com/dba/gc-buffer-busy-acquired-rac/A RAC gc buffer busy acquired war story — how an application optimisation concentrated hot blocks and doubled transaction times.Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTdbaoracle-databaseracwait-eventsgc-buffer-busyperformanceawrMahmoud Darwishhttps://oradiscuss.com/dba/online-partition-dbms-redefinition/https://oradiscuss.com/dba/online-partition-dbms-redefinition/Converting a 20TB monolithic table to range-interval partitioned IOT with LOB compression — online, using DBMS_REDEFINITION.Sun, 25 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTdbaoracle-databasepartitioningdbms-redefinitiononline-operationsMahmoud Darwishhttps://oradiscuss.com/community/oracle-ace-apprentice-how-to-join/https://oradiscuss.com/community/oracle-ace-apprentice-how-to-join/A personal note on joining the Oracle ACE program as an Apprentice and how the four-level path works for DBAs at any career stage.Sat, 24 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTcommunityoracle-acecareercommunityMahmoud Darwishhttps://oradiscuss.com/scripts/rman-backup-progress-monitoring/https://oradiscuss.com/scripts/rman-backup-progress-monitoring/Two practical SQL scripts for monitoring RMAN backup progress — compression ratio, percent complete, and estimated finish time.Thu, 20 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMTscriptsrmanbackupmonitoringoracle-databaseMahmoud Darwishhttps://oradiscuss.com/goldengate/bidirectional-replication-12c/https://oradiscuss.com/goldengate/bidirectional-replication-12c/Step-by-step GoldenGate 12c bidirectional replication setup on Oracle 12.1 and Solaris 11.2 SPARC — Extract, DataPump and Replicat.Sun, 27 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMTgoldengategoldengatereplicationoracle-database12csolarisMahmoud Darwishhttps://oradiscuss.com/dba/enable-disable-options-with-chopt/https://oradiscuss.com/dba/enable-disable-options-with-chopt/Use the chopt utility to disable unlicensed Oracle Enterprise Edition options and avoid licensing surprises on 11.2 and later.Wed, 24 Sep 2014 00:00:00 GMTdbaoracle-databasechoptlicensingpartitioningMahmoud Darwishhttps://oradiscuss.com/dba/fix-ora-01017-asmsnmp-missing/https://oradiscuss.com/dba/fix-ora-01017-asmsnmp-missing/Why DBCA fails with ORA-01017 after an 11.2.0.4 Grid Infrastructure install — the ASMSNMP user is missing, and here is how to create it.Sun, 24 Aug 2014 00:00:00 GMTdbaoracle-databaseasmgrid-infrastructuretroubleshootingora-0101711gMahmoud Darwish