Boost RMAN Incremental Performance in Oracle 19c with Block Change Tracking (BCT)

In modern DBA practices, backup performance and efficiency are critical underpinnings of reliability and recovery SLAs. Oracle’s Block Change Tracking (BCT) feature exists to accelerate RMAN incremental backups by avoiding full datafile scans. In Oracle 19c, BCT continues to deliver value—and knowing how to enable, monitor, and disable it becomes essential for any serious DBA. […]

Detect and Correct Block Corruption in Oracle Databases

Database block corruption is one of the most dreaded issues for any DBA. Whether caused by storage faults, memory glitches, or human error, corruption can lead to data loss or application downtime if not handled carefully. Oracle provides multiple tools and techniques to detect, validate, and repair corruptions, both in non-CDB and multitenant (CDB/PDB) environments. […]

PIVOT and UNPIVOT in SELECT Statement

In reporting and analytics, we often need to rotate data — turning rows into columns or columns into rows.SQL provides two powerful operators for this purpose: PIVOT and UNPIVOT. Let’s explore them step by step with examples from the HR schema. Example 1: Pivoting Employee Count by Job and Department This query counts employees by […]

New Oracle 19c Data Guard Enhancements: What DBAs Should Know

In the journey toward resilient, high-availability database systems, Oracle continually evolves. With Oracle 19c, Data Guard gains a set of refined features that strengthen standby operations, simplify recovery, and improve manageability. In this post, we’ll explore the key new Data Guard features introduced in Oracle 19c and their operational impact. 1. Automatic Flashback of Standby […]