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*  CoMinder SpaceStat  README.txt          *
*  Version: 0.55 (2013.06.16)              *
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*        Best read before use!             *
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*
* About: CoMinder SpaceStat - is the collection of scripts to collect space usage information 
*        by objects in DB and to report what, how many and how fast is "eating" the space.
*        There were no ready to use tools included with RDBMS, but it was easy to get required information.
*        I had made some steps to make by DBA life easier. 
*
* Developed by: Andrey Chervonets (ACE), SIA CoMinder, http://www.cominder.eu/
*   

Document changes:
2012.06.27: 0.53 - readme for published version
2012.10.16: 0.54 - purge added, add some words about it 
2013.06.16: 0.55 - direct link to "Space Control..." presentation, reference to other files 
 
* Changes history: see CHANGELOG.txt
* Bugs and fix status: see BUGHIST.txt
* Installation: see INSTALL.txt
* Upgrade: see UPGRADE.txt


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******* Long introduction to the subject *******
*** ( the Short introduction - see below :) ****
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  In Oracle DBA world now we have nice methodology and tools for managing many aspects
of DB and servers. One of the brightest things we can manage is performance.
May be because of customers experience(d) the most pains with systems performance,
Oracle developed and described working methodology and tools.
Who have time and intention can learn to be able to deal with it.

  But some things are still missing.

  Database and OS disk space sometimes also can be critical, specially when you have no 
proper monitoring system or do not feel this is critical thing to keep in mind. 
Even when You have monitoring and despite price per GB is falling down, space management 
can be trouble or even problem. Any changes require resources, starting with Your time, 
other peoples time and up to significant sum of money for new HDD, disk arrays, 
experts time to install and sometimes also to review and implement new architecture. 

  - Really? 
  - Yes!

  Sometimes old disk array(s) become be full and for new disks you have to obtain new 
disk array, integrate it with other storage infrastructure, provide redundancy 
(for example power), fail-over (for example network interfaces)... and so on.
So at one day - new data centre may be the best solution.

  Unreal? In short term - may be. But if your business is growing - you should think 
for long term too. And if we can avoid expenses (that make sense mainly for business!) 
and/or the time (that make sense for DBA too) - we should do it 
(if cost of actions is less then costs will appear in case we will not do it)!

  And the main reason - nobody like to be warned or interrupted unexpectedly. 
At night, weekend, any time - if we do not control the situation we can't expect 
everything will be OK at any time.

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***** Short introduction to the subject *****
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  If You want to avoid managing space in re-active way, when incidents happen time to time,
then You have to invest time to make system manageable and automated where possible.
Space management methodology description in Oracle docs is not rich and good free analysis tools
are missing. Yes, Grid Control is nice, but expensive and not configured well for most systems.

  It's just facts. At least for 9i/10g/11g. 12c is not published yet.

  However source information is available, and I started to make tool
as simple as StatsPack for performance and as effective as well (I hope). 
It is called SpaceStat and it is intended for database, OS, storage space management
in terms of keeping control on what, how and how fast is using space.
          
  The initial version was developed for customers maintenance in 2011. 
And now we are ready to share our experience with other IT specialists.
Just because we know how time is important for other interesting issues.
Space management mostly is routine (really it depends on you attitude to life and work).
Anyway we just going to help minimize time for space maintenance.

***** Version limitations *********
  For now it supports Oracle DB only.
Later it will be adopted to control OS disk space management (work already started)
and things like ASM volumes, other databases and may be even more.

******* References ******* 
Introduction to problem and methodology as well as some hints for space fire-fighting
was introduced at conferences in 2012:
   * LVOUG meetup (April 2012, Latvia) list
   * Same improved for OUG Harmony 2012 conference (May 2012, Finland).
   The presentation slides are available at: http://www.cominder.eu/getfile.php?dfa=spacecontrol_pdf&dfv=last

If You would like to discusss the topic or space management just drop me an e-mail,
providing Your Name, Company Name and may be some words why it is interesting for You,
if You wish.
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******* Disclaimer *******
  The software product "CoMinder SpaceStat" is provided "AS IS", 
that mean - without any guarantee.
You are responsible for reading product documentation and code and decide whether
it is acceptable or not for You or/and Your company/organisation or customers to use it.
Author(s) and SIA CoMinder are not responsible for any damage or loss of profits 
caused by using or not using the product. 
           
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******* License and Terms of Use  ********
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1. The software product "CoMinder SpaceStat" (or just Product) can be downloaded
   and used for personal or commercial use in development, test or production environment.

2. The software is licensed, not sold or just transferred - all ownership, copyrights and related rights
   belongs to CoMinder company and Author(s).

3. You (or anyone else) not allowed to sell the product without written permission from CoMinder.

4. The Product provided free of charge, but if Your company/organisation have politics to pay 
   for any software used - not a problem, contact by e-mail.

But:
   * Other editions of "CoMinder SpaceStat" with some more words in it's name like "CoMinder SpaceStat Pro"
     may appear in the future. Or may be not.

   * If You need more functionality or just assistance with managing (purging,reorganising,planning, etc.)
     space in DB or OS, then contact to discuss and order Oracle DBA expert service consulting 
     from your favourite DBA company or from CoMinder.

   * You can order Product support as well, to be able to ask more questions
     and receive faster response on product usage (Time make sense!)

   * If nothing special is required - the Product support provided with information published
     at http://www.cominder.eu/ that may also include FAQ for product and space management techniques.

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Installation: see INSTALL.txt for details.
  In some words: 
    a) review all until feel everything is clear
    b) copy scripts to target server
    c) create tablespace(s) and schema (SPACESTAT) 
    d) deploy tables and code 
    e) schedule snapshoting 
    f) run reports (read reports/DIRINFO.txt for reports list and descriptions)
    g) schedule old statistics purge                 

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Feedback: Any feedback is welcome! Just write to support((a))cominder.eu
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That's all for today!

16 of June, 2013.

Best regards,

Andrey Chervonets
SIA CoMinder (SIA - is the same as Ltd., but in Latvian)
http://www.cominder.eu/ 
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