Patches for SQL Plan Management issues

Did you know there are patches which you can apply to limit potential problems with SQL Plan Management?  Check out MOS note 2035898.1 for the document "Patches to Consider for 12.1.0.2 to Avoid Problems with SQL Plan Management (SPM)" which is directed at 12c, but has links for patches that can be applied to 11gR2 as well!

"Latch free"/"Real-time plan statistics latch" wait events seen during slow system performance

Tonight provides us an opportunity to learn more about the SQL Monitor interface from MOS document "Slow Performance Featuring Contention on "latch free" with "Real-time plan statistics latch" Having the Most Sleeps and Causing High Operating System Activity" by searching for article ID 2030320.1 which will lead you not only to the Database SQL Tuning Guide if you were not already familiar with it, but ALSO the section detailing the Real-Time SQL Monitoring and Real-Time Database Operations.  Why would you be concerned with this?  Well, do you know how your system is setup to monitor SQL?  Would you like to AND feel comfortable that this feature will not cause you problems in the future?

Jonathan Lewis: Execution Plans

Are you interested in learning more about how the Optimizer works, how to walk through execution plans, or even how to generate your own plans?  Look no further than Jonathan Lewis's excellent series on execution plans courtesy of redgate and AllThingsOracle!  So far there are 10 posts, and you will probably learn something from each and every post of his!