Thanks everyone for raising the BCM requests in advance — really appreciate the coordination 👍
I’ve created this group to streamline communication during the BCM activity. The idea is to have a single channel for real-time coordination, updates, and quick resolution in case anything comes up during the switchover.
Since the switchover is automated, this group will help us stay aligned on progress, track any observations, and ensure smooth execution throughout the event.
Let’s use this space actively on the day of implementation.
Hi Team,
Hope you’re doing well.
Just checking in to gather your feedback on the BCM automation. We believe it has helped provide more control to the application team and reduced DBA acknowledgement time.
It would be great if you could take a minute to share your experience via the survey below:
[Insert Survey Link]
Looking forward to your feedback.
Thanks & Regards,
Proposal to Streamline Server Access During Incident Handling
Hi Team,
Currently, during alert handling, a significant amount of time is spent raising separate access requests after identifying the host from the incident ticket, followed by waiting for approvals where applicable. This creates delays for the Infra team in responding to incidents.
I would like to propose an enhancement to streamline this process. For alert-generated incident tickets, the system can automatically identify the host and grant server access to the assigned engineer at the time of ticket assignment. This would eliminate the need for raising a separate access invocation request.
Additionally, for MAS-relevant servers, an approval option (e.g., a button) can be embedded directly within the incident ticket to enable quicker approvals when required.
This approach can help reduce response time and improve overall efficiency during incident handling.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Dear Team,
During a recent review, we identified a non-standard Oracle database associated with your application. The database has two pluggable databases (PDBs), which is not in line with our organizational standards, and as confirmed by Issac, there is no record of its creation.
Request you to please validate this setup, involve the DBA who created it, and take appropriate action, including dropping the database if it is not required.
Kindly treat this as a priority and share an update at the earliest.
Best regards,
[Your Name]
As part of the weekend activity for Grid listener certificate renewal, I started performing pre-checks. Although the activity is expected to be a manual listener restart, I encountered issues on a few hosts during validation, indicating it may not be as straightforward.
Additionally, the Confluence document does not currently reflect these scenarios, so the pre-checks have been helpful in identifying these gaps early. I’ll connect with you separately to understand the possible causes for these issues.
From a resourcing perspective, there is a wide scope on the Blue side (~400 servers as informed by Vinit), so his availability will be limited. Out of 74 APAC hosts, I’ve taken ownership of ~35. Vinit has agreed to handle 5–10 hosts where only a simple listener restart is required.
For the remaining scope, we may need support from Navneeth or the Shift SRE team to ensure smooth execution and avoid spillover to the next shift.
Please let me know a convenient time to discuss the pre-check findings.
As part of the weekend activity for Grid listener certificate renewal, I started performing pre-checks. Although the activity is expected to be a manual listener restart, I encountered issues on a few hosts during validation, indicating it may not be as straightforward.
Additionally, the Confluence document does not currently reflect these scenarios, so the pre-checks have been helpful in identifying these gaps early. I’ll connect with you separately to understand the possible causes for these issues.
From a resourcing perspective, there is a wide scope on the Blue side (~400 servers as informed by Vinit), so his availability will be limited. Out of 74 APAC hosts, I’ve taken ownership of ~35. Vinit has agreed to handle 5–10 hosts where only a simple listener restart is required.
For the remaining scope, we may need support from Navneeth or the Shift SRE team to ensure smooth execution and avoid spillover to the next shift.
Please let me know a convenient time to discuss the pre-check findings.
Hi Team,
As part of the change to disable AUTOEXTEND, we understand concerns around tablespace utilization.
While the DB team will continue to monitor and send alerts for cleanup or capacity planning, to avoid back-and-forth and delays, we propose setting up a dedicated coordination channel for handling critical queries.
Also note, space addition requests raised over weekends may face approval delays, which could lead to unexpected issues by Monday.
Request your support in aligning on this approach.
Thanks,
DB Team
Hi OEM Admins,
Sharing a finding from a recent check and requesting your validation on OEM alerting.
The database FRA was full and out of sync for ~2 months, but no GSNow alerts were generated during this period. Alerts were present in OEM, however they do not seem to have been forwarded to GSNow. Notably, an alert was triggered in GSNow today when we started fixing the sync issue.
Request you to validate if there were any issues with alert forwarding, notification rules, or configuration gaps.
Given the criticality, ensuring consistent alert propagation is important.
Thanks & Regards,
[Your Name]
Backup failure alerts must be treated as high priority, especially for Production, and should not remain open beyond one week.
Please ensure timely acknowledgment, clear ownership, and regular communication. Refer to the available documentation and engage SMEs/SREs when needed to drive resolution promptly.
Kudos to Mykid for consistently ensuring things are properly acknowledged, taking ownership when it matters, and maintaining clear and effective communication throughout.
Really appreciate the responsibility and reliability you bring. Looking forward to seeing you contribute even more towards keeping the estate cleaner with your skills, and sharing your knowledge with the team.
Regarding the suggestion to increase backup streams, as per discussions from a few years ago, PostgreSQL backups in Commvault did not support stream configuration.
I also cross-checked with the L2 team on the incident channel, and they confirmed that the streams option is currently greyed out for PG instances.
While only about a week remains for the HSX migration, it would be helpful to explore any long-term approach to improve backup throughput—apart from increasing streams—especially for critical databases.
Please let us know if there have been any recent changes or alternative options we can consider.
Thanks & Regards,
Came across an upcoming Oracle community event in Singapore on April 16 (SGOUG Conference 2026). It covers topics like AI, Oracle DB, APEX, and integrations, and also includes free training + certification (Oracle AI Vector Search).
Looks like a good learning/networking opportunity—sharing in case anyone is interested: https://luma.com/y2nkav8j�
https://luma.com/y2nkav8j?utm_source=lipro
Came across an upcoming Oracle community event in Singapore on April 16 (SGOUG Conference 2026). It covers topics like AI, Oracle DB, APEX, and integrations, and also includes free training + certification (Oracle AI Vector Search).
Looks like a good learning/networking opportunity—sharing in case anyone is interested: https://luma.com/y2nkav8j�
Hi Falguni,
Thanks for the suggestion.
Yes, the dashboard view supports all RDBMS platforms. It helps address existing challenges such as performing pre-checks before approving changes and the usual Friday checks, by providing a complete view on a single page instead of checking individual tickets.
I will try to set up a quick demo with key members who handle changes and Big Rock events. I had tried reaching out to one member earlier but didn’t receive a response, hence the email. It’s a good suggestion—thanks, and I’ll arrange a quick demo.
Thanks and regards,
Nikhil
Hi [Reliability Lead Name],
I would like to provide a brief summary of the ongoing backup performance issue that has previously been highlighted by the Database PRO team through incident channels and email communications.
To summarize:
Two incident channels were created and tickets raised; both have now been marked as resolved.
The first incident was closed stating a DDB reconstruction issue was identified and fixed, after which backups ran successfully for one night.
The following day, backup slowness was observed again and raised on the channel. We were informed that the CH environment is being upgraded to HSX, expected to take around two weeks. However, when clarification was requested on whether the slowness would persist during this migration, there was no response.
We also requested that a case be raised with the Commvault vendor, but despite follow-ups, there were no updates shared.
The incident channel was later closed as the ticket was marked resolved with the note that an ongoing performance issue in IBCHALL related to HNAS performance is being worked on by Hitachi Vantara and Commvault.
Given that the backup performance concern appears to still be ongoing, we kindly request the latest status update and would appreciate prioritized attention on this matter to help ensure stability of backup operations.
Best regards,
Daidipya Upalekar
Database Team
Hi Team,
For this database, I have temporarily reduced the /app filesystem alert threshold to 55%. We may receive alerts at this level for the time being.
This is due to the ongoing backup issue, and we want to avoid any additional risk. Keeping the alert at 55% will help us proactively monitor the filesystem and also serve as a reminder to periodically check and follow up with the backup team.
Thanks.
BCM Automation Dashboard
Overview
The BCM Automation Dashboard provides a centralized view of all BCM database automation requests and their status. While BCM automation handles the execution of activities, this dashboard improves visibility, tracking, and coordination for BCM planners, DBAs, and application teams.
It is especially useful during major or “Big Rock” BCM events, where multiple requests run in parallel within the same window. The dashboard helps teams monitor request status, dependencies, and pending actions from a single place.
Dashboard Sections
1. Change & Task Summary
Shows RNOW BCM changes and user-created RITM requests, including approval status and scheduled BCM execution dates.
2. DBA Action Items
Displays requests currently being handled by the DBA team, helping track progress—especially useful during large BCM events or weekend checkouts.
3. Pending Application Actions
Lists requests waiting for confirmation or action from application teams, helping identify dependencies early.
4. Trend & Analysis
Provides yearly insights of BCM requests by RDBMS platforms, helping track trends and support operational planning.
Purpose
The dashboard helps make BCM operations more transparent, easier to track, and better coordinated across teams. Teams are encouraged to use the dashboard and share feedback for continuous improvements.
Hi Team,
Just checking if there are any updates or findings on the databases we reported earlier that appear to have no backup configuration.
We have also identified several other databases with a similar issue. Appreciate it if the team could review them and configure backups where required, especially if they were part of the migration.
Thanks.
Subject: Action Required: Database Backup Gaps Identified
Dear Team,
As part of our backup monitoring review, we have identified several databases where backups are currently not present. Since backups should be validated as part of the build and migration process, we wanted to bring this to your attention.
The databases highlighted in red appear to be of particular concern, as no backups have been detected for more than six months.
Could you please review and confirm if there are any gaps or if any action is required from the migration side?
Appreciate your support in ensuring backup coverage is in place.
Best regards,
Hi Team,
We have developed a new OEM Backup Compliance Report to improve visibility and monitoring of backup compliance across our Oracle database estate.
This report helps identify:
- Databases that have not been backed up in the last 3 days
- Databases with no backup configuration in place
L1 team members are requested to regularly monitor and leverage this report to proactively identify any backup gaps and initiate remediation where required.
Going forward, this report will also be integrated into our regular operational reviews so that we continuously monitor backup health and address any compliance gaps early.
Please ensure this report is reviewed as part of your routine monitoring activities.
Regards,
Nikhil
Today I’ll be presenting a report that I developed called the OEM Backup Compliance Report. The primary goal of this report is to strengthen our visibility around backup compliance and help us proactively manage risks across our Oracle database landscape.
When we usually check backup information, we tend to rely on Commvault reports. While Commvault provides useful backup data, it only shows information for databases that are already registered and configured in Commvault.
This creates a potential visibility gap.
If a database is not registered in Commvault, we may not even know that it exists from a backup compliance perspective. In other words, there could be databases without backup coverage, and we would have very limited visibility into that.
To address this challenge, I leveraged the OEM repository database to build a report that directly analyzes the databases managed within OEM.
This report is designed to answer two key questions for our Oracle estate:
First, which databases have not been backed up in the last three days?
Second, which databases have never been backed up at all, meaning there is no backup configuration in place.
These two checks allow us to quickly identify systems that might be at risk and require immediate attention.
Let me briefly explain how the report works.
A script periodically scans all Oracle and RAC databases managed by OEM and collects key information such as the database name, the host name, and backup activity details.
The report then consolidates this information and highlights systems that require attention.
It also identifies higher-risk databases, particularly production environments or databases running in NOARCHIVELOG mode, since those environments typically have stricter recovery requirements.
Additionally, the report includes operational indicators such as:
Production status
Archive log configuration
Blackout status
And tracking references for remediation if needed
These details help us quickly understand both the technical state and operational priority of each database.
The real value of this report is proactive monitoring and faster risk identification.
With this visibility we can:
Quickly detect databases with missing or outdated backups
Ensure backup compliance across the Oracle environment
Support audit requirements with transparent reporting
And prioritize remediation for critical systems first
In short, this report gives us a centralized view of backup health across our OEM-managed database estate, which significantly improves our operational awareness.
Going forward, my recommendation is to incorporate this report into our regular operational reviews, so we can continuously monitor backup compliance and address any gaps before they become operational risks.
That concludes the overview.
I’ll now walk you through the report itself and demonstrate how it works.
Hi Vikas,
To improve visibility and coordination around BCM activities, we have created a BCM Automation Dashboard that provides a centralized view of BCM requests, approvals, and execution status.
This should be particularly helpful during major or “Big Rock” BCM events, where multiple requests are executed in parallel on the same day and often within the same time window. The dashboard helps planners and the DBA team quickly track progress, identify pending approvals, and monitor any actions required from application teams.
Dashboard Overview
Change & Task Summary – Displays RNOW changes and user-raised RITM requests, along with approval status and scheduled BCM dates. This helps during planning to quickly identify upcoming BCM activities.
DBA Action Items – Provides visibility into requests currently being processed by the DBA team and their current stage. This is especially useful during high-volume BCM windows and weekend checkouts.
Pending Application Actions – Highlights requests awaiting confirmation or go-ahead from application teams, helping identify dependencies and avoid delays.
Trend & Analysis – Shows BCM requests raised during the year, categorized by RDBMS platform, providing insights into activity trends.
Sharing this with the team as well so everyone involved in BCM activities can leverage the dashboard for better tracking and coordination.
Please feel free to share any suggestions or feedback.
Thanks.
Hi Vikas,
As discussed around improving visibility for BCM activities, we have now created a BCM Automation Dashboard which should help significantly during planning and execution phases.
The dashboard provides a centralized view of BCM-related requests, approvals, and progress, making it easier for planners and the DBA team to track activities in one place.
This will be particularly useful during major or “Big Rock” BCM events, where multiple BCM requests are executed on the same day—often in parallel and within the same time window. In such situations, the dashboard helps us quickly understand the current status of requests, pending approvals, and any actions required from DBA or application teams.
Dashboard Tabs Overview
Change & Task Summary
Provides an overview of RNOW changes raised for BCM along with RITM requests created by users. It also highlights requests awaiting approvals and the scheduled BCM execution dates. This should help during BCM planning to identify upcoming requests and ensure readiness for the execution window.
DBA Action Items
Shows requests currently being processed by the DBA team and their current stage. This becomes especially helpful during larger BCM events where multiple requests are running simultaneously, and also helps during weekend checkout to quickly review progress.
Pending Application Actions
Displays requests currently awaiting confirmation or go-ahead from application teams. This makes it easier to identify dependencies early and follow up where required.
Trend & Analysis
Provides a yearly view of BCM requests categorized by RDBMS platform, helping us understand adoption trends and overall activity.
Sharing this with the team as well so everyone involved in BCM activities can use the dashboard for better tracking and coordination.
Please feel free to share any suggestions if you see further opportunities to enhance it.
Thanks.
Hi Team,
We are pleased to announce the launch of the BCM Automation Dashboard, designed to enhance visibility, coordination, and tracking of BCM database automation activities.
While the BCM automation manages the execution of activities, this dashboard provides a centralized view of all BCM-related requests and their current status, enabling planners, DBAs, and application teams to monitor and manage activities more effectively.
This dashboard will be particularly useful during major or “Big Rock” BCM events, where multiple requests are executed in parallel on the same day—often within the same time window. In such scenarios, having a single view to track request status, dependencies, and pending actions becomes critical for smoother coordination and workflow management.
Key sections available in the dashboard:
Change & Task Summary
Provides a consolidated view of RNOW changes raised for BCM along with user-created RITM requests. It also highlights requests awaiting approval and the scheduled BCM execution dates, helping BCM planners quickly identify upcoming activities and ensure readiness for the BCM window.
DBA Action Items
Offers visibility into requests currently being processed by the DBA team. This tab becomes especially useful during major BCM events where multiple requests are being handled simultaneously. It also supports weekend checkout by providing a quick snapshot of ongoing activities and their progress.
Pending Application Actions
Displays requests that are currently awaiting confirmation or go-ahead from application teams. This helps identify dependencies early and ensures smoother coordination between teams during BCM execution.
Trend & Analysis
Provides insights into BCM requests raised throughout the year, categorized by RDBMS platforms. This helps track adoption trends and supports operational planning and future improvements.
The dashboard aims to make BCM operations more transparent, easier to track, and better coordinated across teams.
We encourage teams involved in BCM activities to explore the dashboard and share feedback as we continue improving the automation ecosystem.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Thank you Ranjit
Good morning and good evening everyone
I quickly walk you through a few additional things we’ve built around our BCM database automation, beyond just delivering the automation itself.
As Ranjit has help r covered about the dashboard.
Another small but important addition we made is a quick feedback survey.
The survey has just five questions, so it takes less than two minutes to complete.
The goal here is not only to gather feedback but also to encourage users to remember and use this automation themselves for future BCM activities.
In many cases, users can also end up sharing it with colleagues, which naturally helps increase adoption.
####--
The last enhancement is integrating support through our internal AI assistant, RED.
Users can now interact with RED to:
- Understand how to use the automation
- Get guidance on raising requests
- Or resolve common queries.
The idea here is to help users get quick answers through AI instead of waiting for manual support, which can sometimes cause delays.
So this makes the whole experience faster and more self-service driven.”
##-- with this 3 small but future effective modules.. we aim to
focus on making the process easier to track, manage, and useful for everyone involved.
##-
just to summarize — along with delivering the BCM automation, we’ve also focused on improving the overall operational experience.
We did this by introducing:
A centralized dashboard for better visibility
A simple survey to capture feedback and improve adoption
And AI-driven guidance through RED
Together, these help make the BCM process more transparent, efficient, and easier for users to interact with.
Thank you
Confirmation on Custom Certificates for MUREX Databases (DEV)
Hi Prashant,
Hope you are doing well.
As you are aligned with the MUREX databases, we wanted to check if these databases are currently using any custom certificates for user authentication.
The reason for asking is that we noticed there are no PISA certificates present for these three databases. Hence, we wanted to confirm if there are any custom certificates configured for user authentication.
Also, could you please confirm if there will be any impact to the existing authentications if we attempt to create the SHA2 certificates via the standard process?
Your confirmation will help us proceed accordingly.
Thanks and regards,
Nikhil
Create a modern, professional infographic poster for LinkedIn about [TOPIC].
Style:
- Dark gradient background (navy/black)
- Orange and blue glowing accents
- Clean tech UI style
- Isometric 3D server/database illustrations
- Organized sections with numbered steps
- Minimal but readable SQL/code snippets
- Icons for warnings, cloud, database, locks
- Professional typography hierarchy
- Cinematic lighting
- High resolution
- Social media carousel format (1:1 square)
Content Sections:
1. What is [concept]
2. Common causes / challenges
3. How to identify
4. Best practices
5. Commands or examples
Make it visually balanced, modern, and suitable for DBAs and tech professionals.
Ultra-detailed digital illustration, soft shadows, depth effect,
cinematic lighting, professional SaaS marketing style,
similar to high-end cloud computing promotional graphics.
A comic-style digital illustration of a shocked database administrator standing inside a futuristic data center, holding a glowing tablet with AI interface. Behind him are modern servers labeled with AI database features. Neon holographic text floating in air. On one side, old database textbooks stacked (legacy era), on the other side futuristic AI-powered database visuals. Bright cyberpunk lighting, expressive face, exaggerated cartoon style, detailed environment, infographic elements with feature callouts, tech comic book art, ultra-detailed, high resolution, blog header style.
#_#
Comic-style illustration of a senior DBA shocked by next-generation AI database technology. Background shows futuristic servers with labels like "AI Vector Search", "JSON Relational Duality", "True Cache", "Auto Indexing", "Data Guard AI Monitoring". Old Oracle 9i books stacked on floor. Neon holographic database diagrams floating in air. Cyberpunk lighting, expressive caricature face, tech infographic layout, vibrant colors, detailed data center environment, perfect for tech blog banner, wide aspect ratio.
_#_
A comic-style digital illustration of a surprised senior database administrator inside a futuristic data center. He is holding a glowing tablet showing “[MAIN BLOG TOPIC]”. Around him are neon holographic labels showing “[FEATURE 1]”, “[FEATURE 2]”, “[FEATURE 3]”.
On one side, a stack of old database books labeled “[OLD TECHNOLOGY / LEGACY VERSION]”.
On the other side, futuristic AI-powered database servers glowing with energy.
Expressive exaggerated facial reaction, tech satire tone, cyberpunk lighting, vibrant colors, infographic callout boxes, highly detailed environment, blog header illustration, ultra-detailed, wide 16:9 aspect ratio.
Speech
“Hi everyone.
Today I’ll quickly walk you through a few additional things we’ve built around our BCM database automation, beyond just delivering the automation itself.
While the automation takes care of the execution part, we also focused on making the process easier to track, manage, and use for everyone involved.
So we introduced three supporting capabilities:
A centralized BCM dashboard
A quick user feedback survey
And support through our internal AI assistant, RED
I’ll briefly show each of these.”
Speech
“So first, let’s look at the BCM dashboard.
The idea behind this was pretty simple — instead of checking multiple systems or emails, we wanted one place where planners, DBAs, and application teams can see the full BCM picture.
This dashboard is divided into four main sections, each designed to answer a specific operational question.”
Speech
“The first section is Change and Task Summary.
This gives us a quick overview of:
RNOW changes raised for BCM
RITM requests created by users
Requests currently waiting for approvals
And the scheduled BCM execution dates
For the BCM planners, this is really helpful because they can quickly see what’s coming up in the next week and ensure everything is ready before the event.”
Speech
“The next tab focuses on DBA Action Items.
This becomes especially useful during large BCM events, where there can be multiple requests running in parallel.
Here, DBAs can quickly check:
How many requests are currently being handled
Which stage each request is in
And what actions are still pending.
It’s also quite helpful during weekend checkout, when teams want a quick snapshot of the overall progress.”
Speech
“The third tab highlights Pending Application Actions.
This basically shows requests that are currently waiting for application team confirmation or go-ahead.
So if any team hasn’t started their BCM activity yet, it becomes visible immediately.
This helps both the BCM team and application teams stay aligned, and prevents delays during the event window.”
Speech
“The last tab focuses on Trend and Analysis.
Here we can see how many BCM requests were raised during the year, and they’re categorized based on RDBMS platforms.
This gives us a better understanding of usage patterns and adoption across database platforms, which can be useful for planning future improvements.”
Speech
“Another small but important addition we made is a quick feedback survey.
The survey has just five questions, so it takes less than two minutes to complete.
The goal here is not only to gather feedback but also to encourage users to remember and use this automation themselves for future BCM activities.
In many cases, users also end up sharing it with colleagues, which naturally helps increase adoption.”
Speech
“The last enhancement is integrating support through our internal AI assistant, RED.
Users can now interact with RED to:
Understand how to use the automation
Get guidance on raising requests
Or resolve common queries.
The idea here is to help users get quick answers through AI instead of waiting for manual support, which can sometimes cause delays.
So this makes the whole experience faster and more self-service driven.”
Speech
“So just to summarize — along with delivering the BCM automation, we’ve also focused on improving the overall operational experience.
We did this by introducing:
A centralized dashboard for better visibility
A simple survey to capture feedback and improve adoption
And AI-driven guidance through RED
Together, these help make the BCM process more transparent, efficient, and easier for users to interact with.
Thank you.”
Hi [Name],
Thank you for your response.
Please find our clarification below:
1. Patch Set Verification
The patch set verification falls under OS patching, which is managed by the Linux team. As you are aware, this is not related to any database patching activity. We do not have visibility into OS-level patch baselines.
Kindly verify and confirm the applied OS patch set from your end.
2. Permission Loss After Reboot
The core issue reported by us was that permissions were getting reset after server reboot. As per the recent update, this has been fixed.
Given that this is an OS-level behavior, validation should ideally be performed by the Linux team to confirm persistence across reboots. If required, please involve the appropriate resource from your team to validate.
From the database side, we have already accommodated multiple reactive validations. Since the fix was implemented yesterday, and considering this impacts production backups, we cannot risk another failure scenario.
3. Service Status Checks
Similar to point 2, these validations are OS/service-level checks. Now that the fix is claimed to be implemented, Linux team should validate service behavior post-reboot and confirm stability.
We would like to highlight that this issue has been ongoing for over a month, with an earlier commitment that it would be resolved by end of February. However, we are still seeing reactive queries directed toward the database team, even though the root cause and ownership lie within the OS layer.
We request proactive validation and confirmation from the Linux team to ensure closure and avoid further production backup impact.
Looking forward to your confirmation.
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