19c New Features

In this article, we’ll discuss 5 new features and functionality of Oracle Database 19c that will have you not just ready, but excited for your next Oracle database upgrade.

1. Automatic indexing

One of 19c’s biggest selling points is the ability to perform automatic indexing. Database indexes are used to improve the speed of querying and fetching data (with the trade-off of more write operations and storage space).

With the DBMS_AUTO_INDEX package in Oracle 19c, the system will automatically generate candidate indexes for database tables that might benefit from having one. Next, Oracle Database will test and verify the index to ensure that it actually improves query performance. If it does, it will be implemented for application use; if not, it will not be visible to end-users and will eventually be removed.

2. Oracle Data Guard improvements

Oracle Data Guard is a software add-on to Oracle Database that helps users maintain secondary “standby” database replicas for their primary databases in production. Although Data Guard has been a long-standing feature in Oracle’s relational database management system, 19c introduces a variety of enhancements to the software, including:

* Dynamically changing Data Guard’s target standby database for Fast-Start Failover. In previous Oracle Database versions, the Fast-Start Failover feature had to be disabled before changing the standby database.

* Easier management of database parameters with Oracle’s SQL*Plus utility.

* Support for data manipulation language (DML) redirection in Active Data Guard.

3. Ease of use enhancements

Oracle Database is a powerful database management system—but this power comes at the cost of complexity. 19c comes with a few crucial and welcome improvements to the software’s user-friendliness.

First, 19c has improved the Oracle Database Create Application Wizard, which is used to build database applications. The wizard now includes more low-code functionality to make it more accessible to non-technical users. In addition, users can now create advanced pages such as dashboards and master-detail forms with the wizard.

Second, Oracle has introduced a new version of the Easy Connect syntax for connecting to Oracle databases, known as Easy Connect Plus. This version streamlines the connection process by limiting the use of external connection files, making it easier to use features such as TLS connections, wallets, load balancing, and connection timeouts.

4. Formerly paid features now free of charge

In 19c, Oracle has made a number of formerly paid features available for no extra charge. This includes:

* Up to three user-created pluggable databases (PDBs) in a multitenant architecture.  This feature is available for SE2 and EE users without having to purchase the Multitenant option.

* Up to 16 gigabytes of in-memory storage without purchasing the In-Memory option.
 
* Full use of Spatial and Graph without needing an extra license.

5. SQL “quarantines”

If an SQL query consumes too many CPU and I/O resources, the Oracle Database Resource Manager will automatically kill it. This prevents SQL statements from hogging resources and degrading the database’s performance. In previous versions of Oracle Database, however, nothing prevented users from running the same query after it has been killed, causing the same problem again.

That’s all changed with Oracle Database 19c. Now, Oracle’s Resource Manager will automatically quarantine these resource-heavy “rogue” SQL queries, preventing them from being executed again. You can define the thresholds for quarantining an SQL statement (e.g. the elapsed time for the query, the CPU time, or the number of I/O requests) using the DBMS_SQLQ package.