What's new in Lab128 1.8.13
May 27, 2017
New in Lab128 1.8.12 (May 12, 2017)
- Adjustments for Oracle 12cR2 - handling of new Oracle events.
New in Lab128 1.8.11 (Apr 4, 2017)
- Fixes in saving of the user-defined queries.
New in Lab128 1.8.10 (Feb 23, 2017)
- Minor bug fixes and cosmetic fixes.
New in Lab128 1.8.9 (Jan 6, 2017)
- Fix of the bug, quite serious one, preventing reading of the alert and trace files. The bug was introduced in 1.8.8, when parsing of the SFTP version and supported options was changed.
New in Lab128 1.8.8 (Jan 3, 2017)
- Option to stop running query without killing session, available through the popup menu in Sessions window.
- This is mainly a maintenance release with non-critical bugs fixed and minor improvements added. This probably will be the last release before some Agent (GUI-less daemon or service) functionality is added.
New in Lab128 1.8.7 (Jul 20, 2016)
- New experimental Spike Load analysis and report. This feature helps to locate SQL statement(s) responsible for sudden bursts in the load. For more details, please see description of Spike Load Report
- Export of ASH (Active Session History) data into Oracle database. You can export data for your own analysis. This can be the only option to collect ASH data for the Oracle server Standard edition because native ASH functionality is absent in this edition
New in Lab128 1.8.5 (Apr 3, 2016)
- This version fixes installation problems on Windows 10. Windows 10 requires that software code signed after January 1, 2016 must use 256-bit signature, therefore Windows 10 can refuse to install Lab128 v.1.8.4 which was signed with SHA1 (128-bit). Now we obtained a new code signing certificate with SHA256 signature to comply with Windows 10. This release is signed with a new certificate and the installation problem is fixed
- Dynamic Daylight Saving Time is now used when presenting time as local time. Internally Lab128 tracks all events in GMT. This can be converted and shown as local time using your workstation Windows settings (Windows 7+). Showing time on the day when time is switched is handled correctly in Lab128
- A workaround for oradebug dumps on Oracle on Solaris and HP-UX has been added
New in Lab128 1.8.4 (Mar 17, 2016)
- Need to know bind variables of the long running query? In Sessions window Oradebug Dump added to the popup menu. Then trace file is downloaded using SSH connection and shown in the new Oradebug Dump Viewer. All steps are automated. More on this feature: Oradebug Dump Viewer;
- User Interface minor fixes.
New in Lab128 1.8.2 (Mar 17, 2016)
- This is a maintenance release with fixes of non-critical problems:
- Default positioning of windows was skewed to the right and lower corner;
- In Activity Explorer window, ASH section, Tree view, Object dimension had empty value;
- Alert File viewer incorrectly obtained path for the CDB database;
- Empty Autotrace report in SQL Central;
New in Lab128 1.8.0 (Mar 17, 2016)
- Multitenant Container Databases are fully supported. If connected to the Root container, Lab128 automatically switches to CDB_ views. It provides a global picture across all plugin databases. Top consumers of resources can be identified down to PDB / User / SQL statements. All these powerful features from the single monitor! Even though there are some rough spots in CDB, they can become mainstream one day. If you work extensively with CDB, we are interested in your feedback and new ideas to implement in this tool.
- Improved support and fixes for the older Oracle versions. SQL plans are stored for Oracle as early as 9i. Lab128 supports 5 major Oracle releases from 8i to 12c. Extensive testing was completed to ensure most of advanced features of Lab128 are available for older versions.
- Option to kill sessions executing same SQL. Once in a while there is a runaway query with dozens of sessions stuck on it. In Sessions window, select one of them, and in popup menu chose this new option.
New in Lab128 1.7.2.0 (Apr 9, 2015)
- This version collects execution plans automatically for the most expensive SQL statements. When examining execution plan and the plan is not accessible in Oracle views, it can be presented from Lab128 cache. Also plans are stored .lab performance files, so the plan can be examined later in Viewer mode (no connection to Oracle needed in viewer mode).
New in Lab128 1.7.1.0 (Mar 3, 2015)
- Minor functional changes and bug fixes;
- The MSI installation package (64-bit) now has OCI (Oracle Call Interface) as an optional feature. By default this feature is not selected and not installed. OCI can be added later by running MSI file again, or in Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features - right click on Lab128 and select Change item, then follow prompts;
New in Lab128 1.7.0.0 (Nov 3, 2014)
- There was a significant refactoring of the code. Now both 64-bit and 32-bit versions use almost entirely same code. Having the code portable between two platforms increases its reliability, and the reliability has been one of our highest priorities. These changes provide a solid foundation for future development of this project.
- There were minor functional improvements: new ciphers added to the SSH client; User Interface fixes;
- Improved support of older Oracle versions;
New in Lab128 1.6.7.0 (Aug 26, 2014)
- This version fixes bugs in 64-bit version (see Known bugs). If you use 32-bit version and already upgraded to 1.6.6 released in August 2014, you can can skip this version.
New in Lab128 1.6.6.0 (Aug 4, 2014)
- 64-bit version added with .MSI type of installation. The portable .ZIP installation is also available for 64-bit version. This version has look and feel of its 32-bit counterpart. Both versions are compatible with working files, so they are interchangeable
- Starting with this version, Lab128 is distributed with OCI (Oracle Call Interface) libraries. Users don't have to care anymore about Oracle Client presence and compatibility. This will work even if Oracle Client is already installed, Lab128 will ignore it. If for some reason you prefer to use the Oracle Client already installed on your system, the Portable distribution has an option without OCI
- There are improvements and minor fixes based on feedback from the users
New in Lab128 1.6.5.0 (Jun 11, 2014)
- A new tool is introduced allowing to change execution plan of SQL statement without changing SQL text. This feature is called "Stage and Fix".
- New behavior on lost connection: there is no limit on number of reconnect attempts, and there is a new option to notify personal if the connection is not restored in specified time interval;
- Previously, in Login screen in Direct Connect mode, the TNS Ping used to check if the listener was available without checking Service/SID validity. This was exactly same behavior as with Oracle's tnsping utility. Now "TNS Ping" in Lab128 also checks if specified Service or SID is registered on listener side;
- In Reports, the "Describe Object" feature is now avaialable through the pop-up menu. First, select some name, then "describe". In adition to ordinary object names, like table name, Lab128 can also automatically recognize SQL ID, SQL Handle, SQL Signature, and call corresponding report;
- PL/SQL unwrapper added. To use it simply browse to the package from Main menu | Reports | Schema | All schemas, the source code of the package is unwrapped automatically. Or, in SQL Central type the package name, for example DBMS_SPM, then "describe" it by F11 or using pop-up menu. This provides a great learning opportunity to see how Oracle internals work;
New in Lab128 1.6.4.0 (Feb 7, 2014)
- In Explain Plan window "XPLAN" tab added to show execution plan obtained from DBMS_XPLAN package
- Clusterware Commander can automatically detect Oracle HAS (High Availability Services) and present status in the same format as for Oracle clusterware. HAS is an infrastructure similar to Oracle Clusterware for non-RAC database. If you running non-RAC Oracle 11g+ on Linux/Unix, it uses HAS. Now you can use Clusterware Commander to see status, start/stop database and listener;
- SQL Execution Statistics (similar to Autotrace in SQLPlus) in SQL Central has been enhanced to better integrate with Oracle Exadata. SQL Central is built-in SQL editor where SQL statement can be executed with Oracle execution statistics along with plan statistics automatically gathered and presented. For Exadata, for example, statistics will indicate if processing was off-loaded to cell servers. Most of statistics has links to their description in the help file.
New in Lab128 1.6.3.0 (Oct 16, 2013)
- Reference Loads can be created and used for comparison of current or past performance. The Reference Load can include several thousand of statistics, including top SQL statistics averaged on any selected time interval. Statspack now has additional "Diff" option. SQL Explorer can show "Diff" columns.
- Support of Oracle 12c (regular DB type) has been added. Pluggable DBs are not supported yet.
- Many small improvements and fixes based on user feedbacks;
New in Lab128 1.6.2.0 (Aug 26, 2013)
- High DPI (Dots Per Inch) support added. Advances in hardware resulted in high-resolution displays. Previous versions of Lab128 used same number of pixels without regards to DPI setting. Because typically pixel size decreases, Lab128 looked very small and hard to see. This latest version scales-up natively producing very nice looking user interface! If previous behavior is preferred, this feature can be disabled in options: Main menu | Options | Lab128 Options | Autoscale for DPI>96.
- For users of Oracle 11gR2 (11.2.*) or later, new v$session_blockers view is now used providing info on more blocking situations where v$lock didn't help. For example, sessions blocked by "library cache pin" event now show up in the Blocking and Waiting Sessions tree of the Sessions window;
- Statistics Editor has been streamlined. Lab128 allows user to create their own new ratios or combined statistics using expressions;
- Unicode is better supported and Unicode-related bugs fixed;
- Many small improvements and fixes based on user feedbacks;
New in Lab128 1.6.1.0 (Aug 26, 2013)
- Lab128 becomes Unicode-enabled application. Although all titles and messages in Lab128 are still in English, the Oracle database object names can be in any national character sets, and Lab128 will correctly display them. See screenshots taken for different languages. The introduction of Unicode support means that all data internally is encoded in UTF-8 in Lab128. This provides a framework for truly global compatibility and support;
- SQL Plan Step ID added to Sessions, and it is passed to ExplanPlan;
- Activity Explorer (ASH) window can be customized by hiding sections, and the event colors have been adjusted to match OEM colors. The CPU line added to the wait event charts. ASH data export into .csv file; ;
- Changes in the Login window: Better support of RAC One Node databases by adding "RAC One" option in the Login window; Support for oracle-wallet based passwords, by using EXTERNAL user; Connect as SYSASM option;
- Fixes in Clusterware Commander and partial support of older 10g clusterware framework;
New in Lab128 1.6.0.0 (Aug 26, 2013)
- Introduction of Clusterware Commander. You can monitor the status of Oracle clusterware in the Clusterware Commander. While monitoring the status, you can invoke maintenance commands such as: database / instance / service startup or shutdown; the relocation of the services between instances. Additionally, you can start Lab128 monitor for a specific instance with many connection details filled up automatically. To run this new feature, use Main menu | Clusterware. For a screenshot use this link Clusterware Commander;
- Customization for Oracle RAC One databases, the RAC One option added to Login Screen;
- Last Call Elapsed Time (LC_ET) column added to Sessions tabular view;
- Bug fixes and corrections;
New in Lab128 1.5.9.16 (Aug 26, 2013)
- Optimization for 11g v$ queries;
- Integrated 10053 trace viewer. Get Oracle SQL Optimizer trace pressing just one button;
- Oradebug mode support in SQL Central, including preliminary connection;
- Global Search in SQL Central;
- Dedicated server option added to Login Screen;
- Miscellaneous small corrections and improvements;
New in Lab128 1.5.9.14 (Aug 26, 2013)
- Support for 11g has been improved. The performance bugs in 11g for some v$ views has been worked around;
- Login form in Direct Connect mode now has "Ping" and "TNS Ping" features to troubleshoot connection problems. A new "UD=A" check box added to allow connection to the instance in restricted mode;
- Overwiew window can have user-selected statistics;
- SSH connection - extended support for other authorization methods; The SSH connection is used in "Top Processes" and "Alert Log Viewer" windows;
- New reports added;
New in Lab128 1.5.9.10 (Aug 26, 2013)
- The Explain Plan has been changed to run faster and now optionally can provide query block names, outlines data, captured binds;
- The SQL formatter has been added, so SQL text looks better in the Explain Plan and in the reports. It can be invoked Ctrl-Q in editor controls or through popup menu;
- The reporting engine has been improved. New reports added. Object dependencies links added to some reports;
- The AIX Unix is now supported in the Top Processes;
- Better positioning of forms on next reopen after they were positioned outside the main window before closing;
- All known bugs have been fixed.