For complete details, see the book "Oracle 11g New Features" authored by John Garmany, with Oracle

ACE's Steve Karam, Lutz Hartmann, Brian Carr with V. J. Jain.

Oracle 11g Release 2 Tips
Oracle SQL Join Factorization Transformation (JFT) Tips
Oracle 11g r2 new parallel query management enhancements
Recursive subquery factoring using the SQL WITH clause
Oracle Instance Caging tips
Oracle Omotion tips
RAC One Node
Oracle 11gr2 column level compression - September 5, 2009
Oracle flash_cache tips - September 5, 2009
Oracle USM (Universal Storage Management) tips
ASM Cluster Filesystem (ACFS) in 11gR2 - August 11, 2008
Oracle 11g release 2: Cluster Voting Disk and Cluster Registry in ASM - August 11, 2008
Oracle 11g R2: ASM Dynamic Volume Manager - August 11, 2008
ASM Cluster File System Snapshots - August 11, 2008
ASM Optimal Disk Placement (ODP) - August 11, 2008
Renaming ASM Disk Groups - August 11, 2008

Oracle 11g release 1 features:

Oracle 11g fully automated SQL tuning tips - January 17, 2008
Oracle 11g SQL performance analyzer concepts - January 16, 2008
11g SQL Plan baseline tips - January 16, 2008
Oracle 11g SQL tuning transformations
11g SQL execution plan management tips
11g extended optimizer statistics
Inside Oracle 11g Database replay
Oracle 11g diagnostic_dest parameter tips
Oracle 11g Healthchecks service
Inside the 11g SQL Performance Advisor
Oracle 11g Database Management for Business Intelligence
Oracle 11g Data Compression Tips for the Database Administrator
Oracle 11g function-based virtual columns
Oracle 11g memory_target parameter

Using result_cache hints

Oracle 11g changes to OFA structure
Oracle 11g RAC Provisioning Pack tips

Here is my Oracle11g new features list which I continually update as new Oracle11g new feature information
is released:
11g SQL new features
11g language support new features
11g PL/SQL New Features
11g DBA features
11g RAC new features & enhancements
11g performance features
11g security new features
11g Enterprise Manager new features
As of 2007, the commercial database market is very mature and expectations are high. All of the leading
databases do a good job in storing and retrieving data, and customers are now demanding self-tuning
databases, intelligent engines that detect and correct sub-optimal conditions.
Oracle 11g is the clear leader in this area. Oracle has invested heavily into self-tuning capabilities including
automated storage and memory management and intelligent tuning advisors. Now in 11g, Oracle closes the
loop and offers intelligent automation tools to create a self-healing database. The most important 11g new
automation features include a SQL tuning advisor that automatically tunes SQL statements.
Automatic Memory Tuning - Automatic PGA tuning was introduced in Oracle 9i. Automatic SGA
tuning was introduced in Oracle 10g. In 11g, all memory can be tuned automatically by setting one
parameter. PGA Update: Oracle technology is constantly changing, so don't miss my new notes
on updates to Oracle PGA behavior. Also see these important notes on over-riding the Oracle
PGA defaults.
SQL Performance Analyzer (Fully Automatic SQL Tuning) - Using SPA, you can tell 11g to
automatically apply SQL profiles for statements where the suggested profile give 3-times better
performance that the existing statement. The performance comparisons are done by a new
administrative task during a user-specified maintenance window. See Inside the 11g SQL
Performance Advisor.
Automated Storage Load balancing - Oracle?s Automatic Storage Management (ASM) now

enables a single storage pool to be shared by multiple databases for optimal load balancing. Shared
disk storage resources can alternatively be assigned to individual databases and easily moved from one
database to another as processing requirements change.
Automatic Diagnostic Repository - When critical errors are detected, Oracle automatically creates
an ?incident? ticket, notifying the DBA instantly.
Let's get started with the Oracle11g new features for general database administration:

Oracle 11g DBA new features

Enhanced ILM - Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) has been around for decades, but Oracle
has made a push to codify the approach in 11g. Read more about Oracle 11g ILM here: Inside
Oracle 11g ILM - Information lifecycle management.
Table-level control of CBO statistics refresh threshold - (source Lutz Hartmann) When Oracle
automatically enables statistics collection, the default "staleness" threshold of 10% can now be changed
with thedbms_stats.set_table_prefs procedure:
exec dbms_stats.set_table_prefs(?HR?, EMPS?, ?STALE_PERCENT?, ?15)

There are three new arguments to the set_table_prefs procedure, designed to allow the DBA
more control over the freshness of their statistics:
stale_percent - overrides the one-size-fits-all value of 10%
incremental - Incremental statistics gathering for partitions
publish - Allows the DBA to test new statistics before publishing them to the data
dictionary
This is an important 11g new feature because the DBA can now control the quality of optimizer
statistics at the table level, thereby improving the behavior of the SQL optimizer to always
choose the ?best? execution plan for any query.
File Group Repository - Oracle introduced an exciting new feature in 10gr2 dubbed the Oracle File
Group Repository (FGR). The FGR allows the DBA to define a logically-related group of files and
build a version control infrastructure. The working of the Oracle file group repository were created to
support Oracle Streams, and they mimic the functionality of an IBM mainframe generation data group
(GDG), in that you can specify relative incarnations of the file sets (e.g. generation 0, generation -3).
Interval partitioning for tables - This is a new 11g partitioning scheme that automatically creates
time-based partitions as new data is added. Source: Mark Rittman This is a marvelous one ! You can
now partition by date, one partition per month for example, with automatic partition creation.
Source: Laurent Schneider

New load balancing utilities -There are several new load balancing utilities in 11g (first introduced in
10gr2):
Web server load balancing - The web cache component includes Apache extension to
load-balance transactions to the least-highly-loaded Oracle HTTP server (OHS).
RAC instance load balancing - Staring in Oracle 10g release 2, Oracle JDBC and
ODP.NET provide connection pool load balancing facilities through integration with the
new ?load balancing advisory? tool. This replaces the more-cumbersome listener-based
load balancing technique.
Automated Storage Load balancing - Oracle?s Automatic Storage Management
(SAM) now enables a single storage pool to be shared by multiple databases for optimal
load balancing. Shared disk storage resources can alternatively be assigned to individual
databases and easily moved from one database to another as processing requirements
change.
Data Guard Load Balancing ? Oracle Data Guard allows for load balancing between
standby databases.
Listener Load Balancing - If advanced features such as load balancing and automatic
failover are desired, there are optional sections of the listener.ora file that must be present
New table Data Type "simple_integer" - A new 11g datatype dubbedsimple_integer is
introduced. The simple_integer data type is always NOT NULL, wraps instead of overflows and is
faster than PLS_INTEGER. Source:Lewis Cunningham
Improved table/index compression - Segment compression now works for all DML, not just
direct-path loads, so you can create tables compressed and use them for regular OLTP work. Also
supports column add/drop. Mark Rittman
Faster DML triggers - DML triggers are up to 25% faster. This especially impacts row level triggers
doing updates against other tables (think Audit trigger). Source: Lewis Cunningham
Improved NFS data file management - Kevin Closson has some great notes on Oracle 11g
improvement in Networked Attached Storage (NAS). "I?ve already blogged that 11g ?might? have an
Oracle-provided NFS client. Why is this? It?s because Oracle knows full well that taking dozens of
commodity servers and saddling them up with multi-protocol connectivity is a mess.
Server-side connection pooling - In 11g server-side connection pooling, an additional layer to the
shared server, to enable faster [actually to bypass] session creation. Source: Laurent Schneider
Server-side connection pooling allows multiple Oracle clients to share a server-side pool of sessions
(USERIDs must match). Clients can connect and disconnect (think PHP applications) at will without
the cost of creating a new server session - shared server removes the process creation cost but not the
session creation cost. Mark Rittman

RMAN UNDO bypass - RMAN backup can bypass undo. Undo tablespaces are getting huge, but
contain lots of useless information. Now RMAN can bypass those types of tablespace. Great for
exporting a tablespace from backup. Source: Laurent Schneider
Capture/replay database workloads - Sounds appealing. You can capture the workload in prod
and apply it in development. Oracle is moving toward more workload-based optimization, adjusting
SQL execution plans based on existing server-side stress. This can be very useful for Oracle
regression testing. Source:Laurent Schneider
Scalability Enhancements - The features in 11g focused on scalability and performance can be
grouped into four areas: Scalable execution, scalable storage, scalable availability and scalable
management. Mark Rittman
Virtual columns - Oracle 11g virtual table columns are columns that are actually functions ("create
table t1 (c1 number, c2 number, c3 as (c1+c2) virtual"), and similarly, virtual indexes that are based on
functions. Also see Oracle 11g function-based virtual columns. Source: Source: Mark Rittman
REF partitioning - The 11g REF partitioning allows you to partition a table based on the values of
columns within other tables. Source: Mark Rittman
A "super" object-oriented DDL keyword - This is used with OO Oracle when instantiating a
derivative type (overloading), to refer to the superclass from whence the class was derived.
Oracle 11g XML data storage - Starting in 11g, you can store XML either as a CLOB or a binary
data type, adding flexibility. Oracle11g will support query mechanisms for XML including XQuery
and SQL XML, emerging standards for querying XML data stored inside tables.
New Trigger features - A new type of "compound" trigger will have sections for BEFORE, ROW
and AFTER processing, very helpful for avoiding errors, and maintaining states between each section.
Partitioning - partitioning by logical object and automated partition creation.
LOB's - New high-performance LOB features.
Automatic Diagnostic Repository (ADR) - When critical errors are detected, they automatically
create an ?incident?. Information relating to the incident is automatically captured, the DBA is notified
and certain health checks are run automatically. This information can be packaged to be sent to Oracle
support (see following). Source: Dr. Tim Hall The ADR can be accessed via OEM or a commandline interface.

Hangman Utility ? The Hang Manager (hangman) utility is a new 11g tool to detect database
bottlenecks. An extension of the dba_waiters anddba_blockers views, the hangman tables have a ?
hang chain? that allow the DBA to find the source of ?hangs?, such as the ?deadly embrace? where
mutually blocking locks or latches hang a process. In 11g, the hangman utility is installed on all RAC
nodes by default, allowing for easier inter-node hang diagnostics.
Health Monitor (HM) utility - The Health Monitor utility is an automation of
the dbms_repair corruption detection utility. When a corruption-like problem happens, the HR utility
will checks for possible corruption within database blocks, redo log blocks, undo segments, or
dictionary table blocks.
Incident Packaging Service (IPS) - This wraps up all information about an incident, requests further
tests and information if necessary, and allows you to send the whole package to Oracle Support.
Source: Dr. Tim Hall
Feature Based Patching - All one-off patches will be classified as to which feature they affect. This
allows you to easily identify which patches are necessary for the features you are using. EM will allow
you to subscribe to a feature based patching service, so EM automatically scans for available patches
for the features you are using. Source: Dr. Tim Hall
New Oracle11g Advisors - New 11g Oracle Streams Performance Advisor and Partitioning
Advisor. Source: Mark Rittman
Enhanced Read only tables Table trigger firing order - Oracle 11g PL/SQL and beyond will allow you to specify trigger firing
order with the "precedes" and "follows" clauses. See trigger firing order tips
Invisible indexes - Rich Niemiec claims that the new 11g "invisible indexes" are a great new feature.
It appears that the invisible indexes will still exist, that they can just be marked as "invisible" so that they
cannot be considered by the SQL optimizer. With the overhead of maintaining the index intact, I don't
see why this is very useful. Also see 11g Function-based columns.

Oracle11g High Availability & RAC new features

Oracle continues to enhance Real Application Clusters in Oracle11g and we see some exciting new features
in RAC manageability and enhanced performance:
Oracle 11g RAC parallel upgrades - Oracle 11g promises to have a rolling upgrade features
whereby RAC database can be upgraded without any downtime. Ellison first promised this feature in
2002, and it is a very challenging and complex 11g new feature.
Oracle RAC load balancing advisor - Starting in 10gr2 we see a RAC load balancing

advisor utility. Oracle says that the 11g RAC load balancing advisor is only available with clients
which use .NET, ODBC, or the Oracle Call Interface (OCI).
ADDM for RAC - Oracle will incorporate RAC into the automatic database diagnostic monitor, for
cross-node advisories.
Interval Partitioning - Robert Freeman notes that 11g "interval Partitioning makes it easier to
manage partitions:
"Wouldn't it be nice if you could just tell Oracle you wanted to partition every month and it would create the
partitions for you? That is exactly what interval partitioning does. Here is an example:
create table selling_stuff_daily
( prod_id number not null, cust_id number not null
, sale_dt date not null, qty_sold number(3) not null
, unit_sale_pr number(10,2) not null
, total_sale_pr number(10,2) not null
, total_disc number(10,2) not null)
partition by range (sale_dt)
interval (numtoyminterval(1,'MONTH'))
( partition p_before_1_jan_2007 values
less than (to_date('01-01-2007','dd-mm-yyyy')));

Note the interval keyword. This defines the interval that you want each partition to represent. In this case,
Oracle will create the next partition for dates less than 02-01-2007 when the first record that belongs in that
partition is created."

ADR command-line tool - Virag Sharma notes that the Oracle Automatic Diagnostic repository
(ADR) has a new command-line interface dubbed ADRCI, the ADR Command Interface. Sharma
notes that ADRCI can be used to access the 11g alert log:
$adrci
adrci> set editor vi
adrci> show alert ( it will open alert in vi editor )
adrci> show alert -tail ( Similar to Unix tail command )
adrci> show alert -tail 200 ( Similar to Unix Command tail -200 )
adrci> show alert -tail -f ( Similar to Unix command tail -f )

To list all the "ORA-" error run following command

adrci> show alert -P "MESSAGE_TEXT LIKE '%ORA-%'"

Optimized RAC cache fusion protocols - moves on from the general cache fusion protocols in 10g
to deal with specific scenarios where the protocols could be further optimized. Source: Mark Rittman
Oracle 11g RAC Grid provisioning - The Oracle grid control provisioning pack allows you to
"blow-out" a RAC node without the time-consuming install, using a pre-installed "footprint".
See Oracle 11g RAC Provisioning Pack tips.
Hot patching - Zero downtime patch application.

Data Guard - Standby snapshot - The new standby snapshot feature allows you to encapsulate a
snapshot for regression testing. You can collect a standby snapshot and move it into your QA
database, ensuring that your regression test uses real production data.
Quick Fault Resolution - Automatic capture of diagnostics (dumps) for a fault.
-ocr and voting disk are in asm
-No need to take backup of voting disk
-GSD is offline
-Gloabl AWR
-scan listern
-one node rac
-oracle restart
-HAS
-server pooling

Oracle 11g OEM new features

Oracle 11g programming language support New Features

PHP - Improved PHP driver for Oracle.
Compilers - Improved native Java & PL/SQL compilers.
Oracle 11g XML Enhancements - Oracle 11g will also support Content Repository API for Java
Technology (JSR 170). Oracle 11g has XML "duality", meaning that you can also embed XML
directives inside PL/SQL and embed PL/SQL inside XML code. Oracle 11g XML will also support
schema-based document Type Definitions (DTD's), to describe internal structure of the XML
document.
Scalable Java - The next scalable execution feature is automatic creation of "native" Java code, with
just one parameter for each type with an "on/off" value. This apparently provides a 100% performance
boost for pure Java code, and a 10%-30% boost for code containing SQL. Mark Rittman
Improved sequence management - A new features of Oracle 11g will bypass DML
(sequence.nextval) and allow normal assignments on sequence values.

Intra-unit inlining. In C, you can write a macro that gets inlined when called. Now any stored
procedure is eligible for inlining if Oracle thinks it will improve performance. No change to your code is
required. Now you have no reason for not making everything a subroutine! Source: Lewis Cunningham

Oracle 11g PL/SQL New Features

PL/SQL "continue" keyword - This will allow a "C-Like" continue in a loop, skipping an iteration to
bypass any "else" Boolean conditions. A nasty PL/SQL GOTO statement is no longer required to exit
a Boolean within a loop. Oracle professional Jurgen Kemmelings has an excellent PL/SQL example of
the PL/SQL continue clause in-action:
begin
for i in 1..3
loop
dbms_output.put_line(?i=?||to_char(i));
if ( i = 2 )
then
continue;
end if;
dbms_output.put_line(?Only if i is not equal to 2);
end loop;
end;

Disabled state for PL/SQL - Another 11g new feature is a "disabled" state for PL/SQL (as opposed
to "enabled" and "invalid" in dba_objects).
Easy PL/SQL compiling - Native Compilation no longer requires a C compiler to compile your
PL/SQL. Your code goes directly to a shared library. Source:Lewis Cunningham
Improved PL/SQL stored procedure invalidation mechanism - A new 11g features will be fine
grained dependency tracking, reducing the number of objects which become invalid as a result of
DDL.
Scalable PL/SQL - The next scalable execution feature is automatic creation of "native" PL/SQL (and
Java code), with just one parameter for each type with an "on/off" value. This apparently provides a
100% performance boost for pure PL/SQL code, and a 10%-30% performance boost for code
containing SQL.Mark Rittman
Enhanced PL/SQL warnings - The 11g PL/SQL compiler will issue a warning for a "when others"
with no raise.
Stored Procedure named notation - Named notation is now supported when calling a stored
procedure from SQL.

Oracle 11g SQL New Features

New "pivot" SQL clause - The new "pivot" SQL clause will allow quick rollup, similar to an MSExcel pivot table, where you can display multiple rows on one column with SQL. MS SQL Server
2005 also introduced a pivot clause.Laurent Schneider notes that the new SQL "pivot" syntax is great
for converting rows-to-columns and columns-to-rows.
The /*+result_cache*/ SQL hint - This suggests that the result data will be cached in the data
buffers, and not the intermediate data blocks that were accessed to obtain the query results. You can
cache SQL and PL/SQL results for super-fast subsequent retrieval. The "result cache" ties into the
"scalable execution" concept. There are three areas of the result cache:
The SQL query result cache - This is an area of SGA memory for storing query results.
The PL/SQL function result cache - This result cache can store the results from a PL/SQL
function call.
The OCI client result cache - This cache retains results from OCI calls, both for SQL queries
or PL/SQL functions.
Scalable Execution - This 11g feature consists of a number of features, the first of which is query
results caching; this feature automatically caches the results of an SQL query as opposed to the data
blocks normally cached by the buffer cache, and works both client (OCI) and server side - this was
described as "buffer cache taken to the next level". The DBA sets the size of the results cache and
turns the feature on at a table level with the command "alter table DEPT cache results", the perprocess cache is shared across multiple session and at the client level, is available with all 11g OCIbased clients. Mark Rittman
XML SQL queries - Oracle11g will support query mechanisms for XML including XQuery and
SQL XML, emerging standards for querying XML data stored inside tables.
SQL Replay - Similar to the previous feature, but this only captures and applies the SQL workload,
not total workload. Source: Dr. Tim Hall
Improved optimizer statistics collection speed - Oracle 11g has improved the dbms_stats
performance, allowing for an order of magnitude faster CBO statistics creation. Oracle 11g has also
separated-out the "gather" and "publish" operations, allowing CBO statistics to be retained for later
use. Also, Oracle 11g introduces multi-column statistics to give the CBO the ability to more accurately
select rows when the WHERE clause contains multi-column conditions or joins.
SQL execution Plan Management - Oracle 11g SQL will allow you to fix execution plans (explain
plan) for specific statements, regardless of statistics or database version changes. See Inside the 11g
SQL Performance Advisor.

Dynamic SQL. DBMS_SQL is here to stay. It's faster and is being enhanced. DBMS_SQL and
NDS can now accept CLOBs (no more 32k limit on NDS). A ref cursor can become a DBMS_SQL
cursor and vice versa. DBMS_SQL now supprts user defined types and bulk operations.
Source: Lewis Cunningham
SQL Performance Advisor - You can tell 11g to automatically apply SQL profiles for statements
where the suggested profile give 3-times better performance that the existing statement. The
performance comparisons are done by a new administrative task during a user-specified
maintenance window.
Improved SQL Access Advisor - The 11g SQL Access Advisor gives partitioning advice, including
advice on the new interval partitioning. Interval partitioning is an automated version of range
partitioning, where new equally-sized partitions are automatically created when needed. Both range
and interval partitions can exist for a single table, and range partitioned tables can be converted to
interval partitioned tables.
Oracle 11g SQL tuning transformations

11g Performance tuning optimization new features:

Automatic Memory Tuning - Automatic PGA tuning was introduced in Oracle 9i. Automatic SGA
tuning was introduced in Oracle 10g. In 11g, all memory can be tuned automatically by setting one
parameter. You literally tell Oracle how much memory it has and it determines how much to use for
PGA, SGA and OS Processes. Maximum and minimum thresholds can be set. This is controlled by
the Oracle 11g memory_target parameter.
Resource Manager - The 11g Resource Manager can manage I/O, not just CPU. You can set the
priority associated with specific files, file types or ASM disk groups.
ADDM - The ADDM in 11g can give advice on the whole RAC (database level), not just at the
instance level. Directives have been added to ADDM so it can ignore issues you are not concerned
about. For example, if you know you need more memory and are sick of being told it, you can ask
ADDM not to report those messages anymore.
Faster sorting - Starting in 10gr2 we see an improved sort algorithm, ?Oracle10gRw introduced a
new sort algorithm which is using less memory and CPU resources. A hidden parameter
_newsort_enabled = {TRUE|FALSE} governs whether the new sort algorithm will be used.?
AWR Baselines - The AWR baselines of 10g have been extended to allow automatic creation of
baselines for use in other features. A rolling week baseline is created by default.
Adaptive Metric Baselines - Notification thresholds in 10g were based on a fixed point. In 11g,
notification thresholds can be associated with a baseline, so the notification thresholds vary throughout
the day in line with the baseline.

Oracle 11g security & auditing new features

Enhanced Password - Pete Finnigan notes some new Oracle 11g security features "[Oracle 11g] will
have case sensitive passwords and also the password algorithm has changed to SHA-1 instead of the
old DES based hashing used."
Oracle SecureFiles - replacement for LOBs that are faster than Unix files to read/write. Lots of
potential benefit for OLAP analytic workspaces, as the LOBs used to hold AWs have historically been
slower to write to than the old Express .db files. Mark Rittman Securefiles are a huge improvement to
BLOB data types. Faster, with compression, encryption. Source: Laurent Schneider
Oracle 11g audit vault - Oracle Audit Vault is a new feature that will provide a solution to help
customers address the most difficult security problems remaining today, protecting against insider threat
and meeting regulatory compliance requirements.
Proxy connect for SQL*Plus - New with 10r2 proxy identification in SQL*Plus, the "connect"
command has been enhanced to allow for a "proxy", to aid applications that always connect with the
same user ID:
connect sapr3[scott]/tiger

FGAC for UTL_SMTP, UTL_TCP and UTL_HTTP. You can define security on ports and URLs.
Source: Lewis Cunningham
Fine Grained Dependency Tracking (FGDT). This means that when you add a column to a table,
or a cursor to a package spec, you don't invalidate objects that are dependant on them. Sweet!
Source: Lewis Cunningham
Database Workload Replay - Oracle "Replay" allows the total database workload to be captured,
transferred to a test database created from a backup or standby database, then replayed to test the
affects of an upgrade or system change.
You specify the SQL tuning sets similar to the 10g offering and use the dbms_sqlpa package
(SQL performance analyzer) to manage the SQL each "analyzer task"
with dbms_sqlpa procedures (create_analysis_task, cancel_analysis_task,
drop_analysis_task, reset_analysis_task, report_analysis_task, resume_analysis_task,
interrupt_analysis_task).
Currently, they are working to a capture performance overhead of 5%, so you could
conceivably capture real production workloads. Source: Dr. Tim Hall
Oracle 11g new RMAN features
This blog by George Trujillo notes many new 11g features:

A Virtual Private Catalog can now make sure an RMAN user can only see databases they are
authorized to use.
Archive log management for Streams and Data Guard
Network aware DUPLICATE
Optimized undo backup
Improved corrupt block detection

Java, PL/SQL, XML, .NET, PHP, APEX

PL/SQL Native Compilation Without Needing a Third-Party C Compiler.
Native PL/SQL use of Seq.Nextval in a PL/SQL program.
PL/SQL can use CLOBs to get around 32KB limitation of SQL character strings.
Enhanced PL/SQL warnings and error messages.
PLSTIMER identifies hotspots and performance tuning opportunities in PL/SQL.
New package DBMS_HPROF controls the recording of raw PLSTIMER data.
Continued support of standards with JDBC 4.0 and JVM 5.0. Capability to upgrade to JVM 6.0 will
be available in the future.
Oracle JVM JIT supports transparent native Java compilation without a C Compiler.
Significant performance improvements with JDBC performance especially with Advanced Queuing.
JDBC supports server side result cache alone with OCI client side result cache. Additional things I
liked included the "big" improvements in the JIT and RAC support for JDBC.
New command line interface to OracleJVM making it a lot easier to work with the JDK in the
database.
Support for database resident JARs.
JDBC support for starting and shutting down the database.
Performance enhancements to XPath query for Java.
XML applications can now process larger XML documents by loading and saving .
DOM nodes in memory and using a page manager for physical binary data management.
Unified Java API for XML allows mid-tier Java programs to leverage lazily loading by allowing a
disconnected mode of operation that allows a XMLType to be used with a session pool model of
connection management.

HTML-DB 11g enhancements

APEX will be standard with an embedded PL/SQL gateway.
APEX will have an application packager for packing and deployment of APEX applications.
Data Pump Enhancements to use when you're moving data
Compression and encryption enhancements
Support for XML Schemas and schema-based tables.
Transportable partitions
Change assurance (important for saving money during testing and migration)
Change assurance new features of Database Replay and SQL Replay can play a large role in reducing
costs, testing and issues when migrating to Oracle Database 11g. This is one of the best new features
in this release.
Database replay - captures actual production workload and replays it on a separate system.
SQL performance analyzer - finds and fixes SQL performance degradations
10gR2 will have a patch set, that will allow the replay to occur.

Secure Files (Next generation LOBS)

Eliminates need for file systems. Very fast access of files.
Just as fast as file systems with all the capabilities of the Oracle database (it?s a new LOB type). It is
very fast at accessing the files from a file system.
Store all your data in the database with one consistent:, Security and auditing model
Backup and recovery mechanism
Storage management (ASM)
Transaction and concurrency model
Interface and protocol

Values added services like encryption, compression, and de-duplication

Oracle 11g Business Intelligence & OLAP
Mark Rittman notes some of the upcoming features with Oracle 11g BI suite and OLAP:
Integration of materialized view query rewrite with OLAP - Rittman notes:
"However, in 10g OLAP although you could register a view over aggregated data in an analytic
workspace with query rewrite, ?normal? queries that used SUM(), AVG() and other
aggregation functions, together with GROUP BY, wouldn?t get rewritten as the SQL views
used over analytic workspaces were based on fully-solved cubes, i.e. the view contained all
levels of aggregation and measures were already aggregated. . .
Now, with this forthcoming release of Oracle OLAP, you can just check a box in Analytic
Workspace Manager to enable queries against the source tables for your analytic workspace to
be re-written against the summary data in your analytic workspace, and your OLAP cube will
then act in the same way as a regular materialized view, meaning the two technologies (in theory)
will be interchangeable as a way of summarizing warehouse data. "

Oracle 11g data mining

With the release of the first book on ODM "Oracle Data Mining", we see increased interest in data mining
within 11g and there are rumors that ODM will be greatly enhanced, moving data mining objects into the
dictionary and improving the interface for complex analytics.
ASM new features in 11g

-asmca introduction
-disk can be force mount/delete
-metadata backup
-asm and cluster in same software
-asm disk check
-fast start mirror resync
-sysasm role
RMAN new features in 11g

-rman undo bypass

-backup of flash recovery area to disk
-virtual catalog
-recovery advisor
-Duplicate database from backup with out connecting to source database
-Undrop tablespace
Data Guard new features in 11g

- Fast-Start Failover for Maximum Performance Mode in a Data Guard Configuration

- Compression of Redo Traffic (Only for Gap Resolution) Over the Network in a Data Guard Configuration
- Real-Time Query Capability of Physical Standby Database
- Fast Role Transitions in a Data Guard Configuration
- Data Guard Integration, Simplification, and Performance
- Dynamic Setting of Oracle Data Guard SQL Apply Parameters
- Enhanced Data Guard Broker Based Management Framework
- Histogram for Redo Transport Response Time in a Data Guard Configuration
- Snapshot Standby
- Strong Authentication for Data Guard Redo Transport
- Enhanced DDL Handling in Oracle Data Guard SQL Apply
- Enhanced Oracle RAC Switchover Support for Logical Standby Databases
- Data Guard Logical Apply Completeness
- Oracle Scheduler Support in Data Guard SQL Apply
- Support Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) with Data Guard SQL Apply
- Support XMLType Data Type (Only CLOB) in Data Guard SQL Apply
- Virtual Private Database (VPD) Support in Data Guard SQL Apply
BC is a leader in providing expert assistance and support for implementing Oracle11g new features.