Date: August 14, 2001
Time: 9:00 am
Location: 6700B Rockledge, Room 1202
Chair: Jim Cain
Next Meeting: August 28, 2001, 6700B Rockledge, Room 1205, 9:00 am

Action Items

1. (Tim Twomey) -- Confirm Veterans' Day weekend for migration to Oracle 8.1.7.1.

2. (Advocates) - If interested, email attached eRA Meeting Notification Request Form to Madeline Monheit.

Presentations and Discussion Topics

1. Oracle "Memory Leak" Bug - Jim Cain

Jim briefed the group on the bug in our production Oracle database engine (Version 8.1.6.3) which has been causing system memory and performance problems over the past few weeks. The system sporadically fails to clear previously used SQL statements from the "shared pool" memory area. Oracle's recommended solution is an upgrade to Version 8.1.7.1; however, end-of-fiscal year is an inappropriate time to deploy a new version.

Through the intervention of Brad Sachar, a senior Oracle consultant on the eRA team, we were able to back port the fix Oracle developed for Version 8.1.7.1. This patch was applied to non-production instances last week; over the weekend, it was installed on the production system. There are strong indications that the fix has worked. An intensive query, known to gridlock the IRDB, completed successfully after the patch. The DBA team is closely monitoring the system; minor tuning adjustments may be required.
Version 8.1.6.3 was deployed last February. Pete Morton asked why the performance problem just surfaced. Jim Cain replied that system usage is increasing.

Nancy Vess inquired about plans for the migration to Version 8.1.7.1. Jim responded that we are currently installing the new version on the ES40 test bed and will conduct regression testing. This effort will improve our readiness to upgrade should interim bug containment measures fail.

We plan to move to Version 8.1.7.1 in late October or early November. There are five bugs in the current version that will be fixed by this low-impact migration. Tim noted that installation of the system upgrade might delay application upgrades scheduled for October and November. The Veterans' Day weekend (November 10-12) was suggested for the Oracle migration. Jim Cain asked Tim Twomey to confirm these dates.

2. Plans for Secretary Thompson's Visit - Jim Cain

The Secretary plans to be present for 30 minutes at an extended EPMC meeting on August 22. Members of RPC and POPOF have been invited. Dr. Baldwin intends to present a brief overview of the eRA project followed by a demonstration of CRISP on the web. Next, Tim Twomey will provide the Secretary with a hands-on demo of ECB, QuickView and the Grant Folder. There will be a planning session on Monday, August 20 at 2:00 pm in Dr. Baldwin's office.

As per revised EPMC agenda distributed on August 16, the Secretary will stop in for a few minutes around 9:00 am.

3. IRDB Redesign (See Attachment A) - Johnnie Pearson

Carol Martin explained that the purpose of the high priority IRDB redesign is to make the database more attractive as a query and reporting resource for decision support. She has met several times with Jim Tucker, Andy Greenleaf, Mark Parker, Donna Frahm and Johnnie Pearson to discuss issues and formulate plans.

Johnnie presented the draft high-level project plan. The first major goal of the redesign is to provide users with the information they need. Understandably, different users have different needs. In order to accomplish this objective, the redesign will incorporate "missing" data, create topic-centric and aggregate/summary tables. The current IRDB has base tables containing denormalized, flattened OLTP records.

The second objective is to make the IRDB information more useful by structuring views along business/functional lines and maintaining optimal concurrency with the OLTP.

To realize improved performance (the third goal), current PowerViews will be migrated to Materialized Views (MVs). Carol Martin explained that with materialized views, the underlying query does not change; however, the return time is reduced very significantly. Maria Bukowski asked if existing views will be impacted; they will not. Other measures to improve performance are reducing or eliminating table joins and creating aggregate On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) tables. The retirement of IMPAC I may also help by reducing the bridging requirements.

Tim Twomey stated that MVs are being tested in the development instance. He inquired when they would be ready to move to production. Andy Greenleaf answered that most are awaiting a final check by Verle Wright and Carol Martin's blessing. Carol asked if PVs and MVs could be available in parallel for user comparison.

Johnnie then identified challenges and suggested steps to achieve the project goals. He proposed a staggered (by group) approach to creating and implementing MVs and OLAP tables. For example, the redesign for Group 1 (Finance and Budget, GM, Program, and OPAE) would be deployed in October 2001; the redesign for Group 2 (RR, CM and REV), two weeks later. See attachment A, slide 10 for proposed business/functional area grouping.

Della Hahn commented that Contracts and Trainee Activities should be moved to Group 1. Bud Erickson and Nancy Vess agreed. Johnnie explained that analysts were trying to keep groups small and manageable.

Pete Morton suggested that we identify IRDB users and solicit input and feedback. He and Carol Martin also mentioned other reporting tools/initiatives including ECB/QVR, STARS, and StarWeb as well as Krishna Collie's current comparative analysis of Oracle, Cognos, Business Objects and Hummingbird ad hoc query products. Some ICs are downloading from IMPAC II and looking at derivative databases. Pete further added that he is working with Jim Seach on OLTP MVs. Bud Erickson remarked that Program would query the IRDB if it were easier to use.

Jim Cain and Thor Fjellstedt called for coordination among all query and reporting efforts. Thor expressed an interest in being involved.

4. Notification of eRA Meetings (See Attachment B) - Madeline Monheit

There have been several requests for a schedule of eRA user meetings. Project Team members have expressed an interest in being notified of meetings in business areas other than their own. We are working on a solution using a central calendar facility on the new web site; however, the redesigned site will not be launched until the fall. In the interim, Madeline will facilitate having interested Advocates added to the distribution lists for specific meetings. Please complete the eRA Meeting Notification Request Form (attachment B) to email your request to her.

Announcements and Status Reports

1. Commons Working Group Meeting - Jim Cain announced that there will be an eRA workshop at the CWG meetings in Portland on August 16.

2. Inside eRA - Christine Rumney stated that the next issue will be published on August 17. She encouraged Advocates to suggest topics for future articles.

3. ECB/QVR Update - Thor Fjellstedt announced that the ECB/QVR Steering Committee will meet on Tuesday, August 21 at 1:00 pm on the 9th floor of Rockledge II. CAM will be revamped with Paul Jordan in the lead. Jim Seach will demo his scientific indexing system which may be integrated into QVR. Don Tiedemann's QVR searches using CRISP terms add new functionality and will be generally available next week. Finally, a new Council version of ECB, which supports downloading of summary statements in PDF format, has been launched. Thor will distribute training materials.

Attendees

Attachments
A. IRDB Redesign Draft High-Level Project Plan of August 14, 2001
B. eRA Meeting Notification Request Form