Product Description

This book is a comprehensive and easy-to-understand guide for using the Oracle Data Provider (ODP) version 11g on the .NET Framework. It also outlines the core GoF (Gang of Four) design patterns and coding techniques employed to build and deploy high-impact mission-critical applications using advanced Oracle database features through the ODP.NET provider.

The book details the features of the ODP.NET provider in two main sections: “Basic,” covering the basics and mechanisms for data access via ODP.NET; and “Advanced,’ covering advanced Oracle features such as globalization, savepoints, distributed transactions and how to call them via ODP.NET, advanced queueing (AQ), and promotable transactions. It takes you from the ground up through different implementation scenarios via a rich collection of both VB.NET and C# code samples.

It outlines database security and performance optimization tricks and techniques on ODP.NET that conform to best practices and adaptable design. Different GoF design patterns are highlighted for different types of ODP.NET usage scenarios with consideration of performance and security.

It provides a comprehensive guide to the synergistic integration of Oracle and Microsoft technologies such as the upcoming Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio (11.1.0.7.10). It also details how programmers can make use of ODT to streamline the creation of robust ODP.NET applications from within the Visual Studio environment.

What you’ll learn

• How to use the full set of features available in ODP.NET 11g (with code samples and diagrams illustrating each feature/concept). New features such as using Oracle Streams AQ, promotable transactions, Oracle database event notifications, and Oracle database control are also covered.
• The core performance and feature differences between ODP.NET, Microsoft.NET Provider for Oracle, OLEDB.NET, and ODBC.NET, together with the strengths and weaknesses of each method. This section also provides comprehensive coverage on the differences between ODP.NET 9i, 10g, and 11g.
• How to take advantage of connection pooling, fetch size controls, ref cursors, bind variables, client result cache and statement caching via ODP.NET to squeeze every ounce of performance from your .NET application.
• How to secure your ODP.NET applications via authentication and ODP.NET 11g’s new classes to enforce imperative and declarative Oracle security.
• The common programming pitfalls and design patterns to use/avoid in different ODP.NET usage scenarios
• How to use a significant set of features of Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio (11.1.0.7.10), including new features such as the AQ designers, user/role management, and performance-tuning tools.

Who this book is for

This book is aimed at .NET developers looking for a comprehensive guide to ODP.NET and its latest features. The book will also appeal to those looking to optimize their OPD.NET applications by applying the best design patterns and other practices.

Customer Reviews (1)

Good book, but misleading description in Amazon, no VB
I just started into the book and it seemed to be exactly what I was looking for.My frustration is that the Amazon description indicates the book as "a rich set of VB and C# examples..." only to find out there are only C# examples.I also checked the apress site and the available source code is only for C#.Therefore this book is not worth a whole lot to me. ... Read more

Product Description
Get a thorough understanding of Oracle Database 10g from the most comprehensive Oracle database reference on the market, published by Oracle Press. From critical architecture concepts to advanced object-oriented concepts, this powerhouse contains nearly 50 chapters designed to enlighten you. Upgrade from earlier versions, use SQL, SQL Plus, and PL/SQL. Get code examples and access popular documentation PDFs--plus a full electronic copy of the book on the included CD-ROM. Go beyond the basics and learn security, text searches, external tables, using Java in Oracle, and a great deal more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

excelent
is really a complete reference.
vendor: excelent, on time
book condition: excelent!
information: very useful
amazon service: as always - the best!

too little on too much
Based on the reviews, I bought this book some time ago. Unfortunately, my colleagues and I have not found much use for it. It covers quite some subjects but rather briefly. There is almost half the book on SQL and PL/SQL which is too much for me for a "Complete Reference" I expected more info on configuring oracle, dataguard, ASM and Enterprise Manager but was disappointed.
For an SQL/PLSQL novice, this must be the reference book, very complete with many examples to guide you. For a DBA already familiar with this language, the book would contain too little specific info on new and important 10g topics such as ASM, dataguard, flashback etc...
Conclusion for me: when I want to look up something on Oracle, I go for OTN manuals or metalink or google instead of this book.

Disappointing
I was disappointed as a seasoned Oracle user/DBA to get abook which covers basics too much and new features too little.

Not a Complete Reference. Its an end user reference.
Just FYI, this book is geared at people USING Oracle 10g, not people RUNNING it. Great example- the index lists 'listener.ora' once, and its on page 34. Of over 1300 pages. And that's it- no other discussion of how Oracle listeners work, connections, database optimization, etc. This is a very basic book, not really a reference.

Excellent book, CD much more convenient
This book is a great resource for the new or experienced DBA. With so many configuration options and infrequently used features it is nice to have one source for all of this information.

Also, the CD which accompanies the book makes carrying the book and searching it much faster. ... Read more

Product Description

A Fully Integrated Study System for OCA Exam 1Z0-052

Prepare for the Oracle Certified Associate Oracle Database 11g Administration I exam with help from this exclusive Oracle Press guide. In each chapter, you'll find challenging exercises, practice questions, a two-minute drill, and a chapter summary to highlight what you've learned. This authoritative guide will help you pass the test and serve as your essential on-the-job reference. Get complete coverage of all OCA objectives for exam 1Z0-052, including:

• Database architecture
• Creating an Oracle Database
• Managing the Oracle instance
• Configuring and managing the Oracle network
• Managing database storage structures
• Administering user security
• Managing schema objects, data and concurrency, and undo data
• Implementing Oracle Database security
• Database maintenance and performance management
• Backup and recovery
• Moving data
• Intelligent infrastructure enhancements

On the CD-ROM:

• One full practice exam that simulates the actual OCA exam
• Detailed answers and explanations
• Score report performance assessment tool
• Complete electronic book
• Bonus exam available free with online registration

Customer Reviews (8)

Handy for Someone New
New DBAs and those new to Oracle, you'll find this book handy, but I recommend that you familiarize yourself with related topics before diving in.
* Using/accessing an Oracle database. Using forms, reports, SQL, and SQL*Plus.
* UNIX and Window's command prompt
* Operating System and hardware interaction
* Networking (Servers vs. Clients)

I'm not saying you have to be an expert in these areas, but if you understand these and are comfortable with them, reading this will be less intimidating. It certainly made it easier for me.

+ I like this book. I have become more fluent in the terminology and I have acquired handy tools to use as a new DBA.I know I still have a long way to go too.

The hardest thing I have with this is sitting down and reading it straight through. I like to read the chapters in order, but I've found that hopping around makes reading easier.For example: Things I would recommend for a new DBA (with previous experience with Oracle on the user end)is Chp 1 (overview), Chp 5 (managing Oracle instances), then even skipping to Chp 8 with administrative tasks.As these things become easy, move on to more detailed chapters about tasks and database structures.It is good (and I recommend) to know what controlfiles, redo log files, OEM, SQL*Developer are and how they can help you; but to first read details about memory structures can make reading this book and the job as a DBA seem dull and only abstract. Explore other chapters, they will reference SGA/PGA and other database architectures, but it'll be easier to vision the interaction and the dependence between applications,files and database architecture.*Everyone is different, this is a method that helped me out... and it's a method I saw throughout college.

- Read other reviews and be aware that there are proofreading errors in this book! That's makes me worry that I'll misunderstand a key concept... and the reason why I'd consider giving this 3 stars instead of 4.
+ I don't regret my purchase.There's a treasure trove of good information here.

This book has potential
After reading a few Oracle cert books I really, really, liked the way this book was organized. Structurally, it's written well, with cohesion, conciseness, and terms that don't seem like and endless decoupled liturgy of things to memorize.

However, the proof reading and syntax issues in this book blows. It's got way too many errata issues that I'm finding as I read. And this isn't good for a book that supposed to help you pass a test and for a book that's listed at 59.95.

And it's not terribly easy to find the already existing errata that's been published on McGraw Hill's web site(s) of which there are many.

Things I've found already (excluding the already published errata are)

Chapter 5 in the book indicates that BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST parameter used to point to trace locations. However, this parameter is now deprecated.

Page 278 Chapter 7 Self Test Answers number 9. Indicates that D and E are the correct answers outing C "because there is no relevant information in V$DATABASE. However, on page 275 D in the question is V$DATABASE. D is one of the "correct" answers on page 278, yet V$DATABASE, as indicated, is incorrect. The problem is that there's a mismatch of the test question answers with the actual answers. According to the original question, the answer should be E for V$DATAFILE and for V$TABLESPACE. The answer needs to be rewritten, or the question does.

Page 278 Chapter 7 Self Test Answers number 10. Discusses the DBA_TABLESPACE view. There is no such view; however, DBA_TABLESPACES exists.

Also, I'm getting the feeling that the test questions were aggregated separately from its content. Which is OK, I rather like the challenge--seems more like a test. However, part of me feels that if you read the book well enough you should be able to answer the book's questions using information provided in the book. Shouldn't the author literally be able to cut and paste his own text in the answer section, perhaps paraphrased with a reference to the chapter text? I'm not seeing that at all.

So do I hate this book? Not at all. It's a good read for sure. However, I'm reading it on one of those book club subscriptions and gleaning what I need. Glad I'm not paying full price for something with so many errors. I'm tired of expensive technical books with all the errors in print. If they fix the errors in this book, it could be a 5 star read and worthy of republishing.

I hope it's a good one
I haven't had a chance to read it but I hope it's as good as "OCA Oracle Database 11g SQL Fundamentals I" which helped me a lot to pass that exam.

Excellent Book for DBA Certification
The books is very good for Oracle DBA certification. It has all the topics covered with clear explaination and the important tips and points for exams are also highlighted.
I am rating the book 4 star.

Excellent Training Book; Used as our textbook at Tulane
Have only just started the course, but our instructor chose this book for the textbook.He has been teaching Oracle at Tulane for many years. ... Read more

Product Description

This book is an anthology of effective database management techniques representing the collective wisdom of the OakTable Network. With an emphasis upon performance—but also branching into security, national language, and other issues—the book helps you deliver the most value for your company’s investment in Oracle Database technologies. You’ll learn to effectively plan for and monitor performance, to troubleshoot systematically when things go wrong, and to manage your database rather than letting it manage you.

• Adopt a rational approach to database management; eliminate guesswork
• Add value to your organization as a database professional
• Manage and optimize performance
• Exploit different platform technologies
• Secure your organization's data
• Gain deep understanding of database internals and structures

Who is this book for?

This book is aimed at Oracle database administrators who want to further their careers by implementing sound and proven database administration practices—and especially repeatable and predictable practices—in their daily work.

Customer Reviews (2)

Expert Oracle Practices
The book seems to be very knowledgeable about expert practices - though I wantedsomething a little less advanced.I'd recommend it for advanced users but newbies should look elsewhere.

Coherent and cohesive flavor, critically important topics, infused with practical, real-world experience
I found the first Oak Table book, "Oracle Insights, Tales of the Oak Table" to be inspirational, practical, and fun to read. That was a very rare combination, so I eagerly read this new book as soon as it became available. Also, since the authors are all very active contributors to the Oracle community, I was very interested in what they would write in this collaborative forum. I was not disappointed!

This book covers a wide variety of critically important topics. Each chapter author is a recognized expert in their field, and each chapter is infused with practical, real-world experience. Each chapter includes illustrative and informative examples. The topics cover a very wide range: design, troubleshooting, monitoring, tuning, firefighting, very large databases, running on Windows, cloud computing, and security. Most of the chapters are technical, but plenty of organizational and collaborative advice is also included. Although it is unlikely that your work spans all of these topics, you will certainly find direct and immediate benefit from one or more of the chapters. Reading the other chapters is an excellent and easy way to broaden your outlook and improve your skills.

A book like this, written independently by sixteen authors, with each chapter addressing a different topic, has a real potential to be scattered and incoherent. This book does not fall prey to that danger. Instead, this book has a very coherent and cohesive flavor, probably due to the shared vision of the Oak Table Network. What seems to bind these authors together is a scientific spirit, grounded in empirical, verifiable, real-world experience. Also, these authors are all very active contributors to the Oracle community, so they know how to collaborate, explain, and educate. Moreover, they do this with a sense of fun and adventure! This spirit of joyful sharing, combined with practical expert advice, sets this book apart. It is required reading for all serious DBAs.
... Read more

Product Description
The Essential Resource for Oracle DBAs--Fully Updated and Expanded

Manage a flexible, highly available Oracle database with help from the expert information contained in this exclusive Oracle Press guide. Fully revised to cover every new feature and utility, Oracle Database 11g DBA Handbook shows how to perform a new installation, upgrade from previous versions, configure hardware and software for maximum efficiency, and employ bulletproof security. You will learn to automate the backup and recovery process, provide transparent failover capability, audit and tune performance, and distribute your enterprise databases with Oracle Net.

• Plan and deploy permanent, temporary, and bigfile tablespaces
• Optimize disk allocation, CPU usage, I/O throughput, and SQL queries
• Develop powerful database management applications
• Guard against human errors using Oracle Flashback and Oracle Automatic Undo Management
• Diagnose and tune system performance using Oracle Automatic Workload Repository and SQL Tuning Sets
• Implement robust security using authentication, authorization, fine-grained auditing, and fine-grained access control
• Maintain high availability using Oracle Real Application Clusters and Oracle Active Data Guard
• Respond more efficiently to failure scenarios by leveraging the Oracle Automatic Diagnostic Repository and the Oracle Repair Advisor
• Back up and restore tables, tablespaces, and databases with Oracle Recovery Manager and Oracle Data Pump Export and Import
• Work with networked databases, data warehouses, and VLDBs
• Put the latest Oracle Database 11g tools to work--Oracle Total Recall, Oracle Flashback Data Archive, and more

Customer Reviews (1)

A best buy
Bought this product as a gift for my bookworm cousin. It was brand new, delivered so quick and a little bit more than i expected in every sense. Highly recommended for the Oracle freak or novice. ... Read more

Product Description

Pro Oracle Database 11g Administration is a task-oriented, best-practices approach to database administration using Oracle’s industry-leading database management system, Oracle Database 11g. It helps you cut through the complexity of the Oracle Database feature set and the size of its documentation set. Pro Oracle Database 11g Administration condenses and organizes the core job of a database administrator, giving you the foundation on which to achieve a senior level of expertise.

Pro Oracle Database 11g Administration is a book focused on results. Author Darl Kuhn draws from a well of experience over a decade deep to lay out real-world techniques that lead to success as an Oracle DBA. He gives clear explanations on how to perform critical tasks. He weaves in theory where necessary without bogging you down in unneeded detail. He is not afraid to take a stand on how things should be done. He won’t leave you adrift in a sea of choices, showing you three ways to do something and then walking away.

Database administration isn’t about passing a certified exam, or about pointing-and-clicking your way through a crisis, nor about earning a wooden-table label. Database administration is about applying the right solution at the right time, about avoiding risk, about making robust choices that get you home each night in time for dinner with your family. If you have “buck stops here” responsibility for an Oracle database, then Pro Oracle Database 11g Administration is the book you need to help elevate yourself to the level of Professional Oracle Database Administrator.

• Condenses and organizes the core job of a database administrator into one volume.
• Takes a results-oriented approach to getting things done.
• Lays a foundation upon which to build a senior level of expertise

What you’ll learn

Product Description

Apply Your SQL Server DBA Skills to Oracle Database Administration

Use your SQL Server experience to set up and maintain a high-performance Oracle Database environment. Written by a DBA with expertise in both platforms, Oracle Database Administration for Microsoft SQL Server DBAs illustrates each technique with clear explanations, examples, and comparison tables. Get full details on Oracle Database intervals, creation assistants, management techniques, and query tools. High availability, disaster recovery, and security procedures are also extensively covered in this comprehensive Oracle Press guide.

• Install and configure Oracle Database on Windows or Linux systems
• Administer and monitor databases from Oracle Enterprise Manager
• Implement robust security using roles, permissions, and privileges
• Back up and restore databases with Oracle Recovery Manager
• Use the Oracle cost-based optimizer to tune performance
• Write, debug, and execute PL/SQL queries using Oracle SQL Developer
• Maximize availability with Oracle Real Application Clusters
• Build standby and failover servers using Oracle Data Guard

Customer Reviews (1)

Practical and Useful
Working in mixed database environments is a very interesting challenge, both for DBAs and developers. If we already have experience with SQL Server, and need to work with Oracle, our SQL Server experience may be an advantage- we already have a good handle on what an RDBMS should do (backups, restores, etc.). On the other hand, our experience and common patterns with SQL Server may cause us to make mistakes on Oracle, because its internals and best practices are not the same.

I have read a book named "Oracle Database Administration for Microsoft SQL Server DBAs", and I really liked it. The book's goal is to introduce Oracle to SQL Server data professionals, to explain similarities and differences between these two very common RDBMS. This book is filled with practical, real life information, necessary to perform daily activities of a production DBA. The book can really prevent us from missteps when we try to use Oracle as if it were SQL Server. It has the following chapters:

*Oracle Internals - I was especially fascinated by the description of transaction process flow, which is different in Oracle
*Oracle Installation, which also describes a few useful Linux commands, and connectivity
*Database Definitions and Setup (databases and schemas have different meanings)
*DBA Tools
*Database Backup, Restore, and Recovery
*Database Maintenance
*Performance and Tuning
* PL/SQL (which is VERY different from T-SQL)
* High Availability Architecture

Overall, this is a must-read book for any SQL Server professional intending to improve their Oracle skills. ... Read more

Product Description

Oracle Database 11g : New Features for DBAs and Developers is a comprehensive, example–laden review of the most significant new features and improvements offered by the latest release of Oracle Corporation’s flagship database product.

• Learn what’s new in Oracle that really counts.
• See actual examples and test run output.
• Make sound decisions on new feature adoption.

Sift the gold from the silt and discover which new features of the latest release of Oracle’s flagship database product are really worth adopting. Years of database administration experience from authors Sam Alapati and Charles Kim are combined with sound, step–by–step testing and a heart–felt emphasis on what matters in the real–world to help you get the most out of Oracle Database 11g .

What you’ll learn

• Which new features really can make your day–to–day work easier
• How to automate more of your DBA work than ever before

Who is this book for?

Oracle Database 11g : New Features for DBAs and Developers is for developers, DBAs, project managers, consultants, and other technically minded users of the Oracle database. The book will be of use to any professional in the field who wants to quickly review the new features offered by the Oracle Database 11grelease.

Customer Reviews (10)

Good book, many errors
This is a good book with a lot of details and examples about new features in Oracle 11g.
Very comprehensive.

But there are so many errors!
I would add to the error list other two:
1) at page 404
the example call of md_backup is wrong, instead of :
"ASMCMD> md_backup -o asm_backup.mdb -g data,fra"
should be:
"ASMCMD> md_backup -b asm_backup.mdb -g data,fra"

2) at page 560 there is a LOGIC error, or confusion !!
The authors want to demonstrate that when using system partitioning, for DML commands INSERT and MERGE one has to use partition-aware syntax.That is correct.

But the example given is about the DDL MERGE PARTITION command and not about the usual DML MERGE !!!
" Like the insert command, the merge command must be performed with partition-aware syntax.Here's an example of alter table with the merge partition command: ..."

The book overall is good, my recommendation is BUY, it did help me pass the Oracle 11g upgrade OCP exam.

Thank you,
Cristian

Kindle version illustrations impossible (nearly) to read
Taking into account the shortcomings of this book detailed in previous reviews, I found that there were really no alternatives to read while travelling if I wanted to prepare for the 11g upgrade exam. The book is OK to read, but since I was on the road, I opted for the Kindle version. I found that there is a technical problem with doing this, as the illustrations that include text (screen shots, report illustrations) are nearly impossible to read on a Kindle!I believe that the text has been reviewed adequately in the previous posts, but I hadn't seen this warning before... so people can keep this in mind when in the same situation I was in and contemplate a Kindle version rather than the hard copy. Also, you don't (obviously) get the referenced CD with the Kindle.

Oracle Database 11g Review
This is the first book I have read from Sam Alapati and Charles Kim.Coincidently or not, Sam is also the author of the "OCP Oracle Database 11g: New Features for Administrators Exam Guide (Exam 1Z0-050)" book.
After completing this book I am very happy with what I have learned.The authors are very thorough in their coverage of the new features in 11g and do a good job of providing applicable real world examples.

Chapter 9 on ASM covered the new features well and Oracle has made some nice improvements.ASM is a growth area for Oracle and am looking forward to it becoming friendlier and easier to use.Moving files in and out of ASM has been made easier in Oracle 11g.

Chapter 11 on Application Development will be best utlized by developers or DBA's that are involved with development beyond the intermediate level.This chapter also introduces DBAs to APEX.

Chapter 12 is one of the most important chapters.This chapter focuses on Data Warehousing and includes the new partitioning features.The examples are easy to understand and are applicable to the real world.This chapter also does an excellent job on explaing Oracle's next generation LOBs called "Secure Files".This is a must read chapter.

If I could have added a chapter to this book it would be a chapter dedicated to RAC.Even though 11g does not bring too many new features to RAC it does have a few.For example the new features on parallel execution I do not think are mentioned. Their are also enhanced configuration assistants that can be better explained and can be found in a single place.

Overall this is an excellent book and for someone who is just starting to work with 11g this is the best place to start.

Decent 11g New Features Book
For the most part it was a decent book and gave me a great overview of the new features in Oracle 11g. However there are quite a few typos and a bit of inaccurate information (result_cache_mode = AUTO is not valid/supported).

I wouldn't say this is a bad book - it's a nice read and contains the majority of the information. I am impressed by it being one of the first 11g books out. The authors put in a lot of hard work and I congratulate them.

Very good book
I'd recommend this book for a DBA who already has experience administering Oracle 9i and 10g, and want to maintain his/her knowledge up-to-date. It focus on the main new features of Oracle 11g, and it's certaily worth buying it! ... Read more

Product Description
Candidates for the Oracle Certified Associate in Oracle Database 11g need to pass Exams 1Z0-051 and 1Z0-052 to achieve their certification—this guide prepares you for taking both those exams. This two-in-one study guide covers the Oracle Certified Associate certification for Oracle database 11g and reviews exam topics such as restricting and sorting data, using conversion functions and conditional expressions, displaying data from multiple tables, and exploring the Oracle database architecture. Plus, you’ll learn how to create and maintain an Oracle database, perform database backups and recovery, move and manipulate data, prepare the database environment, and more.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

For Instructors: Teaching supplements are available for this title.

Customer Reviews (2)

Horrible SQL Section - Decent DBA Section
I have been a DBA for a 15 years and wanted to take the certification tests to improve marketability.Since I need to take two tests ... why not get a 5 star rated book to learn both tests at once? [It was 5 star when I bought the book ... hence the review ]

Well the biggest reason for giving this a poort review is that the SQL section, the first test to be passed, in covered extremely poorly.Descriptions of the commands are limited and examples are sparse.I went through the book with the idea that this was everything I would need to pass the Oracle SQL exam ... and discovered I was wrong.The material covered here was about 50% of the material needed and the exam questions in this book, vs. the actual test, were no comparison.The real test was significantly harder.Material on the exams was not covered period, and what was covered did not really help me to understand all the 'boundary' cases that the exam focuses on.

The sections covering database architecture are much better.I happen to know this material very well as this is where my day-to-day activities lie.The material was a much better match to the material needed for the test and it was reflected in the fact that nearly 2/3'rd of the book focuses on DBA topics vs. SQL.
Summary ... this is a decent book for studying for the DBA exam, but for the SQL exam it is far from acceptable.A better, though still flawed, SQL book would be: OCA: Oracle Database 11g Administrator Certified Associate Study Guide: (Exams1Z0-051 and 1Z0-052)

BestOracle Book
I like this book.Simple and well organized.I have been a DBA for 12 years now.
But forgot many featuresin newer versions.This has everything with examples.
This book is good for beginners as well as seasoned DBA's
I must read for allDBA's !

paul ... Read more

Product Description

"Offers hundreds of hints, tips, and tricks of the trade that can be useful to any DBA wanting to achieve maximum performance of Oracle applications. No Oracle library would be complete without this book." --Ken (Dr. DBA) Jacobs, Vice President of Product Strategy for Server Technologies, Oracle Corporation

"Rich is the first and last stop for Oracle Database technology and performance tuning. His knowledge is a vital tool that you need to successfully negotiate the waters of Oracle database development." --Mike Frey, Principal Architect, Navteq

Customer Reviews (16)

Good Book Oracle Performance
Easy to understand about Performance tuning.
Helpful to make idea review & investigate your oracle database.

Very useful book
This is a very useful book for those who are looking for improving the performance of their Oracle Database. It's full of good tips that you can apply to your database.
Don't you expect miracles if you want this improving overnight. I've learned that tuning is an everyday (or every week) task.

Perfect choice!
It's one of those great books that give you only useful information. Very good choice, I recommend it to all people interested by performance of Oracle.

Great book!
Great book for Oracle database professionals who want to deepen their understanding of the manifold factors that affect performance. I learned a ton of instantly useful information during my first pass through the book. I now keep this book within arm's reach as a reference, using it frequently to address tuning issues as they arise.

Excellent Book!
In my opinion, this is the best Oracle press I've ever read in its quality. The book is well organized, has extensive tested examples and the author's strong experience apparantly added to the value of the book.
For those who want to be specialized in Oracle database tuning, this book is a must.
I wish all Oracle books would be in this level of quality. ... Read more

Product Description

Get a Solid Foundation in Oracle Database Technology

Master Oracle Database 11g fundamentals quickly and easily. Using self-paced tutorials, this book covers core database essentials, the role of the administrator, high availability, and large database features. Oracle Database 11g: A Beginner's Guide walks you, step by step, through database setup, administration, programming, backup, and recovery. In-depth introductions to SQL and PL/SQL are included. Designed for easy learning, this exclusive Oracle Press guide offers:

• Core Concepts--Oracle Database 11g topics presented in logically organized chapters
• Critical Skills--Lists of specific skills covered in each chapter
• Projects--Practical exercises that show how to apply the critical skills learned in each chapter
• Progress Checks--Quick self-assessment sections to check your progress
• Notes--Extra information related to the topic being covered
• Mastery Checks--Chapter-ending quizzes to test your knowledge

Customer Reviews (2)

Poor Quality -Very patronizing and worthless.
This book is one of the worst books I have read on databases. The quality of this book is worst than a term report from a Junior in college. It has fill-in the blanks at the end of each chapter; Seriously what were they thinking?

Midway in the book page 208 of 410 pages total the author talks about
"LEARN What a DBA does" and marks that as a critical skill, in the same section the author encourages readers to take Oracle Certification. Buy this book if you are Freshmen or grade school student trying to use Oracle, better google and find some decent getting started guides. It is full of fluff.

Not worth the paper it's written on.

-Very disappointed.

Beginner's guide to 11g
The book was comprehensive enough for a junior dba and skilled enough for a 15 yr veteran. The incorporation of the 11g concepts and OEM was a welcome addition. The pace was good for the expected audience and the book captured the fundamentals of a dba and some concepts of 11g. I found the Mastery Checks at the end of the chapters were challenging enough. The PL/SQL will help me get feedback to development on better ways to write loops, which we all know can be done better. A topic on statistics would enhance the overall skill set for this book. Overall the book was and will be helpful going forward.
... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (12)

Perfect for Those Getting to Know Oracle
Prior to this book, I had almost know experience or knowledge of the Oracle database. I really like the approach the author's used with this book. What I really want when I'm learning a new topic is to get a fairly broad, fairly shallow introduction to the material. I want the most important points summed up in a way that makes sense to a new guy. I don't want to delve deep into each topic and I don't want things explained in a way that requires me to look up and learn every other term in order to understand the points. And that is the approach the authors have taken. The point of the book isn't to make you an expert at any one area of Oracle. At lot of the book is spent discussing *why* certain features are important and how they fit into the big picture, sometimes without a lot of discussion on the features themselves. This may frustrate some readers, but I found it to be very helpful. For example, I don't need to know everything about Oracle redo logs or all the ins-and-outs of Oracle's support for business intelligence. What I *do* need to know is why the redo logs exist and a high level overview of how Oracle handles BI. This book gives you the bird's eye view of the Oracle landscape and let's you make the determination on where you need to take a closer look.

The book is well written. It's easy to read, generally very clear, and does not contain many errors (I don't think I found any).

Another really nice feature is the appendix containing a listing of additional resources where you can go to find more information about Oracle. These are broken out by chapter (i.e. topic). This is a great feature because it really helps with the next obvious step--digging deeper.

All in all, I can't recommend this book enough. An enjoyable read with a great strategy behind it.

Well rounded Oracle Intro Book
I must admit I had some preconceptions when I picked up this book.I thought it might be a little weak on substance.I also thought it was trying to do too much, with such a broad topic.It turns out I was pleasantly surprised.

For starters I read the preface.The authors work in technical sales, and the target audience is pretty broad, from DBAs & Developers to Systems Administrators and also IT managers and business users.I emphasize this because it is well written to be a good introductory Oracle book for DBAs and Developers, and not too technical that these other audiences can't digest the material.More importantly it is very well written.The style is quite good.I guess that's no surprise, being that the book is in it's fourth printing.

I like the first chapter, Introducing Oracle, as it takes a stab at not only some of the history of the company, but the technology as well.I learned a few things along the way.It includes a "Summary of Oracle Database Features" which is broad and all encompassing.Sure you could probably find all of this in the documentation... somewhere!However, having it all summarized is very nice.Development Features, Connection Features, App Server, Distributed Features, Data Movement Features, Performance Features, Management Features, Backup Features, Availability Features, Security Features, and so on.

Chapter two covers the Oracle Architecture, nuts & bolts, chapter three installation, Chapter four data structures, chapter five management, chapter six security, seven performance, eight concurrency, nine transactions, ten warehousing, eleven high availability, twelve various hardware architectures, thirteen distributed db, fourteen extended datatypes, and fifteen beyond the database.

As I was flipping through the chapters, I was also looking for an easy way to find the 11g features.I guess I was thinking more along the lines of a New Features book, which this is not.However the book does include Appendix A, which clearly lists all the new stuff in Oracle 11g, so that fit the bill.

Overall it was a very comfortable read and enjoyable.Even if you are quite technical, you will surely learn something new as the broad spectrum of Oracle is so wide, that there are surely things you're not well familiar with.However it is primarily targeted to folks new to the Oracle world, who want to dip their toes in, and learn about the family of products.And for that I would really recommend it.

Very informative!
This book is well written and organized. It provides a comprehensive overview of Oracle features and technologies, including the latest Oracle database 11g for begineers. The focus is on principles rather than syntax, such as Oracle security & auditing, performance, multiuser concurrency, transaction processing and high availability.

A comprehensive reference for new and old users alike!
The 4th updated edition of ORACLE ESSENTIALS is a must for any library strong in databases in general and Oracle in particular, offering an easily-read reference packed with tips on data structures, installation, networking, and customization processes. Features beyond the Oracle database: Express, Fusion Middleware, and more - compliment specifics on the latest Oracle Database 11g, providing a comprehensive reference for new and old users alike!

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Clearly explains the inner workings of Oracle
Oracle Essentials, Oracle Database 11g, 4th edition
Rick Greenwald et al.
O'Reilly - 4th Edition (11g)
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596514549/index.html

This is a very detailed overview of the inner workings of Oracle. Each chapter is a small book in itself going into the detail of the subject. This might be confusing to those without a clear understanding of how databases work in general, and a background in computer science would help. Overall, the author does a nice job of explaining each topic in such a way that it would be reasonably clear either way though. There are many diagrams, tables, lists, and pictures to help explain the material. This would not be so much a reference for programming Oracle as it explains what is available in Oracle and how Oracle provides its features. The book should be usefully to Oracle DBAs and system administrators. It will also appeal to those that want a book that goes beyond stating what Oracle can do and shows how Oracle actually does what it can do.

Generally chapters cover:

Overview
Architecture
Installation and Running
Data Structures (B*-trees, etc.)
Management
Security
Performance
Concurrency
Transactions
Warehousing, Business Intelligence
Availability
Hardware
Distributed Databases
Object Oriented Development
New Features of 11g

Summary:

- The internal workings of Oracle are clearly explained through out.
- A great book for system administrator, DBAs, and those who take care of Oracle databases. ... Read more

Product Description

This is a unique, one-volume guide to the administration and management of the Oracle database. Fully revised and updated from its best-selling 9i predecessor, this edition covers all new features, with fully field-tested examples&emdash;not just "showcase" examples.

This book covers the new 10g management and performance tools and provides essential primers on Unix, Linux and Windows NT administration and on core SQL and PL/SQL programming techniques. And it provides everything the new and aspring Oracle DBA needs to build and admisiter complex Oracle 10g databases.

Customer Reviews (13)

a lot of bugs! - not worthy
I reviewed this book and I found a looooot of bugs in there. Nobody bothered to check if all queries are ok.
Examples? Here you are:
command: rmdir -r newdir
should be: rm -r newdir

another here: SELECT name FROM sys.obj$ WHERE obj#='4916681';
should be:SELECT name FROM sys.obj$ WHERE dataobj#='4916681';

it is only a couple of first pages. I am scared what gonna be later...

Exellent guide for beginners.
A good book for a reader that did not attend Oracle courses or lack an expertise in several fields, definitely not a study textbook, but a reference for already working DBA.

read one month before taking the class, at lease
read one month before taking the class, at lease, because it's not a 1200 pages book full of snapshot, but full of characters. good for students who never touch the Unix/Linux subject

Probably the Best book on Oracle DBA..
Guys..
This is it. I have 2 other DBA books that i use to refer. I sold them on Ebay, and bought this book. This is the only book that i have on my desk. It got everything from Basics like 1NF ( first Normalization) to PL/SQL packages.
Time spent reading this book is worth it. Thanks Sam for Wondeful book.

What a book
I knew this book for a long time and i am so lucky to get it... it explain stuff in a very nice and sequential way, the best about it is that it trains the DBA to use command line at all time..... ... Read more

Product Description

A fully integrated study system for Oracle Certification exam 1Z0-047

This exclusive Oracle Press guide covers all of the objectives on the newly created Oracle SQL Expert exam in detail, including control privileges, creating indexes and constraints, altering existing schema objects, creating and querying external tables, and using the advanced SQL features to query and manipulate data within the database.

Oracle Database SQL Expert Exam Guide features real-world examples, practice questions, and chapter summaries to help you learn the material. The CD-ROM contains two practice exams and an electronic copy of the book.

Customer Reviews (3)

Covers the material but is verbose
I have used multiple books to prepare for the Oracle SQL Expert exam.
This particular book is unique in that it covers all the topics for the exam (including the following
topics which are hard to find in just one book):
Generating Reports by Grouping Related Data, Managing Objects with Data Dictionary Views, Regular Expression Support, and Hierarchical Retrieval, and a few sections on managing TimeZones, Flashback, and External Tables.

Although this book is comprehensive enough for the examination, I thought the topics were covered more clearly in other books - particularly Oracle SQL by Watsonand Mastering oracle SQL by Mishra. If your primary goal is to pass the exam, this book is ideal. Otherwise, study from a combination of aforementioned books.

Pros:
+Covers all the topics for the SQL Expert certification.
+Accessible to someone new to Oracle.

Cons:
-The author repeats himself 3 to 4 times in each section.
-The syntax and the description are verbose ( the syntax is given with an
example query and about a page describing it which could have easily been
replaced by [ ] | etc...)
-The examples are rudimentary and extremely obvious from the discussion

Book + eBook = Good Deal
Steve O'Hearn does a good job delivering a very encouraging, personal (as well as informative) tone to the material.While containing much the same material as other Oracle Press SQL books, it does not lift or "steal" any of the wording.O'Hearn has opted to write everything from scratch.The book also lacks the typographical errors that have plagued so many Oracle Press books over the years.
This book's objective is to prepare you for the exam.It is not an exhaustive SQL reference (though certainly robust) - nor does it claim to be.In addition to the book itself, you also have access to the ebook and additional exam simulated questions via the CD.The ebook is in Adobe and isn't formatted quite as well as the Kindle version.The ebook is baked into the price at nearly $40.
There really isn't too much I would offer in the area of improvements - except to have even more exam type questions.

Great Studyguide for the Exam, and good overall SQL reverence
The Oracle SQL Certified Expert exam covers several topics that are not covered in books that are geared towards the SQL Fundamentals exam.It is for that reason that I purchased this book to use as a study guide for the Oracle SQL Certified Expert exam.I recently passed the exam and give full credit to the time I spent going through this book and taking the practice tests.

The books assumes a little knowledge of SQL but I think it is a great guide for both beginners, and experts alike.It is well organized and has a great index.You can read it from beginning to end and it makes logical sense, or you can simply use it as a reference to look up the portions you are interested in.Because the book is geared towards passing the exam and not simply to provide more general SQL knowledge, you won't find any examples that you work on, alongside the book, as you read.Some people might find it hard to learn that way, but for me it was great.I didn't need to have a computer in front of me to try out the code to understand what it meant.This also allowed the book to focus on some of the more subtle and conceptual aspects of the SQL language and how Oracle has implemented it.I think that is key to having passed the exam.Because the book teaches the concepts behind the SQL language, instead of just giving syntax examples, it helps you correctly answer questions that might not directly relate to examples given in the book.For example, the book has a great section on the meaning of "NULL" which is used in a lot of "trick" questions.It might not give you all possible examples of where "NULL" can be used in a question, but it does give you a good understanding of what "NULL" means in the SQL context and therefore how to answer questions that could be affected by "NULL" in their code.

My biggest gripe with the book is the fact that it only came with 70 test questions on the CD, and that the CD is Windows only.70 questions is the equivalent to 1 practice exam.You can download an additional 70 questions from the web after registering with the publisher, but even doing that only gives you 2 practice exams worth of material.It doesn't take long to memorize all the correct answers for 140 questions.I would have preferred the book if it came with at least twice as many questions.I also think its kind of ridiculous that the CD itself is not cross platform.Such practice exams could have been developed in a way which would have allowed me to run it under Mac OS X or Linux.Instead I had to run Windows under virtualization just to take the practice exam. ... Read more

Product Description
Learn cutting-edge technology from Oracle experts

Written by Oracle insiders, this comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know about Real Application Clusters -- low-cost hardware platforms that can rival and exceed the quality of service, availability, and scalability of the most expensive mainframe systems.

• Concepts covered are applicable to all previous versions of Oracle
• Tuning and troubleshooting tips, providing insight on the most advanced diagnostics available
• Detailed coverage of advanced RAC concepts
• Working code for all examples available online

Customer Reviews (23)

Answers a lot of WHY questions.
I bought this book after Building a RAC on Oracle Unbreakable Linux mainly because I have lot of WHY questions. This book is a single stop shop for lot of them. Very good Book - no too much bla bla bla; hit right in the target. In my opinion a must have for any DBA who works on RAC. Its a small 400Page book which will guide you in the right direction but is not a BIBLE.

If you are new to RAC - First dig a little bit on ASM too "Oracle Automatic Storage Management: Under-the-Hood & Practical Deployment Guide (Osborne ORACLE Press Series)"

I strongly recommend this book (Oracle Database 10g Real Application Clusters Handbook)

Strong on Procedural Advice
This is a good book, in that it goes one step deeper into the realm of understanding the reasons behind the many steps necessary to setup a RAC environment for Oracle.It includes discussions of the use of raw devices and how they should be applied, as well as their advantages.What it doesn't really get into much are problem determination issues, and future directions for the product.Perhaps a followup version of this book or some other book will address these topics.

Stopped reading at page 50 - atrocious editing!
I was going to give it 1-star but I am 99% sure that is probably very unfair to the author. Also, given that there are 20 5-star reviews it is unlikely to deserve less than 3-stars. I couldn't read it but given that I write technical books, and that I write Oracle books, my guess is that this book was very poorly edited. Even the grammer and is completely non-sensical in places so perhaps it was not edited at all.

good book
its good book for the beginner's rac dbas, not too much for advanced level, of course one book can not cover all the topics.

Well written and thorough.Readable beyond its technical complexities.
I borrowed a copy of the book from my coworker.It's probably one of the few technical books I actually enjoyed reading.Besides providing a good technical foundation to RAC, it also includes business and historical perspectives to High Availability and Redundancy.Gives you the arsenal to understand CRS, ASM, and GES (some of the most difficult aspects of Oracle Clustering), and provides you with information on properRAC performance tuning.I bought the book from Amazon to read AGAIN because I actually enjoyed reading it the first time.I learned a lot from this book. ... Read more

Product Description

Write powerful SQL statements and PL/SQL programs

Learn to access Oracle databases through SQL statements and construct PL/SQL programs with guidance from Oracle expert, Jason Price. Published by Oracle Press, Oracle Database 11g SQL explains how to retrieve and modify database information, use SQL Plus and SQL Developer, work with database objects, write PL/SQL programs, and much more. Inside, you'll find in-depth coverage of the very latest SQL features and tools, performance optimization techniques, advanced queries, Java support, and XML. This book contains everything you need to master SQL.

• Explore SQL Plus and SQL Developer
• Use SQL SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements
• Write PL/SQL programs
• Create tables, sequences, indexes, views, and triggers
• Write advanced queries containing complex analytical functions
• Create database objects and collections to handle abstract data
• Use large objects to handle multimedia files containing music and movies
• Write Java programs to access an Oracle Database using JDBC
• Tune your SQL statements to make them execute faster
• Explore the XML capabilities of the Oracle Database
• Master the very latest Oracle Database 11g features, such as PIVOT and UNPIVOT, flashback archives, and much more

Customer Reviews (6)

My Review
The book was shipped in a timely manner. The item looks new as described by the seller. Good customer service.

Fairly helpful
It has been pretty helpful so far. I've been using it to help me when writing PL/SQL stored procedures on an 11g database.

Good for beginner and intermediate users
This book is good for beginner and intermediate users.When I bought the book last year, I was intermediate SQL and beginner Oracle.On my previous database projects, I used SQL Server and Sybase and used GUIs to create my tables and relationships.My current project requires PL/SQL scripts that can be run in batch.Since I had done a lot of DML (Data Manipulation Language, e.g., SELECT), little DDL (Data Definition Language, e.g., CREATE TABLE), and virtually no Oracle, I needed help!This book rescued me.

This is now my main reference for SQL, and especially Oracle-specific SQL. It has many examples of SQL for specific basic tasks.Not system administration tasks, mind you, but DML and DDL.These examples are the biggest strength.Oracle's syntax flowcharts and O'Reilly's "SQL In A Nutshell" are fine, but I need examples."Show me".

One last note: the book is a SQL book, not a PL/SQL book.If you need to do PL/SQL you will need another PL/SQL-specific book.

Great reference book
It's a great reference book. it has nice examples for a beginner. would highly recommend for beginner/intermediate users.

Great book on SQL and PL/SQL
I'm an experienced Oracle developer and I use this book all the time. I have several books on SQL, and this book is by far the best. It has good examples. I highly recommend it. ... Read more

Product Description

It’s sometimes said that the true job of an Oracle database administrator can be summed up in one, essential skill: to be able to recover your database.

There’s much wisdom in that statement. Of all the things you are responsible for as a database administrator, nothing is more important than the data itself. Like it or not, the fearsome responsibility of protecting your organizations most critical data falls squarely upon your shoulders:

• Lose that data and your company could fail.
• Lose that data and you could be out of a job.

Scared? You should be. But theres help. You are not alone. Oracle experts Darl Kuhn, Sam Alapati, and Arup Nanda have come together in this book to show you the power of Recovery Manager, or RMAN, which is Oracles backup and recovery tool of choice. RMAN Recipes for Oracle Database 11g helps you take advantage of all that RMAN has to offer by providing easy-to-understand solutions to business-critical backup and recovery operations. This handy guide

• Demystifies the steps required to protect your business data
• Provides ready-made and step-by-step solutions to simple and complex backup, restore, and recovery operations
• Is task-oriented, making it easy for you to find the solution to pressing backup and recovery problems
• Respects your time by providing example-based solutions, not endless reading material

When the pressure’s on, you dont have time for long discussions of theory. This book gets right to the point with quick and easy-to-read, step-by-step solutions that can help you backup and recover your data with confidence.

Customer Reviews (17)

Cookbook says it all............
I've been in the business for 28 years and after a while you get "manual tired". What I loved about this book was that I was able to use it immediately. Better yet (for the writers), I brought 2 more copies to present to my co-workers.

I wish more DBAs would write books in this format. Kevin Loney aside (the great one for writing details ).

Great and useful book
This book is used frequently at my work.I have a copy at home and at work.I got it quickly through Amazon.com

Lots of clear information
This is the best book I have found for information on utilizing RMAN.It is well written and I like the problem/solution approach.There are many practical examples and many of my questions have been answered in a short time.That is very refreshing after much Internet surfing and reading other Oracle references which do not get to the point.There is a lot of backup support information, regarding log files and the flash recovery area etc.This information is very helpful and to the point.I recommend this book to anyone involved in Oracle backups.I normally don't give anything 5 stars but in this case I'll make an exception, due to the relief of stress that I have enjoyed at a low cost.

oracle rman
I read the book at this weekend just to refresh my memory...
Most of the book is pretty create in terms of explaining other than the chapter Duplicating the database, Sounds like authors were in Hurry when writing this chapter.... Need to follow Oracle Documentation to be clear on this chapter.

THE BEST BOOK ON RMAN!!!!!!!!!
Simply "THE BEST BOOK ON RMAN!!!!!!!!!".Almost all of the RMAN topics are covered in this book.Today I was waiting for some meeting and I had 30 min before the meeting. I picked up this book and started going through some topics. In 30 min I have refreshed so many topics and I came to know many many new things which I don't know before.

MOHAMMED MOINUDDIN UMAIR
SENIOR ORACLE RAC DBA (AIG) ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (11)

Surprisingly useful
I say surprisingly, because the active reader will think of numerous questions which the book never answers.I had to keep a notepad handy to jot down "but what about..." questions.This is actually a *good* thing.A book that not only teaches scripted lessons but also prompts the reader to create new ones is worth reading.As you would expect, the book assumes you know SQL, though not very much.If you can grok the basic joins and foreign keys, you'll have no trouble.I know exactly enough SQL to be a danger.I might say that if you're a serious RDBMS professional, you may not get much out of this.On the other hand, I've the victim^H^H^H^H^H^Huser of so many poorly designed "professional database solutions" that perhaps this book should be required reading.The author is not trying to "wow" you with SQL-fu.He deliberately keeps the SQL simple to clearly expose the (anti)patterns.I recognized several anti-patterns which I had learned the hard way in my own work and learned a few more to avoid.

A fine addition to any database programming collection
SQL ANTIPATTERNS is for any programmer's collection where SQL database programming is of interest. Chapters identify, explain and correct antipatterns, grouping them in terms of logical design and queries and linking them to application development. Learn how to identify and fix dangerous application antipatterns and common problems in this fine addition to any database programming collection.

A clear and reassuring reference.
I bought SQL Antipatterns in the middle of an increasingly stressful project. Taking two days out to read it thoroughly and correct some of the patterns we were guilty of turned the project around for the better. We were able stop worrying about database design and concentrate on security issues.

For me, the best thing about the book is that it serves as a comprehensive reference of the benefits of doing things properly, and justification of the time this often requires.

It helped a lot, very fast.

Suited for both your coffee table and technical bookshelf

Do you know why polymorphism in the database is bad? Put your hand down if you're a DBA, this is for application developers :)

SQL Antipatterns is written in a very astute fashion and manages to be easy reading without being overly didactic - no small feat for a technical book.

The book is sectioned into the short (~10 pages) chapters, one for each antipattern. Each chapter is structured as such:
- intro context, often humorous
- OBJECTIVE/PROBLEM you're trying to accomplish/solve
- Antipattern that is a common pitfall
- How to recognize that pattern
- Legitimate uses of that antipattern
- Solution (the correct one) for your original OBJECTIVE/PROBLEM

One previous reviewer mentioned that the book covers relative basics for an experienced DBA or developer. Indeed, even if you've been developing for a short period chances are you've seen and/or know of maybe half of the antipatterns in this book. But I'd like to point this out: it's been my observation that experts in any field revel in reviewing the basics, even if just for fun. And this book is fun to read, which is why I suggest this could work just as fine on the coffee table as casual reading as it can on the bookshelf as a technical reference.


My only constructive criticism is that I wish there was more content. Database good practices is a very expansive subject, and as I was reading the book I couldn't help but wish the author was "building up to the good stuff" as some other PragProg books do. This book is reasonably priced so it remains good value, but if it was $40+ I might have gave it four stars instead of five for this reason.

Deals with problems related to both database's design and application developing
I must admit that there was barely anything new to me in the book, but I have been in the field for quite a few years, dealing with many projects, so I had the "privilege" of seeing many horror stories. Still, I feel the book is valuable even for seasoned veterans. The main benefit is that the author organized and grouped the anti-patterns, each one is analyzed very well and contains some wise, unbiased suggestions. Each chapter stands on its own and can be read stand-alone.
The book is worth an extra star because it deals with problems related to both database's design and application developing; most book out there either cover one or the other.
This should be a mandatory reading for beginner DBAs and application developers, veterans may like it too, since it can help refreshing some concepts and can be used as a reference too. ... Read more

Product Description

Sam Alapati’s Expert Oracle Database 11g Administration is a comprehensive handbook for Oracle database administrators (DBAs) using the latest release of the Oracle Database (Oracle Database 11g). All key aspects of database administration are covered, including backup and recovery, day–to–day administration and monitoring, performance tuning, and more. This is the one book to have on your desk as a continual reference. Refer to it frequently. It’ll help you get the job done.

• Comprehensive handbook for Oracle DBAs. Covers all major aspects of database administration.
• Tests and explains in detail key DBA commands.
• Offers primers on Linux/Unix, data modeling, SQL, and PL/SQL.

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Reference, Even with a Couple Accuracy Problems
This is a huge book, which could possibly best be described as the condensed encyclopedia of Oracle databases.The book covers everything from administration to performance tuning to using SQL*Plus to installing Oracle on Linux to using RMAN.While I did not read this book cover to cover, I did page through the book looking for interesting topics to read.I did read the author's "Expert Oracle Database 10g Administration" book cover to cover a couple years ago and was at the time very impressed with that book.There were a couple small errors in the 10g book, repeated a couple times, but I commented to a couple people that the 10g book is by far the best and most thorough Oracle reference book that I had run across.The appendix at the back of the 10g book was very effective in helping me find exactly the right topic, and usually the right syntax for just about any task.The appendix in the 11g version of the book is just about as good.It appears that the author may have rushed the job of updating the 10g book for 11g R1 as quite a few screen captures still show Oracle versions such as 10.1.0.3 and a couple other sections of the book also seem to be more specific to 10g R1 than 11g R1 (or 11g R2).

This book contains a lot of great and/or very helpful information, but while paging through the book I found a couple problems.Overlooking the problems, I would still recommend this book as a reference for Oracle 11g R1.The section on performance tuning is not my first choice for performance tuning information.

Problems found when paging through the book (I know that I probably missed several issues):
Page 90 mentions RAID 0+1 but not the more robust RAID 10.

Page 92 states "RAID 5 offers many advantages over the other levels of RAID.The traditional complaint about the `write penalty' should be discounted because of sophisticated advances in write caches and other strategies that make RAID 5 more efficient than in the past."Visit www.baarf.com to see the opinions of other DBAs.

Page 166 states "if you use an Oracle block size of 64KB (65,536 bytes)..."The maximum supported block size is 32KB, not 64KB, and some platforms support a maximum of a 16KB block size.

Page 171 states when suggesting the use of multiple block sizes in a single database "if you have large indexes in your database, you will need a large block size for their tablespaces.""Oracle provides separate pools for the various block sizes, and this leads to better use of Oracle memory."For those who have followed the multiple block size discussions over the years, it should be fairly clear that it is not a good idea to use multiple block sizes in a single database.Oracle's documentation states that multiple block sizes are intended to be used only to support transportable tablespaces.

Page 181 states "The database writer process writes dirty blocks to disk under the following conditions... Every 3 seconds."A check of the Oracle documentation will quickly confirm that this is not the case.

Page 182 states "Oracle further recommends that you first ensure that your system is using asynchronous I/O before deploying additional database writer processes beyond the default number - you might not need multiple database writer processes if so."I think that I misread this several times as saying "do not enable multiple database writers unless you also plan to enable asynchronous I/O," which would be an incorrect statement.

Page 190 states "this is why the buffer cache hit ratio, which measures the percentage of time users accessed the data they needed from the buffer cache (rather than requiring a disk read), is such an important indicator of performance of the Oracle instance."The author provides a link on page 1161 to an article authored by Cary Millsap which discusses why a higher buffer cache hit ratio may not be ideal.This is definitely a step in the right direction regarding the buffer cache hit ratio, but it might be better to simply ignore the statistic.

Page 190 when describing the buffer cache hit ratio states that the formula for calculating the hit ratio is "hit rate = (1 - (physical reads)/(logical reads))*100".The Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide 11g Release 1 manual states that the correct formula is "1 - (('physical reads cache')/('consistent gets from cache'+'db block gets from cache'))"

Page 395 states "11.1.0 is an alternative name for Oracle Database 11g Release 2."Oracle 11g R2 was just released on September 1, 2009 and its version is 11.2.0.1.

Page 402 correctly (according to the documentation) states that Oracle Enterprise Linux 4 and 5, as well as Red Hat Enterprise Linux are supported platforms for Oracle Database 11g, and correctly (according to the documentation) does not list Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.Page 403 lists the required RPM packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, but ignores the supported Linux platforms.

Page 405 shows parameters that need to be set on Linux.This appears to be a direct copy of the parameters in the Oracle documentation, but the author did not include the net.core.wmem-max parameter.Note that Oracle 11.2.0.1 will require different parameters than those specified in this book, but that is not the fault of the author.

Page 452 states that the COMPATIBLE parameter may be set to "10.2 so the untested features of the new Oracle version won't hurt your application."I think that this is misleading at best.

Page 466 states "If you're supporting data warehouse applications, it makes sense to have a very large DB_BLOCK_SIZE - something between 8KB and 32KB.This will improve database performance when reading huge chunks from disk."This is not quite a correct statement, especially if the DB_FILE_MULTIBLOCK_READ_COUNT is set correctly, or not set in the case Oracle 10.2.0.1 or above is in use.8KB is the standard block size, so I am not sure why the author groups it with the other block sizes in the very large block size group.

Page 477 states "the default value for the STATISTICS_LEVEL initialization parameter is TYPICAL.You need to use this setting if you want to use several of Oracle's features, including Automatic Shared Memory Management."This is an incomplete statement as a setting of ALL will also work.

Page 1055 shows the use of both CASCADE>=YES and CASCADE=>'TRUE' with DBMS_STATS.I believe that TRUE is the correct syntax, but it should not be specified in single quotes.

Page 1067 states "subqueries perform better when you use IN rather than EXISTS."The reality is that Oracle may very well automatically transform queries using IN syntax into queries using EXISTS syntax (or vice-versa), and may even transform both IN syntax queries and EXISTS syntax queries into standard join syntax.

Page 1074 stated that "inline stored functions can help improve the performance of your SQL statement."The author then demonstrated this concept by converting a SQL statement with a three table equijoin accessing apparent primary and foreign keys of the tables into a SQL statement which accessed a single table and called two PL/SQL functions (per row), each of which queried one of the other two tables which were included in the original equijoin SQL statement.This approach does not seem to be a good idea given the number of additional context switches which will result, as well as the additional number of parse calls.In short, do not solve something in PL/SQL when it may be easily solved in SQL alone.

Page 1075 states "you should avoid the use of inequality and the greater than or equal to predicates, as they may also bypass indexes."Something does not look right about that statement.

Page 1089 states "the indexes could become unbalanced in a database with a great deal of DML.It is important to rebuild such indexes regularly so queries can run faster."Interesting suggestion - I believe that standard SELECT statements are classified as DML as they are definitely not DDL.An index cannot become unbalanced, and indexes rarely need to be rebuilt - see Richard Foote's blog for the more details.

Page 1089 states "when you rebuild the indexes, include the COMPUTE STATISTICS statement so you don't have to gather statistics after the rebuild."Oracle 10g and above automatically collect statistics when building indexes, and I would assume that the same is true when rebuilding indexes.

Page 1108 states that "cpu_time is the total parse and execute time" when describing the columns found in V$SQL.It is actually the time measure in centiseconds (100th of a second) of the CPU utilization when executing the SQL statement, and probably also includes the CPU time for parsing the SQL statement, but I have not verified this.

Page 1154 provides a demonstration of finding sessions consuming a lot of CPU time.The example used the `CPU used by this session' statistic rather than drilling through V$SYS_TIME_MODEL into V$SESS_TIME_MODEL.The example used the `CPU used by this session' as a reason for examining parse CPU usage and recursive CPU usage.While it is good to check CPU usage of sessions, there are a couple problems with this approach.First, the `CPU used by this session' statistic is not updated until the first fetch from a SQL statement is returned to the client.If the client was waiting for the last hour for the first row to be returned, the CPU utilization will show close to 0 seconds difference between the start of the SQL statement and the check of the `CPU used by this session' statistic in V$SESSTAT - this is not the case for the statistics in V$SESS_TIME_MODEL, which are updated in near real-time.Second, the change (delta) in the statistic for the sessions was not determined - if one session had been connected for 120 days, it probably should have consumed more CPU time than a session connected for 30 minutes, and probably should not be investigated.


Even with the above issues, I would still recommend this book as a reference.For specific information on performance tuning, using RMAN, or installing on Linux, it might be a good idea to use a second book for deeper understanding of the process.

Awesome book on Oracle Administration
Lets me honest, as I have said in other reviews of Oracle 11g, Oracle 11g is a beast. There are so many new features that have been added to it in this new version that it sometimes feels that you are learning a whole new database.

Yes, Oracle 11g is pretty much the defacto standard when it comes to DBMS but it can take years to fully master all its complexities. I've only been using Oracle for a few years and sometimes I still consider myself a newbie at time.

So even though this book seems like a monster too (1300+ pages), it is something that no Oracle DBA or even casual user should be without. The author, Sam Alapati really covers everything there is to know to fully administer Oracle 11g and some things I didnt even know existed until I went through the book. You dont have to read this book cover to cover to fully appreciate this book's wealth of knowledge.

The book is very well organized and makes it really easy to find exactly what you are looking for. Since a book this size really has to be well organized otherwise you will spend hours trying to find something. Not only is this book very well organized but is written in a way in that you don't have to be a genius to understand it. I've read so many other Oracle books that assume you have a Phd in engineering or something to understand what the author is talking about.

This book explains all the topics in an easy to read and digest manner with plenty of "real-life" examples that you probably already have encountered at work using Oracle.

The book is divided into 7 sections: Data Modeling, Achitecture, Installation and Upgrading, User Management, Backup and Recovery, Managing, and Performance Tuning.

The author explains so much excellent information in this book than its really like getting 2 or 3 books in one. The Performance section alone is worth the price alone since many other Oracle books barely talk about this topic unless its a separate book. And the Architecture and Installation sections really explain how the new version (11g) really differs from previous versions and quickly makes you understand how much has changed from older versions.

This book can also be used as reference book for getting your Oracle certifications as well: Oracle Database SQL Certified Expert exam.

So I highly recommend this book to anyone who really wants to learn Oracle the right way and save money in the process since you really do not need another book! A great buy! ... Read more

Product Description

The Definitive Guide to Oracle Database 11g

Get full details on the powerful features of Oracle Database 11g from this thoroughly updated Oracle Press guide. Oracle Database 11g: The Complete Reference explains how to use all the new features and tools, execute powerful SQL queries, construct PL/SQL and SQL*Plus statements, and work with large objects and object-relational databases. Learn how to implement the latest security measures, tune database performance, and deploy grid computing techniques. An invaluable cross-referenced appendix containing Oracle commands, keywords, features, and functions is also included.

• Install Oracle Database 11g or upgrade from an earlier version
• Create database tables, sequences, indexes, views, and user accounts
• Construct SQL statements, procedures, queries, and subqueries
• Optimize security using virtual private databases and transparent data encryption
• Import and export data using SQL*Loader and Oracle Data Pump
• Use SQL replay, change management, and result caching
• Avoid human errors using flashback and automatic undo management
• Build and tune PL/SQL triggers, functions, and packages
• Develop database applications using Java, JDBC, and XML
• Optimize availability and scalability with Oracle Real Application Clusters

Customer Reviews (7)

Expensive Paperweight
If you have no internet access, this book is better than nothing, but otherwise stick with the free online books and docs provided by Oracle.Indeed, the last 1/3 or so of this book is just reference material copied directly from Oracle's free docs, but is more difficult to navigate without the hyperlinked crossreferences.

The book is not "complete" as the title suggests, not covering all new features (case-insensitivity using NLS_SORT, NLS_COMP is just one example).

Additionally, not all the information is accurate -- the author does not even know what the term "relational database" means, he thinks "relations" have something to do with foreign keys.A common misconception yes, but worrisome from a database "expert".I also found incorrect syntax in the transportable tablespace section, before I gave up with the book entirely.

Use at your own risk, and consider that the author has given his own book a 5 star rating on this site!

Oracle Database 11g
Book came to me in great condition.I must say the shipping took longer than I expected, but within the seller's delivery range.Other than that I am pleased with my item.

What a price reduction!
I needed this textbook for my current class.It was delivered before the class began and at such an amazing discount!

Great reference
I have been using this book or one of its earlier versions for six years. It does a great job of filling in the blanks for people like me who learned Oracle in the monkey-see monkey-do fashion of on the job training. It continues to be a great reference because it has a great index -- probably the best index in any technical book I own. I can find a term in the index very quickly and then flip to a focused explanation of that term. This usually much faster than flailing around the web doing word searches for the same information. It is an expensive book, but I have saved in frustration what I spent in dollars. It is very difficult to keep it on my desk because it is borrowed so often.

Oracle complete reference
Generally the book is well written , but the approach is for very highly technical individuals.Since I am primary a SQL programmer, about half the book is not what I need.However, I use this book on PL/SQL more than I use the book "Oracle PL/SQL Programming".I found this book is better organized to check syntax on various functions.My DBA is usually checking the book for her job and she has found the book to be helpful for her needs.Overall I would recommend the book as a group reference. ... Read more