High-Performance Oracle: Proven Methods for Achieving Optimum Performance and Availability

By Geoff Ingram

"Geoff Ingram has met the challenge of presenting the complex process of managing Oracle performance. This book can support every technical person looking to resolve Oracle8i and Oracle9i performance issues." -Aki Ratner, President, Precise Software Solutions Ensuring high-performance and continuous availability of Oracle software is a key focus of database managers. At least a dozen books address the subject of "performance tuning"-- that is, how to fine-tune the Oracle database for its greatest processing efficiency. Geoff Ingram argues that this approach simply isn't enough. He believes that performance needs to be addressed right from the design stage, and it needs to cover the entire system--not just the database. High-Performance Oracle is a hands-on book, loaded with tips and techniques for ensuring that the entire Oracle database system runs efficiently and doesn't break down. Written for Oracle developers and DBAs, and covering both Oracle8i and Oracle9i, the book goes beyond traditional performance-tuning books and covers the key techniques for ensuring 24/7 performance and availability of the complete Oracle system. The book provides practical solutions for: * Choosing physical layout for ease of administration and efficient use of space * Managing indexes, including detecting unused indexes and automating rebuilds * SQL and system tuning using the powerful new features in Oracle9i Release 2 * Improving SQL performance without modifying code * Running Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) for performance and availability * Protecting data using Recover Manager (RMAN), and physical and logical standby databases The companion Web site provides the complete source code for examples in the book, updates on techniques, and additional documentation for optimizing your Oracle system.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471224367
• ISBN13: 9780471224365
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 656 Pages
• Weight: 2.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 1.6" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

new approach may annoy old school DBAs

i love this book! It's maybe the first book to cover the end to end management of Oracle completely not just the server, in a modern way. Oracle brags about how admin is easier these days and this book shows why it's true. But there should be a warning on the cover. Old school DBAs who spend lots of time on row chaining, microplacement of database files, fragmentation, STATSPACK (which is covered) for performance etc won't like it. I finally ditched tar and dd for backups and started using RMAN based on the RMAN chapter in this book. I just wish i'd done it years ago, but i guess I was stuck in denial. If you want your eyes opened on how to manage Oracle in the future not the past buy this book!

great 9.2 coverage and fantastic DbCool software

this book is pretty much the only Oracle book I've seen that covers 9.2 features in depth. Ingram's DbCool GUI software from author's website is a great companion to the book, but not mandatory. I use it daily alongside TOAD but DbCool is free (!?). DbCool explain plain shows the incredibly useful filter and access predicates new in 9.2 plan. Buried away on the website for the book (see back page of book)is loads of free stuff which some Oracle consultants charge for, audit, healthcheck, jpeg space charts and nice doc on Change Manager and native compiling for PL/SQL and Java. Hats off to the author for all the free stuff and long may it continue. Book worth every penny.

A must for DBA's

I have dozens of books on Oracle and this one is right up there with the best. The author obviosuly has a wealth of experience and its the first Oracle book I've read that acknowledges some people run Oracle to actually achieve something in a business environment and not just for the academic exercise. Its therefore full of practical advice and is also bang up to date. I would certainly recommend it to any DBA in a mission-critical environment who wants to make their life a whole lot easier.

The most 'REAL' Oracle book in sometime

Having spent many years in the Oracle industry its suprising how many mediocre books find their way onto bookstore shelves.This item however, covers everything in a most comprehensive and realstic fashion, dispelling the many myths about Oracle database admin work, but more importantly all the non-DBA activities and essentials that people frequently ignore or overlook.A works, that is without doubt based on many years practical field experience, fencing with both sys admins and application developers alike. It covers virtually every element of making Oracle systems work in the real world and even manages to touch on Linux/RAC and Standby systems.

Best Oracle book since Tom Kyte's

When a medical study discovers that the preliminary results are so positive that it is saving a lot of patients' lives the researchers will stop the study to publish preliminary results and get the word out. I haven't finished reading this book. In fact I just got it last week and am only about 100 pages into it. But already I am convinced that this is the best Oracle book in recent memory. It is well written and extremely informative. The format steps a beginner through step by step, and along the way shows the intermediate and advanced Oracle DBA some very important fine points. The title is a bit deceptive, in that although it certainly is a performance book, the approach is to build the RDBMS application from the ground up with good performance as the ultimate goal. This is the right way to go about getting good performance, as opposed to the crisis management approach applied to legacy systems after the fact. Most legacy applications that performance tuning experts see in the field have a hideous design created by people who no longer work with or for the company and, judging by the implementation, are currently in hiding, hoping that no one can trace the code to them. But if someone were to set up their database by using this book, step by step, it would be a pleasure to tune, though it probably wouldn't need it. There is a great chapter on Data Guard (standby database), and a lot of material that is obviously drawn from years of hands-on day-to-day work with the Oracle RDBMS 'in the trenches.' In short, buy this book, it's worth the money.