Customer Reviews

Expert Oracle9i Database Administration

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a MS SQL DBA learning Oracle and this was the first book I read after going through the Oracle's official curriculum. Here are my thoughts.

1)This book is definitely not for the beginners. I highly recommend you start with a more basic book that gives you an overview of Oracle. Oracle tools are highly unintuitive and using them can be a frustrating experience especially for MS SQL DBAs *smirk*. Learning to just to connect to an Oracle database is a learning experience that will take knowledge on how Oracle's network and security function.

2)If you already have a working knowledge on how to operate an Oracle database, this book will no doubt provide a more solid foundation for your knowledge (except RAC). I particularly found its chapters on RMAN and IMPORT/EXPORT utilties particularly helpful.

3)Perhaps the best part of this book is that it encompasses what the author believes is the most essential knowledge to becoming a highly competent Oracle DBA. The book does not try to be a reference for every Oracle topic. Instead, the author has smartly picked the most important information needed and presented them in a readable format.

4)My only issue with this book is that it is wordy. The book is 1200 pages long and it could easily have been 1000 pages or fewer.

For some reason my previous less than glowing review never made it, so I will try again but unfortunately I don't have time to cite all the specific examples I did before.

I feel the author made a very good attempt to write a comprehensive useful reference on Oracle 9, but the information is very often: a) too cursory, b) rife with mistakes or typos that are serious.

What is needed is very simple: the author must sit down with a novice Oracle user/developer such as myself and observe the user try to apply the information in the book to actual tasks. Then the book should be rewritten to clarify / correct the information in the book.

In the few areas I have tried to apply the information in the book, I have inevitably had problems where key information was missing, confusing, or wrong.

In setting up tables for gathering statistics for the optimizer, the author seems to confuse the concept of the actual data dictionary statistics table with a holding table that is not immediately applied.

In describing the imp and exp import and export utilities, try to find where the author tells you how to export data from one database and import it into another database on the same server. Where do you specify the database?

Here's another one I am editing into this review based on recent experience:

In chapter 18 "Improving Database Performance: SQL Query Optimization", the author discusses the "Explain Plan" facility to reveal the plan that the optimizer has chosen for your query. The plan should be a vital tool to help you tune your query and troubleshoot performance problems.

However, the examples the author gives us are woefully inadequate because the plan information does not include the filter (WHERE clause) information for each index scan, table scan, etc. operation. If your query is at all complicated, you will be immediately lost as to which part of your query the operation pertains to or what it is doing.

However, the filter information is indeed available in the "plan_table" (in the ACCESS_PREDICATES and FILTER_PREDICATES columns) -- Alapati simply neglects to tell us about it or use it.

Even worse, he fails to point out the supplied utility which provides the best presentation of the plan and also the simplest and easiest way to get it -- the "utlxpls.sql" script in the "$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin" directory. Run that and you are home free.

These are the gems that an author should steer you to, but time and again he misses them. A great book should cut to the chase and save you time and effort. Perhaps in his 10g book he has improved things. In this 9i book he repeatedly falls short.


I would never rely on this book to get a job done. But it probably makes a good "survey" read to identify topics and issues to explore further. However, given that, the book should either be 1/3 as long (survey) or 3 times a long (thorough reference) to be useful.

Some areas I like the most were the discussions of optimization (which seemed to cover more than expected, but I haven't gone too deeply into it. Note my critique of "Explain Plan") and operating system specific advice, such as uninstalling under Windows. But the OS advice should probably be a separate book, there are so many gotchas and hidden rules as to how Oracle decides where certain files are, etc.

This book is just not enough for actual use. But I think it could be if the author sat down with real users and really understood the problems encountered and discussed all the pertinent cases that arise. Again, you might end up with three volumes.

Finally, I bought a book which really explains how the Oracle9i database works. I have sevral other 9i books, but Sam Alapati's book is outstanding in it's coverage of the 9i DBA material. The material is explained well, so I can see how the database works. Chapter 19 on Instance Tuning is quite good and helped me understand difficult material like parsing and the wait interface.
A small investment that goes a long way.

You will find a lot of books that talks about oracle 9i DBA but you can't find a book that talks about oracle , linux,unix,Windows NT,SQL, SQL*plus and PL/SQL , "Expert Oracle9i Database Administration" did it .

You will find in this box a good introduction to the world of Oracle .first it takes you to the fundementals of RDBMS then you will find your self is involved with the world of DBA .

The author didn't forget to give you the basic skills to use UNIX (or linux) machine - that every DBA will need to know - and after that he explain the Architecture of Oracle databases and how it works .

After this introductional Chapters , the book dive in the using of SQL*PLUS to manipulate with oracle databases,

The book put all you need to know to Create an Oracle Database in one chapter and anothe chapter to explain how to work with oracke and networking and other chapters to User Management, Loading and Transforming Data, how to Use the Export and Import Utilities in Oracle ,how to Back Up Databases and how to Use Oracle9i Enterprise Manager and more .

finally .....

in my opinion if you are a beginner or intermediate level Oracle DBA you will need this book a lot to give you a lot of secrets to success in the DBA's world .

Thank you Apress to publish this books and of course many thanks to Sam R. Alapati

I am pleasantly surprised at how practicallly useful the entire book is. I assumed, because of it's size, that a large part of it will be stuff that I won't need. Instead, the book turned out to be full of information that I need on a daily basis as an experienced Oracle DBA.
I found the book very helpful in understanding complex topics like external tables and several other 9i new features. The book helped be implement some new features without any stress - features I stayed away because the Orackle manuals were too wordy and too complex for me to follow.
I have several other Orcle DBA books, bu this volume is definitely the msot useful one that I have, because the author seems to be a real Oracle DBA and not just an author of books.

While this book does not delve in depth into many of the more advanced features of the 9i release of the Oracle Database, 'Expert Oracle9i Database Administration' does a wonderful job of bringing the features to the level where the reader is. This is probably the books best feature. Not only does it introduce new DBAs to the concepts of Relational Databases, but also Linux, Unix and Windows as they apply to the database. Not only does the Alapati lead you through the architecture of the 9i database, but provides practical advice and tips that the reader will find himself relying on as he works every day with the database. The How-Tos are some of the most useful and practical that I have seen. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning Oracle or anyone who is already working with it.

The book is quite large - 1200 plus pages! I guess with all the new features that are part of the Oracle9i database, you'd need to cover quite a bit of material.
The book is packed full with useful information for a practicising Orcle9i database. I am a fairly new Oracle9i DBA, and I found the UNIX material very useful, since I come from a Windows background. The book explains a lot of the fundamentals like the new SPFILE and automatic undo management well.
I realisze that there is a lot of Oracle9i material out there in the Orcle manuals etc., and this book helps me understand many topics, so I can dig into all the details in the manuals easily.
I have installed the iSQLPLUS and the web based OEM based on the book's chapters, and I am thrilled with both of them. I remember having many problems doing the same things using just the manuals. This is a book every practicising Oracle9i DBA must have on their desk as a reference.

An excellent book covering all essential DBA topics for Oracle 9i Administration. Explained very well covering In-depth details, Illustrations and examples makes this book invaluable. I use it as a true source of reference and I will strongly recommend this book.

It covers majority of the database topics and is a very useful reference.

This book does a great job of presenting the Oracle9i Release 2 DBA information. The author spares no effort to explain in detail, with the help of numerous painstaking examples, how the many new features of Oracle 9i work.
You can't go wrong with this book if you are looking for a one volume Oracle 9i DBA handbook/text.
Be far, the best book on Oracle 9i DBA in the market. Most other books are rewrites of older Oracle versions. The book promises and delivers real Oracle 9i content.