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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
decent - has some inaccuracies, June 24, 2008
This book has a fairly decent walk through of the exam. The 'substance' is there but the proofreading is not. Many times this can be inferred - for example; on page 175 - it tells you to set the 'processes' parameter in the 'static' parameter file by using the 'scope=spfile' option. alter system set processes=200 scope=spfile; Okay - so far so good. Next page - we set the optimizer mode to the outdated 'rule' value. However - we want the change to work for the current session only - so we use the 'scope=spfile' value. (HUH??) alter system set optimizer_mode=rule scope=spfile; This is straight out of the book. It was obviously a mistake because they said the same value for scope did two different things. I looked it up the 'alter system' command on the net and found the correct scope value to affect only the current session is 'memory' - so it should actually have been: alter system set optimizer_mode=rule scope=memory; Makes much more sense now. The thing that kinda scares me is how many more of these little mistakes are there that are not as obvious? So I try to read this book as a 'rough in' but take it all with a grain of salt. I don't know how many good books there are out there yet for the 11g exam - this one is OKAY. I bought this one impulsively at B&N without prior research... maybe you can find a better one. One more thing - if you are not yet familiar with the fundamentals of a relational database (normalization, foreign keys, join types, etc.) - do NOT go off of the explanation in the beginning 'primer' chapter of this book - it is horrible and I was only able to piece it together using my prior knowledge of the same. Once it gets into the actual DBA work the writing improves. Edit 9/10/2008 - Now that I'm further into the book I'm going to have to say; don't get this book - it's too inaccurate. Here's another example - one of their sample exam questions asks for modifiers that can be applied to a b-tree index and not a bitmap index. One of the WRONG answers was "descending". To quote: "Descending, function-based, and compound indexes can be either b*tree or bitmap. It seemed really odd to me that you could make a bitmap index descending. So I looked it up the CREATE INDEX statement on oracle docs 11g: ASC | DESC (...) Restriction on Ascending and Descending Indexes You cannot specify either of these clauses for a domain index. You cannot specify DESC for a reverse index. ****Oracle Database ignores DESC if index is bitmapped**** or if the (...)
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
This book has potential, February 5, 2010
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.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Handy for Someone New, May 5, 2010
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.
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