Customer Reviews

Oracle Database Administration for UNIX Systems (Bk/CD-ROM)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book tries to be ambitious and all it accomplishes is to convey scattered, imprecise and shallow information to the beginner. There may be a few handy topics, but it is all there is. It lacks consistency. The CD-ROM contents are ridiculous. If the reader is interested in learning Oracle and UNIX, I would suggest buying specific books on both products, or even attending some courses.

Since I am only a novice to the Oracle Database administration, I don't suggest anyone to take this book. It just summarizes the concept of Oracle database very roughly, let alone the UNIX. To my regret, it seems there is no much choice to find another book dealing with UNIX AND Oracle at the same time.Hope there will be such a great book that can really help.

If you are running in archive mode, with a cold backup, you can recover up to the point of failure. It gets its information from the redo log files and archive redo log files. You only need to use a hot backup if the database needs to be running 24hrs. The book gives the impression that archived log files are purely in relation to hot backups. Rolling forward from cold backups is the commonest production scenario. I would recommend the book Oracle 8 Backup and Recovery Handbook by Rama Velpuri. for an accurate description of backup and recovery.

This book is completely worthless! The author is a typical educator, NO practical experience, he gives very little practical advice, if any. You would be better off with Oracle's documentation CD. Also, what's up with 300+ pages? the trash only has 180+!

A reader from UK , June 29, 1998 Section on Backup / Recovery is wrong The section on Backup / Recovey (one of the most important tasks of a DBA) is right. It is stated that during a recovery from cold backup, data entered between the time of the last backup and the time when the database was restored is lost. When using archive mode (which most production systems use), you can recover up to the point of failure with a hot backup. You can't recover with a cold backup because the database can't roll forward to a point in time it knows nothing about. Read the book again!

The section on Backup / Recovey (one of the most important tasks of a DBA) is wrong. It is stated that during a recovery from cold backup, data entered between the time of the last backup and the time when the database was restored is lost. If using archive mode (which most production systems use), you can recover up to the point of failure with a cold or hot backup.

I found the book very disappointing. Unfortunately I bought it without ha ving had a look in advance. Irritatingly simple. It is for UNIX because the var iable $ORACLE_HOME and the utilities sar and vmstat are shown (once). Unless you do not know UNIX and ORACLE at all, do not buy it.

A quick glace through the book will quickly reveal how lightly it treats the complex issues of Oracle database administration. Not a serious reference. Unfortunately, the CD that is included with the book is hardly much better. Save your money.

This book and CD package is next to worthless. Lynnewood Brown teaches Oracle as if he were talking to kindergarten children. The contents of the CD are read almost verbatim from the book. The book totally turned me off from the rest of the books in the series.

I am a working UNIX admin and already familiar with other databases. I read this book and the CDROM prior to installing Oracle 8 for Solaris.

During the installation process `orainst` asked for information not covered by this text.

In my opinion this book is lacking on the basic information needed to install Oracle from scratch on a running UNIX workstation.

In fact I found more relavent (and free) information from Oracle's Web site.