Oracle Essentials: Oracle Database 11g (Paperback)

~ Rick Greenwald (Author), Robert Stackowiak (Author), Jonathan Stern (Author)
Key Phrases: web cache, cache fusion, heterogeneous services, Oracle Database, Real Application Clusters, Oracle Net (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Oracle is an enormous system, with myriad technologies, options, and releases. Most users-even experienced developers and database administrators-find it difficult to get a handle on the full scope of the Oracle database. And, as each new Oracle version is released, users find themselves under increasing pressure to learn about a whole range of new technologies. The latest challenge is Oracle Database 11g. This book distills an enormous amount of information about Oracle into a compact, easy-to-read volume filled with focused text, illustrations, and helpful hints. It contains chapters on: Oracle products, options, data structures, and overall architecture for Oracle Database 11g, as well as earlier releases (Oracle Database 10g, Oracle9i, and Oracle8i) Installing, running, managing, monitoring, networking, and tuning Oracle, including Enterprise Manager (EM) and Oracle's self-tuning and management capabilities; and using Oracle security, auditing, and compliance (a new chapter in this edition) Multiuser concurrency, data warehouses, distributed databases, online transaction processing (OLTP), high availability, and hardware architectures (e.g., SMP, clusters, NUMA, and grid computing) Features beyond the Oracle database: Oracle Application Express, Fusion Middleware (including Oracle Application Server), and database SOA support as a Web services provider The latest Oracle Database 11g features: query result set caching, Automatic Memory Management, the Real Application Testing, Advanced Compression, Total Recall, and Active Data Guard Option Options, changes to the OLAP Option (transparently accessed and managed as materialized views), the Flashback transaction command, transparentdata encryption, the Support Workbench (and diagnosability infrastructure), and partitioning enhancements (including interval and new composite types) For new Oracle users, DBAs, developers, and managers, Oracle Essentials provides an invaluable, all-in-one introduction to the full range of Oracle features and technologies, including the just-released Oracle Database 11g features. But even if you already have a library full of Oracle documentation, you'll find that this compact book is the one you turn to, again and again, as your one-stop, truly essential reference. "Oracle Essentials gives a clear explanation of the key database concepts and architecture underlying the Oracle database. It's a great reference for anyone doing development or management of Oracle databases." --Andrew Mendelsohn, Senior Vice President, Database Server Technologies, Oracle Corporation

About the Author

Robert Stackowiak is Vice President of Business Intelligence in Oracle's Technology Business Unit. He has worked for over 20 years in business intelligence, data warehousing, and IT-related roles at Oracle, IBM, Harris Corporation, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His papers regarding business intelligence and computer and software technology have appeared in publications such as "President & CEO Magazine," "Database Trends and Applications," and The Data Warehousing Institute's publications. He also co-authored the books "Oracle Essentials: Oracle Database 10g" (currently in 3rd Edition, February 2004, O'Reilly), "Oracle Application Server 10g Essentials" (1st Edition, August 2004, O'Reilly), and "Professional Oracle Programming" (1st Edition, June 2005, WROX).

Joseph Rayman leads the Oracle Consulting Business Intelligence Practice in North America with over 20 years of business experience in a vast array of industries, including financial services, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications, healthcare, and federal government. His technical and business leadership spans enterprise architecture design, enterprise data modeling, VLDB system tuning, data warehouse design, data mining, and quality assurance activities for data warehouse practices. Joe is a key contributor in defining and authoring Oracle Consulting's Data Warehousing Methodology. Prior to joining Oracle, Joe designed and deployed business intelligence and statistical analysis solutions for a large food manufacturer and provided real-time trading and analysis solutions for a major international financial organization.

Rick Greenwald has worked in the IT field for over 20 years for major vendors, includingOracle, Gupta Technologies, Cognos, and Data General. He has coauthored more than a dozen books, including "Oracle Essentials: Oracle Database 10g" (currently in 3rd Edition, February 2004, O'Reilly), "Oracle Application Server 10g Essentials" (1st Edition, August 2004, O'Reilly), and "Professional Oracle Programming" (1st Edition, June 2005, WROX). Mr. Greenwald currently works for Ingres Corporation.

Stackowiak is a data warehousing specialist at Oracle Corporation in Chicago. He works with Oracle's largest customer in the central area of the U.S. providing insight into the company's products and data warehousing strategy.

Stern has more than 11 years of IT experience including senior positions in consulting, systems architecture, and technical sales.

Product Details

• Paperback: 386 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 4 edition (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596514549
• ISBN-13: 978-0596514549
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #96,177 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars everything oracle, May 2, 2004

By	Jeanne Boyarsky (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oracle Essentials, 3e: Oracle Database 10g (Paperback)

As with most O'Reilly books, Oracle Essentials is crammed full of information. The book is geared for DBA's, system admins and developers. The book assumes some general knowledge of databases, but most concepts are explained as they come up. For example, there are sidebars for normalization and RAID.

The third edition is updated for Oracle 10g. Since the authors point out which features are specific to Oracle 8i, 9i and 10g, this book is just as useful for older versions of Oracle. For readers of previous editions, the book has an appendix directing the reader to the new 10g content.

For developers, using Java with Oracle is explained. There are good sections on SQLJ, JDBC, EJBs and Java stored procedures. For DBA's and system admins, the book covers architecture, failover and deployment.

The book uses a good mix of text, diagrams and examples. Many cutting-edge topics are explained with a non-platform specific background of the topic and examples. These topics include OLTP, Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence and of course - Grid Computing.

I found the list of major technologies to be extremely useful. Chapter 1 has a paragraph on Oracle features in the database, application server and standalone development tools. The rest of the book focuses on the database itself. This book covers almost everything you would want to know about Oracle and provides references for more detail on each topic. If you are only going to buy one Oracle book, this is the one to buy.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Effective quick introduction to Oracle, January 31, 2005

By	Paul Filipski (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Oracle Essentials, 3e: Oracle Database 10g (Paperback)

I've used a number of different database systems before, but never had the pleasure of working with Oracle's software. I installed a development version of 10g and was somewhat taken aback when the installer proudly announced "169 products installed." I glumly thought "Gee, hope the database server is in there somewhere."

I picked up a copy of Oracle Essentials and found it to be an excellent introduction to Oracle. The book is short enough to read end-to-end, but it is packed with information about Oracle's architecture and most of those 169 products. The authors write lucidly, in an easily accessible style. Even though the book is eminently readable, it doesn't "talk down" to the reader, nor skimp on details. There is surprising depth in so short a book with such broad scope!

As another reviewer mentioned, there is essentially nothing about SQL and PL/SQL in this book. That's okay with me - there are plenty of excellent texts on those two topics.

Oracle Essentials claims it is "What you need to know about Oracle Database architecture and features." I agree completely!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent theory, but no details, May 6, 2005

By	Ron (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Oracle Essentials, 3e: Oracle Database 10g (Paperback)

I agree with the good things my fellow reviewers have to say about this book - it is an excellent introduction to the Oracle architecture. But be advised that although the book is rich in theory, there is virtually no hands-on, how-to information. As a result I sometimes spent hours researching how to implement a feature described in the book, when the author could have explained it in a couple of sentences. I highly recommend it - but if you plan on working with the database yourself you will need to supplement it with a good hands-on book, the Oracle on-line documentation, and a lot of trial and error.