Oracle Essentials: Oracle8 & Oracle8i: Oracle8 and Oracle8i [Paperback]

Rick Greenwald (Author), Robert Stackowiak (Author), Jonathan Stern (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1565927087 | ISBN-13: 978-1565927087 | Publication Date: November 8, 1999 | Edition: 1

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 system. And as each new version of the database is released, users find themselves under increasing pressure to learn about a whole range of new technologies.

This book distills the enormous amount of information about what Oracle is, where it came from, and what the latest releases do--and packages it into a compact, easy-to-read volume filled with focused text, illustrations and helpful hints. It explains what's new and important about Oracle's revolutionary releases, Oracle8 (the "object-relational database") and Oracle8i (the "Internet database"). It covers:

• Oracle products, options, and overall architecture
• Installing and running Oracle (creating databases, configuring Net8, starting up and shutting down Oracle)
• Oracle data structures
• Managing Oracle (implementing security, using the Oracle Enterprise Manager, dealing with fragmentation and reorganization, and performing backup and recovery)
• Oracle networking
• Monitoring and tuning
• Multi-user concurrency and online transaction processing (OLTP)
• Special issues for high-availability systems
• Hardware architectures (e.g., SMP, MPP, NUMA) and their impact on Oracle
• Data warehousing
• Distributed databases
• Extensions for Oracle8 and Oracle8i, including the latest Java and web technologies

It also includes an appendix full of references to additional online and offline resources.

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. But even if you already have a library full of Oracle documentation and books, you'll find that this compact book is the one you turn to, again and again, as your one-stop, truly essential reference.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

O'Reilly's series of Oracle references rapidly build up into a complete reference library that will sit at the front of the shelves of any Oracle DBA. But first you've got to get started, and Oracle Essentials is meant to be that jumping-off point.

Instead of throwing you in at the deep end with a dissertation on data mining, or some obscure section of the Oracle environment, the authors give you a concise and clear guide to the features of the latest Oracle databases--and how you're likely to want to use them. From an introduction to Oracle's family of tools and technologies to a look at Oracle on the Web, Oracle Essentials is full of useful information. It's not just a book that describes the features--you'll also find code samples and plenty of hands-on practical advice. If you're still unclear, the book's diagrams show just what the authors are describing.

Oracle Essentials is a distillation of the knowledge of a group of very experienced Oracle engineers, and it should be on the desk of anyone working with Oracle. --Simon Bisson, amazon.co.uk

About the Author

has been active in the world of computer software for nearly two decades, including stints with Data General, Cognos, and Gupta. He is currently an analyst with Oracle Corporation. He has been a principal author of ten books and countless articles on a variety of technical topics, and has spoken at conferences and training sessions across six continents. In addition to Oracle in a Nutshell, Rick's books include Oracle Essentials: Oracle9i, Oracle8i, and Oracle8 (principal author with Robert Stackowiak and Jonathan Stern, O'Reilly & Associates, 2001), Oracle Power Objects Developer's Guide (principal author with Kasu Sista and Richard Finklestein, Oracle Press, 1995); Mastering Oracle Power Objects (principal author with Robert Hoskins, O'Reilly & Associates, 1996); Using Oracle Web Server (principal author with many others, Que Publishing, 1997); The Oracle WebDB Bible (principal author with Jim Milbery, IDG Books Worldwide, 1999); and Administering Exchange Server (principal author with Walter Glenn, Microsoft Press, 1999).

Oracle Power Objects Developer's Guide, principal author with Kasu Sista and Richard Finklestein (Oracle Press, 1995) Mastering Oracle Power Objects, principal author with Robert Hoskins (O'Reilly & Associates, 1996) Special Edition: Using Oracle Web Server, principal author with many others (Que Publishing, 1997) The Oracle WebDB Bible, principal author with Jim Milbery (IDG Books Worldwide, 1999) Administering Exchange Server, principal author with Walter Glenn (1999) Robert Stackowiak has worked for 20 years in IT industry related roles that have included software development, management of software development, systems engineering, sales and sales consulting, and business development. He currently is recognized worldwide as a field sales expert in data warehousing at Oracle, and previously was well recognized for his work at IBM's RISC System/6000 Division, Harris Computer Systems, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Bob has spoken at numerous computer related conferences and has conducted briefings with companies based around the world. His papers regarding data warehousing and computer and software technology have appeared in publications such as The Data Warehousing Institute's Journal of Data Warehousing, Informix Tech Notes, and AIXcellence Magazine.

Jonathan Stern has over 11 years of IT experience, including senior positions in consulting, systems architecture, and technical sales. He has in-depth experience with the Oracle RDBMS across all major open systems hardware and operating systems, covering tuning, scaling and parallelism, Parallel Server, high availability, data warehousing, OLTP, object-relational databases, N-tier architectures, and emerging trends such as Java and CORBA. He is the Central USA Technical Team Leader at Ariba, Inc., the leading vendor of electronic commerce solutions for strategic procurement. Previously, he led a team of highly experienced database specialists at Oracle Corporation providing technical depth and strategic assistance to Oracle's largest customers in the North Central USA. Jonathan has authored papers and presented at internal and external conferences on topics such as scaling with Oracle's dynamic parallelism and the role of reorganizing segments in an Oracle database.

Product Details

• Paperback: 371 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (November 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565927087
• ISBN-13: 978-1565927087
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,350,843 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Skinny and great!, June 6, 2000

By 

Robert K. Nickel (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oracle Essentials: Oracle8 & Oracle8i: Oracle8 and Oracle8i (Paperback)

2 years as a DBA... just switching from Microsoft to Oracle... know about databases but needed something to teach me how to see the world through Oracle eyes. Couldn't have picked a better book. Won't make you an expert in any area, but you'll be conversant in all of them-- gives you the framework you so desperately need in order to be able to hold all the other pieces you learn into place. And, unlike VIRTUALLY EVERY OTHER BOOK on this subject, skinny enough to carry in my backpack and read on the train to & from work every morning. A+.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good overview, "jumping off point", April 20, 2000

By 

Justin (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oracle Essentials: Oracle8 & Oracle8i: Oracle8 and Oracle8i (Paperback)

This book has excellent "general concepts". As a DBA and consultant, something that separates you from everyone else is the ability to understand the 'what' and 'how' of Oracle. This book also has appendices that give you 6-7 books per chapter for the gritty details and the 'how-to'(ex: Oracle Parallel server, Oracle Application Server). I recommend this book to junior-midrange people and anyone going for a job interview!

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Provides excellent big picture of Oracle, February 7, 2000

By 

Alberto Dell'era (Milan, Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oracle Essentials: Oracle8 & Oracle8i: Oracle8 and Oracle8i (Paperback)

This book provides an excellent explanation of the Oracle architecture (not only of Oracle 8 but also of previous releases). At the end I was able to understand what is the SGA, a redo log, a data buffer, RAID, a listener, a datawarehouse application, a star schema, a Java-language trigger, an Oracle Application Server ... and much more, all with the necessary details, not too few and not too much; indeed, I think that density is the main quality of this book. Everything is carefully and clearly explained, making this a valuable resource for everyone who wants to learn Oracle from scratch or simply to assemble the pieces learnt in years of practical experience (as it was my case). In short, for example, for the latest tricks on query optimization, go elsewhere, but if you want to grab a general detailed and clear idea of how Oracle processes your query (which is 70% of what is needed in everyday work), this book is for you. I was greatly satisfied of my purchase, and I think the 'return on investment' is vastly superior than the cheap price of this book!