Oracle Performance Tuning (Nutshell Handbooks) [Paperback]

Mark Gurry (Author), Peter Corrigan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1565922379 | ISBN-13: 978-1565922372 | Publication Date: November 8, 1996 | Edition: Second Edition

The books in O'Reilly's Oracle series are authoritative -- they tell the whole story about complex topics, ranging from performance tuning to the use of packages in PL/SQL to new technologies like Power Objects. And they're independent; they're alternatives for readers who need to know how products and features really work. They're packed with real-world advice and techniques from practitioners in the field, and they come with disks containing code you can use immediately in your own applications. O'Reilly is the alternative for Oracle people who need to solve problems -- and solve them now.

Performance tuning is crucial in any modern relational database management system. Too many organizations respond to Oracle performance problems by throwing money at these problems -- by buying larger and more expensive computers or by hiring expert consultants. But there's a lot you can do on your own to increase dramatically the performance of your existing system. Whatever version of Oracle you're running -- from Version 6 to Oracle8, proper tuning can save your organization a huge amount of money in additional equipment, extra memory, and hardware upgrades.

The first edition of Oracle Performance Tuning became a classic for programmers, managers, database administrators, system administrators, and anyone who cares about improving the performance of an Oracle system. This second edition contains 400 pages of updated material updating on Oracle features, incorporating advice about disk striping and mirroring, RAID, client-server, distributed databases, MPPS, SMPs, and other architectures. It also includes chapters on parallel server, parallel query, backup and recovery, the Oracle Performance Pack, and more.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The books in O'Reilly's Oracle series are authoritative -- they tell the whole story about complex topics, ranging from performance tuning to the use of packages in PL/SQL to new technologies like Power Objects. And they're independent; they're alternatives for readers who need to know how products and features really work. They're packed with real-world advice and techniques from practitioners in the field, and they come with disks containing code you can use immediately in your own applications. O'Reilly is the alternative for Oracle people who need to solve problems -- and solve them now. Performance tuning is crucial in any modern relational database management system. Too many organizations respond to Oracle performance problems by throwing money at these problems -- by buying larger and more expensive computers or by hiring expert consultants. But there's a lot you can do on your own to increase dramatically the performance of your existing system. Whatever version of Oracle you're running -- from Version 6 to Oracle8, proper tuning can save your organization a huge amount of money in additional equipment, extra memory, and hardware upgrades. The first edition of Oracle Performance Tuning has become a classic for programmers, managers, database administrators, system administrators, and anyone who cares about improving the performance of an Oracle system. This second edition is a complete rewrite; it adds 400 pages to the first edition, updating all the original information, incorporating new advice about disk striping and mirroring, RAID, client-server, distributed databases, MPPS, SMPs, and other architectures. It also includes new chapters on parallel server, parallel query, backup and recovery, the Oracle Performance Pack, and more.

From the Back Cover

The first edition of Oracle Performance Tuning has become a classic for programmers, managers, database administrators, system administrators, and anyone who cares about improving the performance of an Oracle system. This second edition is a complete rewrite; it updates all the original information, incorporating new advice about disk striping and mirroring, RAID, client-server, distributed databases, MPPs, SMPs, and other architectures. It also includes new chapters on parallel server, parallel query, backup and recovery, the Oracle Performance Pack, and more.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 968 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Second Edition edition (November 8, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565922379
• ISBN-13: 978-1565922372
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,231,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great text, but watch those typos!, March 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Oracle Performance Tuning (Nutshell Handbooks) (Paperback)

This text offers many, many pieces of good advice and many insights into the internals of the Oracle server. It is one of the the top two or three book s on the subject and as such, is easy to recommend. BUT, be very careful of most example scripts. Many have syntax errors (which is strange , given they are clearly 'cut and paste' from a screen dump). If you are an experienced DBA, you will spot them on reading. At worst they will be obvious when they generate an error. However for the less experienced, there could be some frustrating moments. This is very disappointing for the second edition of a book (some of the grammar leaves alot to be desired too!). Also on the downside, the book claims to include updates for Oracle 8, but this is a rather generous claim, Many examples or recommendations are redundant in an Oracle 8 environment but are not identified as such. Overall though, still a worthwhile part of any DBA's toolkit.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How Much Tuning is Enough?, September 22, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Reading, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oracle Performance Tuning (Nutshell Handbooks) (Paperback)

To say this book is only about 'Performance Tuning' would be like saying 'The Complete Works of Shakespeare' were only about Elizabethan England. As an Oracle DBA contractor, who's switched from Informix, this book was invaluable in bringing me onside with how 'Oracle' works. I have purchased a large number of Oracle texts from Amazon in the past, mostly from the Osborne and O'Reilly ranges. If for some mysterious reason, they were all to be 'borrowed' one day without trace, this would be the first one I would re-buy.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful, June 4, 2001

By 

Vinicio Valencia (MIAMI, FLORIDA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oracle Performance Tuning (Nutshell Handbooks) (Paperback)

This book has a lot of Oracle tuning tips and advise about some certain plattforms and technologies. Although there's a lot of considerable information about almost anything related with Oracle tuning (including OPS), it doesn't provide with a concise method or guide.

The book is structured to help you at different stages of your Oracle implementation (design phase, production, proactive and reactive tuning, capacity planning, etc). But that good schema looks very confuse when the author starts to make suggestions or tips that aren't sorted by any kind of category (and they often takes a lot of pages)... Those comments are very good, so it needs a bit of more organization.

I recommend this book for instance and database tuning, but not for SQL tuning (the author has another excellent book on this subject). There aren't too many advices regarding the plattform (unix or nt), so, keep in mind you'll need more support.