Customer Reviews

Oracle9i High-Performance Tuning with STATSPACK

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

 

 

Statspack is a Godsend tool from Oracle.

This and the previous edition of the book provide DBAs with an excellent introduction into understanding statspack internal tables and great ideas on how to integrate critically important OS statistics into the statspack data gathering process.

Using statspack daily, I found this book and Performance Explorer-i / Statspack program (found it on internet - made by dbainfopower) to be invaluable tools that extend statspack capabilities and help to resolve complex performance problems.

I got more than my time and $ worth. It was a good guide to for getting started with Statspack. However, it looks like they rushed this one to market. The book needs another thorough edit. Not all the scripts in the book are in the download. Most of the scripts have at least one problem. Some paragraphs right next to each other seem to contradict each other. However, if you're experienced with oracle and just need to add statspack to your bag of tricks, it's worth it.

The book is pretty good, it covers some basic topics on implementing STATSPACK and using it for monitoring Oracle. However, it was a little misleading and not too much organized sometimes.

The best:
- Straight, practical and full of scripts/examples
- Gives some tips and explains some Oracle performance issues
- Covers not only database, but network and OS common performance problems (directed to Unix)
- Covers not only 9i, but previous versions too.
- Gives a good guideline on proactive tuning.

The worst:
- It's misleading sometimes. The book covers different Oracle versions, but not always we know if an example applies only to 9i or previous versions. May cause confusion on beginners/intermediate DBA's who hadn't contact with previous Oracle versions
- Some typos and errors on the scripts and the text (9i uses PCTFREE even on Automatic segment management)
- I was expecting a deeper explanation on STATSPACK tables. The book relies only on a few (the most important, ok, but it's not everything). I missed a better approach on other performance issues like checkpointing, log switches, latches and waits in general.

Finally, it is a very good book and worthy buying, but could be even better.

the bad:
1. no mention of Windows anywhere. only covers UNIX, no mention of this in the blurbs
2. Oracle 8i (and even 8.05!) take up more pages than 9i. It's rarely clear where 9i info starts. An obvious copy+paste job from previous editions. And this despite the title of the book.
3. the author spews scripts everywhere. there should be a table of contents for the scripts. it's practically impossible to figure out what scripts there are and what they do. Possibly really lazy or inexperienced DBAs would be interested in all these scripts but most dbas will probably live without them.
4. author promises to provide "extensions" to statspack tables for trend analysis and he makes it sound like he will present a clever way to store snapshot data between reboots the way Capacity Planner does, but it turns out all that all he demonstrates is how to create tables for data collected by UNIX operating system utilities. It is a very misleading description.

the good:

1. decent explanations of basic tuning concepts. But again this is copy+pasted straight from a tuning book. I bought this book for info about statspack not tuning 101!
2. decent diagrams of statspack tables but nothing that can't be found on metalink.

I returned this book. It's shovel-ware, plain and simple. The author worked very hard to bloat the size up to 600+ pages to rationalize a $40+ price tag for the publisher. How can he take himself seriously? Or i wonder if the author actually believes this is a well-organized book to be proud of...in which case his mind must be like a tangle of knotted strings.

The material covered in the book is great and valuable for any DBA concerned about tuning aspects. I would rate this book 5 stars, if:
1. It wouldn't include information about Oracle 8. This is 9i book; and if I needed 8i advices I would buy a book on 8i (there is one). This way it could be twice as thin (and cheaper ???).
2. Scripts that accompany this book were more acurate, i.e. they are written for 8i and do not cover 9i changes, therefore statistics returned by these scripts is inacurate.
I wish that publisher and the author paid more attention to the quality.

This book is somewhat mis-titled as a STATSPACK book. Instead the book is a superb overall view of Oracle tuning using STATSPACK.

The concepts are presented clearly and elegantly, and the supplemental scripts are very useful. This is a great book to add to your collection that you will actually use.

Like most of Burleson's books this book is fluffy, wrong in some cases, and marginal in value. Skip this (and all Burleson books) and go instead to Richard J. Niemiec or Tom Kyte. The problem with the book is that at best it gives you a confusing survey of the myriad metrics that an Oracle database statspacks report generates. The 'analysis' of the metrics is cursory at best. Beware, all Burleson books are printed on very thick paper and set in large fonts with plenty of whitespace. This book would otherwise be a fairly slim pamphlet. Save your money do not buy this book.

The book should be re-titled: How to write Statspack Scripts. The book barely touches on the true tuning issues of Oracle9i.
A large portion of the book wastes time on Oracle8i architectures that have become obsolete in Oracle9i. The book concentrates on the creation and usage of a repository for information that Statspack does not natively support, and then goes on to either completely ignore actual tuning methods, or simply gloss over them.

Whats more, the author's method for tuning (stated in the earliest sections of the book) make little sense to me.
WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU TUNE THE HARDWARE BEFORE YOU TUNE THE SQL?
HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY KNOW THAT THE HARDWARE INFRASTRUCTURE IS INSUFFICIENT PRIOR TO GETTING EVERY CYCLE OUT OF IT THAT YOU CAN?

One of the very very good books I ever read in Oracle. Well thought/written in a manner that is easy to absorb.
Could see new ideas, new ways of thinking/implementing. Could recommend to intermediate/advanced DBA as a tuning/statspack bible.

Excellent book. The ready-to-use scripts are great. Makes database monitoring so easy even a beginner can do it. A must have book as you move into 9i.