Pro Oracle Database 11g RAC on Linux [Paperback]

Martin Bach (Author), Steve Shaw (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1430229586 | ISBN-13: 978-1430229582 | Publication Date: September 30, 2010 | Edition: 2

Pro Oracle Database 11g RAC on Linux provides full-life-cycle guidance on implementing Oracle Real Application Clusters in a Linux environment. Real Application Clusters, commonly abbreviated as RAC, is Oracle’s industry-leading architecture for scalable and fault-tolerant databases. RAC allows you to scale up and down by simply adding and subtracting inexpensive Linux servers. Redundancy provided by those multiple, inexpensive servers is the basis for the failover and other fault-tolerance features that RAC provides.

Written by authors well-known for their talent with RAC, Pro Oracle Database 11g RAC on Linux gives you a rock-solid and technically flawless foundation on which to build your RAC-management skills. Authors Julian Dyke and Steve Shaw share their hard-won experience in building RAC clusters, showing you how to build for success using the very latest Oracle technologies, such as Automatic Storage Management (ASM) and Oracle Clusterware. You’ll learn to troubleshoot performance and other problems. You’ll even learn how to correctly deploy RAC in a virtual-machine environment based upon Oracle VM, which is the only virtualization solution supported by Oracle Corporation.

RAC is a complex and powerful technology. It demands expertise in its deployment. You can’t just “wing it” in creating a RAC solution. Julian and Steve have earned the right to term themselves expert—in Pro Oracle Database 11g RAC on Linux, they offer a rigorous and technically-correct treatment of RAC that helps you build a solid foundation of expertise and achieve success.

• Rigorous and technically accurate content
• Complete coverage of RAC, from planning to implementation to rollout to ongoing maintenance and troubleshooting
• Up-to-date with the very latest RAC features

What you’ll learn

• Plan the architecture for a successful RAC installation
• Implement failover and other fault-tolerant features
• Scale RAC clusters up and down as needed to achieve performance targets
• Consolidate RAC clusters using Oracle’s virtualization solution
• Manage RAC proactively so as to sleep well at night
• Troubleshoot and solve performance and availability problems

Who this book is for

Pro Oracle Database 11g RAC on Linux is written for Oracle Database administrators who want to step up their skills to be equal to the task of managing Real Application Clusters.

Table of Contents

1.  Introduction  
2.  RAC Concepts   
3.  RAC Architecture   
4.  Hardware  
5.  Virtualization  
6.  Linux Installation and Configuration   
7.  Grid Infrastructure Installation   
8.  Clusterware   
9.  Automatic Storage Management  
10.  RDBMS Installation and Configuration   
11.  Workload Management   
12.  Oracle Performance Monitoring   
13.  Linux Performance Monitoring  
14.  Parallel Execution   
15.  Upgrading to Oracle 11g Release 2

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steve Shaw is the lead Oracle technologist for Intel Corporation in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa). Steve has more than 12 years of commercial IT experience with eight years dedicated to working with the Oracle Database, including a period of time with Oracle Corporation. Steve is the author of Hammerora, the open source Oracle load-test tool, and an expert on Oracle benchmarks and performance. Steve has contributed articles to many Oracle publications and web sites and presents regularly at Oracle seminars, conferences, and special-interest group meetings. He is an Oracle Certified Professional and holds a master of science degree in computing from the University of Bradford, U.K.

Martin Bach started working with Oracle in 2001. His main interests are high availability and disaster recovery solutions for mission critical 24×7 systems, in which he possesses a wealth of experience. Martin has also spent many years exploring the benefits of virtualisation technologies for Oracle products, mainly by using VMWare ESX Server and Oracle VM.

Martin is a proud member of the Oracle Certified Master community, having successfully passed the exam for Database 10g Release 2 in December 2008. He has contributed to various Oracle user group publications and runs a successful web log. Martin likes to share his knowledge with the Oracle user community in form of presentations, such as at U.K. Oracle User Group events.

Martin has a degree in business and computer science from the University of Applied Sciences in Trier, Germany.

Product Details

• Paperback: 840 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 2 edition (September 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430229586
• ISBN-13: 978-1430229582
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #88 in Books > Computers & Technology > Operating Systems > Linux

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another RAC Gem by Steve Shaw and Martin Bach., December 14, 2010

By 

F. OWONO-NDI (Dallas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pro Oracle Database 11g RAC on Linux (Paperback)

The authors - Steve Shaw and Martin Bach - have accomplished the not-so-easy feat of writing a book that is as good, if not better than its preceding version.
The latter, "Pro Oracle Database 10g RAC on Linux" appeared to be driven by a (justified) desire to be as thorough as possible by covering all components remotely or closely involved in setting up an Oracle RAC system, at the risk of sometimes not going deep enough or sometimes "loosing" the reader.
This book is more focused on topics closely related to the Installation and administration of RAC databases. Nevertheless, it appears to be more informative as it covers some topics more in-depth.

The desire to focus on the core aspects of RAC implementation and administration has led to some noticeable changes from the previous version.
The following chapters which were in the previous version have been removed:
- "Benchmarking Concepts"
- "Linux Administration"
- "Benchmarking Tools"
- "Installing and Configuring Enterprise Manager"
- "RAC Internals
- "Backup and Recovery"
- "Disaster Recovery"

While the absence of some chapters in this book in justified and understandable, the sections on RAC internals would have been a good supplement/background to the chapters on Performance monitoring and tuning. The chapters on Backup and Disaster Recovery also were not superfluous.

Chapters which were not in the previous version and are now featured in this one are:
-Virtualization (ch5): this chapter was about overdue, but the wait was worth it.
-Linux Performance Monitoring (ch13)
-Parallel Execution (ch14)
And of course the last chapter (15) on "Upgrading to Oracle 11gR2.
Chapter 8, "Clusterware" include a section on troubleshooting. Its added value cannot be stated enough as the information it contains is not as easily found from other sources.

More depth is given to certain areas.
ASM is an example, with sections of the chapter including: "ASM Terminology" , "ASM Concepts", "Understanding the ASM Header".

The new chapter on "Parallel Execution", as well as the two chapters on "Linux Performance Monitoring" and "Oracle Performance Monitoring" comprise what I dub the "Tuning and Optimization Section", which illustrate a justifiable emphasis on RAC performance. This departs from a less focused approach in the previous version of the book which -as I've already mentioned-included such sections as "Linux Administration".

Last but not least, one of the biggest improvements of this book is the better logical ordering of chapters than in its previous version
For example, the chapter on ASM comes after the one on "Linux Installation and Configuration" unlike in the previous version.
The authors follow a more logical flow of:
- OS installation and configuration,
- Grid Infrastructure,
- Clusterware,
- ASM,
- RDBMS.

In summary, while there are topics that I would have liked to see covered (again) in this book (Backup and Disaster Recovery (Data Guard), RAC Internals), the authors have produced a work of great quality and value. I therefore recommend this book to all DBAs and System Admins working on RAC systems, based on its following characteristics:
* More intuitive/Better logical ordering of chapters,
* More focus on topics closely related to RAC,
* Emphasis on performance monitoring and tuning,
* Thorough coverage of virtualization (finally),
* Clear and concise language.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just when you start to think that no one book can "have it all", December 4, 2010

By 

B. Reich - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pro Oracle Database 11g RAC on Linux (Paperback)

Just when you start to think that no one book can "have it all" along comes Pro Oracle Database 11g RAC on Linux.

This book is a must-have resource for anyone working with RAC, especially those who are new to RAC. As promised by the author, this book assumes no prior knowledge of the subject.

The book discusses all areas that anyone needs to know to install and maintain 11g RAC databases in a Linux environment. You can guess that it discusses the obvious topics like, Installation, Configuration, Clusterware, ASM, etc. However, it also discusses very important ancillary topics like network bonding, for example..

There are sections on new 11g features and a great section on upgrading to 11g. But, my favorite is Chapter 12: Oracle Performance Monitoring. This chapter gives a great practical, realistic approach to performance monitoring.

I highly recommend this book to seasoned veterans as well as those new to Oracle RAC.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Resource for RAC Admins, November 18, 2010

By 

R. Byrd (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pro Oracle Database 11g RAC on Linux (Paperback)

This volume is a excellent for those who need to manage a RAC environment. I am preparing to move a 10G RAC database to 11Gr2 and the authors included a chapter on this important topic. The chapter on Linux install and configuration provides an excellent base whether you are sysadmin or work with one. The complexity of RAC setup requires a broad knowledge of hardware and software topics and in this volume that range is covered with sufficient depth to do all one needs to do to run RAC. I am pleased to recommend this book for anyone managing RAC or moving into the RAC arena.