Pro Oracle Database 10g RAC on Linux: Installation, Administration, and Performance (Expert's Voice in Oracle) [Hardcover]

Julian Dyke (Author), Steve Shaw (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1590595246 | ISBN-13: 978-1590595244 | Publication Date: August 1, 2006 | Edition: 1st ed. 2006. Corr. 2nd printing

Real Application Clusters and the Grid architecture are Oracle's strategy for scaling out enterprise systems to cope with higher and higher workloads and more and more users. The premise of Grid is simple: it works just like a utility (e.g. electricity) grid. You don’t care which "station" you get your data from as long as you get it, and if one station goes down then it’s just fetched from somewhere else without the user being any the wiser. As demand grows you just add another cheap 2-CPU Intel machine (running Linux) to the cluster.

While the premise is simple, the technology and the reality of its implementation is complex. Therefore many books are limited to talking conceptually and theoretically about the RAC technology. This book, however, will be the first to show how to actually implement and administer an Oracle 10g Real Application Cluster (RAC) system in a Linux environment. Based on extensive real world experience gained with Fortune 500 companies, this book discusses: basic concepts underlying Linux and Oracle RAC, design strategies, hardware procurement and configuration and many more.

Many RAC specific technologies are covered including configuration of the interconnect, OCFS, ASM, Cluster Ready Services and Grid Control. Use of Oracle features such as RMAN to provide backup and recovery and Data Guard to provide disaster recovery are also discussed along with the many hardware options available including servers, storage and networking options.

Practical examples and details configuration information are given throughout the book. After reading it, you will have all the information you need to build an Oracle RAC database on Linux whether it is on a single laptop or on a 64-node Itanium cluster.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Julian Dyke is a Senior Database Consultant with Intel Solution Services, specializing in implementation and performance tuning of Oracle Real Application Clusters. He has over twenty years of database experience as a kernel developer, production DBA and consultant. He is a regular presenter at conferences, seminars and user group events in the UK, Europe and America and contributes articles and papers to various trade publications. He is a member of the Oak Table Network and is Chair of the UK Oracle User Group RAC SIG. He also maintains juliandyke.com which provides information on Oracle diagnostics, trace and execution plans.

Steve Shaw is a Senior Database Consultant for Intel Solution Services specializing in Oracle Real Application Clusters on Linux. Steve has over 10 years of commercial IT experience including a period of time with Oracle Corporation. Steve is the author of ‘Hammerora’ the leading open source Oracle load test tool. Steve has contributed articles to many Oracle publications and websites and is a regular presenter at Oracle seminars, conferences and special interest groups. He has also been the lead technical reviewer for a number of Oracle books including Oracle and Open Source (0-59600-018-9) by O’Reilly press

Product Details

• Hardcover: 824 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1st ed. 2006. Corr. 2nd printing edition (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590595246
• ISBN-13: 978-1590595244
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #984,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Magnum Opus on Oracle RAC, May 8, 2008

By 

Jaewoo Kim "OB-Wan" (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pro Oracle Database 10g RAC on Linux: Installation, Administration, and Performance (Expert's Voice in Oracle) (Hardcover)

This book can easily be used as a college textbook on Oracle RAC. I am studying for the Oracle Certified Master exam and this is possibly the most high level book on Oracle I have read.

It has 3 major strengths which I found to be superior to any Oracle RAC books I have read (including the manual from Oracle).

1)Technical Depth
2)Comprehensive Overview and instructions
3)Quality of writing


1)Technical Depth
The authors write about Linux and Oracle and are high level experts in the subjects. For example, the authors have a very detailed description of how Oracle Cache Fusion handles locking across all the nodes in a RAC environment (probably the crown jewel of RAC technology). They also discuss, in detail, different types of CPU, memory, and storage and contains detailed description of each architecture. Lastly, it contains vast number of "how to" install, configure, change, analyze, backup/restore, and utilize Oracle RAC and Linux.

2)Comprehensive Coverage and Instructions
No small amount of detail has been skipped. The book contains every utility (there are many) provided by Oracle to implement RAC. It provides a good step-by-step coverage of Linux and Oracle RAC installation as well what each step is adding to the RAC environment. To top it off, it adds how to performance tune, administer, troubleshoot, backup/restore, and use Dataguard in a RAC environment. I can't think of a subject on RAC which the authors did not cover.

3)Quality of Writing
I was pleasantly surprised how well written this book is. Although far from a Pulitzer Prize material, it certainly belongs in that category amongst the Oracle books. Every praragraph has been well organized and written. The proofreader of this book deserves major praise for their work.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Oracle/Linux FAQ, January 23, 2010

By 

Ruslan Moskalenko "Ruslan Moskalenko" (Pleasanton, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pro Oracle Database 10g RAC on Linux: Installation, Administration, and Performance (Expert's Voice in Oracle) (Hardcover)

There are two approaches to learn about a new application. One is the traditional one - what a typical User Guide does - start with general overview and then methodically cover every little subject. The other way - think about a FAQ - brings you up to speed quickly by answering the most common questions, however the coverage maybe spotty.

This book is a hybrid but on a high level it's more a FAQ than a comprehensive user guide. It tells you the most common things you need to know about Linux, SAN, hardware and RAC. It requires some prior knowledge and doesn't teach you about Oracle or Unix very basics.

In general, this book would be perfect for someone who has some experience with Oracle and Unix but either lacking RAC or Linux knowledge and trying to fill in those gaps quickly. In my case it was an ideal book - I had some experience running older Oracle on Solaris and this book would let me catch up on RAC and Linux specific issues.

This book also is a nice quick reference to keep on your desk if you need to find a commonly used command or file.

The book is not a complete reference as I stated above and gives only a few most typical samples for the most typical situations. It also shows some age and a lot of recent developments are missing (just a few examples: RHEL5, ocfs2 support on x86_64 and a lot of other things are missing) however because it is focused on the mainstream features and examples, most of the material will stay relevant for years to come.

Also, despite the lack of depth, the authors are trying to give you some rules of thumb and show you some right directions about what is good practice and what is not. A lot of guides and references provide you with endless options to choose from and leave you more confused than empowered. Here the authors are leaving the secondary details aside and try to bring to your attention what is really important and that's exactly the difference you would expect to see between a vendor technical guide and the professionals sharing their real life experience.

Overall, if you're looking for a certification prep material or planning to become a professional DBA you probably need to read more books and this one is not the best to start with. But as a quick crash course to give you some working knowledge you can get by with quickly - this book is really good.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book !, October 21, 2007

By 

Jose Valerio (AR) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pro Oracle Database 10g RAC on Linux: Installation, Administration, and Performance (Expert's Voice in Oracle) (Hardcover)

I was reviewing information about Julian Dyke, his presentations and publications are very good in general. This book in particular has interesting chapters like "Trace and Diagnostics" and "RAC Internals". It's not easy to find books with internals because this information in general is restricted. In my opinion is not for beginners, you need to have an Oracle background. I would highly recommend this book if you are an Oracle DBA working or starting with Oracle Clusters & Linux

Jose Valerio