Scaling Oracle8i™: Building Highly Scalable OLTP System Architectures [Paperback]

James Morle (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201325748 | ISBN-13: 978-0201325744 | Publication Date: January 2, 2000

This is the complete, expert guide to building enterprise-class UNIX-based Oracle OLTP systems that deliver maximum performance and scalability. In Scaling Oracle 8i, one of the world's leading Oracle consultants introduces today's best methods and technologies for building industrial-strength Oracle database systems on UNIX platforms. Understand exactly what scalability means in the enterprise; then discover how to deliver it, step-by-step, from the ground up, through design, testing, construction, maintenance, benchmarking, and ongoing management. Morle covers every component that impacts performance, including hashing, caching, hardware architecture and I/O subsystems, Oracle database objects, data storage, memory structures, and a detailed review of the Oracle Parallel Server. Readers will find comprehensive coverage of tuning the underlying UNIX platform to improve OLTP response times; including co-engineering the kernel; working with virtual memory, I/O, interprocess communication; and more. Scaling Oracle 8i contains a full chapter on the special issues associated with e-commerce, as well as a detailed case study drawn from one of the world's largest car rental reservations systems. For all enterprise system architects, database engineers, and application developers working with Oracle.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

This is a book about getting the most out of Oracle8i on UNIX systems. While many people understand how to administrate Oracle and UNIX, far fewer understand the issues and workings of the software and hardware, thus limiting the scalability of the system. This book aims to open up this essential information, enabling the reader to build faster, larger, and more scalable systems than ever before.

The purpose of this book is to provide grounding in all the areas required for large systems implementation using UNIX and Oracle8i. Some of the information in this text is available elsewhere, scattered throughout a large number of specialized volumes, while other information, taken from experience in implementing such systems, is previously undocumented.

Unlike many Oracle books, this book avoids the "one size fits all," cookbook approach to improving the skillset of the reader. In my opinion, such books do little to improve foundation skills and serve only to confuse readers when their circumstances deviate from those of the author. Rather, the intent of this book is to communicate a distillation of many years of experience in building very large Oracle database systems. The information presented here allows the reader to make informed decisions, based on real facts, that directly apply to the actual case at hand.

Where appropriate, this book will make recommendations to the reader, mostly from an approach standpoint. These recommendations are intended to guide the reader past some of the common pitfalls often encountered during the building of large systems. In addition to technical information, the book also makes organizational and procedural recommendations intended to help the reader avoid dead ends and other sources of aggravation.

Although the focus of this book is on Oracle8i, the principles presented also apply to other database software. UNIX is the premier platform for very large Oracle systems and is therefore presented as the underlying operating system, although many of the hardware and theoretical discussions also apply to other operating systems, such as Windows NT. Large, custom-written applications are the main target of this book, but all of the concepts presented here also apply in varying degrees to smaller systems and packaged applications.

Who Should Read This Book
This book is primarily aimed at the following audiences.

System architects Database engineers wanting to expand their knowledge System administrators working on UNIX/Oracle systems Senior application developers In addition, this book will be of value to the following audiences.

Technology managers Computer science students

0201325748P04062001

About the Author

James Morle runs a specialist consulting company, Scale Abilities, that specializes in solving complex technical and architectural problems for leading companies. He has built a number of the world's largest and most challenging systems, including one of the first large Oracle Parallel Server systems. Specializing in high-performance scalable systems, his background is in Oracle and UNIX internals. He can be contacted directly at [e-mail].

0201325748AB04062001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (January 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201325748
• ISBN-13: 978-0201325744
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,634,194 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great information, May 18, 2000

By 

Steve Adams (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scaling Oracle8i™: Building Highly Scalable OLTP System Architectures (Paperback)

This book is packed with useful information that is otherwise hard to find. It covers Oracle, Unix and hardware issues in approximately equal depth. The focus is on issues that can affect the scalability of large OLTP Oracle systems. Because of the expansive scope, some issues are only lightly treated. Nevertheless, there are many nuggets of highly detailed and invaluable technical information.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very readable and useful book. A rewarding read., April 4, 2000

By 

Declan Brady (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Scaling Oracle8i™: Building Highly Scalable OLTP System Architectures (Paperback)

Although sometimes short on the complete detail, the relevant topics are all there, in one place. From sizing, to performance, to parallelism, to resilience, to future planning, Morle ensures that you consider all the angles. Morle's easy style helps you find what you're looking for, and understand it quickly. The references at the end of each chapter are particularly useful. Despite its title, I wouldn't entirely ignore this book for non-OLTP systems. I would recommend putting this book on your recommended reading list for all engineers building Oracle-based systems, of any size.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Technical Book You Can Actually Understand, January 17, 2000

By 

P. Fuson (Richmond, Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scaling Oracle8i™: Building Highly Scalable OLTP System Architectures (Paperback)

"Scaling Oracle 8i" is an incredibly well written book that clearly explains the concepts and terms DBAs have been using for years. But more importantly, it explains them in a way that highlights their relevance in terms how to design applications that will scale, or how to correct existing applications that don't run as well as expected. This book is a necessity for all system and application architects that plan on using Oracle.