Optimizing Oracle Performance (Paperback)

by Cary Millsap (Author), Jeffrey Holt (Author)
Key Phrases: queueing theory, data scope, measurement intrusion effect, Calls Dur, Response Time Component Duration, Oracle Corporation (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Oracle system performance inefficiencies often go undetected for months or even years--even under intense scrutiny--because traditional Oracle performance analysis methods and tools are fundamentally flawed. They're unreliable and inefficient. Oracle DBAs and developers are all too familiar with the outlay of time and resources, blown budgets, missed deadlines, and marginally effective performance fiddling that is commonplace with traditional methods of Oracle performance tuning. In this crucial book, Cary Millsap, former VP of Oracle's System Performance Group, clearly and concisely explains how to use Oracle's response time statistics to diagnose and repair performance problems. Cary also shows how "queueing theory" can be applied to response time statistics to predict the impact of upgrades and other system changes. Optimizing Oracle Performance eliminates the time-consuming, trial-and-error guesswork inherent in most conventional approaches to tuning. You can determine exactly where a system's performance problem is, and with equal importance, where it is not, in just a few minutes--even if the problem is several years old. This book cuts a path through the complexity of current tuning methods, and streamlines an approach that focuses on optimization techniques that any DBA can use quickly and successfully to make noticeable--even dramatic--improvements. The price of this essential book will be paid back in hours saved the first time its methods are used.

About the Author
Cary Millsap is the former Vice President of Oracle's System Performance Group and the cofounder of Hotsos, a company dedicated to Oracle system performance. Hotsos provides performance-improvement tools for Oracle environments and also delivers training in the form of clinics and symposiums. Cary is also a founding member of the Oak Table Network (http://www.oaktable.net), an informal association of "Oracle Scientists" well known throughout the Oracle community.

Jeff Holt is one of the world's most productive Oracle performance optimization specialists. He has tremendous experience in constructing training programs and software tools to optimize the system performance management process. He is a former support analyst and consultant at Oracle Corporation, where he served as a technology leader in the System Performance Group. He is the Hotsos Tools lead designer and developer, the author of several technical papers, a Hotsos founding employee, and a Hotsos Clinic principal developer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 388 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc. (May 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059600527X
• ISBN-13: 978-0596005276
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #31,999 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #6 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Software Design, Testing & Engineering > Performance Optimization
  #13 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Databases > Oracle
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Leading edge, February 17, 2004

By A Customer

It's surprising how often people say things without knowing what they're talking about. That's a good, short description of almost everything that's been said about Oracle tuning over the last 15 years.

Surprisingly, the facts about tuning Oracle are pretty simple. Most of the results you will achieve come from doing one thing -- tuning individual SQL statements.

The author of this book is one of the few Oracle experts around, and he has created a product called HOTSOS, which is essentially an enhanced version of TKPROF. At times this book reads like the world's best infomercial, designed to promote the author's product.

Still, 99% of Oracle professionals will benefit from this book, even if you don't buy the author's product. It explains very clearly how to DIAGNOSE Oracle performance problems, and it shows an entire approach to tuning that's invaluable.

By the way, there's absolutely no need to know calculus or any other advanced math to understand this book. This rumor apparently got started by some blowhard, pretending to be an expert, but mainly interested in self promotion and telling the world, "I know calculus!" In fact, anyone with basic knowledge of SQL could understand this book and benefit from it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an Oracle classic...., September 26, 2003

By	Robert G. Freeman "Robert G. Freeman" (Riverton, Ut. United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In a style that will be appreciated by the beginner, intermediate and advanced DBA/Developer, Cary and Jeff introduce the reader to the world of the Oracle wait interface. This book has depth, the contents are full of meat, and it's not a rehash of every other Oracle book published in the last 10 years. In these pages is something for everyone. Cary introduces the wait interface, and how it can be used for tuning. The book presents the topic in a clear and concise fashion.

The book is full of detail such as concise information on the internal workings of Oracle trace files and how to use them to your advantage when tuning your Oracle database. They demonstrate the power of the 10046 event and it's potential.

Putting all of this together into a performance tuning method he calls Method-R, they lead us from tuning by guess work into a world of facts and using accurate measures to generate appropriate tuning responses.

This book IS required reading for any DBA who wants to be elevated to the level of a tuning deity. I've already dog eared a goodly number of pages!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revolutionary, October 22, 2003

By	Niall Litchfield (Bramley, Hants United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

If you want a quick checklist of whats wrong with your Oracle systems - do not buy this book.

If you want validation of your existing tuning techniques - so not buy this book.

If you want to be told what to do without thinking - do not buy this book.

If on the other hand you are fed up with received wisdom that does not work, you recognize that performance tuning is a valuable skill for your business and you wish to learn an effective scientific and repeatable approach to improving the performance of your business systems, don't just buy this book but live it. Cary and Jeff take a rigorous, scientific approach to performance tuning that is especially suited to Oracle systems and by both formal proof and real world example show that the mystery of Oracle performance is controllable by you.

The only downside comes from explaining to your boss that the thousands you spent on automated performance tools were wasted.

A word about the Math. 2/3 of the book has no math at all in it. The remainder of the book was perfectly understandable to this reader, whose academic background is Economics and Philosophy not maths or computer science. Don't be put off by the idea that the book has equations, a competent High School student can follow the relevant mathematical arguments.