Oracle8i Tuning and Administration: The Essential Reference - Softcover

Thorpe, Heidi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201704366 ISBN 13: 9780201704365

Publisher: Addison-Wesley, 2000

Synopsis

A guide for both less-experienced and advanced database administrators, covering major areas of Oracle8i for which database administrators are typically responsible, such as sizing and reconfiguration, monitoring, and application and database tuning for better performance. Reviews fundamental Oracle concepts, summarizes the latest features of Oracle8i, and covers aspects including security, free space search algorithms, SQL statement tuning, online index creation, and statistics generation for long-running operations. Thorpe works for a major financial institution in Australia. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About this title

About the Author

Heidi Thorpe is a Senior DBA with a major financial institution in Melbourne, Australia. She has fifteen years of industry database experience with major international companies, and is a highly respected practitioner of database technologies.

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From the Back Cover

Poring over the 30 volumes of official Oracle documentation is a daunting task for any Oracle database administrator (DBA). Oracle8iTM Tuning and Administration: The Essential Reference distills the essentials of what you need to know to perform your job intelligently and skillfully. Bypassing obscure technical details, this book answers three essential questions for each topic listed below: What is it? Why is it important? How do I use it? Less experienced DBAs can now acquire the framework they need to understand important details in the Oracle documentation. Advanced DBAs will find this book a practical reference to effective configuration and troubleshooting. Oracle8iTM Tuning and Administration covers the major areas for which DBAs are typically responsible: administration, sizing and configuration, monitoring, and application and database tuning for better performance. In addition, the book reviews fundamental Oracle concepts and summarizes the newest features of Oracle8iTM. Specific topics covered include:

Security and auditing

Administering tables, views, constraints, indexes, data files, log

files, and more

Free space search algorithm

Using database blocks efficiently

Optimizing space management

Partitioning

Database, process, and object limits

Monitoring events, usage, waits, and log files

Query optimization hints

SQL statement tuning

Diagnosing performance problems and detecting runaway processes

Tuning the operating system, CPU, memory, and disk I/O

Tuning Private SQL and PL/SQL areas

Tuning and initialization parameters

New features for bitmapped indexes

The new SAMPLE function

Advanced queuing and sort improvements

Online index creation, rebuild, and defragmentation

Statistics generation for long-running operations Concise and thorough, with an easy-access format, Oracle8iTM Tuning and Administration: The Essential Reference is the Oracle resource you will keep close at hand.

From the Inside Flap

Preface

Oracle has become the industry standard for large-scale relational database systems, and the release of Oracle8iTM has made more information available to database administrators (DBAs). This book helps tie together the pieces of essential knowledge that allow you to solve problems more quickly. When common problems and their solutions are discussed, background has been provided to assist the reader in understanding why it worked, as well as how to fix it. When I first started writing this book, I recalled my earliest experiences with Oracle and more specifically Oracle's documentation. A core of essential knowledge is required to obtain proper value from official documentation, and until that level of knowledge is achieved, it can be a difficult climb. As a first-time user of the documentation, I found myself with six volumes, all opened to separate pages. I had to read sections from all of them to get the complete picture. The explanation given in this book of Oracle terms and concepts can help you overcome the initial barrier to understanding and navigating the official documentation. Audience of this Book

If you are an Oracle DBA, this book is for you. The title of DBA means different things to different people. Ask some of your colleagues what they consider to be the role of a DBA; responses may vary. Some view a DBA as a manager of objects and data within a database. This person is sometimes called an application DBA. Others think of a DBA as someone who looks after the database instance, setting up the initialization parameters and space management. All of these skills are often expected from a DBA. This book covers all of these areas.

DBAs working in a development environment realize that many of the problems with software are found in the early stage of the software development life cycle. Chapters in this book cover the initial setup of a database, sizing new objects, and tuning the application and database instance.

This book is also a benefit to DBAs working in a production environment. Being able to set up every database correctly from the beginning is the preference of most DBAs. However, many production DBAs must administer databases set up by employees or consultants no longer with an organization. This book provides many health checks a DBA can perform when faced with a production database of unknown quantity. It also contains working scripts that can be run to diagnose problems experienced after changes to the database. Some software projects do not have the budget for a full-time DBA, and it often falls to senior developers to perform some DBA tasks. Developers finding themselves in such situations would benefit from this book. However, please note that this is not a resource for people wishing to develop applications in PL/SQL, Java/JDBC, or Pro*C. How to Use this Book

This book is intended to be a solid reference. I regularly find that my colleagues, much like other Oracle resources, attempt to explain some technical details about Oracle but neglect to provide details on how this knowledge can be usefully applied. For this reason, I worked under the framework of the following three questions:

What is it? Why is it important? How do I use it?

It is my hope that this approach will help the reader find the necessary information.

Most importantly, Oracle DBAs, whether beginners or experts, can all glean something from this book. Each chapter does attempt to stand on its own, serving as a true reference manual that allows the reader to refer directly to the correct information. Each topic is initially covered at an elementary level, but there is advanced coverage for more experienced users. The intention is that less experienced readers can get the information they need while still being able to broaden their knowledge as their experience with Oracle increases. Whatever your level of experience, this book attempts to give you room to grow.

The following areas are covered:

Chapters 1 through 4: DBMS Concepts, Administration, Sizing, and Configuration Chapter 5: Monitoring Chapters 6 and 7: Application and Database Tuning Chapter 8: New Features Further Information

The 30 volumes of official Oracle manuals often discourage users. However, it is strongly recommended that any serious user purchase the Oracle Documentation CD-ROM. It is affordably priced and can be purchased separately or as part of the standard Oracle8iTM distribution. Having access to the official documentation is not a prerequisite to using this book; it does, however, complement the topics covered.

When tackling a subject as expansive as Oracle8iTM, there is always a trade-off between covering topics sufficiently, in a manner that is useful to the reader, and not creating a mammoth reference that becomes inaccessible to much of its intended audience. Justice cannot be done to topics like Parallel Server, Networking, and Backup and Recovery in a single chapter; each subject matter deserves its own book. For this reason, they are not covered here. However, a separate manual for each topic is available from Oracle and can offer plenty of insight for those wanting to know more.

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

PREFACE Oracle has become the industry standard for large scale relational database systems and with the release of Oracle8i there is even more information available to database administrators. This book tries to tie together those pieces of essential knowledge that will allow you to solve problems more quickly. Where common problems and their solutions are discussed I have also given background to assist the reader in understanding why it worked as well as how to fix it. When I first started writing this book I recalled my earliest experiences with Oracle and more specifically Oracle's documentation. There is a core of essential knowledge that is required to get good value out of the official documentation and until you get that knowledge it can be hard going. As a first time user of the documentation I found myself with six volumes all open at separate pages. You had to read sections from all of them to get the whole story. The explanation of terms and concepts can help you overcome the initial barrier to understanding and navigating the official documentation. Audience Of This Book If you are an Oracle Database Administrator (DBA) then this book is for you. The title of DBA means different things to different people. Ask some of your colleagues what they consider to be the role of a DBA and you may be surprised by how much the responses vary. Some see a DBA as managing the objects and data within a database. This is sometimes called an application DBA. Others see a DBA as looking after the database instance, setting up the initialization parameters and space management. Often all of these skills are expected. This book has been written to cover all of these areas. Those DBAs working in a development environment will be aware that many of the problems with software are found in the early stage of the software development life cycle. This book has much to offer with chapters on the initial setup of a database, sizing of new objects, tuning the application and tuning the database instance. This book can also benefit DBAs working in a production environment. It would be nice to have the opportunity to setup every database correctly from the beginning. However, many production DBAs are faced with a database that was setup by employees or consultants that have long gone from the organization. This book provides many health checks that you can perform when faced with a production database that is an unknown quantity. It also contains working scripts that can be run to diagnose problems experienced after changes to your database. Some software projects do not have the budget for a full time DBA and it often falls to senior developers to perform some DBA tasks. Developers finding themselves in this situation would benefit from this book. It is not, however, a book for people wanting to learn how to develop applications in PL/SQL, Java/JDBC, or Pro*C. How To Use This Book The intention of this book is to be a solid reference. I regularly find that the people I work with, and other books on Oracle for that matter, are all too keen to explain some technical details about Oracle but neglect to tell you how this knowledge can be usefully applied. For this reason I worked under the framework three questions "What is it?", "Why is it important" and "How do I use it". It is my hope that this approach will make it easier for the reader to find the information they require. Certainly Oracle DBAs, be they beginners or gurus, can all get something from this book. An attempt has been made to allow each chapter to be read in isolation allowing the reader to go directly to the information they require. While each topic is initially covered at an elementary level there is more advanced coverage for more experienced users. The intention is that less experienced readers can get the information they need while still being able to broaden their knowledge as their experience with Oracle increases. Generally speaking, whatever your level of experience this book tries to give you room to grow. The following areas are covered: Section 1: DBMS Concepts, Administration, Sizing and Configuration (Chapters 1-4) Section 2: Monitoring (Chapter 5) Section 3: Application and Database Tuning (Chapters 6-7) Section 4: New Features (Chapter 8) Sources Of Further Information Many Oracle users are discouraged from reading the official Oracle manuals when they are faced with all 30 volumes. However, I strongly recommend that any serious user should purchase the Oracle Documentation CD-ROM. It is affordably priced and can be purchased separately or as part of the standard Oracle 8i distribution. Having access to the official documentation is not a prerequisite to using this book. It does however complement the topics covered. In writing about something as large as Oracle8i there is always a trade off between covering topics in sufficient details that they are useful to the reader while not making the book so large that it becomes inaccessible to much of its intended audience. Topics like Parallel Server, Networking and Backup and Recovery could not be done justice in a single chapter and are deserving of a book in themselves. It is for this reason I have not covered them in this book. Oracle however has a separate manual for each and offer plenty of insight for those wanted to know more.

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0201704366
• ISBN 13: 9780201704365
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 590