Optimizing Oracle Performance: A Practitioner's Guide to Optimizing Response Time

Cary's book has validated by belief that successful Oracle tuning requires an in-depth understanding of advanced software engineering concepts, including algorithm theory, queuing theory, Calculus, and multivariate statistics. Using these CS tools, Millsap explains the internals mechanisms of the Oracle engine.After dusting-off my 1970's Calculus texts (thank God I took 4 semesters of Calculus), I was able to start this epic tome.This is not an easy read! While not quite as slow as reading Ulysses (James Joyce), expect to spend many hours digesting and understanding the mathematical equations and concepts in this text.For those with the appropriate College-level background (A Masters in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering), the book is wonderful (or so I'm told, I'm just an MBA).Packed with queuing theory and advanced CS concepts, Millsap does a wonderful job applying the CS theory with the operational working of Oracle, especially with respect to wait event analysis.The section of using SQL*trace and 10046 trace files are the hallmark of the Millsap approach, and Cary has done a wonderful job explaining this is plain English, with lot's of references to the v$ structures.The only shortcoming of this book is that it may be too advanced for marginal Oracle professionals who do not possess the appropriate math and statistics background to appreciate the illustrations.With respect to technical accuracy, the book is well annotated and researched, and the only issue I found was that Millsap's explanation of the pdf Poisson distributions were "fishy". (Sorry, I couldn't resist!)Otherwise, this is an outstanding technical resource, worthy of the practicing Oracle database administrator.

OOP applies Goldratt's The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement to the Oracle DBMS. A quite readable bridge between theory and practice with few missteps. The best parts: clear exposition and stories, especially (1) why "eliminate unnecessary work" is usually the best approach, (2) why Oracle's so-called "wait events" aren't "waits" in queuing parlance. OOP is a great way to get the most business value from your configured Oracle system.Missteps are, in my experience, (1) too much Markovian queuing theory and formulas --discrete event simulation with real world distributions is far more practical (2) no guidance on what to do when you've "maxed out" your existing configuration... add more CPU? more disk? dunno.I've had this book on my shelf since 2004 beside Tom Kyte's Expert Oracle: Signature Edition (Expert One-On-One). Both are essential classics for the Oracle practitioner.

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!

This book covers Oracle 8 and 9. But its technical explanations are very much valid for Oracle 10g.Although the author's beautiful explanation of 10046 traces and waits are worth its weight in gold, much of the information could have been condensed into fewer pages. Regrettably, most of the book are fillers. The author tries to explain much of his thoughts in mathematical formuls (nothing difficult) but it didn't add to the comprehension of the topic.One thing which made this book stand out was the problems and exercises at the end of each chapter. They were helpful, and unique among Oracle books, in enabling the reader to understand the topic more thoroughly.Overall, I recommend this book. But I have read better, and more comprehensive, books on the Oracle performance.

This book is so interesting that on a couple occasions I've fallen asleep reading it, because I want to "find out what happens next" -- not because it is boring. Even the chapter on queueing theory that has a lot of math in it is understandable and interesting, even though I have a mild aversion to math.It has highlighted a lot of very useful techniques to ensure you focus on the true problems, and not the various ratios we've taken as absolute truth for so many years. I can't wait to try these concepts out!

good book on the fundamentals of oracle database performance. Trace, tkprof, etc. tools for analyzing and tuning sql statements in your database