Beginning Oracle Database 11g Administration: From Novice to Professional

Beginning Oracle Database 11g Administration: From Novice to Professional

by Iggy Fernandez
Released February 2009
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781590599686

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Book description

This book, written by veteran Oracle database administrator Iggy Fernandez, a regular on the Oracle conference circuit and the editor of NoCOUG Journal, is a manageable introduction to key Oracle database administration topics including planning, installation, monitoring, troubleshooting, maintenance, and backups, to name just a few. As is clear from the table of contents, this book is not simply a recitation of Oracle Database features such as what you find in the reference guides available for free download on the Oracle web site. For example, the chapter on database monitoring explains how to monitor database availability, database changes, database security, database backups, database growth, database workload, database performance, and database capacity.

The chapters of this book are logically organized into four parts that closely track the way your database administration career will naturally evolve. Part 1 gives you necessary background in relational database theory and Oracle Database concepts, Part 2 teaches you how to implement an Oracle database correctly, Part 3 exposes you to the daily routine of a database administrator, and Part 4 introduces you to the fine art of performance tuning. Each chapter has exercises designed to help you apply the lessons of the chapter. Each chapter also includes a list of reference works that contain more information on the topic of the chapter.

In this book, you'll find information that you won't find in other books on Oracle Database. Here you'll discover not only technical information, but also guidance on work practices that are as vital to your success as technical skills. The author's favorite chapter is "The Big Picture and the Ten Deliverables." If you take the lessons in that chapter to heart, you can quickly become a much better Oracle database administrator than you ever thought possible.

What you'll learn

  • Theory of relational database management systems

  • Oracle Database internals

  • Licensing, architecture, and sizing

  • Software installation and database creation

  • Using indexes to improve performance

  • User management and data loading

  • How to monitor all aspects of your database

  • How to solve and fix problems

  • Database backups and database recovery

  • Database maintenance

  • Database tuning

  • SQL tuning

Who this book is for

If you are an IT professional who has been thrust into an Oracle database administration role without the benefit of formal training, or you just want to understand how Oracle Database works, this book is for you. It's the book the author wishes he'd had when he first started using Oracle Database many years ago. It's the book that he would have liked to have given to the many IT colleagues and friends who, over the years, have asked him to teach them the basics of Oracle Database.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Dedication
  3. Contents at a Glance
  4. Contents
  5. Foreword
  6. About the Author
  7. About the Technical Reviewer
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Introduction
    1. Who this Book Is For
    2. How this Book Is Structured
    3. Source Code and Updates
    4. Errata
    5. Contacting the Author
  10. PART I: Database Concepts
    1. CHAPTER 1: Relational Database Management Systems
      1. What Is a Database?
      2. What Is a Relational Database?
      3. What Is a Database Management System?
      4. What Makes a Relational Database Management System Relational?
      5. Summary
      6. Exercises
      7. Further Reading
    2. CHAPTER 2: SQL and PL/SQL
      1. Railroad Diagrams
      2. Types of SQL
      3. Embedded SQL
      4. SQL*Plus and SQL Developer
      5. Criticisms of SQL
      6. Introduction to PL/SQL
      7. Summary
      8. Exercises
      9. Further Reading
    3. CHAPTER 3: Oracle Architecture
      1. Database vs. Instance
      2. Database
      3. Instance
      4. Life Cycle of a Database Session
      5. Summary
      6. Exercises
      7. Further Reading
  11. PART II: Database Implementation
    1. CHAPTER 4: Planning
      1. Licensing
      2. Architectural Choices
      3. Sizing
      4. Summary
      5. Exercises
      6. Further Reading
    2. CHAPTER 5: Software Installation
      1. Oracle Technology Network
      2. The Forgotten Manuals
      3. Prerequisites and Preinstallation Requirements
      4. Client Installations
      5. Server Installations
      6. Oracle Database Examples
      7. Perl
      8. Summary
      9. Exercises
      10. Further Reading
    3. CHAPTER 6: Database Creation
      1. Next-Next-Next; Click Finish
      2. Configuring a Listener
      3. Creating and Configuring a Database
      4. Post-Creation Tasks
      5. Other Methods of Database Creation
      6. Basic Database Administration Tasks
      7. Summary
      8. Exercises
      9. Further Reading
    4. CHAPTER 7: Physical Database Design
      1. Indexes
      2. Partitions
      3. Denormalization and Materialized Views
      4. Clusters
      5. Summary
      6. Exercises
      7. Further Reading
    5. CHAPTER 8: User Management and Data Loading
      1. Schemas
      2. User Management
      3. Data Loading
      4. Summary
      5. Exercises
      6. Further Reading
  12. PART III: Database Support
    1. CHAPTER 9: Taking Control
      1. Enterprise Manager
      2. SQL Developer
      3. Remote Diagnostic Agent
      4. Dictionary Tables and Views
      5. Third-Party Tools
      6. Summary
      7. Exercises
      8. Further Reading
    2. CHAPTER 10: Monitoring
      1. Monitoring Database Availability
      2. Monitoring Changes
      3. Monitoring Security
      4. Monitoring Backups
      5. Monitoring Growth
      6. Monitoring Workload
      7. Monitoring Performance
      8. Monitoring Capacity
      9. Summary
      10. Exercises
      11. Further Reading
    3. CHAPTER 11: Fixing Problems
      1. Systematic Five-Step Problem-Solving Method
      2. The Book We All Want and Best Practices for Problem Management
      3. Real-Life Example—Unresponsive Listener
      4. Incident Management vs. Problem Management
      5. Internet Resources
      6. Working with Oracle Support
      7. Error Codes
      8. Four Errors
      9. Summary
      10. Exercises
      11. Further Reading
    4. CHAPTER 12: Backups
      1. Why Do You Need Backups?
      2. Horror Stories
      3. Types of Backup
      4. Practical Demonstration: Physical Backups
      5. Practical Demonstration: Logical Backups
      6. Common RMAN Commands
      7. The "Easy" Button
      8. Summary
      9. Exercises
      10. Further Reading
    5. CHAPTER 13: Recovery
      1. Horror Stories
      2. Types of Recovery
      3. Flashback Technology
      4. LogMiner
      5. Data Recovery Advisor
      6. Recovery Using Enterprise Manager
      7. Documentation and Testing
      8. Summary
      9. Exercises
      10. Further Reading
    6. CHAPTER 14: Database Maintenance
      1. The Maintenance Plan
      2. Backups
      3. Statistics
      4. Archiving and Purging
      5. Log File Maintenance
      6. Auditing
      7. User Management
      8. Capacity Management
      9. Patching
      10. Summary
      11. Exercises
      12. Further Reading
    7. CHAPTER 15: The Big Picture and the Ten Deliverables
      1. An Instructive Job Interview
      2. How I Became a DBA
      3. ITIL
      4. Start with the End in Mind: The Ten Deliverables
      5. The Book You Really Need and the Art of the SOP
      6. Summary
      7. Exercises
      8. Further Reading
  13. PART IV: Database Tuning
    1. CHAPTER 16: Instance Tuning
      1. Using a Systematic Five-Step Tuning Method
      2. Analyzing DB Time
      3. Understanding the Oracle Wait Interface
      4. Mining the Statspack Repository
      5. Using the Statspack Report
      6. Summary
      7. Exercises
      8. Further Reading
    2. CHAPTER 17: SQL Tuning
      1. Defining Efficiency
      2. Identifying Inefficient SQL Statements
      3. Understanding the Causes of Inefficient SQL
      4. Ways to Improve SQL
      5. Tuning by Example
      6. Summary
      7. Exercises
      8. Further Reading
  14. INDEX

Product information

  • Title: Beginning Oracle Database 11g Administration: From Novice to Professional
  • Author(s): Iggy Fernandez
  • Release date: February 2009
  • Publisher(s): Apress
  • ISBN: 9781590599686