Oracle Database Administration: The Essential Refe

Acknowledgments

We are indebted to a great number of people who have contributed to the creation of this book.

From Dave Kreines: I would like to thank my family for allowing me the time in my “basement cave” to work relatively undisturbed on this project, which has been time-consuming and stressful for all concerned. My thanks to my coauthor, Brian Laskey, whom I have considered for many years to be one of the outstanding DBAs. I am proud to work with Brian and call him a friend. I would also like to thank my coworkers at Rhodia, who have (albeit unintentionally) provided both opportunity and substance for this book.

From Brian Laskey: I would like to thank my wife, Sherry, and my two daughters, Tiffany and Chandra, for putting up with this project. The time and effort that it took were far beyond my initial estimates. I would also like to thank Dave Kreines for agreeing to work on this project with me. Thanks to John King for his ongoing technical comments and to Lois Huff for her comments on how to make the book easier to read. It is also very important that I acknowledge my coworkers at the University of Michigan Hospital, Cheryl Fox and Kathie McFry. We authored a paper for the IOUG-A Live! 98 Conference on Oracle Parallel Server implementation on an IBM SP/2 system. Much of the Parallel Server information in this book is derived from that paper. Finally, I would like to thank Steve Lavender, who, during the darkest days of this project, gave me the kick I needed to get it finished.

From both of us: Much of our knowledge and expertise is a result of our interactions with the large and incredibly talented group of fellow DBAs with whom we’ve had the privilege to be associated. In particular, many of the members of the International Oracle Users Group-Americas (IOUG-A), the European Oracle Users Group (EOUG), and many other Oracle users around the world have contributed to the collective knowledge of the Oracle community. The staff of Oracle Corporation in general, and of Oracle Support in particular, also deserve our thanks for the wealth of information shared.

Special thanks go to our technical reviewers: John Beresniewicz, Steve Hazeldine, John King, Matt Reagan, and especially Jonathan Gennick, who went beyond the call of duty by not only performing a careful and thoughtful technical review of his own, but by then reviewing the reviews! We would also like to thank Marlene Theriault, who reviewed some of the early draft chapters. Finally, we owe a debt of thanks to Michael Hartstein, Director of Oracle 8i Product Management, Server Technologies Product Management at Oracle Corporation, for his technical review, and for his quick response to a number of requests to verify particular facts and concepts. Ken Jacobs, Vice President, Data Server Product Management at Oracle Corporation, also quickly responded to several requests for help. These Oracle experts gave freely of their time to help make certain that the information presented would be clear and technically accurate. We appreciate their help, and sincerely thank them.

This book certainly would not have been possible without a tremendous amount of hard work and support from the staff of O’Reilly & Associates. In particular, we would like to express our thanks to Debby Russell, our editor, who recognized the value of this book and encouraged, nurtured, and prodded us during the year-plus that we have worked on this project. Many thanks as well to Madeleine Newell, the production editor of this book, and to Steve Abrams and Michael Blanding, who helped edit the book under enormous pressure. And special thanks to Edie Freedman (the Bug Czar) who designed the cover—and gave us a beautiful group of insects.