Oracle Distributed Systems

Acknowledgments

Fortunately many people have supported me in the writing of this book; trite as it may sound, I definitely could not have done it by myself. While my name may appear on the byline, there are numerous people whose contributions, technical and otherwise, have been invaluable.

This is the second book I have written for O’Reilly & Associates, and my first solo effort. Debby Russell, my editor, has provided guidance and encouragement, as well as a measure of admonishment, all of which have led to a successful project. Debby has two abilities which result in great books for O’Reilly: motivating writers and envisioning a high-quality product. Many thanks as well to Steve Abrams, who converted files, did lots of preproduction work on the text, and otherwise helped move things along efficiently. And finally, thanks to the entire production staff; you did a great job.

My first line of support for solving intractable replication issues and one of the primary reviewers of this book was Jenny Tsai of Oracle Corporation. Jenny has been able to help me research issues with the utmost thoroughness and has devoted a significant amount of time to validating the accuracy of the material presented here. And most importantly, Jenny introduced me to Oracle’s advanced replication several years ago when she taught the symmetric replication class for Oracle Education.

Other folks at Oracle have been most generous with their time and have provided significant assistance with various portions of this book. Harvey Eneman, the architect of multi-threaded server (MTS), provided extensive consultation. Sue Jang, who probably has more experience with implementing replication than anybody, has provided valuable input into the replication chapters. Virtually all members of the replication team have been very helpful, not only with the contents of this book but also with the resolution of real-world issues. They include Al Demers, Alan Downing, Pat McElroy, Maria Pratt, Benny Souder, Jim Stamos, Harry Sun, and Lik Wong.

Other reviewers who have provided insight from the consumer point of view include Jeremy Brinkley, Peter Grendler, and Teresa Shaw. All of these people have been working with Oracle for a number of years, and were able to provide commentary from the point of view of DBAs and engineers.

Wittingly or not, my managers at Excite also have contributed to the quality of this book. Dan Nater and Jon Prall have asked me to push Oracle’s replication technology to its limits, which I have. Their insatiable thirst for solutions has enhanced my ability to optimize a replicated environment, and the knowledge I have gained meeting their requests is all available here. Chances are, you will not ever need to push Oracle replication as far as Dan and Jon have.

Finally, I thank my wife, Kathy, who has been incredibly patient and understanding throughout the course of my writing this book. Nobody is looking forward to its completion more than she is.