Mastering Oracle8i

Massive in size, comprehensive in scope, and unfortunately quite dry in tone, Mastering Oracle 8i has the answers you need if you're working with the Oracle 8i database management system. The authors, one of whom holds an Oracle certification, go into considerable detail on the procedures to be followed for administrative tasks like backing up data, rolling back transactions, and configuring monitoring schemes. They usually share their thoughts on when and why you'd want to put the procedures to use, as well. Better yet, they go beyond everyday administrative work to cover subjects like materialized views, advanced user management, and performance-tuning techniques. There's some discussion of hooks for software developers, as well.

The authors' approach is to take a feature of the Oracle 8i environment--locks, say--and explain what purpose it serves, then break it down into component types with more detailed explanations. From there, the authors provide the commands and codes for viewing and manipulation of the feature, often with extensive tables. The really useful information comes next, in the form of sections on how to deal with related problems. The section on locks, for example, shows how to zero in on blocking locks. Other excellent coverage deals with how to dimension hardware, while a commendable section explains the object-oriented features of Oracle 8i. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to design and run a tight Oracle 8i ship, with special attention to object orientation, network connectivity, tablespaces, Recover Manager, parallel processing, security, and the special demands of distributed databases.