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Rating: 
Summary: Disagree that this is the "Gold Standard" for Oracle Tuning
Review: For many years Rich promoted the concept of tuning buffer cache hit ratios to fix my Oracle problems. When I tried this method I was always wondering exactly what it was that I was fixing ? Although increasing the shared pool sounds like a nice idea in theory, if you think about it for a second it could have adverse effects on performance instead of the desired effect of improving performance. As a DBA, this got me NO where fast in finding and fixing Oracle bottlenecks. In fact I had no clue as to what I was really "fixing". Only when I turned to drilling down to where the problem actully resided did I understand what was really going on. 9 times out of 10 it is some inefficient SQL. Ah, but how to find it ? that is the question. Other authors have addressed this issue clearly and concisely. Consider books and papers by Cary Millsap and Gaja Vaidyanatha for your Oracle performance needs. Rich was left in the dust years ago. The link below is a nice introduction to what our focus should be on regarding the art of Oracle Performance issues. (...)
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat interesting, but redundant
Review: I have read previous book by Rich and found this one is not as good as the previous one.
As in previous book, there are too much of redundant information. For the experienced
database engineer this book is somewhat helpful, but do not expect an exciting reading.
Some of the chapters like init.ora parameters or v$ views are not really useful. In my opinion
about 400 pages would have been more than enough to cover performance tuning.
In the same time there are useful chapters that are interesting for even experienced DBA, such
us table joins and statspack. There are not enough information for 9i specific tuning tips on
automatic undo management and automatic PGA allocation
Rating: 
Summary: More or less coplete coverage of Oracle tuning
Review: I like two things in this book, first is an old photo of the "Larry the Geek" at the beginning of the book ;-) and second, a well balanced coverage of all the different tuning pieces of the mosaic known as Oracle tuning. This book is a classic Oracle tuning book in a sense that Rich doesn't hesitate to write about ALL the important tuning pieces. Yes, he even recommend "proactive" monitoring of instance efficiency with various hit ratios as opposed to today popular mantra of focusing solely on wait event interface (reactive tuning, according to Niemiec). In my opinion the correct approach is really somewhere in between (the fact is that monitoring hit ratios alone actually doesn't guarantee proactive approach in all cases - your instance can crawl, while at the same time hit ratios are all green), this is why I appreciate author approach, he recognizes that many DBAs nowadays doesn't care much about hit ratios and instead focus completely on wait event interface but at the same time he points out that hit ratios should not be carelessly overlooked.
However, no matter how complete this book appears to be, you should not rely solely on information from it, nor believe everything you read (for example, the definition of paging on page 648: "....paging occurs when users not currently active are moved from memory to disk....", yeah right :-)
I would recommend that you combine information from this book with some other good resources, like the "Oracle Performance Tuning 101" (even if it's a little bit outdated) or a recent book from Thomas Kyte. One final question to the Rich (if you're reading this review); "No offence, but what have you thinking about, when you included spool of the results from some queries in appendixes B and C (over 120 pages!) ? What's next, spool of select * from dba_objects? Total waste of paper! Please, don't do that in the next edition, think about all those saved trees (hmm... perhaps a little forest!), and let us spool the results for ourselves, after all, we all have access to SQL*Plus ;-).
Rating:
Summary: Disagree that this is the "Gold Standard" for Oracle Tuning
Review: I like two things in this book, first is an old photo of the "Larry the Geek" at the beginning of the book ;-) and second, a well balanced coverage of all the different tuning pieces of the mosaic known as Oracle tuning. This book is a classic Oracle tuning book in a sense that Rich doesn't hesitate to write about ALL the important tuning pieces. Yes, he even recommend "proactive" monitoring of instance efficiency with various hit ratios as opposed to today popular mantra of focusing solely on wait event interface (reactive tuning, according to Niemiec). In my opinion the correct approach is really somewhere in between (the fact is that monitoring hit ratios alone actually doesn't guarantee proactive approach in all cases - your instance can crawl, while at the same time hit ratios are all green), this is why I appreciate author approach, he recognizes that many DBAs nowadays doesn't care much about hit ratios and instead focus completely on wait event interface but at the same time he points out that hit ratios should not be carelessly overlooked.
However, no matter how complete this book appears to be, you should not rely solely on information from it, nor believe everything you read (for example, the definition of paging on page 648: "....paging occurs when users not currently active are moved from memory to disk....", yeah right :-)
I would recommend that you combine information from this book with some other good resources, like the "Oracle Performance Tuning 101" (even if it's a little bit outdated) or a recent book from Thomas Kyte. One final question to the Rich (if you're reading this review); "No offence, but what have you thinking about, when you included spool of the results from some queries in appendixes B and C (over 120 pages!) ? What's next, spool of select * from dba_objects? Total waste of paper! Please, don't do that in the next edition, think about all those saved trees (hmm... perhaps a little forest!), and let us spool the results for ourselves, after all, we all have access to SQL*Plus ;-).
Rating: 
Summary: Review by DB2 Expert
Review: I picked up this book to review the world of Oracle tuning and I found it contained lots of useful information. Good examples of tuning Oracle on Solaris. Many similarities of tuning points between Oracle and DB2. I particularly liked Chapter 9 on optimization queries and workloads.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding, one of the best
Review: Niemiec is a genius. Say no more.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding, one of the best
Review: Niemiec is a genius. Say no more.
Rating:
Summary: Clearly the best performance tuning book EVER!
Review: This book is a work of art! It's clear that considerable time and energy went into the research demonstrated in this book. It's amazing how many tips Rich shows off too. If you need a fast application, this book is an absolute MUST HAVE for your library. Take the time to read and understand every word written - it is SO well thought out. Rich is a genuine, caring and devoted person to the betterment of IT and fellow mankind! Great work and thank you for this work of art! This is clearly the best performance tuning book that I've ever seen!
Rating:
Summary: Best Practices for Tuning...Nuts to Bolts
Review: This book is concise, practical and thorough! It starts with a high level view of new 9i features and then drills down to the meat and potatoes of not just 9i tuning, but tuning skills that can be applied to any Oracle database. It speaks to the beginner developer and DBA as well as the seasoned veteran tuner with equal added value for each. I really enjoyed the focus of the Disk I/O and Fragementation chapter. It drills in the fact that no matter how hi-tech or low-tech your disk technology is you must adhere to the common sense basics and take ownership of your database data files, I/O, partitioning and fragmentation down to the disk level and not leave it in the hands of your Hardware Admin. I also like the way he incorporates GUI (OEM) and line command options for those who are old school DBA's. He hits the new init.ora parameters, TKPROF, and stored outlines. As always, he covers documented and undocumented init.ora parameters, and an appendix of the GV$, V$, and X$ tables. The only thing I would have wished to be added was the hard to find proper use of the 'alter session set events' functionality to trace the optimizer decision process without the use of TKPROF. If you only have room for one Oracle tuning book on your shelf, make it this one, its still the "Gold Bible for Oracle Tuning".
Rating:
Summary: quite good book
Review: This is one of the best Oracle tuning book and packed with great information.
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