Sybase ASE 12.5 Performance and Tuning (With CD-ROM)

Rating:
Summary: When is a 2K page > 2048 bytes?
Review: Come on guys.... "Each chapter has passed through the hands of at least five experienced database administrators." [in Preface]
and I only have to get to page 12 to find none of you can explain the true page sizes for 2K APL & DOL pages......

Could the remaining chapters pass through your hands again after the editors had their chance? Please don't be like the so called Oracle book writers - you are better than that. Sure it is rather picky, but can I trust the rest of the information?

Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY - This book is not useful
Review: Mostly, this book is simply a rehash of material that is presented better in Sybase's own Performance & Tuning guide.

Sybase ASE 12.5 Performance and Tuning presents little if any useful tuning advice. What advice is present ranges from flat out wrong (e.g. "If Cache Search Misses falls below 20%, consider adding physical memory" - page 288) to mystically useless (e.g. "Create and use temp tables outside of each other" - page 228).

Further, the depth of coverage is quite poor. For example, there are only thirteen pages dedicated to locking, four to tempdb, and just one for log management (yes, only one page discussing logs!!).

Finally, Sybase ASE 12.5 Performance and Tuning has many grammatical mistakes. Typically I can look past such a minor annoyance, but with this book's limited utility, this is the final slap in the face.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent resource
Review: This book answers all the really tough questions in very clear and simple ways. Much of the info in this book is the sort of stuff you're only lucky enough to get if you happen to have a Sybase performance expert onsite. If you've ever found yourself with a really tricky performance question you know what a good thing it is to find information about Sybase monitoring tools and performance troubleshooting all in a single book. This book appears to have been written by people with much experience in troubleshooting performance problems and the advice is about the best you're going to get anywhere.