Rating: 
Summary: Nice to start with . . .
Review: I admit that I don't fully understand Oracle tuning, but this books has made my life easier. This author clearly explaines the problem and them shows working scripts that I was able to run on my own system. The code was easy to run and, aling with the explainations, I have been able to troubleshoot sevral performance problems. I also like the price. At half the cost of other Oracle tuning books, this was a good value. I have not yet read it cover-t-cover, but I plan to, so I can start to understand the whole picture.
Rating: 
Summary: Love the code scripts
Review: I admit that I don't fully understand Oracle tuning, but this books has made my life easier. This author clearly explaines the problem and them shows working scripts that I was able to run on my own system. The code was easy to run and, aling with the explainations, I have been able to troubleshoot sevral performance problems. I also like the price. At half the cost of other Oracle tuning books, this was a good value. I have not yet read it cover-t-cover, but I plan to, so I can start to understand the whole picture.
Rating:
Summary: Great approach to Oracle troubleshooting
Review: I have always been an admirere of Robin Schumacher, and this book show his real talent for getting to the heart of any Oracle problem.This is a very practical book, with many novel code scripts, and a online code deport to save typing. His approach is very practical; and the scripts are ready-to-run and contain explainations so the output is understandable.
Rating:
Summary: Great when problems happen
Review: I was happy to see a book on Oracle troubleshooting because I have been in trouble before and had no scripts to run to detect poblems or troubleshoot the Oracle problem. After downloading the scripts I now have an arsenal of tools to run whenwher I have problems. The text itself is easy to read and clear, and Schumacher has done an excellent job in explaining the concepts and troubleshooting areas. I highly recommend this text for Oracle DBA's who need to keep their systems running during emergencies and who lack troubleshooting experience.
Rating:
Summary: Great when problems happen
Review: I was happy to see a book on Oracle troubleshooting because I have been in trouble before and had no scripts to run to detect poblems or troubleshoot the Oracle problem. After downloading the scripts I now have an arsenal of tools to run whenwher I have problems. The text itself is easy to read and clear, and Schumacher has done an excellent job in explaining the concepts and troubleshooting areas. I highly recommend this text for Oracle DBA's who need to keep their systems running during emergencies and who lack troubleshooting experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Basic, lot of version 7 stuff
Review: The CD contains demo copies of Embarcadero products rather than scripts. Nice to pay for free samples. No scripts you can't find on the web. Covers topics like tablespace fragmentation which could be easily elminated using Oracle features built-in long ago. Wait for Cary Millsap's book.
Rating:
Summary: POWERFUL WAYS TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE
Review: This book is another in the series of technical volumes published by "Rampant Techpress," published by Don Burleson. The purpose of this book by Robin Schumacher is to suggest and illustrate a robust, comprehensive performance tuning methodology. With this methodology in hand, the author then provide examples and scripts to show how this works in practice. Robin points out the importance of proactively monitoring a database, and modeling database performance. He shows the difference between two key ways to approach performance tuning: Ratio based versus Bottleneck Analysis. Each have their place, he shows. For instance, he notes that Ratios are good for getting a quick "bird's eye" view of the performance. He correctly cautions the reader, in the section entitled "The Dangers of Blanket Ratios," about overly simplistic reliance on simple ratios. I found the discussion of the V$Sql_Plan view especially helpful. I admit that I have not used this in my own performance troubleshooting. After reading this book, I see that I have really missed out on a powerful tactic! Robin shows how to use this view to best effect. He includes numerous scripts, which are available from the Rampant website (I successfully downloaded all the scripts without a hitch). For example, in the script "9iCartSql" Robin shows how easy it is to find completed queries that used Cartesian Products as part of the execution plan. He points out that this could be an indication of improper join syntax. In another script, he shows how to get a list of the exact SQL that caused scans of large tables. In another example, he introduces the new view V$Sql_Plan Statistics, and illustrates a way to obtain the exact statistics for each step in the execution plan for all SQL executed on the instance. Do you get the idea? A lot of good ideas, along with the exact scripts to use. All in all, an impressive volume to add to your DBA "Tool Kit." I found the discussions clear and to the point, and intend to use many of the the numerous, practical scripts provided with this book. As Mr Schumacher points out in Chapter 1, "The IT consultants who make the really big money are the ones who can take a lethargic system and quickly turn it into one that runs as fast as greased lightning." Thank you, Robin, for heading us in the right direction!
Rating:
Summary: The only Oracle tuning book I need
Review: This book is chock-full of the kind of everyday information I need to get ,and keep, my databases running at peak performance. Schumacher took all the guesswork out of my home-grown scripts by providing the very one's I had been in search of. When it comes to Oracle tuning, this is the first book I'll open.
Rating:
Summary: Nice to start with . . .
Review: This book is clear and easy to read. I did have some problems getting to the source code. But a simple e-mail to Rampant TechPress (the publisher) took care of that in less than a day. Overall the book is good for a beginner just starting to learn about tuning. For more experience DBA's this is more of a review and a reminder of basic performance tuning. I was disappointed in that I was looking for more insight on what to do after you find the problems.
Rating:
Summary: A "must have" for time-constrained DBA's.
Review: This book makes finding those buried nuggets of Oracle's keys to performance optimization very fast and easy. I found the scripts to be an invaluable tool for learning by seeing and a great way to understand what's going on under the covers of the DB engine. It has fast become one of my most used reference books and I highly recommend it.
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