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Rating: 
Summary: I like the coverage
Review: I have worked with RAC for 2 years and this book has addressed some of the missing pieces of the puzzle. This book is first in a new series "Oracle In Focus" and will give O'Reilly a run for their money. I really like this book and although I did have some critiques I felt that I could not resist. However, RAC is a very sophisticated Product and the authors have done a splendid job in bringing all of the material under one cover. This book does a great job laying out the differences between RAC and OPS. It also covers the architecture and implementation of RAC for all major platforms including Veritas DBE/AC. The architecture discussion covers areas such as I/O Fencing, SCSI3 Persistent Reservations, and Quorum Disks in Chapter 3. This is important information which sets a basis for the next chapter. In Chapter 4 RAC technical Architecture is thoroughly reviewed after a brief overview of the OPS evolution. Chapter 5 is a brief chapter that covers Hardware and RAC and explains the Implementation of RAC from a hardware perspective. I liked the approach taken by the authors because they do a good job tying in CFS or RAW with the disk subsystem. They also cover Veritas, Tru64 and Polyserve CFS's. Chapter 6 is a 100 page chapter that covers RAC Install and configuration for almost every platform. It is high level but covers the subject matter well. It is very current in relation to where Oracle is with Patch sets and such. I had only wished they covered the Linux install better and covered the watchdog/hang check timer kernel transition. I suspect the author's deadline did not allow for this. The reference to the metalink articles at the end of the chapter gives the reader a launching point into the subject matter. Chapter 7 is dedicated to the RAC internals and is good at condensing the internals that is covered in the Oracle RAC concepts guide. It is in Chapter 8 that the authors cover Threads but they stop short of explaining of how threads are used to generate SCN's and the role they play in recovery and Data Guard gap resolution. Overall this is a good chapter which covers the basics of RAC admin. Chapter 10 covers TAF (Transparent Application Failover) connectivity to RAC. Although this chapter covers the subject matter okay it is weak in when they cover load balancing on the nodes. It explains how Dedicated and shared are handled but it stops there and doesn't explain the how the nodes database processes inform the listeners of the work load. I felt this chapter could have been done better since it is one of the attractions to RAC. For example, when they authors cover TAF with JDBC they should have correlated their explanation with the commonly used terms of JDBC Thick/Thin. This is touched upon towards the end of Chapter 14 and might be attributed to having two different authors with unique styles. The remaining chapters are pretty good after skimming over them. I will update my review after finishing the book. Don't get me wrong by my critiques. I like this book very much. This book is a must for anyone who is interested in RAC.
Rating: 
Summary: Reciting the Manuals
Review: I have worked with RAC for 2 years and this book has addressed some of the missing pieces of the puzzle. This book is first in a new series "Oracle In Focus" and will give O'Reilly a run for their money. I really like this book and although I did have some critiques I felt that I could not resist. However, RAC is a very sophisticated Product and the authors have done a splendid job in bringing all of the material under one cover. This book does a great job laying out the differences between RAC and OPS. It also covers the architecture and implementation of RAC for all major platforms including Veritas DBE/AC. The architecture discussion covers areas such as I/O Fencing, SCSI3 Persistent Reservations, and Quorum Disks in Chapter 3. This is important information which sets a basis for the next chapter. In Chapter 4 RAC technical Architecture is thoroughly reviewed after a brief overview of the OPS evolution. Chapter 5 is a brief chapter that covers Hardware and RAC and explains the Implementation of RAC from a hardware perspective. I liked the approach taken by the authors because they do a good job tying in CFS or RAW with the disk subsystem. They also cover Veritas, Tru64 and Polyserve CFS's. Chapter 6 is a 100 page chapter that covers RAC Install and configuration for almost every platform. It is high level but covers the subject matter well. It is very current in relation to where Oracle is with Patch sets and such. I had only wished they covered the Linux install better and covered the watchdog/hang check timer kernel transition. I suspect the author's deadline did not allow for this. The reference to the metalink articles at the end of the chapter gives the reader a launching point into the subject matter. Chapter 7 is dedicated to the RAC internals and is good at condensing the internals that is covered in the Oracle RAC concepts guide. It is in Chapter 8 that the authors cover Threads but they stop short of explaining of how threads are used to generate SCN's and the role they play in recovery and Data Guard gap resolution. Overall this is a good chapter which covers the basics of RAC admin. Chapter 10 covers TAF (Transparent Application Failover) connectivity to RAC. Although this chapter covers the subject matter okay it is weak in when they cover load balancing on the nodes. It explains how Dedicated and shared are handled but it stops there and doesn't explain the how the nodes database processes inform the listeners of the work load. I felt this chapter could have been done better since it is one of the attractions to RAC. For example, when they authors cover TAF with JDBC they should have correlated their explanation with the commonly used terms of JDBC Thick/Thin. This is touched upon towards the end of Chapter 14 and might be attributed to having two different authors with unique styles. The remaining chapters are pretty good after skimming over them. I will update my review after finishing the book. Don't get me wrong by my critiques. I like this book very much. This book is a must for anyone who is interested in RAC.
Rating:
Summary: I like the coverage and scripts
Review: I like the scope of the RAC coverage and the references to the details in the Oracle documentation. I was able to find specific RAC configuraytion information for my platform of Solaris. I also liked the checklist for on the procedures so I can follow the step by step process to working features. The online scripts were also useful with ready to go sqlplus scripts that are not in OEM.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I purchased this based on Madhu Tumma's review (Madhu you have changed your identity to MTM). I agree with some of the sections like quorum disk and split brain architectures are well explained, the rest of the book is not worth it. Chapters are not complete (like other reviewers have also indicated), most of the contents are referenced to outside material. Do a search for the string 'step-by-step' on metalink and you will get everthing this book contains. The book contains many incomplete sections and several errors. I searched all possible sources for 'automated freelist' could not find it, what's this? Similarly, cache fusion is better explained in the Oracle concepts document. Overall quality of printing is also bad. Mike I have purchased your earlier books and have liked them however this one is disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: Poor book, just about everything comes out of Metalink
Review: If you are in the process of either installing RAC or learning about it you are better off doing your research on Metalink. If you have the spare money then this book offers you a central place for a collection of different Metalink articles.
Rating:
Summary: Good Reference Book
Review: It is a good reference book on database clusters. While covering Oracle Real Application Cluster in detail, it puts the failover clusters in perspective. Authors have good understanding of the product. Backup/Recovery, Tuning and Cache fusion is well covered. This book discusses installation details for various platforms and makes suitable references to metalink notes and other books. Topics like split brain, quorum drive are explained well. Coverage on IBM-AIX, Linux and Polyserve is pretty good. It is a well researched book. Some screen shots are not very clear, book production quality needs imporovement, neverthless it is an excellent technical book. I strongly recommed this book for the DBAs interested in understanding and implemnting Oracle RAC Solution.
Rating:
Summary: Mike Ault does it again
Review: Mike is my favorite Oracle author and I have all his books for the past ten years. They are all exceptional, and this one is no exception. RAC is difficult, and the example make it clear and easy to follow.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Coverage
Review: Oracle RAC is made simple in this book. Good thing about this book is, it focuses on the RAC and RAC related subjects. Many concepts of the clustering are dicussed in detail. It is a good buy and worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much theory, not enough instructions
Review: The book is 600 pages and only 40 of them involve RAC administration. The rest are mostly explanations of the theory and the workings of Oracle RAC. Most of the information in this book can be obtained either through the metalink or other websites.
The book is good if you would like to expand your knowledge of RAC. But its lack of details on "how to" install, troubleshoot, configure, and manage RAC makes this book less than ideal for Oracle DBAs.
Finally, although the author(s) are obviously good writers, their writing style is more suited for a novel. Their smooth but wordy and banal prose makes it exceedingly easy to miss important points regarding Oracle RAC.
Rating:
Summary: Reciting the Manuals
Review: Zzzz. This book is nothing more than a regurgitation of what's in the Oracle manuals and a few tidbits from MetaLink. If it contained even a little information that cannot be readily found elsewhere, it would make the book more worthwhile. Not your best work, Mike.
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