Oracle Database Administration for UNIX Systems (Bk/CD-ROM)

Rating:
Summary: Reader from the UK is wrong
Review: A reader from UK , June 29, 1998 Section on Backup / Recovery is wrong The section on Backup / Recovey (one of the most important tasks of a DBA) is right. It is stated that during a recovery from cold backup, data entered between the time of the last backup and the time when the database was restored is lost. When using archive mode (which most production systems use), you can recover up to the point of failure with a hot backup. You can't recover with a cold backup because the database can't roll forward to a point in time it knows nothing about. Read the book again!

Rating:
Summary: Reader from Phialdelphia is wrong
Review: I found the book very disappointing. Unfortunately I bought it without ha ving had a look in advance. Irritatingly simple. It is for UNIX because the var iable $ORACLE_HOME and the utilities sar and vmstat are shown (once). Unless you do not know UNIX and ORACLE at all, do not buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Reader from Phialdelphia is wrong
Review: If you are running in archive mode, with a cold backup, you can recover up to the point of failure. It gets its information from the redo log files and archive redo log files. You only need to use a hot backup if the database needs to be running 24hrs. The book gives the impression that archived log files are purely in relation to hot backups. Rolling forward from cold backups is the commonest production scenario. I would recommend the book Oracle 8 Backup and Recovery Handbook by Rama Velpuri. for an accurate description of backup and recovery.

Rating:
Summary: Very introductory and lacks consistency
Review: This book tries to be ambitious and all it accomplishes is to convey scattered, imprecise and shallow information to the beginner. There may be a few handy topics, but it is all there is. It lacks consistency. The CD-ROM contents are ridiculous. If the reader is interested in learning Oracle and UNIX, I would suggest buying specific books on both products, or even attending some courses.