Oracle system performance inefficiencies often go undetected for months or even years--even under intense scrutiny--because traditional Oracle performance analysis methods and tools are fundamentally flawed. They're unreliable and inefficient.Oracle DBAs and developers are all too familiar with the outlay of time and resources, blown budgets, missed deadlines, and marginally effective performance fiddling that is commonplace with traditional methods of Oracle performance tuning. In this crucial book, Cary Millsap, former VP of Oracle's System Performance Group, clearly and concisely explains how to use Oracle's response time statistics to diagnose and repair performance problems. Cary also shows how "queueing theory" can be applied to response time statistics to predict the impact of upgrades and other system changes.Optimizing Oracle Performance eliminates the time-consuming, trial-and-error guesswork inherent in most conventional approaches to tuning. You can determine exactly where a system's performance problem is, and with equal importance, where it is not, in just a few minutes--even if the problem is several years old.Optimizing Oracle Performance cuts a path through the complexity of current tuning methods, and streamlines an approach that focuses on optimization techniques that any DBA can use quickly and successfully to make noticeable--even dramatic--improvements.For example, the one thing database users care most about is response time. Naturally, DBAs focus much of their time and effort towards improving response time. But it is entirely too easy to spend hundreds of hours to improve important system metrics such as hit ratios, average latencies, and wait times, only to find users are unable to perceive the difference. And an expensive hardware upgrade may not help either.It doesn't have to be that way. Technological advances have added impact, efficiency, measurability, predictive capacity, reliability, speed, and practicality to the science of Oracle performance optimization. Optimizing Oracle Performance shows you how to slash the frustration and expense associated with unraveling the true root cause of any type of performance problem, and reliably predict future performance.The price of this essential book will be paid back in hours saved the first time its methods are used.

A comprehensive guide to performance design planning for cleint-network-server systems using Oracle, this book contains some dynamite applications design tips that can reduce network and server traffic dramatically. The CD-ROM contains various tuning and performance measurement utilities provided by the author and third-party developers.

"Geoff Ingram has met the challenge of presenting the complex process of managing Oracle performance. This book can support every technical person looking to resolve Oracle8i and Oracle9i performance issues." -Aki Ratner, President, Precise Software Solutions Ensuring high-performance and continuous availability of Oracle software is a key focus of database managers. At least a dozen books address the subject of "performance tuning"-- that is, how to fine-tune the Oracle database for its greatest processing efficiency. Geoff Ingram argues that this approach simply isn't enough. He believes that performance needs to be addressed right from the design stage, and it needs to cover the entire system--not just the database. High-Performance Oracle is a hands-on book, loaded with tips and techniques for ensuring that the entire Oracle database system runs efficiently and doesn't break down. Written for Oracle developers and DBAs, and covering both Oracle8i and Oracle9i, the book goes beyond traditional performance-tuning books and covers the key techniques for ensuring 24/7 performance and availability of the complete Oracle system. The book provides practical solutions for: * Choosing physical layout for ease of administration and efficient use of space * Managing indexes, including detecting unused indexes and automating rebuilds * SQL and system tuning using the powerful new features in Oracle9i Release 2 * Improving SQL performance without modifying code * Running Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) for performance and availability * Protecting data using Recover Manager (RMAN), and physical and logical standby databases The companion Web site provides the complete source code for examples in the book, updates on techniques, and additional documentation for optimizing your Oracle system.

When your database application isn’t running fast enough, troubleshooting is usually your first move. Finding the slow part of an application is often easy, but discovering a solution can prove much more difficult. Troubleshooting Oracle Performance helps by providing a systematic approach to addressing the underlying causes of poor database application performance. Written for developers by an application developer who has learned by doing, this book shows you how to plan for performance as you would for any other application requirement.

Written by a Senior Database Administrator who has worked with the Oracle RDBMS for thirty years, this is a book which teaches the skill of SQL Tuning for the Oracle Database. Not a list of one-off tricks or tips, nor a glossing over of topics; this book offers an in-depth process covering discovery, analysis, and problem resolution. Learn the science behind SQL Tuning. Learn and apply the FILTERED ROWS PERCENTAGE Cardinality based method of tuning Determine a query's Driving Table and Join Order Construct Query Diagrams, Data Models, and Join Trees Build and use Count / Filter / and Reconstruction Queries Identify Waste in a Query Execution Plan Zero in on Cardinality Divergence using Estimated vs. Actuals Use the ACCESS / FILTER / COVERAGE strategy to build indexes for Problem Queries Exploit THE 2% RULE in analyzing Access method and Join method Classify queries as Precision Style or Warehouse Style Understand Hash Join mechanics and make Hash Joins go faster Make HINTS work as Detection Tools rather than clubs Avoid early Database Design flaws Manage Statistics and deal with common Statistics problems (NDV, Uniform Distribution, Independence, Dynamic Sampling) (Staleness, Skew, Dependence, Defaulting, Out-Of-Bounds, Transiency, Bloat) Perfect your Question Based Analyis Technique and more Included are: a special chapter for EXADATA, a LAB which demonstrates the cardinality based process of SQL Tuning, and twenty three magical SQL scripts that make the process of SQL Tuning easy to do. Learn the skill of SQL Tuning as taught by an expert who does it for a living, and become the go-to specialist in your company. Chapter 1: DRIVING TABLE and JOIN ORDER Chapter 2: Ways to Use a Query Execution Plan Chapter 3: The Best Indexes for a Query Chapter 4: JOINS Chapter 5: HINTS Chapter 6: BASICS Chapter 7: ROW COUNTS and RUN TIMES Chapter 8: EXADATA LAB: Reverse Engineering the QEP Appendix: Know Your Scripts Scripts for analyzing queries and plans Scripts for examining an active database Scripts for looking at metadata showplan showplanshort showplanconstraints showplancountqueries showplandatamodel showplandrivingtable showplanfilterqueries showplanfrpspreadsheetcode showplanindexes showplannumrows showplanquerydiagram showplantables showplantablesunique loadplanfromcache loadplanfromhist showtopcpu showowner showindexes showconstraints showcolstats showhistograms showallscanrates showallworkareas It's all about the Cardinalities

A poorly performing database application not only costs users time, but also has an impact on other applications running on the same computer or the same network. SQL Tuning provides an essential next step for SQL developers and database administrators who want to extend their SQL tuning expertise and get the most from their database applications.There are two basic issues to focus on when tuning SQL: how to find and interpret the execution plan of an SQL statement and how to change SQL to get a specific alternate execution plan. SQL Tuning provides answers to these questions and addresses a third issue that's even more important: how to find the optimal execution plan for the query to use.Author Dan Tow outlines a timesaving method he's developed for finding the optimum execution plan--rapidly and systematically--regardless of the complexity of the SQL or the database platform being used. You'll learn how to understand and control SQL execution plans and how to diagram SQL queries to deduce the best execution plan for a query. Key chapters in the book include exercises to reinforce the concepts you've learned. SQL Tuning concludes by addressing special concerns and unique solutions to "unsolvable problems."Whether you are a programmer who develops SQL-based applications or a database administrator or other who troubleshoots poorly tuned applications, SQL Tuning will arm you with a reliable and deterministic method for tuning your SQL queries to gain optimal performance.