Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is not a book about Oracle Performance tuning. This is a book about Oracle Performance Forecasting. This should be evident after carefully reading the book.
Good books, like good professionals, are rare. This is why I have developed a tendency to choose carefully before buying one and, in the Oracle area in particular, I can smell the author's intellectual honesty and trustworthiness from the first page.
Forecasting Oracle Performance is one of those. I enjoyed the fluid style and closeness of the author. I enjoyed the simplicity and clarity, almost reminding me of Wittgenstein's famous quote ("everything that can be said can be said clearly"). I also enjoyed these short touches of humanism (cf Erlang Krarup's life).
On the forecasting subject, I liked the book construction and the quality of the examples.
Chapter 1 gives a landscape picture of Oracle forecasting and puts the reader in scope and context.
Chapter 2 introduces the reader to the basics of forecasting and the basic concepts over which the book is built: Transactions, response time, arrival time and basic formulas are described here.
Chapter 3 shows the limits of basic forecasting (essential formulas) and the problem of baseline and model selection. It shows how to increase forecasting precision with ErlangC or weighted averages. Most importantly, it shows why it is essential to understand the concepts and implications of the application of a given formula, model or method. The author is very careful in the choice of terms and always clears potential ambiguities. Those who know how difficult it can be to forecast will appreciate it.
Chapter 4 introduces to statistics applied to forecasting.
Chapter 5, on practical queuing theory, is probably the biggest chapter of the book. After a brief introduction to queuing theory, Little's law and Kendall notation, this chapter provides such a diverse set of examples (27!) making the topic very intuitive to non-specialists.
Chapters 6 & 7 describe forecasting methodology and workload characterization. The first describes the steps across a solid performance forecasting methodology, from the initial question to the actual forecast. The second deals with workload characterization: how to get system and Oracle data, how to choose the source and peak. It describes the workload modelling and the risks of data collection.
Chapters 8 and 9 are about models: ratio and linear regression models. They describe their respective foundations, limitations and advantages. Each chapter also contain several examples and case studies to illustrate the subject.
The last chapter deals with scalability models and their relationship with forecasting models.
Overall, I found this book very useful. You will find additional resources at the author's website (there is also a discussion forum on forecasting). The errata page is always up-to-date and some examples have even been extended. Great work!
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Craig Shallahamer's Forecasting Oracle Performance is the first, Oracle-specific book to provide database administrators with help in forecasting future performance of new and existing database systems. Most (if not all) Oracle performance optimization books on the market today focus on troubleshooting acute problems such as a poorly performing report. The other side of the coin however, lies in forecasting: Will the current hardware last the year? What happens when we merge the employees from a newly acquired company? Will the current system keep up with the demands of a new application? These are strategic questions that database administrators are expected to answer. Until now, there has been no book to help them.Of all the problems that an Oracle database administrator has to worry about, those dealing with performance often provoke the most stress, thus providing the greatest impetus for administrators to seek help in the form of books. This book shows administrators how to create a model of a database system. Different types of models are introduced: mathematical, simulation, benchmark. Administrators learn how to create the right model for the risks they seek to mitigate. They learn to validate their model. They learn to interpret the results in the form of a forecast. This book gives administrators the knowledge they need to confidently work with business management in preparing for the future of their systems.
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