A good book for a reader that did not attend Oracle courses or lack an expertise in several fields, definitely not a study textbook, but a reference for already working DBA.

read one month before taking the class, at lease, because it's not a 1200 pages book full of snapshot, but full of characters. good for students who never touch the Unix/Linux subject

Guys..
This is it. I have 2 other DBA books that i use to refer. I sold them on Ebay, and bought this book. This is the only book that i have on my desk. It got everything from Basics like 1NF ( first Normalization) to PL/SQL packages.
Time spent reading this book is worth it. Thanks Sam for Wondeful book.

I knew this book for a long time and i am so lucky to get it... it explain stuff in a very nice and sequential way, the best about it is that it trains the DBA to use command line at all time.....

As a DBA with 9 years Oracle experience I was looking for a good general reference book for 10g, something to update my library. This book is not an 'expert' book. The author specifically says in the introduction that it is designed for novices looking to become DBAs. I feel quite misled by the title and most of the reviews here. I wish I'd saved my money. Very cursory explanation of some 10g topics. Lots of wasted space talking about Unix OS.
Is in need of some technical editing, e.g., (page 206) "Under this constraint state, all new inserts and updates will be checked for compliance. Because the existing data *won't* [emphasis mine] be checked for compliance, there's no assurance that ..." Much of what is written in chapter 6 (Schema Management) is from a data warehouse point of view. This fact is not made clear--heaven help the novice DBA wanting to implement materialized views in his/her 100 Mb database.

Oracle's powerful new version of OEM is given a spare (for a book of this size and scope) 25 pages. However, many of OEM's features are discussed separately under other topics. This may be a matter of taste, but I would have preferred a discussion of all the utilities in OEM in the OEM chapter, and not have to go hither and yon throughout the book for this info.

There is some very good information here. It is not, however, organized for utility. It could have used more diagrams in places. And, for a book whose introduction indicates that the audience is novice DBAs, there is emphasis on some esoteric details (materialized views, flashback tables, etc.), and thin on others.

As a DBA with 9 years experience I was looking for a good general reference book for 10g, something to update my library. This book is not an 'expert' book. The author specifically says in the introduction that it is designed for novices looking to become DBAs. I feel quite misled by the title and most of the reviews here. I wish I'd saved my money. Very cursory explanation of 10g topics. Lots of wasted space talking about Unix OS.

This is short and sweet. Of all the Oracle books I have read, this is among the best if not the best. I'm not affiliated with the author, reviewer, or publisher so I get nothing for saying it.

If you're a brand new DBA this isn't for you. If you've read and understand the majority of the Oracle concepts, admin, backup/recovery, and performance guides, then this book helps put the technical theory into practice.

I found many helpful items in the book. I would prefer more information on applying oracle patches thru dbconsole and manually. More Windows examples would be great

This is short and sweet. Of all the Oracle books I have read, this is among the best if not the best. I'm not affiliated with the author, reviewer, or publisher so I get nothing for saying it.

If you're a brand new DBA this isn't for you. If you've read and understand the majority of the Oracle concepts, admin, backup/recovery, and performance guides, then this book helps put the technical theory into practice.

I found many helpful items in the book. I would prefer more information on applying oracle patches thru dbconsole and manually. More Windows examples would be great

The book is a solid, painstakingly detailed Oracle 10g DBA handbook. This book covers the latest Oracle 10g Release 2 features in detail and is an excellent reference for DBAs as well as developers and managers who are using the 10g database.

The book provides excellent coverage of all 10g features, such as the Automatic Workload Repository and the Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor (ADDM). There is very good coverage of features such as the SQL Advisor and the Segment Advisor.

The book's great feature is that in addition to clearly explaining the various topics, it provdes useful examples or scripts to help implement/use the various features. This makes it a very useful and practical addition to any Oracle DBA either currently using or planning to implement Oracle Database 10g.

For those just starting out, the book also provides excellent tutorials on Oracle SQL/PLSQL and the UNIX operating system as well.

Please folks, don't listen to any "psycho" who can't read simple english or count. First of all where are the 10 folks who have rated the book? Pure lies. I must invite the psycho to go back and read the back of the book: it clearly says "User level: beginner to Intermediate". As usual, you will find some mentally disturbed psycho who tends to destroy good work.

Anybody who wants to buy the book, if you are not sure about it go to a bookstore and have a look at it before you decide to buy and you will judge for yourself. The book is almost an "all-in-one". The book is very usefull.

I cannot understand how 10 folks rate this book full star. Probably some hanky panky going on with the publisher.

This is NOT an expert book. Read up on Tom Kyte's or Jonathan Lewis' books if you want a real expert taste.

For example:
#1 Which expert wants to know HOW to "uninstall Oracle from Windows"?
#2 Which expert knows not what Level 0 or Level 1 backup is?!
#3 Which expert needs a 200-page syntax description on PL/SQL packages? This reminds me of the silly hey-days of Java API books *bah!*

Please don't buy this book - or even read it.

I cannot understand how 10 folks rate this book full star. Probably some hanky panky going on with the publisher.

This is NOT an expert book. Read up on Tom Kyte's or Jonathan Lewis' books if you want a real expert taste.

For example:
#1 Which expert wants to know HOW to "uninstall Oracle from Windows"?
#2 Which expert knows not what Level 0 or Level 1 backup is?!
#3 Which expert needs a 200-page syntax description on PL/SQL packages? This reminds me of the silly hey-days of Java API books *bah!*

Please don't buy this book - or even read it.

If you are serious about mastering Oracle 10g, get this book and read it over and over. The author delivers a heavy book full of useful information you will need in your journey as a competent DBA.
Part 1 can be considered as a refresher. In part 1 the author covered important topics such as Data modeling, Normalization, tools and utilities in UNIX/LINUX a DBA needs for his job. The rest of the book focused on Oracle database 10g. The following areas (Architecture, Installation, Connectivity and User Management, Backup and Recovery, Database Management, Performance Tuning etc..) were covered in great details. For almost every thing the author provides an example to back his writing. This style was very helpful and you can test the examples yourself to see the result.
The step by step instruction of installing Oracle 10g on Unix/Linux is well done in the book. I have used it many times and it works.
Even though much of the examples in the book are on Unix or Linux platform, there is a chapter that covers Oracle 10g on Windows.
Overall it is a good book to use as a reference. It provides a lot of information you can quickly use and get your database up and running. I highly recommend it.

This comprehensive tome spans some 1200 pages. Divided into 8 parts, each being some broad topic revolving around 10g. The first Part is just background, on data modelling and what it means to run 10g under a unix or linux operating system. This Part should be easy review for most experienced readers.

Part 2 describes the architecture and schema management used under 10g. And by the way, the book is focused on 10g; not on earlier versions. This Part is well worth understanding. It is here that the basic design information for laying out your database is to be found. You also find numerous utilities provided by Oracle, like the System Monitor, that help your management of the database.

Some later Parts are straightforward but somewhat mundane. Specifically about installing 10g and making databases, and about loading data and backing up your data. To a DBA, this are vital tasks; don't get me wrong. But there's nothing too complicated here. And if you are a developer, these Parts can be safely skipped.

Part 7, on performance tuning, is also where a developer should profitably check out. In tandem with understanding the basic layout of your tables, this Part may let you overcome bottlenecks.

Given the size of the book, perhaps the best way to approach it is to focus on a single suitable Part at a time. Each Part is long enough to ensure a serious commitment of your attention, but still not be overwhelming.

I usually avoid the tomes, unless they are from APress. Where other publishers will put out 1200 page tomes that are all screenshots, with APress it's mainly text. Well written, well organized, well presented text that is informative and straight to the point.

Seriously, there is a lot to know about Oracle administration. And Sam does a great job laying it all out. From the basics of schema maintenance, to some background on unix and linux (possibly the only fat in the book), to advanced topics like database monitoring, materialized views, and performance tuning. This is a master work.

I stronly recommend it.