Oracle Essentials, 5th Edition

Book description

Written by Oracle insiders, this indispensable guide distills an enormous amount of information about the Oracle Database into one compact volume. Ideal for novice and experienced DBAs, developers, managers, and users, Oracle Essentials walks you through technologies and features in Oracle’s product line, including its architecture, data structures, networking, concurrency, and tuning.

Complete with illustrations and helpful hints, this fifth edition provides a valuable one-stop overview of Oracle Database 12c, including an introduction to Oracle and cloud computing. Oracle Essentials provides the conceptual background you need to understand how Oracle truly works.

Topics include:

  • A complete overview of Oracle databases and data stores, and Fusion Middleware products and features
  • Core concepts and structures in Oracle’s architecture, including pluggable databases
  • Oracle objects and the various datatypes Oracle supports
  • System and database management, including Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c
  • Security options, basic auditing capabilities, and options for meeting compliance needs
  • Performance characteristics of disk, memory, and CPU tuning
  • Basic principles of multiuser concurrency
  • Oracle’s online transaction processing (OLTP)
  • Data warehouses, Big Data, and Oracle’s business intelligence tools
  • Backup and recovery, and high availability and failover solutions

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Table of contents

  1. Oracle Essentials
  2. Preface
    1. Goals of This Book
    2. Audience for This Book
    3. About the Fifth Edition (Oracle Database 12c)
    4. Structure of This Book
    5. Conventions Used in This Book
    6. Using Code Examples
    7. Safari® Books Online
    8. How to Contact Us
    9. Acknowledgments
  3. 1. Introducing Oracle
    1. The Evolution of the Relational Database
      1. Relational Basics
      2. How Oracle Grew
    2. The Oracle Database Family
    3. Summary of Oracle Database Features
    4. Database Application Development Features
      1. Database Programming
        1. SQL
        2. PL/SQL
        3. Java
        4. Oracle and Web Services
        5. Large objects
        6. Object-oriented programming
        7. Third-generation languages (3GLs)
        8. Database drivers
        9. The Oracle Call Interface
        10. National Language Support
      2. Database Extensibility
        1. Oracle Multimedia
        2. Oracle Spatial and Graph Option
        3. XML DB
    5. Database Connection Features
      1. Oracle Net Services
      2. Oracle Internet Directory
      3. Oracle Connection Manager
    6. The Role of Oracle Fusion Middleware
      1. Oracle’s WebLogic Server
      2. Oracle Tuxedo
      3. Data Integration Tools
      4. Business Intelligence Tools
      5. WebCenter
      6. Identity Management
    7. Distributed Database Features
      1. Distributed Queries and Transactions
      2. Heterogeneous Services
    8. Data Movement Features
      1. Transportable Tablespaces
      2. Advanced Queuing and Oracle Streams
    9. Database Performance Features
      1. Database Parallelization
      2. Data Warehousing
        1. Bitmap indexes
        2. Star query optimization
        3. Materialized views
        4. Analytic functions
        5. OLAP Option
        6. Advanced Analytics Option
    10. Managing the Oracle Database
      1. Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c
      2. Real Application Testing Option
      3. Pluggable Databases
      4. Storage Management
      5. High Availability
        1. Flashback
        2. Recovery Manager
        3. Oracle Secure Backup
        4. Data Guard
        5. Fail Safe
        6. Oracle Real Application Clusters
    11. Database Security Features
      1. Advanced Security Option
      2. Label Security Option
      3. Database Vault Option
      4. Audit Vault and Database Firewall Option
    12. Oracle Database Development Tools
      1. Oracle SQL Developer
      2. Oracle Application Express
    13. Other Oracle Databases
      1. Oracle MySQL
      2. Berkeley DB & Oracle NoSQL Database
      3. Oracle TimesTen
      4. Cloudera Distribution of Hadoop
  4. 2. Oracle Architecture
    1. Databases and Instances
      1. Oracle Database Structures
        1. Schemas
        2. Tablespaces
        3. Files of a database
      2. Pluggable Databases
        1. Implementation
        2. PDBs and Oracle features
      3. Database Initialization
    2. Deploying Physical Components
      1. Control Files
      2. Datafiles
        1. Datafile structure
        2. Extents and segments
      3. Redo Logfiles
        1. Multiplexing redo logfiles
        2. How Oracle uses the redo logs
        3. Naming conventions for redo logs
        4. Archived redo logs
        5. ARCHIVELOG mode and automatic archiving
    3. Instance Memory and Processes
      1. Memory Structures for an Instance
        1. Database buffer cache
        2. Shared pool
        3. Redo log buffer
        4. Other pools in the SGA
        5. Automatic PGA management
      2. Background Processes for an Instance
    4. Configuration, Engineered Systems, and the Cloud
    5. The Data Dictionary
  5. 3. Installing and Running Oracle
    1. Installing Oracle
      1. Optimal Flexible Architecture
      2. Supporting Multiple Oracle Versions on a Machine
      3. Upgrading an Oracle Database
    2. Creating a Database
      1. Planning the Database
      2. The Value of Estimating
      3. Tools for Creating Databases
    3. Oracle Net Services and Oracle Net
      1. Resolving Oracle Net Service Names
      2. Global Data Services
      3. Oracle Net Manager
      4. Oracle Connection Pooling
      5. Auto-Discovery and Agents
      6. Oracle Net Configuration Files
    4. Starting Up the Database
    5. Shutting Down the Database
    6. Accessing a Database
      1. Server Processes and Clients
        1. Server process
        2. Client process
      2. Application Servers and Web Servers As Clients
      3. Oracle Net and Establishing Network Connections
      4. The Shared Server/Multi-Threaded Server
        1. Session memory for shared server processes versus dedicated server processes
        2. Data dictionary information about the shared server
      5. Database Resident Connection Pooling
    7. Oracle in the Cloud
    8. Oracle at Work
      1. Oracle and Transactions
      2. Flashback
      3. A Transaction, Step by Step
  6. 4. Oracle Data Structures
    1. Datatypes
      1. Character Datatypes
      2. Numeric Datatype
      3. Date Datatype
        1. Temporal validity
      4. Other Datatypes
      5. Type Conversion
      6. Concatenation and Comparisons
      7. NULLs
    2. Basic Data Structures
      1. Tables
        1. Editions
      2. Views
      3. Indexes
        1. B*-tree indexes
        2. Reverse key indexes
        3. Bitmap indexes
        4. Function-based indexes
        5. Invisible indexes
        6. Storage indexes
      4. Partitioning
    3. Additional Data Structures
      1. Sequences
      2. Synonyms
      3. Clusters
      4. Hash Clusters
    4. Extended Logic for Data
      1. Rules Manager
      2. The Expression Filter
    5. Data Design
    6. Constraints
    7. Triggers
    8. Query Optimization
      1. Rule-Based Optimization
      2. Cost-Based Optimization
        1. How statistics are used
        2. Influencing the cost-based optimizer
      3. Specifying an Optimizer Mode
        1. Newer database releases and the cost-based optimizer
      4. Saving the Optimization
      5. Comparing Optimizations
      6. Performance and Optimization
    9. SQL Translation
    10. Understanding the Execution Plan
    11. SQL Advisors
    12. Data Dictionary Tables
  7. 5. Managing Oracle
    1. Manageability Features
      1. Database Advisors
      2. Automatic Storage Management
    2. Oracle Enterprise Manager
      1. Enterprise Manager Architecture
      2. Oracle Enterprise Manager Consoles
      3. EM Express
    3. Backup and Recovery
      1. Types of Backup and Recovery Options
      2. Oracle Secure Backup
      3. Information Lifecycle Management
      4. ILM in Oracle Database 12c
    4. Working with Oracle Support
      1. Reporting Problems
      2. Automated Patching
  8. 6. Oracle Security, Auditing, and Compliance
    1. Security
      1. Usernames, Privileges, Groups, and Roles
      2. Identity Management
      3. Security Privileges
      4. Special Roles: DBA, SYSDBA, and SYSOPER
      5. Policies
      6. Restricting Data-Specific Access
        1. View-based security
        2. Fine-grained access control
      7. Label Security Option
      8. Security and Application Roles and Privileges
      9. Distributed Database and Multitier Security
        1. Distributed security management
        2. Multitier security
      10. Advanced Security Option
      11. Encryption
      12. Data Redaction
      13. Secure Backup
    2. Auditing
    3. Compliance
      1. Oracle Database Vault Option
      2. Oracle Audit Vault Server
      3. Flashback Data Archive
      4. Transparent Sensitive Data Protection
  9. 7. Oracle Performance
    1. Oracle and Resource Usage
      1. Oracle and Disk I/O Resources
      2. I/O Planning Principles for an Oracle Database
        1. Volume managers
        2. Storage subsystems
        3. Oracle’s engineered systems and storage
    2. Oracle and Parallelism
      1. Block-Range Parallelism
      2. Parallelism for Tables and Partitions of Tables
      3. What Can Be Parallelized?
        1. Degree of parallelism
        2. Self-tuning adaptive parallelism
      4. Partition-Based Parallelism
        1. Parallelism for partitions and subpartitions of a table
        2. Fast full-index scans for nonpartitioned tables
        3. Parallel insert for nonpartitioned and partitioned tables
    3. Oracle and Memory Resources
      1. How Oracle Uses the System Global Area
        1. Automatic sizing for the SGA
        2. The database buffer cache
        3. The shared pool
        4. The redo log buffer
        5. Query results caching
      2. How Oracle Uses the Program Global Area
        1. Memory for SQL statements
        2. Memory for sorting within the PGA
    4. Oracle and CPU Resources
    5. Performance Tuning Basics
      1. Defining Performance and Performance Problems
      2. Monitoring and Tuning the Oracle Database for Performance
      3. Using the Oracle Database Resource Manager
      4. Additional Monitoring and Tuning Available for Oracle Exadata
      5. A Final Note on Performance Tuning
  10. 8. Oracle Multiuser Concurrency
    1. Basics of Concurrent Access
      1. Transactions
      2. Locks
      3. Concurrency and Contention
      4. Integrity Problems
      5. Serialization
    2. Oracle and Concurrent User Access
    3. Oracle’s Isolation Levels
    4. Oracle Concurrency Features
    5. How Oracle Handles Locking
      1. A Simple Write Operation
      2. A Conflicting Write Operation
      3. A Read Operation
    6. Concurrent Access and Performance
    7. Workspaces
      1. Workspace Implementation
      2. Workspace Operations
      3. Workspace Enhancements
  11. 9. Oracle and Transaction Processing
    1. OLTP Basics
      1. What Is a Transaction?
      2. What Does OLTP Mean?
        1. General characteristics
        2. Online and batch transaction processing
      3. OLTP Versus Business Intelligence
      4. Transactions and High Availability
    2. Oracle’s OLTP Heritage
    3. Architectures for OLTP
      1. Traditional Two-Tier Client/Server
      2. Stored Procedures
      3. Three-Tier Systems
      4. Application Servers and Web Servers
      5. The Grid
      6. OLTP and the Cloud
    4. Oracle Features for OLTP
      1. General Concurrency and Performance
      2. Scalability
        1. Multi-Threaded Server/shared server
        2. Database Resource Manager
      3. Real Application Clusters
      4. Exadata and OLTP
    5. High Availability
  12. 10. Oracle Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence
    1. Data Warehousing Basics
      1. The Evolution of Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence
      2. A Topology for Business Intelligence
      3. Data Marts
      4. The Operational Data Store and Enterprise Warehouse
      5. OLTP Systems and Business Intelligence
      6. Big Data and the Data Warehouse
    2. Data Warehouse Design
    3. Query Optimization
      1. Bitmap Indexes and Parallelism
      2. Optimization Provided by the Exadata Storage Server Software
    4. Dimensional Data and Hierarchies in the Database
      1. Summary Tables
      2. Materialized Views
      3. OLAP Option
    5. Analytics and Statistics in the Database
      1. Basic Analytic and Statistical Functions
      2. Other SQL Extensions
      3. Advanced Analytics Option
    6. Other Datatypes and Big Data
    7. Loading Data into the Data Warehouse
    8. Managing the Data Warehouse
    9. Business Intelligence Tools
      1. Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite
      2. Business Intelligence Applications
      3. Data Discovery and Oracle Endeca Information Discovery
      4. Oracle Exalytics
    10. The Metadata Challenge
    11. Putting It All Together
      1. A Complete Analytics Infrastructure
      2. Best Practices
      3. Common Misconceptions
      4. Effective Strategy
  13. 11. Oracle and High Availability
    1. What Is High Availability?
      1. Measuring High Availability
    2. The System Stack and Availability
      1. Server Hardware, Storage, and Database Instance Failure
      2. What Is Instance Recovery?
      3. Phases of Instance Recovery
    3. Protecting Against System Failure
      1. Component Redundancy
      2. Disk Redundancy
      3. Automatic Storage Management
    4. Site and Computer Server Failover
      1. Oracle Data Guard and Site Failures
      2. Oracle Active Data Guard and Zero Data Loss
      3. Oracle GoldenGate and Replication
      4. Real Application Clusters and Instance Failures
      5. Oracle Transparent Application Failover
        1. How TAF works
        2. TAF and various Oracle configurations
      6. Oracle Application Continuity
    5. Recovering from Failures and Data Corruption
      1. Developing a Backup-and-Recovery Strategy
      2. Taking Oracle Backups
      3. Using Backups to Recover
      4. Recovery Manager
      5. Read-Only Tablespaces and Backups
      6. Old-Fashioned Data Redundancy
      7. Point-in-Time Recovery
      8. Flashback
    6. Planned Downtime
  14. 12. Oracle and Hardware Architecture
    1. System Basics
      1. Symmetric Multiprocessing Systems and Nodes
      2. Clustered Solutions, Grid Computing, and the Cloud
      3. Disk and Storage Technology
    2. Oracle’s Engineered Systems
      1. Oracle Exadata Database Machine
      2. Oracle Exalogic
      3. Oracle SuperCluster
      4. Oracle Database Appliance
      5. Other Engineered Systems
    3. Choosing and Defining the Right Platform
      1. Sizing and Planning for Growth
      2. Maximum Availability Architecture Considerations
      3. Justifying an Oracle Engineered System
  15. 13. Oracle Distributed Databases and Distributed Data
    1. Accessing Distributed Databases
      1. Distributed Data Across Multiple Oracle Databases
      2. Access to and from Non-Oracle Databases
      3. Two-Phase Commit
      4. Oracle Tuxedo
    2. Replication and Data Transport
      1. Replication Basics
      2. History of Oracle Replication Offerings
      3. Oracle GoldenGate
      4. Global Data Services
      5. Data Transport Using Database Features
  16. 14. Oracle Extended Datatypes
    1. Object-Oriented Development
      1. Object-Relational Features
        1. Objects in Oracle
        2. Other extensibility features
      2. Java’s Role and Web Services
      3. JavaBeans
    2. Extensibility Features and Options
      1. Oracle Multimedia
      2. Oracle Text
      3. XML DB
      4. Oracle Spatial and Graph Option
    3. The Extensibility Architecture Framework
  17. 15. Oracle and the Cloud
    1. Cloud Definitions
      1. Common Characteristics
      2. Cloud Levels
      3. Is the Cloud New?
        1. Multitenancy
        2. Stateless
      4. Use Cases for Cloud Computing
    2. Oracle Database in the Cloud
      1. Oracle as a DBaaS
      2. Oracle as a PaaS
      3. Consumer and Provider
    3. Oracle Database Cloud Service
      1. History of Application Express
      2. Architecture
        1. Database Cloud architecture
        2. Access architecture
        3. Security and architecture
        4. APEX architecture
      3. Development with the Database Cloud Service
        1. APEX application development
        2. SQL Workshop
        3. Packaged applications
        4. RESTful Web Services
        5. Portability with the Database Cloud Service
      4. SQL Developer and the Database Cloud
    4. Implementing Provider Clouds
  18. A. What’s New in This Book for Oracle Database 12c
    1. Chapter 1: Introducing Oracle
    2. Chapter 2: Oracle Architecture
    3. Chapter 3: Installing and Running Oracle
    4. Chapter 4: Data Structures
    5. Chapter 5: Managing Oracle
    6. Chapter 6: Oracle Security, Auditing, and Compliance
    7. Chapter 7: Oracle Performance
    8. Chapter 8: Oracle Multiuser Concurrency
    9. Chapter 9: Oracle and Transaction Processing
    10. Chapter 10: Oracle Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence
    11. Chapter 11: Oracle and High Availability
    12. Chapter 12: Oracle and Hardware Architecture
    13. Chapter 13: Oracle Distributed Databases and Distributed Data
    14. Chapter 14: Oracle Extended Datatypes
    15. Chapter 15: Oracle and the Cloud
  19. B. Additional Resources
    1. Web Sites
    2. Books and Oracle Documentation
      1. Chapter 1: Introducing Oracle
      2. Chapter 2: Oracle Architecture
      3. Chapter 3: Installing and Running Oracle
      4. Chapter 4: Data Structures
      5. Chapter 5: Managing Oracle
      6. Chapter 6: Oracle Security, Auditing, and Compliance
      7. Chapter 7: Oracle Performance
      8. Chapter 8: Oracle Multiuser Concurrency
      9. Chapter 9: Oracle and Transaction Processing
      10. Chapter 10: Oracle Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence
      11. Chapter 11: Oracle and High Availability
      12. Chapter 12: Oracle and Hardware Architecture
      13. Chapter 13: Oracle Distributed Databases and Distributed Data
      14. Chapter 14: Oracle Extended Datatypes
      15. Chapter 15: Oracle and the Cloud
  20. Index
  21. About the Authors
  22. Colophon
  23. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: Oracle Essentials, 5th Edition
  • Author(s): Rick Greenwald, Robert Stackowiak, Jonathan Stern
  • Release date: September 2013
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781449343170