Backup Books

I am a beginner in Oracle and I don't have an hands on experience. This book is a very good book to prepare for the test, I pass 55/60. The lack of this book is that some of its discussion are overlapping, for example some definitions are redefined again in later chapter with difference, some are okay some are confusing. Sybex books are better for reading, but on this area exam cram will prepare you better.

My 5 wrong answers are all from the RMAN section !! , so you may need to get deeper source on this one, because it's just covers up the characteristics and options available for RMAN.

However, this book combined with selftest preparation software are GOOD COMBO to pass the test as long as you learn them well. I prepare myself 3 months only for this test. Don't buy Jason S Couchman book !! <- this book is really2 bad for the test, okay for further reading but very bad for the test. So good luck guys...

Lots of strange expressions, wrong syntax, misspelling.
This is a kind of disease for stupid Oracle DBAs,
called Oranglish cyndorome. They can not speal English.

Do not buy this book.

This book is all you need, but there are a few things that you need to realize before taking the test. First, I would like to say that I am a Sybase DBA with no Oracle experience, and I passed with a 50/60 by using this book. You don't really need experience to pass the Oracle certification exams if you get the right book, and this one is the right one. The method that I use is to read the book, to write information on note cards as I am reading, and to review them before the test. It works, and I wouldn't bother with the Oracle courses unless you don't understand a concept or you feel that you need more hands-on experience.

Although you should be able to pass by using this book, there are various misconceptions that may affect your performance. One misconception is that the practice exams in this book, which are fairly straightforward, are like those on the exam. This is untrue. The statement, "There are two right answers for every question" holds true for the Oracle certification exams. You just have to pick the answer that is "most correct." Also, you actually do have to choose multiple answers on certain questions, and you have to watch out for that as well.

Another misconception is that you may not need to read every chapter. You need to read every chapter unless you are very familiar with Oracle.

This book covers all the points you will need. It restates the points many times and in different ways, but all of chapters are necessary for the exam. The information in this book is clear if you've passed the previous exams and you're familiar with RDBMS concepts. The only concept that I didn't understand when I first read the book was RMAN cumulative and incremental backups.

Lastly, good luck and don't panic...

Its quality far surpasses that of the Exam Cram books I bought years ago for MCSE certification. This is comprehensive, reliable, pertinent information and nothing else packed into a dense little book.

I passed the exam on the first crack. (I also used the Sybex materials but those are poor in comparison because they contain spotty information, much of which is flat wrong!) Even if you just want to pass the exam, save yourself a lot of trouble: this book is the clear winner. It's not perfect, but it is the best (better than the thick Oracle Press prep book, too). Its imperfections are similar to those of the exam.

Chapters 10-12 are the "meat and potatoes" for an operational DBA who must know how to recover. There is an excellent chapter on import/export. There are three gruelling chapters on RMAN --just shut up and take it. :) My team nurses over fifty (50) Oracle databases for a large bank, and I'm buying a second copy to have at home for dial-in emergencies. It has meticulous step-by-step procedures with sample commands. I like this better than the highly-touted "8i Backup & Recovery Handbook" from Oracle Press. No kidding.

Hello!

I am Oracle 8i certified. All of these exam cram books are very good. I have used those for all me exams. Now I am looking for Oracle 9i upgrade ( upgrade from 8i to 9i - new features for admin) book. When it will be available????????????

Thanks,

Priti Patel

This book gives great description of SANS and NAS. In addition, a clear comparison of SANS and NAS technologies is given which is helpful in deciding what is right for your own organization. This book is not exhaustive on the subjects, but do point the reader in the right direction. I thought the time spent on the topic of backups was especially nice.

I found this book to be very helpful in sorting out the differences between the two technologies that have started to blur in many ways. I read this book from cover to cover and the layout was great. The book starts with a good overview of the past technologies that most IT people know and then begins to compair them to NAS and SAN and shows how those old technologies are evolving to fit into the new design.

As someone who has not had exposure to Fiber Channel hands on the book did a great job of explaining the technology and what part it plays. It gives a real nuts and bolts explination of the peices and what they all do.

The book then goes into describing SAN. It gives some typical uses along with the advantages and even the disavantages of SAN. In the next chapter it describes one of the major advantages to SAN in terms of Backup and Recovery. It doesn't go into detail and tell you what the commands are to do these things but more what you need to get the job done and what role each part plays.

The next three chapters are on NAS. The first one gives an overview of NAS and goes into uses along with the advantages and disadvantages of it. The second chapter gives information on how to manage NAS and is a bit too specific but does give a good foundation for the things that you need to look for to get the most out of NAS. The thirst chapter is on Backup and Recovery in a NAS environment. It gives a good overview of the technologies that exist but again gets into a little too much detail and is hung up on specific technologies.

Overall I would suggest this book to any IT people who have a solid background in server and network technology but are looking for what storage solutions exist and how they can be leveraged.

This book focuses on general concept and structure. No vendor specified information is included. It is a good entry-level book. But serious SAN/NAS users will need more detailed information.

Hi,

This books serves as good introduction to SAN and NAS. It covers backup and recovery for SANs very nicely and at appropriate level. As far as NAS is concerned, it skims the topic.

Its a good introduction to various technologies. The details will have to found elsewhere.

Overall review - worth reading it.

This book has a good 10K foot overview and basic groundings for beginners. Also is good at comparing and contrasting SAN vs NAS. But, very light on detail especially in the area of NAS. If you don't know anything about SAN/NAS give it a read. If you've much experience it'll be mostly review.

I thought this book was great! I really enjoyed the material and the analogies. I really get Oracle backup & recovery now. Forget about the typo's -- the material is what counts.

I think that this book is excellent. Backup and recovery can be hard to understand at times, especially for those who are new to it. It is a great book that is all hands on, and that's the way you learn B/R, not just by reading. If you have a little bit of knowledge of B/R then this book will really help you a lot. I know people complained about the typos, but that is not that big of an issue, plus they already have an errata out for it. The only downside I guess is that everything is done using Oracle 8i and some commands are different. But if you combine this book with the Oracle9i Backup and Recovery documentation then you're all set! I think it explains things very well and makes you do things so you can see what exactly is going on. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has a little knowledge of Oracle B/R but would like to put that knowledge into practice. I want to give it 4.5 stars because of the minor typos and using 8i, but can't :) BUY THE BOOK!
Good Luck!!

This book has almost one error per page which is much too high for a technical book. It is unfortunate that the authors did not put in the effort to proof read the book and to check their solutions. It is interesting to note that the solutions on the web site are not consistent with the exercises in the book.

I wonder how the authors authors keep their real jobs if their attention to detail is the same as demonstrated in this book.

Oracle backup and recovery can be very complex. The standard Oracle documentation is hard to follow and missing examples and scenarios. I've read this book cover to cover, and the authors have done an excellent job at capturing the information you need to know to backup and recover your Oracle database. The Linux discussions are applicable to any Unix platform as well. This book is a great reference to have before disaster strikes.

I would rate this book 5 stars for the material. But, gosh, is there any Oracle book without mistakes? When would authors and publishes care enough to eliminate them, or at least minimise them? Even errata contains only about 50% of necessary corrections - after 6 months from being published.
What is the value of instructions if you can't follow them?
If you know how to correct them by yourself, then you can buy this book, otherwise it would be another pain.

I didn't receive item yet. My order placed 22 may.

Thanks to correct situation.

I had a need to run a .exe file on a remote machine. So I typed in the "ExecuteAll.vbs" script example from page 27. The script runs and prompts me for the information. But the command I feed to the script never executes on the remote server. The command can be run manually on the remote server. So I know the command is good. I even tried the command that's shown as an example and even that didn't work.

Overall the book is good. But more examples of different ways to utilize the scripts in the book would be a plus.

The definition of "hack" is as follows:
To write or refine computer programs skillfully.
To use one's skill in computer programming to gain illegal or unauthorized access to a file or network.

This is a good book.....the name should be changed, however, to "Windows Server Shortcuts and Tricks"....not "hacks".

The book has many good tips, tricks and shortcuts to make life easier for the administrator. I'm always buying books to make sure I am as knowledgeable as possible. This book has good information for my daily job tasks and I recommend it. But I was surprised not to find any "hacks" per se.....something using NMAP or another program used to attack NetBIOS....this is not THAT kind of book.

Managing a Windows based system is almost always problematic for even the most experienced manager team. Enter Mitch Tulloch's Windows Server Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools which specifically focuses upon scripts and other tools that will make any and all Windows server maximize its utility while minimizing managerial resources to keep it operational and on-line. This 357-page compendium of tips, tricks and techniques is wonderfully well organized so as to have solutions and explanations at the beck and call of even the most novice Windows system user. Confidently recommended, Windows Server Hacks is a seminal and invaluable reference shelf addition.

This squat 350 page book is filled with practical advice for anyone tasked with the administration of one or more Windows servers. It covers simple remote machine management, Active Directory, IIS, and the truly annoying Windows DNS issues. Screen shots are kept to a minimum and graphics are used effectively. Concepts are explained but not rat-holed and the topics covered are practical. The only thing keeping me from giving this a perfect ranking are the often longish code samples that are not annotated and could be referenced on the site as opposed to included in the text.

A must have for starting Windows administrators, definitely worth the look for experienced ones, particularly because of the condensed practical nature of the text with Microsoft Press books so often lack.

I recently found this book at a garage sale. Both the genre and the author were unfamiliar to me, but decided to give it a try. I loved it. Having once lived in the South (ever so briefly), I loved the Southern charm oozing from the pages.
A bit predictable, but made me want to look up more by this author.
Would've given five stars, but I also recently found out that those are rarely taken seriously.

War correspondent Dinah Davis has covered many of the recent hot spots. Currently she is reporting on Afghanistan, but has lost her edge since she witnessed the death of a friend and was nearly killed too. Physically Dinah has healed, but her boss tells her she is not the same and should return to the States to marry and have babies. Initially refusing to listen, Dinah realizes that her career is over and wonders if her boyfriend Bobby Beaufort still waits for as he promised a decade ago when she chose journalism over marriage.

Back home in South Carolina, Dinah's mom worries that her daughter has not recovered from her last overseas assignment. Meanwhile Bobby's older brother Cord, who thought his sibling was a fool to agree to Dinah's backup plan, quickly wants to revise the arrangement by inserting himself as the groom. As Dinah suffers the malaise of post traumatic syndrome, she turns to Cord not her family or Bobby for comfort while he worries whether he will prove enough in the long run.

Though the actual backup plan of Bobby waiting for a decade seems strange, fans will appreciate this deep look into the traumas and tragedies civilians in combat areas can suffer. The story line is character driven once Dinah returns home moping and depressed. Adding to her depression is that she realizes her plan is a failure as she finds the sibling more attractive than the chosen one, but does not want to hurt the loyal Bobby. This is a strong tale that showcases the aftermath of horrific situations on survivors.

Harriet Klausner

War correspondent Dinah Davis is devastated after watching her cameraman/lover murdered in a car bombing ambush while on assignment in Afghanistan. Her editor knows that she is hanging on by a thread, and recommends returning home for some R&R. She decides to quit, return to South Carolina, and look up the guy that said he would wait for her forever. Marrying Bobby would be her backup plan and a way to escape her guilt over losing Peter.

Depressed and spending the majority of her days watching soaps or sitting by the pool, Dinah is unsuccessful at hooking up with Bobby, who never seems to be in town (and is now engaged). She does not count on falling for his roguish bad-boy brother, Cordell. Cord has been in love with Dinah since they were kids; he even made up a little white lie to keep Dinah and Bobby apart, only to have it backfire on him. Dinah just thinks he is a trouble maker. While Cord claims to not be the marrying kind, he certainly does not want Dinah and Bobby to reconcile, so he schemes to keep Bobby on assignment in Atlanta.

The more time Cord and Dinah spend together, the harder they fall for each other, until he finally realizes that the only way to show his love for Dinah is to let her resolve the conflict that brought her home and has caused so much post traumatic stress. Dinah makes progress on her own with the help of a caring psychologist.

The Backup Plan is an entertaining romantic comedy with a hint of despair - parts of the book might make you cry, particularly her flashbacks to Afghanistan. The only thing standing in the way of a 5 star rating is the lack of depth into the character of Bobby. He was never developed, and really on appears on a handful of pages. This was an emotional and engaging story - guaranteed to keep you glued for nearly 400 pages.

I love books that are set in the Carolina Low Country (ie: Dorothea Benton Frank and Anne Rivers Siddons)becuae it seems like such a gloriously stylish place to live!!!

This was an interesting story about a high-power career woman suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, who returns home to heal. When the safety net she intended to fall back on doesn't come through for her, she finds a truer path towards healing, which includes a passionate relationship that's as strong as the passion she once held for her work.

I particularly admired the therapist in this story, and how the psychotherapy sessions were really very helpful and healing. I also found the vivid details of Cord and Bobby's work, restoring antebellum homes and historical landmarks to their original splendour, added significant color and depth to the storyline.

`Backup Plan' by Sherryl Woods is fun southern romance novel. Dinah Davis returns home after working in Afghanistan. She decides to take a break and look up her old boyfriend Bobby - her official backup plan. Instead of Bobby, she finds Cord the older and annoying brother to Bobby. This novel deals with posttraumatic stress disorder, a marriage on the rocks and car bombing. I read the Trilogy out of order and they can stand alone. The second novel is `Flirting with Disaster' December 2005 and the final novel `Waking up in Charleston' May 2006.

No Backup: A Female Agent's Life
in the FBI©
by
Rosemary N. Dew and Pat Pape

A fascinating read which combines the personal experiences of Special Agent Rosemary Dew who spent thirteen years with the FBI. She was in a unique position to gain insight and has produced a detailed analysis of the culture of the FBI and has delved into the reasons behind some of it's more infamous failures. The overall thrust of the book suggests that the FBI's problems reside within the culture of the organization. Rosemary Dew contends that the FBI will continue to be plagued by embarassing episodes,e.g., the mole in its counter intelligence section who was able to escape detection for decades. Approximately half of the book covers one embarassing episode after another which calls into question the ability of the FBI to learn from its own mistakes. In the world described by the author...the agents who warned of suspicious events before 9-11 might have been taken more seriously if they had been working out of a higher status office like New York City. The book is not just a critical analysis of the Bureau but cites specific episodes from the author's life as an agent. She uses these illustrations as a backdrop to suggest why many of the recent problems within the Bureau are the result of long standing practices and norms where the preservation of one's own job within the organization takes priority and common sense seems to be in rather short supply. She describes in painful detail... blatant examples of racism, sexism and harassment which would not be tolerated in modern law enforcement agencies. The FBI is portrayed as a bureacracy which has lost its moral compass while at the same time trying to occupy a higher moral position through a masterful public relations campaign. Rosemary Dew has gone to great lengths to open up her own life and will probably take some heat from those who are sure that the Bureau can do `No' wrong. Definitely, worth the read but disturbing. There have been other books which have exposed the FBI but this one is unique.

Dr. Peter Kassebaum

Dew does share some interesting insights about the FBI bureaucracy but when you get about halfway through the book, you start to get tired of listening to her endless whining and complaining about the organization. It it was that bad, why did she continue to stay there? It would have been more interesting if she gave more details about some of the arrests and what ultimately happened to those high profile people, i.e. the Maryland congressman Robert Bauman who was arrested for child prostitution, and some of the other lowlifes she encountered through the years.

Readers' reactions to this book will be influenced by their expectations. It's not a book about shoot-em-ups and cloak-and-dagger. For me, it's a book about how the FBI institution and individual FBI agents influence each other, and the results. The author argues that the negative behavior and negative attitudes that she experienced in her small part of the FBI world are the same behavior and attitudes that led to major consequences for the entire FBI and the country. I give the book five stars for this insight alone.

Throughout the book, the author reminds the reader of the many outstanding agents she worked with and the outstanding work that the FBI accomplishes. This is not emphasized, because this is not what the book is about. Rather, it's an attempt to analyze what's wrong with the FBI, and how to fix it.

A well-written insider's expose of the immature, "locker-room" mentality that has existed far too long without accountability in what is supposed to be the nation's premier law enforcement and domestic intelligence organization. Dew's first-hand account of her 13 years of enduring illegal, unconscionable treatment from subordinates, peers and superiors saddens me.
The country and those women and minorities who suffered this treatment deserved - and deserve - better from the FBI. We can only hope that this book is read and taken to heart by a new generation of leaders at the FBI.

While in general the topic is covered well, the supplied audio tracks are difficult to work with. Licks and short demonstration sections are played very slowly so you can understand what's going on, but complete tunes that you'd like to play along with are only supplied at full speed. If you can do that already, you probably don't need this book. The audio is not in mp3 format and not easily transferred to a hard drive. Because it isn't easily available in mp3 format, one can't use a "slower-downer" program to build up speed playing along with the supplied tunes. Your only option is to try to play at breakneck speed to keep up with the supplied audio tracks for full tunes.

This is a great tool for the beginning banjo player. It covers it all in small chuncks.

Highly recommended.

Allen

Great book. Typical clear Janet Davis writing and tabs. Has many exercises. Good section with tab for melody followed by tab for back-up. Tape record one and play the other against it!

An outstanding book with in-depth coverage of backup and recovery principles and valuable section of case studies (step-by-step recovery procedures for different kind of failures). The sample code is notoriously bugged but with some work these UNIX shell scripts can be fixed and be used for daily database backup. Very usefull to have (by the way, I have three different editions of this book (for Oracle 7, 7.3 and 8).

Some of the tables, e.g., Export parameters are still Oracle 6 based. Book needs more diagrams too. Still, it's worth buying if only because there are few books of it's kind.

I'm disappointed that Oracle Press books are not "all that they can be".

The book is very practical. Recovery being a very critical process, can include more live examples on recovery. A demo CD would be idle.

I've used some of Rebecca Morgan's time saving ideas and they work. Her language is clear, her ideas are new and fresh, and they really save time...and time, remember is money. So save lots of money...and time...with this book.

TurboTime motivates without intimidating. It's friendly, conversational style reduces using complex new technologies to easily accomplished steps that are sure to save you time. Morgan makes no assumptions about the reader. She provides encouragement and cites the benefits of learning to use new technologies - and then tells you exactly how to do this. TurboTime is an idea book for people who want to experiment with new skills. Morgan suggests simple and advanced ways to take advantage of opportunities to use technology to accomplish things that would be difficult to accomplish without it. TurboTime isn't dry or academic. Morgan presents personal examples of her own struggles to use technology as efficiently as possible. But she does not insist on particular brands and programs. Overall, it's a practical combination of illustrations and information, and is filled with easy-to-apply tips.

This publication hardly deserves to be called a book. It's 77 pages (including the index) and each page is only printed on one side. Also, most "chapters" are a little over a page, so almost half the pages in the book contain only a paragraph or two.

I'll forgive the fact that most of the products described in the book are outdated by now; the author warns the reader of this several times herself. But what I can't forgive is the extremely brief and painfully shallow descriptions the author gives to these products. Most of the information given is usually a phone number or address for the manufacturer of a product.

Consider this: the "chapter" on scanners is barely half a page, but the "chapter" on telephone headsets is a page and a half. Not only does this show where the focus of this book is, but it also shows how little is actually presented about real technologies.

The only reason I gave this pamphlet 2 stars instead of 1 is that it could be a nice intro for a complete novice... a complete novice who has had no contact with the professional business world or a computer. There's just so little here.

If you are an Oracle database administrator and you have a background as a unix or Microsoft sysadmin, then you might wonder why there is a need for an ENTIRE book on backup of Oracle's database. It is not that you doubt the need for a backup. But a whole book? In unix, you do a "man" on the backup command and you are shown a few screens of options. Likewise for restoring. Under Microsoft, a similar situation prevails. But unix and Microsoft are general purpose operating systems. An operating system is basically about file manipulation. In essence, a file is the atomic unit to the OS. So the backup and restore options are limited to the richness of this information.

But Oracle's database is a specialised and elaborate "operating system". The data is constrained and structured far more than files in a real OS. A backup can take advantage of this by offering hugely more options to you; a far more expressive set of commands to do a fine grained backup of fairly arbitrary subsets of the data. And of course, also with the restore.

This increased power comes at a price. Remembering all those darned options, especially the obscure, rarely invoked ones. Hence this book. Its value is strictly as a memory aid. You have to already understand what those options do, from Oracle's official documentation. The book uses a common flow chart style graph for the options, for easier use.