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.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 28 Ratings

Method R: Optimizing Oracle Performance Using Extended SQL Trace Data - 2007-04-03
Reviewer Rating:
There are certain "camps" in the worldwide Oracle community. For example, there is the "Oak Table Network" of "Oracle scientists" who seek thorough understandings of issues backed up by details, tests and proofs. Contrasting is the "Silver Bullet" family of field-tested generals who prefer rules of thumb and quick fixes even it means some false understandings and occasionally being wrong. Cary Millsap (of the Oak Table Network) stands as someone respected by both sides.

Cary Millsap worked at Oracle for 10 years on system performance before co-founding Hotsos in 1999 [...]. He is one of the most trusted sources on matters of Oracle system performance, and "Optimizing Oracle Performance" is considered his finest work (4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon). The best way to learn more about him is to see for yourself. Here are some of his most popular articles:

"Diagnosing Performance Problems" from Oracle Magazine. A brief summary of what is covered in this book[...]

"Introduction", the first chapter from "Optimizing Oracle Performance."Chapter 1: [...]

"Case Study", the 12th chapter from "Optimizing Oracle Performance."Chapter 12 (Case Study): [...]

"Performance Management: Myths and Facts." One of his most popular articles.[...]

"Why a 99%+ Database Buffer Cache Hit Ratio is Not Ok." Another of his more popular articles.[...]

While everyone will have their own favourite parts of the book, I think most readers would agree that getting a good taste of the author's performance tuning philosophy is one of the highlights. "Method R", not to be confused with "System R" (ie. SQL), is not about looking at STATSPACK, cache hit ratios, or V$ tables and guessing. The author wanted to devise a system to identify and resolve the top performance concerns of an organisation with reliable, predictable results. The first few chapters put this method in writing in perhaps the best way since the introduction of "YAPP" (Anjo Kolk).

"The performance enhancement possible with a given improvement is limited by the fraction of the execution time that the improved feature is used." - Amdahl's Law

After several years of research, the author discovered that Extended SQL Trace Data was at the centre of "Method R". Some of the articles should give you a good taste of what Extended SQL Trace data is, if you didn't know already. By the time you finish reading this book you will know exactly how to collect and interpret all the little "ela=17101 p1=10 p2=2213 p3=1 ..." within into something meaningful. For some, that justifies the price tag right there.

So in essence I would have re-named this book "Method R: Optimizing Oracle Performance Using Extended SQL Trace Data," because that is basically what this book is about. There are some reasonably "stand-alone" chapters on other topics, for instance on the Oracle Fixed View tables (Chapter 8) and on Queueing Theory (Chapter 9), but that is not the primary focus of the book.

Those that are expecting a more broad treatment of the subject of performance tuning may be justifiably disappointed that it basically covers only this narrow aspect. However, it is covered very well, and it isn't really covered anywhere else. The author makes no apologies for this, claiming that extended SQL trace data is the only resource you will ever need for diagnosing and solving performance problems.

"You cannot extrapolate detail from an aggregate." - Cary Millsap's preference of SQL extended trace data over fixed views (system-wide average performance characteristics)

Indeed, some people might contend that the author spends a little too much time stating his beliefs, defending them, and patting himself on the back. But I think it adds a certain flavour to the book, and I respect an author who backs up his statements.

"Proving that V$ data are superior to extended SQL trace data because of the 'missing time' issue is analagous to proving that its safer to be in a room with a hungry bear if you'll just close your eyes." - Cary Millsap

The book can be a tough read in the sense that the author goes very deep into the material, and generally each subject is treated thoroughly. Chapter 9 on Queueing Theory can be a particularly overwhelming chapter. But the material is served in bite-size pieces, and broken up with tips, tricks, stories, diagrams and code (sometimes 3+ pages worth at a time, embedded directly in the middle of a chapter). There are even worthwhile exercises at the end of each chapter.

In the end, I enjoyed this book and I'm glad I got it. I don't consider it a "must have" for your Oracle collection, but I definitely feel it is quite worthwhile. I recommend it especially to those who read his articles and were very comfortable with his writing style and philosophy, and also to those that need a book on extended SQL trace data (because this is basically the only one). But even those in the "Silver Bullet" camp will be glad to add another tool to their belt.

Thumbs up.

Technically great, somewhat outdated, and very wordy - 2008-03-12
Reviewer Rating:
This book covers Oracle 8 and 9. But its technical explanations are very much valid for Oracle 10g.

Although the author's beautiful explanation of 10046 traces and waits are worth its weight in gold, much of the information could have been condensed into fewer pages. Regrettably, most of the book are fillers. The author tries to explain much of his thoughts in mathematical formuls (nothing difficult) but it didn't add to the comprehension of the topic.

One thing which made this book stand out was the problems and exercises at the end of each chapter. They were helpful, and unique among Oracle books, in enabling the reader to understand the topic more thoroughly.

Overall, I recommend this book. But I have read better, and more comprehensive, books on the Oracle performance.

Superb book - 2006-02-06
Reviewer Rating:
I like the wait approach very much. DIS buk prezNts a scientific approach 2 prob diagnosis & performance optimization. DIS aLowz optimization F4tz 2 b consistent & repeatable. DIS buk tAkz Oracle prob diagnosis & tuning out of d realm of bn a BWO art.

Excellent book to set you straight - 2009-07-28
Reviewer Rating:
For me, this book was great from both a technical standpoint but also from a business standpoint. It highlighted how many (including myself) focus on the wrong tasks when it comes to not only database performance, but from an economic point-of-view. The mantra of eliminating work first is definitely something that I had been overlooking. The fastest way to do something is not to do it at all!

There is a bit of a tease factor in that Cary relies on the proprietary Hotsos Profiler to do a lot of the interpretation. I would love to see a free (and open-source) profiler available. Cary does explain how to read the extended trace files "in the raw," and in doing so provides the tools for someone to do just that.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that feels frustrated with their (lack of) query tuning / performance analyst abilities.

A real page turner - 2006-10-02
Reviewer Rating:
This book is so interesting that on a couple occasions I've fallen asleep reading it, because I want to "find out what happens next" -- not because it is boring. Even the chapter on queueing theory that has a lot of math in it is understandable and interesting, even though I have a mild aversion to math.

It has highlighted a lot of very useful techniques to ensure you focus on the true problems, and not the various ratios we've taken as absolute truth for so many years. I can't wait to try these concepts out!

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