Book Review: "Beginning Oracle Database 11G Administration, Iggy Fernandez

Beginning Oracle Database 11G Administration

First of all do not let yourself fooled by the title which says 11G. Knowledge that can be obtained by reading this book is applicable to nearly all current versions of Oracle databases.

This is an excellent book for any beginner Oracle database administrator.



Through chapters Iggy does not enter into too many details but in addition to each chapter there is a list of books where you can find more information about topics. Advices for further reading are great as they direct you to very useful books and save time and money. In addition, Iggy often provides his own valuable tips gathered from personal work experience as Oracle database administrator.

Book is well organized so I recommend you read it from cover to cover, without jumping through chapters.

It is divided into four parts:
- Database Concepts
- Database Implementation
- Database Support
- Database Tuning

- Database Concepts
In this chapter Iggy it starts with explaining the most basic, but very important, things related to the database. He explains what is database or what is actually a RDBMS (Relational Database Management System). Also it gives you brief description of the Oracle RDBMS internal mechanisms.

- Database Implementation
The main question of this chapter is - what is the right process of database implementation? It is important to understand that you shouldn't just follow the basic wizard steps. Use some time in planning physical and logical design as well as many other things that Iggy notes through the whole chapter.

- Database Support
Primary obligation of a database administrator is to assure that database satisfies all business requirements. Importance of backup and recovery processes is clearly explained also. Iggy shares his own experiences, "Horror stories" as he called them, where you can get bigger picture why backup and recovery are essential for every database administrator.
Most important topic in this chapter is "The Big Picture and the Ten Deliverables" where Iggy states what is the role of database administrators in a business company. Emphasis is placed on the fact that it is very important to understand the operations of the company and to know what is DBA role in all this. In any case this is very interesting chapter even for experienced administrators.

- Database tuning
And finally, this is the least interesting chapter for me, but it still gives beginners a rough picture of how database tuning is performed. My advice for beginners is to execute examples from this chapter in their test environments. The best way to learn is by doing it.


If you are experienced administrator this book can be useful for you too also. It provides wealth of useful information from the business side view. There is well described importance of documentation and checklists to reduce stress at work and avoid expensive mistakes.

And for the beginners this book may be the first book to read along with Oracle documentation.

Rating 9 / 10