Mastering Oracle Scheduler in Oracle 11g Databases Review

One of the most popular functions of Oracle 11g is the scheduler. As the name suggests, the function from Oracle VM provides automation needed by many database administrators. Database administrators and web developers can't monitor their server 24/7 (especially for small businesses) so the scheduler provides the functions that the developers needed. Even though they are not actively using Oracle, the scheduler will do the needed functions.

This book will try to tackle the issues related to Oracle's scheduler. Because of its importance, database administrators have to understand each component of the scheduler in order to get the best out of this smart function from Oracle VM.

Books' First Impression

PackT Publishing is well known for providing easy to understand and affordable books for developers or those who wanted to understand programming and other topics related to technology. This book is not an exception. The book comes with more than 200 pages of easy to understand instructions.

Since it's only dealing with a very specific subject in Oracle VM, you can expect that every chapter is very detailed. Of course, that's only the initial impression but you will notice that most of the pages are filled with various instructions and screenshots that will help every database administrator.

Book's Author

Ronald Rood is a Netherlands-based database administrator who has worked with Oracle for many years. His expertise is based on the fact that he is also working with UNIX which provides a powerful framework when working with Oracle. Before finding the beauty of Oracle and UNIX, Rood has worked with various assembly languages.

At first glance, you might be a little bit dubious about the author since he's relatively unknown. But the book will speak for itself on how he relates the latest in Oracle VM specifically on scheduler.

Short Discussion of Each Chapter

Chapter 1: Simple Jobs

The book doesn't hesitate in discussing the functions that can help anyone in starting with the scheduler. The simplest tasks are tackled in this chapter which means administrators should be able to start working with schedulers after reading the chapter.

Chapter 2: Simple Chains

One of the first functions that compliment the basic scheduler is chains. This chapter provides an impressive description on chains, how will they be used and simple tricks that can be used to optimized the functions of chains. Be sure to take note of examples as they will most likely come out in actual use.

Chapter 3: Control the Scheduler

Running the scheduler is very different from controlling the scheduler. This is very useful for those who wanted to provide additional customization in running their scheduler. This chapter becomes a bit complicated so a slow interpretation on how the functions work is essential.

Chapter 4: Managing Resources

Scheduler can be easily limited by the functions and hardware related to the server. However, this chapter will give you the tricks on how to push your scheduler to the limit without bringing the system down. In gist, the chapter is all about optimization.

Chapter 5: Getting out of the Database

This chapter is very important because it discusses the unique feature first introduced in Oracle 11g. Remote and external work related to scheduler can be implemented in 11g version of Oracle and beyond. This is a very important chapter as it tries to explain the difference from the previous version and how to adapt to the changes.

Chapter 6: Events

This small chapter deals with a small but efficient add-on in scheduling. When events are added in scheduler, more functions are expected which means additional customization needed by database administrator.

Chapter 7: Debugging the Scheduler

The best way to prevent the problems with scheduler is to debug the scheduler before actual implementation. This chapter points out the specific areas that should be noted where the bugs might start and on what to do in case a troubling and unexpected function happen.

Chapter 8: Scheduler in Real Life

This is maybe the most interesting chapter. The author provides the functions that will be most likely used in extensive scheduler. Aside from very important functions, the chapter also points out some loopholes that might cause system troubles and how to deal with it in case problems come out.

Chapter 9: Other configurations

As the name suggests, this chapter offers additional information related to scheduler. To be specific, this chapter deals with Real Application Clusters. The information added in this chapter is not much but focuses on basic data in order to start with RAC.

Chapter 10: Working remotely

The final chapter deals with the new feature of Oracle 11g and expanded in terms of remotely controlling your scheduler. This is a great feature of the latest version of Oracle VM and the step by step instructions with explanations is simply impressive.

Scope of the Book

The book is very specific as it tackles a single function in Oracle VM. At first glance, a single function should not have this much attention since basic information can be easily explained in a single chapter in a separate book. However, database administrators have to realize that the scheduler is being transformed into a very powerful function that will ease the burden of many developers. Some database administrators might already be familiar with the subject but the book adds small details that might help administrators deal with specific problems related to schedulers.

Conclusion

Purchasing a book (or an e-book) for a very specific topic may not be a good idea at first. However, the subject discussed in this book is a relatively complicated subject that needs further discussion and a chapter might not be enough to cover the challenges related to the subject. Schedulers in Oracle 11g is not just a simple function that can be easily configured to work based on the administrators expectations. Through this book, database administrators will be able to get the best out of schedulers and control Oracle VM manager with ease. It's a smart function that can get the best out of Oracle 11g without asking too much for optimization.

This book is available for purchase at packtpub.com

Read Sample Chapter 6