Reviews BooksOracle Warehouse Builder 11g: Getting Started Review
Data warehousing is essential for businesses that have to deal with massive data on a daily basis. It's a standard practice for network administrators, web developers and anyone related in the IT company to use data warehouse to ensure stability and ease of access of the needed data.
A simple set up of the physical server should be able to store the needed data but retrieval and manipulation could be very challenging. Problems related to working with the needed data can be addressed with the right data warehousing application.
This book tries to explain in detail the functions of one of the most popular data warehousing applications: Oracle Warehouse Builder. It's a powerful data warehousing tool sought by small and large businesses that have to consistently deal with massive data.
The Book at First Glance
The book is larger compared to regular books released by PackT Publishing. Instead of the regular 250-page range, the book is now more than 350 pages. The book looks massive as it deals with very specific information and wide range of possibilities and scenario with Oracle's data warehousing application. The screenshots can be noticed while going through random pages which means it provides an actual interaction with the application.
The Author
The book was written by Bob Griesemer. Although he's not a recognized name in the industry, he has been working with various database solutions for more than 25 years. His experience with various industries and even in some government institutions have provided the needed knowledge in getting this book done. He is currently the Senior Database Engineer in Northrop Grumman Corporation. His profile also indicates that he has worked with Oracle since its 6th version which means he has monitored almost every major change of Oracle since its inception.
Chapters
The book has nine chapters with one index. The following is a short description of each chapter.
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Oracle Warehouse Builder
This chapter introduces the reader to the basics of Oracle Warehouse Builder. This chapter is recommended for everyone who doesn't see the necessity of an efficient data warehousing application. Installation instructions with screenshots are added in this chapter.
Chapter 2: Defining and Importing Source Data Structures
After a successful installation of Oracle applications, the next logical step is to explain the initial operations needed in Data Warehousing. The chapter provides an interesting technique on how to import data and how to create various modules and projects with Oracle Warehouse Builder.
Chapter 3: Designing the Target Structure
As the name suggests, this chapter provides a detailed instruction on how to design your data warehouse. Various designs are discussed on the chapter as well as their possible uses and implementation. The must read in this chapter is the tips on how to identify warehouse dimensions which is very important in reading other data warehouse structures.
Chapter 4: Creating the Target Structure in OWB
This chapter provides extensive instructions on how to customize the structure according to the administrators’ preferences. The interesting part of this chapter is the step-by-step instruction on Time Dimension Wizard and New Dimension Wizard - two functions that can ease data warehousing.
Chapter 5: Extract, Transform, and Load Basics
The most important functions in data warehousing are the ETL functions. This chapter provides in details, the processes involved when using these functions in data warehousing. The author opted to write the manual processes in order to provide detailed information about the ETL.
Chapter 6: ETL: Putting it Together
This chapter provides detailed instructions on how to combine the functions learned from the previous chapter. Although it should have more information especially on unexpected results, the chapter should be good enough to start base data warehousing.
Chapter 7: ETL: Transformations and Other Operators
This is where data warehousing gets really interesting. The previous chapter only provides the basics which should work well for light data access. However, if you are dealing with massive data with extensive access requirements, this chapter provides almost every piece of information you need.
Chapter 8: Validating, Generating, Deploying, and Executing Objects
While there are no chapters dedicated to troubleshooting the application, the validating chapter could fill the gap. The generators, deployment and execution functions are also discussed in this chapter. It gets a little bit complicated so take extra attention on the screenshots for better understanding.
Chapter 9: Extra Features
This chapter shows why Oracle Data Warehouse is considered one of the most powerful database applications in the world. Editing, metadata management, snapshots and other features that made Oracle stand out are discussed in this chapter. Take note of the synchronization functions in the application as this will be a very important feature for remote access of database.
Targeted Audience
The book is intended for those who want to learn more about data warehousing from scratch. The introduction on the necessity of data warehousing is very interesting since it provides a closer look on how database administrators should understand data manipulation in servers. The book slowly moves to complicated subjects as it tries to help readers fully understand each step.
Even though the book is intended on those starting in data warehousing, the book can be a good refresher for experts. The later chapter can be a good reference in case special functions in data warehousing should be used.
Conclusion
Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g: Getting Stared is large book full of screenshots and step by step instructions. It has the extensiveness needed by anyone who wants to learn about this feature in Oracle or even those who are not familiar with database administration. As already indicated, the initial chapters are very impressive as it provides a detailed description on data warehousing.
The book may lack some extensive troubleshooting information but the scenarios indicated should give a good idea on what to do in case the unexpected happens. It's a must buy book for those beginning in database administrators and for those who are already experienced in the industry as the book can be a good reference on the latest techniques in Oracle Warehouse Builder.
This book is available for purchase at packtpub.com
Read Sample Chapter
Chapter 3 : Designing Target Structure
