Oracle Database 10g Real Application Clusters Handbook [NOOK Book]

Don't bother... don't waste your time and money...

I'm a beginner in RAC although I have the OCA and OCP certifications. So i was looking for an easy book to guide me through RAC technology. To start off, this book was printed in draft mode. Remember your printer: you have three options to save ink: best, normal and draft (less ink/toner). The book was printed in draft mode. Very poor quality. Secondly, to save even more on printing costs, they used a very, very small font size. You better wear glasses. Thirdly, the most difficult part in using RAC is when you want to install the clusterware because there are a lot of requirements to be set up before you can actually install the clusterware. This book DOES NOT TEACH YOU how to configure network cards, set up private ip numbers or create a vip address. It does not even tell you how to create users and groups. The author used Linux as his chosen platform to run Oracle. So you better be very, very familiar with Linux specially in networking, using ssh to run commands in other computers, switching privileges/users using su/sudo. The author assumes you are an expert in linux but he does not mention that on the book. He simply skips this steps on the book. Fourthly, this book is just a bunch of fancy technical concepts. Real hands-on examples with step by step details is not on this book. The problem with this author is that he might think we're on the same level of knowledge he is and therefore, many things are simply ASSUMED that you and I know. Fithly, this books DOES NOT tell you anything about the GRID technology and architecture. There's no mention about grid management, including Enterprise Manager or Grid Control. After all, I can tell you this: if you buy this book, you better have the Oracle 10g Online documentation ready and also a very, very good book about Linux just to start off. In the end, you're better off without this book. Oracle 10g online documentation has a step by step on how to install and configure RAC on linux. But there's hope: luckly, i found this book 'ORACLE 10G RAC GRID, SERVICES AND CLUSTERING' by Murali Vallath. This book guides you through the step by step of doing everything including how to set up and configure network cards, private ip, vip addresses, creating users and groups, modifying folders properties on linux, using ssh to execute commands in other machines, switching users and privileges with su/sudo. With this book, you don't need Oracle online documentation or a linux book. It also provides step by step on how to do the same things on windows. It has a vast chapter about ASM with ton's of scripts to convert your database to ASM. So if you are a beginner or intermediate on RAC technology, you definitely should read this book.