[Disclaimer – this is a review of a free copy I received from Oracle Press in the UK]
Well, it turned out that I had requested the ASM book (or “Oracle Automatic Storage Management: Under-the-Hood & Practical Deployment Guide“, to give it it’s full title) as one to review. It turned up a couple of months ago and so I tucked it away until I had some free time. The fact that I managed to read some of it on a beach in Spain is probably a good sign 😉 However, I should also point out that most of my beach reading was a 500+ page Pete Townshend biography, so I’m not a complete Oracle nut-case!
I enjoyed the book a lot more than I’m used to enjoying Oracle Press offerings, so maybe I shouldn’t judge a book by the publisher. However, as ASM is still something of a rarity in the UK market, I don’t have as much experience with it as others do, so I suggest you read Jason Arneil’s review here, including the follow-up comments. Personally, I thought the technical content was high, other than the odd chapter that felt a little light and packed with screenshots, as Jason highlighted. I would say about 2/3 of the chapters were more than technical enough for me, a sign that some of the ASM development team were involved. but others didn’t seem to have the same depth; Chapter 9 for example. Maybe it’s because of the multiple authors?
I particularly liked the occasional O/S-specific hints (which are useful if you move between different operating systems as part of your work), the introduction to storage technology (which I can see being useful to new DBAs) and the technical details in the latter chapters that Jason highlighted, including the destruction of various ASM myths. Chapter 12 also raises, discusses and answers some of the organisational obstructions to implementing ASM in the type of large companies I usually work for. I’m convinced these are the main reason for the lack of ASM take-up I’ve witnessed, so maybe I’ll carry a copy of the book around to future sites, in case it helps with those arguments.
All-in-all, a worthwhile book from my perspective and one that I’ll actually be keeping and can see myself referring back to occasionally. I’d recommend it, particularly if you have a passing interest in ASM and want to know more about how it works.
P.S. I also liked the Hitchiker’s Guide and Spinal Tap references 😉
Hey Doug,
You know I think I might have been a little harsh in my review, as I have personally referred back to it a lot.
Maybe if I had been on a beach at the time, I would have been more generous 😉
But the book does have something of the curates egg about it. Several chapters have information that as far as I know are not available anywhere else and are highly informative, but as you say some are just screenshot-tastic.
Actually, maybe from a sales point of view pitching a book at differing levels is not a bad idea!