Expert Oracle Exadata - Parent Directory

INTRODUCTIONwere implementing Exadata while Randy and I were busy writing. Third, he was instrumental in helpingus figure out how various features worked, particularly with regard to installation, configuration, andconnections to external systems. It would have been difficult to complete the project without him.Who Wrote That?There are three authors of this book, four if you count Kevin. It was really a collaborative effort amongthe four of us. But in order to divide the work we each agreed to do a number of chapters. Initially Randyand I started the project and Tanel joined a little later (so he got a lighter load in terms of theassignments, but was a very valuable part of team, helping with research on areas that were notspecifically assigned to him). So here’s how the assignments worked out:Kerry: Chapters 1–6, 10, 16.Randy: Chapters 7–9, 14–15, and about half of 13Tanel: Chapters 11–12, and about half of 13Kevin: Easily identifiable in the “Kevin Says” sectionsOnline ResourcesWe used a number of scripts in this book. When they were short or we felt the scripts themselves were ofinterest, we included their contents in the text. When they were long or just not very interesting, wesometimes left the contents of the scripts out of the text. You can find the source code for all of thescripts we used in the book online at www.ExpertOracleExadata.com. Appendix C also contains a listing ofall the diagnostic scripts along with a brief description of their purpose.A Note on “Kevin Says”Kevin Closson served as our primary technical reviewer for the book. Kevin was the chief performancearchitect at Oracle for the SAGE project, which eventually turned into Exadata, so he is extremelyknowledgeable not only about how it works, but also about how it should work and why. His duties astechnical reviewer were to review what we wrote and verify it for correctness. The general workflowconsisted of one of the authors submitting a first draft of a chapter and then Kevin would review it andmark it up with comments. As we started working together, we realized that it might be a good idea toactually include some of Kevin’s comments in the book, which provides you with a somewhat uniquelook into the process. Kevin has a unique way of saying a lot in very few words. Over the course of theproject I found myself going back to short comments or emails multiple times, and often found themmore meaningful after I was more familiar with the topic. So I would recommend that you do the same.Read his comments as you’re going through a chapter, but try to come back and reread his commentsafter finishing the chapter; I think you’ll find that you will get more out of them on the second pass.How We TestedWhen we began the project, the current release of the database was 11.2.0.1. So several of the chapterswere initially tested with that version of the database and various patch levels on the storage cells. Whenxxi