This small book, slightly larger than O'Reilly Press's "Pocket Reference" titles, packs in a lot of invaluable information, and for slightly over $20.00.

I'm somewhat new to Oracle tuning, but one thing I've learned: if you think you're spending too much time fine-tuning your Oracle DBMS, then you probably ARE - and the problem is probably somewhere else. other than on the server. This rule is true as long as you implement scripts to automate your tasks.

The 30+ scripts in and of themselves are worth twice the price of his book (which, heh-heh, I "previewed" before purchasing); but the text, concise as it is, explains some fundamental aspects of locks and latches that I've NEVER seen or read about anywhere else.

To quote the author from his own preface:"Oracle has chosen to leave these features undocumented. Please don't expect Oracle to assist you in [the use of these scripts]. Try them by all means, but if you have a problem, quit."

As far as I can see, the scripts I have tested (nearly 2/3 of them so far) all "work" fine.

John K. Joachim