Oracle 11i E-Business Suite from the Front Lines

I agree with the other reviewer that this is good solid introduction for an experienced Oracle DBA who is new to the Oracle 11i Apps side of database administration. I have the other 2 Oracle 11i DBA books and this one nicely covers how to perform the complex side of Oracle 11i Applications patching and working with the concurrent manager which are two of the most challenging aspects of working with Oracle 11i Apps as a new Apps DBA. I also like the coverage of Apache and JServ. However the main weakness is that it does not do that great a job of covering Workflow administration or other component administration of the Oracle 11i Apps/ebusiness suite either. For this you are stuck with Oracle documentation and Metalink. Still a worthy effort and valuable for the new Oracle 11i Apps DBA.

I work as an Apps DBA. I happened to get a hold of this book and read thro' it to see if it contained anything useful. Its awful. Its badly organized.

There is no explanation on the architecture, no examples on how to use the adutilities and when to use them. Its very theoritical and not practial.

There is more emphasis on windows (I havent heard of many decent sized businesses running oracle applications on windows)

Assumed knowledge: Oracle database admininistration and/or knowledge of material covered in the OCP exams

Target audience: Ideal for new to intermediate Apps DBAs and/or non-Apps DBAs in the transition to becoming an Oracle Apps DBA.

Content: Current up to at least release 11.5.8; covers new 8i and 9i features; low to medium level detail on how-to; hands-on/by example approach

Platform and O/S coverage: Mainly UNIX (70%) with some Wintel (30%)

Unique to this book:
1. Rare, "under the hood" detail of 11i-specific 9iAS components: Apache and Jserv (Chapters 4 & 5). This 11i specific information doesn't appear in any other publication, Oracle or third party (that I know of). Chapters 4 and 5 could justify purchasing the entire book.
2. Very "hands on" or by example, low to medium level detail approach by the author: plenty of screen shots, actual commands, how-to examples. Ideal for the beginner and intermediate Apps DBA -- I wish I had this when I started out!
3. Chapter 10 on Patching provides the essential, need-to-know ADPATCH details for effective patching.

Shortcomings:
1. No technical architecture overview of Oracle 11i E-Business Suite.
2. Chapter 9 on Installation and Migration: Lacking depth of coverage of feasible 11i to 11i migration strategies. No mention of Releases such as 11.5.8 or 11.5.9, Consolidated Update Patch 1 or 2.
3. Chapter 11 on Cloning: Unfortunately, not very original as it adds no further information nor insight/value to the Metalink note on Rapid Cloning released by Oracle.

Overall verdict: Detailed and hands-on reference for the beginner-intermediate Oracle Apps DBA. Serves as a handy primer to "hit the ground running" with administering an 11i environment. Unfortunately, it falls short on detail re: upgrades, migrations and 11i cloning.

April Wells' effort complements, and provides more low to medium level of detail than two "must-have" books for Oracle Apps/11i DBA: Andy Tremayne's Oracle Applications Performance Tuning Handbook and Barbara Matthews'/Beacon Solutions' Installing, Upgrading & Maintaining Oracle Applications 11i.