We truly live in the Information age. Think for a moment about all the data that exists about you in computers around the world:

Whether it's a hospital's record system, your employer's payroll system, the invoicing records of an online store, or your financial accounts, the examples are endless. Next, multiply that amount of data by the number of people in the world. The result is a truly staggering amount of information. How is it possible that all this data can be organized and retrieved? How is it possible that you can search an online bookstore and find exactly the book you're looking for within seconds? How is all of this sensitive data protected and kept secure? In today's data-centric world, by and large, it is the Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) that makes this possible. The RDBMS is the cornerstone of the information technology world. While user interfaces, web servers, and application servers are all important parts of the way we save and obtain information, it is the RDBMS that serves as the massive storehouse for the data itself. Additionally, this massive amount of data is growing exponentially. New systems and strategies are constantly being devised in order to store and retrieve this information in a way that is useful to companies. In this book, we examine every aspect of the Oracle RDBMS, the most widely-used commercial database in the world. We will look at its architecture, the way it stores data, its security configuration, and its high degree of configurability.

This book takes a from-the-ground-up approach to Oracle database administration. The first chapter will cover topics that are not specifically covered on exam 1Z0-052, Oracle Database 11g: Administration I. Rather, it serves as a foundational knowledge for readers who are new to Oracle and a refresher for those already familiar with it. However, even experienced DBAs will likely discover new information in these chapters. Because of the amount of information we cover, we place a strong emphasis on learning by example. In addition, we will focus on comprehending the information needed for the Oracle Certification with special attention on how the information pertains to the life of a real-world Oracle DBA. At the end of each chapter, we'll highlight the exact certification topics that come directly from the Oracle Certification syllabus.

In this chapter we shall: