Expert Indexing in Oracle Database 11g: Maximum Performance for Your Database

Expert Indexing in Oracle Database 11g: Maximum Performance for Your Database

by Darl Kuhn, Sam R. Alapati, Bill Padfield
Released December 2011
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781430237358

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Book description

Expert Indexing in Oracle Database 11g is about the one database structure at the heart of almost all performance concerns: the index. Database system performance is one of the top concerns in information technology today. Administrators struggle to keep up with the explosion of access and activity driven by the proliferation of computing into everything from phones to tablets to PCs in our increasingly connected world. At the heart of any good-performing database lies a sound indexing strategy that makes appropriate use of indexing, and especially of the vendor-specific indexing features on offer.

Few databases fully exploit the wealth of data access mechanisms provided by Oracle. Expert Indexing in Oracle Database 11g helps by bringing together information indexing and how to use it into one, convenient and blissfully short volume that you can read quickly and have at your fingertips for reference. Learn the different types of indices available and when each is best applied. Recognize when queries aren't using indices as you intend. Manage your indexing for maximum performance. Let Expert Indexing in Oracle Database 11g be your guide to deep mastery of the most fundamental performance optimization structure in Oracle Database.

  • Explains how indices work, how they help, and how they hinder

  • Demystifies the various index choices

  • Describes the database administration chores associated with indices

What you'll learn

  • Create an overall indexing strategy to guide your decisions

  • Choose the correct indexing mechanisms for your applications

  • Manage and maintain indices to avoid degradation and preserve efficiency

  • Take better advantage of underused index types such as index-organized tables

  • Choose the appropriate columns to index, with confidence

  • Blend partitioning and materialized views into your indexing strategy

Who this book is for

Expert Indexing in Oracle Database 11g is for all levels of database administrators and application developers who are struggling with the database performance and scalability challenge. Any database administrator involved with indexing, which is any database administrator period, will appreciate the wealth of advice packed into this gem of a book.

Table of contents

  1. Title
  2. Dedication
  3. Contents at a Glance
  4. Contents
  5. About the Authors
  6. About the Technical Reviewer
  7. Acknowledgments
    1. Personal Acknowledgments
  8. Chapter 1: Oracle Indexes
    1. Improving Performance with Indexes
    2. Determining Which Type of Index to Use
    3. Determining Which Columns to Index
    4. Indexing Guidelines
    5. Summary
  9. Chapter 2: B-tree Indexes
    1. Understanding How Oracle Uses B-tree Indexes
    2. Prepping for B-tree Indexes
    3. Implementing B-tree Indexes
    4. Managing B-tree Indexes with Constraints
    5. Summary
  10. Chapter 3: Bitmap Indexes
    1. Understanding Bitmap Indexes
    2. Creating a Bitmap Index
    3. Creating a Partitioned Bitmap Index
    4. Creating a Bitmap Index on an Index-Organized Table
    5. Performance Implications Querying with Bitmap Indexes
    6. Performance Implications Loading Data with Bitmap Indexes
    7. Understanding Bitmap Join Indexes
    8. Creating a Bitmap Join Index
    9. Reporting on Bitmap Indexes
    10. Summary
  11. Chapter 4: Index-Organized Tables
    1. Understanding the Structure
    2. Understanding the Advantages
    3. Creating an Index-Organized Table
    4. Adding an Overflow Segment
    5. Compressing an Index-Organized Table
    6. Building Secondary Indexes
    7. Rebuilding an Index-Organized Table
    8. Reporting on Index-Organized Tables
    9. Summary
  12. Chapter 5: Specialized Indexes
    1. Invisible Indexes
    2. Function-Based Indexes
    3. Indexes on Virtual Columns
    4. Key-Compressed Indexes
    5. Composite Indexes
    6. Creating Virtual Indexes
    7. Reverse Key Indexes
    8. Application Domain Indexes
    9. Summary
  13. Chapter 6: Partitioned Indexes
    1. Understanding Partitioned Indexes
    2. Creating a Locally Partitioned Index
    3. Managing Primary Keys and Unique Indexes
    4. Creating a Globally Partitioned Index
    5. Choosing the Type of Index for Your Application
    6. Maintaining Indexes on Partitioned Tables
    7. Rebuilding Globally Partitioned and Non-Partitioned Indexes
    8. Setting Index Partitions as Unusable and Then Rebuilding
    9. Index Implications for Interval Partitioning
    10. Making Older Data Read-Only
    11. Reporting on Partitioned Indexes
    12. Summary
  14. Chapter 7: Tuning Index Usage
    1. Optimizer Access Paths
    2. Index Scans
    3. Determining Whether a Query Uses an Index
    4. Forcing a Table Scan
    5. Choosing Between an Index and a Table Scan
    6. Why the Optimizer May Ignore Indexes
    7. How Index Access Paths Can Change Without New Statistics
    8. Forcing the Optimizer to Use an Index
    9. Parallelizing Index Access
    10. Summary
  15. Chapter 8: Maintaining Indexes
    1. Gathering Statistics for Indexes
    2. Working with Unusable Indexes
    3. Managing Index Space Usage
    4. The Role of the INDEX_STATS View in Index Rebuilds
    5. Index Rebuilding: The Debate
    6. Coalescing Indexes to Reduce Fragmentation
    7. Shrinking Indexes to Reduce Fragmentation
    8. Moving Tables and Indexes
    9. Improving Index Creation Efficiency
    10. Generating the DDL for Creating an Index
    11. Dropping an Index
    12. Summary
  16. Chapter 9: SQL Tuning Advisor
    1. How the Tools Relate
    2. Automatic SQL Tuning Job
    3. Managing SQL Tuning Sets
    4. Running the SQL Tuning Advisor
    5. Summary
  17. Chapter 10: SQL Access Advisor
    1. Generating Advice for a Single SQL Statement
    2. Obtaining Advice for a Group of SQL Statements
    3. Querying Advisor Views
    4. Summary
  18. Index

Product information

  • Title: Expert Indexing in Oracle Database 11g: Maximum Performance for Your Database
  • Author(s): Darl Kuhn, Sam R. Alapati, Bill Padfield
  • Release date: December 2011
  • Publisher(s): Apress
  • ISBN: 9781430237358