Review - Database Tuning - A Principled Approach.

Paolo Atzeni: Review - Database Tuning - A Principled Approach. ACM SIGMOD Digital Review 2: (2000) BibTeX

Review

This book is probably unique in the database area.
It covers in an integrated way the various aspects in the technology of database systems and their impact on performance. Specifically, physical structures, concurrency control and recovery are taken into account.
The perspective is that of tuning: if you have a system, if its preformances are not satisfactory, then try to see what should be done to improve them.
Therefore, the book is probably more directed to professionals who really have to solve these problems in real settings, rather than to researchers or students. However, the approach is very sound, since it discusses useful abstarctions over the specificities of the various database systems.
Indeed, it gives great insight on the actual meaning of various of the basic system issues in DBMSs, which complement the standard systematic notions in physical structures and transaction management. In particular, the case "scenarios" shown in each chapter are very useful for reflection on the significance and interrrelation of the various aspects.
I have used the book as a reference for class discussions following a standard presentation of system issues, and I found that the students (and not only them; also I...) could really understand much more after seeing actual cases.
In summary, a great book, which I would like to recommend to all colleagues.

References

[1]: Dennis Shasha: Database Tuning - A Principled Approach. Prentice-Hall 1992, ISBN 0-13-205246-6
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