California State University, Chico
Department of Computer Science

Syllabus/Course Requirements

Course Number: CSCI 397C

Course Title: Enterprise DBA Part 2: Oracle 8i Performance and Tuning

Course Times and Locations:      MW 10:00AM-11:50AM OCNL 431

Instructor: Dr. Melody Callan

Instructor's Office Hours: Mon noon-1 pm, Tu & Th noon -2 pm  in OCNL 208

Faculty Phone: (530) 898-5617 , message 898-6442, fax 898-5995

Email: melody@ecst.csuchico.edu or mcallan@csuchico.edu

Textbooks:

• Mandatory Texts: For this course order from the Oracle Academic Initiative web site the Course Manual.......... "Enterprise DBA Part 2:Performance and Tuning". This course manual has the part #A80635 in the Oracle Store.  Take this link for instructions on how to order your Course Manuals from the Oracle Store.
• Optional: Oracle Performance Tuning, Tips and Techniques, by Richard Niemiec and TUSC, published by Oracle Press of Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1999,  ISBN # 0-07-882434-6
• Optional: Oracle 8 Advanced Tuning and Administration, by Eyal Aronoff, Kevin Loney and Noorali Sonawalla, published by Oracle Press of Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1998,  ISBN # 0-07-882534-2
• Optional: Oracle Performance Tuning, Mark Gurry and Peter Corrigan, published by O'Reilly and Associates, Inc., 1996, ISBN 1-56592-237-9

Course Description: This course will cover the basic principles and techniques of Performance Tuning for databases and specifically the Oracle 8i DBMS.  We will cover all 17 lessons in the Oracle Course Manuals and complete the bulk of the lab exercises from these manuals.   

Course Goals: Students will be able to set measurable performance tuning goals for databases and accomplish those goals.  Students will understand how to use trace files, the alert log file and event sets to assist with tuning.  They will understand and be able to use utilities and dynamic performance views to assist with tuning.  They will understand how to tune applications using index structures and how to perform SQL statement tuning.  Tuning issues involving the operating system, the shared pool, the buffer cache, the redo log buffer and rollback segments will also be covered.  Using Oracle storage efficiently and detecting lock contention will also be covered.  The use of the Oracle Expert to tune and also optimizing for load will be covered during this course.

Course Notes: In Oracle Course Manuals, the Oracle Lab (OCNL 431) and on the web from my web page.

Web Page: www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~melody/ (watch for Live Courses for Spring 2001 -  CSCI 397C: Oracle 8i Performance Tuning materials)

Mandatory Attendance Policy:  It is mandatory that you attend both the lectures and labs for this course.  You will be dropped from the course for non-attendance.  If you are ill, you must notify Dr. Callan via email right away.   If you are ill for more than one class in a row, you must provide a Doctor's excuse.  You may be excused for family emergencies.  Non-attendance due to workload in this course or other courses is not acceptable as an excuse.   A seating chart will be made and your attendance will be noted daily.  There are more than a dozen students that were trying to add this course and were turned away, so your seat in this course is quite valuable.

Note:  Are you sure you are taking the right course?  This course assumes some maturity in database management systems in understanding good relational database design (ER and Object Modeling, normalization) along with SQL programming and Transaction Management (recovery, concurrency, logging, etc.).  It is mandatory that you have had the equivalent of 276 - Oracle 8 Database Administration as a prerequisite.  If you have not had this prerequisite, you need to drop the course and enroll in 276.

Plagiarism/Cheating Policy:  Anyone who as determined by the Instructor/TA has copied any part of another students work will automatically receive a grade of "F" for the course.  Anyone cheating on an exam will receive a grade of "F" for the course.  Anyone signing an attendance roster for someone who is not attending will receive a grade of "F" for the course.  Anyone who alters there exam answers after receiving the exam back with receive a grade of "F" for the course.

Course Assignments:

There will be lab exercises assigned from the Oracle Course Manuals.  Students will need to demonstrate completion of these exercises.  There will also be additional labs assigned in additon to those in the Course Manuals.

Policy on Turning in Lab and Homework Assignments:   Due dates are firm.  No late assignments will be accepted unless serious illness or other excused absences merit allowances in the judgment of the instructor.

Grade Evaluation Procedures:  Students will be graded based on their performance in the following course components -

• Lab Exercises/Assignments/Demonstrations                       30%
• Quizzes (2 midterm at 15% each)                                         30%
• Attendance/Pop Quizzes                                                        10%
• Final Quiz                                                                               30%

First Assignment: Read Lesson 1 and 2 from your Oracle 8i: Performance Tuning Course Manual.   Send email to melody@ecst.csuchico.edu right away with your full name, the courses you have taken including whether or not you have had the equivalent of our Oracle 8i Database Administration course, the languages and applications you know, your experience with database management systems and your interest in this class and in computer science in general.