Acknowledgments

Many technical books need the expertise of more than one person, and this one is no exception. The people I collaborated with regarding this book at Oracle Open World, in Oracle Support, and in the Oracle Partner Network are too numerous to mention, but all played an important role in this book.

Thanks also go out to all the people at McGraw-Hill Education (and those who work with MHE) who pulled me in at the last minute to finish off the book in a somewhat timely manner, including Wendy Rinaldi, Claire Yee, and Patty Mon. Thanks also to Michelle Malcher, who gave me good advice in each chapter, which did add the final polish to those chapters. Extreme thanks to Robert G. Freeman, my co-author, without whose help this book would not have been published in a timely manner. I will have to remind him again about the time I wrote one chapter for his Oracle Database 10g RMAN book many, many years ago.

Many of my professional colleagues at Epic were a source of both inspiration and guidance: James Slager, Scott Hinman, Maggie Yan, Joe Obbish, and Lonny Niederstadt. In this case, the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts.

I would be remiss to not mention the mostly nontechnical support of my friends and family in Wisconsin—and hot yoga. I found much inspiration for writing this book while experiencing extreme perspiration three times a week (and no less than three times a week!).

If you have any questions or comments about any part of this book, please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected].

—Bob Bryla

So much has changed since my last book. I suppose that this is not the place for a personal historical chronology, but there are a few things I must mention as a part of the acknowledgments. However, to understand who I am acknowledging, I think a little bit of what happened to me, on my way to the printing press, is called for.

I’ve had a few tragic events happen around me while I’ve been engaged in this thing called writing. If you will allow me just a moment, I’d like to share a few experiences with you—as a part of my overall acknowledgments.

Back in 1995, I had been a DBA in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for maybe three years. I was just starting to become interested in presenting on Oracle topics and I was putting together the first abstracts I would submit to some Oracle conference (I can’t recall which one it was now). April 19, 1995 was a sunny day and it was no different than any other day. I drove to work, realized that I’d forgotten my laptop, and asked my wife, at the time, to bring it to me. She loaded it in our van, along with our three preschool-aged kids, and dropped it off and kissed me goodbye. Then, literally just 2 to 3 minutes later—just as I sat down at my desk—the loudest sound you can imagine erupted. Glass flew everywhere, false ceilings collapsed, and fluorescent lighting fixtures fell to the ground. In the eerie silence that followed, punctuated with the faraway sounds of a few car alarms and fire alarms, we looked out what was left of our office window to see the shattered remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

In the story of the Oklahoma City bombing, there are many miracles, and that I am alive is probably one. However, that my wife and kids are alive is a genuine miracle. Normally, she would have turned left at the intersection in front of the Murrah building, but instead—and to this day she does not know why—she turned right. Had she turned left, the death toll would have certainly increased by four that day. I am grateful she turned right. That day, and the days afterwards, we watched people do amazing things, go through amazing things, and we watched people suffer great happiness and sadness.

Some years later, in 2011, I was living in Jacksonville, Florida. I was in the middle of writing a book at the time that the events of 9/11 occurred. I can’t say that I was directly impacted by the events of 9/11 as much as I was by the Oklahoma City bombing. Indirectly, the attack brought back memories of Oklahoma City and it also reinforced the appreciation I felt for all those who took part in the monumental efforts to save lives. In the midst of the horrors of the absolute disdain for life, we saw the amazing efforts of those who cherish and protect life.

Flash forward to 12/14/2016. During this time, I was in the midst of trying to write Oracle Database 12c Release 2 New Features. Frankly, writing a new features book is frustrating in many respects. You only have beta software to start with, you don’t know when the product will ship, and yet, you still have a schedule to keep. At the same time, my wife Carrie was pregnant with our newest arrival, who would be named Abigail (Abbie for short!). I won’t go into a lot of detail, but we had some challenges with the pregnancy and I was already way behind on the book. The saving grace was that Oracle had not yet released Oracle Database 12c Release 2.

Abbie was born on 12/14/2016—and I’d done the new dad thing before. I figured that I’d get caught up on the book and that everything would be OK. I am not sure my editors shared my sense of confidence in my ability to deliver—but they stuck with me.

Then, several days later, I was feeding Abbie at 5:30 A.M. on Monday morning when my wife said she needed to call 911. The ambulance came, they packed her up, and off she went, leaving me with two kids and not a clue what to do. After some phone calls and scrambling about, I got the kids taken care of and made my way to the hospital. To make a long story short, they could not figure out what was wrong with my wife, and at around 7 that evening she was wheeled into emergency surgery.

She then spent the next two weeks in a coma. After that, it was (and still is) a long road to recovery. She is doing much better now, and as I stated in the dedication, I owe a debt of gratitude to many people.

So, first, I need to acknowledge Wendy Rinaldi and Bob Bryla. When I told Wendy what was going on, she immediately took steps to remove the burden of finishing this book from my plate. I’ll be honest, I was hesitant—this book has always been my baby. She was right though; I simply did not have the time to get it done.

Thanks to Bob for stepping in and picking up a very rough piece of work. My understanding is that he went pretty much heads down on this project. Thanks for getting it done, Bob!

Thanks to the whole Oracle Press staff who participated in this project: Claire Yee, Patty Mon, and Janet Walden.

Thanks to my old friend Pete Sharman for technical editing yet another book for me.

I am also thankful to the folks at Oracle who continuously produce a great product in Oracle Database.

—Robert G. Freeman

I would like to thank all those who are willing to share their knowledge and continue to make the Oracle Community a better place. Also, I want to thank some of the brightest people I ever worked with and all those who could not be mentioned by name (you know who you are).

—Eric Yen