12.1 What can Sybase IQ do for me?
12.2 Net-review of Sybase books
12.3 email lists
12.4 Finding Information at Sybase
Sybase IQ isn't meant as just an indexing scheme, per se. It is meant as a means of providing a low cost data warehousing solution for unplanned queries.
By the way, Sybase IQ does not use bitmapped indexes, it uses bitwise indexes, which are quite different. [Anyone care to add a paragraph explaining the difference? Ed.]
In data warehousing MIS generally does not know what the queries are. That also means that the end users often don't know what the queries are. Not knowing what the queries are turning end users loose on a 500GB operational database to perform huge queries could prove to be unacceptable (it may bring the system down a crawl). So, many customers are resorting to separating their operational databases (OLTP) and data warehousing databases. By providing this separation the operational database can continue about its business and the data warehouse users can issue blind queries without affecting the operational systems. Realize that operational systems may handle anywhere from hundreds to a few thousand users and, more likely than not, require data that is highly accurate. However, data warehouse users often don't require up to the second information and can often wait several hours, 24 hours or even days for the most current snapshot and generally don't require updates to be made to the data.
So, Sybase IQ can be updated a few times a day, once a day or a few times a week. Realize that Sybase IQ is strictly a data warehousing solution. It is not meant for OLTP systems.
Sybase IQ can also sit on top of Sybase SQL Server:
[end user]
|
|
[Sybase IQ]
[Sybase SQL Server]
What happens in this environment is that a data warehouse user can connect to Sybase IQ. Sybase IQ will then take care of processing the query or forwarding the query to SQL Server if it determines that the access paths in SQL Server are faster. An example where SQL Server will be faster than Sybase IQ in queries is when SQL Server can perform query coverate with the indexes built in SQL Server.
The obvious question is: why not index every column in SQL Server? Because it would be prohibitive to update any of the data. Hence, Sybase IQ, where all the columns are making use of the bitwise index scheme. By the way, you can choose which columns will be part of an IQ implementation. So, you may choose to have only 30% of your columns as part of your Sybase IQ implementation. Again, I can't stress enough that Sybase IQ is strictly for data warehousing solutions, not OLTP solutions.
ISBN: 0-201-54329-X Published by Addison-Wesley. Volume I and II.
This book is rightly regarded by many as the Bible of Database Management Systems. Not a book that goes into detailed specifics of any particular implementation (although it draws many examples from DB2), this book covers the practical theory that underlies all relational systems as well as DBMS in general. It is written in an easy to read, approachable style, and gives plenty of practical examples.
Covering all aspects, from straight forward issues (such as what is a relational database), to practical procedures (all forms of normalization are covered, and explained). SQL is briefly covered, in just the right amount of detail. The book includes detailed discussions of issues such as recovery, concurrency, security and integrity, and extensions to the original relational model. Current issues are dealt with in detail, such as client/server systems and the Object Oriented model(s). Literally hundreds of references are included for further reading.
If you want a book to refer to when your curiosity gets the better of you, or when a user needs a better understanding of some important database concept, this is it. It strikes the right balance between theory and practice, and should be found on every database administrators book shelf.
ISBN: 0-201-55710-X Published by Addison-Wesley. 450 pages.
I think that once, not too long ago, this used to be the only book on Sybase available. Now it seems to be totally out of print! It covered versions of Sybase SQL server up to 4.8. It covered a number of aspects of Sybase, including APT.
ISBN: 0-13-100330-5 Published by Ellis Horwood. 404 pages.
This is a good book covering Sybase systems up to and including System 10. It deals to a good depth the architecture and how most of the functions such as the optimiser work. It explains in a readable style how devices work, and how indexes are stored and manipulated.
ISBN: 0-672-30700-6 Published by SAMS. ??? pages. (Inc CD.)
This books seems very similar to number 4 to me and so I have not bought it. I have browsed through several times in the book shop, and decided that his other book covers a good deal of this. There are chapters on Visual Basic and Powerbuilder.
ISBN: 0-672-30467-8 Published by SAMS. 698 pages. (Inc disk.)
This is a big book that does not, in my opinion, cover very much. In fact the disk that is included contains DBATools, and that seems to sum up the first 50% of the book. There is a fair amount of coverage of the general architecture and how to install Sybase. Transact SQL, cursors and stored procedures get a fair covering, as does using C/C++ with DB-Library. (I can find no mention of CT-Library.) Unfortunately quite a lot of the book covers general issues which are not covered in sufficient depth to be useful, and just seem to be there to give the book bulk. Maybe as a developer's guide, his other book would be a better buy. This would probably be most useful to a small company implementing a Sybase database.
ISBN: 0-672-30651-4 Published by SAMS. 506 pages. (Inc disk.)
This book is good, and is a great help in a crisis. It includes lots of useful ideas and strategies for most (if not all) of the DBA tasks. It covers Sybase SQL Server on all platforms. It does not specifically cover any of the Microsoft versions, and certainly not version 6. It does cover System 10. It is very good at explaining the output from things like the DBCC commands. There is also a good section on what to look for in the errorlog. If you are a DBA and want to buy just one book, I would recommend this one since it covers just about everything you will need to know. This book is filled with little hints, tips and warnings which are very useful. They have certainly saved my bacon on a number of occasions, and have even made me look a real star more than once.
ISBN: 0-201-62631-4 Published by Addison-Wesley. 567 pages.
This book is solely about MS SQL Server, covering 4.2 for OS/2 and SQL Server NT. It is not bad, but does seem to regurgitate a lot from the Sybase [sic] manuals. Its coverage is fairly broad dealing with Transact SQL on the one hand through to client configuration on the other. It does cover the aspects of MS Sqlserver that are different from Sybase, (dbcc perfmon for instance) but it does not flag any as such. Probably a good buy if you only have MS Sqlserver and never intend looking at Sybase.
ISBN: 0-07-005203-4 Published by McGraw-Hill. 743 pages.
I have used this book as a reference when system manuals where not available. It is much more useful on how thing work and what approach to use rather than syntax.
The breadth of topics pleased me - all the right jargon is mentioned. The introduction mentions CORBA and DCE. Sybase RPC is compared to UNIX RPCs. Middle ware products are discussed. Talks with our sales rep. about the OMNI and NetGateway product where greatly assisted by using the diagrams in the Open Server and Gateways chapter.
Like any text, it is dated (as it is printed). The Netgateway diagram does not show a TCP/IP interface to MVS. However, the information provided is not really diminished. This goes back to the fact that this is a How Things Work and How to Use Things book, not a compilation of details on a single version.
ISBN: 0-13-161523-8 Published by Prentice-Hall. 225 pages.
Supposedly the first in a series from Sybase Professional Services, espousing the Sybase Development Framework or SDF (tm). I've seen no more books, and have never heard any more about SDF. This book is a reasonable attempt to guide developers through the process of turning a logical database design into a physical Sybase implementation.
Topics include:
Covers System 10. Lots of good practical hints and guidelines on database design. In the absence of any competition - a definite recommendation for newcomers to Sybase database design.
ISBN 0-13-442997-4 Published by Prentice Hall (http://www.prenhall.com). 622 pages.
Covers the topics:
A pleased customer on the above book:
Just a quick note to let you know of a very good book on Performance Tuning that isn't mentioned in the Sybase FAQ. I bought it a little while ago and has quickly become invaluable. It's by two pretty gifted Sybase Engineers in the SQL Server Performance Team and covers loads of things up to and including System 11. It deserves to become as big as the bible :)
This I believe is the Holy Grail of Sybase books that a lot of people have been looking for - an exaggerated claim perhaps - but a damn fine book.
ISBN 0-9537155-0-7 Published by Kirkwood Associates Ltd
This is a very readable introduction and guide to Sybase replication. Having just installed and configured my first repserver site, this book proved very useful. Rather than give a whole break down of the contents, the book is featured on their website http://www.pagelink.demon.co.uk/ where a full breakdown of the contents etc can be obtained. This is one of the few books on replication and I can thoroughly recommend it to new users and people with a fair amount of replication experience. I cannot say whether or not it would be useful to people with a lot of replication experience since I don't know anyone of that ilk who has read it.
SQL Forum Press; ISBN: 0964981203
This book is definitely not for the beginner. It covers what the author describes as characteristic functions. These are functions that allow you to a lot of data manipulation with a single pass of table. Whether you like them or not is completely a matter of taste. Read the reviews on Amazon.com to see the truth in that statement. The book pre-dates the inclusion of the CASE statement into most SQL dialects, including T-SQL, and it is certainly true that you can use the case statement to do a lot of what charactersitic functions can do. However, table pivoting is definitely an exception and there are probably others. Personally I like the book since it shows a completely different way of thinking about problems and their solution.
Possibly tricky to get hold of.
SQL Forum Press; ISBN: ???
The only thing I have on this is the following:
The best work I've ever read on the subject of Tree and Graph processing in SQL is strangely entitled: "Tree and Graph Processing in SQL" by Dr. David Rozenshtein et al.
Paul Horan [TeamSybase]
There are no reviews on Amazon at this time, so I cannot even send you there.
Possibly tricky to get hold of.
ISBN 1-56592-401-0 Published by O'Reilly
This book covers both the Sybase and Microsoft dialects of T-SQL. There is a very clear side-by-side comparison of the two sets of features. There is also an excellent description of all of the Microsoft features. I find the same is not so true about the Sybase parts. The actual book is up to nornal O'Reilly standards and is very readable.
ISBN 0-9537155-1-5 Published by Kirkwood Associates Ltd
This is John Kirkwood's latest offering. The title tells all as far as subject matter is concerned. An excellent offering, very readable. Covers a lot of the undocumented dbcc's plus lots of other good stuff. I would have to say a definite must for all DBAs. Obviously not a book for developers, unless they are also part time DBAs. However, if you wanted to get a better understanding of how Sybase internal storeage works, this covers a lot of that.
At the time of writing the book was available from Amazon.co.uk but not amazon.com. I am not sure if this is likely to change or not. You can always get it from his own site, http://www.pagelink.demon.co.uk/.
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Sybase has now gone completely Portal or is that Postal? The front desk is most definitely www.sybase.com, which leads to a very polished site. A more useful thing to do is to sign up at the site for your own particular perspective. You can do this by going to my.sybase.com, where you can configure your account to only show you those parts of the system that you are interested or are relevant to you. The links below give you a couple of faster pointers to some specific sites.
Caveat: Sybase has implemented a portal. Quite a number of the old links that were/are in the FAQ now nolonger work. The following is tried and tested as of today (20th September 2001) but could well become out-of-date. Let's hope not!
Here's a list of internet web sites at Sybase:
There are a few types of software available from Sybase. These include Enterprise Emergency Bug Fixes (EBF) which are roughly equivalent to patches, Tools patches and upgrades, Beta software downloads,