Oracle performance firefighting requires unique skills, tools, methods, deep technical Oracle internals knowledge, and a different perspective. Getting the most out of these areas requires an integrated framework. This chapter introduced the core supporting framework enabling spot-on diagnosis, multiple-perspective analysis, visual aids, and response-time analysis.

You may have noticed I frequently mentioned leaving out significant details and taking abstraction liberties. This was necessary to establish a solid framework without distracting you with details and side topics. The upcoming performance diagnosis chapters will provide ever-decreasing abstraction and a much deeper look into wait-event analysis and response-time analysis. Once the framework has been fully developed, the Oracle internals chapters will provide the technical underpinnings, allowing appropriate and relevant solutions to the correctly diagnosed problems. Once the framework and the internals are covered, we'll move into complete performance analysis integration in the final chapter.

1 Stoke is a cool word. Perfecting my surfing skills during my university years on the central California coast, I became quite a practitioner of the word stoke, as in "I'm so stoked!" or "That wave was stoken!" The more traditional use of the word, and as I've used it in this case, is to increase the intensity of a fire or some combustible occurrence, as in "I will stoke the fire."