Oracle Core: Essential Internals for DBAs and Developers by Jonathan Lewis provides just the essential information about Oracle Database internals that every database administrator needs for troubleshooting—no more, no less.

Oracle Database seems complex on the surface. However, its extensive feature set is really built upon upon a core infrastructure resulting from sound architectural decisions made very early on that have stood the test of time. This core infrastructure manages transactions and the ability to commit and roll back changes, protects the integrity of the database, enables backup and recovery, and allows for scalability to thousands of users all accessing the same data.

Most performance, backup, and recovery problems that database administrators face on a daily basis can easily be identified through understanding the essential core of Oracle Database architecture that Lewis describes in this book.