Recently, I finished reading Geoffrey Hudik‘s Instant Oracle Database and PowerShell How-to ebook, part of Packt Publishing‘s Instant book series. Packt’s Instant book series promises short, fast, and focused information; Hudik’s book delivers. It’s eighty pages deliver hundreds of pages worth of the author’s knowledge in a highly-condensed format, perfect for today’s multi-tasking technical professionals.

Hudik’s book is ideal for anyone experienced with the Oracle Database 11g platform, and interested in leveraging Microsoft’s PowerShell scripting technology to automate their day-to-day database tasks. Even a seasoned developer, experienced in both technologies, will gain from the author’s insight on overcoming several PowerShell and .NET framework related integration intricacies.

As a busy developer, I was able to immediately start implementing many of the book’s recipes to improve my productivity. I especially enjoyed the way the book builds upon previous lessons, resulting in a useful collection of foundational PowerShell scripts and modules. Building on top of these, save time when automating a new task.

Getting started with the book’s examples required a few free downloads from Oracle and Microsoft. Starting with a Windows 7 Enterprise laptop, I downloaded and installed Oracle Database 11g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE) Release 2,
Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio, and Oracle SQL Developer IDE. I also made sure my laptop was up-to-date with the latest Visual Studio 2012, .NET framework, and PowerShell updates.
If you are new to administering Oracle databases or using Oracle SQL Developer IDE, Oracle has some excellent interactive tutorials online to help you get started.