I read Jason Couchman's book for Oracle 8i certification, and passed the five exams.

They left much out, so many important things that I learned later, as I saw harmful things happening.

The very biggest thing is "nologging," the ability to commit certain transactions that are omitted from the recovery archived logs.

"You are destroying my standby database! Kyte is explicit that 'nologging' must never be used without the cooperation of the DBA! Why are you destroying the standby?"

It was SSIS, and they could never get it under control. ALTER SYSTEM FORCE LOGGING undid their ignorant presumption.