RE: Oracle newbie

JD,
I'm in a similar situation but on the other side of the fence. I've been = using Oracle for 8 months. I know my way around NT Workstation just fine, = but have no idea about any special things in NT Server. I let our NT guy = handle config of the server. He doesn't know much about Oracle but is also = doing the cold backups at present. We both had the crash course when our = DBA left, but I am the one who has gotten all the formal training.

Is Oracle the only thing running on this box? As far as keeping it = running, if it's not sucking up all the CPU or running out of memory, your = job should be done aside from backups. The Oracle person should be doing = the tuning if needed and verifying your backups work.

As for books, I liked Oracle DBA 101, co-authored by list member Rachel = Carmichael. It gives a nice general overview of what a DBA would do. I got = pretty much every Oracle Press book they offered (10 total) regarding = things I knew we used. I have not read hardly any yet (including the NT = Handbook) though. I use the DBA Handbook as a quick command reference. = I've learned the most by going through the documentation, Metalink (if you = have "Metals support" you should be able to get to this), and the 2 = mailing lists. But boy do all those books look impressive on my shelf! 8o)

Your Oracle person should have a CD with all the docs. If not you can = download them from http://technet.oracle.com/docs/index.htm (membership is = free). It looks like you can only do the "General Documentation" via HTML = (this is where you will find the Backup & Recovery Guide), but you can get = the OS specific books individually via PDF as well. That being said, I = have read through some of the Oracle Press Backup & Recovery Handbook and = it is good, too. Most of the Oracle Press books are 30% off at Amazon.

Michael Ray
Oracle DBA
TRW, Marshall, IL
217-826-3011 x2438

>>> DanversJ_at_gunlocke.com 11/07/00 07:36AM >>>
Thanks for the feedback Mike...

I "have the dB" purely in the respect that the box lives in the server = room
and I'm the network admin on site (NT). ( We also have an HP3000 and HPUX box here that other folks tend to ) As it is running on NT, I am = therefore
more or less responsible for its health and well being ( backups ). Our = "in
house oracle person" is the person who knows more about it ( oracle ) than = I
do - she is very ( very ) limited in her knowledge or experience with the underlying OS and/or any networking though. Her office is clear at the other end of the building too, whereas I'm only 20 feet away from any of = the
servers from my office. This is not the prettiest thing in the world, as you might well imagine. ( the blind leading the blind come to mind?? ) I plan on obtaining all of the install cd's and whatnot for the product from her and installing it on my own on a test box so that I can play / learn more about it. I will probably go back to borders sometime this week and pick up a book - got any recommendations. I'm thinking one of the "oracle on nt" type books - preferable something geared towards someone like = myself
- I have the know how where the OS and general networking is concerned - = but Received on Tue Nov 07 2000 - 10:09:45 CST