Re: Top Do's and Don'ts - Ferenc's list

Hey Robert, I rather like your list, it gives one plenty to ponder. I have maintained my own much smaller list for some years, and thus will take this opportunity to share it:

1. Do keep your knowledge concurrent. This includes reading books (by Jared, Cary, let us not forget Gaja and Kirti's book, Jonathan, Queen Rachel, Tom, Steve Feuerstein and apologies to anyone I left out and should not have), attending conferences, making time to belong to this list that drains at least an hour+ per day of my time. Take charge of your future !
2. Do know your data, know it inside and out. If someone wakes you up at 3 a.m., you should be able to rattle off the size and configuration (SGA, redo logs, etc) of your production DB, and the 3 - 5 largest tables, approx. how many rows they have and how large they are in size and their current growth rates.
3. Do try to understand a little (or a lot) about the legacy / packaged application you're supporting.
4. Be aware that you and the entire IT department exist to support a business process, not because the CEO is in love with technology. The goal of your employer is to earn and save money and maximize ROI !
5. Do encourage and thank those around you that make your working day a little easier. This includes recognition of up-and-coming talent (pat on the back type thing), occasionally buying a round when your SA's, network fundis are with you, just to show your gratitude ! You never know when you will next run in to a major crisis and need them.
6. Keep a good sense of humour ! Things won't always go your way, and your stress levels are decided by your reaction to the situation you find yourself in. Accept the fact that alone you will not change the world or even your company.

DON'T's
1. Don't believe everything you hear ! Whether that be from vendors, programmers or sysadmins. Investigate for yourself. When in doubt, try it out ! Don't jump to conclusions !
2. Don't assume you have a safe, cushy job. All it takes is one classic screw-up on your part, or some back-stabbing bastard before you could find yourself looking for the next thing. So keep your resume / CV updated and handy, always ! See point 1 on taking charge ! 3. Don't expect the CIO / CTO / CEO to jump enthusiastically at your ideas, and readily praise you for your insight. they often don't get it, and when they do, they are often subject to the bean counters or lawyers (did you know USA has about 90% of all the world's lawyers ? ) who set policy, and don't tolerate deviances. I recently (Sep 2002) came across a client who was still using Storagetek silo's that housed 480 tapes per robotic arm, each of them ... wait for it .... 200 MB in size, and the drives were upgraded 4 years ago to use DLT4000 (woohoo ! ) technology. These silos were about 15 square metres each, and there were 3 of them back to back and it was purely for daily backups of a 100 GB database ! It turns out they knew about Ultrium, but the bean counters who controlled the company said that the tape drive system was not be replaced for another 2 years until it had been fully depreciated, since its resale value was below zero, in that they would have to pay someone to remove it. Go figure ! 4. Don't forget to back up. My home PC recently died after almost 3 years faithful service (well, if you exclude the Windows OS causing near-daily crashes). Both IBM hard drives packed up within a week, and I was most embarrassed when I was asked if I had backed up everything on it before it died, and my answer was 'yes, 8 months ago'. B-A-A-A-A-A-H ! Really sheepish !
5. Don't boast too much ! A little happiness and rejoicing for solving a complex problem is fine (at least this is a rule I set for myself, I don't expect everyone to see it my way), but I prefer to let others do the praising that for me to do it on my own behalf ! And of course, just when I think I am doing so well, I go home and am reminded of how many things I am completely incompetent at :-) (for instance a recent dialogue went like this, "Hey Dad, Danny's dad just ran a marathon last weekend, when and why did you stop running ?". To which the classic comeback is "ever since I discovered that I can drive the distance a lot faster and in more comfort !" heh heh .

Have a great day, all of you ! Cheerio:

Ferenc Mantfeld
Dreaming costs you nothing. Not dreaming costs you everything. ----- Original Message -----
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com> Sent: Monday, February 24, 2003 9:23 AM

> Here is the list of top 10 do's and don't that I came up with.
>
> #1 - Do Maintain your Expertise
> #2 - Do Use the DBMS_STATS Package to Collect Statistics
> #3 - Do Use Bind Variables
> #4 - Do Put your Production Database in ARCHIVELOG Mode
> #5 - Do Use Locally Managed Tablespaces
> #6 - Do Monitor Your Database
> #7 - Do Practice Recoveries
> #8 - Do Get Involved with User Groups and Other Resources
> #9 - Do Establish Standards and Change Control Processes
> #10 - Do Think Ahead
>
> Bonus! - Do tune to Reduce Logical IO's Not Physical IO's.
> (With regards to Cary!)
>
> Oracle Database Top 10 Don'ts
> #1 - Don't Waste Time Re-Organizing Your Databases
> #2 - Don't Use .Log or Other Common Extensions For Your Database File
Names
> #3 - Don't Leave Your Database Open To Attack
> #4 - Don't Decide Against Hot Backups
> #5 - Don't Use ASSM
> #6 - Don't Forget the 80/20 Rule
> #7 - Don't Stack Views
> #8 - Don't Be a Normalization Bigot
> #9 - Don't Forget to Document Everything
> #10 - Do Not Use Products You are Not Licensed For.
>
> Bonus!! - Do Not Assume A Good or Bad Hit Ratio Means Anything
>
> Ok, anyone wanna comment?
>
>
> Robert G. Freeman
> Technical Management Consultant
> TUSC - The Oracle Experts www.tusc.com
> 904.708.5076 Cell (It's everywhere that I am!)
> Author of several books you can find on Amazon.com!
>
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
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> Author: Freeman Robert - IL
> INET: FREEMANR_at_tusc.com
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-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: Ferenc Mantfeld
  INET: mantfield_at_connexus.net.au

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