Re: How long for me to take Oracle from 0 to 60?

In article <84aj37$no7$1_at_news.chorus.net>,   "Bill Littman" <blittman_at_nospam_tomotherapy.com> wrote:
> Hi-
>
> There is a good chance that I will be changing my duties to become an
Oracle
> developer and administrator. I have installed 8i Enterprise Edition,
Release
> 8.1.5 and I am not sure where to proceed from here.
>
> Here is my background: I have programmed in C for the past 17 years
and Java
> for the past 3 years. I have never been a DBA, but I have developed
some
> lower end databases: M204, dBase, Zim, Access. I still remember a
decent
> portion of my database theory. I have never worked with Oracle.
>
> I work for a very small start-up company. If I change roles, I will be
the
> only Oracle person for a little while, and may get a junior engineer
to help
> sometime mid to late next year. We are developing a product from
scratch.
> The database schema has been partially worked out. There has been no
> database work yet.
>
> Here are my questions:
> - Am I committing career suicide? I am a quick learner, but is there
so much
> to learn about Oracle that I will be struggling for a long time
without an
> in house expert?
>
> - What resources do you recommend I start with? Classes? Books?
On-line
> tutorials?
>
> - Any other advice? Any other resources that helped you grok Oracle?
>
> Thanks for any responses.
>
> -Bill Littman
>
>

Greetings, Bill,

    Welcome!

    I was a MVS/TSO/JCL/CICS/DL/1 person until 1993, when the two     Oracle/UNIX DBA's left my company - the manuals were left on     my desk, and I was told to install Oracle 7.0.13 on     an NCR UNIX box.

    Well, a week later (and many phone calls to Oracle), I managed     to do so. I've been doing DBA work since 1993, on HP-UX, Solaris,     SGI (not the best platform), AIX and NT. I even had to install     Oracle on a DEC Alpha running VMS.

    Since you've managed to install 8.1.5, you're off to a good start.

    I recommend the following Oracle courses:

    Oracle8 Database Administration
    Net8 Administration
    Oracle8 Backup and Recovery
    Oracle8 Performance Tuning Workshop

    I also recommend that you take whatever system administration     training for your platform - UNIX (Solaris/HP-UX/AIX, etc), NT     or whatever. The more you understand about the operating system,     the more intelligently you'll be able to tune your database.

    Your company _must_ also provide you with a test/development/play     (and I do mean _play_) environment - a place for you to experiment     with things and test out ideas.

    Make sure you have solid backup and recovery procedures.     Oracle's MetaLink support is pretty good.     Find out if there are any Oracle User Groups in your area, and     make contacts there.

    Also approach your company about establishing a relationship     with a consulting group specializing in Oracle, so you can have     access to an expert for tough problems. If your company doesn't     want to do that, then suggest that they pay for premium support     from Oracle, so you can ask questions.

    If you can get 2-4 years solid Oracle DBA/developer experience     under your belt, I think it will be a rewarding and lucrative     field for you. I get calls all the time from people looking     for experienced Oracle DBA's (I have also done UNIX system     administration as well). With the explosion of the Internet and     interest in e-commerce, DBA's will be in high demand for the     next few years.

    Best wishes to you in your journey.

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Before you buy. Received on Wed Dec 29 1999 - 19:14:39 CST