Re: Oracle running mostly on NT/win2000 or Unix?

jinjja_at_aol.com (JinJJa) wrote in message news:<20020131024447.16506.00000643_at_mb-cu.aol.com>...
> Hello, I am a MS SQL DBA of 5 years who is interested in learning Oracle.
>
> I would like to know on which OS platform does Oracle usually run on? Someone
> told me Oracle runs on NT/2000 platform than any other OS. Other have said
> Oracle runs mostly on Unix. Can anyone give me an insight on this?
>
> Also, if I want to be serious about learning Oracle, should I familiarze myself
> with Unix? How important is Java in learning Oracle?
>
> Thanks
> Jinsoo

I know both. Oracle first, Learned MSSQL about 2 years ago by way of learning Sybase first.

Got to technet.oracle.com you can pretty much download the installation disks and most if not all documentation from there. Its a free membership providing you agree with the license terms.

If I were you I would start with the NT/2000 installation. Its easy and closest to what you already know. (windows services... registry entries etc.) You will need to know some unix (or Linix) eventually but it will just bog you down at first.

The first OCP exam is NOT platform dependent. So in the early stages... just fimiliarize yourself with SQLPLUS and the syntax of the SQL call. Although oracle 9i has support for ansi joins, nobody in the oracle world uses them. you will need to learn the where and (+) join syntax to get your joins to work. PL/SQL is a bit different from Transact SQL. Cursors are defined and used differently. Most of the functions are different. Transaction control is different. But once you know one. The others are not that hard.

Dont worry about not knowing unix. Learn the basic SQL and PL/SQL stuff. Take the first OCP exam. (you will be farther along than most) It is avail on the web now. Then if you still want to go on. Then learn installation on a linix box. You will be one test into the OCP with plenty of time to learn the Unix stuff.

By the way. There was a document in the Oracle 7.3 documentation that outlines most of the unix required for an oracle install. Things like chmod, umask, Creating users and groups. Setting of the kernel parameters. About 5 years ago that is how I got started. The rest of unix I leaned from co-workers. What I am trying to say is it isnt that hard.

Good luck

Steve Received on Thu Jan 31 2002 - 15:33:15 CST