Comments below.
HJR
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Resources for Oracle : www.hjrdba.com
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"Charles J. Fisher" <cfisher_at_rhadmin.org> wrote in message
news:Pine.LNX.4.44.0203251407590.9898-100000_at_galt.rhadmin.org...
> On Mon, 18 Mar 2002, Nuno Souto wrote:
>
> > So, what's the real advantage of the OCP? I mean: anyone given time,
> > can become a valued DBA. OCP notwithstanding. It's all motivation,
> > isn't it? And professionalism. Something no certificate can ever hope
> > to prove.
>
> Well, I think that OCP would be more valuable if the topics covered were
> determined by the community rather than some ivory-tower committee at
> Oracle.
>
> What you learn through OCP is what Oracle wants you to know, which
> sometimes has very little to do with what you need to understand to run an
> Oracle database.
>
> What don't you cover?
>
> - lots of specifics with backup and restore
I agree with this one. I'd quite like to see a workshop exam. Walk into
the exam room... perfectly functioning database... examiner blows it up...
you have to diagnose the problem (60% of the marks) and recover it as fully
as possible (40% of the marks).
> - sqlplus /nolog (how could they leave that out?)
It's in the training course notes, so I would expect it would appear as a
question at some point (the exams being based heavily on the training
material). Being random, of course, you can't guarantee any particular
subject will be tested.
> - any _options in init.ora
Well, they're hidden for a reason, of course.
> - autotrace/tkprof/explain plan coverage is very poor
>
Agreed. The thrust is on getting the things to work, not on interpreting the
output. Particular raw trace files... they could do with some decent
explanation.
> UNIX stuff, including:
> - exp/imp with named pipes
Mmmm.... Now we're in to operating system specifics. If you're going to
have this one, I demand that you learn the intracacies of the Windows
registry and the mysteries of VMS. ;-0
It wouldn't work, would it? And I don't think we should be testing you (or
training you) as a Unix Oracle DBA, or a Windows Oracle DBA, because you may
well change jobs and face new environments. They want to know that you know
the basics of *their* product, not Sun's, Torvald's or Bill's.
> - here documents
> - ipcs, ipcrm
>
> Maybe DB2's way is best with a separate exam for each platform.
>
Well, I disagree with that bit (see above).
I think what we end up agreeing on is that OCP is the *start* of knowledge,
not its end.
Regards
HJR
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> / Charles J. Fisher | "Those who do not understand
UNIX /
> / cfisher_at_rhadmin.org | are condemned to reinvent it,
/
> / http://rhadmin.org | poorly." -- Henry Spencer
/
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
Received on Mon Mar 25 2002 - 15:31:48 CST
