Re: Seeking Advice: MS SQL DBA learning Oracle?

"SQLJoe" <sqljoe_at_aol.com> wrote in message news:20020508090658.02438.00007333_at_mb-fc.aol.com...
> I am a recently laid off MS SQL DBA of five years. I would like to have
to
> some advice on learning Oracle.
>
> 1)How difficult is it to learn Oracle? What are the differences between MS
SQL
> and Oracle? I know both are ANSI-92 complaint RDBMS. What is the major
> differences between SQL, SQL plus, and PL/SQL?

several questions.

It should be relatively straightforward to pick up Oracle if you have a good DBMS background.

Differences. Haven't seen a list recently. architecturally Oracle makes undo records of its changed blocks which are then used for read consistent images for other sessions. This has a number of nice consequences particularly the mantra "writers don't block readers, readers don't block writers". Oracle writes to its transaction/redo logs in a circular fashion so the transaction log cannot fill a disk - though its archived copies can! database means different things. in the two worlds, autoextend is a bad thing. installing using the supplied oracle defaults is a bad thing etc etc.

>
> 2)Given the fact that both DB2 and MS SQL are taking market share away
from
> Oracle, how does its future look like? Is the declining marketshare due to
> lesser technology or dubious pricing schemes by Oracle?

Marketshare figures are arguable. I'd say that Oracle, DB2 and SQL will be around for at least the next decade.
>
> 3)How will someone like me benefit from learning Oracle? How will it
increase
> my marketability in the job market?

you'll learn a Man's DBMS! No seriously any survey of skills will show both sql and oracle as highly desirable, in addition many jobs that are primarily either sql or oracle require exposure to the other system as well.
>
> 4)What are some of the best books to learn Oracle? What is the best way to
> learn Oracle?

The oracle concepts manual. (oracle docs available at tahiti.oracle.com) The oracle dba handbook (kevin loney)
(if you are a development DBA minded person) Expert One-On-One Oracle - Thomas Kyte
Jonathan Lewis' book Practical Oracle8i is great as well - the man can write and is technically accurate- but may not be appropriate to a learner.

best thing to do is to download Oracle from technet.oracle.com and install on a win2k/winxp prof machine. If you are bandwidth challenged then order a copy from your local oracle office.
>
> 4)How important is Unix knowledge to a Oracle DBA?

It depends. IN an NT environment unimportant, in a N*x environment with no sysadmin vital. Other environments it will depend.

>
> Thank you in advance.
>
> Jinsoo
> MCSE+I, MCDBA, MCSD, CCNA
don't bother adding OCP to that list till you have a year or so's experience. Received on Wed May 08 2002 - 10:39:48 CDT