Re: Performance issue while loading large amount of data

"Howard J. Rogers" <howardjr2000_at_yahoo.com.au> wrote in message news:BGtV9.25254$jM5.66966_at_newsfeeds.bigpond.com...
> Incidentally, Richard: I meant to say in all seriousness that this was an
> exceedingly good post, just like a Mr. Kipling's Cup Cake. And was
> appreciated almost as much as one of the said cup cakes.

Thank you for your kind words. Much appreciated.

>
> Now, a while back I wrote in a different context that you shouldn't call
> yourself a DBA until you can do a block dump and interpret the results...
> and I seem to remember a spate of hilarity arising as a result, mostly
> scatalogically inclined, and punning on the word 'dump'.
>
> Amongst other things, your post has reminded me that I was right!
>
> Yet another reason why it was very much appreciated. (;-)
>

Having met, taught, occasionally got drunk with and worked with numerous DBAs, I think like people in most walks of life, there are different "types" of DBAs. Obviously some are better than others, some know more than others and a good majority of them are contented souls who "just" do their jobs and look forward to the weekends. That's fine, absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Some however are quite inquisitive buggers who like to go "a little deeper", who want to know why and how and what for and the beauty with Oracle is that the damn thing is so vast that it really is a bottomless pit of learning and discovery. And just when maybe you think you have at least half a grip on things, version Xi comes along and that pit gets ever so much deeper. The point is though that it's also like most things in life, the more you know and understand about something, the better you are "at it" so to speak. And it's no coincidence that those people that have the best grasp on the underlining aspects of the technology (such as your Steve Adams, Jonathon Lewis, Cary Millsap, etc. etc.) are also the people most "capable" of solving and dealing with the complex Oracle issues that arise.

The guys above probably know more about Oracle in their little pinkies than I will ever know, but I believe part of my job and role as a DBA is to at least try and get close. And as dry and unexciting as a whole bunch of jumbled up characters might appear to some, the humble block dump is probably one the best tools available to "get inside Oracle" and truly understand how it works. My understanding of many Oracle concepts such as how read consistent works, b-tree and bitmaps indexes, LMT, rollback segments, extent management, recoveries, etc. etc. come from first getting a good understanding of the underlining concepts and then "looking" at how Oracle does it.

I possibly won't go quite as far as to say every DBA must know how to "dump", but for the inquisitive ones, it's an essential skill.

> When OCP teaches you this stuff, it might be worth the money. But I won't
> hold my breath in the meantime, if that's OK with you!

Don't make me go there. Don't !!

Cheers ;)

Richard Received on Thu Jan 16 2003 - 06:20:43 CST