I've wished we had a "proper" FAQ for a long time. Here's my contribution
as a start. Further contributions welcomed (we can do it by email if you
wish).
- No-one who posts here knows your precise setup, or can guess it from
the aether. So Please: EVERY post you make here should include the
following minimum information:
- Operating System (eg, Win98, WinXP, Red Hat Linux 8, Solaris 2.6,
whatever)
- Oracle Version (As detailed as possible: 8i will do, but 8.1.7.4 would
be better)
- Hardware details (Pentium III, Pentium IV, 2GB hard drive, 200GB hard
drive etc)
- Before you even think of posting here, you should check out other
sources of information, because the answer you are looking for might well
be adequately described in these other places. Of particular relevance:
- http://tahiti.oracle.com -official Oracle documentation for every
current supported version of Oracle
- www.google.com (Groups) - an archive of every post ever made to this
newsgroup, including answers for common problems
- www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk
(The Co-operative Users FAQ) - a huge list of common questions (with the
answers) as supplied by regulars to this newsgroup
(d) http://technet.oracle.com - a rich source of varied information,
including downloads of every current version of Oracle, for free, for
every platform. You have to be a member, but membership is free, instantly
granted, and they don't send spam.
- Phrase your post's title appropriately. "HELP" doesn't cut it. It's too
vague, and forces people to read the content before being able to
determine a reply. "Sever Process with Process ID 287548 is running in an
infinite loop trying to update a table which comprises 38 extents of 2MB
each on locally managed tablespace which is 6GB in size, made up of 3 2GB
files on Solaris" is probably a bit stupid too: concision is king.
- Don't include every line of a post when you reply. It's good for the "I
am the top volume poster" award, but not for the rest of us. Please don't
top-post either (ie, stick your reply right at the top of the original
post). If you do, your reply has little relevance to the original post and
its context. Intersperse your reply throughout the original, quoting only
those parts that you wish to reply to.
- "RTFM" is not a helpful reply.
- "RTFM" is a perfectly expected response to people who post here before
having made the effort to consult the other sources of help mentioned at
(2) above.
- The Pentium IV bug only applies to 8i. Not 8.0, nor 9i.
- Try to keep the personal information to a minimum. The fact that you
enjoy has-been music from the 70's age of glam-rock is of little
consequence. It tells us nothing about your problem, and provides little
in the way of useful solutions. Data density is what we're after. The
*pub* is the place for reminiscing. It's also the place for discussing the
pro's and con's of malt whisk(e)y varieties. But not here.
- An answer that consists of only questions isn't an answer.
- An answer that consists of half-remembered commands from three
versions ago without testing it on a current version isn't an answer.
- Test posts don't belong here. (Try alt.test instead)
- Every post gets archived. What you see here today gets read again in 5
years' time (especially if newbies follow step (2) above). So blatant
untruths are not just going to confuse a single user.
- If "curmudgeonly" is your middle name, try and live up to it somewhere
else.
- The good guys (in alphabetical order) are Steve Adams, Norman Dunbar,
Jonathan Lewis, Thomas Kyte, Nuno Suto. What they say carries weight. It
doesn't mean they don't make mistakes, though. Despite occasional rumours,
they are actually human.
- DBAs aren't universally male. So there are good gals too.
- Oracle databases cannot be compared with DB2 ones, SQL Server ones or
any other ones. They are not better or worse: just not comparable.
So please don't try. Flame wars inspired by such posts should be dampened
down by the judicious application of the principle: 'don't feed the trolls'.
- Rule out any possible replies that can't apply to you. If your problem
might be solved by a shutdown, but your database is in production and
can't be shutdown, for example: tell us. We won't then propose something that
is totally inapplicable in your circumstances.
- OCP is a qualification you can get. It exists. There's not much that
can be done about that. Please don't ask anyone to comment on its
usefulness, it's relevance or the accuracy of exam questions. They're
*exam* questions: whatever the answer, it usually rarely applies in the
real world, so live with it.
- Enjoy Oracle. It's like a crossword puzzle: the more effort you put
in, the more answers you start getting out. Expecting it to be easy is not
the way forward.
Just my thoughts.
Further contributions,as I say, welcomed.
Reqards
HJR
Received on Sun Mar 09 2003 - 17:43:38 CST
