Re: Becoming ORACLE DBA

On Sat, 2 Jul 2005 15:30:05 -0600, "Mark A" <nobody_at_nowhere.com> wrote:

>
>"DA Morgan" <damorgan_at_psoug.org> wrote in message
>news:1120335684.899879_at_yasure...
>> Mark A wrote:
>>
>>> I didn't say someone can be an Oracle DBA without any knowledge of the
>>> OS. But if you are an Oracle DBA on Windows, you don't need UNIX
>>> experience, much less 3 years working as a UNIX admin. The original
>>> statement may have been predicated on the assumption that Windows is not
>>> an appropriate platform for Oracle, and any sane person would eventually
>>> migrate it to another platform. If that is true, the that should have
>>> been stated instead of claiming that Oracle for Windows DBA's need UNIX
>>> experience.
>>
>> Then let me clarify my intent.
>>
>> Even if I had a Windows shop with Oracle installed on Windows. Which I
>> think almost everyone would acknowledge is a bad idea ... I would still
>> hire the person with UNIX skills first.
>>
>> There is value in having someone with serious skills on a serious
>> operating system.
>>
>> A good UNIX SA can learn Windows in a week or two. A good Windows SA
>> may be incapable of learning vi.
>>
>You can't be serious. Anyone can learn vi. A DBA doesn't need to an expert
>at it, because for heavy duty use it is easy to edit in Windows cleint and
>ftp the files back and forth.
>
>> Not an exaggeration at all if you paid attention to the context of the
>> answer. I didn't say it was required to do the job. I said it was
>> required before I'd consider hiring them.
>>
>Giagantic copout.
>
>> And in almost all Oracle shops is not done by the DBA assuming the
>> acronym stands for "DataBase Administrator" as opposed to "DataBase
>> Architect."
>>
>I don't agree with that. The architect does the logical model, but the DBA
>is expected to do the physical design, adn infact has complete control over
>it from an persmissions point of veiw.

Not necessarily. There are middleware products that, upon startup, check to see if their tables are there and, if not, create them. DBA has zero control over physical schema design.
>
>>> But the truth is that some DBA's also function as UNIX admins (and many
>>> don't), many DBA's do database design (and some don't), so it depends a
>>> lot on the specific job. Many companies have more than one DBA and it is
>>> rare to find one person who does everything extremely well.
>>>
>>> In my opinion, UNIX admins are a dime a dozen, but a good database
>>> designer is priceless.
>>
>> In my opinion your opinion is of little value. Mediocre technical skills
>> do not belong in an IT shop. Any weakness, anywhere in the stack, can
>> spell disaster.
>> --
>> Daniel A. Morgan
>
>I never said that a DBA can have mediocre technical skills. But 3 years
>experience as a UNIX admin is nice to have, but not necessary in my opinion.
>
>There are usually different roles that DBA's assume in a shop, and typically
>there is not one person who is an expert at everything. I personally think
>it is a lot easier to learn UNIX and vi than to learn how to create a good
>physical database design. I prefer a application development background, and
>a person is intelligent enough to learn the technical aspects that are
>required for the job.
>
>This just in from the home office: UNIX admins have been marked down from a
>dime a dozen to $.08 per dozen.
>
Received on Sat Jul 02 2005 - 19:05:56 CDT