Re: Becoming ORACLE DBA

On Mon, 04 Jul 2005 02:50:06 +0100, IOANNIS MANOLOUDIS wrote:

> The reason for this thread was to learn more about the DBA job and if it
> will be a good choice to follow that career path. I did learned something
> from this thread. Thank all of you for replies. Could you also tell me what
> is the difference, if any, between an "Oracle DBA" and an "Oracle
> consultant"?

0) What is an Oracle? (implied question)

Realize that Oracle is the world's second largest software company.

Oracle competes in nearly every aspect of the software industry other than 'Office Suites' and 'Computer Games'. (Refer to Oracle's historic success with user interfaces to understand why they don't compete here. <g>) Some areas they compete include: Database, Application Server, every kind of development tool (report writers, warehouse designers, CASE tools, Java IDEs, data miners, workflow engines, GIS storage, etc.) and nearly every type of application (ERP, CRM, Supply Chain, HR/Pay, etc.)

Thus, in asking about Oracle DBA, you are restricting your discussion to only one area of the Oracle product set.

1. Is Oracle DBA a good choice for career path?

At this time, there are many competent Oracle DBAs who are unemployed. There are also incompetent Oracle DBAs who are unemployed. Nearly all are looking for jobs, many as Oracle DBAs.

In general it is not a good time to be a novice entering into the Oracle DBA job market unless you have some incentive, such as a job or a company that is willing to hire you for the job.

However, I see the demand growing rapidly for Oracle Application Server Admins, and Oracle Security & Identity Management Admins - knowledgeable in LDAP and Oracle's LDAP (Oracle internet Directory). I get requests for 2-3 classes in these areas every month.

2) What is the difference between an Oracle "-DBA" and "-consultant"?

Note: Oracle Corp. has it's own consultants. In context of this discussion, Oracle Consultant is used generically and does not imply the Oracle employees or the Oracle Consulting Practice (unless it's in a good way <g>) ...

I am an Oracle consultant, and much of my work is in training Oracle DBAs, Oracle developers, and Oracle consultants ...

<warning - mere opinion, from here to end>

There are dozens of definitions of the roles of an Oracle DBA. You might prefer to stick with the definition Oracle has provided, as discussed in the Oracle Database Administrator's Guide, chapter 1.

To me, an Oracle DBA is someone who works with the Oracle Database, primarily to administer some or all aspects of the database engine. These may include application schema, security, backup/recovery, operating system areas such as memory, disk, performance tuning, user and developer assistance. To be competent, a DBA should be *aware* of the contents of ALL of the 55,000 pages of documentation, and understand the Concepts manual, the Database Administration Guide, and at least one other manual (usually Backup/Recovery) in depth.

A DBA generally is: very detail oriented; comfortable / satisfied with repetitive tasks; capable of responding to unusual situations at very short notice (often under duress); has people skills suited to answering RTFM-style questions of users and developers (who often are too hurried to read the manual themselves); and can bridge management's need to understand system failures and crashes using appropriate language with or without tech-speak.

An Oracle consultant is anyone who can convince an organization to pay for his/her time/effort/advice around Oracle product[s]. Frequently Oracle consultants will specialize in some specific aspect of Oracle technology - see the dissertation under point 0. Often I find consultants are not employed by the company running/owning the Oracle envionment (although I myself have been an inter-divisional consultant within one large company).

There is no implicit competence or capability defined, or guaranteed. Sadly I have seen Oracle 'consultants' who's competence ends at spelling Oracle (and generating invoices). Happily, there are a number who are very, very competent. And there's a huge pile in the middle!

Because a good DBA relies on situational & historic documentation (on such and such a day we added disk x), and a typical consultant does not usually stay around long enough to create such documentation, I find the two roles seldom successfully overlap over the long haul. I find many consultants will get bored with routine DBA work after a while, and will leave when things are running reasonably well, or when things can not be salvaged within the available budget.

However, many good consultants, being specialists in some areas of Oracle technology, can advise or assist DBAs or even take over for a DBA for a short time ... short being 'while DBA is on vacation or being replaced'. Note that good consultants tend to look for new and exciting challenges over the long term, and tend to work best in cooperation with good DBAs.

(I was going to put in a short list of good consultants - by trying to keep it short I would have managed to insult a whole pile of competent individuals, many of whom frequent this list.)

Note, however, that patience and diplomacy are not requirements on the list of skills for either good DBAs or good Consultants.

However, that's all just my opinion ... /Hans

-- 
Hans Forbrich                           
Canada-wide Oracle training and consulting
mailto: Fuzzy.GreyBeard_at_gmail.com   
*** I no longer assist with top-posted newsgroup queries ***