Re: some interview question

> 1) which type of things you will analyze about the database from your
> previous dba...when he is leaving and you are coming into the picture?
>
> a) Get the list of databases running
> b) Get the sys password of each database.
> c) Get the list of schemas available in each database.
> d) Must get the schema architechture and an overview of it.
> e) Backup plan and Schedule,Storage information,
> f) Try to know which type of disasters are happend with DB,It might happen
> again so is there any documents abt this?

Well (a,b,c) are a subset of (d) ...
I'll also try to get an informal list of his/her pet peeves, in a verbal, one-on-one meeting, where s/he can discuss things openly - say things like "Mary is really obnoxious and..", a way to conserve the non-written tradition about the DB. To verify everything afterwards - it may well turn out that Mary isn't obnoxious at all - or not, anyway it's very important to get all the informations you can from the old DBA, and the non-written are normally very precious.

> 2) what you will do first when you join into the job regarding the database?
> a) Get the feed back from users regarding database performance.
> b) Enlist the weak performing areas either at report side or forms side.
> c) Get a general overview through v$system_events, v$sysstat view.
> d) More precisely generate a statspack report and study it throughly.

I'd add "run automatically statspack every x hours and keep the reports", for trend analysis etc (have you checked Jonathan's blog, He's focusing on statspack right now - eg http://jonathanlewis.wordpress.com/2006/11/)

>
> 3) What type of reports you can give to(Project Manager) about Database?
> a) Give a performance overview of the databases to ur proj. manager.
> b) Possible causes of performance issues like bad SQL, shortage of memory
> etc.
> c) Capacity Planning,Growth analysis,DB health report

Maybe s/he would be more interested in an high-level discussion, such as "issues reported and corrected", "possible critical areas and strategy suggested to cope with them", etc - in a cost/benefit report. But it depends, s/he may want to get into the gory technical details.

> 4) what type of documentation you will keep as a dba about project?
> You must keep the schema design documents, the data entry ratio on every
> object. Your recommendations, whether the object should be Cluster or IOT
> etc.

I prefer to have only high-level documents, "general overview"; no much use IMHO in duplicating the infos you already have in the data dictionary ...

> 5) if new project came to your company..how can you planned and designed the
> database and what type of reports you will give to your project manager?

The only real answer is asking the developers about their application, and run some preproduction tests. Obviously you'll ask about the storage requirements, but that's the easy part :)

-- 
Alberto Dell'Era
"Per aspera ad astra"
--
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l