Re: How relevant is the underlysing OS?

"WH" <whix1_at_hotmail.com> wrote:

]My question is, how transferable is knowledge of Oracle to the various
]Operating Systems it runs on. For example, if I were to become a DBA and
]worked in an NT environment, would I be able to be a DBA in a Solaris or
]Linux environment? Or would I also have to intimately know the underlying
]OS?

You will be able to write Win based apps that connect to a Database running on anything (Unix, NT, Netware, whatever) and not need to worry at all about the underlying O/S.

You can do some DBA work from (for example) Enterprise Manager on an NT workstation, and do "DBA stuff" to a database on a Unix machine that you do not even have a unix login on, let alone know any unix.

You'll be able to do a lot of DBA perfromance work and tuning without touching any underlying OS either, except maybe to edit a config file.

When you want to get right into the tuning, failure-recovery, "why can't I connect to your database" troubleshooting, you are going to need to know the underlying O/S.

Oracle have free servers available for Linux (a free unix). Check out Oracle's TechNet. If Oracle have a free-bee for Solaris, definitely check that out. Sun make Solaris available for $10 US + postage, this is for both Intel boxes and Sparcs. You can dual/tripple boot your Windows and Linux and/or Solaris (for intel). Play around with them all.
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 ,-,_|\ George Dau - Unix (Solaris, DEC Unix, Linux), Oracle, Internet. __

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