Re: Learn Oracle in three days?

"Ban Spam" <ban-spam_at_operamail.com> wrote in message news:Xns920CBA1AECA94SunnySD_at_68.6.19.6...
> mwilkinson_jr_at_yahoo.com (Michael Wilkinson) wrote in
> news:5d7c58cb.0205121625.3acf40c3_at_posting.google.com:
>
> > Greetings - masters of table extents, and other things arcane. This
> > neophyte has a ludicrous question for you: Is it possible for me to
> > learn oracle in three days or less?

In word No. It is just as daft as being asked to learn Informix in 3 days.

> >I've worked with other RDBMS in
> > the past, and know the difference between a fragment and a chunk, but
> > my first pass through the oracle documentation had convinced me that I
> > might have just entered into seventh circle of hell.

Not really, it just seems like it.

> >
> > Why three days you ask? Well, I've just found out that's how long I
> > have before I have to take delivery of a product from an outsourcer
> > that uses oracle as a backend. I'm not a DBA myself, but our in-house
> > DBAs only know Informix and some MSSQL and are already running for
> > cover, leaving the young and foolish (that's me) holding the bullseye.
> > Since I figure the thing will chug along on own for a few days (it's
> > got to at least work for a few hours for the outsource company to
> > prove that it works) my first concern is obviously logical logging and
> > backups.

Logical logging in Oracle is done in a circular fashion. you have a number (usually 3 or more) redo logs (which are on mirrored hardware!). If you want to be able to do complete recovery you have to put the database into archivelog mode and archive those logs somewhere with a) a lot of room and b) which is backed up. If you only need to be able to recover to the last backup then you don't need to archive the logs and you cannot fill any disk anywhere.

As for backups by far the easiest thing to do is just shut the db down and copy all the files to tape.

> >
> > If you were in my shoes, what books and tools would you recommend I
> > have to survive this suicidal oracle piano drop?

Oracle Concepts manual, backup and recovery guide. <Resume generation program>

--
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
Audit Commission UK
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