Re: Seeking Advice

On Sat, 16 Nov 2002, Adrian Carlson-Hedges wrote:

> I would like to pursue a career that is more geared towards a DBA role.
> All of my current databases run on Windows NT/2K. With my history in
> support, I am more than happy with my understanding of NT/2K
> architecture. For my next move however It is likely that I will need to
> support Oracle on platforms other than windows. What advice would you
> give me regards my future career progression? I am looking to get hold
> of a copy of Red Hat 8 professional, and I will be installing Oracle on
> this to play, and learn. (Yes, before anyone points it out, I know that
> only Red Hat advanced server is supported, and not professional.) :-)
> Will learning redhat linux give me a good enough understanding to be
> able to apply that knowledge to other flavours of linux, or even unix?
> What other areas do you think I should be looking into?

I would recommend that you do not limit your UNIX exposure to Red Hat, for several reasons.

First, money. You can get certified in HP-UX for $100 (take 3HO-002, info at 2test.com). HP is a major Oracle partner, and if you look at tpc.org, HP wins a lot of benchmarks, both on Oracle and other DBs. You can pick up an older HP-UX system on ebay for $100 (make sure that you get the install media, and you will need to worry about 32/64 bit). However, you should be warned that HP will be making major changes to their certifications in February.

I recommend HP because it's cheap and quick. You could also pursue Solaris or Red Hat, but the Sun exams are $150 each and you need at least 2, and the Red Hat exam is simply overpriced and undervalued (at least in my market).

Second, you want to take a top-down approach to UNIX administration. Linux is not ready for the datacenter, and it is uncomfortable to have a junior UNIX admin who advocates deploying Linux where it should not be. When you can run Linux on a 32-cpu system, this will change, but that day is not today.

It is better to be seen as a person interested in enterprise-UNIX who dabbles with Linux. Even Oracle's prepackaged RAC is just dabbling when compared to an E10k, Superdome, or Power 4. Don't focus entirely on Linux.

  |   The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,                             |
  |   Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit                                    |
  |     Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,                             |
  |   Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.                               |
  |                                                                           |
  |      -Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam                                            |
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 /   Charles J. Fisher   |   cfisher@rhadmin.org  |   http://rhadmin.org     /
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