Any oracle DBAs here?

psd99 · 13 Oct 2015 at 11:52

Hey guys,

looking to move from a unix sysadmin role to oracle. Training be a great start

Have any of you got any tips or advice?

wesley · 13 Oct 2015 at 11:54

all i know is the oracle admin guy at work is the highest earner of the whole IT team.

Burnsy2023 · 13 Oct 2015 at 11:57

I do DBA work for Oracle (inc Exadata) and Postgres - as well as also a lot of other things.

A lot of what you need to know is quite theory based as most performance tuning is quite manual. Oracle training isn't cheap and it's not an easy skill base to break into. Would your work fund a training course?

dekez · 13 Oct 2015 at 12:15

I'm a database developer and have tried to learn some DBA stuff to enhance my skill set. You can download the 11g Express edition for free, it's a great way to practice. I've done a few free courses on udemy but they were not great. Proper training or on the job experience would be best.

psd99 · 13 Oct 2015 at 13:16

Burnsy2023 said:
I do DBA work for Oracle (inc Exadata) and Postgres - as well as also a lot of other things.

A lot of what you need to know is quite theory based as most performance tuning is quite manual. Oracle training isn't cheap and it's not an easy skill base to break into. Would your work fund a training course?

Hello yes my work will possibly fund the training but I'm wondering what type of training I should begin with?

Burnsy2023 · 13 Oct 2015 at 13:19

psd99 said:
Hello yes my work will possibly fund the training but I'm wondering what type of training I should begin with?

Have you don't any DBA work before on other RDBMS? Is this your first foray into DB admin?

psd99 · 13 Oct 2015 at 13:23

Burnsy2023 said:
Have you don't any DBA work before on other RDBMS? Is this your first foray into DB admin?

well basic oracle admin commands, creating tns files, creating users etc
but I would consider myself with a very basic level of commands so I probably want entry level courses.

Burnsy2023 · 13 Oct 2015 at 13:37

What versions are you running in house? Are you running any RAC?

psd99 · 13 Oct 2015 at 13:44

Burnsy2023 said:
What versions are you running in house? Are you running any RAC?

Both RAC and stand-alone setups.

Burnsy2023 · 13 Oct 2015 at 13:47

psd99 said:
Both RAC and stand-alone setups.

Mainly 11g or 12c?

psd99 · 13 Oct 2015 at 13:56

I think mostly 11.2g

Burnsy2023 · 13 Oct 2015 at 14:09

So you have two 11g courses:
Oracle Database 11g: Administration Workshop I Release 2
Oracle Database 11g: Administration Workshop II Release 2

Both are needed although you may wish to still do the 12c equivalents instead.

I would then suggest doing the Oracle Database 11g: RAC Administration Release 2 course as well.

psd99 · 13 Oct 2015 at 14:27

thanks for that

Burnsy2023 · 13 Oct 2015 at 14:28

Also, it's worth doing the exam at the end but then it's important you do the actual Oracle courses to make sure you cover everything how Oracle want it.

psd99 · 13 Oct 2015 at 14:49

bet it is super tough.

I do find it interesting though.
that's a positive.

mid_gen · 13 Oct 2015 at 15:07

It's a pretty in depth subject, and well in demand. I've done some of the PL/SQL developer stuff, rather than DBA though.

Be warned though, if you get into Oracle....you'll have to deal with Oracle support. Eugh.

skyripper · 13 Oct 2015 at 15:13

mid_gen said:
Be warned though, if you get into Oracle....you'll have to deal with Oracle support. Eugh.

Worse than that, you generally have to deal with users and developers, none of whom ever understand the vagaries of execution plans, plan regression or why selecting from HugeTableA and HugeTableB with nonindexed or nonexistent joins is a bad idea.

psd99 · 19 Apr 2016 at 08:35

Burnsy2023 said:
So you have two 11g courses:
Oracle Database 11g: Administration Workshop I Release 2
Oracle Database 11g: Administration Workshop II Release 2

Both are needed although you may wish to still do the 12c equivalents instead.

I would then suggest doing the Oracle Database 11g: RAC Administration Release 2 course as well.

so I managed to get my employers put me on to the
Oracle Database 11g: Administration Workshop II Release 2 course soon!
Thanks for the suggestion.

super excited, as I am fed up of my current role.

This course is going to be tough and challenge me for sure but I hope to learn lots and attempt this exam!!! I don't think I ever had this much passion for an exam since my Uni days

tom_e · 19 Apr 2016 at 08:51

psd99 said:
This course is going to be tough and challenge me for sure but I hope to learn lots and attempt this exam!!! I don't think I ever had this much passion for an exam since my Uni days

That's half the battle! Much easier if you actually want to do it.
I do a lot of work around SQL and Oracle dbs in my current role and DBA is something I'm considering moving over to in the future.

mid_gen · 19 Apr 2016 at 09:31

Good luck, the Oracle exams are pretty good....and by that I mean if someone has passed them they do actually have their head screwed on, they aren't just bits of paper you get after sitting in a training room for a few days.

I'd take a look at the PL/SQL track as well....knowing what devs are doing in their code will be a great help. In my experience Oracle is pretty good when it's ticking over at moderate loads. When you develop *really* optimised PL/SQL to rinse every last ounce of performance out of it and thrash it, that's when the weird bugs in the engine start to surface.