Junior Oracle DBA duties

Dave Anderson

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Mar 8, 2004, 5:00:16 PM3/8/04

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Greetings, i am a developer for a medium size business that is
expanding. I really love what I am doing, however the company I work
for has asked that I consider becomming a junior DBA and has offered
paid training. Can someone please tell me what are the general duties
of a junior Oracle DBA so that I can make an informed decision? What
are the normal everyday tasks?

Hans Forbrich

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Mar 8, 2004, 5:14:03 PM3/8/04

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Only you and your organization could know what the definition of 'Junior
DBA' might be. Anything we could offer where would be speculation.

However, as a guideline: The documentation for each version of Oracle
includes a book called 'Database Administrator's Guide' or just
'Administrator's Guide'. Chapter 1 provides a handy discussion of the
various roles and responsibilities of individuals, including DBA.

The documentation is available online at http://docs.oracle.com

HTH
/Hans

Daniel Morgan

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Mar 8, 2004, 6:16:10 PM3/8/04

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You need to have your management define it for you. Forward looking
DBAs should be looking toward this as a minimum skill set

1. backup and recovery both traditional and with RMAN
2. OEM
3. Ability to read and understand ERD and UML
4. Ability to read and understand SQL, PL/SQL, Java, XML
5. Thorough understanding of Oracle concepts and architecture
6. Ability to debug and tune any front-end or back-end code
7. Thorough understanding of the Oracle security model and tools
8. Thorough understanding of v$ views

Don't worry much about init.ora parameters ... almost all of them
are going away forever.

--
Daniel Morgan
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/oad/oad_crs.asp
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/aoa/aoa_crs.asp
damo...@x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with a 'u' to reply)

Mark Bole

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Mar 8, 2004, 9:48:11 PM3/8/04

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Daniel Morgan wrote:
> Dave Anderson wrote:
>
>> Greetings, i am a developer for a medium size business that is
>> expanding. I really love what I am doing, however the company I work
>> for has asked that I consider becomming a junior DBA and has offered
>> paid training. Can someone please tell me what are the general duties
>> of a junior Oracle DBA so that I can make an informed decision? What
>> are the normal everyday tasks?
>
>
> You need to have your management define it for you. Forward looking
> DBAs should be looking toward this as a minimum skill set
>
> 1. backup and recovery both traditional and with RMAN
> 2. OEM
> 3. Ability to read and understand ERD and UML
> 4. Ability to read and understand SQL, PL/SQL, Java, XML
> 5. Thorough understanding of Oracle concepts and architecture
> 6. Ability to debug and tune any front-end or back-end code
> 7. Thorough understanding of the Oracle security model and tools
> 8. Thorough understanding of v$ views
>
> Don't worry much about init.ora parameters ... almost all of them
> are going away forever.
>

Paid training on company time? Take it! Whether the underlying motive
for offering you the training is positive or negative, you win either way.

I would add to Daniel's minimum skill set, the following:

You should strive to acquire a working knowledge of administrative tools
on one or both of the most popular platforms:

* Un*x (Solaris, Linux, HP-UX, AIX, FreeBSD, they're all about 88% the
same...)

* Windows

If you can't look at things from outside of the database, you will be
handicapped from time to time as a DBA.

--Mark Bole

Niall Litchfield

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Mar 9, 2004, 5:38:33 AM3/9/04

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"Daniel Morgan" <damo...@x.washington.edu> wrote in message
news:1078787738.684037@yasure...

> Dave Anderson wrote:
> > Greetings, i am a developer for a medium size business that is
> > expanding. I really love what I am doing, however the company I work
> > for has asked that I consider becomming a junior DBA and has offered
> > paid training. Can someone please tell me what are the general duties
> > of a junior Oracle DBA so that I can make an informed decision? What
> > are the normal everyday tasks?
>
> You need to have your management define it for you. Forward looking
> DBAs should be looking toward this as a minimum skill set
>
> 1. backup and recovery both traditional and with RMAN
> 2. OEM
> 3. Ability to read and understand ERD and UML
> 4. Ability to read and understand SQL, PL/SQL, Java, XML
> 5. Thorough understanding of Oracle concepts and architecture
> 6. Ability to debug and tune any front-end or back-end code
> 7. Thorough understanding of the Oracle security model and tools
> 8. Thorough understanding of v$ views
>
> Don't worry much about init.ora parameters ... almost all of them
> are going away forever.

great advice. I agree with the sentiment expressed in the last line but not
necessarily for the reason Dan gives

on 817
SQL> select count(*) from v$parameter;

COUNT(*)
----------
202

on 9204
SQL> select count(*) from v$parameter;

COUNT(*)
----------
257

care to try 10g anyone.

--
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
Audit Commission UK

Mark C. Stock

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Mar 9, 2004, 9:07:09 AM3/9/04

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"Niall Litchfield" <n-litc...@audit-commission.gov.uk> wrote in message
news:404d9ea9$0$22392$ed9e...@reading.news.pipex.net...

and i would have to agree with all except the last statement, for some very
significant reasons
[_] wrongly set init.ora parameters are often the cause of performance (or
non-performance) problems
[_] no matter how wonderful 10g is, we will still be encountering 8i, 9i,
and even v7 and v8 databases for quite awhile
[_] no matter how wonderful 10g is, i am not willing to 'just trust
oracle' -- i want to know what my options are
[_] as the init.ora file disappears, the concept of system parameters
doesn't, just the way they are managed

;-{ mcs

Mark C. Stock

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Mar 9, 2004, 9:14:31 AM3/9/04

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"Mark C. Stock" <mcstockX@Xenquery .com> wrote in message news:...
|
...

|
| and i would have to agree with all except the last statement, for some
very
| significant reasons
| [_] wrongly set init.ora parameters are often the cause of performance (or
| non-performance) problems
| [_] no matter how wonderful 10g is, we will still be encountering 8i, 9i,
| and even v7 and v8 databases for quite awhile
| [_] no matter how wonderful 10g is, i am not willing to 'just trust
| oracle' -- i want to know what my options are
| [_] as the init.ora file disappears, the concept of system parameters
| doesn't, just the way they are managed
|
| ;-{ mcs
|
|

found an example we ran into with a client a few months back with 9.2

the contract dba left '_system_trig_enabled' set to false after applying a
patch to the development system, so our versioning system went
non-operational until the parameter (which i'm not sure the dba knew the
consequences of) was reset

;-{ mcs

Daniel Morgan

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Mar 9, 2004, 10:01:05 AM3/9/04

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Niall Litchfield wrote:

Connected to:
Oracle10i Enterprise Edition Release 10.1.0.1.0 - Beta
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Data Mining options

SQL> select count(*) from v$parameter;

COUNT(*)
----------
255

SQL>

And there may be a smaller number in the production release. We
have reached the top of the curve. The number is heading downward:
Steeply downward. Toward a very small number.

Dave Anderson

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Mar 9, 2004, 10:43:58 PM3/9/04

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"Mark C. Stock" <mcstockX@Xenquery .com> wrote in message news:<2o-dnU5DcLs...@comcast.com>...

Thanks Guys final question we are using 9i will 10g replace the DBA position?

Daniel Morgan

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Mar 10, 2004, 1:29:11 AM3/10/04

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Dave Anderson wrote:

>
> Thanks Guys final question we are using 9i will 10g replace the DBA position?

Absolutely not though the paranoiacs among us may think otherwise.
The traditional DBA position is dying but the need for DBAs has
not. The difference is that the DBAs of the future will need
different skills: Very different skills.