Every year, young computer professionals leave the hallowed halls and ivory towers of college and survey the landscape for computer jobs. They look at the salary surveys and drool at the prospect of earning up to $250k per year as a DBA. Many of them don't know what a DBA does, but they sure like the money.
Since I've been a DBA for 25 years I'm often asked "How do I become a DBA?", many from neophytes who are enticed with the glamour and power of the DBA role. While being a DBA is exciting and lucrative, it's a career choice that requires years of preparation. The most important thing to remember is that the job of a DBA requires a 24x7 commitment. Being an Oracle DBA can be a very stressful, thankless job, and many DBA jobs require the DBA to be on-call on Thanksgiving and Christmas to perform downtime maintenance. Plus, the DBA is expected to constantly keep-up with the rapidly-changing technology, working nights and weekends on a regular basis.
It's not uncommon for a DBA to earn as much as a mid-level manager, and in larger shops the DBA is a vice president. However, the high high pay is a double-edged sword. The DBA must constantly justify their salary, and a good DBA who automates many of their job functions may find themselves looking for a new job.
What classes should I take to prepare for a job as a DBA?
In grad school, all IT and CS students take courses like Operations Research where they learn to develop complex decision rules and them apply them to real world datasets. Using Oracle as the back-end storage of data and decision rules is a great way to prepare for real-world applications of expert systems, DSS and AI. Also, advanced statistics courses (multivariate analysis) are a good way to prepare for a career in Oracle data mining and Business Intelligence (BI)
.
What College Degrees are best for the DBA?
Companies are now requiring a combination of technical and managerial skills and the best-fits are those with an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and a MBA in Information Systems. Employers need a DBA who can understand business systems areas (accounting, finance, marketing) and MBA's are a perfect fir for the DBA job role.
How much can I earn as an Oracle DBA?
Here are my notes on Oracle Salary Compensation, and there is a wide variation according to the responsibilities of the DBA job, the quality of the DBA, the cost of living, and the experience of the DBA. Here is a good Oracle DBA salary survey showing the national average at $65,000 per year.
Read more on Becoming an Oracle DBA:
http://oracle-tips.c.topica.com/maamfocabKwkSbLGJribafpMfn/
How to become an Oracle DBA
What are Oracle worst practices?
There is a great deal of discussion about following Oracle best practices (e.g. using OFA, etc.) but little has been said about Oracle worst practices. Contrary to an Oracle "best practice", an Oracle "worst practice" are actions (or non-actions) that cause poor performance and create excessive management overhead, essentially a non-standard approach to Oracle database management. Let's look at a few of my Oracle worst practices:
Many Oracle shops commission an Oracle Health Check to find these issues, but worst practices are alive-and-well in the Oracle community.
http://www.dba-oracle.com/oracle_health_check.htm
I describe Oracle worst practices into several general areas:
- PL/SQL worst practices
- Oracle DBA worst practices
- Oracle design worst practices
- Oracle architecture worst practices
Read my complete treatise on Oracle worst practices here:
http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_worst_practices.htm
For complete details, see my book "Oracle Tuning: The Definitive Reference":
http://www.rampant-books.com/book_2005_1_awr_proactive_tuning.htm
Tricks in Oracle SQL to compare two tables
Oracle Corporate developer Vadim Tropashko has some interesting notes on tuning Oracle SQL queries that compare the contents of two tables, showing several SQL solutions and their performance within the Oracle cost-based optimizer. Tropashko has a remarkable approach to solving this problem, a worthy read for anyone who writes SQL in Oracle.
Vadim also shows a great example of using the hidden parameter _convert_set_to_join to improve SQL execution speed for queries that find the semantic difference between two tables, and he shows how to compare the rows and columns of two tables with Oracle SQL syntax.
http://oracle-tips.c.topica.com/maamcioabJ7adbLGJrib/
Vadim Tropashko is the author of the book "SQL Design Patterns: The Expert Guide to SQL Programming".
This is the definitive reference for SQL design patterns, a critical knowledge area for any Oracle developer.
http://oracle-tips.c.topica.com/maamcioabJ7abbLGJrib/
Get that Oracle job you crave!
Tired of searching the Web for relevant career information on how to obtain that Oracle position you've been vying for?
Look no further! Whether you're looking to score your first Oracle job as a DBA or developer or just concerned about the future of your current position -- you're not alone. That's why SearchOracle.com has compiled this fast guide to finding and keeping an Oracle job. You'll get tips and techniques that are sure to help you stand out against the crowd.
Whether you're interested in brushing up on interview questions and techniques, checking out Oracle salaries or simply searching for open positions, this guide has what you're looking for:
http://oracle-tips.c.topica.com/maamfF2abKyppbLGJrib/
Get expert advice, tips, resources and more on everything you need to know about your Oracle dream job including:
* Salary and hiring information.
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Inside Oracle 10g Automatic Memory Management
As we migrate from Oracle9i to Oracle10g, Oracle will automatically enable Automatic Storage Memory Management (ASMM), a automation features that adjusts the sizes of your default data buffer and shared pool.
The Oracle documentation shows that Oracle uses the memory advisories from Oracle9i and applies heuristics (rules of thumb) to determine the best shift in RAM pool sizes. These heuristics consist of hypothesis testing with "what if" scenarios, and chooses the size with the greatest overall marginal benefit.
To learn how ASMM works and how to monitor ASMM, check-out my research:
http://oracle-tips.c.topica.com/maamch5abJ69nbLGJrib/
Oracle Monitoring Best Practices
All DBA's are required to set-up an Oracle monitoring infrastructure and the architecture of the monitoring system is directly dependent on the demands of management. Oracle system cost the end-user community millions of dollars, and the end-user often demand service-level agreements (SLA's) that impose strict monitoring tasks for the Oracle professional.
- In many shops, the end-user community is demanding Oracle performance statistics at a detailed level.
- A financial services company demands that 95% of their Oracle transactions complete within one wallclock second. The DBA most develop a monitoring strategy to ensure compliance. (Note: there are special techniques that can be employed to get end-to-end response time within Oracle).
- A stock brokerage demands that the DBA write a sophisticated real-time proactive monitor. This monitor will quickly diagnose and pinpoint Oracle bottlenecks, but getting the data is a problem. It requires real-time access to all internal Oracle control structures. Running the monitor imposes a measurable burden on overall system load.
- A manufacturing plant requires measuring response time by hour-of-the-day to ensure fast throughput for all shifts.
These are just a few examples of the business demands that drive the Oracle professional to create sophisticated monitoring infrastructures. Let's example some of the most important issues when making these decisions.
Read the entire article on Oracle monitoring tips here:
http://oracle-tips.c.topica.com/maal6WNabJhjibLGJrib/