About Me TCOUG member since 1990 8 years only DBA at Lifetouch, Inc. Lawson Software Database
Research Engineer Consultant - Fingerhut Control Data Contact me at
There’s no asset more important than a company’s data. You can’t give that responsibility to someone who doesn’t know how to handle it.
Malcom Fields, CIOHon Industries
Agenda
Time - Until lunch is ready Left-brain portion - tech. Issues Right-brain portion - softer issues Database audit form
75,610 DBAs U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in
2003 began tracking the IT workforce.
6.46% unemployed There are 797,445 Software
Engineers (5.3% unemployed) DBA supports about 10
developers. 66% DBA growth by 2010
DBA is a role Like a policeman or teacher Unstated responsibilities,
expectations Most people don’t know what a
DBA does.
DBA time breakdown 22% Fire Fighting 33% Monitoring 12% Perf. Tuning / Change Mgt. 33% Development Support 0% Planning for growth 0% Backup & Recovery Planning 0% Learning
Koopman
Assignment Keep a personal time log - 1 week Learn your time distribution Target improvements Study time management
Levels of Oracle DBARookie Veteran Expert
TCOUG No time Member,attends reg.
On theboard
Studies Admin.Commands
Concepts Architecture
Manuals No time Readsmanuals
Veryfamiliar
Learning Takesclasses
OCP, books OCM,author,conferences
Onlineforums
No time Lurks, asks Answersquestions
New Oraclefeatures
Uses anyfeature
Wary ofnew feature
Createstests to findproblems
OCP
Misconception: you are an expert Multiple choice, so simple
questions Broad, not deep Career benefit - can’t hurt Can help you go deeper in Oracle
Types of DBAs:Development DBA
May carry developer title Develop code ( PL/SQL ) “Hunter” personality (find/fix/forget) Best practices: Code Complete by
McConnell
Production Support DBA
Keep it running “shepherd / farmer” personality Where best practices really make a
difference The hero isn’t the DBA that battles
problems through the weekend, but the one that avoided the problem
Application DBA
Supports a business critical app. like Oracle Financials, SAP, Peoplesoft, Lawson
Production support, some dev. Key skill: understands how the
app. Interacts with Oracle Can’t self-study Caution: Vendor doesn’t operate
databases in production
Backup is Job #1 Ensuring data is never lost Don’t trust an untested backup
configuration Be ready to perform any type of
recovery at any time Communicate vulnerabilities, recovery
times to management Archivelog mode by default Cold or Hot backups, which best fits
your environment
Export: the DBAs friend
Enhance recoverability Easy to recover a single table,
avoid full recovery Checks block corruption Teach your developers to request
special exports Validate, no errors, Unix strings
command, last line should be EXIT
Security is Job #2
DBA is responsible for making data available to authorized users
Keeping data inaccessible to unauthorized
Role: policy, implementation Know security options, implications Know how application affects
security, data sensitivity
Making it workDev to Prod
ITIL 3 environments - test/stage/prod Clone DB from backup Developers provide scripts to change
production Simple application login test Always have a backout plan Is this change worth the possible
consequences?
Oracle Performance Tuning - Types SQL Statements - explain plan,
tkprof, 10053 events Application disasters - 10046 trace,
Cary Millsap (TCOUG Hotsos seminar)
Proactive tuning and hanging - STATSPACK, utlestat/utlbstat
Server statistics
If you have a performance problem, either your database is working too hard, or it’s not being allowed to work. - Jonathan Lewis
You must know what your server is doing.
You must know the O.S. Unix Admin. - your best friend
Bind variables
Ensure developers use bind variables
Audit v$sql in test to verify In Java, PreparedStatement In .net, CommandText,
CreateParameter, Append Connection pooling
Not your Dad’s Oracle tuning Rules of thumb, ratios to
mathematical foundations Counts to measured times in
microseconds Aggregate by instance to process
details V$ tables are either too
summarized or point-in-time
Goal of tuning
What matters to the business user Good chance to sell value End-to-end analysis DBA must prove innocence
Monitoring
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which shouldn’t be done at all - Peter F. Drucker
Use LMT, uniform extents, vs. rebuild
Use autoextend vs. monitoring Email exceptional conditions
Oracle Versions Be not the first by whom the new
are tried, nor yet the last to lay the old aside - Alexander Pope
Good choice saves downtime Support by appl, O.S. Rule of 4’s - 7.3.4, 8.1.7.4, 9.2.0.4 Timing - can I skip versions? Appl. quality requirements What are others saying? Metalink Only change one major component
Oracle Patches
Two philosophies: Only when bug arises Immediately (security)
Vendor testing hierarchy: Version Patch set Individual patch
Oracle Licensing
Install defaults to all - know what costs extra
Consider Standard Version Understand the organization
budget mechanisms Knowledgeable if not authorized
Troubleshooting
Never worked? Check installation Worked earlier, doesn’t work now?
What changed? Intermittent? (worst kind) How
does it vary? With time, system load, hardware?
From Oracle Networking 101 by Marlene Theriault
Documentation
Key: What is essential? Don’t document what can easily be
figured out Keeping up-to-date is the crucial
aspect. Obsolete documentation is
treacherous Self-documenting where possible
Data Modeling
O-O Developer: Database is just a means to persist classes
DBA: Good data modeling can ensure the data is usable across the enterprise
Data architect is a DBA career path Participate in initial design where
your leverage is large Learn data modeling software
Tech. Learning List
Application interface methods - Microsoft, Java, OCBC
Server tuning Storage methods and options,
strengths and weaknesses
Effective communication proceeds from shared knowledge
Self-Study When you can’t get experience Be aware of the limits Well-defined area? (books?) Can earn credentials? Area where you can gain significant
knowledge with a reasonable effort? Average experience of competitors is
short Enjoy after doing 10 years?
Know your learning style
Left-brain vs. right-brain Four primary learning styles:
Visual (diagrams) Auditory (reading) Tactile (hands-on) Kinesthetic (body)
Your manager’s learning style
People Skills
Few people besides a DBA understand what a DBA does
This makes it hard to communicate your value to the organization
People don’t mind paying for what they value, but resist paying for what they don’t consider valuable
If your manager is a DBA, less people skills are required, but this is career-limiting
Respect
Do you respect someone who doesn’t respect you?
The root of much conflict is a mutual lack of respect
Smartness paradox We are the hero of our own movie, we
justify ourselves, never the bad guy Really care about the people you
work with
How to avoid problems Many bad reactions stem from a
lack of warning Emotions play a large role in
decision-making Work hard to warn people ahead of
time of what will be coming Don’t know why? Assume stupidity A DBA appreciates a heads-up,
why shouldn’t others?
When you’re wrong, admit it, quickly Any man worth his salt will
stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error - Andrew Jackson
Stress Feeling no control Constant interruptions DBA syndrome - responsible for
everything, control nothing, nobody understands
You hear yourself saying “nobody appreciates me”
Antidote: study stress control, exercise
visit clients, future changes
That Problem Person Sandwich / Oreo approach by Rachel
Carmichael 1-on-1 outside the office Begin with a complement Make statements addressing the
problem, starting with “I” - “I feel”, “I think”, “what I see is”. Listen
Wrap with team-building “we can work together on this”, “I need your help”
End with a nice complement
Simple Explanations
The most valuable people are those who can understand complex issues and explain them simply to others
Makes other feel good about themselves
Albert Einstein, Steve Hawking, Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman
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