₦airaland Forum

@Temmy88,

Unfortunately i dont live in US. Used to but right now i work in the middle east. Anyway, there is a website you can go to and register. it is called www.esnips.com. Open an account and i will gladly upload some materials there for you.

@OjoJames. As an accountant you dont need to go through OCA and OCP. All you need to do is attend the Oracle Financials classes and take the exam. Mind you, your career path in this case wont be technical but rather, functional. And as such, OCA or/and OCP wont add anything to you.

@temmy888, in 5 weeks all you can learn is the basics. This will give you a good foundation to build on. Most of your education as an Oracle DBA is going to be self-made. I mean you will learn a lot ob your own by practicing and reading a lot. There are lots and lots of materials out there on the net you can access.
The internet for me is a depth of knowledge. A simple search on any topic will produce tons and tons of information and articles. I do have over 11gb of Oracle related materials on various topics. Most which i can gladly share but the problem has been the logistics of doing so. If anyone can come up with a good logistics i will gladly make these available.
Otherwise, i will have to make a few DVDs of these materials and bring with me when i visit Nigeria in Easter.

And to all those wishing to make a career here, i say "goodluck and welcome." Be rest assured we will gladly help you make this a career you will be proud of.

Apologies guys for not contributing for a while. Right now i am traveling. Once i get back to my base i will contribute more.
Regards.

@Le Moor,

Nice to have you back. The more we have here the merrier. Hopefully we can all learn from each other.

Thanks.

Felix

A-40:
In some cases it does help i agree though that Performance Tuning,Disaster Recovery,Backup Management matter to a larger extent but then there are also scenarios where you would need your PL/SQL especially when you are dealing with Dynamic Performance Views and all its not just something you can really run from so you might as well be good at it as there are rarely jobs where you would not have to do some Development at one time or another

Dont get me wrong. As a DBA it is good to know PLSQL. But except you're a Development DBA supporting developers, your need to use PLSQL is minimal. PLSQL is different from SQL. You dont need PLSQL to analyze the Dynamic Performance views. You use simple SQL to retreive data from views as a general rule. For the last 6 years as a DBA, i have no need to use heavy PLSQL. And i am talking about large databases in the magnitude of several terrabytes for large corporations that can not afford to be down for a second. I doubt if there is any environment in Nigeria that meets that criteria.
What i am saying is that there is more for a DBA to learn than PLSQL. DBA job is far more complex than what simple knowledge of PLSQL entails. If you're a DBA and use heavy PLSQL then you're simply a Development DBA. Or better still a Developer/DBA.

A-40:
Ohh it does help a great deal to know your PL/SQL although its one of my least favorite parts of Oracle but hey you would need it to schedule your jobs access some packages make use of constraints like triggers or when you need to make calculations that your ordinary SQL code can't do i.e when you want to automate tasks and stuff it can be the difference between a good DBA and a great DBA.I can't stand PL/SQL though but i know its necessary
What's good man? I am sure you must be earning top naira or is it dollars by now? Have you laid your hands on 11g yet?

Honestly you dont need so much PLSQL to be a good DBA unless you are a Development DBA. To be a great DBA you need to know and master things like Performance Tuning, Disaster Recovery etc rather than PLSQL. And to be a Super DBA then you need to be a guru in one of the HA features of Oracle.
I am not doing much work in 11g yet because it is still the first release. Will do much when the second release comes out. The first release of any product is always bug full.
@Jimblaze,
Please go to www.ensips.com and open an account. Then send me the username and password so i can upload the PLSQL zip file for you. Can email it because of the size. Once you do that let me know.

@

jimblaze:
@ azumok my yahoo ad is jimblaze_au77 so pls send any thing about pl/sql and to jaffa just keep on reading and try and try and find a place to get some hands experience even if you dont get paid for now. also subcribe to oracle magazine its free and hey cabali long time

Just added you to my YM. Give me a few days to gather these materials together. Once i do i will let you know.

jaffa:
CABALI,AZUM,JIMBLAZE,JABBOK , U shud come 2 my rescue , `ve bn an OCP since 2005 `vent really had a hands-on experience in the field but right now i really want2 go deeper, am thinking of ORACLE on UNIX n presently am having studies on linux/unix admin.
Am seeking for ur constructive advice on this from u guys,with respect to serious tutoring arrangements and `ve 2 say am really glad to see this kinda thread, BIG UPs,meN!!!!

I wont mind having ur contacts, THX my email add is ogbjeff@yahoo.com

@Jaffa, just sent you an invite on YM.

cabali:
Long time I been in here. Good to know peeps holding it down.

kudos Azum.

@all

Is there anyone proficient in the use of the oracle e-business suite?

@Cabali, I have done some e-Business Suite DBA job? So maybe i might just be able to answer your question or in a worst case scenerio direct you where you can get info. So shoot.

jimblaze:
hey azum how do i send you a personal message on this forum without everyone else seeing my email add?

Unfortunately this forum does not provide room for PM - Private Messages.

jabbok:
I need to know How much of PL/SQL does a DBA really need to know??
Thanks

A hard question to crack. Honestly it all depends on the individual. I have worked with DBAs who can hardly write or debug a simple code of SQL. I have also worked with DBAs who are gurus in SQLs. I started out originally as an Oracle Developer before changing course to become a DBA so that may account for whatever knowledge i have of SQL & PL/SQL. My take is that no knowledge is lost. I love being on top of things as a DBA and as such i tend to have good knowledge of what is happening around me than is necessary for the ordinary DBA to know.
As a Production DBA you may make do with the basics knowledge of SQL and PLSQL. But as a Development DBA, you definitely need some sound knowledge of PLSQL to work with developers and programmers.

But all in all you definitely need some knowledge of SQL and PLSQL to become OCP certified.

paule:
Azum: A beginner doesn't know about data integrity. I know you know cos your are an oracle consultant

@Paule,
Data integrity to a beginner is simple ensuring that data in the tables which ever table they are resident appear the same across board. This is saying that employee name in table 'A' is the same as employee name when referenced in table 'X'. And in ensuring data integrity you eliminate redundant/duplicate data. And one basic way to do this is to introduce relationships between tables.

aminoritse:
Hi, everyone,

Please I have this technical data base question/puzzle that I am yet to answer satisfactorily. "What is/are the essence of having relationship between table s in a database design?" Could someone out there give is contribution. Thanks.

Simple. To maintain Data integrity.

jimblaze:
hey azum, i would love anything on PL/sql programming from the basics really, like pl/sql fundamentals, thanks and i will send my email when you are ready

Send your email and will see what i have.

jabbok:
@azum,

please kindly give me d steps as it regards using REGEDIT.
Many thanks

Here you go:

1. Start -> Run
2. Type Regedit in Run. This opens up a new window, The Registry Edit Window
3. Expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder
4. expand the SYSTEM folder
5. you will see the CONTROLSET group of folders and the CURRENTCONTROLSET folder. There are 3 of them
6. in each of these CONTROLSET folders open the SERVICES folder
7. In the SERVICES folder delete any key starting with Oracle. When you try to delete these keys you will be asked to confirm the delete. Confirm the delete and the keys will be permanently deleted.
8.Then go to the SOFTWARE folder still in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
9. delete the ORACLE key there
10. go to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT folder
11. Delete any key starting with ORA

After you complete the steps above delete the Oracle folder from the C:\ drive. Then reboot your system. Once your system comes back up check and you will realise it is has been cleaned out of Oracle Software. You can now conveniently re-install Oracle.

NOTE: PLEASE BY CAREFUL AS YOU NAVIGATE THE REGISTRY OF YOUR SYSTEM. A WRONG STEP WILL CAUSE YOU TO HAVE TO REINSTALL YOUR WINDOWS OS.

anyway, if you are on yahoo messenger let me have your email address. i can add you to mine and work you through these steps.

jimblaze:
hey guys! its been a while now, Le Moor and hey azum welcome to the dba corner even though i have not been posting for a long time now, but he i am back now, @ azum do ou haveany materials on pl/sql? as in i need to start from scratch again so thank in advance @ jabook what you encountered on enterprise manager happened to me on a windows o/s and i sovled but i dont knowwhere i kept the report but i f u check some of my earlier posts from last year you are sure to find it and i wonder why EM keeps doing that, any idea guys?anyway take care and God bless
oh that oracle mentoring corner is a good idea azum and also a pl/sql mentoring corner would suite me and anyone else just fine too

Thanks Jimblaze for the welcome. I do have loads and loads of materials on virtually any topic in Oracle, This is so because i found out long ago that the only way to make a way is to read, read and read more. This field is for ever changing. Some of these materials are proprietary from some of the places i have worked before though. So let me know exactly what you're looking for and i will see if its among what i have.

jabbok:
@azum,

I found d resource u suggested. many thanks. But b4 then I had earlier tried to remove d oracle software manually n d result b say I messed up my system. I can't succesfully remove it now , thus I can't re-install. I have oracle 10g on Solaris n 4 nw thats d one am using

Yes you definitely can.
If you have manually started to uninstall it, then complete it that way. All you need to do is to clean Oracle out of your system. It is tricky though, but you can complete remove Oracle from your system by using the REGEDIT. Let me know if you want to go that way and i will gladly write down the steps for you. It is tricky because if you dont do it carefully, you will screw up your Operating System, and will need to re-install your OS.

But let me know and i will write down the steps to follow.

arohcs:
Hi guyz,
What are the basics for one to follow in order to master Oracle. i see so much of pl/sql and java as if that is wat is all about.

please somebodi should give me a giude.

Your first point of start is to decide what area of Oracle do you want to follow. There are so many areas in Oracle that a lot of people dont know about. So if you want to pursue a career in Oracle the first thing is to do a self assessment and see what one has a flair for. Broadly speaking in Oracle you could either be Technical or Functional. That for me is the basic starting point. Let me try to use this opportunity to break down the different career paths one can undertake in Oracle.

A. Technical: Now if you have a flair for the technical stuff you may then want to decide if you want to be a Developer or a Database Administrator. Being a Developer simply mean being a Programmer.
1. Developer: Even as a Developer you have two major areas:
   i. The Core Developer - those who basically Oracle Developers developing applications in Forms, Reports, HTML DB, Java etc
   ii. Oracle Apps Developer - Those with sound knowledge of the Oracle e-Business Suite and are thus involved in various customizations
        and development of other add-on functionalities to Oracle e-Business Suite as the client require.
If you decide to follow a Developer's path, then you definitely do need the following skills and Knowledge: SQL, PL-SQL, Forms, Reports, Sqlplus etc.

2. Oracle Database Administrator - this too is broken down into two major career paths.
   i. The Core DBA - these are those that manage the various Oracle Databases and have in-depth knowledge of the Oracle environment.
   ii. The Oracle Apps DBA - these are those who manage the Oracle e-Business Suite. These are involved with day-to-day management and administering
   of the Oracle e-Business Suite. This require having a sound technical knowledge of the Oracle e-Business Suite.
   As a DBA with time you graduate from being an ordinary DBA who are involved with just the basic day-to-day duties such as installation, migration, patching, upgrades, performance tuning, backup and recovery to the specialist DBA. These are the DBAs with specialist skills such as Disaster Recovery, High Availability etc. These are the top range DBAs with many implementations of RAC, ASM, DG etc in their belts and are always in high demand.

So either as a DBA you do need a sound knowledge of Sqlplus, SQL and PLSQL. Then as a DBA, you do need to have more than a passable knowledge of operating systems.

B. Functional - These are those with other degree or specialization who still want to pursue a career in IT, Oracle specifically as an add-on to their specialization. In this regards you have those specialists in the following fields: HR, Accounting, Customer Service etc. These people will thus leverage their experience towards a career in Oracle and as such could any of the following routes:
i. Oracle Financial - for those with financial background
ii. Oracle HR - those with HR background
iv. etc - implying there are so many other specialization available in this regard.
iii. Peoplesoft - remember Oracle bought peoplesoft and as such people can just special in this area.
Let me state here that these are the so called System Analyst that go on configuration projects during the implementation of Oracle Projects. So for those with other backgrounds or those who dont have a flair for technical stuff there is also a path for you to follow.
   
I have taken the time to break it down for you since a lot of discussions on this page are DBA related. Please note that the career paths available in Oracle are not limited to these alone. Now you have enough information for you to start. If you have further questions do post them here.

@jabbok,
How far with the de-installation / re-install of Oracle on Windows? Any updates?

jabbok:
@azum,

I tried to uninstall d oracle software n I re-installed it. when I issue "sqlplus /nolog on d command prompt I get d following:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\janus>sqlplus /nolog
Error 6 initializing SQL*Plus
Message file sp1<lang>.msb not found
SP2-0750: You may need to set ORACLE_HOME to your Oracle software directory

C:\Documents and Settings\janus>

Yes you will get this message if you try to log on to Sqlplus without the Oracle Home variable being set. Moreso when you have two Oracle Homes as in your case. As such you will need to set it as follows at the command prompt:

C:\set ORACLE_HOME=your_oracle_software_directory

where your_oracle_software_directory is where you have Oracle binaries installed.

But come if all you want is to uninstall Oracle do that through the OUI gui. This is in the Installation folder inside the Oracle folder in Start->Program->Oracle. That will be the cleanest way to go about this. The OUI gui will do a clean uninstall and you can then do some cleanup later.
By the way, if you have access to Metalink, Oracle support website, there is a good article there on how to uninstall Oracle on Windows. if you dont have access let me know i will try and get the document to you.

@jabbok,

If you open a browser and can still not log on, kindly post the screen shot of the error displayed by the browser.

azum:
From this line, your dbconsole is running and as such you do not need to manually start it.
Just open a browser and enter the address and you should have a logon screen.
the address is usually in the form of :

https://localhost:1158/em


localhost is the name of the host on which the service is running.

There are so many possibilities why this is so. One possibility is that though the service shows as running, it is dead. This is common on windows. If you can reboot your system and check that the services are all running. Then open a browser or see if you can log on again.
If however you can not reboot your system then you will have to manually stop and restart the Oracle Services from the Services window.

Stop the following services in the order listed:

1. OracleDBConsoleorcl
2. OracleCSService
3. OracleServiceORCL
4. OracleOraDb10g_home2TNSListener

Start them all up in the reverse order listed above starting with the listener.


Meanwhile, looking closely at your services you posted earlier, you have two Oracle Homes: Home1 and Home2. Check and ensure that the oracle Home and the SId where the dbconsole resides is correctly set.

OracleDBConsoleorcl Started Automatic Local System

From this line, your dbconsole is running and as such you do not need to manually start it.
Just open a browser and enter the address and you should have a logon screen.
the address is usually in the form of :

https://localhost:1158/em


localhost is the name of the host on which the service is running.

@Jabbok

Do the following: Go to Start, Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance, Administrative Tools and then Services which is at the bottom. Then click on Services. This opens a new window for you. Enlarge the window. All the services are listed in alphabetic order. You will see the oracle services. They all start with the keyword Oracle.

List all the services that start with Oracle and their Statuses.

@jabbok,

Simple then let's troubleshoot this together then. To help you will need to provide the following:

1. further information about this environment.
2. Also what exactly are you trying to achieve?
3. Check what Oracle services you have installed on this box. Go to services and see what services start with Oracle and list them all here. (The error message indicate the service is not installed). So we need to confirm what Oracle services you have installed.

@jabbok

from your posting i assume you're on a windows environment. open a command prompt window and issue the following command:

set ORACLE_SID=sid ------------------------------where sid is your Oracle SID .

verify by issuing the following:

set ORACLE_SID

you should get the following:

ORACLE_SID=sid

@ a wizzy:

Hope these helps:

http://vanbortel..com/2008/09/10g-database-on-ubuntu-804-hardy-heron.html

http://www.pythian.com/blogs/968/installing-oracle-11g-on-ubuntu-804-lts-hardy-heron

http://kangleay.yo2.cn/articles/troubleshooting-on-installing-oracle-database-10g-in-ubuntu-hardy.html

sbucarrer :

just to let you know, it isn't possible to have to instances on the same machine, running at the same time ok.

each oracle database has it's own instance, so when you change the enviromental variable to another database the instance of that database becomes stale while the one for the open database starts running.

The only case where you have multiple instances on different nodes opening a single database is when you use RAC(real application clusters) in this case you can have like 9 instances opening one database so that if one of the instances should go down you database can still be open beacsue you have other instances working onbehalf of that database. RAC is used for database availabilty, in an oragnisation where downtime cannot be tollorated RAC can be very useful


thanks


larry

Going through past posts i came across this. Yes it is so old, but for all it is worth let me address this and share my experiences.

Yes you can have as many instances as you want running on the same server be it Unix, Windows or Linux. The only requirements being you must have enough resources available. By resources i mean memory hard disk space etc. On Unix it is very easy once you configure your kernel parameters properly. And believe you me this is not THEORY but rather hands-on experience.

Right now on a AIX 5.3L Server, i have two instances of Oracle 9.2.0.6 running successfully without any hindrance. These two instances have their own binaries. However they share the same listener which runs on port 1527. They could as well have their own listeners if need be.

Also as i type this on a Microsoft Windows 2003 server box with 12 GB RAM, i have two instances of Oracle 10.2.0.4.0 running without any hitch. One is production and the other development. Each of these databases have their own binaries and listener. One runs on 1525 and the other on 1527. But note that the OS in this case is a 64 bits Windows 2003 server. It does not really matter cause at a point in time i had running on my Windows XP Dell Latitude Laptop with 4 GB RAM (seen by the OS is 3.25GB since it is a 32 bits OS) the following: Oracle 9.2.0.5, Oracle 10.2.0.3 and an Oracle 10.2.0.4 EM Grid Control with its own separate database. The two databases of 10.2.0.3 and 10.2.0.4 all using the Automatic Storage Management feature. YES IT IS POSSIBLE TO SIMULATE an ASM FEATURE ON A WINDOWS ENVIRONMENT FOR TEST AND PRACTICE PURPOSE THOUGH ORACLE DOES NOT RECOMMEND IT FOR PRODUCTION PURPOSES.

Another thing it is also easy to have two instances running using the same binaries. The only drawback here being you cannot independently patch one instance. These things are easy really to implement. For any one who wants to have two instances running on the same server here are the basic steps.

1. configure your kernel parameters properly on unix to be able to accomodate two instances.
2. layout your file systems (unix) and directories (windows) properly as you want them for the two instances
3. install the first instance and create the database for it and perform all the necessary configurations you require.
4. BEFORE YOU START INSTALLING THE 2nd INSTANCE. REMEMBER TO CHANGE THE ORACLE_SID AND ORACLE_HOME (if you dont want to share binaries) variables TO THE NEW INSTANCE OTHERWISE YOU WILL OVERWRITE YOUR INSTALLED INSTALLED. THIS IS THE KEY TO HAVING TWO INSTANCES RUNNING.
5. Optional: On both UNIX and WINDOWS you may need to reduce the memory consumption by the first instance to the minimum so as to be able to have the second instance running if you dont have enough RAM on the box.

To simulate ASM on windows, there are many articles out there on the net that is useful. Anyone interested can contact for a step by step instruction to achieve this.

By the way, dont you guys think it will be wise to have an "Oracle DBA Mentoring Corner" or something of sort we can all help mentor each other? Just a though that came to my mind after my earlier post.

Hi all,

Thanks to all those who set this up. Just happen to stumble on this forum while searching for Oracle DBA related info in Nigeria.
I am new here, but definitely not new in Oracle. Would love to share whatever little knowledge i know with all.
Feel free to ask and i will gladly respond as soon as time permits.

Let me include in this my first post a bit of advice for those pursuing a career as an Oracle DBA.
Have it behind your mind that to be an Oracle DBA implies being a "jack of all trade and a master of one". Dont be scared. Not only are you required to be a master in Oracle Database Administration which believe you me is complex, you're also required to have more than a basic or passing knowledge in the following:

1. application development - if you dont how can you tune another person's application.
2. various operating systems: windows, various flavours of unix(Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, Linux,Open VMS, etc).
3. Networks
4. etc

Trust me, as a DBA, there will be many occasions when a deep knowledge in these other areas will save your neck. So if you're starting out, be ready to learn the areas mentioned above alongside mastering your Oracle knowledge. The good thing here is that there are so many free materials available online, so access to internet is very crucial, to help guide one through his journey of life as an Oracle DBA. Oracle Corporation has a host of these materials available at the following:

1. http://www.oracle.com/technology/index.html : free registration is required. You can also download free oracle software for practice. Many articles are also available here to help you.

2.http://www.oracle.com/technology/obe/start/index.html: This is the page of Oracle by Example training.

However, at the end of the day, the reward is great for those who persevere. Oracle DBA jobs are in high demand the world over.

Like i said, i will be more than glad to share my little knowledge with all. Its part of my giving back to Nigeria, a country i am very proud of, for the sound education i got. So feel free to ask me any questions both online and offline.

So once again, kindly welcome me to this enlightened group. Its a pleasure to be here and i do hope we will all learn from each other. For no one is an island of knowledge.