I was looking through materials I save to write my next post and I came across the following quote:

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.”

I do not know where I got it from, but it made a quick and strong impression on me.  I believe that this quote is so true.  The way we react determines so much. It affects our mood and the mood of others we interact with in both a negative or positive manner according to our reactions.

In one of my earlier posts, I wrote about stress and how the meaning we give to the things we see, hear, think, etc. affects us and others around us.

That is why I suggest that becoming highly aware of our reactions can be a powerful tool to help mitigate stress, anger, and any other negative emotion that ends up affecting our moods and ultimately our health.

The “spiritual” types suggest that we can make a huge difference in our life by “being present”. That means not letting our “egos” or our habitual self be the one who responds.  As creatures of habit, we develop meanings and tend to “automatically” assign these meanings to stimuli.  That is how, for example, we become insulted by someone’s comments.  Exploring meaning associated with your worst reactions can go a long way to help reduce the negative impact of our reactions on ourselves and others.

Powerful Questions

Keep an eye on yourself and others to explore the reasons why you or they react as they do.

• What does that mean to me (you)?
• Why did I (you) react that why?
• Why does (seeing, hearing, thinking about) something make you unhappy, upset, angry, worried, etc.?
• Is worth it?
• What will or will not happen if, or if not…?

Meaning clarification can be a powerful tool to make life more pleasant, enjoyable, and successful for ourselves and others.

The BEST is Yet to Come!

Epi Torres, CEO

Because of my background in Oracle Education, I am often asked about Oracle training, which classes would be most beneficial and how to prepare for the certification tests. The purpose of this article is to help students better understand Oracle education and the Oracle certification process.

This blog will provide you with some hints and tips that will help you obtain the most benefit when you attend “Old OU” (Oracle University). I’ll also provide some recommendations to help you pass the Oracle Certification Exams.

Introduction
Readers of this blog know that I’ve been involved in some form of Oracle Education for close to twenty years now. I started my career in Oracle Education working as a courseware creator and “instructor to the instructors” for Platinum Technologies. I had the good fortune of working with fellow blogger, Craig Mullins during my stint there. At Platinum, I was responsible for creating their entire Oracle curriculum including classes on general administration, backup/recovery, database tuning and several SQL and PL/SQL courses.

I was also employed as an Oracle Certified Instructor for a number of years. The greatest accomplishment in my career came was when I was awarded the OAEC Quality Achievement Award. These awards are given to the top instructors in the OAEC (Oracle Authorized Education Center) program. That recognition was quickly followed by Oracle allowing me to certify a few of my fellow instructors. Certifying my fellow instructors was a responsibility I took very seriously. One of the folks I certified continues to have a very prosperous career in Oracle Education. It should be interesting if I ever attend one of his classes in the future. “The student becomes the teacher” syndrome would be an interesting dynamic. I’ll try not to critique him in the middle of his class…

Grey Market Training
Gray market training is classroom education provided by any third party other than Oracle or an Oracle Approved Education Center. The course content is created by the gray market provider. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the quality and course content of these classes will provide you with the information necessary to enhance your expertise or successfully pass the Oracle Certification tests.

Students who want to take gray market training classes should carefully evaluate the vendor that provides the training as well as the course’s content. Students should ask the vendor to provide a detailed listing of the course’s curriculum as well as the background of the instructor who will be providing the training.     There are several non-Oracle education providers that you can trust.   One way to find out who the good paroviders are is to ask your fellow Oracle DBAs.    Hop on over to websites like the Oracle Community and the Oracle Technet Discussion forums and you’ll get a lot of responses to your questions on third-party education providers.   Its hard to beat Oracle training if you want to prepare for certification.

Oracle Classroom Education
When is the best time to take the classes? This may sound trite, but it is best to follow Oracle’s recommendations on the sequence of classes. Take the intro classes before taking the more advanced classes. If you have the luxury (meaning you aren’t the only DBA in your shop), gain some day-to-day experience before taking the more advanced classes (SQL or database tuning, backup and recovery, etc.). You shouldn’t be asking questions like “What is an init.ora parameter file, anyway?” in an advanced class. Instructors don’t have the time and your fellow students won’t have the patience to bring you up to speed before continuing on to more advanced topics.

Preparation
Being prepared is the single most important factor to obtain the most benefit from any formal training class. I can’t stress this highly enough – PREPARATION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS.

It’s a pretty simple process to prepare for class. Oracle Education’s Website will provide you with all of the information you need to prepare for your upcoming class.

Step one is to read the information provided by the Oracle Corporation that pertains to the class you are attending. Sounds simple enough, right? That’s because it is. Oracle Education’s website provides a detailed description of each class it offers. It will tell you EXACTLY what to prepare for. Go to the Course Curriculum page on Oracle Education’s website, find the course you are attending, navigate to the course description page and then review the course objectives and topics.  You will find a detailed listing of all of the information the course will cover.

If you are a new Oracle DBA and will be attending your first database administration class, read the Oracle Concepts Manual, Administrator’s Guide and review the Reference and SQL Reference books. Follow this same advice for whatever class you are taking. If it’s a new features class, read the new features guide for that release. Tuning and performance – read the Performance Tuning Guide. Same thing for backup and recovery, standby, RAC, etc.. Do yourself a favor and perform some self-education first. You may not know the mechanics, but you’ll be ahead of the game if you know the lingo and the concepts used.  You will pay a lot for these classes, you need to make every effort to take advantage of the information the instructor is going to convey to you.   You do that by preparing for the class.

Showing Enthusiasm and Willingness to Learn
If an instructor sees that you are making an extra effort to overcome your lack of day-to-day experience by coming in early, staying late and being prepared, they will be more prone to help you.

It’s basic human dynamics. If the instructor walks by your work area and sees you continuously reading “NFL Today” when you should be doing labs, they are going to spend less time with you and more time on students who are exhibiting a willingness and enthusiasm to learn.  Except when I was teaching, I would just stop in my tracks and ask you if you wanted to learn your chose profession  (or not).

I personally liked to keep my classes lively.  Every so often I would jump out of my seat and yell “DO YOU UNDERSTAND!”.   By the second day people would be yelling “YES!”.   Of course by Friday some of my students were looking at me like  “If you say the word SGA one more time, I will come up there and jam your head into the projector…”  I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything so breaks were always at a minimum.  I think that is why my classes were nicknamed “Foot Camp” by my students.

Instructors are weird; we like to see people excited about what we are teaching. Seeing someone enthused about learning makes us want to make sure they get the most out of class.

Class Participation
Class participation means more than just answering questions that are asked. You also need to ask questions. If you still don’t understand, ask again. If you are having a hard time understanding a particular concept, ask the instructor during a break to explain the information to you again.

Trust me, your instructor will be glad to help. Instructors don’t choose training as a profession because they like living out of a suitcase; education is a passion for them. I knew it was time for me to retire when I woke up one morning in a hotel room, looked out the window and couldn’t remember what city I was in. After I cleared my head (and looked at the local phone book), I found out where I was and started contemplating that it may be time for a career change. Coming in my front door that very same weekend and having my German Shepherd attack me because he forgot who I was pretty much confirmed my decision.

If you are experienced DBA and you have a lab partner that isn’t as well versed in Oracle as you are, take the time and help them. Don’t take control of the keyboard and blast through the labs. Be patient with them, show them the little tricks of the trade you picked up and help them along. You’ll probably have their undying gratitude and you’ll be contributing to the health and welfare of our profession.  You also learn by teaching.

If you are an Oracle expert taking one of the more advanced classes, don’t let your ego get in the way of you obtaining the utmost benefit from the class you are taking – ask questions and get involved!

Over the years, I found that the discussions that were held during class breaks were often just as illuminating as the instructor led training. One DBA would ask a question about a problem that occurred or the challenges they were facing. Their fellow DBAs would immediately provide recommendations to help them. Don’t be afraid to ask your fellow DBAs and instructor for advice. If you have a problem, an Oracle class is the perfect forum to obtain the information you need to get it resolved.

Familiarize Yourself with the Next Day’s Material
I know this can be hard to do. Especially if you are attending class in a place you’ve never been to before. It’s a tough decision between sightseeing in San Francisco or planting your nose in an Oracle Admin I class guide. You’ll need to make some compromises here. Go out for a few hours, come in early and prepare for the next day’s class.

The Importance of Becoming Certified
Becoming certified is an essential ingredient for all Oracle technicians who want to prosper in their chosen profession. Certifications are especially important to those seeking employment in a field that often has many candidates competing for a single position. An Oracle certification shows the potential employer that the candidate has made the commitment to “learn their trade” and has the background and education to quickly become a productive member of the their staff.

The Oracle Certification also gives a distinct advantage to DBAs looking to advance in their careers. Being an Oracle Certified Professional raises their visibility in the organization, which is a requirement for career advancement in most shops.

Preparing for the Oracle Certified Professional Exams
The best time to take the exam is a week or two after taking the Oracle class that the exam pertains to. Passing the OCP test is much easier when the information is fresh. The class workbook should be used as the primary study guide. I have passed every exam I have taken by studying only the information contained in the class workbooks.

Practice tests will provide you with a firm understanding of the areas you are strong in as well as the areas where you need to shore up your knowledge. Oracle University has chosen two partners (Self Test Software and Transcender) to provide authorized Oracle Certified Practice Exams.

I am fully aware that there are many competing websites that offer Oracle Certification practice tests. If you want to prepare for an Oracle Exam by purchasing a practice test, why not purchase the test from the vendors that Oracle has chosen to partner with?

Self Test Software and Transcender practice tests provide a thorough coverage of the Oracle certification requirements and use the same test question technology as the real exams including simulations, scenarios, hot spots and case studies. This makes the choice clear – go with the Oracle partner practice exams.

Oracle exams consist of single response (Y/N or T/F), multiple choice and for some exams, Interactive Items.    The person taking the test hits the START button and is then presented with a live simulation of an Oracle database environment.  They must then take the appropriate course of action in the simulation enviornment to earn a correct answer for that simulation.    If you aren’t happy with your previous response, you can always hit the START button again and record a new one.

If you are unsure of a question, you can always mark the question for review and at the end of the test you will be prompted to go back and review all questions that you marked.    Remember, you need to answer all of them.

The Day of Your Test
Oracle used to partner with Prometric Testing Centers to provide testing centers throughout the United States.    That will change on September  2009.    Oracle has recently chosen Pearson VUE as their new testing provider.  All future Oracle certification exams will be provided  through the Pearson VUE Authorized Test Center Network.   Pearson VUE states that it has over 5,000 sites in 165 countries.   Here’s more information on the new relationship between Pearson VUE and Oracle.

The following hints and tips will prepare you for the day you take your certification tests:

• You must have two forms of identification, both containing your signature. One must be a government issued photo identification.
• Try to show up early (at least 15 minutes) before your scheduled exam. If you show up late, the testing center coordinator has the option of canceling your exam and asking you to reschedule your test.
• You cannot bring any notes or scratch paper to the testing center. Paper will be provided by the testing center and will be destroyed when you leave.
• Testing center personnel will provide you with a brief overview of the testing process. The computer will have a demo that will show you how to answer and review test questions.
• Don’t leave any questions unanswered. All test questions left unanswered will be marked as incorrect.
• Your exam score is provided to you immediately and the exam results are forwarded to Oracle Certification Program management. Make sure you keep a copy of your test results for your records.
• If you fail a test, you must wait at least 14 days before retaking a proctored test.  There is no retake waiting time for non-proctored tests.  A proctored test means you show up at the testing center and a person watches you take it.   So don’t write the answers on your sleeve!
• Don’t let your ego prevent you from studying. I have seen numerous experienced DBAs receive “less than stellar” test scores because they thought they knew the material they were being tested on.  STUDY – The more prepared you feel you are for anthing, the less anxious you will be.   Hey, how hard can they be?  I passed every one I took!  I’m probably average on the intelligence scale (no cracks please).   Studying the classroom guides did it for me.

Wrapup
I hope you enjoyed this blog on Oracle Education.   If you have any questions on Oracle Education or the certification exams let me know.

Thanks for Reading,

Chris Foot
Oracle Ace
Director of Operations

For some reason I do not understand, clutter seems to be bad for people and organizations.  Thus, taking time to declutter is a high value activity that we should undertake on a regular basis.  When I worked at Westinghouse a few years ago, I had a boss who would take advantage of customer and executive visits to “force” everyone to declutter and clean up that place.

It is amazing how fast clutter builds up!  Clutter builds on computer desktops and files.  It builds up on desks, offices, kitchens and storage areas.  Active IT shops are prone to clutter.  I have seen some amazingly cluttered computer rooms and repair shops over the years.  For some reason, cables and hardware tend to pile up easily.

It is interesting that some financial and fitness advisors and coaches start their programs by requesting the client to clean up and declutter their home and workspaces.  There seems to be some type of therapeutic effect that comes from the process.

IT Managers who wish to reenergize their organizations should consider getting everyone in the shop to clean up.  I remember we use to order dumpsters for all the areas and hold competitions for the fastest and best cleaning job by department.  We would stop what we were doing for two hours or so on a Friday afternoon and everyone would be cleaning up the place.  It was fun!!!  There is some magic when you are done with that and the benefits seem intangible, but trust me, they are there and are strong!  Get everyone to clean up and you’ll see.  And unless you want to make this an ongoing effort, dig at the root cause of some of the worst clutter areas and put in place corrective action to mitigate clutter.  Doing regular “white glove” inspections and inviting bosses and customers to visit provides compelling reasons to keep things tidy.

Cleaning up computer desktops and files can also be very liberating for people.  Plus, it can be a decent productivity booster and storage cost saver.  It is amazing how much stuff duplicates and builds up inside these computers drives. This one is harder to manage, but if you make a good case, people will get the benefits and will do it without much “forcing”.

So have everyone take some time to declutter!

The BEST is Yet to Come!

Epi Torres, CEO

In this post I am mixing subjects from two prior posts: Problems and Opportunities.  When you think about it, the best business opportunities are related to one or more problems.  And opportunities lie in the solution to those problems.  If that is the case, that means that to find great opportunities you need to be looking for big problems.

As I had mention in prior posts, IT shops are breeding grounds for problems, and thus, for opportunities.

IT managers interested in finding opportunities should keep an eye wide open for the biggest problems they can find and leverage those problems to find BIG opportunities to make a contribution to their business.  Sometimes we become problem-adverse.  We have so many problems we do not want to hear of another one, at least for a while.  This mindset can jeopardize your ability to add significant value to your organization.

So give this post some thought and start looking for BIG problems that you can turn into GREAT opportunities and watch your career and your wealth sky rocket!

The BEST is Yet to Come!

Epi Torres, CEO

Ever look at a screen’s output and get that puckered feeling in the pit of your stomach? If you have been working in this profession for any amount of time, you know the feeling I’m talking about. The feeling that makes you think you would rather be living in Montana making woodcarvings at a roadside stand than being a DBA. I’ll be taking a somewhat lighthearted look at the perils of our profession and discuss ways to reduce problem occurrences.

The Perils of our Profession
One of the common challenges that all DBAs face, no matter what vendor’s database they work on, is the absolute attention to detail our profession demands. Switch a couple of characters in a script, forget to set your SID, set the wrong flag at the wrong time and the end result usually isn’t very pretty. Many commands we issue on a regular basis are destructive by their very nature. This is the reason why I have a great respect for all technicians who have selected database administration as their chosen profession.

I know they have all experienced that uncontrolled “eye-twitching” at 2 AM when they are ready to hit the final enter key to execute the command. You know what command I’m talking about too. It’s that one command that you really, really, really hope is going to come back with a successful return code and ultimately end with a database that is finally usable. Whether it’s a recovery, a file fix or corrupt data is immaterial, it’s the wait that we are talking about.

There is no longer wait in our profession than waiting for the message below after a database recovery:

SQL> Database opened.

Time always seems to stand still. The longer the recovery, the messier the recovery.  The more critical the database – the longer you wait. You stare at the screen hoping beyond hope that the above message will appear. It’s the ritual cross your fingers, spin around three times, face towards Oracle headquarters and pray to everything that is Larry Ellison wait. I’ve actually caught myself mumbling, “Come on, come on, come on…” I don’t care how sure you are of your capabilities, or how much of an Oracle “Ace” you are – you know the anticipation I’m talking about.

You then either breathe a sigh of relief or you are in absolute disgust when you see an Oracle error message appear. How about the old “File 1 needs more recovery to be consistent” or the “File 2 not restored from a sufficiently old backup”? Those messages are enough to make anyone cringe. I’m an ex-Oracle instructor. I’ve seen those messages A LOT in class. I still cringe.

At a previous job, I once had to run through 36 hours of tapes to restore a multi-terabyte warehouse. A disaster occurred that required us to do a recovery. THAT was the longest wait for a database open message I ever experienced. One of my fellow DBAs asked if I needed a brown paper bag to breathe into.

Or it’s the command that drops the schema in the test environment that will allow you to do a refresh from production. It’s that test database that runs on the same box as production. The environment that makes you do a “SELECT name FROM V$DATABASE” command in SQL*PLUS about 15 times in a row before you finally execute the “DROP USER CASCADE” statement.

Not only must we try to prevent our own mistakes, we must safeguard our environments against the mistakes of others. Operating system administrators, disk storage technicians and application developers are just like us. We are all part of the human community that makes mistakes from time to time.

If you never make mistakes, send me a resume. I’m always looking for a “Patron Saint of Oracle” here at Remote DBA Experts. It will also save us on travel costs because I’m sure you’ll be able to spread your wings and fly here on your own.

But as my old boss Dan Pizzica used to tell me (when I was a VERY junior DBA) “It really doesn’t make a difference who broke the database. You are the technician who is ultimately responsible for fixing it. The buck stops with you. If you can’t protect your environments, you aren’t doing your job.” We all know he’s absolutely correct.

Then there’s the software glitches. The problems that pop up out of the blue and make you go:

“WHAT THE? – How did THAT happen? I’ve done this 317 times in a row and it worked every time.”

For you math majors, here’s my calculation for this:

CLOSER YOU ARE TO PRODUCTION TURNOVER
+ THE GREATER THE VISIBILITY OF THE PROJECT
= THE MORE LIKELY A PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN SOFTWARE GLITCH WILL OCCUR

I don’t care what software you are using, you will run into the “only occurs on this release, on this version of the operating system, using this particular feature on the third Tuesday of the sixth month when it’s cloudy outside” BUG. Be sure to expect management to stop by and ask “well, why didn’t you test this on the third Tuesday of the sixth month when it was cloudy outside?”

The more complex the database ecosystem, the more paranoid I become. Which is why I’m not a follower of “the database is getting so easy – we won’t need DBAs” mantra that mindless industry pundits profess on a seemingly endless basis.

So now we know that our jobs are somewhat unforgiving and we do make a mistake from time to time. What can we do to reduce the chance of an error occurring?

Poka-Yoke for DBAs!
We recently had a Poka-Yoke contest here at Remote DBA Experts.   We hold contests on a regular basis to jumpstart the creative process on activities that we feel strongly about.   We are big proponents of Poka-Yoke”.  Poka-Yoke is a Japanese term that means “fail-safing” or “mistake- proofing”.   Wikipedia’s definition of Poka-Yoke is: “its purpose is to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting or drawing attention to human errors as they occur.”

Since I’m a car nut, here’s a couple of automotive Poka-Yoke examples.    You can’t take the keys out of most modern cars until the car is in park.  In addition, most cars won’t allow you to shift out of park until the key is in the “ON” position.   How about gas caps that have the little tether that prevents us from driving off without the cap?   Most gas caps are also attached using a ratchet assembly that ensures proper tightness and prevents over tightening.

Take a look around you, you’ll see dozens of Poka-Yokes during your daily activities:

• The little holes in bathroom sinks that prevent overflows
• Microwaves will stop when the door is opened
• Same thing with dryer doors
• Lawn movers that have a safety bar that must be depressed before they will run
• Disk brakes that begin to make a noise before they are completely ground down
• Rumble strips on roads

The list really is endless.  We have applied the Poka-Yoke process to our daily activities here at Remote DBA Experts.  We have checklists, process documentation, best practices, sign-off sheets – the works. One of the first blogs of this series is a discussion on the importance of good documentation.

I’d be very interested to learn your Poka-Yoke ideas!   If you have a Poka-Yoke idea, please respond and we’ll be glad to discuss it.  Here’s some general ones that I recommend.

The Second Set of Eyes
As I have stated in previous blogs, I have over 20 years of experience using Oracle and have done my fair share of database backups and recoveries. During my career as an Oracle instructor, I have assisted in hundreds of database recoveries in Oracle’s classroom environments. If possible, I still have others review my recovery strategy and recovery steps before I begin the recovery process. I used backup and recovery just as an example. Whatever the process is you are are performing, a second opinion may prevent you from making a mistake. A review from a fellow DBA has saved me more than once. I may be described as having an ego (I have no idea where they get that opinion) but it doesn’t prevent me from asking for help from others.

We were recently correcting a very poor backup script created by a customer’s previous database support vendor. The customer described this particular environment as “if it goes down we lose our ability to make money” application. After our massive set of changes were complete, two of us went line-by-line verifying each line of the backup script. At the end of each script we asked each other “are you OK with this”? Only then did we move on to the next one. I don’t care how much time you have “in the seat” using Oracle, you need to put your ego aside at times and have someone check your work on critical activities.

Concentration
I used to work for a shop that subscribed to “the everybody in one big room” philosophy. I guess it was supposed to allow everyone to work together as a team and become as “one with each other”. It may have achieved that purpose but it sure didn’t allow you to concentrate on your work very well. You could hear so many different conversations they had to pump in white noise. The constant ‘whhhsssssshhhssshhh” noise made me feel like I was a crewmember of the Starship Enterprise. I always wondered when Captain Picard would walk through.

Like all DBA units, our particular area was often populated with various developers and O/S technicians. Many different conversations were occurring, some that could be described as somewhat animated. The environment did not allow you to concentrate on the task at hand. We often had to go into small conference rooms to work on critical tasks.

The point I’m trying to make is that no matter what type of environment you work in; if you can concentrate OK, but if you are like me and you can’t, find a spot where you can. Block off some time, send questions to other DBAs and concentrate on the task at hand. Don’t attempt to answer questions and code a complex script at the same time. May seem obvious, but throughout my career I have personally watched numerous DBAs attempt to multitask when they are working on a critical process. It’s a recipe for a problem. Once you are done, follow rule number one and have someone review your work.

What Database Are You Working IN?
Working in the wrong database is a common problem for database experts as well as their less experienced counterparts. How many times have YOU found yourself running statements in the wrong environment? Feel free to include me in that not so select group. The operating system command SET can be used in Windows systems to display environment variables. The ENV command can be used to display the environment variables in UNIX. Many seasoned database administrators change their UNIX shell prompt in their profile to display the current Oracle SID. Displaying the current Oracle SID in the shell’s prompt provides a continuous reminder to the DBA of the database they are working in.  Google it – you’ll find dozens of scripts by your fellow DBAs.

Setting your SID Automatically During Logon
Here’s an easy recommendation – don’t do it. Many of the servers we work on contain several databases that use different database software releases. It is our standard to not set environments in logon scripts. We create shell scripts that have the database name in their title to set our SID, ORACLE_HOME, etc..

It is a little harder in Windows environments. During installation, Oracle often uses the first database created on the server as the default SID. You can override this configuration, but you’ll need to read the Oracle installation guides to find out how. The manuals will show you how to override the default database on Windows operating systems.

Saving Time VS Creating a Problem
I once watched a fellow DBA perform a rather complex set of administrative tasks to solve a problem. He was rapidly flipping back and forth between at least 15 active screens, copying and pasting and editing and copying and pasting and editing… I describe this particular activity as “Multiple Screen Syndrome”.  He also had several other screens open that were connected to other databases. He was multi-tasking to its highest degree.   Take a break, take a breath and look at what you are doing.

How about the rm -r /u0*/ora*/prod*/*/*.* command in UNIX? It’s the command that drops multiple databases in multiple directories. All in one painful swoop. How many times have you heard of a mistake caused by commands like this causing mass mayhem? When you make a mistake like this, you become immortalized in conversations for years to come. Get a few technicians together after work and ultimately the conversation will include “remember when Bob so-and-so ran that big rm -r command by mistake and wiped out the entire O/S on our production web server? You can’t tell me you haven’t heard stories like this.

My opinion as a database manager is that I would rather you take your time than showcase your multi-tasking and time saving skills. The more complex and critical the activity, the more basic you should become in your plan of attack.  Trust me when I say I won’t be impressed with your time savings “cut and paste” and wildcard expertise if I think it can even remotely be dangerous.

Safety First Mindset
I once saw a DBA log in to a database using a particular schema account. He then logged into a different database using a DBA account and dropped the schema with the same name he was logged into on the first database. I asked him why he logged into the first database using the schema account he just dropped in the second. He stated “Oracle won’t let you drop a schema that is connected. No matter what happens after this, I’m positive that I won’t drop the user in this database by mistake.” I like that Safety First mindset in a DBA.

You need to think Safety First when you are performing any particular complex or critical activity. Take the time and put one or two safeguards in place like the DBA did when he dropped the user.

Other DBAs may call you paranoid, I’ll call you an experienced DBA that would rather be safe than sorry.

Wrapup
The intent of this blog was to not provide you with a laundry list of recommendations. It was intended to help jumpstart your creative juices to think about different methods to protect yourself against problems. If you have any helpful hints, please feel free to respond to this blog with your Safety First Tips and Tricks.

Thanks for Reading,

Chris Foot
Oracle Ace
Director Of Service Delivery

Once in a while I find it useful to apply corporate processes to myself.  One of the tools that has given me useful information is the SWOT analysis.

For those who are not familiar, the SWOT analysis is a method that strategic corporate planners use to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats involved in a particular business project or venture.  Results are usually presented in a 2X2 matrix format like the figure below.

Take the Time

In order to successfully perform this analysis, you need to take some time out from the rat race (see my Time to Think post) to brainstorm.  You need to identify an objective and evaluate how your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats, affect the success of achieving your desired objective. It is always useful for others to provide input for the process.  Asking superiors, partners, subordinates, customers, etc for input will give you a much better perspective.  You need to set your ego aside to do this, especially when it comes to the weaknesses and threats portion of the exercise.  Now, if ego is too strong, do it alone.  Some thinking is better than none.

Context

Another important consideration is context.  Roles are usually a good place to start.  Pick one of your roles (i.e., Boss) to develop the SWOT around.  Evaluate how this particular role relates to successfully achieving your desired objective. It is interesting to see how context makes a big difference.  If you enjoy the process, you can delve into it by doing SWOTs for several of your key contexts and then look for common themes amongst them.  This is good way to prioritize any action and identify particular aspects you wish to change or leverage in other areas.

Strengths

To identify your strengths, you can leverage existing information from prior performance appraisals or feedback from others.  For example, if you constantly hear that you are creative, organized, diligent, etc., it may be a hint that those attributes are your strengths.  Use that as input.  I also use feedback from an online test that is based on the “Strengthsfinder” book theory.  I really like that one!  By the way, keep in mind that while you have certain strengths now, you may develop more in the future.  Understanding what you need, given your roles and goal, will shine a light on the strengths you should work on to help you accomplish your objective.

Weaknesses

There are lots of theories that claim identifying or worrying about your weaknesses may be a waste of your time.  In fact, I have also read that some weaknesses are there and cannot be changed. They are hard-wired/programmed in our brain.  Nevertheless, identifying and recognizing those weak areas can help you determine if they are detrimental to your roles and goals.  With that in mind, you can develop strategies to mitigate their effects on critical aspects of your life.

Opportunities

Opportunities are sometimes right in front of us and we do not see them.  Missing opportunities is just like wasting time.  They cannot be recovered.  Constantly being on the look out for opportunities can pay big dividends.  In fact, creating well-defined criteria for your opportunities will enable you to recruit help from others in keeping an eye open for you.

Threats

Threats can sometimes be sneaky.   They show up out of the blue.  This is another area that can benefit from some well-defined criteria and vigilance to make sure you do not miss the signal that can tell you ahead of time.  If you want to get into it deeper, you can also develop contingency plans for the threats that seem most likely.  That way if they do occur, you are better prepared for them.

Frequency

Everyone should do a SWOT analysis at least once a year.  And at least once a quarter, you should update the analysis with recent data.

Leverage Tool with Others

IT managers can also leverage this tool by encouraging others to do a similar exercise in context to their own job roles.  Furthermore, IT Managers can do group or mission-specific SWOT analyses to help them better manage their organization.

Focus on the Positive

I recommend SWOT be used as a positive non-punitive process.  The idea is to leverage the good stuff (strengths and opportunities) and to mitigate the negatives (weaknesses and threats).  To get the most out of this approach, you should focus on the positive aspects and not dwell on the negatives.

Keep it Short!

This is an exercise that is most effective when you focus your attention on a few things.  Brainstorming can produce long lists.  Take most of the time to really narrow the list down to the vital few.  Make sure items are highly aligned with context.  If you end up with more than three items in each area go back to the drawing board and cut it down.  It will be worth the effort!

The BEST is Yet to Come!

Epi Torres, CEO

The IT world is full of challenges!  IT infrastructures are a breeding ground for them.  Problem-solving is a critical skill for IT Managers and for many IT Professionals.

As human beings, we are wired to solve problems. However, that natural instinct can sometimes get us into trouble.  Thinking about it, I see two possible reasons for that.  The first reason is that we sometimes think we have a problem when there is not.  The second reason is that we sometimes work on the wrong problem.

My advice for IT Managers and Professionals alike is ask yourself two questions before delving into solving any perceived problem:

• Do I really have a problem?
• What is the real problem?

In order to answer the first question you must first develop a “definition” of what a problem is in the context of your roles, responsibilities, and goals.   In general, a problem can be defined as a condition that is different from the one expected, required, or desired.  Making sure we have a good understanding of what a real problem is will go a long way in making it much easier to decide whether or not a problem exists.

Once you make a good determination and you are ready to delve into “the problem”, you should spend some time figuring out the nature of the problem.  Once again, IT systems are complex and highly intertwined.  Careful evaluation of the system and all its elements goes a long way in making your life much easier and finding the right and best solution.

One of my favorite business quotes comes from Peter Senge’s book The Fifth Discipline. It goes something like this:

“Today’s problems usually come from yesterday’s solutions.”

When a “problem” confronts you, try as hard as possible not to jump right into “solving” it.  I know that is hard to do in this day and age when we are expected to solve problems quickly and efficiently. This is especially true for the IT support world where users are screaming and bosses are breathing down our necks!  But this is the best time to take a break from all the pressure and take a step back to ask these two questions.   In the long run, you will save time and aggravation and will be able to develop more effective solutions to actual problems.

I will end this post with a suggestion that whenever you encounter a problem remember my version of the “Carpenter’s Rule” (Measure twice, cut once):

“Ask twice, solve once.”

The BEST is Yet to Come!

Epi Torres, CEO

The Foot Rule of Thumb
The Foot Rule of Thumb is pretty simple. You need to experiment and create your own rules of thumb. A while back I wrote a series of interview questions for an online magazine. The questions were the basis for a podcast interview with Jonathan Lewis. What impressed me the most about the interview with Jonathan was the amount of time he spent researching how the database worked. He stated that he became an expert by spending time investigating the database’s intricacies and documenting the results.

You begin creating your own rules of thumb by reading opinions from folks that you can trust. The industry experts that are both learned in their chosen profession and aren’t afraid to provide you with their opinion. Spend some dedicated time evaluating authors by reviewing others’ opinions of them.

In addition to learning from others, you need to create your own test environments and experiment. One of Oracle’s great benefits is that it runs virtually anywhere. If you aren’t sure how something works and the manuals aren’t explicit enough, build a test case and execute it. At Remote DBA Experts, we experiment with Oracle 10g and Oracle 11g daily. Especially recovery testing…. It keeps our skill sets sharp and reduces stress during the “real thing”.

How do you make your own rules of thumb? Follow Jonathan Lewis’ advice and test, experiment and learn! Afraid that performance will suffer if you place 4 columns in an index to obtain index only access? Build the index in test, have the developers run transactions that access the new index, monitor on-line transaction performance and find out. Then document the results.

Try different column combinations, multiple index usage, etc. When prototyping complex joins between several tables, build a set of indexes that favors one access path and test the queries in question. Drop the first set of indexes and create indexes that favor another access path. Build the different permutations of indexes that influence the optimizer to join a different set of tables first or allow different join types to be performed. Test the different access paths and record the performance statistics.

The above recommendation may seem to be a time consuming process, but until you learn access paths, this is the best approach to take. I have spent hundreds of hours working with access paths and if I could impart one bit of wisdom, it would be the following one: No matter how much time you spend reading others’ opinions on how the database works, you need to spend time “in the seat” experimenting and learning on your own.

The same advice goes for learning GRID, backups and recoveries, advanced database features and virtually every other facet of the database. You need to do as all the other experts do – test, experiment and learn. You’ve chosen database administration as a profession, not a job. When I interview candidates for DBA jobs here at Remote DBA Experts, that passion to learn and experiment plays a big part in my decision-making process. If I hear a candidate say “I have an Oracle database lab installed at my home”, they have earned themselves some bonus points with me.

The Ever Changing Database Ecosystem
One of this blog’s readers, Michael Rife, also provides an excellent recommendation to revalidate your “Rules of Thumb” on a regular basis.  Database, O/S and hardware vendors must continuously tune, tweak and generally improve their offerings to remain competitive.   As a result, the environments we support are constantly changing.   We all know that each new release of the database requires a thorough evaluation to determine how to best exploit the new features it contains.  But we must also be wary of any changes to existing features that would compel us to revalidate our own administration and implementation “Rules of Thumb”.

Repeatable Processes
Repetition, even though it can be boring, is the foundation for a high quality support environment. If the scripts and administrative process worked correctly the first time, chances are they will continue to work correctly in the future.

Automating and documenting complex administrative processes such as production to decision support database refreshes and application upgrade activities will allow future iterations of these activities to be executed more quickly and with less errors. As you continue reading my blogs, you’ll understand the importance I place on documentation. Here at Remote DBA Experts, we have built our entire foundation of customer support on documentation and database support best practices.

As I have stated in the past, have you ever tried to refresh an ERP application test environment from production when that test environment didn’t have enough space to hold all of production’s data? 4,000 steps later and you begin to second-guess your choice of professions. The more complex the process is, the greater the need for detailed documentation.

The moral of this story is: If you don’t want to be the only one that can perform that 900 step ERP Application production to test refresh, script it and then document it.

DBA Report Cards and the 360-Degree Review Process
Effective measurements are required to judge the success of any activity. The quality of support the DBA team provides should be reviewed on a regular basis. A DBA report card allows business and application development units to provide feedback on DBA support activities. As a remote services provider, we are judged daily on our ability to meet our service level agreements. Our customers are a tough bunch and we are OK with that. They have entrusted their most valuable corporate data assets to us. A responsibility we do NOT take lightly. But a report card can also provide benefits to internal DBA units. You will never know how good a job your team is doing until you ask.

The report card will allow your customers to measure how well they feel you are meeting your Service Level Agreements. Here are a few sample questions to start you on your way:

• How would you rate the turnaround times for DBA unit work requests?
• How would you evaluate the DBA unit’s responsiveness to questions?
• How would you evaluate the DBA unit’s responsiveness to requests for assistance?
• Please rank the quality of communications the DBA unit provides.
• Please rank the overall quality of work the DBA unit provides.

All questions are ranked from 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest. You can also allow the respondents to rank the importance of each question from 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

A short survey should be attached to the DBA report card to gather additional information that can be used to improve the quality of support the DBA unit provides to their customers:

• What are your top three technical challenges that you face?
• What are the top three non-technical challenges?
• Please list your current priorities. Rank them in order of importance.
• List the most important services the DBA unit provides. Rank them in order of importance.
• What support services does the DBA unit do a good job of providing?
• What support services should the DBA unit improve upon?
• What additional services would you like the DBA unit to provide?

Meetings can be held with the respondents to discuss their reviews. DBA team members participating in the reviews must be prepared to respond to criticism in a professional manner. But just as its title describes, the 360-degree review process also allows support units to provide feedback on their customer’s support requests and work activities. The 360-degree review process provides important feedback to both support units and their customers. Once again, your customers may not know that some of their expectations are unachievable until you tell them the reasons why.

Corrective Action Reports
Oracle is a challenging database to administer. As much as we would like to prevent mistakes, we do make them. That’s one of the benefits of being human; we learn from our mistakes. During my 20 years in this field, I’ve seen all kinds of mistakes made – from little ones to catastrophic.

The worst one I ever experienced is when we brought a technician in from a third-party disk vendor to format what we thought was to be a single disk in a huge disk array. We just purchased the arrays and were in the process of assuming support responsibilities from the vendor. The vendor assisted us in the initial setup and data migration from our old storage devices to their new whiz-bang storage system.

The array stored data from dozens of Oracle databases. After 20 minutes of showing our folks how to set the necessary switches and enter the appropriate values at the prompts, the technician hit the enter key with much flair and bravado.

I assumed we would see the one activity light activate for the disk being formatted. Instead, I saw a whole wall of lights begin flashing and twinkling. I thought to myself “Hmmm, this can’t be good…”. I glanced at the technician and the look of horror on his face confirmed my suspicions. He then reinforced my conclusions when he stammered, “I think I just formatted the entire array.” I looked at the DBA next to me and said “Looks like we are in for a looong night.”

I continue to be amazed at the rapid improvements in hardware redundancy and reliability. Hardware platforms now have the ability to recognize individual component failures, bypass them, produce diagnostic information and “phone home” to report the problem to the manufacturer. But hardware components will fail. Just as the sun comes up every morning, hardware components will fail, operating systems will get tied up in knots and database bugs will manifest themselves. Such is life for a computer professional.

The key is to document everything that happened during the time period when the problem occurred. Documenting provides you with the information you need to prevent the problem from occurring again and your customers with information on exactly what happened. Its my experience that the more informed a customer is about the problem and the steps your unit is taking to prevent its reoccurrence, the better they feel.

The corrective action report should contain:

• A detailed description of the error that caused the problem.
• The customer impact the problem caused.
• A timeline of the activities that were performed.
• The steps that were performed to correct the problem.
• Mitigating factors that contributed to or exacerbated the problem’s impact.
• The steps that will be taken to prevent the problem from occurring again. Include who is responsible for the activity and a date the activity will be completed.

Thanks for Reading,

Chris Foot
Oracle Ace
Director Of Service Delivery

A while ago, I read a great book by Stephen Covey titled The 8^th Habits.  There is a lot of great content in this book. I highly recommend it!

For this post, I want to share what I call the “Seven E’s of Alignment Management”.  I developed this list based on seven factors that Covey uncovered as possible causes of misalignment in organizations.

As CEO of Remote DBA Experts, I use the following list to help me manage alignment:

1. Ensure development of clear direction (goals, strategies, initiatives, responsibilities, and accountabilities).
2. Ensure employees understand the rationale for the chosen direction.
3. Ensure employees buy-in to the direction.
4. Ensure employees’ actions align with the direction.
5. Ensure employees work well together to accomplish the goal(s).
6. Ensure employees have what they need to accomplish their roles and goals.
7. Ensure employees and managers hold each other accountable for performance.

Over the last couple of years, this list has helped us remain aligned.  Therefore, I hope other IT Managers consider using it to help them manage alignment in their organizations.  In the following paragraphs, I will expand upon each of the alignment items.

Develop Clear Direction

Accomplishment starts with clarity.  Clear goals require clear strategies and corresponding initiatives to help accomplish them.  Strategic initiatives for each goal need to be assigned to individuals or teams. Accountability for completion should be set and be well understood by those responsible.  This is a critical first step and is foundational for full alignment!

Develop and Communicate Direction Rationale

Nothing can be more powerful in engaging and energizing people than direction rationale.  When people know and understand the rationale for something, it gives them a level of understanding that should heighten their support for it.

Obtain Direction Buy-in

Usually, it is not good enough for people to understand only the rationale for something.  If you want them fully engaged, they must buy-in.  That means they need to connect with the direction.  They must see some alignment to their own goals and objectives.  In order to accomplish this challenging feat, I suggest you try to frame the rationale around one or more benefits for each person you want to buy-in.

Align Action with Direction

From a practical stand point this is the “bottom line” step.  Individual and collective action must be in-line with the set direction.  That is the essence of alignment.  If most folks are not acting according to the plan or implementing the strategic initiatives, the goals may not be reached or can take longer to do so. This is critical!

Make Sure They Work Together Well

In most cases, success requires everyone to work in concert to accomplish goals.  People not getting along and/or working across purposes can be a big detriment to accomplishment.  This requires IT Managers to be vigilant of team dynamics and to make sure the team is working well together.  Make sure all the key players are doing their part in support of the goal.

Provide Them Necessary Resources

Nothing can bring initiatives to a halt more than a lack of resources.  People must have what they need to get their job done.  If we do not provide them with the necessary resources, forget about it!  Time is one of the most critical resources in our business.  If people feel that the time to get initiatives done is outside the time to get their regular job done, they will most likely not do as well as otherwise.  Make sure time and/or any other thing they need are readily available to them.

Enable Mutual Accountability

This is one of the hardest alignment factors.  It is the one that breaks down the easiest.  Even when managers create cultures where employees feel comfortable being held accountable, employees are uncomfortable calling managers out when we miss out on a goal-related commitment or when we do not provide resources necessary for them to get the job done.  This takes significant effort on both parts.  As a manager, you must reinforce mutually accountability constantly!  You need to be highly conscious of it and try to keep your word, commitments and most importantly, watch how you react when someone calls you out on a miss.  It is CRITICAL!!!

The BEST is Yet to Come!

Epi Torres, CEO

Last post, I talked about the importance of clarity to help reduce the stress produced by what I call your “Attention Tug-of-War”.

The first area to seek clarity in is at a personal level. To do so, the first step I recommend is to ascertain if you are aligned in a number of areas:

• Talents – Are you leveraging all you talents?
• Passion – Do you love what you do?
• Values – Are you working in congruence with your values?
• Beliefs – Are you acting in-line with you beliefs?
• Principles – Are you compromising any of your core principles?

Nothing is more stressful than working too much off-center in any of these areas.  If you are unbalanced, you need to clear that up quickly or you need to accept living a more unpleasant life.

In my experience, clarity comes from conviction.  Conviction means we are certain or convinced of something.  This feeling of certainty energizes us to act and, more importantly, sustain the effort necessary to accomplish whatever we set out to do.

Whenever I have one or more good reasons for something (what some have called a BIG WHY), I get going and no one can stop me.  If you dig into some of your greatest accomplishments, you will probably find a few powerful reasons behind them.  I am willing to bet big on that!

If you want to get energized for clarity’s sake, find a good reason or two and you’ll see what can happen.  Another small but powerful exercise that helps energize efforts is to imagine how you will feel when you accomplish what you set out to do.  This is very useful during the tough moments that all worthy endeavors present.  When you hit that wall, remember the reason(s) you are doing what you are doing and imagine how you will feel when you are done.  It should help you and keep you clear!!!

Try it.

The BEST is Yet to Come!

Epi Torres, CEO