From Developer to DBA?

[mdorn66]

Hello all,
I have been studying for my ocp dba cert and wanted some advice on becoming a dba. I am an oracle apps developer right now, with hopes of getting out of programming and becoming a dba. How hard will it be to get my foot in the door as a dba and what things should I focus on more than others to help make a better transition? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[jovery]

Coming from a development background is a good start, if you haven't already done so I suggest you read the Oracle concepts manual as a starting point.

If possible create you own setup on a PC or test server and practise what you learn. If you work in an environment with DBA's it's possible they may assist you in your goal or at least provide you with easily accessible assistance if you find a concept or idea difficult to grasp.

Good luck

Regards

[TimHall]

If you've worked on Oracle Apps that is an advantage. There are quite a few jobs around for Oracle Apps DBAs that don't seem to be getting filled.

I find it funny that you can go and work as a DBA on a massive project, but if people use Oracle Apps they assume you won't be any good unless you've got a background in it. It's just another big database

Cheers

[julian]

I was an Oracle developer before I became DBA. I sugggest if you really want to be a DBA, buy a DBA book and start reading first.

[kris109]

Oracle DBA and Apps DBA are two different worlds. Try to install Fnd E package, troubleshoot ADI, Workflow issues etc., and your head will spin.

Oracle Apps dependencies are messy. They are 100 times more complicated than trying to figure out which exp/imp utitilities to use to export a oracle 6 database into a oracle 9.2 database. I tried for a month and quickly moved out of that into regular DBA work.

I still would like to learn though. You can get top dollar for being a GOOD APPS DBA. Upwards of $100/hr.

[julian]

Originally posted by kris109

Oracle Apps dependencies are messy. They are 100 times more complicated than trying to figure out which exp/imp utitilities to use to export a oracle 6 database into a oracle 9.2 database.

So that's in brief the DBA's work?? Really? I wish all were that simple. I would be pleased to invite you to follow a day of my work.

[kris109]

Tell us what you do. I am interested.

The example I gave was just a snippet. I am a dba for a fortune 500 company, however that was what I could think of at the spur of the moment.

[TheSlob]

Julian uses Oracle like nobody have used it before. *chuckles* He uses it to fight famine in Africa and war in the middles east...lol

Julian makes his job sound like its rocket science or something...hehe.

[julian]

Originally posted by kris109
Tell us what you do. I am interested.

The example I gave was just a snippet. I am a dba for a fortune 500 company, however that was what I could think of at the spur of the moment.

You want to know what I do: I am the Senior DBA for one of the Top 10 companies in the World.

I also export and import but it might not be that trivial always :-) I work mainly with clustered machines and do mostly tuning, installations and upgrades, monitoring and RMAN. In fact all, DBA can do. I didn't mean to say that we do rocket science, on the contrary, I used to be a university researcher before becoming an Oracle DBA.

But I like my work and like all kind of challanges in Oracle. And such ones exist. I think that being an Oracle DBA is one of the most (if not the most) difficult job in the IT sector, meaning that Oracle is so large and complex that it requires a lot of knowledge and exp.

Didn't mean to sound cocky, sorry about that.

[mdorn66]

Thanks for the replies. I meant to say that I am developing in forms 6i and not Oracle Fin. Apps.if that makes a difference. I'm not sure they will let me get any experience here, but I'll try. We have three dba's here already and I'm not sure how I would go about asking them for some help. Any advice?