I am a senior Unix Oracle DBA. I am always proud of my Unix skills and Oracle DB admin experience until recently. I talked to several headhunters last week. I was told that Oracle Application DBAs are in really high demand. But, general Oracle DBAs with only DB administration experience are not on the list. It's kind of shock to me. This is very different from six months ago.

I have not worked in the Oracle application field. I would like to set up a testing Oralce Application environment for self-learning. Here are some questions:

1. Do you think it's easier to start on the NT/Win2000 platform?

(When I said it's easier, I mean it's easier to get the resource. I don't think it's easier to get a spare Unix machine with a lot of empty diskspace for testing. )

2. In terms of database tier, I know the difference between the implementaton on Unix platform and NT platform. Now, what's the major difference for Ora Apps between these two platforms?

3. How many machines do you need to set up this learning environment? (This is a multi-tier environment.)

4. Has anyone ordered the CD packs from Oracle Store? Is it the same as the production CDs?

5. How do you start up?
Installation - testing - case study ......?

I did not see enough info on DBASupport about Ora Apps, compared to Ora DB Admin. I hope this thread will start accumulate some good hints and tips to help DBAs interested in switching to the field of Oracle Application DBA.