Lack of Critical Thinking and Reasoning Skills

Well folks before I switch to a more technical series of posts, I thought that I would submit a rant.

I have noticed lately in the last few years a dire lack of critical reasoning and thinking skills in the technical arena. Maybe it is due to the "get it down quick not good" attitude of management or maybe its lack of real talent. Who knows? But to me it is a pet peeve when a person fails to challenge himself/herself and gives up all too easy when presented with a problem. To me, one should take a deep breath, relax or chill and take a fresh simplified approach to solving a problem. Perhaps its fear of failure or inner doubt? When a senior or even a junior database or other technical person could just do a simple google search or lookup the question in a manual, it would save time and frustration. Case in point, I have seen 'supposed' senior level database developers unable to write a simple JOIN query let alone a nested subquery in Oracle!!! While I do not profess to be a developer, even I can write basic SQL.

It is far better to take the time to do it right the first time rather than to waste time spinning wheels over a poor and rushed solution.

Case in point, recently on my current project there has been performance problems that have been occurring on daily basis in afternoons for the database servers. Initially the manager/DBA lead assumed that it was virus scanner software that was causing the performance issue. I kindly replied that we cannot assume this and need to conduct tests to discover the true culprit. Sure enough, my hunch was correct and it turns out to be a shortage of memory and CPUs on the server. The virus scanner software took little resources maybe 0.0002 per cent of usage on the server. I did find one user, a Cognos developer, nonetheless who was running a resource intensive report that uses full outer joins to be consuming 25% of the server resources.

Real World DBA experience versus OCP certification: Which is better?

I have been mulling over the whole value of vendor based certifications as of late such as the OCP, mcDBA and others. With the exception of the OCM "Oracle Certified Masters", my personal view is that real experience trumps any certification hands down. Alas many companies have a biased view that an OCP is more valuable than hands on experience. The only case that I would respect an OCP nowadays is IF the person has both the OCP and years of real DBA experience. Like for example, if I had to interview two candidates and one had the OCP and same experience as the other candidate then the OCP would help to be a tie-breaker. However if the candidate had superior technical experience/skills and soft skills that counts for more than an OCP in my book. One issue is that the 10g OCP only requires 2 exams to pass so it is really a more "watered" down version of the older 9i OCP program that required 4 exams to be passed for the certification. Fortunately, I am in good company with many top industry experts on the relative merit or lack thereof in terms of how valued the OCP is:

Dizwell view of OCP


Tom Kyte's view of OCP

What is a good manager and a good client and company?

Some excellent discussion on
management in the IT profession.

Happy DBA birthday to a DBA!

Well its a new day new year and my 36th birthday! So guess I will have to do something special to celebrate.

It is a bummer that I have to work today but heck should be fun- we have disaster recovery testing this week for Oracle and SQL Server environments and it will be fun to refresh my DR and Backup/Recovery knowledge and find clever ways to enlighten the team on the process. I would like to find a way to convince the management team to implement a hot standby site for Oracle and SQL Server with Data Guard and to design the process. Would help me sleep better at night as a DBA.

On a side note: communication is the sticky point in human relationships- often in written, verbal and nonverbal communications the misunderstandings create conflict among human beings. I strive to be the ultimate communicator and build the trust and human relationships that foster good energy and harmony.

Case in point- recently I had a discussion with a fellow Oracle professional and did my best to reassure him that I meant no ill will. As he is a consumate Oracle guru I let him know that my intent is sincere and pure. It really is like that old Genesis song when Phil Collins sang about "Misunderstanding"

What is a DBA?

From Wikipedia online Encyclopedia website as to what constitutes an
Database Administrator:

A database administrator (DBA) is a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database. In general, these include:
Recoverability - Creating and testing Backups
Integrity - Verifying or helping to verify data integrity
Security - Defining and/or implementing access controls to the data
Availability - Ensuring maximum uptime
Performance - Ensuring maximum performance given budgetary constraints
Development and testing support - Helping programmers and engineers to efficiently utilize the database.
The role of a database administrator has changed according to the technology of database management systems (DBMSs) as well as the needs of the owners of the databases. For example, although logical and physical database design are traditionally the duties of a database analyst or database designer, a DBA may be tasked to perform those duties.

However, there is a real crisis with the role of DBA in the USA and world. Often a DBA is considered to be a catch all phase for anyone who works with a database. That makes the whole situation sticky and ambiguous as to how one becomes and remains employed as a DBA! Below are some interesting links to the whole confusion around DBA and Developers:

Oracle WTF view of Oracle DBA:
More about what is a DBA

The Oracle Alchemist Discussion between DBA versus Developer

I personally have been more of the traditional production operational DBA although have done some development work for clients in the past. Currently I am working on revamping the large SQL Server database and Oracle environment to replace the legacy scripts with automated Informatica, SQL, PL/SQL and T-SQL scripts and workflows. Since the developers are not only very junior level but more C++/Java guys with limited SQL experience and zero Informatica skills, the team has involved me heavily in design of the data warehouse models. Its fun and challenging. Personally I'd rather just script everything in SQL, Transact SQL and PL/SQL and say to hell with it with the overpriced and bloated POS tool called Informatica Power Center but management has already invested eh sunk a million bucks into the purchase of this tool. Funny- it costs a fortune to create a data warehouse and ETL process with these fancy shmancy tools whereas if the time and care had been spent writing clean SQL and PL/SQL code it would have saved this healthcare place a fortune!

ETL Tools versus "home grown ETL"

Well I have mixed views of fancy vendor based ETL and Business Intelligence Tools "BI" vendors such as Informatica and Cognos. In theory, these commercial off the shelf "COTS" based data warehouse tools sound like a panacea for busy development and production data warehouse teams who have the daunting task of building and deploying a potent data warehouse in crunch times from mixed data sources and technologies. Lets suppose that we have 200 servers with Oracle, Sybase, and Microsoft SQL Server databases running on Windows, UNIX and main frame based servers and 20 different data source feeds. To build the ideal home grown ETL environment is labor intensive and requires senior level technical staff. In the modern buzz words that software vendors mesmerize executive management professionals, the Informatica and Cognos tools sound like a perfect fix. "Oh we can build and deploy a full data warehouse with complex ETL logic in a few months!". Several million dollars later and months of delays and broken ETL pipelines, the costs of expensive ETL consultants has frustrated many DBA and developer staff not to mention inciting the wrath of IT managers.

Here is a good link to a relevant discussion on commercial ETL tools and home grown solutions:

ETL Tools Roundtable

Recap of home grown ETL versus commercial ETL tools and vendors




In fact many industry experts argue the case against ETL tool vendors and favor a custom home grown design with SQL and PL/SQL scripts for Oracle instead of the head aches of expensive tools such as Informatica. My beef with Informatica and other ETL vendors is that the tool hides the workings of the database and ETL processes. It requires expensive learning curve and delays. And even worse- the whole tool is a third party propiety method that is not based on a portable industry standard such as ANSI SQL. Heck, its bad enough that I must port Transact SQL code to Oracle PL/SQL. Lest not burden the poor overworked DBA with yet another messy tool!

New Year 2007

Well folks,

A new year is now upon us with many changes to come of the good kind, I hope.
I am working on a project for a large healthcare firm to perform database migrations from SQL Server 2000 to Oracle 10g Release 2. The client also has me working with their team of ETL developers to create new mappings and workflows in an ETL tool called Informatica Power Center version 8. The current production, development, test environment is running on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database on Windows 2000 Server. Management has goal to migrate completely off of the Microsoft platform to Oracle 10g over a 2 year time plan.