In the home stretch

The book is excellent! I have covered so much material that I didn't know much about a few weeks ago, and now I feel that my general knowledge of Oracle has increased many fold. Things like memory management, diversity of database tables and index types are all areas covered in the past chapters, and I believe that I now understand the basics of these topics.

And even though many may not believe me, I actually find the writing to be great also. It doesn't feel like a "heavy duty" technical book. Little comments like "That's a pretty deep thought there: the database already knows the answer to any question you might ask it, before you ask it." (found in chapter 7) makes it enjoyable to me.

I'm on the "home stretch" now. I've just finished chapter 11 and hope to complete the book by the end of the week. I've marked out a few things that I'd like to discuss with my mentor, but overall I believe I'm doing OK. There was a little "brain glitch" when reading about nested tables. I mean what was that all about?!?! I understand that you can connect a parent/child relationship between 2 tables, but failed to see why this was better/more efficient to the p_key/f_key method. This is one of the areas that I must rely on Thyge or another colleague to enlighten me.

PS. Even though the book caries a title with "Expert" in it, I don't suppose that I will become an expert from just reading it (unfortunately).

Flying dutch again?

It is pretty evident that keeping a blog updates is not one of my strong points. The purpose of my scribbling is to present my opinion on how my Oracle knowledge increases, and what kind of problems I run into.
I've just finished chapter 6 & 7 (Locking & Latching and Concurrency & Multi-versioning) and the best way to describe how this went, is the reason for the title.
Last year I was flying KLM from Amsterdam to Chicago. The flight itself was fine, service was as expected, but when it came to the TV-programs i struggled a bit. I found myself trying to decipher dutch, with a combination of danish, English and German. The overall storyline was OK, but I was missing most of the details.
I have a good general knowledge of why and how Oracle uses locks/latches, but my brain can't seem to comprehend the technical details. As for concurrency I think my overall understanding of the problem is a little bit better. This is mentioned in several text books as a general problem. When it comes to HOW this is handled in Oracle, it again feels a little like I'm watching the world through my grandma's glasses. I can see the outline, but details are blurry.

I suspect that this will become clearer as my working experience with Oracle increases.


This past week I also held a short session with Thyge, who has been appointed as a kind of mentor for me. This gave me a chance to ask a few of those questions that I couldn't really solve on my own. My biggest challenge overall is probably the PL/SQL syntax used in a few of the examples, ie "How does 'decode' work?"
Also, he was able to share a more "practical" approach to some of these issues. How would he identify a problem on a running system etc.
I expect as the book delves into more technical detail, that I'll use Thyge more and more for questions on different aspects of Oracle.

Files, Processes, SGA and Superbowl

I'm now a third of the way through Tom Kytes "Expert Oracle Database Architecture" and I've discovered a few things:

1. I recognize a lot of the terms and ideas presented in the book, because I've worked around Oracle databases over the years. This gives me some confidence that I can actually make it through MEEP and not die!
2. There are so many details presented to me, that I feel like I'm studying for finals on a 3500 page course. I haven't a clue if I need to remember all the details, or a general understanding is OK for now.
3. Reading a chapter pr. day is not as easy as it may seem. I try to do all the examples as I read through the book, and several times I can not get the expected result. This often comes from little things I've left out, or things the author probably just takes for granted.

I now how a general knowledge of what an Oracle DB is. I have made a few installations (ie. 9i and 10g under Vista and also 10g under Centos5), and have a general idea as to what is new in 10g. As for the Centos5/10g installation, I still have some problems. The installation part is completed, but I can't seem to keep the Listener running?! I'll look into this when I find a little time.

As for MEEP in general, I really appreciate the time to study and learn. Tomorrow I'll be joining a few colleagues to go over what has been covered so far. This will probably clear up a few things. The rest will most likely not fall into place until I work on an actual problem.

In closing I might point out that the Packers are headed for the Superbowl. Make no mistake about it..... Giants don't stand a chance at "the frozen tundra" against No. 4.
Go Packs.

Blog virgin

This is all completely new to me. I have never written anything for anyone else to read, other than papers at school and childish love letters when I was 10. If this comes across at either, I apologize up front.
My reasons for doing this are as follows:

1. I started a new job working for Miracle A/S, and have been asked to complete the Miracle Extreme Education Programme. While going through the course, Mogens Nørgaard has challenged me to keep a blog on my discoveries/frustrations/accomplishments etc.

2. I hope that this blog will help myself, when things get difficult and tough, to remember the things I've learned, and that I (hopefully) will be able to realize that I've made some progress.

Before joining Miracle I was working for a communications company (cell phones) primarily with Siebel. Databases were something I used for storing and retrieving data, in a more or less refined way. I have installed a few oracle DB's, I know a little about things like schema's, tablespaces, DB-links, synonyms etc. I also have a very basic knowledge of SQL, mainly used for generating reports, finding errors and checking new functionality.
By no means would I call my knowledge of Oracle impressive. There is plenty of room for improvement!

Overall I am 100% convinced that I have a ton to learn, and frankly I'm a little intimidated by my new colleagues :)

Anyway, I'll try to keep this blog up do date as best I can. Afterall, this will probably serve me much more than anyone else.