Tales Of The OakTable (TOTOT)

When going through all this literature about Oracle, I can't help being impressed and scared of the knowledge and complexity that is displayed.
The book mentioned in the title, was very insightful and I must say I enjoyed it. I found it easier to read, because it keeps referring to real-life examples, but don't be fooled. There are still plenty of details and knowledge in it, and many details that I can't completely comprehend.

As far as my personal progress goes I probably can't see what I've learned so clearly, because I keep being exposed to new areas of Oracle and realize how much I HAVEN'T learned yet :).
I've had another session with Thyge, where different areas were covered, and also a few practical exercises were given me. One was relating to the insert vs. insert /*+append*/ and nologging. How big of a difference does it make etc.
After that Thyge also gave me some "homework" regarding restore of a DB. I must admit that I haven't completed that task yet. My first attempt rendered my DB useless, as I had not backed all the necessary files up, before dropping the DB. After that I've been sick for 4 days now, so hopefully I'll get to it sometime this week.

As a final note there will be a "mid-term challenge for MEEP'ers in Miracle" next week. The program will include some "hands-on" on a real project, arranged by James Morle. I really look forward to this as hands-on always sticks better with me than strictly theory.

To Master or not to Master

The next book on my list was "Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL *Plus" by Lex de Hann. I'm happy to report that I finished this book over the past week.
It starts out with very basic SQL syntax and simple examples, and the first 5-6 chapters were a breeze. I have covered all these things many times in my previous jobs, and felt I knew the topics pretty well. My hope was that the rest of the book would be as easy, but I must admit that a few areas touched upon, were not all that easy. For instance chapter 9.6 "Analytical Functions and Windows" seemed very theoretical and since I've never used this in a real-life scenario it, along with Nested Tables (chapter 12), needed re-reading. I've asked Thyge to discuss these topics with me this coming week (along with a few areas like Cluster Tables, Delayed Block Cleanout).

In this past week I've done some practical exercises regarding logging vs nologging. Thyge has also given me a task to restore a database, to gain some "how do I..." experience.

I'll be starting the "Oracle Insights, Tales from the Oaktable" this coming week. According to the schedule I should read the "9i Concepts Guide", but since the printed copy is still at B2C, I'll skip ahead and go for the book. I've covered just over 200 pages of the concepts guide via PDF, but will hold out for the paper version.

There's somebody out there!

I'm not alone anymore. Apparantly somebody has read my blog. Big thanks to Matthew Butler for his encouraging words. I'll cerntainly listen to them and re-read parts of T. Kytes book again, as needed.
As a matter of fact I've been challenged by Mentor-Thyge to give a presentation of Oracles memory structure and the underlying processes later this week. I believe I have an OK understanding of this, but am also sure he can ask MANY questions that I will not be able to answer.

A few of us "MEEP"'ers have discussed our 1st month with the program and a few things came up. The main source of concern/frustration was the scope of the program. Not so much whether it was 3000 or 4000 pages, but more to have a set list of books that should be covered. The reason for this discussion was a few mails regarding 3 new items on the MEEP-list, not originally included by Jan. 1st. Further more there was also talks about a few books for MS/SQL server.

I presented this to Mogens, who in ususal style respondend "...the first E in MEEP is for Extreme.."! Basically, suck it up!!
My point for bringing it to his attention was not to reduce the ammount of reading, but more to get a final scope defined. I believe it's easier to envision one finishing a race, if one knows the distance to cover.
Kinda feels like this:Don't get me wrong.. I actually enjoy learning something new. It challenges me and I like pushing myself (and also the occaitional push from others). I only feel that if I'm going to be evaluated on my progress after 90 days of MEEP, it's nice to know what topics are to be covered.

As far as my progress report .. here goes. I've finished the T. Kyte book last friday and have read the first 4 chapters of Lex de Haan's "Mastering Oracle SQL...". I actually knew this stuff, so that gave me some confidence back. I'm sure though, as I continue through the book I'll encounter many new aspects of SQL.

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.