Phil's Database Blog

Oracle Training, Finally

Anyone else going to The Training Camp, Inc.'s Oracle DBA Bootcamp in Bushkill, PA on 11/27? I'm finally getting Oracle training. YES! I'll be trained up to pass the Oracle Certified Associate (OCA) test, which is worth about a cup of coffee from an HR recruiter if you're lucky.

But it beats the hell out of not getting trained.

posted by Phil Sevetson @ 1:09 PM 0 comments

DB2 z/OS v7 Functionality Testing

In the process of building test scripts for DB2V8-z/OS migration, I've accidentally-on-purpose created a script which tests basic functions of SQL and IBM-DB2 utilities. It creates various objects (for which you must have appropriate privileges, of course; I use a SYSADM account, which simplifies things), runs a bunch of standard DML and utilities against them, and drops them. It uses DSNUPROC, DSNTEP2, and DSNTIAUL.

If you-all want a copy, let me know and I'll ftp one to my PC and mail it to you.

--Phil

posted by Phil Sevetson @ 11:02 AM 0 comments

Found in someone's sigfile...

"Always code as if the guy who ends up
maintaining your code is a psychopath
who knows where you live."
-- Damian Conway

posted by Phil Sevetson @ 10:06 AM 0 comments

Telnet for XP Users

Telnet is what you use to log in to Unix computers if you're on a remote computer (as opposed to sitting at the Unix computer's keyboard). I won't go in to details, except this: Microsoft Telnet is located at:
(system drive):\I386\telnet.exe
or you can enter this URL in your browser:
file:///c:/i386/telnet.exe
I don't guarantee that c: is where your Windows system drive is located, so if this doesn't work, you'll have to fine the i386 directory on your own. I know one computer which is configured so that the system drive is H: !

posted by Phil Sevetson @ 7:06 AM 0 comments

To an aspiring Oracle DBA, like me

Have you checked out the Oracle books available through http://www.computerbooksdirect.com/?  It's a book club deal, and the opening offer is any three books for $5.97 (with shipping it's actually $20.96, and there's an obligation to buy three more books within two years).  Other places to get discounted tech books include http://www.bookpool.com/.  You can also search on http://www.amazon.com/ for "Osborne Oracle Press Series" and/or "O'Reilly Oracle" for major publishers.  Don't bother with the http://www.powells.com/ website, they seem to be charging list price for the titles I saw.  http://www.wrox.com/ has only one title, and it seems to be pointed only to developers.  On the other hand, if you can afford titles, O'Reilly has a good (but not cheap) Oracle topic section(http://www.oreilly.com/pub/topic/oracle.

Then after that, you'll need a safe place to practice using your Oracle knowledge.  That can be dicey -- your system administrator needs to approve your using an existing or new test Oracle database server for training.  Or you can find the free Oracle Express database at http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/index.html and put it on your own computer.

--Phil Sevetson, future Oracle DBA who's looking into all this stuff for himself, too

posted by Phil Sevetson @ 8:11 AM 0 comments

Testing... Testing...

If anyone notices this, I'm interested in hearing it. I don't currently plan to post here; I have a blogger account because someone I'm commenting to requires that I have one before he will accept my comments for his site.

--Phil

posted by Phil Sevetson @ 8:47 AM 2 comments