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Oracle DBA job skills
Oracle Tips by Burleson Consulting |
A number of Oracle professionals mistakenly
believe that the Oracle DBA skills are purely technical. In reality, the
Oracle DBA must be an "ace" of all IT functions, because he or she
has ultimate responsibility for overall database design, database
implementation, backup, and recovery. Excellent communications as
well as technical skills are required for the DBA's close
involvement in all phases of project development.
Also see my notes on:
The fact computing resources are
displacing human resources has a profound impact of the job duties of
the Oracle DBA. We see that Oracle instances are becoming
consolidated onto large server with 32 and 64 CPUs, and as a result
less DBA staff is required.
At the same time we see broadening
DBA responsibility as the surviving DBAs need to manage schema design,
security, and other mission-critical data management tasks. The
surviving Oracle DBA’s will find themselves with many new job roles.
They will be relieved of the tedium of applying patches to multiple
servers, constantly re-allocating server resources, and tuning many
servers.
Remember, knowledge of Oracle database systems is
not enough. An Oracle DBA must have skills in operating systems and computer-science
theory. That is why employers like to hire
Oracle DBAs who also have skills in computer science,
information systems, or business administration.
For an example of Oracle DBA job skills, see the
BC job opportunities page.
Other Oracle DBA job skills include the following:
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Excellent communication skills - The
Oracle professional is the central technical guru for the Oracle
shop. He or she must be able to explain Oracle concepts clearly to
all developers and programmers accessing the Oracle database. In
many shops, the Oracle DBA is also a manager and is required to have
excellent communication skills for participating in strategic
planning and database architectural reviews.
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Formal education – Many employers
require Oracle professionals to have a bachelor’s degree in computer
science or information systems. For advanced positions such as an
Oracle DBA, many employers prefer a master’s degree in computer
science or a master’s in business administration (MBA).
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Real-world experience - This requirement
is the catch-22 for newbie’s who possess only an OCP certificate. A
common complaint of people who have OCP certificates but no job
experience is that they cannot get experience without the OCP, and
they cannot get a job without experience. This is especially true in
a tight job market.
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Knowledge of database theory - In
addition to mastering the technical details required for the OCP
exams, the successful Oracle professional must have an understanding
of database and data warehouse design. This includes intimate
knowledge of data normalization theory and knowledge of star schema
design, as well as object-oriented modeling with Unified Modeling
Language (UML) and knowledge of other database design methodologies
such as CORBA and J2EE.
Basic Oracle DBA Skills
Because the Oracle professional is
often called-upon to perform critical projects in the IT department, a
broad background is often desirable. Much of this basic IT knowledge
is taught in academic Computer Science and Information Technology
programs. Non-Oracle job skills include:
·
System Analysis & Design skills – Many Oracle
professionals must take an active role in the analysis and design of
new database systems. Hence, knowledge of data flow diagrams, data
dictionary techniques, CASE tools, Entity-relation modeling and design
techniques, enhance the Oracle professional’s scope of ability.
·
Database Design skills – Many Oracle jobs require
knowledge of database normalization theory, STAR schema design, and
data modeling techniques.
·
Physical Disk Storage skills – Understanding of disk
hardware architecture, RAID implementation, cache controllers, and
disk load balancing are beneficial to any Oracle professional.
·
Data Security skills – An understanding of
relational database security including role-based security is useful,
especially for US Government positions.
·
Backup and Recovery skills – Many backup and
recovery methods involve third-party software (Veritas, Legato, ADSM),
and the candidate should have real-world experience implementing
backup and recovery methods.
·
Change Control Management skills – In many cases the
Oracle professional is charged with the task of implementing change
control and insuring that changes to the production database are
properly coordinated. Knowledge of third-party change control tools
such as the UNIX Source Code Control System (SCCS) is
beneficial.
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