RE: OT RE: 24 x 7 on NT?

EXACTLY!! I never say that a tool should be used instead of command line - I'm a great believer of having to know both - as there are pros and cons for both sides of the coin! There are times when the back end agent of a monitoring tool, monitoring on regular basis and alerting you by your mobile phone is a hell of a lot better. Other times you can only achieve what you need through a script..

I do have to say though, that a graphical interface to a database *can* be a great learning tool for a Jr. DBA, providing they have the right tool. As Peter pointed out, some tools will actually show you the SQL that they are going to submit to the database, thereby showing the Jr. what s/he is going to be sending to the database.

If then, they are not sure what it is they are going to send to the database - and still send it anyway without even attempting to do a little research - IMO they are in the wrong job. If the tool is better still, you can review the SQL, and add anything else you feel might be needed, and still submit the script through the tool (for all the snr. DBAs).

I actually use your situation in demos Rachel - We have a monitoring tool, which has a "Blocked Sessions" screen. This will show you in a flow chart picture the blocking session, and any blocked sessions. From there, simply "double-click" the blocker, and go in to a session detail, showing all locks, complete stats for the session (CPU, I/O, waits, blah, blah, blah), all SQL that they have executed that is in the SQLAREA, the current open cursor, and all of the users details - username, terminal name, program etc. Right Mouse Button, and kill the session once you know who it is - call them, tell them why you did it, and problem solved - usually BEFORE anybody calls you, as you typically find a user will wait a minute or two. The tool tells the DBA STRAIGHT AWAY, and will not wait for them to fire of a script.

By that time you will have touched the keyboard ONCE (to enter a privileged user/pass to kill the session). How long would it take the average DBA to do this with scripts? I could do it in about 20-30 seconds with our tool..

It's all swings and roundabouts, and I've rambled enough now :)

Mark

-----Original Message-----
Carmichael
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 01:57
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Mark,

My only problem with GUI tools (and as an aside it was I believe Oracle's Migration GUI that failed for that member of the list) is that newbies use the tools and don't learn the underlying structure and data beneath them

I think GUI tools are a great boon. If nothing else, it gives damagement a pretty screen to look at while I am working on something else :)

Truly though, having a red light flash on a console to warn me of a lock is a good thing. In fact, the one incident I am thinking of, we were able to find the lock, clear it and have things back to normal as the phones starting ringing -- users calling to say "Oracle is down". We were able to tell them to wait a minute or two and try again, it was fixed.

Rachel

>From: "Mark Leith" <mark_at_cool-tools.co.uk>
>Reply-To: ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com
>To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
>Subject: RE: OT RE: 24 x 7 on NT?
>Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 02:55:28 -0800
>
>Oh I agree with what you are saying there - and that is EXACTLY why we
>don't
>deal with any tools that actually touch user data (unless you count
>reorganizing tables/tablespaces etc..). And I'm not sure which tool you are
>actually talking about, there are good and bad in the market place..
>
>I personally have a wealth of GUI tools available to me - SQL
>Tuning/monitoring/management etc. and STILL revert to command line - as I
>simply want to learn more.. BUT I would have to say that a GUI tool will
>make a DBA more productive in their day to day work! There are few people I
>know that can throw together a script that monitors X, then evaluate the
>data that comes out of the a$$ end of it, in the time it takes to point and
>click a button, and watch the lovely pretty graph that that GUI piece of
>"junk" throws out for you..
>
>I have never been a DBA (although that is probably where my heart is), but
>I
>do know that you guys are on extremely tight schedules, with a LOT to fit
>in
>to a day, and if you can have a lovely GUI tool that sits in background for
>you monitoring your database, and alert you when there IS a problem,
>leaving
>you to move on to more interesting stuff like tuning your database
>parameters (in command line if you wish), eating your doughnuts, drinking
>coffee, and slapping developers - what's the problem with them?
>
>Mark
>
>Disclaimer: This is in no way the view of my employer, just my own
>(probably
>stupid) opinion.
>

---trim---

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Author: Mark Leith
  INET: mark_at_cool-tools.co.uk

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