Re: How to perform a health check?

Daniel Morgan <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu> wrote in message news:<1096733713.515192_at_yasure>...
> Noons wrote:
>
> > Hans Forbrich <news.hans_at_telus.net> wrote in message news:<Muk7d.7473$223.6928_at_edtnps89>...
> >
> >
> >>>For years I've complained bitterly there are
> >>>no standards anywhere to define what a dba job is
> >>>and how to make sure one gets the right people
> >>>for it.
> >>
> >>a) For the standard ... what's wrong with the definition of DBA that Oracle
> >>provides? It's been part of the DBA guide since Version 5 (or earlier).
> >
> >
> > What's wrong?
> >
> > 1- It's Oracle's definition. I want an industry standard.

But it's a moving target. I wouldn't want to be held to what IBM thought 20 years ago what a DBA should be, nor to writing T-SQL stored procedures all day.

> > If I wanted another "defacto standard", I'd stay with
> > M$ and not bother about Oracle.

See above!

> > 2- It is the job description of a production dba. That has
> > never been enough.

True

> > 3- It seems to imply that anything that is "technical" should
> > be left to Oracle support. Sure...

Now that you mention it, it is pretty condescending.. :)

>
> Here's one thing I would want to see in a definition of an Oracle DBA's job.
>
> 1. Will review the alert log every morning and log any warning messages.
>
> I have yet to find the DBA that does that. Which is not to say that some
> aren't doing it ... but I just have yet to have the pleasure of working
> with them.

I've seen large places that make the jr's do this. I've also seen places that simply grep -v for expected ORA-'s and mail any others to the DBA. The latter would seem to moot the behavior you want to see, by working smarter instead of harder. I haven't seen any of what I would consider well-configured OEM alert scenarios, though I would hope some places have implemented that.

Personally I do it, but because I'm habitually watching for particular things. I confess to having slacked off in the past on some systems that are just plain stable (and would mail reports of things like 'about to run out of space'). It is more important for a DBA to understand a system than do things by rote.

jg

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