Ever fumble around at 2 AM looking for that SQL statement you wrote a while back? You know, that one special script that will give you just the information you need to solve the problem and go back to bed? I must admit, I have done my fair share of moonlight script hunting. This blog will provide you with a few recommendations on naming convention best practices.

Database administrators are ultimately responsible for guaranteeing the quality of their organization’s database environments. From protecting against unauthorized access to providing 24x7 availability – “the buck stops at the DBA Unit.” Although the database infrastructure (DB binaries, O/S, hardware) doesn’t change much, there is one component that usually changes a lot – the application. This blog provides readers with helpful hints and tips on application change management best practices.

We are going to cover a lot of different topics in the next few blogs. The information will range the spectrum, from keeping our environments organized and uncluttered to backup and recovery best practices.

This blog will focus on the most important responsibility we are charged with as DBAs - ensuring that our organization’s databases can be quickly and easily recovered.

Let's continue our discussion on the Non-Technical Art of Being a Successful DBA. The intent of this blog is to help administrators design and standardize on a formalized design review process. The goal of the design review process is to identify and address application design, process flow, program logic and SQL statement problems early in the development lifecycle. Identifying these issues early in the development lifecycle allows them to be more easily addressed than if they were to be identified during later stages.

I absolutely and firmly believe that Data Administrators are the unsung heroes of the Information Technology profession. This blog will be shorter than most. The reason is that I don't consider myself qualified to instruct others in the Data Administration function. I will state that after twenty years of working as DBA, I can perform the basic functions fairly well when I need to. The intent of this blog is to provide readers with a launching point to start their education and stress the importance of effective data resource management.

Let’s start our series on the Non Technical Art of Being a Successful DBA by covering the art of good documentation. Although the importance of a well thought out and detailed documentation library is blatantly obvious, creating documentation is the task most often postponed by an overworked DBA unit.

One of the benefits of my 20-year career (I think) is that most of the jobs I have held can be described as somewhat “unforgiving”, shall we say… What these jobs taught me is that I needed more than just technical expertise to become successful in my chosen profession. I quickly learned that becoming proficient at the various disciplines I will be discussing in upcoming blogs was just as challenging to me as honing my technical skill sets.

I’ve been able to learn from my mistakes and make changes in my technical and non-technical approach to database administration to overcome my shortcomings. I’d like to cover some of my personal best practices that have made my life as a DBA more productive and my customers and co-workers happier.

Oracle 10G introduced a new type of tablespace called a Bigfile Tablespace. When I read the 10G New Features manual and found out that you could create a terabyte sized datafile using the Bigfile option, I wanted to immediately find an environment that had enough free disk to allow me to create my first terabyte datafile. That was over a year ago and I still haven't found a server with a free terabyte of disk that I can use for testing. Even though I haven't made it into the terabyte datafile club yet, I thought I would discuss Bigfile tablespaces in this blog.

I have taught hundreds of people how to administer Oracle during my career as an Oracle instructor. For those of you just entering this profession, here is my most sage piece of advice:

"The hallmark of a good DBA is not knowing everything, it's knowing where to look when you don't."

I thought it might be beneficial for us to review some of the various technical resources currently available to us. You'll find a listing of my favorite authors, bloggers and websites in this blog. The list will also include my favorite educational website of all time, the Oracle Knowledge Center. I'll be off on vacation next week, so I'll see you in two weeks!

I thought I’d provide you with a couple of quick SQL*PLUS tips and tricks this week. Some of the features are new in 10G, while others are available in earlier releases. I think you’ll find them all to be very helpful.