Within the last six months, I've gotten my enterprise off Oracle 8i and on to 9iR2. We were really behind the 8 ball (no pun intended) since the support window for 8i was quickly running out. We forged ahead and were able to get everything to 9i. Along the way, we upgraded some development systems to 10gR1 and put out a non-critical system in 10gR2. However, something was missing. We hadn't taken advantage of a great deal of the 9i features that didn't come straight out of the box (Optimizer enhancements, PL/SQL fixes, bug fixes, etc).
I didn't want the upgrade to 10gR2 to go the same way. I don't want a hard-and-fast deadline for 10g and I want to be able to take advantage of some of the bells and whistles that come with 10g to ease my management burden. My educational jumping off point is to be certified in 10g.
I'm a firm believer in certification for enhancing the individual's self-worth. That doesn't mean every certified DBA is worth something to a company, nor does it mean somebody certified is worth more than someone who is not certified. It simply means that I view the certification process a valid educational opportunity for the individual to benchmark his knowlege against a standard.
Now, it's not the full-blown-from-the-top certification path that new DBAs are going on. I'm certified in 7, 8, and 8i, so I'll be looking to upgrade from 8i to 10g through 1Z0-045. I know, kind of a cop-out, but I think this will give me an opportunity to try out some of the new stuff before I need it. I bought the book last week, so now I have to start studying.
Don't be surprised if you see interesting (to me, anyway) 10g thingies on the blog in the next few months.
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2 comments:
Good luck. I'm also making the self-commitment to shoot for 10g certification, although I'm not certified in anything at the moment. Just been "the Oracle DBA" at my company for 5 years, brought us from 7.3.4.5 to 10.2.0.2, a lot of trial-and-error by fire along the way.
When I start digging into the materials (I have the 10g DBA Handbook and the OCA/OCP exam guide, both from Oracle Press), I thought a good way to enhance my familiarity is to post at least one thing about Oracle every day. Could be a neat new feature, or just something stodgy like talking about the SGA and all that it entails.
I think OCP is a great way to get into a new version. It clearly lists all the big points you need to consider and gets your foot on the ladder of learning the new version.
Good luck!
Tim...
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