Thursday, February 12, 2009

Point & Click DBAs

Maybe I'm old school.

Maybe I'm just behind the times.

Today's crop of DBA candidates sure know how to point and click their way through Oracle. When I ask them how to tune a SQL statement they'll give me the exact instructions on how to click on some Grid Control adviser or how to get an "explain plan" through TOAD. I guess the new query plan is called "explain plan" now because it's easier to understand.

Recently I asked one candidate, "What if grid control goes away, how do you tune a query?"

"Well, first you start the grid control agent, and..."

"No, no, I mean, if there was no such thing as grid control, how would you tune a query?"

Crickets....

"Um, SQL*Plus?"

Yes, good old SQL*Plus.

I used to believe that GUIs are icing on the cake and as long as you know what was going on under the covers, it was perfectly acceptable to use a GUI.

Maybe I'm just old school.