Internship with Contemporary Technologies (Remote DBA Experts) Jenna LuttonFebruary 1, 2007

About Contemporary Technologies (CTi) Life outside CTi Project Overview Project Details Internship Experience Acknowledgements and Thanks Questions Roadmap

Located in Downtown Pittsburgh in 4 Gateway Center Two subdivisions:  Enviroware – Software designed specifically for companies who treat, store, and dispose special case materials  Remote DBA Contemporary Technologies

Offer remote database administration services for over 50 companies Support  Oracle  Microsoft SQL Server  Legacy Systems Sell a “Team approach” to database administration  Instead of buying one DBA, you buy a team of DBA’s who all help support your system  Teams grouped by database type Remote DBA Experts

Mission: To provide expert service to their customers and to provide the best work environment for their employees  “Like No One Else!”

Windows Red Hat Linux Unix  Sun Solaris  AIX  HP-UX Oracle and SQL Server clients Software/Systems

Home Life  I’m a pseudo-aunt!  New puppy! Life Outside CTi

Aiden Matthew Connelly

Sophie

Page Audit Project  Keep a record of all alerts we receive and stop invalid alerts Documentation Project  Standardize documentation DBA for Customers with Stable Systems  Perform common “DBA” tasks Project Overview

Total Hours Spent by Project

Total Hours Spent By Role

Customer Database Servers Alert Message Generated CTI Exchange Server DBA Cell Phones Old Paging System

Page Example

Issue: Primary DBA’s were on call all of the time for their customers  Had to find a way to reduce unnecessary pages  Goal: Reduce stress Paging System

Customer Database Servers Alert Message Generated CTI Exchange Server On-Call Phone New Paging System Oracle Pages Folder

Issues after new paging system:  Didn’t stop invalid pages from occurring  Page Audit Project created to reduce invalid pages Page Audit Project

Documentation Invalid page – Example:  Monitoring script fixed the problem  Issue with the server and had to comment out the job or had to install a different monitor Worked with UNIX job scheduler, cron and the vi Editor

Documentation key to team approach of database administration There were little to no standards  Documents hard to find, not in the same place  Document for one customer contained information that the same document for the next wouldn’t  Very difficult for DBA’s to find information about other customers Documentation Project

Created a standard template for:  VPN Setup documents  Database details documents Created/revised all customer documents to fit a standard format First introduction to Microsoft’s SQL Server

Crucial project for my Oracle DBA training Tasks:  Check filesystem space  Check listener log size/database alert log  Check for any space issues in the database Goal: Catch common issues before they occur DBA For Customers With Stable Systems

Had very little experience in an Oracle database Knew next to nothing about Unix/Linux commands Paranoid about causing production problems Challenges

Unix command: $df –k First indication of space issues Filesystem Space

Listener: process that constantly “listens” for incoming database connections Logs all activity to a log  Log is always in $ORACLE_HOME/network/log If log too big, you will need to resize it  Use Oracle provided command line utility: $lsnrctl Listener Log

Every Oracle database has one  Logs all oracle errors (ORA- errors) and other activity (when a log switch occurs, or when a redo log is archived)  File name always: alert_[dbname].log First place to look if a serious problem occurs Oracle Alert Log

Database Space Issues Two ways of administering database:  Command Line  Oracle supplied GUI Tools Oracle Enterprise Manager Oracle Grid Control

To check, I would run the space check monitor and note down any output Find the locations of the datafiles and their sizes that contain the object.  Use the Data Dictionary views Database Space Issues (Command Line)

Check filesystem space where the datafiles are located Two options:  Resize datafile to add space

 Add a datafile

OEM (Oracle Enterprise Manager) is a GUI tool that makes common database tasks less time consuming Adding datafiles or resizing them is just a point and click operation Available with recent versions of Oracle Database Space Issues (OEM)

Thoughts on overall experience Classes taken at IUP that have helped:  COSC 341 – Database course  COSC 210 and 310 – Java courses  COSC 316 – First introduction to Linux Classes I wish I had taken:  COSC 362 – Unix  COSC 423 – Intro to Operating Systems Internship Experience

COSC 341 – Database course  Include more SQL Plus Tips and Tricks Have SQL*Plus prompt for a value: Recommendations

SQL used to Generate SQL

ORDER BY Clause Shortcut

I would like to thank  CTi – For giving me the opportunity to work with the company Chris Foot – For showing me that I don’t have to code programs for the rest of my life and for being such a great teacher Jayme Puza – Bus buddy! Brian Hays – For putting up with me  Friends and Family  Dr. Shubra Acknowledgements and Thanks

Questions?