tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76234211704679304612024-03-13T18:51:40.349+01:00MEEP-90 days in HellJan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-34591919922818894912008-03-22T15:00:00.003+01:002008-03-22T15:07:57.140+01:00Midterm continuedWe met outside of Aarhus, at fellow MEEPer Flemmings house. We sat down the four MEEPers and continued to work on the datamodel. The goal was to be able to present our first outcast for a complete datamodel. Luckily, we were almost done, when Mogens called and told us to be in Horsens 5 minutes ago. Mogens was participating in a tv program, and at the time of his call he had finished the program and was throwing a party, and needed some stuff we had in our car, so off to Horsens!!<br /><br />We did have a finished datamodel, whether it is the right one, only time will tell when we get it "graded".<br />We did have some trouble figuring out how to connect quotes and products, and how to create the model for the product which involved product categories and so on.<br />We still have one item remaining and that is to figure out to create an entity that allows us to order the product via a pre-packaged definition.Lars Jakobsen, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04404447147222445932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-83467388702756320412008-03-22T14:42:00.003+01:002008-03-22T15:17:19.020+01:00Concepts guideSo I have started the concepts guide. Not much new there!! We have gotten a printed version which is split in 3 parts or actually 3 books, so I figure it will be one book per week. On top of this just for pleasure it is also mandatory to read Oracle insights: tales of the oaktable.<br /><br />Well, one week into starting the concepts guide, my grandmom passed away somewhat unexpectedly, she had taken a fall breaking her hip, but she was doing allright with rehap, unfortunately she suffered a couple of bloodclots, which took a told on her old body, she was one week away from turning 92! Another bloodclot in her heart put her into cardiac arrest, and thankfully she went quickly from there. So grandma, tell Lex "42"!! R.I.P. Grandma<br /><br />Off course I sat at the funeral with the concepts guide reading!!!! NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<br />obviously it made reading a bit more difficult with the upcoming funeral and all the stuff that has to be handled with the estate.Lars Jakobsen, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04404447147222445932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-29677816041960889592008-03-10T14:56:00.007+01:002008-03-22T14:40:55.168+01:00MidtermAnticipation was extremely high for this day. Finally a chance to see how much of this information had actually stuck. Miracle had an Oracle expert flown in to present a problem for us to fix. The problem ended up being to create a datamodel for an inventory and booking system with a quotation system. Hmmm datamodeling, when did I read about that? Not so much really? Tom Kyte discusses how important it is, but not really how to do it. Lex de Haan describes it, tells about the importance of "normalization", says a little about how to do it. Well, apparently there was also a bit confusion on how long this assignment was to last. We, the meepers, was of the expectation that it was a one day thing. A view that was apparently shared by one of the mentors as well, since we got pushed to start developing the application eventhough we weren't done with the datamodel. On the other hand the presenter expected us to finish this in the time coming. So after some dilly dalling, we are now going to meet in Aarhus to finish the datamodel on this upcoming thursday.<br /><br /><br /><br />In retrospect, my expectations were not met for this event. I had hoped that we would get some database stuff that we would have to get a hands-on experience from the real life. It was said to be a oneday midterm, but it wasn't, and now we are going to work on this project alongside finsishing MEEP.<br /><br /><br /><br />Don't get me wrong the project is quite exciting and interesting. It just wasn't what i had expected, and sometimes that's what happen with expectations.Lars Jakobsen, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04404447147222445932noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-37682454546981259392008-03-10T13:39:00.004+01:002008-03-22T14:36:59.921+01:00Lex de Haan bookOn to master SQL and SQL*PLUS. A completely different world than reading Tom Kyte's book.<br />But of course this also a completely different type of book. Read this book within a week, including a day of midterm in between. I knew a lot of the material in the book. I have done a lot of SQL over the years, so a lot of it was repetition. Which is always a good thing!! Did find a couple things that really caugt my eye, these where DML operations on views and Materialized views. Things I also knew before, but Lex told it in a way that made me understand it, I had been a bit perplexed about these two subjects, especially MVs. But now I feel I have a much better understanding of these. Also enjoyed a lot of the hints on how to manipulate the SQL*PLUS interface.<br /><br />It is the idea that we contact the authors of the book, however with Lex that's a bit hard. I did try his homepage but it was nonexistent, so I figured I would go to an uncoventional source. The ouija board!!! ( in denmark we call it, "spirit in a glass") I think I summoned Lex's spirit 'cause all my questions were answered with 42!!! R.I.P. Lex!Lars Jakobsen, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04404447147222445932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-27025101472968992632008-02-21T23:15:00.002+01:002008-02-21T23:21:54.387+01:00YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS sighI did it! Finished Tom Kytes book in the allotted time. It was really hard, but also very nice to have done. I guess it's a tiny bit what those maniac running a marathon, or doing the ironman feels like ;-) Don't get me wrong I loved the book, so much awesome insight to issues I know will be looking at in the future and think, good thing I read that book!<br /><br />Now I move on to Lex de Haan's Mastering SQL and SQL*PLUS.<br /><br />Hey so when I am done I am both an Expert and Master!!! Yeah right!!<br />I am looking foward to this book, probably mostly because it has hands on excersises :-) at the end of each chapter.Lars Jakobsen, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04404447147222445932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-2058294552316927582008-02-21T13:38:00.004+01:002008-03-10T16:28:17.865+01:00A short boostRead chapters 13 and 14. Chapter 13 was about partitioning, this was quite interesting, especially because I had heard a lot about it, but never seen it in action. Lots of great concepts. Have to go back later and get a better understanding of how indexes interact with partion_key_columns and other columns. I didn't completely grasp all that.<br />Chapter 14 was another dull chapter, parallel execution. Again nothing wrong with the information, it just didn't grab me, not a lot I took with me from that chapter. Struggled hard to get it done, I procrastinated quite a bit on this chapter. Don't know if it is an effect from having spend 3 weeks on this book with intense reading and a monstrous amount of new information, tips and tricks, concepts and right and wrong way to do this. My head might just need something more simple for a short while.<br /><br />On a completely different subject. Noticed today that my Miracle notepad is not made for writing on both sides, it is completely blank, only lines on the front of the paper. Weird. HE! and that made me remember that when I worked for Maersk Data, they made the business card so that you could not see what you wrote on the backside. They did this because it was not considered "good behavior" to write on the back of a business card... Wonder if Miracle has the same perception on the notes you take???Lars Jakobsen, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04404447147222445932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-67726950966540361892008-02-21T13:25:00.004+01:002008-03-10T16:26:49.942+01:00I am strugglingWow the book has just taken an ugly turn. Chapter 10 100 pages of information about tables, yikes. The information is great but damned there's lots of it, and having to read in one day is just not that easy. Also has a long description of nested tables and the kicker is, don't use it you have other and in most cases better options. That's like watching a Mchael Mann movie and then have to leave 15 minutes before the ending. Anyways, long chapter 11 about indexes, very much insight in this chapter, so it was a bit easier to read. Chapter 12 almost had me broken. To me that chapter was jus dull, it was 70 pages about the 22 SQL types that is the baseline for most other database types. Maybe it was just because I was struggling for time and sleep and other stuff, but I really didn't feel this chapter gave nearly as much to build on as the other chapters. Best thing I got out of it was how DATE is stored, and how not to use to_char in a comparison. Other than that I felt it should have been a referencial appendix. I am at the point right now where I am looking forward to be done with the book.Lars Jakobsen, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04404447147222445932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-45299375026748787862008-02-17T21:17:00.004+01:002008-02-17T23:31:29.613+01:00Undo the redo or redo the undo!Very interesting chapter 9 in Tom Kytes book. I knew about the undo and redo feature, but there is definately some issues that are very confusing about this stuff. See my previous post for an example of that. In actuality, my question was about redo for undo in regards for a temporary table, this I got an answer on after a lot of debate during the nerds about recovery issues with redo and undo. This answer also had a challenge, but unfortunately I accidentally deleted the mail so I don't have the answer nor the challenge. However, I have requested a copy from the writer.<br /><br />Another interesting issue was Delayed Block Cleanout causing an ORA-01555: Snapshot too old.<br />I was send to look at this excellent metalink note: <span style="font-family:helvetica;"><strong>40689.1</strong></span><br /><br />It really spells out the issue.<br /><br />EDIT:<br />I got the mail, the challenge was to describe why Delete generates more redo than an insert in a global temporary table. This is very nicely explained in this chapter. In short the reason is that GTT does not generate redo, the only redo that is made is the undo blocks that when they change will be added to the redo. So GTT only generates undo. Important fact to remember here!<br />So the asnwer is: Since an Insert hardly creates any undo, but lots of redo, the GTT has very little redo for this operation. (mostly stuff like adding a new extent to the segment).<br />Since a Delete has lots of Undo, and little redo, then a GTT will have lots of redo (as a result of the undo amount), in fact the redo-size for both permanent and GTT is very much alike due to the fact that the delete is using mostly undo, and hardly any redo ( besides the undo-redo) and thus must be similar in redo-size.Lars Jakobsen, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04404447147222445932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-87485645292749704012008-02-17T20:43:00.004+01:002008-02-17T21:15:55.985+01:00The challenge!Hm, made the "mistake" to ask the nerds of Miracle for clarification on the undo-redo subject. That ended up in a challenge for me to clarify to prove I had understood the concept of hteir clarification.<br /><br />Loosely translated, here's the question:<br /><pre wrap="">If I have a transaction that takes 2 hours to complete and during this execution, there has been 5 log switches (there is only 2 log groups, and 5 minutes before the end of the transaction the power shuts off. How much redo and undo will be read from both the rollforward and the rollback, and where are they taken from, and under what assumptions regarding "enough space".<br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">It took me some time to figure this out, but here's my answer: (it might not be a 100 % correct in a complete technical view, but it is only to catch the main picture)<br /><br /></span>I have acouple of assumptions to the question:<br />1)The transactiondoesn't have commits<br />2)the database is in Archivelog mode<br /><br />First and foremost, the rollforward action that the automatic instance recovery will do, is only using online redo logs, thus, it will only read the undo blocks back to the undo segment which has a higher SCN than the last checkpoint.<br />A log switch forces a checkpoint, thus, all the uncommitted data would have been written to the datafiles. This means that at the checkpoint time undo is written to the datafiles, and the changes are also written to the datafile the object belongs to, though with the information in the blockheader that these changes are not committed.<br />When rollforward has replayed the "lost" undo segments, the database can be opened and SMON will start to rollback the blocks that needs to be rolled back.<br />The transaction has been declared dead and all undo made by the transaction need to be rolled back. It is not necessarily only SMON that does this a "user process" could reach the block first and it will then do the rollback needed to get the correct version of the block<br /><br />The space issue shouldn't be a problem since before the crash there was no problems handling the undo in the tablespace, otherwise an error would have appeared.<br /><br />The Archived logs with the uncommitted data can be used to recreate the undo segments if a datfile should crash before the next backup is taken. Though, one might think that it would be a good idea to take a backup after the instance recovery has synchronized the datafiles?<span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><br />I've have received an answer that my picture of this is according to the person asking the question. Since this person is an OCM I take that for a good omen!!!<br /></span></pre>Lars Jakobsen, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04404447147222445932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-87657288910051997152008-02-14T12:13:00.002+01:002008-02-14T12:18:21.684+01:00Visit to Miracle BreweriesThis past monday a couple of new hires, like myself, was invited to visit our adminsitration office for some practical information about the company. This also included a tour of the brewery. He He, a company with their own microbrewery, how can you turn down a joboffer from such a company? Gotta love it. Anyway, it was quite interesting and hopefully I will be invited back when they are brewing a new bacth.Lars Jakobsen, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04404447147222445932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-49740674893313819732008-02-14T11:46:00.003+01:002008-02-14T12:13:18.588+01:00Fresh Meat to the MEEP blogHello,<br /><br />My name is Lars and I started with the MEEP Program feb. 1st. I have worked with Oracle products for more than 6 years. Turned DBA last year. In december I passed the Oracle Certified Associate exam, so now I have a peace of paper that says I can study and understand Oracle concepts. :-) So I hope this knowledge will help me through MEEP.<br /><br /><br /><br />I started with Tom Kytes book: Expert Oracle Database Architecture: 9i and 10g Programming Techniques and Solutions<br /><br />This far I have read 9 chapters, which has covered the basic architecture of databases, such as memory structures, data files, how the database ensures read and write consistency, especially how Oracle does this, locking mechanisms both in objects and Oracles own belly (latches), the different background processes, how transactions work, and the current chapter is redo and undo.<br /><br /><br /><br />Most of this is not new to me, but the thing that is absolutely awesome about this book is the real life situation, consideration and the no-nos. Which, to me, just takes the understanding of the architecture to a different level.<br /><br />F.ex. Tom writes about transactions, and how putting in a null in the exception area of a PL/SQL code completely changes the outcome of the transaction since the statement (the procedure, doesn't raise an error) I have seen this many places, and now I start to understand some of the weird errors that I saw in a previous work.<br /><br /><br />Seems I really grasped (for a newbie) the idea of how Oracle keeps read-consistency. I wrote an email to all the autistic nerds and gave my explanation of how it works internally, and I got an approval of my thought proces from the almighty M<span style="font-size:78%;">2, </span><span style="font-size:100%;">one of the few who is an OCM (Oracle Certified Master).<br /></span>Lars Jakobsen, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04404447147222445932noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-80554743581183101002008-02-05T18:30:00.001+01:002008-02-05T20:52:25.628+01:00The Nose Job Part Two<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">The wonderfully insane company that I work for, Miracle, has done it again.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">This time Morten Egan does a complete Oracle installation on a SAN with his NOSE while wearing a straitjacket. It´s quite amazing stuff.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The whole story started when IBM wanted to be payed for 50 manhours for doing a fairly simple Oracle installation. More details in the videos.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Enjoy...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The Nose Job Part Two </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNW-7jCBWsw">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNW-7jCBWsw<br /></a><span style="font-family:arial;">You can find Part One right here: </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHzV4LZnvHc">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHzV4LZnvHc</a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Jan</span></span>Jan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-71175133983531405912008-02-02T17:28:00.000+01:002008-02-02T22:50:53.631+01:00I survived MEEP....<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">My 90 days in Hell are over. I did my exam yesterday.<br /><br />The concept of the exam was simple:<br />First I had to do a Presentation about the education, about my experiences, mistakes made along the way, Pro´s, Con´s etc.<br />After doing this presentation, I was to answer questions about Oracle by the audience.<br />The whole session took about 2 hours.<br /><br />My Presentations contained the following points:<br /><br />1. Introduction - MEEP, Inspired by the Royal Danish Special Forces training method.<br />2. Introduction of Me and my Background</span><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">3. My experiences with Miracle and My Colleagues<br />4. The course of MEEP, The Books, The Plan etc.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">5. The Learning Method, How I learned the Stuff, Mistakes made along the way etc.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">6. MEEP v.2.0 - The next batch (In Progress)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">7. Questions</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">The Questions, of course, were the most nerve-wracking part of the Session.<br /></span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;">And I was, I must admit, on thin ice during some of the questions. This was primarily due to my frayed nerves, since I was able to answer many of the same questions the day before, where I went through the Oracle Concepts Guide with my Mentor, Lenn Mikkelsen.<br /><br />Lenn asked me questions about all the topics, and even though I could´nt answer all of them, he told me that my Knowledge Level was good enough to do the Exam. Lenn helped me a lot through the last few days. Thank You, Lenn.<br />For those of you who don´t know Lenn, I can tell you that he has over twenty years of experience and is extremely skilled.<br /><br />Anyway, I got through the questions and then it was jugdement time. Every person in the Audience was asked if they thought I passed or not and they had to substantiate their statement. All of them gave me the thumps up, and Mogens said: 'Welcome To Miracle'.<br /><br />So what now? I will now start working in a more 'normal' fashion, by taking my place in the Miracle group, that do Online Checks.<br />I´m already responsible for 3 Customers. That said, I am still going to read books and develop my skills. For example, I want to improve my SQL and possibly even learn some PL/SQL. A little further ahead, I would like to learn SQL Server too.<br /><br />As for this blog, I´m turning it over to the new MEEP batch; Lars, Martin, Flemming and Morten. Good Luck to you Guys...<br />In fact, one of them has already started his own blog, <a href="http://meandmeep.blogspot.com/">meandmeep.blogspot.com</a>. Check it out!<br /><br />Jan</span>Jan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-10417001426442204342007-12-27T10:52:00.000+01:002007-12-28T10:33:36.061+01:00Merry SQL Tuning Christmas....<span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">I have spent the last week reading 'SQL Tuning By Dan Tow' and of course hosting Christmas Eve for my family. It has been a little hard to find the Christmas Spirit in between the chapters of this book. I have never been a real Champ in mathematical procedures, so you can imagine that this has been quite a challenge for me.<br />I can do the diagram, that Dan Tow teaches, but when it comes to getting the numbers to place into this diagram, I fail to see the logic and therefore comes to a dead end.<br /><br />Today I am sitting in the Miracle Office in Ballerup. There´s not much to do and we are only 6 persons in the office.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">I want to wish everyone, who has been following this blog, a Happy New Year.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Kind Regards</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Jan Wigh</span>Jan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-7852462256461879302007-12-11T21:37:00.000+01:002007-12-11T22:13:12.820+01:00Workshop<span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Today I had a small workshop session hosted by Peter Gram, an extremely skilled Database Specialist at Miracle. We went through the Oracle Start Up Processes, the Backup procedures, the functions of RMAN, Archive Log Mode and we performed backup and restore/recover a couple of times. Also, we managed to squeeze in a little bit about security.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">It was extremely nice to be able to do these exercises together with Peter, who was very good at explaining the scenarios and the course of action.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Also, Peter was very good at giving me little challenges during the Workshop.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">This also gives me an idea of where I need to improve etc. My overall evaluation of the workshop is, that I have a fair understanding of how the database is set up and a lot of what Peter told/showed me, I recognized from Toms book and from the Oracle Concepts Guide.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">However, I still have a long way to go, especially when it comes to the SQL commands and the whole process of actually doing the exercises, when you suddenly don´t have a book where the example is described for you into every detail.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">I came up with the idea of this Workshop, because I thought that there was a lack of Practical exercises in this education programme. I really feel that a couple more of these workshops can help me improve a whole lot.</span>Jan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-47947424976589021072007-12-03T02:41:00.000+01:002007-12-03T02:57:58.327+01:00An eye opening weekend...<span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">This weekend has been quite an Eye-Opener. This, due to the following chain of events.<br /><br />1.) Miracle had their annual Christmas Party. This gave me the opportunity to finally meet the last handful of people that I hadn´t already met (among these, 'The Chosen One'- See point 2.). It also gave me the opportunity to taste the authentic Miracle Beer from our very own Brewery. Cheers!!<br /><br />2.) I found out that 'The Matrix' wasn´t actually too far off. There really is a 'Chosen One' or a 'God', if you will, in the world of PL/SQL. But his name isn´t Neo, but Egan. Morten Egan. And he actually works for Miracle, right here in little Denmark. He can do everything in PL/SQL.<br />I was actually taken back by the fact, that he could even manage to speak to me in plain Danish.<br />He is going to be <strong>VERY</strong> tired of my e-mails and my phone calls during the next two months.<br /><em>Mark my words, Mr. Anderson, Ehhh I mean Mr. Egan.</em><br /><br />3.) I finished the first two books: 'Expert Oracle Database Architecture by Tom Kyte' and 'Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus by Lex de Haan'.<br /><br />4.) I got to meet James Morle, one of the founders of the Oak Table Network.<br />A very nice guy whom I am going to get to know him even better, when I am to read one of his books later on in the programme.<br /><br />5.) I spoke to Tom Kyte on the phone.<br />That gave me the opportunity to tell him about what I got out of reading his book. And also give him credit, for bringing down to earth, the most technical stuff in the book, so even an ignorant like myself, can actually learn a little something about Oracle.<br /><br />Speaking of Tom. Mogens would like me to send Tom a question, which can challenge him a little bit. This is pretty hard for me, since all I know about Oracle, is what I have been taught out of this book.<br /><br />Therefore, I need the help of you guys out there. If you can come up with a question for Tom, please leave a comment on the blog. It could be fun if we could challenge him just a little :-)<br /><br />Well, from tomorrow I will start reading two Whitepapers; 'Building Robust Applications in a Database-Centric Way by Toon Koppelaars' and 'YAPP by Anjo Kolk'.<br />After reading these, I will start reading 'Oracle 9i Concepts Guide'. And just to make sure, that I won´t get bored, I will also read a chapter a day from the book; 'Oracle Insights - Tales from The Oak Table'.<br /><br />The Oak Table book is written by eleven 'Gurus', I think it´s safe to say. </span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">To qoute the cover from the book; 'Eleven leading authorities on Oracle´s database engine share their unique insights on how best to exploit the software'.<br /><br />The eleven 'Gurus' are Dave Ensor, Tim Gorman, Kyle Hailey, Anko Kolk, Jonathan Lewis, </span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Connor McDonald, Cary Millsap, James Morle,<br />David Ruthven, Gaja Krishna Vaidyanatha </span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">and of course Mogens Nørgaard. </span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Quite a list...</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Jan</span>Jan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-88172798480712888982007-11-22T15:16:00.000+01:002007-11-23T17:43:04.359+01:00Bringing MEEP to the Netherlands...<span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">I have just spent a few days in Holland. I was invited to attend a session held by Jeroen Evers from the Company Fameus (soon Miracle Benelux), called MasterClass Sessions.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"><br />The Ordina MasterClass Sessions are actually trying to achieve the same as the MEEP, but over a longer period of time; To produce Database Experts by letting them read good books (at the moment they are reading ‘Cost Based Oracle Fundamentals’ by Jonathan Lewis) supported by using practical hands on exercises.<br /><br />They have to finish the whole thing in 18 months. The final goal is to make all the DBA´s from Ordina (one of the largest and best Oracle consultancy companies in Holland) skilled in the art and science of maintaining a real life system in a proactive way, based on the understanding of the logic of the Oracle Database.<br /><br />The Technical level in the MasterClass session was a bit too high for me to participate, but the good thing was, that I every once in a while recognized things that I had read in the Tom Kyte book.<br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5135688612147371586" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_HbhQzaYCBOY/R0WhlSwQHkI/AAAAAAAAAA8/dW6v4p_aIXs/s320/PB220217.JPG" border="0" /><br />So I guess that, if I was to go through the Tom Kyte book again in a few weeks, I would benefit even more. So I guess I will be doing just that :-)<br /><br />During the session, I realized that throwing in a few sessions like this, into MEEP would be a good idea. A full day, where you go through relevant topics and where you can work with the stuff you have read about.<br /><br />The idea requires that one of the skilled consultants from Miracle would be able to take the time to prepare a few exercises and would have the patience to teach and help.<br />This is not meant as a test, but more as a kind of Workshop, where the student would have the opportunity to develop his skills and also ask all the stupid questions.<br /><br />Anyway, I gave a small presentation about the Miracle Extreme Education Programme to the class, consisting of about 20 DBA´s.<br />I spoke about how Mogens Nørgaard came up with the idea and how the programme is set up, which books are going to be read etc. I also spoke about my own background and how I go through the material and finally a little bit about the expected outcome of the programme.<br />After the presentation the DBA´s had the opportunity to ask questions, and many of them did.<br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5135688603557436978" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_HbhQzaYCBOY/R0WhkywQHjI/AAAAAAAAAA0/_qSXlYu5TZ0/s320/PB220221.JPG" border="0" /><br /><br />It was a very good experience for me. I wish to thank Jeroen and all the Ordina guys for giving me the opportunity to participate.<br /><br />From next week, it´s back to the Tom Kyte book again. By then, I will have finished the Lex de Haan book about SQL. But I have a strange feeling, that I´m not quite done with that book. And I will keep it close to do the excellent exercises once in a while. </span>Jan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-66799685131043754642007-11-15T13:33:00.000+01:002007-11-15T13:49:04.971+01:00Day 14 in Miracle Extreme Education Programme<span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Book 2: 'Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus' by Lex de Haan.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Finally the SQL is starting to make sense. I had some help running the script, installing the seven tables that Lex de Haan uses in this book. The seven Tables are the basis for all the exercises and examples in the book. After doing this, I have been running through the first 4 Chapters, doing all the examples. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">And the nice thing is, that most of it makes sense so far. I have always been a better learner if I could mess with the stuff at the same time.<br /><br />Not that I couldn´t do any of the examples in the Tom Kyte book. The big difference is, that in this book, I learn about the SQL that I put in, before I execute it. In the Tom Kyte book, you just put in a lot of code to proove a point in Oracle, but not going into details about what is the meaning of the SQL (which, of course, isn´t the objective with the Tom Kyte book either).</span>Jan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-45961715166292543742007-11-13T10:21:00.000+01:002007-11-13T13:39:20.989+01:00Day 12 in Miracle Extreme Education Programme<span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Book 2: 'Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus' by Lex de Haan.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">Today I had a status-meeting with my 'mentor' Lenn Mikkelsen. He is the one who helps me through this programme. He helps me if I have difficulties understanding somethings or if I have suggestions to the Programme. He has listened to me, regarding my problems with the SQL. Therefore, I will start reading the Lex de Haan book: 'Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus'. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;">This means that the Tom Kyte Book is on Standby. I have read Chapter 1 - 11. This has given me an overall understanding of Oracle. What it Constists of and how it works on a very basic level. There will surely be a lot of things which I haven´t understood also. But I will get back to this book after learning some SQL.</span>Jan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-92035414880589478632007-11-12T08:42:00.000+01:002007-11-12T09:11:46.271+01:00Day 9 - 11 in Miracle Extreme Education Programme<span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Book 1: 'Expert Oracle Database Architecture' by Tom Kyte.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Finally, I feel better again. I have now read chapter 10 about Database Tables again. Apart from the bit about Object Tables, it was OK.<br />Today I´m starting up on chapter 11: Indexes.<br />On the 22nd of november, I will join Anjo Kolk and Jeroen Evers in Holland where I will attend a training session. I will also do a small presentation of MEEP and my Experiences with the programme.</span>Jan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-39349445307129378002007-11-08T11:22:00.000+01:002007-11-22T15:23:26.862+01:00TimeOut...<span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Book 1: 'Expert Oracle Database Architecture' by Tom Kyte.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">The last few days, I have been forced to take a little TimeOut from the education. I have been pretty sick, caughfing and fewer and I have even lost my voice. I can only whisper.<br /><br />But since I´m getting pretty bored, just staying in bed the whole time, I have decided to start up on the reading again tomorrow. I will re-read chapter 10, since I couldn´t really focus on it when I read it the first time.<br /><br />I will write again soon, when I have read a little more and hopefully feel better.</span>Jan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-61053726693628680072007-10-31T16:16:00.000+01:002007-10-31T16:50:28.061+01:00Day 6-8 in Miracle Extreme Education Programme<span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Book 1: 'Expert Oracle Database Architecture' by Tom Kyte.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Sorry I haven´t updated for a while. I am sick at the moment, so all my reading, for the time being, is done from bed. Thank God for WLAN and laptops :-) </span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">The plan now is to read chapter 8 and 9 before friday.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Today I had a small session with Michael Möller. We went through chapter 6 and 7 and finished of with a small intro of Redo & Undo. After the session, I went back home to bed.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">By the way, the new setup; small sessions with Michael Möller, before and after reading a chapter, is working very well. I can ask questions or ask him to go through pages or examples in the book. It gives me a lot. </span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">My biggest problem remains to be the SQL. So I have decided to focus a lot on that in the next couple of weekends. I have gotten to the point where I, very slowly, can work my way through small and mid-size examples. But I don´t have it 'under the skin' yet, meaning that, if I am to do even the easiest little exercise on my own (without a specific To Do list), I feel like 'Bambi trying to skate on Ice'. </span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">So any comments in how to achieve working skills in SQL in 'no time' and how to approach learning it, are more than welcome. :-)</span>Jan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-62197395771615981812007-10-26T10:55:00.000+02:002007-10-26T12:25:53.616+02:00Day 4-5 in Miracle Extreme Education Programme<span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >Book 1: 'Expert Oracle Database Architecture' by Tom Kyte.</span><br /><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" ></span><br /><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >The last two days, I´ve spent reading chapter 3-5. Under normal circumstances I should´nt have finished these chapters before monday, but since Michael Möller isn´t available on monday to go through the stuff with me, I decided to speed up a little bit and go through the stuff today with Michael.</span><br /><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >The chapter about memory structures, especially the part regarding PGA and UGA, was a bit confusing. Well, actually it was very confusing. I hope that Michael can do his magic today and make me understand this better. :-)</span><br /><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" ></span><br /><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >I have seen all the comments on both this and on Mogens´ blog and I appreciate them very much.</span><br /><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:85%;" >I will try to get the time to update my profile, so you can all see a little bit about my background, but the short story is, that I have no experience, what so ever, in Oracle. I have been working with support and process optimization but not in regards to Oracle.</span>Jan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-44136775472539141262007-10-24T13:58:00.000+02:002007-10-24T14:53:35.393+02:00Day 3 in Miracle Extreme Education Programme<span style="font-size:85%;">Book 1: 'Expert Oracle Database Architecture' by Tom Kyte.<br /><br />Just had the much anticipated status meeting with Mogens, where we discussed my views of the programme so far.<br /><br />My primary point were:<br />1.<br />I felt the programme was missing oportunities to discuss the homework after reading it.<br />Kind of a 'Teacher function' who could go through the chapters, ensuring that the students didn´t misunderstand or even understand the stuff all together. Of course I can always ask my fellow colleagues. They have all been very supportive of me. Thank you guys!<br />But I think it needs to be in a more structured way. Preschedulled two days ahead and so on.<br /><br />That way you need to commit yourself even more to these sessions.<br /><br />2.<br />An intro to the chapters, just before reading them, would also give a lot of benefit.<br /><br />The first day, Mogens introduced chapter 1. This made it a whole lot easier to read the text, since I already knew a little bit about what it was about. It certaintly helped me a lot.<br /><br />Mogens agreed with me, and now the changes will be implemented.<br /><br />Michael Möller, who has helped me several times already, has agreed to take the role of the 'Teacher function'. I couldn´t have wished for a better teacher.<br />Not only is Michael an 'Oracle Certified Master', credited as Technical Reviewer on the book but is on the same time a very experienced teacher of Oracle. I´m very happy to have Michael on my side in this project. :-)<br /><br />The next three days will be spent on reading chapter 3 - 5. I´ll be back with comments as I plough my way through the pages.</span>Jan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7623421170467930461.post-60054634571562175402007-10-23T13:37:00.000+02:002007-10-23T20:01:55.912+02:00Day 2 in Miracle Extreme Education Programme<span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Book 1: 'Expert Oracle Database Architecture' by Tom Kyte.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">I got through the first chapter last night. The text was fairly easy to understand.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Mr. Kyte is very good at getting his points across, by implementing real life examples. I like that :-)</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">However, the SQL is very hard for me to understand, due to my lack of knowledge of this language. Especially I had dificulties on page 20, where he also uses PL/SQL, which is even harder for me to grasp.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><p><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">We have had a very busy day at the office today, therefore I didn´t get a chance to talk to Mogens about my experiences, but I will tomorrow.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;">Since this is all very new to me, and since I´m the first one to try out this education, I find it very important to make sure that all the pro´s and con´s are debated with Mogens. Maybe the education plan is not perfect, maybe the books should come in a different order, maybe it should be '120 days in Hell' instead of 90 etc. etc. Time will tell...</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Anyway, I have just finished chapter 2 (todays homework).<br />Luckily, chapter 2 is a very short one, more like an introduction to chapter 3 - 5. This gives me a little time to read up a little bit more on the SQL language, which is starting to make a little sense (at least the basic part of it).<br /><br />By the way, thank you all for your comments!</span><br /></span></p><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span>Jan Wigh, Miracle A/Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02505844066501864528noreply@blogger.com2