I realize that it may be terrifying, but there is a great deal of value in becoming indistinguishable. How many accounting/hr/finance jobs are going overseas? None that I have heard of. There are a ton of managers I wish we could offshore (but only about 1 mile off shore...). Bear with me for a moment, as I see the issue of 'self tuning' databases and the 'death' of the dba as all of the same larger issue. Consider Cary's quote "Work first to reduce the biggest response time component of a business' most important user action." To optimize we must understand the business and the user, not just look at raw statistics from Enterprise Manager. This requires constant interaction with all levels of business, knowledge of the application architecture and awareness of the business goals. None of these can be done by a canned application nor isolated geek. If you solve problems and make yourself valuable to the business, you are in a better position to stay when others are let go. I'm not advocating any of the sneaky, unethical, self-promoting activities that some of our most despised coworkers are good at, but it is important to manage your own personal, technical and business reputations in a favorable light.
Before I step down from my soapbox, I'd like to address the issue of 'idle' events. In my opinion, there are no 'idle' events. Each event can have meaning within the context of the system. I have seen SQL*Net messages indicate a chatty java program and poor file configuration. I have also seen cases where these messages consumed hours of time, but were safe to ignore. The only way you can understand when to discount these events is to have a solid understanding of the application/process. Which is something those canned apps can't do. The only way to understand properly is communication. <ducking for cover...> Dan Mladen Gogala wrote: > No problem with beating people up. Violence is, contrary to Chris Lawson's > book, > an integral part of DBA job. BTW, Chris Lawsons' "Art and Science of Tuning > Oracle" > reads like Dale Carnegie for database administrators. Basically, we should > give up > our cynical attitude, become indistinguishable from the HR/finance drones > and get > rid of our geekish culture. Really terrifying stuff. > > -- > Mladen Gogala > Oracle DBA
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