This is the best advice out there. So many fundamental things in this manual that too many DBA's don't understand. Until it became popular to certify, most DBA's I interviewed didn't know what happened during a startup nomount vs. mount, vs open. Now most DBA's knows this, but there's still a lot of stuff in this manual that's gold. Finn On Dec 20, 2007 4:46 PM, Dennis Williams <oracledba.williams@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Ann, > > Consider reading the Oracle Concepts Manual. This will give you a good > understanding of the foundations underneath your administration tasks. I > find most new DBAs get in trouble in areas where they don't understand the > underlying concepts. And as a bonus, that one is a free download :-) > > Dennis Williams >