That wouldn't have worked for me at one job. I asked the DBA that was leaving for information on a job that was having problems (he wrote the extract job that was failing). He said "The closer it gets to Friday, the less I remember about this place". That was the sum total of knowledge transfer he gave me. I REALLY needed to get comfortable with documentation and resources like this list REALLY fast to come up to speed since that was my first job as an Oracle DBA. I'm happy to have lived through it. That which does not kill you makes you stronger." And I am stronger now than I was then. Stephen >>> "DENNIS WILLIAMS" <DWILLIAMS@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 09/16/04 07:43AM >>> Alex - Here is something that worked well for me. I took at tape recorder and when we got down to "the" discussion, I pulled out the recorder and asked permission to record the conversation. That night, between my notes and the recording I was able to put together a document with a wealth of details that I needed. The next day I asked him to review the document and provide any corrections. Worked great. Then he left and I lived from that document for the next month while I got on my feet. I never needed to phone him. Dennis Williams DBA Lifetouch, Inc. -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alex Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 9:45 PM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: New dba questions to the former dba? Hi all, I just got a new job as a production dba and have already had a chance to read up a bit of online docs and the documentation (mostly "how-to" guides, step-bystep instructions written by the former dba). I am planning to get some additional information from him in a few days and would like to come up with a list of questions for him as part of the knowledge transfer. So my question is what questions should I be asking the former DBA? Thanks much! --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l