I've really been trying to avoid responding to this thread, as some will doubtless find such a shameless plug as the one I am about to provide to be in poor taste. <brazen-promotion> There are many companies out there that provide services for people in just such situations (one which I too have found myself in in the past). My own employer, The Pythian Group (http://www.pythian.com), is quite happy to provide exactly this kind of service -- "backup" and on-call support for shops with only one or two in-house DBAs. Or Sysadmins. Working a solo act? Want to be able to sleep a night? Or have a vacation that takes you more than a 1-hour travel radius from the office? Like to put your pager away for at least a few hours a week? Rent-a-DBA services can be exactly the right answer. Nobody (that I know of) offers services like this for free, of course. But they don't have to be outrageously expensive, either. Pythian, for example, operates on a pay-as-you-go model (based on hourly rates; no per-database or per-server fees) with minimum commitments of as little as 16 hours per month. (Be careful with those minima, though. That's only two person days per month; how much work can *you* accomplish, and how many pages can *you*resolve in only two working days?) I'm sure that if you shop around, you'll likely find other providers, too. But none, I am sure, are as good as we are. ;-) The Pythian Group happens to support Oracle, SQL Server, and MySQL databases, and we provide Linux (UNIX) sysadmin. Heck. I think we might even do (shudder) Windows, although happily I do not. :-) We also provide 24x7 pager support. </brazen-promotion> Seriously folks, if you find yourself working as a solo act, you really * should* consider a backup service. Not all are created equal, so choose carefully. But when you choose a good one you *can* get many of the things that people posting on this thread find they lack when working solo: - Somebody to mind the pager at night (and on weekends). - Somebody to bounce ideas off of, or who you can go to for second opinions. - Somebody to cover your (real!) vacation. - Somebody to help cover the occasional gap in your experience. (And let's be realistic; *nobody* knows *everything* about Oracle!) On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 6:16 AM, Howard Latham <howard.latham@xxxxxxxxx>wrote: > Course I forgot _ i'm also the only Linux SYSADMIN - I do have nightmares! > > > On 25/08/2008, BHoff@xxxxxxxx <BHoff@xxxxxxxx> wrote: >> >> That's basically where I am - I can usually manage everything, but it >> would be great to have at least one other DBA here to just bounce things >> off of and get someone to challenge my ideas - that's how I get better >> >> I try to replace that with lists like this one, but the one problem with >> being subscribed to a handful of lists like these is the sheer volume of >> e-mails that I just do not have the time to sort through until the >> weekend... which usually means I do not benefit from the conversation at >> hand at the moment. >> >> Does anyone else use the lists like that? Are there any good forums that >> you would recommend? >> >> >> Thanks, >> Brad >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >> >> [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dwayne Cox >> Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 10:15 AM >> To: jeremiah@xxxxxxxxxxx >> Cc: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >> >> Subject: Re: 1 DBA in a company >> >> >> >> > Being the only DBA in an organization is difficult for more reasons >> than just time off. Most people learn by collaboration, and bounce >> ideas off each other. With no exchange, you can often find yourself >> with nobody to provide a sanity check, especially in critical >> situations. >> > >> I have learned to deal with being the lone DBA but not having someone to >> >> bounce ideas off has been the biggest disadvantage for me. >> >> dwayne >> >> >> -- >> //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l >> >> >> -- >> //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l >> >> >> > > > -- > Howard A. Latham > -- Cheers, -- Mark Brinsmead Senior DBA, The Pythian Group http://www.pythian.com/blogs