Interesting hang up you have on the DBCA. I'm an old-school DBA as well
(having started with 7.2 - so probably not as old as you *wink* ) but I
have to tell you. Using DBCA makes things a lot easier and lets me focus
on doing other things with the time I save. (Of course I have some basic
skeletons of create database scripts on my portable hard drive, but most
likely a candidate is not going to have those scripts readily available).
The reason I mention the above, is we (all of us) need to quit turning our
noses up at some of the tools available and instead take advantage of the
tool that makes the most sense if *time *is important. As I get older,
time is increasingly important I realize. And humbleness! :D
Chris
On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 11:31 AM, Robert Freeman <rfreeman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
wrote:
*Respectfully, I find the notion of DBA interview questions along these
lines tedious, at best and not a realistic measure of a DBA’s value, worth
or knowledge.* Such questions open way to many psychological issues –
stress, fear, pressures for many people. These kinds of questions that are
not a good measure of a DBA’s ability to actually do the job. Sitting and
answering questions under stress is nothing like recovering a database
under pressure. At least, that’s true for me. I worked with Exadata for
five years. Start asking me questions in this manner, I’m pretty sure I’d
sound like I could barely spell Exadata let alone manage it. Yet – I assure
you – if that thing craters – you probably want me fixing it. I know more
than a few customers certainly did when that was my focus.
*Who the devil is possibly going to remember every detail on a product
where the documentation could easily reach the depths of the Marianas
Trench?* Then, with each question missed, factor in the “Oh blast, I just
screwed up” count going up and the likelihood of finding the answer to the
next question in the bright lights of an interview just go way down, and
down and down. This is not how one measures the worth of the DBA, nor
his/her experience – at least that’s my POV.
For consultants who’s every next assignment is nothing like the last
assignment – so what if they spent the last 12 months working with
encryption – if they have spent the next 6-months working with some other
gnarly feature, the cobwebs of encryption are well beyond easy and instant
recall. If you have photographic memory – my hats off to you – I don’t. *I
remember concepts, architecture and basic how-to’s… the details change so
quickly, with each version in many cases, that there is little value to
stuffing them in my head anyway. *
What do I find the most effective way to gauge a DBA’s skill? I look at
their resume, sit them at a computer and ask them to find me an answer to a
problem that is relevant but that they have never faced (or they faced long
ago and could not remember to save their life). *Let me see their basic
knowledge and research skills in action. Let me see how they are going to
GET the relevant answers to a problem that they have never faced, under
some due pressure. How intuitive are they at getting to the answer? That’s
what I want to see. How creative are they, yet how structured are they?
That’s what I find important. *
Then – let’s have an open book practical exercise. Create a database for
me – using an OS you are familiar with, and without using the DBCA. Have
not done it in a while – great, here are is the documentation – here is a
list of physical disks all ready to go and here are the tablespaces, sizes
and related schemas – no GO! Give them a reasonable amount of time to
complete the task and measure…
I think that the trough of interview is a legacy we can do without….
My opinion, of course…. I’ve been wrong before, I’ll be wrong again..
Robert
*From:* oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:
oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Anton
*Sent:* Monday, March 14, 2016 4:54 AM
*To:* oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* Re: Oracle DBA Interview Questions
hello =) best question in my interview was: when selects without any
funtions can do redo ?
On 03/08/2016 02:56 PM, rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
I've put togehter some questions for Oracle DBA's; however one of my
co-workers say the questions are a bit tough. Said "we don't want to scare
a potential employee." Can y'all comment, are these questions too hard?
Should I include more Backup and Recovery? What are your thoughts? -Rob
1. Make a column not null, but you have null values in the column.
How would you approach the problem?
2. How would you change the encryption algorithm on a tablespace.
3. Can you rekey (rotate keys) for encrypted tablespaces?
4. What process would you use to encrypt data in an existing
tablespace?
5. How to you rekey change the encryption algorithm on an encrypted
column?
a. Alter table <table name> rekey using ‘<encryption algorithm>’;
6. A junior DBA deleted some archive logs prior to them being
applied to the standby database. How do you get the standby database
resynced?
7. You have encrypted a set of columns, there are existing indexes
on those columns. When you encrypted the columns, did the index get
encrypted?
8. You ran an datapump backup of encrypted data, you did not specify
encryption in the datapump command line, is the datapump file encrypted?
9. In rman, you have executed CONFIGURE ENCRYPTION FOR DATABASE ON;
What encryption algorithm will Oracle use?
a. select algoritm_name, is_default from
V$RMAN_ENCRYPTION_ALGORITHMS;
10. How do you find out what users still have the default password?
a. dba_users_with_defpwd
===================================
Robert P. Lockard Oracle ACE President Oraclewizard.com, Inc.
"When given the choice between two evils, I always take the one I have not
tried." Mae West
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