Smeagol May 19, 2004   5:51 PM GMT

Books Online is my usual start point. I can also recommend Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Administrator's pocket consultant ( by William R Stanek) as useful for day to day stuff. It won't teach you the basics, but as an experienced Oracle DBA you already know what sort of things you need to achieve (I for one get tired of large books in which you skip the first X chapters if you already have some DBA experience behind you!) The SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit (various authors) is a good background book, though more for guiding design decisions than day to day admin. Again, not for beginning DBAs.

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Ericggordon May 20, 2004   7:49 AM GMT

Good morn ... I am in agreement with the replies you have received thus far. I am on the otherside of the DBA transitioning curve as a SQL DBA acquiring Oracle skills. As noted: 1. Books online is key, comprehensive, and very helpful (aslo note that Microsoft has recently released an upgrade to BOL) 2. SQL Administrator's Pocket Consultant, SQL Resource Kit, and SQL Companion Guide 3. ... also O'Rielly's SQL Tuning 4. Make sure to subscribe to SQL Server Magazine 5. and let me not leave out our sponsors, SearchDatabase.TechTarget.Com 6. on the flip-side, www.dbforums.com Any reciprocated direction with respect to Oracle DBA resources would be greatly appreciated. Regards ...

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Hopkihc May 20, 2004   10:11 AM GMT

Hi Eric. Thanks for the added recommendations... need to check out some of those myself! As for Oracle resources, gee, where to begin. The manuals have just gotten better and better, and I'd start with the concepts book. The logical-to-physical mappings and locking mechanisms are significantly different, so you'll want to get a handle on those right away. Aside from those... my favorite recent books have been Tom Kyte's two books. Great writing style, and sensible and informed advice. He doesn't make broad and unfounded "opinions" about Oracle... he proves his point with benchmarking. See asktom.oracle.com, too, for other pearls of wisdom. Technet membership will help: otn.oracle.com. For PL/SQL, I'm a big fan of Feuerstein's books (unless you think you'd bristle at his examples, into which he's injected a hefty dose of his political views). For backup and recovery, the Oracle Press book on RMAN is quite good I think, although does not spend a lot of time on DBMS architecture, which you'll want to know to be effective. Can anyone here comment on Rich Niemec's tuning book? Let's hope your company will foot the bill for an IOUG-A membership. It was worth it for me. Glad you're getting an opportunity to work on two platforms. They both have their strengths, although I can deal with Oracle's relative complexity far easier than SQL Server's relative lack of features (what, no row-level triggers?!?!). -John

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Jrmills May 20, 2004   11:56 AM GMT

I was getting ready to reply to the request for where to start with Oracle books, when I found that hopkihc said exactly what I would have. The documentation, particularly the 9.2 documentation is excellent for the most part (you do run across subjects that could have been done better) and the Concepts volume is the best place to start. My tendency, and I suspect most other people's, is to assume you will get a better more effective introduction with third party publications. In this case, at least, Oracle has done a very good job, with links throughout to greater detail. I also agree with including Kyte's two books in your reading.

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