System Administrator Appreciation Day!

Posted by The Skipper       on 07/29/2005 at 01:46 PM   

1. I am simply amazed at the near-antiseptic nature of the network/server room....it’s almost scary!

   Posted by John C       07/29/2005  at  02:54 PM  



2. I get to be that casual because I’m a coder ;)

   Posted by CodeMonkeyMike       07/29/2005  at  03:20 PM  



3. Ya think they could get the guy a desk.  ( He must be a consultant. )

   Posted by Fine Old Cannibal       07/29/2005  at  03:26 PM  



4. LOL Im sure he has a desk somewhere.. usually they are on the other side of the racks or outside the server room..  he is probaly just doing maintence when that pic was taken.. it’s a bit cold usually in the server rooms themselves..Besides the fact that he has a Keyboard, but i can’t pick out a monitor anywhere in the picture.. probaly around the area where the person is taking the picture

   Posted by Infinity       07/29/2005  at  05:39 PM  



5. WOW!  I have only heard rumors about the existence of “database administrators”. I had presumed that they were the stuff of legends -like the tooth fairy- but lo’ and behold, there sits one! Wait a minute...how do we really know that you are really a DBA?

   Posted by yatalli       07/29/2005  at  08:56 PM  



6. well how about this 1 till he recovers? LOL
   SELECT COALESCE(C.LONG_DESCRIPTION,’NOT SPECIFIED’), A.COUNT
   FROM (SELECT GENERAL_CAUSE_CATEGORY_CODE, COUNT(*) AS COUNT
   FROM AID_INCIDENT
   GROUP BY GENERAL_CAUSE_CATEGORY_CODE) AS A
   LEFT JOIN AID_GENERAL_CAUSE_CAT_CODES C ON
   C.GENERAL_CAUSE_CAT_CODE = A.GENERAL_CAUSE_CATEGORY_CODE
   ORDER BY 2 DESC

   Row coalesce count
   1 PILOT INDUCED 101591
   2 OPDEF, OTHER THAN PILOT 37418
   3 PILOT AND MAINTENANCE 9664
   4 MISCELLANEOUS, OTHER, NONE 9337
   5 NOT SPECIFIED 9154
   6 UNDETERMINED 5887
   7 IMPROPER MAINTENANCE 2658
   8 INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE 2132
   9 DESIGN OF AIRCRAFT 349
   10 MANUFACTURER/BUILDER 320
   11 PILOT AND GROUND CREW 181
   12 *UNKNOWN CODE 0 4

   It comes back with a table kinda like this LOL

   Posted by Infinity       07/29/2005  at  10:52 PM  



7. Ok - Since it’s System Administrator Appreciation Day, I had to go ahead and register.
   I have been lurking here for several months enjoying the readings and postings.

   I’ve been a System Admin of some kind since the late 70s.  Think System/370 and paper tape reader.

   Along the way, I’ve admined System/38, NT, AS/400, RS/6000, Telcom switching, etc.....
   Currently working with SUN and IBM UNIX systems...Sun Fire E25K & p570 type stuff.

   I’m in west St. Charles County not too far from “The Skipper’s” stomping ground.

   As a SUN engineer once told me “A computer is a device that converts electricity into heat and noise.”

   I’ll collect my thoughts one of these days and try to write something meaningful.
   
   
   Roscoe
   (the only name my Dad ever called me)

   Posted by Roscoe       07/29/2005  at  11:35 PM  



8. Here I was having a good nap when the geeks started playing. OK, how does an Oracle DBA tell if his disk array and filesystems are unevenly balanced and one set of disks is creating a “hot spot” ....?

   prompt
   prompt ===========================================================================
   prompt ==================== [ Disk Activity Statistics ]==========================
   prompt ===========================================================================
   prompt

   clear breaks
   clear computes

   column “Filesystem” format A5
   column “File Name” format a45
   column “Reads” format 9,999,999
   column “Writes” format 9,999,999
   column “Read Time” format 9,999,999
   column “Write Time” format 9,999,999
   column “File Total” format 99,999,999

   break on “Filesystem” skip 1
   compute sum of “Reads” on “Filesystem”
   compute sum of “Writes” on “Filesystem”
   compute sum of “Read Time” on “Filesystem”
   compute sum of “Write Time” on “Filesystem”
   compute sum of “File Total” on “Filesystem”

   ttitle left “********* DataFile’s Disk Activity *************” skip 2

   select substr(df.file#,1,2) “ID”,
   substr(name,1,3) “Filesystem”,
   rpad(name,45,’.’) “File Name”,
   (phyrds + phyblkrd) “Reads”,
   (phywrts + phyblkwrt) “Writes”,
   readtim “Read Time”,
   writetim “Write Time”,
   (sum(phyrds+phywrts+phyblkrd+phyblkwrt)) “File Total”
   from v$filestat fs, v$datafile df
   where fs.file# = df.file#
   group by df.file#, df.name, (phyrds + phyblkrd), (phywrts + phyblkwrt),
   readtim, writetim
   order by sum(phyrds+phywrts+phyblkrd+phyblkwrt) desc
   /

   This outputs a nicely formatted report on disk activity by the database. This small snippet is only a small part of a 7,000 line SQL script I use that checks the entire health of an Oracle database.

   I started to throw some PL/SQL up here but I didn’t want to frighten anyone off.

   Posted by The Skipper       07/30/2005  at  01:40 AM  



9. For instilling real fear in newbie DBA’s I have a single SQL query that I had to write about six years ago to extract data for a quarterly report for a certain un-named company. The single SELECT statement covers eight pages and does fourteen UNION’s and JOIN’s 118 tables to produce the final result. It also had to JOIN tables from six DB_LINK’s to external databases. It took three weeks to write and debug. The fastest execution time we got was: 18 hours, 33 minutes. Good thing they only had to run it every three months!

   

   Posted by The Skipper       07/30/2005  at  01:49 AM  



10. OK, Skipper, you convinced me.  You DBA’s are an under appreciated lot.  As to OCMs question; While not a DBA, I think if I could have any job (other than QA/QC auditor at The Moonlight Bunny Ranch) it would be a carpenter.

    Posted by yatalli       07/30/2005  at  10:18 AM  



11. If not a DBA, I would have to invent a whole new field of work, OCM, because in 1949, when I was born, there were only two computers in the entire world and nobody had a clue yet what a DBA might be. That would have to wait until 1968 when relational databases were first invented by E.F. Codd.

    I suppose I would probably have to be a rocket scientist developing the next faster-than-light hyperdrive engine for the planned exodus from Earth in the year 2019 when all the intelligent people were finally forced to depart for Alpha Centauri to get away from all the insane MOOS-LIMS on Earth.

    In all seriousness, I’d have to be a writer - with twenty books on the all-time best seller list by now. Stephen King and I would be good friends and all of you would be invited to our annual “Rock-The-Boat” Rock Concert in Aspen, with book signings and free marijuana brownies for everyone.

    

    Posted by The Skipper       07/30/2005  at  11:30 AM  



12. INFINITY: your query should return “UFO INCIDENT” in row 12.

    

    Posted by The Skipper       07/30/2005  at  11:32 AM  



13. RE:16 LOL.. Well I just stole that from Here

    Posted by Infinity       07/30/2005  at  04:34 PM  



14. Jee wizz. Y’all are pretty geeky. Why didn’t I get into computers? Good pay, I hear. I think they make computers with lots of bugs in them just so people like you have a job. 

    Anyone every see the movie “Time Bandits?” One of the best ever - there’s one scene where the character Satan is asking one of his demon henchmen: “tell me about computers” (with a strong English accent). It’s absolutely precious.

    Posted by ztucka       07/30/2005  at  11:24 PM