Blog Archives

One of our senior MySQL DBAs, Mike Hamrick, wasn’t feeling well this week and so stayed home from the office.  Instead of actually resting, produced this video about reading top output!  I leave it to you all to watch and learn from our local tool tip pro.

And, feel better Mike!

Oracle professionals know that the two main sites for information and support on running Oracle products are the Oracle Technology Network (OTN), and My Oracle Support (MOS).

• OTN is free for anyone, and provides discussion forums, white papers and free base-release software downloads under the Developer License.
• MOS requires a paid software license and support contract. It offers technical support notes, bug access, request tracking and patches.  It is the only place you can get critical updates and patch sets to, for instance, bring a 10.2.0.1 database up to 10.2.0.4. Read the full article…

Openworld 2010, despite the supposedly lagging economy, had record attendance again this year.  No doubt this was the result of Oracle acquiring something like fourteen companies since last year, including Sun in 2009.  The crowds were thick, divided about evenly between geeks in badly-fitting vendor t-shirts and slick sales-side hustlers with dress pants and shiny shoes.  Read the full article…

At Blue Gecko, we believe that cultivating strong technical contributors is key to our own and our customers’ success. That’s why we are proud to be a part of one of our region’s premier Oracle educational programs: The University of Washington Certificate in Oracle Database Administration.

http://www.pce.uw.edu/prog.aspx?id=4092 Read the full article…

For those contemplating launching a career in Oracle database administration, there are essentially three routes:

• Oracle education and certification (OCP)
• Third-party educational programs (University and private training)
• Self-directed study and experimentation

Most entering into the field assume that to be employable, they must become an Oracle Certified Professional (OCP).  They might be surprised to know that most working Oracle professionals do not have this certification. Read the full article…

What is Amazon Web Services?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) allows you to add and remove computing services on demand.  You pay for only what you use.  There are no contracts and no fees other than usage charges.  It works exactly like an electricity bill.  When you need more servers, you add them.  When you need more storage, you add it.  When you don’t need these things anymore, you simply remove them. Read the full article…

I created the Bluegecko MySQL training AMI as a MySQL sandbox that folks could use to learn things about MySQL. I wanted the AMI to have MySQL 5.0, and a large collection of tools — for both tinkering and visualizing what is happening inside MySQL and on the system in general.

I chose to host the AMI on a small instance since they’re cheap to operate, which means you can fire up 3-4 of them to try out a replication scheme without feeling guilty. It runs CentOS 5.4 and MySQL 5.0.77 from the CentOS repository. Read the full article…

We are very pleased to announce our very first Oracle Class open to the general public! Taught by our very own Jeremiah Wilton, this class is titled “Hands-on Oracle Database Administration one-week Total Immersion.” We are pleased to offer the opportunity to build upon your professional skills with a week-long hands-on intensive course in Oracle Database Administration, so check out complete information at http://www.bluegecko.com/oracle-university and REGISTER TODAY! Read the full article…