A few points:
1) Yes, I was aware of those posts, as I'm a regular reader of Steven's blog. It was my #1 shout-out in part 4 of the install series, after all. :-)

2) I didn't see the posts as immediately relevant to your EBS quest. Unlike VirtualBox and VMware Server, Oracle VM installs on "bare metal," replacing the host OS of your machine. As far as I knew, rebraining your laptop with Oracle VM wasn't a good fit for your current working environment.

3) Doesn't all of your new-found knowledge carry a more satisfying weight, tempered as it is with hard work and a bit of suffering? ;-)
 

@jpiwowar

I haven't gotten to step 4!

Yeah, I posted it...but I didn't read it yet. I haven't read step 3 yet!

No worries of course. I would do the same exact thing and I am very glad that I went through the whole process. At a minumum, it taught me how crazy all Apps DBAs must be!

chet
 

Heh. I know, it's all in good fun.
FWIW, it's not the installation that makes Apps DBAs crazy. It's all the stuff that comes *after* the installs. :-)
 

I guess I'll be finding out soon enough though to a much smaller degree and without actual users involved (unless I count).
 

well the users are one thing, the patching process might give you some insight into the fun that managing apps can be. Perhaps take the finished install and try to patch it to the current CPU level, say. That would almost certainly be another multipart series of posts.

Incidentally I had a (very) few conversations with Steven back when I managed a team of apps dbas. He's definitely one of the good guys.
 

Too true. The users are no larger challenge than in any other IT endeavor (and we all live to serve anyway, right?). The needs of those users drive us to patching and cloning, though, and that is an entirely different story. ;-)

I've considered a followup post to the EBS series on the topic of "applying your first patch," but wasn't sure if the interest level would be there. At some point I'd be guilty of just replicating existing documentation, and would have to be careful about not revealing Metalink/MOS content.

Chet would say that I should write more, though. He is a harsh taskmaster.
 

John is right. Oracle VM isn't right for your endeavor. Be nice to him.
 

I have forgiven him...mostly.

He called it a "Teachable Moment"
 

John,

I would be interested in the Patch Monkey post :)
 

Steven rocks, simple as that. He's put a intelligent caring face on Oracle Apps related stuff. His blog is the best way to find out about the latest in certifications and usage of recent features and product directions.

"Who is Steven Chan?" is one of the interview questions we use with Apps DBAs, because if you aren't following his blog, you simply aren't doing your job of keeping up as an Apps DBA.

Getting the Apps installed and configured can be a challenge as you've seen. Manging it with it's multiple Oracle homes, various tech stacks and interdependencies requires quite a bit of care and maintenance.

There really aren't many great classes or guides for Oracle Apps, and that's sad.

On a final note, I think every DBA, Apps or otherwise, should become familiar with OEM (aka Grid Control) for managing and tuning databases. I'm not a big fan of GUIs, but I've been continually impressed with OEM with how it can make a DBA more effective. Oh, and it's install and patching is worse than the Apps install :D
 

@Tom: I've been kicking the idea around a bit. The *last* time that I initially doubted that a topic was blog-worthy, I ended up writing the EBS install series, so heaven knows where my patching thoughts will go.
Right now, though, I have to deal with dueling earworms from the Beastie Boys and Johnathan Coulton thanks to you dropping the "Patch Monkey" phrase. :-)

@effendi: Agreed on so many points. :-) Steven's a consummate gentleman in even the most simple interactions. I've sent countless links from his blog back to my former employer to let them know about new certifications that are relevant to their environment. I think the OU "Install, Patch, and Maintain" course for EBS could easily be 2 weeks instead of 1 (when I took it, it was 4 days. Boy was the real thing a surprise. ;-) And Grid Control was/is worth the effort to install and learn, though it's easy to get spoiled: After several years of using ASH and AWR day-to-day, my Statspack skills eroded somewhat.

@oraclenerd: This has become a pretty long comment thread. Apparently unleashing your hate can be a good thing. Yoda was wrong! ;-)
 

You know, guys, if you keep this up, I'm gonna have to buy a bigger hat.

Keep up the great work here and elsewhere. The entire EBS community (which includes us in Oracle EBS Development) benefits from our combined attempts to keep it real and make this stuff accessible.

Regards,
Steven
 

I'm a DBA who always wanted to really play with EBS. I installed 11i once, but didn't know what to do with it once I logged in.

I'd like some people to give some overview to the Administration, and maybe how the developers work with EBS and the modules involved. That would be kind of cool, not that I would really develop it, but being able to speak to developers and understand the work that they do makes you a better admin.
 

@Tom,

There are a lot of ways of getting access to EBS Development staff.

If you manage to get to the various conferences that Oracle staff participate in (OpenWorld, OAUG/Collaborate), there are ample opportunities to speak directly with Oracle Development staff. You can even schedule a private meeting at these conferences with various people -- including me -- if you give us sufficient advance notice.

Another way of getting access to Oracle Development is to ask your Oracle account manager to set up a call with the Oracle development team of your choice. We do this all the time, and it's always a good venue for us to learn from each other.

And of course, there's always our blogs and OTN forums, where a lot of us hang out.

Regards,
Steven
 

All,

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