Would appreciate seasoned advice to an Oracle newbie

Question

Hi,
I come from Microsoft SQL Server's world, just embarking on Oracle.
I intend to do light Oracle admin but potentially heavy Oracle development.
It seems that I need to work on three areas of Oracle 'database structure', core admin knowledge and PL/SQL for development. How should I go about it in a possibly most effective and efficient manner? Net search tutorial does not produce meaningful enough results.
Here's what I mapped out (see if my understanding is correct? and provide answers to questions)
ENV: Oracle10g on Windows
Oracle General:
Structure-wise
     INSTANCE (one database per instance)
          DATABASE
               tablespace
                    TABLES
     LISTENER
          (Each instance requires a listener, use Net Manager)
     SERVICE NAMING
(use Net Manager, be aware Service Name via net manager is authoritive
          if there's a descrepancy between it and the one via NT service)
     Once the above is all set, use SQL*Plus to verify net connection/access.
DBA sort: Database copying, how to copy a few tables or all tables within one tablespace to another Oracle database?
how to reverse engineer a portion of a database like only one tablespace via ERwin 4.x? Maybe this one should go to ERwin forum, however, I expect guru here would have some clue as well ...
Developer: Complex PL/SQL, I quickly grasp some basics, but that's not good enough, looking at some complex PL/SQL script does not seem to be very helpful, what to do at this front?
Many thanks in advance.
DL
P.S. What's the equivalent of comp.databases.oracle since it cannot be posted to?

Answer 1

Hi,
INSTANCE (one database per instance)
DATABASE
tablespace
TABLESHere let's make it right (and simple I hope):
DATABASE: set of files
INSTANCE: 1 instance (standard) or many (Real Application Cluster) per DATABASE
TABLESPACE: logical structure that "groups", organises data files. 1 or more data files per tablespace.
DATAFILES: Data Files, where the data is stored physically.
LISTENER
(Each instance requires a listener, use Net Manager)Wrong, 1 listener can establish connexions for many instances. This is generally the case. Multiple listeners are used in specific cases such as heavy load, backup, failover, ...
SERVICE NAMING
(use Net Manager, be aware Service Name via net manager is authoritive
if there's a descrepancy between it and the one via NT service)Also calles TNS (Translation Name S ... S ... Se ... Service? joker) is used to tell the client when to go, what to connect to. Can be used via flat flie (tnsnames.ora) or dynamic services (Oracle nternet Directory, Oracle Names, ...)
Once the above is all set, use SQL*Plus to verify net connection/access.Yes. And you can test with tnsping also. But the most validating test is via SQL*Plus.. or even via an ODBC DSN test.
DBA sort: Database copying, how to copy a few tables or all tables within one
tablespace to another Oracle database?
how to reverse engineer a portion of a database like only one tablespace via ERwin
4.x? Maybe this one should go to ERwin forum, however, I expect guru here would
have some clue as well ...Database Copying: can be achieved via Backup and Recovery procedures. rom simple file clopy to RMAN Database Cloning.. or even Export (dump or maybe BCP on SQL Server if my memory is good) and import.
Reverse Engineering the database: No clue about ERwin. But you can use Oracle supplied tools. DBMS_METADATA package, or even Enterprise Manager Console.
Hope some developper will comment on the fastest way to learn. There are good books. You should look for well known authors such as Tom Kyte, Carry Milsap, Steve Adams or Jonathan Lewis... ans so many more!
HTH,
Yoann.