Oracle certifications - 9i vs 8i

Author

9i vs 8i - a newbie decision

countzeroii

2002-03-26, 3:17 pm

Hello to all of you,

I'm a newbie to oracle. That said, I'm trying to decide which certification path is better for me - 9i or 8i, and I'd like your input on some of my concerns:

1. Oracle8i has been out there, and there is plenty of practice material available on the market (I hear the Sybex books are excellent, ,is that so?). Being that Oracle9i is new, are there any good books and exam material available for it? How are the Oracle press books?

2. Certification is good, but it's worthless if you can't get a job afterwards. How much will my future chances of getting an oracle DBA job suffer, in your opinion, if I have only the 9i certification under my belt, as opposed to going with the 8i track + new features exam?

3. On a similar note, is certification REALLY that important? Isn't knowledge sufficient? If I go for the 9i track, but also practice working in an 8i environment, will the fact that I'm not *certified* on 8i be a problem for me?

4. Does anybody have a clue as to when Oracle will have all the exams for the 9i track available? (the 4th exam, that is) I wouldn't want to start studying for an exam if it still will not be available when I feel I'm ready to take it...

5. A non-cert question - In the oracle world, do you find that UNIX rules, or do you also see Oracle+Windows combinations? How would you estimate the division between the 2 platforms?

Thanks for your help
Or.

Ian_J

2002-03-26, 7:30 pm

Ok I'll try to help a little.

1)I'd suggest going for the 8i track at the moment as there is alot of good material for it and it only takes on exam to upgrade from 8i to 9i. The Sybex DBA kit is pretty decent but I'd recommend a second source as well to cover any areas that Sybex misses. Also, don't expect the practice exams in the Sybex books to be anything like the real thing.

2)The job market is always tricky. In the UK at least, as far as Oracle goes, I'd say that experience is everything but a cert might help get a foot in the door (at least that what I'm hoping). Being 8i or 9i shouldn't affect you too much.

3)sort of covered that in 2)

4)No Idea about the 9i performance tuning. Maybe another reason to go for 8i instead though.

5)UNIX rules which is a XXXXX as its more to get familiar with but I have seen a few jobs that require Oracle/Win2K knowledge so I guess they are out there. I just don't think windows is efficient enough for a serious application though.

All of the above is of course just my opinion.

Hope it helps a little.

Kasor

2002-03-29, 5:27 pm

8i jobs still out there, but 9i shall be the one to after.

vlegaspi

2002-04-02, 1:26 pm

My opinions:

I Agree with Ian_J - take the 8i coz it's only 1 exam to upgrade to 9i. On that note - have you considered the 9i OCA? I believe you can take the same exam (Introduction to Oracle: SQL and PL/SQL - 1Z0-001) for 8i OCP & 9i OCA. (Correct me if I'm wrong, guys!) That way, you can get a cert faster than perhaps concentrating on just 8i OCP. At least - this is the route I'm considering.

As for Unix - I believe you're right - it rules. I personally prefer working on Oracle on Unix than NT/Win2K.

Again - just my humble opinions. Hope that helped. Good luck!

aneesh_bhatia

2002-04-02, 2:09 pm

quote:
Originally posted by vlegaspi
My opinions:

I Agree with Ian_J - take the 8i coz it's only 1 exam to upgrade to 9i. On that note - have you considered the 9i OCA? I believe you can take the same exam (Introduction to Oracle: SQL and PL/SQL - 1Z0-001) for 8i OCP & 9i OCA. (Correct me if I'm wrong, guys!) That way, you can get a cert faster than perhaps concentrating on just 8i OCP. At least - this is the route I'm considering.

As for Unix - I believe you're right - it rules. I personally prefer working on Oracle on Unix than NT/Win2K.

Again - just my humble opinions. Hope that helped. Good luck!

vlegaspi,

I am working on Oracle8i right now, but I don't know anything about Unix, I wanted to know how much Unix is required to work with Oracle...also what is the fastest way to get familiar with Unix.

Cheers!

vlegaspi

2002-04-02, 2:40 pm

Hi aneesh_bhatia,

It depends on what you plan to do to the database. If you're going to administer it (probably what you had in mind if you're shooting for the 8i OCP DBA) - then you'll need to know more about Unix & its architecture than if you're just issuing SELECTs on it.

How I learned to work with Oracle on Unix (we use Solaris at work) was through Oracle on Linux (I used RedHat).

In case you haven't looked at it yet, Oracle's Technology Network (OTN) - http://otn.oracle.com/ - has some good documentation on how to pre-configure & install Oracle on Linux.

There's also some pretty good books focusing on Oracle on Unix. A good reference that I can think of off the top of my head is Don Burleson's "Unix for Oracle DBAs" by O'Reilly Press.

Let me know if you need more info.

aneesh_bhatia

2002-04-02, 9:42 pm

quote:
Originally posted by vlegaspi
Hi aneesh_bhatia,

It depends on what you plan to do to the database. If you're going to administer it (probably what you had in mind if you're shooting for the 8i OCP DBA) - then you'll need to know more about Unix & its architecture than if you're just issuing SELECTs on it.

How I learned to work with Oracle on Unix (we use Solaris at work) was through Oracle on Linux (I used RedHat).

In case you haven't looked at it yet, Oracle's Technology Network (OTN) - http://otn.oracle.com/ - has some good documentation on how to pre-configure & install Oracle on Linux.

There's also some pretty good books focusing on Oracle on Unix. A good reference that I can think of off the top of my head is Don Burleson's "Unix for Oracle DBAs" by O'Reilly Press.

Let me know if you need more info.

Actually I primarily want to be work as a Oracle Developer, so went ahead a got the Developer certification. Lot of my friend whi work with Oracle recommended to get the DBA also...thanks for the tip on Unix.

Cheers!

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