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Apr 1997 - Aug 1997

Prospero Direct in Morecambe and Lancaster

The systems here were in place to support the business which is direct sales insurance. The main production system was TIA (The Insurance Application). 280 concurrent users would be running the application on-line to quote insurance premiums, create policies and retrieve policy details for claims and enquiries.

Working here as DBA in the Technical Support team. My tasks included:

	Constant monitoring of the performance of the database using DBGeneral.
	Searching the SGA for ‘offensive’ SQL. These are queries that hit the system the hardest. With this I would recommend methods to cut down the impact on the system to the development teams. This would involve things like the addition of an index, adding a missing join, using a hint to change the execution path. The worst of the queries had been run 25,000 times and carried out in excess of 144,000,000 buffer gets (8k Blocks) over a 7 day period. This was due to a missing join. The correction of this particular development error increased the performance of the database noticeably.
	Ensuring that the backup strategy for the database and filesystem were adequate. There was a problem that the backup of the controlfile and the archived redo logs were taken by the filesystem backup not the ORACLE hot backup. This was resolved.
	Monitoring and tuning the SGA.
	Recommending the use of the ORACLE Parallel Query Option.
	Introducing some of the new 7.3.2 facilities into the system.
	Recovering databases and database files after filesystem corruption.
	Installation of ORACLE 7.3.2 and the conversion of existing databases from 7.2.3.
	Standardising the systems to run over SQL*Net V2.
	Many other general DBA tasks.

The main machine had 3 databases the largest of which was 30 Gb.

The second machine had various databases (11 of them).

The third machine had 8 databases.

HARDWARE 2 X HP9000/891 with 8 processors and 5 processors.

1 X HP9000/821 with single processor.

OPSYS HPUX 10.01

ORACLE 7.1.6, 7.2.3 & 7.3.2

Open Business Solutions in Solihull/Crawley/Brentford

I started a three month contract to administer several UNIX systems and ORACLE databases for the company. The work was to include learning ORACLE APPLICATIONS running FINANCIALS, MANUFACTURING and ORACLE EXPRESS also OLAP.

The company’s main business is in the supply, installation and maintenance of ORACLE systems running on UNIX machines. In the first two months, I have worked on four systems, Ronson HP-UX (Crawley), Cabouchon HP-UX (Brentford), OBS Demo system HP-UX (Solihull), Griffen SOLARIS (Dublin).

My main role was to act as ORACLE DBA and UNIX systems manager on these systems. The duties carried out were:

	Installation of ORACLE and APPLICATIONS (FND) including MANUFACTURING, ORACLE EXPRESS and OLAP.
	Install patches for the applications.
	Configuring and tuning Memory and disk storage to optimise performance of the systems.
	Configuring kernel to support 2 X 130Mb SGAs. This is due the size of the shared pool being large enough to pin the standard packages into the shared pool.
	Copying whole live databases to create test environments, involves the creation a new control file.
	Create a standard HP-UX script to automatically shutdown the databases, listener and Concurrent Managers prior to shutting down the machine and starting them automatically when the machine boots.
	Creating the backup system which will shut down the databases, listener and Concurrent Managers, run the fbackup utility, eject the tape and start the processes up again automatically during the night. Due to the methods of working on the Ronson site, a cold ORACLE backup was preferred although I usually prefer hot backups.
	Customer relations.

HARDWARE HP 9000/800, SUN Enterprise 2

OPSYS HP-UX 10.10, SOLARIS 2.2

ORACLE 7.1.6.2

ORACLE APPLICATIONS 10.6, 10.6.1, 10SC, 10G

National Rivers Authority (North West Region) Warrington

REFER to ‘National Rivers Authority (North West Region) Warrington Sep 92- Oct 93.

I am here in my old role as ORACLE DBA/UNIX System Manager. My responsibilities have changed in line with the NRA procedures and I now also carry out Start of Day tasks for all systems and not just the UNIX/ORACLE systems. This is involving me more in the checking of the PC fileservers, printservers, mainframe connections on a daily basis.

I have switched their ORACLE 7 database back to running in ARCHIVELOG mode and upgraded the backup to my latest version of generic hot backup. The ORACLE 6 databases will be run in ARCHIVELOG mode and will use my existing generic backup.

The NRA have an existing ORACLE DBA in one of their other regions, her role will change to managing databases in both regions. As part of my job here, I was training her in more detailed Database Administration and introducing her to the UNIX operating system.

HARDWARE ICL DRS600, SUN & DG Aviion

OPSYS DRNX, SunOS, SOLARIS & DG-UX

ORACLE From 6.0.34 - 7.0.16

Glaxo Wellcome (Operations Primary). Ulverston

My role here was DBA in charge of 42 databases. 8 of these were live production databases and the rest were training, test and scratchpad databases.

All live machines were running in ARCHIVELOG mode and the rest were in NOARCHIVELOG mode.

My tasks here were to:-

	Monitor databases and filesystems for space.
	De-fragment tablespaces, in the case of SYSTEM tablespaces, re-build database.
	Write the generic ORACLE hot backup, the daily filesystem backup and the weekly filesystem backup systems for the new ORACLE FINANCIALS machine. These were written in SQL*Plus and Korn shell scripts.
	Complete documentation of the backup systems.
	Create new databases as & when required.
	Fix any ad-hoc problems as and when they occurred.

HARDWARE HP9000 & DIGITAL Mainly HP

OPSYS HP-UX & Ultrix

ORACLE From 6.0.30 to 7.1.4

Systems Engineering Support Limited. Bristol

This company specialises in providing engineering and computer expertise to cellular telephone companies.

My role here was to

	advise on the design that they had for their gENUITY Service Node system. This system allows many extra facilities for the telephone companies like ‘hot billing’ etc. Most of my advise on this system was to incorporate much of the security and integrity of the database into the database itself.
	I also developed an automated backup system for their INFORMIX database this was accomplished within a very tight timeframe.

HARDWARE HP9000/850

OPSYS HP-UX 9.03

INFORMIX VERSION 6

Orange PCS Ltd. Bristol.

This was initially a 3 month contract that was extended.

My role here was of ORACLE DBA covering :-

National Rivers Authority (North West Region) Warrington

The client is the government body that ensures that our rivers and waterways are kept unpolluted. The machines that I was working with were their two ICL DRS6000's running DRSNX SVR4 and several SUN SparcStations. One of the ICL machines held one large database (75 Gb) for the WIS system, the other machine had two smaller databases and one large (6 Gb) database.

This project had two main parts:-

Define and implement a system backup strategy.

Reviewing their needs, I decided that they required the databases to be run in ARCHIVELOG mode, this would enable them to keep the databases running 24 hours per day and backup each night. This gives them the ability to recover the database right up to the point of failure instead of the previous nights backup. This is protection against media failure not just instance failure.

I designed the procedures and wrote the scripts for this. I also produced a lot of documentation describing how the scripts and procedures worked and background documentation on what types of failures there are and how this will affect recovery.

Teach the DBA more advanced Database Administration.

Gave instruction on things like allocating distinct projects to dedicated tablespaces, hot backups when the database 'schema' changed, how many on-line redo logs to keep, storing control files on separate disks and more.

I was also used in a user support role, monitoring the databases, solving problems, teaching users the basics of SQL*Plus, SQL*Forms etc..

Client - Perot Systems Europe, Heathrow.

This system was to computerise all aspects of a car rental company's (Europcar) business.

My involvement in this project was during the analysis and design stages of the development cycle, carrying out the analysis and design of the FLEET ACCOUNTING system. Most work was carried out within CASE to arrive at a prototype from GENERATOR. This was used to generate SQL*ReportWriter 1.1 and SQL*Forms 3 applications. I then completed these manually using my programming skills to arrive at a complete deliverable.

Due to my ORACLE experience, I was also used at the clients UK head office to assist a new DBA in the administration of a large ORACLE FINANCIALS database. This also involved working within the FINANCIALS product.

HARDWARE Sequent, NCR, Pyramid.

TOOLS:- Analysis Skills, CASE DESIGNER, CASE GENERATOR, SQL*Forms3, SQL*ReportWriter1.1, SQL*Menu5, ORACLE FINANCIALS.

Client - Cimage International, Aberdeen.

Cimage are VARs for ORACLE, IBM, Sun Microsystems and DEC. They have developed a system to store images on computer. This is done by raster scanning a document to obtain an image file and attaching its location to a row in a database.

The system that I was involved in was for the storage and retrieval of all documentation regarding the design and building of the PIPER 'B' & SALTIRE platforms by ELF Enterprise formerly Oxydental.

The system was made up of 2 X DEC 5000/200s running Ultrix and 3 X SUN SPARCstation 1s running SunOS plus two development machines 1 X DEC and 1 X SUN as above.

The team was made up of a project manager/designer/developer who had a good knowledge of relational theory but no ORACLE or UNIX experience, myself as designer/developer/system manager, records management consultant and hardware engineer.

My role involved:-

Client - Qa Business Services, Birmingham.

REFER to ‘Qa Business Services, Stoke-on-Trent. SEP 1990 - DEC 1990’

My role on this contract was of technical project manager. The system was an ORACLE system that would front end the National Health Service Standard Payroll System (SPS). The SPS was crown copyright and so could in no way be altered and ran on an ICL mainframe. The system had to produce output that would emulate the OMR and punch cards that normally fed the SPS.

My responsibilities were to head a team of three designers, one CASE competent, one SPS expert and myself during the analysis and design stages then to manage the build using all six staff. I reported to the administrative project manager who handled timescales, project costs, staffing etc..

HARDWARE IBM RS6000 RISC system

OPSYS AIX, ORACLE 6.0.30

TOOLS CASE Dict (4.1.6), SQL*Forms (3.0.15), SQL*Menu 5, SQL*ReportWriter (1.0.12), SQL*Plus (3.0.6), PLSQL(1.0.31), SQL*DBA (6.0.26), Microsoft WORD.

Client - Qa Business Services, Stoke-on-Trent.

My main role within the company was to assist in the finalisation of the analysis and the design of the system. A lot of the work was done using the CASE Dictionary and then continued with the writing of specifications for the SQL*Forms & SQL*ReportWriter modules. Later, I was involved in the build of the system by writing forms, reports and UNIX shell scripts.

The system is described as a Unit Management Information System (UMIS) where a unit is effectively a hospital. Major changes were being made to the system due to the commercialisation of the National Health Service. The system will be used on site by consultant, doctorate, nursing and clerical staff to provide them with information on all aspects of the unit.

HARDWARE ICL DRS 6000 fronted by ICL DRS M50's (PCs)

OPSYS ICL DRS NX V2.10 (UNIX V5.4), ORACLE V6.0.2 with TPO. MSDOS 3.30, ORACLE V5.1.23

TOOLS CASE Dict (4.1.6), SQL*Forms (2.3), SQL*ReportWriter (1.0.12),

Client - Liberty Life Assurance, New Barnet, London.

Due to changes in the system specifications of the consultancy Personnel System of this insurance company, I was involved in the enhancement of existing Forms by bringing them up to the new specification.

HARDWARE SEQUENT BALANCE 21000

OPSYS UNIX, ORACLE V5

TOOLS SQL*Forms, SQL*Plus

Client - Sedgwick Ltd, Whittam, Essex.

Initially a three month contract to design and develop a system for the import of tape data into ORACLE containing the whole of the Lloyd's Register of Shipping and a multi-user enquiry system for the use of brokerage staff in the quoting of marine insurance. The work was completed in two months so the contract was extended to design and develop a trip recording system for the analysis of cost effectiveness of trips to the States by brokerage staff.

HARDWARE IBM Mainframe, IBM PC.

OPSYS VM CMS, MSDOS, ORACLE V5

TOOLS SQL*Plus, SQL*Forms, RPT, Export, Import, ODL. REXX, XEDIT

Client - W.H. Smith Electrical Engineers Ltd, Manchester.

REFER to ‘W.H. Smith Electrical Engineers Ltd. Manchester. FEB 1987 - FEB 1987’

Here I worked closely with the directors of this International Engineering company, working on the design of a specialised Integrated Purchasing and Shipping System.

This was a relatively small system, designed as this companies first 4GL application.

I was solely responsible for all analysis, design, forms, SQL, and report programming.

I also carried out the implementation and staff training on the system.

HARDWARE IBM PC ATs.

OPSYS MSDOS.

TOOLS SQL*Plus, SQL*Forms, RPT, Export, Import and DBA work.

Client - W.H. Smith Electrical Engineers Ltd, Manchester.

REFER to ‘W.H. Smith Electrical Engineers Ltd. Manchester. OCT 1983 - FEB 1987’

Attended Oracle course (C030) which consisted of instruction on the concepts and principles of the SQL programming language, Report Writer and Forms.

Client - W.H. Smith Electrical Engineers Ltd, Manchester.

Complete analysis, design, programming, implementation, staff training and software maintenance of an electrical engineering system for this engineering company.

This was a large system handling :-

	Selection, scheduling, routing, quantifying, drumming and ordering of cables.
	Design, quantifying and ordering of all cable support steelwork.
	Design, quantifying and ordering of all general materials.
	Design, quantifying and ordering of all junction boxes.
	Shipping and tracking of all materials sent to site.

In excess of 10 medium to large contracts have been successfully completed on this system, ranging from power stations in Jordan to steel rolling mills in Mexico.

HARDWARE CBM 6502 based Micros.

OPSYS CBM running BASIC.

TOOLS Various micro tools including 6502 Assembler.