在网上突然翻到几年前和美国一个Oracle大师的邮件交流，再次读来依旧感觉受益匪浅，这位大师很热心，为了保护隐私，只说他是oaktable的会员，是一位很有经验而且谦逊的一个人。

交流的部分内容如下，希望大家也能收到一些感悟。对自己的学习都能有所帮助。

邮件是全英文的形式，为了掩盖我拙劣的英文和略显幼稚的问法，让大家读起来更入味一些，我的提问改为了中文，保留了大师的英文回答。

1.对于Oracle学习来说，我是从开发转入DBA行业，Oracle是主要有C开发，我已经看过了一些DSI的文档，如果想多学一些，是否从学习C语言入手会更好一些。

Personally, I was a "C" programmer long before I came to the world of Oracle, and my first few years with Oracle was as a systems and application developer mostly using PRO*C, OCI, PL/SQL, and shell-scripting. Programming in "C" certainly helped when performing deep diagnosis of Oracle problems later on as a DBA. However, over the past 10-15 years, I have found that the deep diagnosis using tools related to "C" are no longer useful. Instead, utilities such as "strace" or "truss" (depending on OS) and "dtrace" and Oracle events have been much more useful. I would suggest following Tanel Poder's blog in particular for information on using most of these utilities.

2.对于工作来说，认证（OCP,OCM）是代表学习的一个过程，有时候在工作中，可能真实环境碰到的问题会五花八门，为了更好的解决问题，我需要尝试去了解存储，系统，网络等方面的内容，对很多人来说，尤其是新人，会感觉到很迷茫。对于我来说，我希望从系统层面深入学习一些，通过获得RHCE会掌握一个完整的知识体系和通过工作的实战，哪一种会好一些？

Following what I said above, about how "C" knowledge is no longer so helpful, I agree completely that deep knowledge or UNIX/Linux systems administration and storage administration is probably the most useful experience for Oracle DBAs. Your ideas to obtain RHCE (or similar) certification is likely to help you a great deal as an Oracle DBA. And, if instead you find a job as a Red Hat systems administrator, you will be one of very few with knowledge as an Oracle DBA, so it works both ways.

3.Oracle中有SQL，PL/SQL引擎，如果想尝试多了解一些这方面的内容，能否帮忙提供一些书目或者链接。

I use the standard online documentation on the Oracle website exclusively for SQL and PL/SQL help. Occasionally, I will check Tim Hall's blog at "http://www.oracle-base.com" or other Oak Table members websites. I also find Kellyn Pot'vin's blog at "http://www.dbakevlar.com" useful as well.

4.目前来看大数据非常火爆，你是怎么看待的，对于数据库行业而言是否是一个很大的挑战？

I believe that Oracle is waiting for a clear winner among the "big data" frameworks, and then it will integrate that winning technology into the Oracle Database product. So, the fact that Oracle has not yet purchased Cloudera or Couchbase or one of the others indicates that they do not yet see a technology that will clearly win out over the others.

5.目前我在学习Oracle,我想尝试去学习其他的数据库，比如MySQL,DB2,Sybase,MongoDB…,对于这方面是否有一些建议或者忠告？

I only know PostgreSQL in addition to Oracle, but I know many DBAs who work on Oracle, MySQL, DB2, and Microsoft SQL Server, and since many companies use more than one database product, this multi-platform skill-set is very valuable. I would suggest mastering Oracle first, but be open to learning at least one other database product, if not several.

 大家有什么好的问题，也欢迎一并提出来，咱们一起“上访” ：）