At&T Work Values

Daily Duties at At&T:

To move Databases from Solaris UNIX servers to HP-UX 9000/800 (around 10 instances). • We have estimated the sizes of the databases on the new databases as well as on the new servers for upcoming 18 months, keeping in mind, the Conversions that were planned. • Installed Oracle software on development servers and created empty Instances, required schemas, application roles, along with appropriate user accounts and grants. • As part of this move, designed and changed appropriate changes to shell programs, tested and implemented. • Did dry runs on test bases for every major release, documented complete procedures so that the same could be done on the production server, while deployment. • Cron jobs are migrated, tested by me, thoroughly to make sure they do the intended job. • Files from old server have been moved to the new servers to appropriate folders, with appropriate ownership and privileges using scp, rcp and ftp. • Tnsnames.ora has been modified and coordinated with other teams, to make sure they were able to connect to the new system successfully. • Backed up and restored database using custom scripts as well as RMAN and Export Import utilities. • Used Oracle streams to capture the changes to populate the audit tables with in the same instance. • As part of this move, we changed our Backup system from NETBACKUP (NBU) to Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM). I moved all the necessary files from NBU to TSM by means of restoring from old system and re-archiving to the new system. Made sure to archive for various time periods based on the data for 1 month, 2 years and 7 years. To upgrade the interface from Client/Server to Web • Coordinated with other DBAs and installed appropriate DBMS packages. Made sure appropriate grants made to appropriate roles. • Application Server installed and integrated to interact with the development/test/production databases. • Designed new/modified screens and reports and assigned to appropriate developers. • Involved in the meetings with Oracle Corporation, when the application server is utilizing most resources and helped applying patches on application server based on Oracle Corp. recommendations. To expand its capabilities of serving the needs of the client from 4 states (Midwest) to 13 states (MW, E, SW, W). • SBC decided to centralize its construction management, timesheets and resource scheduling activities for all 13 state operations with one single application and as part of this; we have designed to merge the all other regions into Midwest. This is a process of almost 2 years. • Role includes, creating the right environment for the conversion team, to run their processes by means of shell scripting, and taking exports, imports of certain schemas or certain set of objects as per their needs. • Managing any new/existing user accounts, roles to access the other regions functionality. • Have designed, written and tested new module to send the required reference data on a daily basis to SW system, and accept and process SW time-sheet files, by means of FTP and SQLLoader, and send back the errors once the process is done. Routine Activities • As part of production support, made sure, the snapshots are refreshed properly and nightly jobs run appropriately for reporting system purposes and take necessary actions when needed. • As part of routine DBA activity, gathering statistics for tables, and indexes, on a daily basis, exporting and importing schemas/objects on a need basis, space management on various tablespaces, user management with respect to roles, privileges are done. • One more important role, I played is to Update Oracle Designer, the current changes, extract ER diagrams, whenever needed. I maintained number of branches (Versions) to accommodate various parallel releases. • For every release, lots of existing programs need to be changed and I have maintained the list of changed program units, any manual one time scripts, Designed the objects as per the requirements, and coordinated the process for migrating from one instance to another (Development to System Test to User Acceptance Test to Production). • Tune queries from various developers using Explain plan, and Lab Tuner. • Observe and take necessary action based on dump files on the Oracle home directory. • Remove unnecessary log files, archive appropriate files from OS. • From time to time, I played various roles on this project including, programming, Helping programmers, designing the functionality, managing roll out activities, Managing Versions in PVCS, managing source code in Oracle Designer, rolling out scripts from one environment to another, writing shell scripts, debugging programs, interacting with other teams, coordinating activities, production support activities, beeper support, database administration, managing resources and work load.

What they like about At&T:

Working in an organization that is technologically advanced, creative, and innovative is critical in your assessment of hiring companies. Less important to you are stability of the organization, the length of time an organization has been in business, and the business' plans for the future. You prefer a fast-moving company that will take risks to achieve its goals and objectives. The length of time the company has been in business is irrelevant. Maintaining status quo is unnecessary. You thrive on change, uncertainty and the upside of potential business risks, especially those associated with innovation. Stability for the long haul is not nearly as important as is working in an atmosphere that is charged with a sense of urgency and constant change.

Tags

Pl/SQL, Oracle, Development DBA, Application DBA, Database Designer, SQL

Skills

Presentation, Oracle, SQL, PL/SQL - 14 Years, Oracle Forms, Reports (including Webforms) - >7 Years, Design and Modeling Database >7 years, Shell scripting >7 Years, Excellent team relations - All years :)

These are some of the questions we asked our climbers about their experiences with At&T: