Many times the Oracle DBA is hired once the database becomes to much to handle without one, inherits the position or is appointed to it “since they
are so good with computers”. In any case, they usually get an
undocumented system that follows no conventions and holds many traps
for the unwary DBA.
In other situations the DBA may find they have the task of recreating the
database for which they are responsible. If export and import can be used,
this task is fairly easy to accomplish, however, sometimes the DBA will
be required to provide DDL (Data Definition Language) for this purpose.
The DBA may also wish to document existing procedures, views,
constraints and such other structures as they see fit, with human readable
output and a minimum of re-editing.
In all of the above cases, the Oracle provided methods fall woefully short
of the mark in providing the DBA with documentation. It falls 011 the
DBA’s shoulders to develop SQL. PL/SQL and SQLPLUS code to delve
into the inner workings of the Oracle Data Dictionary tables and regenerate the required DDL.
This presentation will demonstrate techniques to use the Oracle instance to
document itself.
