are claims of Oracle being hard to administer on simple tasks correct? aren't there quality admin apps for it? [closed]

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I see this claim made in a rant here http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.456646.47 . As well as in various other rants that can be looked up on google using "oracle sucks". Ok, well, if let's say something as low key as Drupal doesn't have an easy to use visual IDE I can understand why, but if this is really true about something as big money as Oracle, why don't we see an entire ecosystem of user-friendly visual tools for basic DBA work on Oracle? I mean, people who work on Oracle work for companies with big budgets, so surely they could afford a license for a fancy "sit tight and enjoy the ride Oracle admin studio" of some sort to help developers do some stuff by themselves without pestering the DBA? Or do these tools really exist and do good job whereas the people doing the rants are simply unaware of them?

Answer 1

If you're deploying Oracle in a large corporate environment, there is an ecosystem of user-friendly tools to administer the database. But most of those tools are relatively painful to install-- they need their own database, for example, and install components on the database server along with the central repository. It makes perfect sense to invest in this sort of heavy-weight infrastructure when you're spending 6 or 7 figures on Oracle database licenses and you need to handle things like continuous monitoring and alerting.

On the other hand, most of the folks that are complaining about Oracle usability are trying to install and run Oracle in a much different environment. If you're a developer, for example, that wants to run Oracle on your local laptop so that you have the full stack installed, you're not going to need or want one of these heavyweight tools. Those folks are going to end up with whatever tools Oracle installs by default. Traditionally, those tools have been somewhat less than ideal. Oracle is getting better about that by shipping a lightweight Enterprise Manager web client with the database that is very useful for these types of installs. But it can still be a bit of a fight to ensure that the Enterprise Manager web client works perfectly on a developer's Windows laptop install which leads a non-trivial number of developers to conclude that "Oracle sucks".

Answer 2

Quest Software has a variety of tools, primarily TOAD but also Spotlight and there is a backup monitoring tool in beta, for database admin.

Part of the issue is that Oracle runs on a variety of platforms, such as Solaris, Linux and Windows. The larger (and therefore more complex) installs have been on more exotic hardware. A 'full stack' admin tool would really have to be native to the database platform, and that just hasn't been practical. That's one reason why the OEM stuff is built as a web-app, and why SQL*Plus, the standard client, has stuck as a command line tool. As has RMAN, the backup/recovery manager.

Another issue is that there is a lot of baggage in Oracle. Rather than a simple "Database = File" or "Table = File" model, Oracle needed to cope with data volumes too big for single files. So they have a concept of a tablespace which maps database objects to data files. That's not so much an issue with modern filesystems.

Finally, Oracle is a high-end product. You use it in situations where the cheaper alternatives can't cut it. So it is often applied in more complex environments which would require more admin anyway. In that way, it is more a case that with Oracle, you can admin your way out of situations which impossible for a competitor product.

Answer 3

There are tools for Oracle, both built-in and third-party.

I think that the tools for SQL Server are a lot easier to use. And third party tools for SQL Server (i.e. Red Gate) are also extremely easy to use and powerful (compared to Toad, which has a byzantine and complex user interface)

Oracle is a multi-platform database and it dates from the original RDBMS implementations generation (one of the first which competed to replace older systems), so it has a lot of layers at install which can be very challenging to deal with. PL/SQL is also more difficult for development compared to SQL Server, MySQL or DB/2 in many ways.

From the point of view of small development shops without dedicated development DBA (or a production DBA who actually understands development) resources, Oracle is less productive than SQL Server or MySQL.

Answer 4

For DBA management and monitoring there's Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control. Not an IDE, purely an enterprise-wide administration tool for all of the databases in an organization. Everything from backups to performance monitoring, job creation, alerts, and so forth.

Answer 5

When I was a grasshopper Master Po told me : 'A fool with a tool is still a fool'. As others have pointed out Oracle is a high-end product. You really have to read the documentation, once you understand the basic concepts of oracle there are a lot of tools available. Allmost all tasks are command-line based. A lot of different GUI applications are available to assist you. Oracle's main tools are Enterprise Manager and SQL Developer. Server side you have a few tools you can use: Database Configuration Assitant, Network Configuration Assistent, Migration Assistent, etc. Choose the one you like for a sprecific task. Bottom line is : it's not a point and click application.

Answer 6

I use an app called PL/SQL developer, and it works pretty well, IMO.

Answer 7

www.enterprise-elements.com is one such tool

Answer 8

You have noticed that you are pointing to a four-year-old rant right? By a supposed DBA who didn't even know enough to turn off unneeded services in order to shorten up the load time?

I'm sorry, but if the complaint is "why can't this industrial-strength DB be managed as easy as this lightweight, feature-poor, freeware?" then I think it is a self-answering question.

To answer the rest, yes there are tools out there. To specifically answer your " I mean, people who work on Oracle work for companies with big budgets, so surely they could afford a license for a fancy "sit tight and enjoy the ride Oracle admin studio" of some sort to help developers do some stuff by themselves without pestering the DBA? " , this is more often a factor of a DBA choosing to lock down privileges - not a function of the database itself. A tool is no use to a developer if their user account is not granted the rights to do what they want.

Rants like that one? Looks like someone tasked with running an app they had no interest in actually learning much about. No wonder they got frustrated. Yes, sometimes Oracle causes frustration of its own, but many of these rants are from people who probably picked a database platform far above their needs, and are disinclined to really learn how to manage it.