tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60164956004351717012012-02-16T03:19:45.089-08:00Making focused learning easier.roobaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08420801903669108937noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016495600435171701.post-55307662384531989312007-06-30T21:23:00.000-07:002007-06-30T21:38:29.325-07:00As a long time DBA I am always reviewing the new features which the main commercial database vendors such as Oracle, Microsoft and IBM are adding to their versions, as well as the big free/Open source database vendors such as MySQL and PostgreSQL.<br /><br />While most hardcore geeks have plenty of older PCs available to use as Linux, or Windows platforms for playing with the new versions, getting time within a busy schedule of work, family, rest and play means that most DBAs have to rely on work time and resources to get exposed to the features.<br /><br />Lots of the database vendors are making it progressively easier to download VMs (Virtual Machines) to play. Though not all are ready to use straight away.<br /><br />We are looking at making that easier. Using Amazon EC2 virtual instances, we provide a range of VMs at various stages of installation and configuration points.<br /><br />For example, if you are wanting to use MySQL NDB cluster databases out of the box to see what the various ndb_mgm commands return, we provide the MySQL NDB cluster prebuilt.<br />Whereas if you want to learn how to install a MySQL NDB we can provide the blank machine with the files downloaded ready to follow either the MySQL documentation or a shorter recipe.<br /><br />On the other side of the coin, getting practice for various migrations both within an vendor's version set or from one vendor to another is again hard to justify from a work perspective. Even if you have the machine and time resource, hard to determine the length of time to setup and test.<br />Again we can provide various VMs ready to test the steps required.<br /><br />We aren't quite ready to launch just yet, but are getting close. Please check back frequently here for further updates and our co-blog <a href="http://dbadojo.blogspot.com">DBADOJO</a> which covers more specific technical details.<br /><br />Cheers<br /><br />Paul<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016495600435171701-5530766238453198931?l=blog.dbagym.com' alt='' /></div>roobaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08420801903669108937noreply@blogger.com0