Back in late May, my pal Buck Woody (blog | twitter) and I presented SQL Server for the Oracle DBA.  Buck played Jerry Lewis’ role, while I played the straight man a la Dean Martin.  You can see the recording and slide deck here.  Since both Buck and I spent a considerable number of years working on Oracle, we felt like we had pretty good legs to stand on doing this presentation.  Here’s the abstract:

In enterprise IT, database professionals face a mixed-bag of platforms within their environments — and the overlapping duties that go along with them. Whether you like it or not, you get asked to support Microsoft SQL Server operations even though you’re an Oracle DBA.

In this instructive webcast, experts from Microsoft and Quest with years of experience in both platforms will discuss the biggest issues and areas of interest for Oracle DBAs who need to work on Microsoft SQL Server. You’ll learn their tips and tricks for efficiency and gain a deeper understanding of SQL Server to help you add more value than ever to your organization.

Of course, there are always questions and we aim to please.  Here are the transcripts of the Q&A chat session (below) that accompanies the presentation.  The only editing I did was to remove blank questions.  If you’re not familiar with Live Meeting, there’s always a [Q&A] menu on the top session bar where you can ask a question.  Quick Tip – The Live Meeting Q&A queue is one question deep, meaning that if you write a question and then write another before the first question is answered, your original question drops out of the queue.  Here’s the transcript:

Meeting Questions and Answers:
Subject: Pain of the Week Webcast - May 27, 2010
Start Time: Thursday, May 27, 2010 10:00:00 AM GMT-5:0

Gabe Kovacs Asked: Do I need to call the hear the audio for this presentation?

Christian Answered: Yes, you will need to call the toll free number – 1888-253-4037 PC: 319874

Luis Cardenas Asked: Morning could you kindly tell me which is the passcode for teleconf?

Christian Answered: 319874

Jossy Tonio Asked: Is it started?

John Allman Asked: What is the PASS CODE for the audio?

inho Asked: To provide similar service level for Oracle database recovery using EMC SRDF and VCS/GCO, for

inho Changes Question To: To provide similar service level for Oracle database recovery using EMC SRDF and VCS/GCO, what similar DR solution(automatic failover, synchronous data replications) is available with SQL Server ?

Roy McBroom Asked: Who’s Pat Boone?

Luis Cardenas Asked: Is there any chance we could get the slides? They seem useful.

John Allman Asked: What is the PASS CODE for the audio?

hre Answered Privately: Toll-free: +1 (888) 253-4037 Toll: +1 (719) 867-0591 Participant code: 319874

Luis Cardenas Asked: Is there any chance we could get the slides? They seem useful.

hre Answered Privately: yes. they will be sent out to all attendees after the live event.

Jerry Mu Asked: I know sql server only has one tempdb that is public to all session. Oracle can create all temp tablespace. is there bottleneck in sql server if application is bigger and busy?

Jerry Mu Changes Question To: I know sql server only has one tempdb that is public to all session. Oracle can create all temp tablespace. is there bottleneck in sql server if application is bigger and busy?

inho Asked: To provide similar service level for Oracle database recovery using EMC SRDF and VCS/GCO, what similar DR solution(automatic failover, synchronous data replications) is available with SQL Server ?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: clustering, mirroring, replication and identical EMC features

Roy McBroom Asked: Who’s Pat Boone?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: A 50′s and 60′s era singer renown for his appeal to white middle-class americans

Jerry Mu Asked: I know sql server only has one tempdb that is public to all session. Oracle can create all temp tablespace. is there bottleneck in sql server if application is bigger and busy?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: tempdb can be tuned to allow multiple filegroups and, thus, multiple IO paths

DBA_Joseph Asked: What portions of the Oracle SYSTEM tablespace live in the MS-SQL “master” database, and what pieces of that info live elsewhere in MS-SQL?

Ray Herrera Asked: Can you customize the model database?

Wayne Starnes Asked: dive a little deeper into ORACLE ‘user’ being a schema object, vs SQL database and the users as the schema

Ray Herrera Changes Question To: Can you customize the model database?

Jerry Mu Asked: You mean muilple file? like how many CPU and we can create files to match CPU. But I think that will create file fragmentation, is that right? Any plan for sql server to support muilple tempdb, like sybase did?

DBA_Joseph Asked: What portions of the Oracle SYSTEM tablespace live in the MS-SQL “master” database, and what pieces of that info live elsewhere in MS-SQL?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: It’s about equal. SYSTEM + SYS on Oracle = MASTER on MSSQL

Ray Herrera Asked: Can you customize the model database?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: absolutely!

Moorthy Rekapalli Asked: Can you please expand on the concept of user and schema in SQL Server and please relate that to Oracle as I am more familiar with that.

Wayne Starnes Asked: dive a little deeper into ORACLE ‘user’ being a schema object, vs SQL database and the users as the schema

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: sorry Wayne, not enough time. links for that at the end.

Robert Stewart Asked: does the master database corralate to the sys user in Oracle

Moorthy Rekapalli Asked: Can you please expand on the concept of user and schema in SQL Server and please relate that to Oracle as I am more familiar with that.

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Sorry Moorthy, not enough time. But there are links for that at the end.

Robert Stewart Asked: does the master database corralate to the sys user in Oracle

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: SYSTEM + SYS on Oracle = Master on MSSQL

Jerry Mu Asked: You mean muilple file? like how many CPU and we can create files to match CPU. But I think that will create file fragmentation, is that right? Any plan for sql server to support muilple tempdb, like sybase did?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Yes, you can correlate CPUs to files. It does not contribute to unusual file fragementation.

rick stehno Asked: you don’t want to use OPS$ because it is not as secure as the other methods and you indicated that sql server access is similar to OPS$. this isn’t a good thing is it?

Luis Cardenas Asked: what about synonyms, in oracle we use to managa certains aspect of sucurity do they exist in SQLServer?

rick stehno Asked: you don’t want to use OPS$ because it is not as secure as the other methods and you indicated that sql server access is similar to OPS$. this isn’t a good thing is it?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Ops$ is similar but not as comprehensive as Windows authentication

Luis Cardenas Asked: what about synonyms, in oracle we use to managa certains aspect of sucurity do they exist in SQLServer?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Coming in the next release

DBA_Joseph Asked: Just to clarify:: For efficiency ++ To reduce I/O, I take it, that DB-changes are cached in MEMORY, (like Oracle’s SGA) as well as the transactin log… and the MS-SQL then migrates those changes to Database storage… To clarify earlier statement about user writing to LOG and then another process reads log and writes to database…

Ray Herrera Asked: Does MSSQL have something similar to the Oracle’s archive log mode operation?

Jim Rice Asked: does the full method emulate the oracle archive log process

Ray Herrera Asked: Does MSSQL have something similar to the Oracle’s archive log mode operation?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: I think we’re touching on that now

Jim Rice Asked: does the full method emulate the oracle archive log process

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: similar indeed

DBA_Joseph Asked: Just to clarify:: For efficiency ++ To reduce I/O, I take it, that DB-changes are cached in MEMORY, (like Oracle’s SGA) as well as the transactin log… and the MS-SQL then migrates those changes to Database storage… To clarify earlier statement about user writing to LOG and then another process reads log and writes to database…

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: yes, they’re cached in ram until checkpoint

PB Asked: Can SQL Server do block/page level recovery if a corrupt block/page is found on a datafile?

bhupendra Asked: How is the transaction log size determined

Chakrapani Asked: Is there any tool like RMAN in SQLSERVER for backing deltas?

PB Asked: Can SQL Server do block/page level recovery if a corrupt block/page is found on a datafile?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: It’s possible, but not easy. see the dbcc page command on-line

bhupendra Asked: How is the transaction log size determined

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: there are defaults, but it’s easy to change

Chakrapani Asked: Is there any tool like RMAN in SQLSERVER for backing deltas?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: The native backup supports deltas, called differentials. It’s much easier IMO than Oracle’s RMAN

Michael Asked: about user you mentioned, is it the same as Login account? How do you link login account or user to database, schema,..?

DBA_Joseph Asked: DB=Consistant as of finish… this means that backup also pulls info from LOG file, as part of backup set?? Is there an MS-SQL equivalent to Oracle “Recover Database” or is this just so transparent & automatic that it transparent?

Suresh Asked: Good point Kevin …i know Oracle DBA ‘s are very fond of RMAN

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: thanks! =^)

DBA_Joseph Asked: DB=Consistant as of finish… this means that backup also pulls info from LOG file, as part of backup set?? Is there an MS-SQL equivalent to Oracle “Recover Database” or is this just so transparent & automatic that it transparent?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: the recovery process will roll forward any transactions directly from the transaction log as needed

Michael Asked: about user you mentioned, is it the same as Login account? How do you link login account or user to database, schema,..?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: sorry, too many questions to keep up with your reference to “user”. could you restate?

Kenny Smith Asked: Do you know of a website or resource that will compare/contrast task details in Oracle to the similar task in SQL Server?

djb Asked: Isn’t it true that SQLServer benfitted from all the lessons that Oracle learned as it was developed earlier. For example, Oracle didn’t have a hot backup faicilirt at first. SQLServer was developed with that from the start.

Vladimir Lugo Asked: Can you explain a bit about clustering differences?

Carmen Asked: Our backup of master fails because of a single-user mode error. Is there something special that should be done to include master in the backup plan?

Haridas Asked: Is it possible to add Disk space without much re-org ? (In oracle SAN disk space re-org is quite a challenge)

Kenny Smith Asked: Do you know of a website or resource that will compare/contrast task details in Oracle to the similar task in SQL Server?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: nope. no one goes that deep

Michael Asked: In the security slide, User is mentioned, is it the Loing Account?

Kenny Smith Asked: How can you audit active directory user “BuckWoody” and his actions through a database role via a Active directory Group on database objects?

Suresh Asked: what about BI tools in comparison to Oracle’s? SQL BI in 2005 seems very famous now?

Vladimir Lugo Changes Question To: Can you explain a bit about clustering differences?

Haridas Asked: Is it possible to add Disk space without much re-org ? (In oracle SAN disk space re-org is quite a challenge)

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: absolutely – alter database supports this

Robert Stewart Asked: does the index rebuild do so online?

Mauricio Lopez Asked: Hi, will you put the presentation file as a Handout file or where can we download it ? Thanks

Michael Asked: In the security slide, User is mentioned, is it the Loing Account?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Login and User are actually distinct, though usually linked

DBA_Joseph Asked: For all USERS of this Q+A screen… It is not allowing users to Select+Copy the text. Is there a way to save this list of DBA questions, so we can paste into a file, to remember/review other peopel’s questions later?

Mauricio Lopez Asked: Hi, will you put the presentation file as a Handout file or where can we download it ? Thanks

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Of course – you’ll get a follow up email!

Bob Asked: will running select statement lock a table on the page level? or only DML will lock the table?

Bob Changes Question To: will running select statement lock a table on the page level? or only DML will lock the table?

djb Changes Question To: Isn’t it true that SQLServer benfitted from all the lessons that Oracle learned as it was developed earlier. For example, Oracle didn’t have a hot backup facility at first. SQLServer was developed with that from the start.

Bob Changes Question To: will running select statement lock a table on the page level? or only DML will lock the table?

sharath Asked: Is it possible to have data replication like in oracle for example materialisezd views or streams or data guard?

Luis Cardenas Asked: Excellent webcast thanks!!

Kenny Smith Asked: How can you audit active directory user “BuckWoody” and his actions through a database role via a Active directory Group on database objects?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Check out a feature called CDC “change data capture”

sharath Asked: Is it possible to have data replication like in oracle for example materialisezd views or streams or data guard?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: All of those are features in SQL Server = indexed views, replication, and clustering/mirroring

DBA_Joseph Asked: For all USERS of this Q+A screen… It is not allowing users to Select+Copy the text. Is there a way to save this list of DBA questions, so we can paste into a file, to remember/review other peopel’s questions later?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: I’ll get them sent to you

Robert Stewart Asked: does the index rebuild do so online?

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: In Enterprise Edition, but not in lower editions

Luis Cardenas Asked: Excellent webcast thanks!!

Kevin Kline (Qsft) Answered: Thanks!