Years ago, I created this blog with the intention of documenting my journey as an Oracle Database Administrator.
Life happened.
Projects became demanding. Production incidents demanded immediate attention. There were upgrades to plan, patches to apply, deadlocks to investigate, performance issues to resolve, and countless nights spent staring at AWR reports and trace files.
Somewhere along the way, this blog went silent.
But the learning never stopped.
Today, after years of working with Oracle databases in real production environments, I am bringing RAAVAN DBA back to life.
This blog will not be a collection of textbook definitions.
It will be a place where I share:
• Real production investigations and war stories.
• Oracle internals explained in simple language.
• SQL tuning techniques that actually work.
• Performance diagnostics using AWR, ASH, SQL Monitor, and trace files.
• RAC, Data Guard, RMAN, and GoldenGate experiences.
• Scripts and automation that make a DBA's life easier.
• Lessons learned from failures, mistakes, and unexpected behaviour.
Oracle is often treated as a black box.
I don't believe it should be.
The deeper you understand why Oracle behaves the way it does, the better decisions you make under pressure.
The name "RAAVAN" represents curiosity.
In mythology, Raavan is often remembered only for his flaws, but he was also a scholar, strategist, musician, and one of the greatest seekers of knowledge.
This blog embraces that spirit of relentless learning.
If you are an Oracle DBA, aspiring DBA, developer, or simply someone curious about how databases behave behind the scenes, I hope you find something useful here.
Thank you for being part of this journey.
The alert log is open.
Let's begin.
— Raavan Pandey
Oracle DBA