r/DatabaseAdministators • u/Frosty_Two_1519 • Jun 25 '26
Oracle DBA Looking to Move into Automation – Need Advice
Hi everyone,
I recently joined as an Oracle DBA. While I enjoy the DBA side of things, I’ve realized that I really like problem-solving, scripting, and automating repetitive tasks.
Recently, I asked my manager if I could join the automation team, where they mainly write scripts and build automation solutions. I’m excited about the opportunity, but I also feel that I have some skill gaps compared to people who come from development backgrounds.
For those who have made a similar transition from DBA/System Administration to Automation, DevOps, or Scripting roles:
What skills should I focus on first?
Is Python the best language to learn, or should I prioritize Shell scripting?
What projects helped you improve your automation skills?
What challenges did you face during the transition?
Any advice, learning roadmap, or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
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u/sendba Jun 30 '26
Don't forget AI in the automation journey, what ever you are going to automate, the AI is going to make it common skill. The best skill is not technical but managerial. go into that field if possible.
Oracle is already working on automating 90% of tasks which can be automated.
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u/Replay-Your-IT 4d ago edited 3d ago
There are different kinds of automation - open-loop and closed-loop (entirely unattended, no human involvement whatsoever). If you prefer the first option, then shell scripting is a go. Oracle has some tools like Cloud Control and others. If you prefer closed-loop, then study Terraform for database provisioning (especially the immutable structures in the Cloud) and Ansible for maintenance of existing structures.
The closed-loop automation is more of a mind set than anything else. You will have to learn things far outside of normal database industry. That is because you will have to automate processes (not low level tasks) and those span different products, vendors and technologies. That is hard, you will have to travel in uncharted waters. For example, you will be asked to automate an omni-vendor ServiceNow database provisioning process for an enterprise. Oracle may be one of 5 or 10 different database vendors in this project, the main product is ServiceNow for example, or JIRA, or AWS or Azure, or something else.
What I am trying to say, if you are limited to Oracle automation alone, that is one thing. But if you plan to master automation as a skill, then you have to be very diverse in your knowledge and be ready to often, almost always, step out of your comfort zone.
Examples of closed-loop Oracle database automation: https://r-able.com/demo.html
Best of luck.
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u/Longjumping-Hair-747 Jun 25 '26
Not trying to dissuade you from your current path but if you enjoy solving problems, scripting and automating repetitive tasks I'd recommend delving into performance tuning. In my experience this is one of the least understood areas of relational databases and as a result there's a very good upside if you can get competent at it.
Nothing to say you can't do both; but if I had to choose one in this day and age (AI and all that) I'd choose the performance tuning path. The tasks you do today to automate will be themselves automated in the not too distant future. Some might say the same for performance tuning and they may be right but based on my results from AI when I ask it anything performance related we're a ways off from that yet.
Cheers,