On May 1, 2004, Oracle announced plans to retire the Oracle8i Database Administrator Certified Professional exams.

As of December 31, 2004, the core certification exams for the Oracle8i DBA OCP track will no longer be available.

and most important:

The following upgrade exams will NOT retire and will remain available after December 31, 2004:

Exam 1Z0-035 Oracle9i DBA New Features for Oracle7.3 and Oracle8 OCPs

(One exam for Oracle7.3 and Oracle8 DBA OCPs to upgrade their OCP credential to Oracle9i)

Exam 1Z0-020 Oracle8i: New Features for Administrators

Exam 1Z0-030 Oracle9i: Database: New Features for Administrators

And that basically means, you cannot upgrade from your 8i certification with an easy single exam that doesn't need the hands-on session.

And that means, you will not "receive all benefits" of an 8i DBA as currently… you have to get back to start if you want a current Oracle certification.

Well – and comparing the RDBMS of version 8 to version 10 …

To be honest – Oracle never gave me relevant "benefits" for my certification – except some standard-mails and a download for their logo… a lot of headhunters just checking DBA keywords attack me – still today after years of project management…

Larry – I will not upgrade this year or anytime… and waste more money on your multi-choice exams – especially not after this mail… and better: I guess I will probably take this exam out of my CVs to get rid of stupid "we need a DBA for 5 hours/week" – inquiries from incompetent recruiters…