ROLE OF A DBA

Gayatri: Seems like you are either "jealous" of a DBA's pay OR you are "Failing to think for sometime patiently". There cannot be a third principle.

Now I will say only one statement:

A DBA IS NOT PAID FOR QUANTIFICATION OF TIME HE SPENDS.

HE IS ONLY PAID FOR THE QUANTIFICATION OF -

1)THE COMPLEXITY OF EMERGENCIES THAT MAY ARISE

2)TROUBLE SHOOTING (ANYTHING BE IT...WHICH CANNOT BE HANDLED BY PROFESSIONALS LIKE U AND ME)

3)MAINTENANCE



EVEN IF THE DBA WORKS FOR ONLY 8 HRS ALL THROUGH THE YEAR IN TERMS OF TIME -- IF THE COMPANY IS BENEFITED WORTH IN TERMS OF COST -- IT IS STILL A GOOD AND PERFECTLY REASONABLE DEAL.

GOD BLESS U.

And there is something else to the work of most DBAs, working on Sundays, weekends (I bet not many developers work on weekends), not to mention the early mornings (I had to get out of bed at 4AM this morning to come to work to boots servers)....

Quote:

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Originally posted by Gayatri

So when the dba who is paid on hourly basis , or dba who are supposed to fill in activity sheet for task/ job done/ activities done done during the day or week what tasks he will be filling in the details , once the database is stable. ? --- Just monitoring for 8 hours !!!


-- Gayatri

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I Can't understand the resilience of not being able to understand that every scenario is different.
I have a simple question for you, gayatri girl...
1. What do you want to conclude from your question?
Apparently you're agreeing nd again disagreeing.

2. Or do you want to plagiarize this whole thread and write an article on the role of a dba.

3. Or maybe submit a report of to the ceo to put some dba's career out of their misery.

I think it's time to close this thread.

Jeff, can you do the honour?

I write this in the hope that it would be the last post to this "war" begun by well-meaning but naive and misinformed GAYATRI. Let's assume the following.
-Company ABC's database is "stable" as per Gayatri.
-Company ABC is a business with client base.
-Company ABC has competition.
-Company ABC like any other seeks to maintain regard on Wall Street
-Company ABC fires DBA b/c he only "monitors".
One sunny morning database goes "belly-up". Managers call CEO, CEO curses "i want it up right now". Manager call recruiters. Recruiters senses tension, raises fees. Manager agrees to put his mother up for bid. Partners call CEO. CEO "assures" things are "under control". Partners doubt CEO.
GAYATRI please answer the following
(Remember no database no business)
-How long would it take to find a DBA?
-Who would interview him/her?
-who would make the decision to hire? When?
-how long would it him/her to get a handle on the system and start diagnosing/troubleshooting the problem seeing he has no ****ing clue baout the application?
-How long would it take clients to switch to competitors?
-How long would Wall Street wait?
-Does this look like the way to run a business?
Finally when the fire is out someone would have to dust off their resumes.
GAYATRI if you are in a decision making position perhaps you would have to think twice about that mortgage before you fire you DBA.

Very nice, Tony.

I don't know why your guys keep on arguing about companies should keep us high paid DBA? Isn't that companies' decision to hire us? Believe me, before hiring us, those decision makers already know the job nature of dba. Otherwise, they won't pay such money to us. I never doubt that we worth the money. I only complain when I got bored. I like being busy; I enjoy solving problems. But the databases here are maintained so well. I can't break them. My boss is so afraid of me asking for more work to do.
Don't afraid of losing your job because some of people complain. Believe me, you worth your money!

1 hr downtime for a large ecommerce site cost: $10 million
1 hr downtime for a large bank cost: $100 million
1 DBA costs: $100,000/yr.

you'll prolly hire more DBAs..but I think you getthe picture. get a calculator and get a clue. cheers :-)

I am highly doubt that Gayatri girl convinc yet! Religous War will be continue and she enjoys that hit the biggest reply record for her thread!! Gayatri , Do you like we all ask our HR Depatment to reduce our salary by %50 then deposit it to your account, I guess you will be convince and very happy at that time!

Quote:

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Originally posted by Gayatri
One point of time , database is going to be stable, that has been said by many of experts in this thread
So when the dba who is paid on hourly basis , or dba who are supposed to fill in activity sheet for task/ job done/ activities done done during the day or week what tasks he will be filling in the details , once the database is stable. ? --- Just monitoring for 8 hours !!!
-- Gayatri

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This makes no sense in REALITY. Even IF the PRODUCTION DB is running smoothly, you still have plenty to do. Aren't your developers working on the next development cycle and application version??? What are you paying them for then if they are not developing? If they are working then they need an environment to work in ... Who provides the DBs for them to do this?

What is your QA department doing? Don't they have to test the application? Where are the databases for them to do this? Our QA department continually needs new (fresh) data loaded onto their DBs for them to test accurately, etc. (or whatever they do. I just do whatever they want me to, heh :) )

I work in a relatively small company (but fairly large DBs) yet QA needs 4-5 DBs and Development needs 4-5 DBs. I need 1-2 DBs just to test the code I am writing.

It is kinda frustrating to see you talk as if NOTHING is going on in the company WHATSOEVER ...

- Magnus

Quote:

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Originally posted by dbafreak
A DBA IS NOT PAID FOR QUANTIFICATION OF TIME HE SPENDS.
HE IS ONLY PAID FOR THE QUANTIFICATION OF -
1)THE COMPLEXITY OF EMERGENCIES THAT MAY ARISE
2)TROUBLE SHOOTING (ANYTHING BE IT...WHICH CANNOT BE HANDLED BY PROFESSIONALS LIKE U AND ME)
3)MAINTENANCE

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I am gonna post again.
I really like what 'Tha Freak' had to say in the above.

When my manager left our company in my first DBA position (very Jr. but I was the only DBA) I sat with him and asked him before he left about my performance and how he thought I was doing.

His response: "Without you we would be up ****-creek by now!"
This was kind of a surprise for me ...
My observation was that I hadn't done much at all (just my DBA job) and that I maybe wasn't contributing enough. This goes to show that sometimes when a DBA does their job correctly (hey, I screwed up a couple times too!) they are worth a GREAT deal to the company in many ways (these have been cited in previous posts). At that early stage in my career, I could not see what those were, but I have no doubt at all now (especially after reading all these posts :) )

- magnus