ROLE OF A DBA

Good answers by every one - so far so good.

If u see there are always positive/negative aspects about each and every technology , but look at the positive side,
Be positive , learn/ explore depth of the subject again, and u will see how much more there is yet to try and thats how life goes on.

GURUDAS SHENOY
Zurich, SWITZERLAND :)

Gayathri,
What is your real intension?.In my last interview,I was asked the same.I said keep that database available all time to you with no down time.That got me job.I am not telling I am very good but fact is DBA job is keep and maintain the database up and running with no down time.How you do that is your problem but should do it.
Are you a sole DBA on site.
Thanks.
Thanigaivasan.

Ok Gayatri, So with your very first explosive question you become a Member of the year of dbasupport.com and a award winner :) So if you guys wants your thread goes to 10 pages and 2000 Views!!! all you have to do is throw an agressive , offensive question and few of us reply with rash comments then the religous war will be start :)) Oh God I didn't know we can have so many lable beside DBA label we have like Brain Surgoen, Insurance of Business, Firefighter, Slakers!!!, Gets Pay and do Nothing,... and so many prediction for our future like Misrable boring career, No future when Oracle 12i comes out and not need any DBA and ...
So were we are going from here now, let's get some conclusion that we need to quit today or ask for more raise or stop backstabber programmers Speak out brave DBAs, Speak out and let's the truth shines and we go to right path. My another 2 Cents!

Great people talk about ideas.

Average people talk about things.

Ordinary people talk about other people.


[Edited by tamilselvan on 04-05-2002 at 01:47 PM]

Okay, I have read through the 10 pages of replies, read the examples, and now have to put in my two coppers worth. The fact that I will probably rehash points made by earliers is beside the point!

I have been a Oracle DBA for just shy of 2 years now. was hired as my deparments first DBA. They were bringing a application/system online built around an oracle DBA.

Since I walked in the door, I have not stopped. So, based on that, let me see if I can answer your questions

The "environment" you identified and placed out as the basis of your question is unrealistic. If those conditions existed, you would not need a DBA. Heck, you would not need anything. The system is running itself. In your environment, nothing can ever grow or change, because those actions will require a DBA intervention. I have NEVER been around and environment like the one you used as a basis for your question. So, lets focus on a more real world environment.

In "real-world" virtually none of the above exists. I NEVER have enough disk space, screaming hardware, etc. Why, because BUDGET does not allow for it. The rate of Hardware and software advancement ensures that the lifecyle is short and getting shorter. We are getting ready to migrate to our 3rd server suite. Why, because users want faster, better, more.

As long as users exits within your organization, a DBA will have a job. Becuase, users are sitting around going "what if..."
98% f the scripts I write are to do things that users want done that were not envisioned when the application was written. Once a user gets a taste of what the system/database can provide....they want more. THAT keeps you employed.

I have YET to be able to develop comprehensive backup and recovery scripts, full documentation of instance creation, automation of funtions, etc. Why, because my priorities are changed for me daily.

After a year of hard work, debugging, etc, I finally have the sytem tuned to the point that I dont' get those pages in teh middle of the night. We have slowly squeezed the bugs out. So, what do I do now? Keep on tunning, tweaking , coding. New versions of the application come out, mangment wants to add new capabilities, new hardware, users wanting more, etc.

I set down with my boss just 2 weeks ago for a review of my work, and where the system was going. She and I agree that we see 3-5 more years of work to get it to wher we want it. THEN, it will be time to do it all over again.

You hire, retain, and pay a DBA for the same reason you hire, retain, and pay a SYSADMIN, NETADMIN, etc. Technology is not perfect, it breaks, and it has a short lifecycle. as said earlier. A DBA is there to make sure that database stays up, and when, not if, it goes down, that it is back up as fast as possible.

Lets assume you think you don't need a DBA. When your system breaks, what do you do? Hire a consultant. That takes time to contract and get the person in. Then, they have to become familiar with your system to the point that they can now do repair work. More time. Time is money. How much do you think your company loses's in business per hour in downtime. Lets say your are down for 24 hours. At a loss of just $10,000 an hour ( one of the cheaper business's), you probaly just spent a quarter to a third of a DBA's salary.

How does the DBA earn his money. He keeps the database up. He constantly monitors and tweaks the system, trying to improve response time. He develops tools, scripts, etc to provide for users needs at a MUCH cheaper rate than a contractor or vendor would charge. My salary is $30 an hour. A vendor/consultant will start at $250 per hour. You do the math.

My job is anything but boring. I don't work in the environment you outlined, nor do I know ANYONE in the metropolis I work in that does. Its unrealistic, thus making your question unrealistic to answer. Don't know what you were fishing for, but hope you caught it!

=============================================================
Originally posted by Gayatri
Got ur opinion and ur views on role of a dba .

but wonder how often database gets crashed ?
not every day right ? also due to security reasons . password authentication , nobody will delete the database files, users. so probability of crash happening is low. isn’t it ?

still 8 hours - every day - work accountability is not complete and Not known fully

-- Gayatri
===============================

A decade ago I was told the following story when I was working in a manufacturing company. This story is often heard in many Indian companies.

A Big engineering manufacturing company purchased a machine from USA that costs about $20 M. It was shipped to Bombay and was installed and commissioned by the technicians who flew from USA. The machine was working fine and produced very good quality product. The company reaped a good profit. Absolutely no problem was reported. Every body in the company had full faith on the machine and they thought it would never fail or produce any problem. Few months have gone. One day the machine stopped working.
The maintenance department tried to rectify the problem. They could not. And finally, management called the supplier and informed them the problem. The supplier told the customer that the customer would pay the air tickets for the engineer, the service charge for rectifying the machine, hotel charge, etc….
The customer agreed.

The “super” engineer flew from USA to India, and inspected the machine for just 5 minutes. Then he took a hammer and banged the machine at one place.
That’s all.
The machine started working perfectly.
The “super” engineer charged the customer for $ 50,000. The customer was shocked after seeing the bill. The CEO of the manufacturing company asked the engineer why his charge was so high. The “super” engineer replied, “I know where to touch the machine whenever it fails. That is why my charge is high”. Finally the customer paid $50,000 to “super” engineer.

Morale of the story:

Machine = Oracle Database
Super Engineer = DBA

Tamil selvan That was really good incident and a perfect example . :)

--GURUDAS SHENOY
Zurich Switzerland

Alternate moral of the story:
The customer always gets the short end of the stick on fixed cost projects.

Another alternate moral of the story:

sometimes it only takes a hammer to fix a database...

or or or......

any DBA can become a "super" engineer as long as you know where to "touch" the machine.

DBA role is a key role, and they are only remembered when something goes wrong in the database, something happens in the database, performance slow, so he is called upon to fix it. so he will be always there. and the importance of dba is known when he fixes a problem at a minimum time .
dba should be there , infact he can be good mentor for the developers.

-- GURUDAS SHENOY
Zurich , Switzerland