RE: How do you feel about allowing non-DBA's on your database servers?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org
> [mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of Robert Freeman
> Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 11:31 AM
> To: Oracle L
> Subject: How do you feel about allowing non-DBA's on your
> database servers?
>
> So, I've got a client that is being pressured by development
> and support types to allow access to their database servers.
> They claim that it's so they can use tools like ps, sar,
> topas, etc.... to monitor performance and deal with support issues.
>
> My position is that this is a huge risk and that I would want
> an very limited population of users (read DBA's and
> SYSADMIN's only) to have access to these servers.
>
> Anyone have an opinion on this?

I am not a DBA, and I am what you would call a user. We have a seperate DBA team that handles all of the company's Oracle DB instances.

The server is mine, not theirs, and I am allowing them on my server.   

With that little bit of hubris out of the way, here is how we have worked for the last 12 years of my tenure.

We are tasked with providing our users with certain reports, refreshed daily. We go out and get that raw data, load it and clean it up. We built and maintain a web based front-end for our users to access those reports. We handle any and all issues that come up in production. If it is a DB issue, we hand it off to the DBAs. The DBA group and ours talk on a regular basis, from the design of the next 'report', production support and maintenance. Granted, we do develop the DDL, but it goes through the DBAs when we are done with development and are ready for UAT. Our group is constantly meeting with our DBAs to figure out ways to make the system run faster and more efficiently, to use less memory, less disk space, fewer cpu cycles and cause fewer outages.

There is of course, a third partner, our system administrators. They make sure that the underlying hardware and OS is always up and running.

Yes, sometimes there are problems, but big ones are rare and minor ones seem to get resolved smoothly and quickly. Don't get me wrong, we still have the odd personal difficulty, but that is always true, regardless of job function, group affiliation or job title.

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