Re: DBA Job Functions

It is sometimes the Database, it is sometimes the responsibility of the DBA.

With proper instrumentation at all levels you can determine this. With proper instrumentation on the DB level, you can sometimes rule it out.

I realise it was probably tongue-in-cheek but just because some sessions are waiting on sql*net... doesn’t mean there’s a problem with the network OR that there’s NOT a problem on the DB end. Unless you’ve associated the sessions doing the sql*net wait with the end user call, it’s just a red herring. These red herrings are common in systems not properly instrumented.

Funnily enough, we’re currently having problems with our Goldengate replicat process (seemingly) randomly hanging on sql*net more data from client while it is trying to query the data dictionary. Not a DB problem but a DBA problem, possibly a network issue but probably more likely an application bug.

On Thu, 1 Mar 2018 at 07:40, Dominic Brooks <dombrooks_at_hotmail.com> wrote:

> Many sudden “database is slow” incidents, in my experience, are SQL plan
> changes.
>
> I qualify these as database problems. Even though the data model and the
> way the SQL is written etc may be contributory factors and then we get into
> DBA semantics - “well it’s not an infrastructure DBA problem, it’s an
> application DBA problem”.
>
> Experience also shows that it is rarely the network and rarely the
> storage, etc. Sometimes it is.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 1 Mar 2018, at 03:52, Mladen Gogala <gogala.mladen_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Jeremy, it never is a database problem. You can always blame network. Try
> as they may, network engineers can never prove their innocence. If an
> application is slow, it's always the network. Application service can't
> reach the database and you can always show "waiting for more data from the
> client" wait events to prove that your network is slow. The next in line
> are system administrators. Is that app server swapping? How much CPU is it
> using? The art of being a good DBA involves knowing how to find the
> appropriate culprit.
>
> Joking aside, it really never is a database problem. What is slow is
> always an application, not the database. Database is just storage, nothing
> else. It's not the garage it's slow. When I was a DBA, I once got the
> following complaint: "the database is slow in the northern half of the
> sales room, but is fast in the southern half". This intrigued me so much
> that I accepted the claim that "the database is slow". What ended up being
> the problem was the router. The router for the northern part of the room
> was plugged in the router port that was blinking red.
>
> You always start troubleshooting from the application. That is the lesson
> from the Cary Millsap's book. It's simply incredible how long it takes for
> that simple and obvious message to sink in.
>
> On 02/28/2018 02:58 PM, Sheehan, Jeremy wrote:
>
> HAHAHAHA! #truth
>
>
>
> Perhaps proving that it isn’t a database problem can be added to the list?
>
>
>
> *From:* Jared Still [mailto:jkstill_at_gmail.com <jkstill_at_gmail.com>]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, February 28, 2018 2:52 PM
> *To:* Sheehan, Jeremy <JEREMY.SHEEHAN_at_fpl.com> <JEREMY.SHEEHAN_at_fpl.com>
> *Cc:* oracle-l-freelist <oracle-l_at_freelists.org> <oracle-l_at_freelists.org>
> *Subject:* Re: DBA Job Functions
>
>
>
> CAUTION - EXTERNAL EMAIL
>
>
>
> Also included: everything the DBA cannot get someone else to do.
>
>
>
>
> Jared Still
> Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist
>
> Principal Consultant at Pythian
>
> Pythian Blog http://www.pythian.com/blog/author/still/
> <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pythian.com%2Fblog%2Fauthor%2Fstill%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7Ca9becef89c7f4c17644d08d57f27d1ab%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636554731355511391&sdata=fPB616KiFHWP2Shmk4W4WWP%2Bu3554ukoEJxZCZmYK7A%3D&reserved=0>
>
> Github: https://github.com/jkstill
> <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fjkstill&data=02%7C01%7C%7Ca9becef89c7f4c17644d08d57f27d1ab%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636554731355511391&sdata=jEQ5k82aTYc5qibdlgiFDsiJtlZ2%2BoGUx5MS6O1tA9g%3D&reserved=0>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 11:18 AM, Sheehan, Jeremy <JEREMY.SHEEHAN_at_fpl.com>
> wrote:
>
> Hello Guru’s,
>
>
>
> My boss is asking me to compile a list of typical job functions for a DBA.
> I came up with a brief list, but would like to hear any other
> recommendations that you might have. What he said was, “We don’t want to go
> into great detail, but not be too vague either. Somewhere between the
> 10,000ft and 1,000ft view.
>
>
>
> Agile Work
>
> Backup/Recovery
>
> Change Deployment
>
> Database Design
>
> Database Install
>
> Documentation
>
> DR Activities (testing/maintenance)
>
> Lifecycles
>
> Performance Tuning/Monitoring
>
> Scripting DB/Host
>
> Solution Design
>
> On-call/Operations
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
>
>
> Jeremy
>
>
>
>
> --
> Mladen Gogala
> Database Consultant
> Tel: (347) 321-1217
>
>

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