Re: Oracle DBA role question

gdas_at_my-deja.com wrote:
> <<snipped>>
> The above questions are just hypothetical, please do not respond to
> them. The real question is: Are these types of things that the average
> DBA would be able to resolve or are they more commonly handled by
> bringing in consultants? My experience with databases is pretty
> extensive, unfortunately it stops at the database level and I don't
> have much experience in the physical/hardware level. I will definitely
> need to bring in external help to assist with these issues, but I am
> just curious to know from some seasoned DBAs if this is or should be a
> standard base of knowledge that most *good* DBAs have. (Do the oracle
> certification exams touch on these types of questions?)

It depends. The DBA should definitely have input even if they don't make the final decision. For very large projects you may have a technical architect who is very familiar with hardware and sizing systems. On several projects I have seen this involve up to 5 people in the decision process not counting the budget approval. First is the lead business analyst who comes up with the metrics from the business perspective on the amount of data and usage. Then data architect/dba and system programmer (NT/UNIX/mainframe) take that information and determine the disk storage and number of channels necessary plus any specific releases of the OS and DBMS that are necessary to support the planned functionality. Meanwhile the network architect has been looking at the planning in terms of network traffic. The technical architect has been working with all these people through the process and integrates the needs into a hardware and software order to be approved by management. At the other end of the spectrum, as a knowledgeable DBA/data architect I have specified the complete hardware and software for a small NT based system.

Big Al Received on Tue Sep 12 2000 - 14:56:44 CDT