Re: DBA-Sys admin Relationship - Need help to define it

Ravi Kodali wrote:
>
> badri (badri_at_cc.gatech.edu) wrote:
> : Hi:
 

> : 1. A few weeks ago, I (as the DBA) was denied root access. I
> : gather from netters that this is the norm.
> : 2. It appears as though I may not be able to install new
> : ORACLE versions on the production machine. I do it on the test box
> : and the Sysadmin does it on production box. THe reason given was
> : that we are using volume managers and I cannot issue those commands
> : since I do not have root privilege.
 

> : 3. I do not have any control over backups since sysadmins are again
> : backing up the entire filesystem to tape and unmounting/mounting
> : file systems in the process, thus requiring root access.
 

> : It appears to me as though this is not the ideal set-up for aa DBA.
> : I do understand that the relationship between DBA and sysadmin is defined
> : differently in every company. But, can you comment if this set-up I
> : described seems acceptable to you?
 

> : Before I voice my concerns to my boss, I want to run it by the
> : experienced netters to know whether I am justified taking up my boss'
> : time!
 

> : Any comments are gracefully welcome,
 

> : -Badri

New Oracle Version Installation: while the sys admin may need to mount the CD-ROM, I've performed the entire installation myself, with the exception of minor mods to some of the system startup/shutdown files which come under root.

The DBA must have control over database backups; the DBA is always accountable when recovery is necessary. If your sys admin is backing up the file systems while the database is up and running, you don't have any backups. If the database happens to be down, you'll still have a job tracking all the pertinent files. I recommend (for full database backups) backing up each SID as a logical backup unit, knowing where it is when you need to recover, and knowing how to extract the necessary files from the backup. For example:

Each night, I backup up some of my smaller databases into compressed tar sets on disk using the tar command. For a 3Gig database, the tar set is approximately 450Meg. This tar set is backed up by the sys admin each day before it is replaced by its successor the following night. Three advantages are:

1. The offline backup is fast.
2. I always have the most recent backup on disk.
3. The sys admin only needs to know about one file, the tarset (SID-date.tar.Z).

Not everyone can afford dedicated disk space for database backups and certainly many databases are too large for this. The important thing is that you don't rely on file system backups for database backups.

If I can be of further assistance, you can e-mail me directly. Good luck.

Chris Received on Tue Feb 27 1996 - 00:00:00 CET