Re: DBA vs SysAdmin

On Mon, 24 Mar 1997 10:32:28 +0000, Jensen Langford - Sun UK - Contractor <jensen.langford_at_uk.sun.com> wrote:

>I'm an Oracle DBA. I think the company you work with has a lot to do
>with the differences in these roles. I have worked for companies that
>required my skills to encompass 'DBA': all database related tasks, as
>well as 'SYS ADMIN': O/S and machine related takes.
>
>When I work for larger companies they normally have seperate SYS ADMIN
>teams which look after the Machines and O/S. However, I still find
>myself involved heavily in both sides.

It does depend a lot on the situation. I was a DBA using a DBMS on an IBM mainframe (not Oracle) for a rather large firm that had 4 DBAs that didn't even touch the software (DBMS software). The sys-admin group (of which ther were 4 individuals in there also) did all that. What we did as DBAs was 1) structure the database (database design and installation of data structures), 2) insure availability of the database (backups, recoveries, restarts), 3) insure the performance of the database (adding indexes, changing buffer spaces, changing file allocation schemes, changing where structures were placed on disk), 4) provide expertise on how to access the data structures (teach programmers appropriate DML), 5) provide advice to ad-hoc end users on how to access the database using their querry tools.

Now that I am in the client-server area I see so many of the DBAs also performing as the SysAdmin. It seems a shame to me, because if you have to slight one, the one you would have to slight would be the Database. This is because the system can run (the sysadmin function) without the DBMS, but the DBMS can't run without the system. This means that those who hold the title of DBA, and also perform Sysadmin functions, are not able to specialize enough in being a DataBase Administrator (as opposed to a DBMS software administrator) to insure that the five things I have listed above are all adequately supported. Received on Sat Mar 29 1997 - 00:00:00 CET