Re: why administrator refuse to give permission on PLUSTRACE

From: DA Morgan <damorgan_at_psoug.org>
Date: Sun, 04 Nov 2007 12:06:02 -0800
Message-ID: <1194206759.531628@bubbleator.drizzle.com>

Marc Blum wrote:
> On Sat, 03 Nov 2007 21:23:42 +0000, Niall Litchfield
> <niall.litchfield_at_dial.pipex.com> wrote:
>

>> Marc Blum wrote:
>>> On Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:11:51 -0700, DA Morgan <damorgan_at_psoug.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Here I agree and I will go one step further. No developer should ever
>>>> have access to a production database except as an end-user utilizing the
>>>> application. I've yet to see a legitimate reason for any developer to
>>>> have production access privs.
>>> Maybe because there's some urgent issue to be solved, maybe production ist
>>> coming to a grinding halt and there's a need for someone who knows the
>>> requirements and the implementation and the technology to get rid of the issue
>>> NOW! Production DBAs fail in the first and second point.
>> If they do then at the very least the change control process if not the
>> entire development process has failed. Surely the scenario above can
>> only happen where the developers know what they are doing, why they are
>> doing it and what they are doing it with - but unaccountably fail to
>> tell anyone any of this? Equally a DBA that lets code to production with
>> no idea of purpose, scope or impact isn't worth the name.

>
> hu? Do you live in the world of itzi-bitzi-mini-apps?
>
> In a production system, where the DBA is responsible for up & running of 100+
> instances, and then a new system involving 20+ man*years of coding goes live,
> then the DBA won't be the guy who knows the business rules implemented by this
> big new app. Hopefully he has been involved in the steps of capacity planning
> but it is completely out of focus to incorporate him in the whole
> requierement/system design/app development/testing etc cycle.

You are making an assumption not supported by real-world experience.

It may be true that in your experience DBAs are not competent. But I can assure you that the DBAs at amazon.com know what is going on and nothing goes into production that they don't understand: Nothing.

The same is true through-out the cellular phone industry headquartered here in the Pacific Northwest and even at Boeing.

A DBA that puts something into production without understanding it should be sued for malpractice.

>> Mind you for
>> all of the folks that have setups where the developers know the business
>> and the dbas don't I sure hope the support calls all go to the
>> developers first - anything else would be a misroute.

>
> Support calls don't go to the DBA nor to the developers. These guys are in the
> second or even third level support layer.

That unfortunately is still true in much of the industry. Those in our industry, at the top of their game, are using their own in-house systems (Amazon) or OEM Grid meaning the DBAs often know about and resolve an issue long before end-users are aware of it.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu (replace x with u to respond)
Puget Sound Oracle Users Group
www.psoug.org

Received on Sun Nov 04 2007 - 14:06:02 CST