Re: DBAs and System Managers - War and Peace?

kkirk_at_compumedia.com writes:

I'm the DBA.

>
> How do different organizations deal with the overlapping roles
> of system managers and DBAs and conflicts that may arise?
>
> In particular:
>
> a) Who manages disk space?

Me. The machine is an Oracle server only. As far as I am concerned, I am fully responsible for managing the machine. If the Database does not work right, it is my ass.

> b) Are DBAs actively involved in defining, or directly define

I directly define all of these. My sysadmin is responsible for setting up device definitions, backup scripts, and other Unix environment areas.

Selection of print spooling and backup software is up to the Unix admin. Operating system version installation and upgrades are a combination of recommendations from the hardware vendor (ie, bug fixes), and approval from Oracle or our VAR.

> - memory usage?
> - disk usage/distribution?
> - user account setup?
> - hardware configuration for capacity planning?
> - batch jobs such as backup/verfication
> - disk setup such as disk physical cluster sizes
> ( small for OLTP, big for media )
> - disk setup like BUY LOTS OF LITTLE DISKS,
> not a few big ones! ( more heads, more parallelism,
> more performance...)
 

> c) Do you have liberal system privileges ( can stop
> any process, can see any file/exe)?

Super user access. I need to be able to have full control of the system.

> d) If you see a disk below 1% free and can't get a hold of
> anyone, do you go out and diagnose the problem?

Yes.

> e) Can you start up/shutdown
> - the database?
> - the transaction monitor?

Yes, to all. The unix admin can shutdown and startup the database and has access to perform recovery since we are a small shop and I may not be in the office when a crisis occurs. I am working on a new system installation and will be setting up admin accounts with privileges necessary to perform shutdown/startup and recovery. As well, I will be documenting the most likely failure and recovery procedures and testing these with the sysadmin.

> f) Do you drive hardware purchases, do you use
> what you're given, or do you participate as a team?

The general specification of the hardware is based on the needs of the Oracle database. I do not get involved with types of backup tape drives, printers, reel tape drives, etc except to verify that they will work with my system. Disk subsystems is the most critical area, but my concern is mainly with type or RAID, I/O performance, MTBF, failure backup, etc.

Glenn Stauffer
DBA
Swarthmore College Received on Fri Sep 29 1995 - 00:00:00 CET