Hi folks:

I am currently in the process of writing a book on database administration. The book intends to cover the management discipline of DBA without discusses or focusing on specific DBMS implementations. The goal is to produce a text that covers the job duties of DBA and gives guidance on DBA procedures and practices.

I have two questions:

1) Do you think there is a market for such a book? 2) What areas would you expect to see covered in such a book?

Thanks, Craig S. Mullins http://www.craigsmullins.com craig@craigsmullins.com Craig_Mullins@BMC.com

-- Craig S. Mullins (Craig_Mullins@BMC.com), January 31, 2001

Answers

One important aspect is to what extent are DBAs responsible for efficient programs. Should DBA's be required to examine each and every SQL in each and every application program or should they educate the developers. If there is a performance issue that users complain about should the DBA's take the first stab using plan_table, explain etc.

-- charles leviton (chuck_leviton@yahoo.com), September 10, 2002.

I agree - application performance is a significant issue and it can take many cycles to assure optimal SQL performance. IMHO it is imperative that application developers be taught SQL performance techniques including how to use EXPLAIN and how to interpret PLAN_TABLE data... tools like BMC Software's SQL-Explorer can be used to help make this process easier. However, the bottom line is that the DBAs will be responsible for performance - so the DBAs should conduct SQL design reviews wherein all SQL is reviewed for performance before the code is moved to production...

-- Craig S. Mullins (craig_mullins@bmc.com), September 11, 2002.

The #1 priority of a DBA is to make sure the database is online and can be recovered to a consistent online state after a failure. Nothing else counts more. You can not performance tune a crashed database that and cannot be recovered.

-- Rick P. (rkn1us@yahoo.com), July 08, 2004.

IMHO, there is always a market for DBA book since DBA's like me always look for better ways to manage databases. I have seen several dba books dwelling on simply dba_* views and v$views to resolve db admin issues which may always not the case. More importance should be given to think out of the box by identifying what's the bottleneck and fix the issue and stop. Also, a book which gives a Step-by-Step approach for implementing hot topics such as RMAN, Datagaurd will definitely be welcome. Application Tuning is critical and industry standard practices of tuning information is definitely welcome.

-- Muralidharan Venkatraman (vsmurali@allstate.com), July 14, 2004.