« Can I Apply an Oracle Security Patch to a RAC Database Without Taking Downtime? | Main | Database Automation is Demanding »
A Day in the Life of an Oracle RAC DBA
By Eric Gross | December 4, 2008
This is where the rubber hits the road – the day to day activities of database professionals around the world who are responsible for creating and managing Oracle RAC databases. How do these peoples’ lives differ? What factors indicate how much they’ll get done and to what degree they will enjoy their work? How likely are they to meet expectations?
Ann and Bob work at a company that has so far failed to embrace database automation. Paul and Raul work at a more forward-thinking company which has invested in database automation. Ann and Paul are both extremely experienced DBAs who have been working with Oracle RAC since it was released while Bob and Raul are rather green. Ann and Paul can both create RAC databases because they have the required skills. In order for Ann to offload the RAC database work to Bob she would need to document the entire procedure that could be followed in her absence. Raul, just like Bob, does not know how to create a RAC database but since automation has been put into use he will be able to do so without comprehensive documentation – he just has to use the automated solution.
| Name | Company | Skill Level |
|---|---|---|
| Ann | Company F | Experienced |
| Bob | Company F | Novice |
| Paul | Company A | Experienced |
| Raul | Company A | Novice |
This is the story of a typical day in the life of Bob and Raul.
Bob gets into work and finds a beautifully bound two-volume book containing every step that needs to be run sequentially, along with each step’s prerequisites and required output. There are approximately one thousand commands to be run. In the event of any misconfiguration or procedural error the process will need to stop until Ann can be involved to determine the issue and provide Bob information how he can proceed. Since these things are complicated, Bob gets three hundred pages into the document, experiences an unexpected result, gives up, emails Ann, and goes home. Tomorrow’s another day – maybe the database will work soon.
Raul’s day is rather different. He gets in to a note on his keyboard asking him to create another RAC database. Unfortunately he did not receive a beautiful book but he’s not afraid. Raul accesses the database automation software and, using the details provided by his in-house expert, Paul, he creates the database without accessing the database server for even a moment. Raul has accomplished a great task before lunch so he is able to spend the rest of his day working on tuning SQL and running reports requested from the business unit.
Which DBA do you think adds more value, Bob or Raul?
Topics: Database Automation