RE: Database management techniques and frameworks

Well said, Ryan!
I have about the same number of instances, all on Sun. Development responsibilities also. One DBA. Time off is difficult.

    Excellent advice on emailing results. I have found the tools cause you about as much maintenance as they might save, so I favor simple scripts with emailed results. If you have time to visit each instance each day, you have way too much time on your hands. But I can recall those days when I only had 2 instances too. Fondly recall.

   For user/developer requests, the magic phrase I've found is "can I do that for you tomorrow morning?" Before leaving for the day I prepare a list of tasks for the next morning, and when I arrive I defer anything that I can to concentrate on my list and ticking off tasks on that list. Try to get meetings moved to the afternoon. Just basic time management, and everyone is different.

   For mature applications, I've found autoextend on datafiles to be a big time-saver. I've used that for many years now and only been bitten by that a couple of times. Much simpler to watch one number (available disk space) than dozens of numbers.

   For deployment, we are working toward ITIL procedures. We have test, staging, production instances for most databases, so I and developers can deploy against a staging instance before inflicting a deployment on production. Staging is a fresh clone of production.

   Naming standards are good, but I have found that some sites get so wrapped up in them that they cause more work than they prevent. Often packaged applications are mainly tested against their default configuration so if you insist on changing everything to meet your standards, you end up finding bugs nobody else found.

   One technique I have had good results with is to prepare an audit sheet and when time is available, pick an instance and audit it for security, performance, recoverability, etc. During the audit, make up a list of tasks to perform on that instance, and as time permits, execute those tasks.

Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 1:09 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

We have about 20-25 instances here. Nearly all on SUN. I dont touch the ones on windows. I also have development responsibilities, so I dont have time for a checklist.

you need to automate tasks. You cant spend your time reading the alert log. you should poll it and get an email when something pops up. Same with chained rows, tablespace sizes, etc... Write scripts for this and send your self emails.

Have statspack snapshots run daily.

>
> From: AdamDonahue_at_maximus.com
> Date: 2003/12/05 Fri PM 01:49:30 EST
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
> Subject: Database management techniques and frameworks
>
> Folks,
>
> I thought it'd be interesting to take a survey on what techniques and
> frameworks DBA's on this list use to manage their Oracle databases. I
> imagine that some of us manage only a single database and instance, but in

> those configurations where there are many instances, multiple databases,
> different platforms/versions, etc., what are some of the strategies for
> management in place? What daily tasks do you perform, and how do you
> organize them? How do you manage user requests (individually or as part
> of a larger environment)? How do you handle jobs? Organization
> techniques? Naming standards? User/application deployment framework,
> etc., etc.?
>
> (Obviously we could write a book about this -- there's an idea! -- but
> summaries and pointers would be interesting. Perhaps we can come up with
> a best practices document and associated framework for Oracle database
> management.)
>
> Thanks,
>
> Adam
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
> --
> Author:
> INET: AdamDonahue_at_maximus.com
>
> Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
> San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
> to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
> the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
> (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may
> also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
>

-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: <ryan_oracle_at_cox.net
  INET: ryan_oracle_at_cox.net

Fat City Network Services    -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California        -- Mailing list and web hosting services
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: DENNIS WILLIAMS
  INET: DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM

Fat City Network Services    -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California        -- Mailing list and web hosting services
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).