Database Product Evaluation Criteria

From Oracle FAQ
Jump to: navigation, search

Questions to ask when evaluating new systems/ products that needs to run in an Oracle environment:

External Environment[edit]

  • What hardware platforms are supported by the solution?
  • What operating systems (with versions) are supported by the solution?
  • Describe network and protocol connectivity requirements.

Oracle Software[edit]

  • What exact Oracle database version(s) is required?
  • What other Oracle software components (with versions) are required?
  • Is your company licensed to use all the software components in the proposal?
  • Are these products still supported by Oracle?
  • When will these product versions be desupported by Oracle? (life cycle)

Database[edit]

  • How many databases are required?
  • How large will these databases be?
  • How rapidly will these databases grow?
  • Any specific database parameters that should be used?

Backups[edit]

  • What are the backup and recovery requirements for these databases?
  • Will backups be taken on-line or off-line?
  • Will these databases run in archivelog or noarchivelog mode?
  • Any proposed backup schedules (daily/ weekly/ monthly backups)?
  • When/ how large is the backup window?

Workload[edit]

  • Who will access the system/ database and why?
  • How many concurrent users will use the system?
  • How many transactions will be processed (TPM)?
  • Will the workload be mainly on-line or batch? Give details.
  • Is the application mainly read or write intensive?
  • How will the users access the system/ databases?

Service Level Agreements (SLA)[edit]

  • What SLAs need to be put in place to support the solution, and with whom?
  • What will the impact be if a database is unavailable?
  • What will the impact be if the application is unavailable?

Disaster Recovery (DRP)/ Business Continuance Plans (BCP)[edit]

  • What DRP plans need to be put in place to support the solution?
  • What BCP plans need to be put in place to support the solution?

Security[edit]

  • How can the database environment be made secured?
  • Will anyone (except the DBAs) require DBA accounts on the database?

Maintenance[edit]

  • What maintenance actions will be required to keep the proposed solution available?

Personnel/ Training[edit]

  • How many DBAs would be required to look after these databases?
  • How experienced do these DBAs need to be?
  • What special training would be required to install and maintain these databases?
  • Are all relevant courses readily available locally?