Database Administration: The Complete Guide to DBA Practices and Procedures

by Craig Mullins

Overview

Database Administration, Second Edition, is the definitive, technology-independent guide to the modern discipline of database administration. Packed with best practices and proven solutions for any database platform or environment, this text fully reflects the field’s latest realities and challenges. Drawing on more than thirty years of database experience, Mullins focuses on problems that today’s DBAs actually face, and skills and knowledge they simply must have.

 

Mullins presents realistic, thorough, and up-to-date coverage of every DBA task, including creating database environments, data modeling, normalization, design, performance, data integrity, compliance, governance, security, backup/recovery, disaster planning, data and storage management, data movement/distribution, data warehousing, connectivity, metadata, tools, and more.

 

This edition adds new coverage of “Big Data,” database appliances, cloud computing, and NoSQL. Mullins includes an entirely new chapter on the DBA’s role in regulatory compliance, with substantial new material on data breaches, auditing, encryption, retention, and metadata management. You’ll also find an all-new glossary, plus up-to-the-minute DBA rules of thumb.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780133012729
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	10/11/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	928
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Craig S. Mullins is president and principal consultant of Mullins Consulting, a leading data and database management consultancy. Mullins has more than thirty years of experience in all facets of database administration and development, in industries ranging from manufacturing and finance to education and research. He covered database administration as research director for Gartner Group and authored DB2 Developer’s Guide, Sixth Edition, the number-one guide to DB2 for z/OS. Mullins publishes The Database Site (thedatabasesite.com) and presents at industry events worldwide. IBM named him Information Management Champion for his work in the DB2 community.

Read an Excerpt

A database management system (DBMS) is used to create databases. Most of today's applications deploy databases to store information such as names, addresses, and account balances. This information can be accessed and manipulated by application programs to perform business processes like payroll processing, sales processing, and customer billing. Every DBMS requires database administration to ensure efficient and effective use of databases by applications. This means that any user of Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, DB2, Informix, Sybase, MySQL, Teradata, PostgreSQL, Ingres and any other popular DBMSs will benefit from the information in this book.

This book provides the industry's first non-product-based description of database administration techniques and practices. Many organizations have multiple DBMS products and will benefit from a consolidated view of database administration that does not focus on the internals and nuances of each particular product. Such a view is presented in this text.

The book defines the job of database administrator and outlines what is required of a database administrator, or DBA, in clear, easy-to-understand language. The book can be used

• As a text for learning the discipline of database administration
• As the basis for setting up a DBA group
• To augment a DBMS-specific manual or textbook
• To help explain to upper-level management what a DBA is, and why the position is required

Every organization that deploys databases using a DBMS needs to understand the concepts outlined in this book. Many small- to medium-sized organizations attempt to implement DBMS products without a DBA. This book explains the practice of database administration and underscores the necessity of a DBA for DBMS implementation to succeed. Other organizations implement only subsets of the database administration practices that are covered in this book. With a thorough reading of Database Administration: The Complete Guide to Practices and Procedures, it will become quite clear that a comprehensive approach to database administration is required. This book examines and explains each of the components that comprise this discipline.

As technology advances, new IT techniques emerge that impact the discipline of database administration. Two such areas are Internet-enabled database access and the storage of procedural logic in the DBMS in the form of triggers, user-defined functions, and stored procedures. Because the impact of these newer technologies and techniques on the role of the DBA is examined in this book, even seasoned database professionals will find the book useful. Indeed, the book will be helpful for any and all of the following folks:

• DBA managers
• IT professionals who want to become DBAs
• IT professionals new to implementing a DBMS
• Students of database management
• DBAs
• Systems programmers and system administrators who interface with DBAs and need to understand what it is that DBAs do

Because this book covers heterogeneous database administration without focusing on just one DBMS, it can be used by organizations to set up a DBA function when more than one DBMS product is being used. This is particularly important because the single-DBMS shop is a rarity these days. Analysts estimate that most medium- to large-sized organizations have from three to ten different DBMS products in use—all requiring administration.

Additionally, DBA is currently a very hot job. In many cases, DBAs demand and obtain very high salaries. As such, many technicians aspire to become DBAs, and this book will help them to do just that. If you are an IT professional with an interest in becoming a DBA, this book will help you to achieve that objective.

Other books about database administration are available, but they approach the subject from the perspective of a single DBMS. Many of these books are quite good. I wrote one myself about DB2. This book is not intended to replace such books, but to augment them with an independent treatment of database administration tasks.

How to Use This Book

This book can be used as both a tutorial and a reference. The book is organized to proceed chronologically through DBA tasks that are likely to be encountered. Therefore, if you read the book sequentially from Chapter 1 through Chapter 23, you will get a comprehensive sequential overview of the DBA job. Alternatively, you can read any chapter independently because each chapter deals with a single topic. References to other chapters are clearly made if other material in the book would aid the reader's understanding.

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1: What Is a DBA?
• Chapter 2: Creating the Database Environment
• Chapter 3: Data Modeling and Normalization
• Chapter 4: Database Design 
• Chapter 5: Application Design
• Chapter 6: Design Reviews
• Chapter 7: Database Change Management
• Chapter 8: Data Availability
• Chapter 9: Performance Management
• Chapter 10: System Performance
• Chapter 11: Database Performance
• Chapter 12: Application Performance
• Chapter 13: Data Integrity
• Chapter 14: Database Security
• Chapter 15: Regulatory Compliance and Database Administration
• Chapter 16: Database Backup and Recovery
• Chapter 17: Disaster Planning
• Chapter 18: Data and Storage Management
• Chapter 19: Data Movement and Distribution
• Chapter 20: Data Warehouse Administration
• Chapter 21: Database Connectivity
• Chapter 22: Metadata Management
• Chapter 23: DBA Tools
• Chapter 24: DBA Rules of Thumb

Preface

A Database Management System (DBMS) is used to create databases. Most of today's applications deploy databases to store information like names, addresses, account balances, etc. This information can be accessed and manipulated by application programs to perform business processes (like payroll processing, sales processing, and customer billing). Every DBMS requires database administration to ensure efficient and effective usage of databases by applications. This means that every user of Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, DB2, Informix, Sybase, mySQL, Teradata, PostgreSQL, Ingres and any other popular DBMS will benefit from the information in this book.

Many organizations have multiple of these products and will benefit from a consolidated view of DBA that does not focus on the internals and nuances of each particular DBMS product. Such a view is presented in this text.This book provides the industry's first non-product based description of database administration techniques and practices. The book defines the job of database administrator and outlines what is required of a DBA in clear, easy-to-understand language. The book can be used:

• As a text for learning the discipline of database administration
• As the basis for setting up a DBA group
• To augment a DBMS-specific manual or text book
• To help explain to upper-level management what a DBA is, and why it is required.

Every organization that deploys databases using a DBMS needs to understand the concepts outlined in this book. Many small to medium organizations attempt to implement DBMS products without DBA. This book explains the practice of DBA and can be used to educateorganizations as to the necessity of DBA in order for DBMS implementation to succeed. Other organizations implement only subsets of the DBA practices that are covered in this book. With a thorough reading of Database Administration: Practices and Procedures, it will become quite clear that a comprehensive approach to DBA is required. This book examines and explains each of the components that comprise the discipline of database administration.

As technology advances new IT techniques emerge that impact the discipline of DBA. Two such areas are Internet-enabled database access and storing procedural logic in the DBMS in the form of triggers, user-defined functions, and stored procedures. Because the impact of these newer technologies and techniques on the role of the DBA is examined in this book, even seasoned database professionals will find the book useful. Indeed, the book will be helpful for any and all of the following folks:

• Anyone who want to understand what DBAs do
• DBA Managers
• IT professionals who want to become DBAs
• IT professionals new to implementing a DBMS
• Students of Database Management
• DBAs
• Systems Programmers and System Administrators who interface with DBAs and need to understand what it is that DBAs do

Because this book covers heterogeneous database administration without focusing on just one DBMS, it can be used by organizations to set up a DBA function when more than one DBMS product is being used. This is particularly important because Gartner Group, the industry analyst firm, estimates that most medium to large organizations have from 3 to 10 different DB require administration. The single-DBMS shop is a rarity these days.

Additionally, DBA positions are currently very hot, with DBAs demanding and obtaining very high salaries. As such, many technicians aspire to become DBAs and this book will help them to do just that. If you are an IT professional with interest in becoming a DBA, this book will help you to achieve that objective.Other books about database administration are available, but they approach the subject from the perspective of a single DBMS. Many of these books are quite good. I wrote one myself for DB2. This book is not intended to replace such books, but to augment these books with an independent treatment of database administration tasks.

How to Use This book

This book can be used as both a tutorial and a reference. The book is organized to proceed chronologically through DBA tasks that are likely to be encountered. So, if you read the book sequentially from Chapter 1 through Chapter 23 you will get a comprehensive chronological overview of the DBA job. Or you can read any chapter independently if you wish because each chapter deals with a single subject matter. References to other chapters are clearly made where appropriate if other material in the book would aid the reader's understanding.

Editorial Reviews

Combining tutorial and reference elements, this guide provides a non- product-based description of database administration techniques and practices. It defines the job of the database administrator (DBA), underscoring the necessity of a DBA for a database management system (DBMS) implementation to succeed, then proceeds chronologically through every task the DBA is likely to encounter. The book can be used as a text for database administration, as the basis for setting up a DBA group, to augment a DBMS-specific text or manual, and to help upper-level management explain why the DBA position is necessary. Mullins is a data management strategist in the private sector. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

“I’ve forgotten how many times I’ve recommended this book to people. It’s well written, to the point, and covers the topics that you need to know to become an effective DBA.”

—Scott Ambler, Thought Leader, Agile Data Method

“This is a well-written, well-organized guide to the practice of database administration. Unlike other books on general database theory or relational database theory, this book focuses more directly on the theory and reality of database administration as practiced by database professionals today, and does so without catering too much to any specific product implementation. As such, Database Administration is very well suited to anyone interested in surveying the job of a DBA or those in similar but more specific roles such as data modeler or database performance analyst.”

—Sal Ricciardi, Program Manager, Microsoft

“One of Craig’s hallmarks is his ability to write in a clear, easy-to-read fashion. The main purpose of any technical book is to transfer information from writer to reader, and Craig has done an excellent job. He wants the reader to learn—and it shows.”

—Chris Foot, Manager, Remote DBA Experts and Oracle ACE

“A complete and comprehensive listing of tasks and responsibilities for DBAs, ranging from creating the database environment to data warehouse administration, and everything in between.”

—Mike Tarrani, Computer Consultant

“I think every business manager and every IT manager should have a copy of this book.”

—Dan Hotka, Independent Consultant and Oracle ACE

“This book by Craig Mullins is wonderfully insightful and truly important. Mullins describes the role and duties of data administrators and database administrators in modern organizations with remarkable insight and clarity.”

—Michael Tozer, Author and former U.S. Navy officer

From the Publisher