Database Administration: The Complete Guide to Practices and Procedures - Softcover

Mullins, Craig S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201741296 ISBN 13: 9780201741292

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2002

Synopsis

A thorough reference on database administration outlines a variety of DBA roles and responsibilities and discusses such topics as data modeling and normalization, database/application design, change management, database security and data integrity, performance issues, disaster planning, and other essentials. Original. (Advanced)

About this title

About the Author

Craig S. Mullins is a data management strategist for BMC Software. Craig has more than fifteen years of experience in all facets of database systems development, including developing and teaching DB2 and SQL Server classes, systems analysis and design, database and system administration, and data analysis. He has used DB2 for OS/390 since Version 1 and has experience with Oracle, Sybase, and Microsoft SQL Server. Craig has worked as a DBA, developer, instructor, and analyst in multiple industries.

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From the Back Cover

"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, Senior Oracle Certified Instructor, Contemporary Technologies

"I think every business manager and every IT manager should have a copy of this book." Dan Hotka, Senior Technical Advisor, Quest Software Inc.

With Database Administration , database professionals now have a comprehensive sourcebook of strategies for delivering quality administration across today's challenging multi-DBMS environments. Filled with practical guidelines and strategies, this book provides the most comprehensive survey available of the administrator's world for the existing or aspiring database professional.

Part tutorial and part reference, Database Administration explains and examines each of the components that comprise the discipline of database administration. The book opens by providing an overview of the responsibilities of database administrators (DBAs) along with the various "flavors" of DBAs and their tasks. From there, the book proceeds chronologically through every task a DBA is likely to encounter. Although designed as a comprehensive survey of the entire DBA environment, the book's individual chapters are also well suited for quick look-up of specific information.

Highlights include:

• The world of the DBA: types, tasks, daily issues, and much more
• The DBA environment installation and upgrading issues, standards, and procedures
• Data modeling and normalization
• Database design and application design
• Performance management, including system, database, and application performance
• Ensuring data integrity and database security
• Database back-up and recovery strategies and disaster planning
• Storage management and data warehouse administration
• Connectivity, metadata management, Internet-enabled database access, and additional DBA tools
• Platform-independent coverage applicable for all the major DBMS products including DB2, Oracle, and SQL Server

Whether you're a database analyst, architect, or application engineer, this book will provide the strategies and solutions you need to navigate the rocky terrain of today's complex data environments.

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

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 educate these organizations 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 DBMS products in use that 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.

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Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0201741296
• ISBN 13: 9780201741292
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 736