Database Administration: Practices and Procedures (2002)

From the Book:
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.