With each new release of a database, be it Oracle or one of their competitors, we hear the cry that this release will make DBAs as we know them obsolete. We hear again and again how this automated feature set or that new GUI interface will automate the DBA job. So far, all of these claims of DBA obsolescence have been for naught, to mis-quote Samual Clements “The reports of the DBAs death are greatly exaggerated.”

When I started as an Oracle DBA in 1990 the tasks a DBA was expected to perform fit neatly within 13 master task areas:

1. Installing and upgrading Oracle server and application tools.
2. Allocating system storage and planning future storage requirements for the database
3. Creating primary database storage structures once developers have designed an application
4. Creating primary database objects (tables, views, indexes) once the application designers have designed an application
5. Modifying the database structure as necessary, from information given by application developers.
6. Enrolling users and maintaining system security
7. Ensuring compliance with Oracle licensing agreements
8. Controlling and monitoring user access to the database
9. Monitoring and optimizing the performance of the database
10. Planning for backup and recovery of database information.
11. Maintaining archived data on appropriate storage devices.
12. Backing up and restoring the database
13. Contacting Oracle Corporation for technical support
    

Upon close examination of the latest Oracle release as of this writing I can find at least 30 tasks that a DBA must now be ready to perform (and I am sure there are many more I missed):

1. Installing and upgrading Oracle server and application tools.
2. Allocating system storage and planning future storage requirements for the database
3. Creating primary database storage structures once developers have designed an application
4. Creating primary database objects (tables, views, indexes) once the application designers have designed an application
5. Modifying the database structure as necessary, from information given by application developers.
6. Enrolling users and maintaining system security
7. Ensuring compliance with Oracle licensing agreements
8. Controlling and monitoring user access to the database
9. Planning for backup and recovery of database information.
10. Maintaining archived data on appropriate storage devices.
11. Contacting Oracle Corporation for technical support
12. Management of object related features
13. Determination of LOB storage options
14. Assistance with RAID configuration
15. Determination of proper index strategy (normal, reverse, IOT, bitmapped)
16. Education of Developers in Oracle features and their use
17. Management of distributed environments
18. Management of and parallel query
19. Determine and manage partitions and sub-partitions
20. Determine proper use of outlines
21. Create, manage and maintain resource groups
22. Create manage and maintain global temporary tables
23. Create and manage materialized views, summaries and snapshots
24. Monitoring and managing the automatic and dynamic sizing parameters
25. Monitoring and managing the automated UNDO (it isn’t set and forget)
26. Monitoring and tuning RAC environments, especially the cluster interconnect
27. Manage and maintain fine grained auditing
28. Manage and maintain row level security
29. Manage and maintain fine grained access controls
30. Configure, manage and maintain Oracle Streams
    

In Oracle10gR2 there are 1379 documented and undocumented initialization parameters, 185 of them are used to determine SQL paths for SQL statement optimization alone.

Just keeping developers apprised of new features and methods has become a full time job for many DBAs.

As good as the cost based optimizer is getting, it still needs a talented DBA around for when it chokes, in fact it can be argued that if the CBO does choke, you had better have a very skilled DBA on hand as it will require a high level of expertise to figure out why. With the large number of index, structure, partitioning and other features now available a DBA is critical from the design phase all the way to implementation.

While tools such as TOAD and SQL Navigator as well as the set of Spotlight tools and Performance Analyzer make doing the DBA job easier, they only work optimally if a skilled DBA is at the helm. To get full advantage out of any tool, the workman must be skilled, if you don’t believe me try handing expensive tools to inexperienced workmen and see what quality of output you receive.

In order to prevent ourselves from, as our friends from across the pond say “becoming redundant” we need to constantly study and upgrade our abilities. As long as Oracle adds new features, as long as new ways of designing systems, implementing systems and maintaining systems are required, DBAs will be required.

Are we doomed to become similar to DBAs on more automated systems that merely baby sit? I don’t think so. Oracle has a richer feature set, runs on more platforms, supports larger, more complex databases and will always be more of a challenge to manage than most other databases. From Oracle’s complexity comes its strength. If the complexity of management of Oracle is reduced beyond a certain horizon it will lose its flexibility as well.

I plan on working as a DBA or in support of DBAs until I retire, which I assure you if my Wife has anything to do with it, will be many years from now. I believe Oracle is a good choice of study for database students and can provide jobs for both DBAs and developers for years to come.