t seems that today's DBA is not only tasked with managing a the database but also as a go between various business and technical units to help understand how the database is going to be used.
To me it seems that the divide between tuning specialist , development DBA and operational DBA is growing thinner and thinner with the expectation now being that a one size fits all DBA is the best form of DBA. This means that a DBA needs to not only understand the inner working of the database but also understand how the various tiers interact with each other.
With all these expectation now put upon a DBA . A DBA is also expectedto get it right. This means that a DBA is tasked with ensuring the Database is sized it its can perform the right number of IOPS and the disk subsystem can perform based on the application that in some cases might not even exist.
If you know someone who is in this situation or are in this situation you know that it is very important to have the right tools and ask for the right information to ensure that everything is in place . The proper flow of information is very important. An application profile needs to be established upfront and based o the application profile and database requirements a server needs to be procured and disk subsystem installed.
Often but not it is very hard to communicate requirements to the SAN and the system admin teams based on an application that does not exist but it is very important to provide atleast a baseline of what is expected based on the application profile. It is very important for DBA's to explain the requirements for the Disk setup based on an ASM profile or a non ASM profile. Proper metrics need to be established and tools like Oracle ORION need to be run to ensure the setup meets the need of the hour.
Often but not projects are rushed and hardware is procured and setup with not much thought put into it . This can not only cause serious bottlenecks but also cost a lot more to tune and replace once the application is live. A couple of days spent in proper planning and setup can save a lot of grief in the long run.
