The Role Of The DBA

I’m back at work today after a week’s travelling around Europe followed by a week’s holiday sailing around the Ionian Sea. I have to say that I’d rather still be on holiday. It’s not that I don’t enjoy my job (I love it) but… Today, I need to install some database software – and it appears that in the last two weeks I forgot what a royal pain in the backside this process is. Either that or I left my brain in Greece…

It seems to me that the role of the DBA is to provide a bridge between the expectation and reality of database software. On the one side we have the marketing hype from the vendor promising an ideal scenario in which stuff just works (hey it’s “unbreakable!”), while on the other side is a set of business requirements defining what needs to be in place. The two seem to fit, yet in between is a yawning chasm – at the bottom of which lies a bubbling and hissing pool of error messages, patching requirements and workarounds; a lake of fire and confusion. The DBA is supposed to make this mess disappear, or at least shield the users from it, but the truth is that the gap feels like it’s getting wider. Some users are going to fall in, while others are blessedly ignorant of just how frail their support structure actually is.

There Is An Alternative…

Ok enough of the metaphors, time to offer some sort of solution. I propose that we automate some of the more mundane tasks of the DBA. Oh I know that some database vendors think they’ve already done this with their installation wizards and “one command” solutions, but we all know that these regularly fall over unless every single thing is *exactly* in the right place and the wind is blowing in the right direction.

No, I’m talking about automating the role of the DBA – the person who has to manually run the automation scripts. Yes, automate the automation. And I’ve begun already, by writing a script to perform a generic database software install. Ok so it’s only in pseudo-code so far, but it’s open sources so perhaps one of you clever people out there could build on it and credit me in the header?

So here we go. I present to you version 0.1 of the AutomaDBA solution’s Database Installation subroutine:

# Subroutine for handling installation of database software on a new host
# Part of class defining the role of the Database Administrator (DBA)

declare

	NUMBER_OF_ATTEMPTS := 0;

begin

	let NUMBER_OF_ATTEMPTS := NUMBER_OF_ATTEMPTS + 1;

	if NUMBER_OF_ATTEMPTS >= 2 then prepare_host();

	let ERRORS := install_database_software(PRODUCT, VERSION);

	while ERRORS > 0; loop

		# Check error message on Support Portal
		if (check_errors_on_metalink == FOUND) then

			case SOLUTION in
				"WORKAROUND")
					implement_workaround();
					;;
				"PATCH"
					apply_patch(PATCH_NUMBER);
					;;
			end case;

		# Check error message on Google
		else if (check_errors_on_google == FOUND) then

			case SOLUTION in
				"WORKAROUND")
					implement_workaround();
					;;
				"PATCH"
					apply_patch(PATCH_NUMBER);
					;;
			end case;

		# Ask anyone and everyone if they know the answer
		else if (ask_other_people_for_help == SENSIBLE_ANSWER) then

			attempt_desperate_solution(SUGGESTION);

		else

			report "Failed to install"||PRODUCT||" "||VERSION;

			# Start again or give up?
			if NUMBER_OF_ATTEMPTS < PATIENCE_THRESHOLD then

				deinstall_database_software(PRODUCT, VERSION);
				retry_install;

			else

				exit INSTALL_FAILED;
			end if;

		end if;

	end loop;

#	document_successful_installation(PRODUCT, VERSION);  -- REMOVED DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS

	exit INSTALL_SUCCEEDED;

exception

	when others then
		prepare_resume;
end;