Roles & Responsibilities of Database Administrator (DBA)
A Database administrator (DBA) is one of the database users and can issue many core operations within the database. DBA can be a single person or a group of persons based on the enterprise requirements. DBA has control over both the data and the applications. DBA is responsible for everything that is related to the database. He makes the policies and strategies and provides technical support. The roles and responsibilities of the DBA are as follows:
Schema definition: The logical definition or the overall structure of a database is nothing but the schema of the database. It is the responsibility of DBA to create the database schema. So, DBA issues multiple operations in DDL to define the schema of the database. Once the schema is defined, the users can perform various operations based on their roles. If there are any changes in the operation of the enterprise or in the scope of the enterprise, then DBA is responsible to make the modifications in the database accordingly. In fact, it is very rare that the schema needs major changes as after designing, the DBA may forecast the future requirement and accordingly design the schema.
With schema definition, the other important tasks which are inherent to the schema definition are the storage structure and access methods definition. This will optimize the performance of storing and retrieving the data from the database.
Deciding data structures: Once the database contents have been decided, the DBA would normally make decisions regarding how the data is to be represented in the database, i.e, how the data is to be stored and what indexes need to be maintained. DBA must specify the representation by writing the storage structure definitions. In addition, a DBAnormally monitors the performance of the DBMS and makes the changes to the data structures if the performance justifies them. In some cases, radical changes to the data structures may be called for.
Granting and authorization of users: Databases can be protected from unauthorized access by granting access based on the requirement and roles of the end-user. The task of granting the authorization of data access to different users is one of the tasks of DBA. The DBA may grant or revoke the access permission to the entire or parts of the database to the end-users.
For example, in an enterprise, the DBA may authorize every employee to view only his/her play slip. The end-user can’t change anything or can’t view the others’ pay slips. The read-only access is defined by the DBA.
Routine maintenance: The database is an asset for an enterprise. From day-to-day working to a future plan, everything can be planned by using the database. So, DBA must ensure the database must be available to all the users 24/7. This requires the regular backup of the database. So, DBA is responsible for taking the database backup periodically in order to be able to recover the data from any failure due to human, hardware, or software malfunctioning and restore the database to a consistent state. DBA decides how frequently the backup needs to be taken or he will plan the schedule of foolproof backup.
New software installations and performance monitoring: The DBA is responsible for the installation of the new database software and/ or application software and other related software based on the requirement of an enterprise. After the installation, he must ensure that all the operations, and especially the performance are as per the requirement of the enterprise. The DBA actually monitors the performance and usage based on the policies laid down by an enterprise. DBA monitors the CPU and memory usage and may take a call for performance tuning or new installation of the software.
Hope this was helpful.
