Duties of Database Administrators

The principal responsibility of a database administrator (DBA) is to make enterprise data available to its users.

DBAs must work closely with developers to ensure that their applications make efficient use of the database, and with system administrators to ensure that physical resources are adequate and used efficiently.

Oracle DBAs are responsible for understanding the Oracle Database architecture and how the database works. DBAs can expect to perform the following tasks:

• Installing, upgrading, and patching Oracle Database software
• Designing databases, including identifying requirements, creating the logical design (conceptual model), and physical database design
• Creating Oracle databases
• Developing and testing a backup and recovery strategy, backing up Oracle databases regularly, and recovering them in case of failures
• Configuring the network environment to enable clients to connect to databases
• Starting up and shutting down the database
• Managing storage for the database
• Managing users and security
• Managing database objects such as tables, indexes, and views
• Monitoring and tuning database performance
• Investigating, gathering data for, and reporting to Oracle Support Services any critical database errors
• Evaluating and testing new database features

The types of users and their roles and responsibilities depend on the database environment. A small database may have one DBA. A very large database may divide the DBA duties among several specialists, for example, security officers, backup operators, and application administrators.