Oracle Technology Village

The Seven Deadly Habits of a DBA ... and how to cure them A passion for excellence Calling widespread bad habits in database administration "deadly" may seem extreme. However, when you consider the critical nature of most data, and just how damaging data loss or corruption can be to a corporation, "deadly" seems pretty dead-on. Although these habits are distressingly common among DBAs, they are curable with some shrewd management intervention. What follows is a list of the seven habits we consider the deadliest, along with some ideas on how to eliminate them. Habit #1. THE LEAP OF FAITH: "We have faith in our backup." Blind faith can be endearing, but not when it comes backing up a database. Backups should be trusted only as far as they have been tested and verified. Cures: * Have your DBAs verify that the backup is succeeding regularly, preferably using a script that notifies them if there's an issue. * Maintain a backup to your backup. DBAs...