Oracle DBA Course Introduction

An Oracle database is a collection of data treated as a unit. The purpose of a database is to store and retrieve related information. A database server is the key to solving the problems of information management. In general, a server reliably manages a large amount of data in a multiuser environment so that many users can concurrently access the same data. All this is accomplished while delivering high performance. A database server also prevents unauthorized access and provides efficient solutions for failure recovery.

Oracle Database is the first database designed for enterprise grid computing, the most flexible and cost effective way to manage information and applications. Enterprise grid computing creates large pools of industry-standard, modular storage and servers. With this architecture, each new system can be rapidly provisioned from the pool of components. There is no need for peak workloads, because capacity can be easily added or reallocated from the resource pools as needed.

The database has logical structures and physical structures. Because the physical and logical structures are separate, the physical storage of data can be managed without affecting the access to logical storage structures.

Responsibilities of Database Administrators

Each database requires at least one database administrator (DBA). An Oracle Database system can be large and can have many users. Therefore, database administration is sometimes not a one-person job, but a job for a group of DBAs who share responsibility.

• A database administrator's responsibilities can include the following tasks:

• Installing and upgrading the Oracle Database server and application tools
• Allocating system storage and planning future storage requirements for the database system
• Creating primary database storage structures (tablespaces) after application developers have designed an application
• Creating primary objects (tables, views, indexes) once application developers have designed an application
• Modifying the database structure, as necessary, from information given by application developers
• Enrolling users and maintaining system security
• Ensuring compliance with Oracle license agreements
• Controlling and monitoring user access to the database
• Monitoring and optimizing the performance of the database
• Planning for backup and recovery of database information
• Maintaining archived data on tape
• Backing up and restoring the database
• Contacting Oracle for technical support