RE: Routine DBA activities for Informix!!!

From: William Rice <ricew@operamail.com> > >Come in late. >Leave early. >Take long lunches. >Be arrogant. >Blame it on the developer. Go BDBAFH! Use obscure terminology to confuse users. Randomly batch delete chunks of data. Randomly drop or create indexes. Randomly bounce the server. Create entries for the obfuscated SQL contest. Spend all day answering other peoples questions on comp.databases.informix. >Actually from what I have seen (which isn't that much) the following seem >to always apply. >1. Watch space usage. >2. Ensure backup and restore strategy is reliable. >3. Tune database. > a. Try to get good cache rates. > b. Try to shorten checkpoints. > c. Make sure data is distributed in a good manner. > d. Try to make use of all the CPU's. > e. Watch for bugs which apply to your system. > f. I am sure I do more than this, so there have to be other things :) Monitor your user count so that you don't break your licensing agreement? :-> Monitor network/ODBC connectivity response times. Basically, I've found that at most sites, the moment something goes wrong, the database takes the blame first (1. "I can't connect to a web site through the firewall" "Damn database must be down again" 2. "My PC just blew up" "Damn database must be down again" 3. "Russia just declared war on Chechnya" "Bloody Informix, wish they'd make a more stable and reliable database") ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

On Thu, 24 Feb 2000 15:07:17 GMT, "Obnoxio The Clown" <obnoxio@hotmail.com> wrote: >>Come in late. >>Leave early. >>Take long lunches. >>Be arrogant. >>Blame it on the developer. >Use obscure terminology to confuse users. >Randomly batch delete chunks of data. >Randomly drop or create indexes. >Randomly bounce the server. >Create entries for the obfuscated SQL contest. >Spend all day answering other peoples questions on comp.databases.informix. Thx for all the hints, I already supposed something's going terribly wrong with me: Try to enter with the first customer and leave with the last. Check out 'database problems' and so fix crashed PC's, broken network connections, malfunctioning hardware (and sometimes even really database problems). Check out new versions and utilities on weekends. Grab, read and re-read any available documentation and information (in your 'spare' time at home, cause you never find the time to do this at work). Never go on vacations... you'll get an emergency call to hurry back just after you finished unpacking at your destination. I think I need some BDBAFH training badly ;-) Does Informix offer this special courses? Axel

>Monitor your user count so that you don't break your licensing agreement? Ho! Ho! Ho! >> "Bloody Informix, wish they'd make a more stable and reliable database" I used to be something of a guru (probably still am) on Software AG's Adabas database on UNIX. SAG's licence agreement used to have a clause something like "Software AG will not be responsible for any death or injury caused by malfunctioning software ..." Perhaps this safety angle is one the fledgling Informix marketing team could work on. After all, even early versions on IDS v7.3x were not so crap that they'd actually kill you, surely?!!