A Structured Approach to Database Administration using the principles of ITIL and ITSM

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A Structured Approach to Database Administration
using the principles of ITIL and ITSM

• By Iggy Fernandez

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Speaker Introduction

• 10 years of Oracle DBA experience
• Previously, Manager of Database Administration
  Services at Corio
• Currently, Lead DBA at Intacct

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Presentation Structure

• Part I - Problem Statement
• Part II - Other approaches
• Part III - ITIL and ITSM

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Part I The Problem Statement
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How many DBAs does it take to change a light bulb?

• A chief technology officer of a G2000 company
  recently told me that he had three database
  administrators (DBAs) managing 130 instances of
  software on a 24/7 basis. I shuddered at the
  thought. No matter how qualified and
  knowledgeable those individuals might be, three
  IT professionals were not sufficient for the
  task Dr Tim Chou President, Oracle
  Outsourcing

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What are the deliverables of the DBA function?

• What is a DBA's responsibility? This
  million-dollar question is difficult for most IS
  organizations--let alone DBAs themselves--to
  answer Published Oracle author
• If you don't know Which to Do, Of all the things
  in front of you, Then what you'll have when you
  are through, Is just a mess without a clue
  Winnie the Pooh Bear

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Wiretap Recording

• First DBA it seems very quiet this week...
• First DBA i don't think i'll have 4 - 5 hours
  of real work
• Second DBA why dont you enter the time for
  regular db maintenance on the servers
• First DBA uhhhhhhhhhhh, what regular maint?
• First DBA there hasn't been any this week
• Second DBA but at least you can enter the time
  for proactive maintenance
• First DBA what proactive maint?
• First DBA haven't touched a box this week.
• Second DBA check the error log and other db
  related logs
• First DBA hmmmmm

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HA technology does not produce HA

• Intel DBA writes quickie script
• eBay DBA types in wrong window
• Amazon database cannot be restarted

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Wiretap Recording

• First DBA too many fires
• Second DBA ?
• First DBA oh the usual
• First DBA prod is down, archive logs missing
• First DBA etc etc
• First DBA and everybody is running around like
  a headless chicken

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Recap The Problem Statement

• Inadequate staffing?
• No consensus on deliverables
• No rating methodology
• Bad things happen easily
• HA Technology does not produce HA

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Part II Other Approaches
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Capability Maturity Model (Software Development)

• INITIAL Individual Heroics
• REPEATABLE Basic Processes e.g. Project
  Management, Quality Assurance
• DEFINED Documentation, Standardization,
  Integration, Communication
• MANAGED Monitoring, Measurement, Reporting
• OPTIMIZING Continuous Improvement

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Other Quality Management Systems

• ISO 9000 family
• Six Sigma

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Deficiencies of Quality Management Systems

• No specific guidance for I.T. (SW-CMM)
• No specific guidance for any field (ISO 9000)
• Only applicable to manufacturing (Six Sigma)
• Top-heavy bureaucracy

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COBIT

• Control Objectives for Information Technology
• Controls and Control Objectives
• Key Success Factors
• Key Goal Indicators
• Key Performance Indicators

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What about SAS 70?

• Not a check list of best practices no such
  thing as SAS 70 compliance
• Auditing methodology published by the American
  Institute of Certified Public Accountants
• Type I and Type II audits
• Can hide as much as they reveal

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Part III ITIL and ITSM
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I.T. Service Management

• Created by the U.K. government
• Described in the ITIL publications (I.T.
  Infrastructure Library)
• Adopted by I.T. Service Providers like IBM Global
  Services and by Fortune 100 companies like eBay
  and Genentech
• 10 interrelated management processes in two
  groups (over-simplification)

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Service Support

• Incident Management
• Problem Management
• Configuration Management
• Change Management
• Release Management

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Incident Management

• Restore normal service operation as quickly as
  possible and minimize the adverse impact on
  business operations, thus ensuring that the best
  possible levels of service quality and
  availability are maintained Best Practice for
  Service Delivery ITIL Series

• Reactive, Break-fix
• Database down, Database slow, Job failure, Schema
  Changes, Add users
• Service Desk, Call Center, Ticketing System, P1,
  SEV-1
• 24x7, Remote Access, VPN

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Problem Management

• Minimize the adverse impact of Incidents and
  Problems on the business that are caused by
  errors within the IT infrastructure, and to
  prevent recurrence of Incidents related to these
  errors Best Practice for Service Delivery
  ITIL Series

• Proactive, Root Cause Analysis, Post-Mortem,
  Trend Analysis
• Keep separate from Incident Management

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Configuration Management

• Provide accurate information on configurations
  and their documentation to support all the other
  Service Management processes Best Practice for
  Service Delivery ITIL Series

• How does Server A differ from Server B?
• Who has access to Server A?
• Which patches have been applied to this
  Peoplesoft environment?
• When does the Support Contract expire?
• Who is the Business Owner?

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Change Management

• Ensure that standardized methods and procedures
  are used for efficient and prompt handling of all
  Changes, in order to minimize the impact of
  Change related incidents upon service quality,
  and consequently to improve the day-to-day
  operations of the organization Best Practice
  for Service Delivery ITIL Series

• Risk Analysis, ROI Analysis
• Pre-Test Plan
• Pre-Communication Plan
• Pre-Signoffs
• Backup Plan
• Execution Plan
• Backout Plan
• Post-Test Plan
• Post-Communication Plan
• Post-Signoffs
• Documentation Updates
• Contingency Plan Updates

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Release Management

• Design and implement efficient procedures for
  the distribution and installation of Changes to
  I.T. Systems Best Practice for Service
  Delivery ITIL Series

• Installs
• Upgrades
• Patches

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Service Delivery

• Service Level Management
• Financial Management
• Capacity Management
• Continuity Management
• Availability Management

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Service Level Management

• Maintain and improve I.T. Service quality,
  through a constant cycle of agreeing, monitoring
  and reporting upon I.T. Service achievements and
  instigation of actions to eradicate poor service
  in line with business or cost justification
  Best Practice for Service Delivery ITIL Series

• Service Level Agreements
• Operational Level Agreements
• Satisfaction Surveys

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Financial Management

• Provide cost-effective stewardship of the I.T.
  assets and resources used in providing I.T.
  Services Best Practice for Service Delivery
  ITIL Series

• Hardware, Software, Personnel, Facilities,
  Service Contracts
• TCO, ROI, Budgeting, Accounting, Charging
• Server Consolidation, Standard Edition,
  Colocation, Linux, Open Source

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Capacity Management

• Ensure that cost-justifiable I.T. capacity
  always exists and that it is matched to the
  current and future needs of the business Best
  Practice for Service Delivery ITIL Series

• Monitoring
• Tuning!
• Capacity Planning
• Demand Management

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Continuity Management

• Support the overall Business Continuity
  Management process by ensuring that the required
  I.T. technical and service facilities (including
  computer systems, networks, applications,
  technical support and Service Desk) can be
  recovered within required, and agreed, business
  timescales Best Practice for Service Delivery
  ITIL Series

• Disaster Recovery, Contingency Planning
• Fire, earthquake, flood, power failure

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Availability Management

• Understand the Availability requirements of the
  business and plan, measure, monitor and
  continuously improve the Availability of the I.T.
  Infrastructure, services and supporting
  organization to ensure that these requirements
  are met consistently Best Practice for
  Service Delivery ITIL Series

• Availability is Job 1!
• High Availability, Data Guard
• Redundancy, RAC
• SAN, NAS, Active-Passive Configuration
• Backups! Backups! Backups! Test! Test! Test!

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What are the deliverables of the DBA function?

• A stable, secure and resilient infrastructure
• A log or database or all operational events,
  alerts and alarms
• A set of operational scripts
• A resilience and fail-over testing schedule
• A set of operational work schedules

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What are the deliverables of the DBA function?

• A set of operational management tools
• Management reports and information
• Exception reviews and reports
• Review and audit reports
• A secure Operational Document Library

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Do we have the time?

• Quadrant I Activities that are Important and
  Urgent e.g. Incident Management
• Quadrant II Activities that are Important but
  not Urgent e.g. Configuration Management
• Quadrant III Activities that are not Important
  but Urgent
• Quadrant IV Activities that are not Important
  and not urgent

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Recap (How many DBAs does it take to fix a light
bulb?)

1. Rate each ITSM focus area
2. Rate the quality of each deliverable
3. Decide what level you want to reach
4. Determine how much work is involved
5. Determine how many DBAs you need

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Further Reading

• CMM sei.cmu.edu/cmm/
• Six Sigma ge.com/sixsigma/
• ISO 9000 iso.org
• COBIT isaca.org
• SAS 70 systemexperts.com/tutors/sas70.pdf
• ITSM itsmf.com

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ITIL Series

• Best Practice for Service Delivery
• Best Practice for Service Support
• Best Practice for ICT Infrastructure Management
• Best Practice for Application Management
• Best Practice for Security Management

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Q A

• Send e-mail to iggy_fernandez_at_hotmail.com