Database Users

Database users are the one who really use and take the benefits of database.
There will be different types of users depending on their need and way of
accessing the database.

1. Application Programmers - They are the developers who interact

with the database by means of some DML queries. These DML
queries are written in the application programs like C, C++,
JAVA, Pascal etc. These queries are converted into object code to
communicate with the database.

For example, writing a C program to generate the report of employees

who are working in particular department will involve a query to fetch
the data from database. It will include an embedded SQL query in the
C Program.

2. Sophisticated Users - They are database developers, who write

SQL queries to select/insert/delete/update data. They do not use
any application or programs to request the database. They directly
interact with the database by means of query language like SQL.
These users will be scientists, engineers, analysts who thoroughly
study SQL and DBMS to apply the concepts in their requirement. In
short, we can say this category includes designers and developers of
DBMS and SQL.

3. Stand-alone Users - These users will have stand –alone database

for their personal use. These kinds of database will have
readymade database packages which will have menus and graphical
interfaces.

4. Native Users - these are the users who use the existing application to
interact with the database. For example, online library system, ticket
booking systems, ATMs etc which has existing application and users
use them to interact with the database to fulfill their requests.

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Database Administrators

The life cycle of database starts from designing, implementing to

administration of it. A database for any kind of requirement needs to be
designed perfectly so that it should work without any issues. Once all the
design is complete, it needs to be installed. Once this step is complete, users
start using the database. The database grows as the data grows in the
database. When the database becomes huge, its performance comes down.
Also accessing the data from the database becomes challenge. There will be
unused memory in database, making the memory inevitably huge. These
administration and maintenance of database is taken care by database
Administrator–DBA.

A DBA has many responsibilities. A good performing database is in the hands

of DBA.

 Installing and upgrading the DBMS Servers: - DBA is responsible for

installing a new DBMS server for the new projects. He is also
responsible for upgrading these servers as there are new versions
comes in the market or requirement. If there is any failure in
upgradation of the existing servers, he should be able revert the new
changes back to the older version, thus maintaining the DBMS
working. He is also responsible for updating the service packs/ hot
fixes/ patches to the DBMS servers.
 Design and implementation: - Designing the database and
implementing is also DBA’s responsibility. He should be able to
decide proper memory management, file organizations, error
handling, log maintenance etc for the database.
 Performance tuning: - Since database is huge and it will have lots of
tables, data, constraints and indices, there will be variations in the
performance from time to time. Also, because of some designing
issues or data growth, the database will not work as expected. It is
responsibility of the DBA to tune the database performance. He is
responsible to make sure all the queries and programs works in
fraction of seconds.
 Migrate database servers: - Sometimes, users using oracle would like
to shift to SQL server or Netezza. It is the responsibility of DBA to
make sure that migration happens without any failure, and there is no
data loss.
 Backup and Recovery: - Proper backup and recovery programs needs
to be developed by DBA and has to be maintained him. This is one of
the main responsibilities of DBA. Data/objects should be backed up
regularly so that if there is any crash, it should be recovered without
much effort and data loss.

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  Security: - DBA is responsible for creating various database users and
roles, and giving them different levels of access rights.
 Documentation: - DBA should be properly documenting all his
activities so that if he quits or any new DBA comes in, he should be
able to understand the database without any effort. He should
basically maintain all his installation, backup, recovery, security
methods. He should keep various reports about database
performance.

In order to perform his entire task, he should have very good command over
DBMS.

Types of DBA

There are different kinds of DBA depending on the responsibility that he owns.

 Administrative DBA - This DBA is mainly concerned with installing,

and maintaining DBMS servers. His prime tasks are installing,
backups, recovery, security, replications, memory management,
configurations and tuning. He is mainly responsible for all
administrative tasks of a database.
 Development DBA - He is responsible for creating queries and
procedure for the requirement. Basically his task is similar to any
database developer.
 Database Architect - Database architect is responsible for creating and
maintaining the users, roles, access rights, tables, views, constraints
and indexes. He is mainly responsible for designing the structure of
the database depending on the requirement. These structures will be
used by developers and development DBA to code.
 Data Warehouse DBA -DBA should be able to maintain the data and
procedures from various sources in the datawarehouse. These
sources can be files, COBOL, or any other programs. Here data and
programs will be from different sources. A good DBA should be able
to keep the performance and function levels from these sources at
same pace to make the datawarehouse to work.
 Application DBA -He acts like a bridge between the application
program and the database. He makes sure all the application program
is optimized to interact with the database. He ensures all the activities
from installing, upgrading, and patching, maintaining, backup,
recovery to executing the records works without any issues.
 OLAP DBA - He is responsible for installing and maintaining the
database in OLAP systems. He maintains only OLAP databases.

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