Donna Garverick wrote:

> on my production box, i've got
> several *large* allbase databases.  we don't seem to have
> sufficient(ly willing?) in-house expertise to be a dba for
> allbase.  soooo, for you folks that are running allbase --
> do you have a designated dba?

This is an interesting question, considering we just muddled through
about three weeks of trying to do long-overdue maintenence on an Allbase
table with 52 million records. We finally got it reindexed successfully
last night. What a nightmare! But I digress...

To answer the direct question: No. We used to have a DBA who did both
Informix (also an SQL DB) on HP-UX and Allbase on MPE/iX. When he left
nearly two years ago, our Informix users made sure that we knew they
would need a new DBA. So we now have no less than *four* db experts for
HP-UX & Informix. Did we hire an equivalent Allbase DBA? No, and therein
lies the problem. Now, even though we went nearly *two years* without an
(obvious) Allbase problem (as opposed to weekly problems with Informix),
when we finally had one, we needed a *lot* of help from HP. I imagine we
could have done it right the first time, or at least in a day or two, if
our (Technical Services) staff included an Allbase DBA. Don't know yet
if we could have avoided the whole mess if we'd had one; I suspect we
could have.

(Quick side note here: Even though most of our questions were of the
"how does this work and what do we type" variety, the RC was *very*
supportive and helpful -- suggestions that we take Allbase classes
notwithstanding -- and we did finally get the problem resolved with
their help. Thanks HPRC!)

> i think i'm also asking about
> something beyond basic maintenance...maybe more along the
> lines of an 'analyst'

FWIW, I say go for it. If you don't have one in-house, get one. HP
offered to do a database analysis for us on a time-and-materials basis
*after* the database was functional again, but we declined. Instead, one
of us will be going to the November Allbase class in Atlanta. Maybe me.
So will anyone else on the list be there?

Patrick
(maybe I shouldn't have typed SUBSCRIBE HP3000-L DIGRESS)
--
Patrick Santucci
Technical Services Systems Programmer
KVI, a division of Seabury & Smith
Visit our site! http://www.kvi-ins.com
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