How many people would you employ for sysadmin / dba ?

[Alexander M. Ermes]

Hi there.
Running systems :

one V2500 / 25 Oracle databases and instances
Oracle Applications for all
databases

two N4000 / 11 Oracle databases and instances
2 BEA weblogic servers
1 BRIO server ( ODS and BQS )

one K460 / 3 Oracle databases

How many people would you suggest to keep the systems and databases up and running ?
Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes

[Khalid A. Al-Tayaran]

Hi,

Are the instances OLTP or data warehouses?
Are you running 24 by 7?

Obviously you need more DBA's than OS guys.

You have:
29 databases.
2 Webservers
1 BRIO server
4 HP 9000 Machines

You didn't mention the most important Oracle instances. Meaning the ones that require more attention (backup, tuning, monitoring.....)

With my humble opinion, I think you need:

1) 1 Sys admin (for 4 HP-UX Machines + OS), also another guy to cover him??
2) 1 (or 2 guys for BEA) they should be able to cover each other on vacations... or maybe let the sys admins do it. They can with proper training.
3) You'll need 2 DBA's in three shifts if you are 24 by 7. So they can share the load. Of course this assuming you will use Oracle Management Server.

4) For BRIO, I have no info.

[twang]

On my site, 7 oracle instances
and 2 A-400, 1 D-390 and 1 RP5430
=> only 1 DBA/SA

[Alexander M. Ermes]

Hi there.
Some additional info :

Instances are not running OLTP or datawarehouse.

The two N4000 are clustered.
On these machines we have three instances running 24x7, but we don't do shifts ( at the moment ). In case something goes wrong one person with a cellphone ( standby ) will be called.

Khalid, your comment for shifts :

Two dba's in three shifts meaning 16 hrs per day ? Or two dba's per shift ?

Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes

[Steven E. Protter]

1 Systems Adminstrator 1 Assistant
1 DBA 1 Assistant

You have about three times the number of instances and the same number of machines, though yours are faster.

We have 1 Sysadmin me, cross-trained in Oracle, for a year we had no dba at all.

We have 1 DBA lightly cross trained in Sysadmin.

We push our people pretty hard though.

SEP

[Alexander M. Ermes]

Hi Steven.
Guess, what it is at my place.
The reason for this posting is, i justed wanted to know, how it is handled by others.
Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes

[Michael Tully]

Hi Alexander,

I think it depends on a few things.

1) Does the person or person double up and do other tasks and look after other applications?

2) Are you a 24 x 7 shop?

3) if not is there on-call

We have one oracle DBA who looks after 9 instances on three servers. We also have two informix DBA looking after at least 20 instances on 3 servers.

We have Four Unix admin (including me) looking after 40 odd systems.

Two guys looks after BEA, but this is still in development.

Cheers
Michael

[Stefan Farrelly]

In my opinion you havent got enough hardware for > 1 HP-UX Sysadmin and probably same for Oracle DB's (only 1 DBA needed - as long as theyre good). However, this causes problems if someone is on holiday or sick etc so you either need cross training (dba can do some HP-UX Sysadmin and vice versa) or you need someone to back up your DBA and SysAdmin.

[Alexander M. Ermes]

Hi.
Just to clear the picture.
I am doing sysadmin and dba for all systems.
I have crosstrained a new guy, who mainly works on SQLServer, for HP-UX and Oracle.
This was intense training.
A third man is trained less intense, but he works as database programmer.
Both guys had the basic Oracle training courses for database administration.
We have an on-call schedule setup for the three of us.
Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes

[Robert-Jan Goossens_1]

Two, one very good admin and one in the learing fase.

Robert-Jan