get points and answer one question

[Thomas Schler_1]

Hi,

you will earn points on this topic, please, give me your answers.

We are investigating how many people we should hire for some specific tasks on HP-UX/Oracle. We are not sure if one person (100%) is enough or if we need two or more. So, I think in this forum, there are many experienced specialists, that can give their valuable thoughts to this problem.

The environment is:
Two K460 servers: 4 CPUs each, 2 Gb memory each, 16 Gb and 25 Gb internal disks, respectively, 120 Gb disk capacity shared between both
servers, 280 Gb external disks attached on one server, 660 Gb MOD jukebox attached on one server.

The running software are:
HP-UX 10.20, MC/ServiceGuard with three packages configured, HP MirrorDisk UX, sendmail, Oracle 8.0.5.0.0, AMASS (Archival Management
and Storage System) used along with the 660 Gb MOD jukebox, and some other software.

130 users are listed in /etc/passwd.

The tasks are:
- complete administration of both servers (backups, recovery scenarios, security, keeping the OS up to date, OS upgrades, problem and system
analysis)
- complete administration of AMASS, that is used to have normal access on a 660 Gb filesystem that is built by 128 MODs (backups, recovery
scenarios, SW upgrades if necessary, problem and system analysis, media rotations: i.e. archive and delete old files to get free space for new data -- 1.5 Gb new data are received every day)
- administration and configuration of MC/ServiceGuard (three packages are configured, problem analysis)
- performing hardware upgrades and replacements, when necessary
- administration of up to three HP-UX workstations
- administration of an HP-UX SW depot for three different OS releases for the whole company

In addition, due to Oracle, the tasks are:
- designing a database for a complex database structure (it is expected to have more than 70 tables), both, logical and physical design
- deploying and building the database including deployment/testing of
software for data exchange and web interfaces for users
- complete administration of the Oracle system (backups, recovery scenarios, upgrades, security, problem and system analysis)

Do you expect, that these tasks can be handled by one person?

[Christopher McCray_1 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

This is just my opinion; yes it can be done by only one person, but you may want to consider another person who is a DBA, both whose experience overlap the two, so they can back each other up.

Again, just my 2 cents

Chris

[H.Merijn Brand (procura]

Best option IMHO is two persons with different capabilities in part-time (overlapping) work times.

You need the following skills

- analysis
- documentation
- scripting
- communication
- DBA
- SA

[Patrick Wallek]

My opinion: If you can find someone that knows HPUX, AMASS and Oracle, then they should be able to handle it.

I would be prepared to offer said person training in either AMASS or Oracle and MC/SG if they don't already know it.

With 2 systems, there should not be a whole lot of HP-UX stuff to do other than your typical monitoring to make sure that everything is behaving.

If the single person gets over run by Oracle work, you may then think of segregating the Oracle duties from the Sys Admin duties.

[Patrick Wallek]

Chris brings up a good point. With 2 people, if their knowledge overlaps, you can have each back the other up.

That is a good thing. If you have just one person and that person gets hit by a bus then you are in trouble.

[steven Burgess_2]

Hi

I think you require the services of a dba and an experienced sys admin.

Hopefully both having enough knowledge to compliment each other and at times help each other out.

I don't know many people who have enough experience in both areas that could fulfill your needs. I would think you would like each person to concentrate on both areas seperately as opposed to having to juggle 2 roles, thus being able to give 100% to each discipline

My input

Steve

[Sajid_1]

Hi,

I would say two persons - HP-UX administrator and DBA. This combination will work nicely. You can consider choosing only one person, but that will be a mixing and will be hard to find somebody who *actually* have these skills.

HTH

[Tom Maloy]

One person can do this, given the full skill set.

From an enterprise point of view, it would be much better to use two people who are both competent in all areas. In addition to the "hit by a bus" scenario, one person might have trouble scheduling a personal life, and might be subject to premature burnout.

Just my $0.02...

Tom

[Dietmar Konermann]

Hi, Ralph!

This depends definitely on the skill set of that persons. I thnik it could be done by a single person, but you think also about holidays, illness and other resons why there should be a substitute.

Having 2 persons is more expensive, of course. But the tasks look important (and businees critical) enough for me to justify 2 people.

Regards...
Dietmar.

[Shannon Petry]

One person may say that they can do this, but I dont think they can be good at all of these tasks. This means you will have either the OS or Oracle running at 50% or less than it could/should.
WHY?:
Sysadmin skillset: Manage the OS, Servers, Hardware, backups(not including oracle), users. The sysadmin can also performance tune the servers, helping the DB developers know where performance bottlenecks are, etc... Depending on your users and what they are doing on the machine the 130 users could be overwhelming on a single sysadmin.
DBA or DB Developer can handle all of your oracle. Do hot and cold oracle backups, maintain the database, security, performance tune oracle, etc...

Now this being said, you could hire a company to come in and do the oracle work, so that it is developed, deployed, debugged and done. Then maintain it with a sysadmin who can check output from scripts for hot/cold backups.

Now back to my original comment:
I have also seen many Oracle DBA's that think they can manage the OS, but if a problem occurs that SAM wont fix, then they are lost.
I have also seen many sys-admins that think they can develop oracle. Maybe they can fake it a bit, but development time will be slow at best, longer debug times, under-performance, etc...

Just my two cents worth, but hope it helps in your descision.

Regards,
Shannon