Database Maintenance
Maintenance activities include changing programs, procedures, or documentation to ensure correct system performance, adapting the system to changing requirements, and making the system to operate more effectively. Those needs are met by corrective maintenance to fix errors; adaptive maintenance to add new capability and enhancements; perfective maintenance to improve efficiency; and preventive maintenance to reduce the possibility of future system failure. Hence, it’s important to view maintenance more broadly than just think of it as a task to only fix errors.

Database Maintenance Tasks may include:
Corrective Maintenance
  • Diagnose and fix logic errors
  • Debug and tune SQL or PL/SQL program codes
  • Restore proper database or operating system configuration settings
  • Update drivers.
  • Tune bad table indexes and partitions.
  • Tune or eliminate programs heavily consuming CPU resources.
  • Install database management software patch.
  • Replace defective systems, e.g. network cables, etc.

Adaptive Maintenance
  • Add online capability (web-based database system).
  • Create a corporate portal (an entrance to a multifunction Web site).
  • Add new data entry field to input screen.
  • Add new data migration and integration strategy for data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL process).
  • Add business intelligence dashboards or data visualization capability
  • Upgrade the DBMS (from Oracle 10g to Oracle 11g).

Perfective Maintenance
  • Install additional hardware memory
  • Write scripts to handle repetitive tasks
  • Cache data or queries in memory to enhance performance of the database
  • Develop library for code reuse
  • Upgrade to a more powerful network or database server

Preventive Maintenance
  • Develop standard backup schedule.
  • Set up and monitor database backups and archive logs.
  • Tighten the database security system.
  • Gather statistics and analyze problem report for patterns.
  • Implement regular system maintenance schedule.
  • Install new antivirus software.

One of the biggest problems with most companies or some IT departments is they believe that their problems are over once the system is up and running. Decision support database system projects, for example, never ends but they tend to evolve continually. Each deployment is an iteration of the prototyping process. There will always be a need to add more and different data sets to the database, as well as additional analytic tools for existing and additional groups of decision makers. Therefore, high proactive energy and adequate annual IT budgets must be planned for because success breeds success (Turban et al, 2005).





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