Based on my experience the biggest value of implementing a standard is finding all the problems you didn’t know about. DBAs find allot of problems and need to implement process to fill the gap. Money or the concept of making money is often lost between internal organizations because of lack of communication and especially lack of process. ITIL is recognized as the de facto standard for IT Service Management.ITIL is a best practices framework. Kind of..ITIL has a strong relationship with the ISO9000 quality framework. Today all the big organization like HP, EDS , IBM strictly follow the ITIL process and shared the same with client so they can rely on them . As per the current job market it is a mandatory for all the support engineer must be attend the ITIL training and should be complete the foundation exam. ITIL has two major groups, service delivery (what services must IT provide to the business) and service support (how does IT ensure access and service).

1. ITIL/ITSM relation with DBA
Rajib Kundu: Citagus

2. ITIL Service Management
ITIL – The Big2Picture
Service Support Service Delivery
Service Desk (function) Service Level Management
Incident Management Financial Mgt of IT Services
Problem Management Capacity Management
Configuration Management IT Service Continuity Mgt
Change Management Availability Management
Release Management
Rajib Kundu : Citagus

3. Responsibilities – No change
3
 Database Security
 Database Change Management
 Database Performance
 SQL
 State of Tables
 Parameters and Sizing
 Database Recovery
 Application Failure
 Disaster Recovery
 Database or software failure
 Interaction with Development
Rajib Kundu: Citagus

4. Incident Management
4
 “Restore normal service  The DBA – might get a call
operation as quickly as  Reactive, Break-fix
possible and minimize the  Database down, Database slow,
adverse impact on business Job failure, Schema Changes, Add
operations, thus ensuring that users
the best possible levels of  Service Desk, Call Center,
service quality and availability Ticketing System, P1, SEV-1
are maintained”  24x7, Remote Access, VPN
 A report problem or complaint.
 Help desk – Service desk etc.
Rajib Kundu: Citagus

5. Problem Management
5
 “Minimize the adverse impact  DBA – May interact with
of Incidents and Problems on consistent problems
the business that are caused  Proactive, Root Cause Analysis,
by errors within the IT Post-Mortem, Trend Analysis
infrastructure, and to prevent  This is separate from Incident
recurrence of Incidents related Management
to these errors”
 Remember my example they find the
problems and turn them into errors.
Some DBA may be directly involved
with this group.
Rajib Kundu: Citagus

6. Configuration Management
6
 “Provide accurate information on  The DBA will know how and when
configurations and their the DB is accessed and should get
documentation to support all the this information to this group
other Service Management  How does Server A differ from
processes” Server B?
 Who has access to Server A?
 They own everything and when a change
goes in they are responsible for making
 Environmental….UNIX /
sure the CMDB reflects the change as Mainframe / Windows…….
well they will have a PIR Post  Which patches have been applied
Implementation Review and someone
from the DB group should be involved to this CRM environment?
 When does the Support Contract
expire?
 Who is the Business Owner?
Rajib Kundu: Citagus

7. Change Management
7
 “Ensure that standardized methods  DBA will be involved if not on the CAB
and procedures are used for efficient team
and prompt handling of all Changes,  Risk Analysis, ROI Analysis
in order to minimize the impact of  Pre-Test Plan
Change related incidents upon  Pre-Communication Plan
service quality, and consequently to  Pre-Signoffs
improve the day-to-day operations  Backup Plan
of the organization”  Execution Plan
 Backout Plan
 A change would have been defined an RFC  Post-Test Plan
and if it involved a database you should have
 Post-Communication Plan
someone involved in the review of the
change.  Post-Signoffs
 Change Management is not project  Documentation Updates
management, however it is responsible for
 Contingency Plan Updates
this change being done and being done on
time.
Rajib Kundu : Citagus

8. Release Management
8
 “Design and implement efficient  DBA will definitely work with this
procedures for the distribution group
and installation of Changes to I.T.  Installs
Systems”  Upgrades
 Patches
 Database Change Management
 Release management makes sure all the
 Impact
players responsible for the change are
involved and coordinates with the  Rollback
various departments on release schedules  etc
testing etc. Again this is not project
management..
Rajib Kundu: Citagus

9. Service Level Management
9
 “Maintain and improve I.T.  Today the DBA will be under some
Service quality, through a SLA agreement but should have a
constant cycle of agreeing, better understanding of priority
monitoring and reporting upon  Service Level Agreements
I.T. Service achievements and  Operational Level Agreements
instigation of actions to  Satisfaction Surveys
eradicate poor service – in line
with business or cost
justification”
 Good old SLA and Operation Level
Agreement
 Should maintain a service catalog to
understand if agreements are being
met
 Should always be running a Service
Improvement Program
 How to do things better or cheaper
Rajib Kundu : Citagus

10. Financial Management
10
 “Provide cost-effective  Hardware, Software,
stewardship of the I.T. assets and Personnel, Facilities, Service
resources used in providing I.T. Contracts
Services”
 TCO, ROI, Budgeting,
Accounting, Charging
 Server Consolidation,
 Budget / Accounting - what it costs
to do business Standard Edition, Colocation,
 Everybody spends money these Linux, Open Source
guys track it
Rajib Kundu: Citagus

11. Capacity Management
11
 “Ensure that cost-justifiable I.T.  The DBA will be involved in all of
capacity always exists and that it is theses task and provide data and
matched to the current and future advice
needs of the business”  Monitoring
 Tuning!
 What they need now to run the  Capacity Planning
business and what they will need in
the future  Demand Management
 Measure of workload – how we doing
now
 Keep track of all resources including
employees and IT assets
 Performance management lands here.
Monitor and tuning.
 Should have a Capacity Management
Database for analysis
Rajib Kundu: Citagus

12. Continuity Management
12
 “Support the overall Business  DBA will provide plans and criteria
Continuity Management process by  Disaster Recovery
ensuring that the required I.T.  Contingency Planning
technical and service facilities
(including computer systems,  Application Error or fallback
networks, applications, technical  Fire, earthquake, flood, power
support and Service Desk) can be failure
recovered within required, and
agreed, business timescales”
 Responsible for understanding the impact
of the applications and components of
your IT department. You will be involved
in the Business Impact Analysis of your
databases and there use by applications
 Need to know all the assets, the threats
and possible vulnerabilities.
Rajib Kundu: Citagus

13. Availability Management
13
 “Understand the Availability  DBA - what do you need to get
requirements of the business and where the business wants to go
plan, measure, monitor and  Availability is Job #1!
continuously improve the  High Availability, Hardware?
Availability of the I.T.
Infrastructure, services and  Redundancy, RAC
supporting organization to ensure  SAN, NAS, Active-Passive
that these requirements are met Configuration
consistently”  Backups! Backups! Backups! Test!
Test! Test!
 Design for availability – measure
MTTR and MTBF and my favorite
MTBSI
Rajib Kundu: Citagus

14. Security Management
14
“The process of Security Managementis  DBA – Day to day and compliance
required to establish the necessary standards
logical and physical security measures  Database Access and authorities
to ensure (Confidentiality, Integrity  Application access and database
and Availability) C.I.A. of IT Systems and change management
and information.”
 Audit access
 Rules, Regulations and
 Determine confidentiality, integrity
and availability of data
Compliance
 Physical security, technical security
and procedural security
Rajib Kundu: Citagus

15. What are the ITIL deliverables / goals of the DBA function?
15
 Operational management tools
 Management reports and information
 Exception reviews and reports
 Review and audit reports
 Operational Document Library
 A stable, secure and resilient infrastructure
 A log or database or all operational events, alerts and
alarms
 Fail-over and disaster recovery testing schedule
 Operational work schedules
Rajib Kundu: Citagus

16. Prioritize your time?
16
 I – Activities that are Important and Urgent e.g.
Incident Management
 II – Activities that are Important but not Urgent e.g.
Configuration Management
 III – Activities that are not Important but Urgent
 IV – Activities that are not Important and not urgent
Rajib Kundu: Citagus

17. DBA ITIL Procedures
17
1. Rate each ITSM focus area
2. Rate the quality of each deliverable
3. Decide what level you want to reach
4. Determine how much work is involved
5. Determine how much time you need
Rajib Kundu: Citagus