INF30010 / 80037 Database Administration 代写
INF30010 / 80037
INF30010 / 80037
Database Administration
Assignment 1
Contemporary Issues in DBA
August 2017
INF30010 Assignment 1
1. Introduction
Database Administration is fundamental to modern day business: without good database
administration, database designs can become outdated, performance may become suboptimal,
user needs are less likely to be met over time, data loses integrity, and the whole system may
completely fail.
All mainstream DBMS require ongoing maintenance. It is the role of the Database Administrator to
keep database systems online, up-to-date, and functioning efficiently, and delivering on user
demands. They can play a role in evaluating new systems or updates, designing the database,
establishing use and access policies, tuning the database, ensuring backup and recovery, and
planning for future developments. Database Administrators and tools for administering databases
have been around as long as databases: new tools emerge over time, as do specialist roles – these
developments depend on both the technological opportunities and business needs of the day.
In this assignment, working in teams, we challenge you to explore some of the contemporary
challenges and opportunities facing organizations and database administrators. To this end, each
group will focus on a specific DBA issue, independently and critically analyse relevant literature and
tools, and communicate findings via a group report and presentation. The aim is for students to
better understand database administration in the context of modern organizations, in terms of
performance requirements, monitoring approaches, available tools, and improvement strategies,
INF30010 Assignment 1
2. Activities and Requirements
To successfully complete this task, you and your group will need to complete the following tasks and
requirements. If you’re unsure about any of the steps please consult your lab instructor or the
course convenor.
i. In Week 3 of the unit, your lab instructor will help organize you into groups of 4 students
ii. Each group will either select or be allocated a topic (see below). Each topics consists of brief
background and set of questions that needs to be understood and researched.
iii. In addition to the above, each group should ensure they’ve answered the following general
questions, relevant to all topics: 1) Critically examine the societal and/or organizational
trends driving the uptake of the DBA-related technology; 2) Explore and explain the technical
nature of the DBA-related technology (i.e. hardware, software, networks, models,
standards/protocols) and how these complement or compete with conventional DBA tools;
3) Explain the approaches and potential challenges for implementing the DBA technology
within organizations; 4) Identify and articulate any changes to the role of DBA – or new roles
a DBA might be required to undertake; 5) Hypothesize what the impact of your topic area
will be on DBAs (individuals and the industry), organizations, and society more broadly – in
the next 5 to 10 years (you might develop multiple scenarios); 6) If possible, identify a real
case study organization or individual and use it help further demonstrate and justify your
answers to the first five questions (note: you can use DBA industry contacts here, or make
use of grey literature, or even academic literature from the library)
iv. Before commencing the research, the team must decide and record how it plans to work
together. The following should be completed: a) decision on whether to appoint a team
leader; b) outline of when, where, and how often the team plans to meet; c) a code of set of
rules to which all team members must adhere to, including incentives or penalties in cases
where team members fail to adhere to the code; d) articulation of the tasks than need to be
completed by the team; e) clear allocation of which team members will complete what tasks;
f) justification that the allocation of tasks is equitable; g) a timeline or Gantt chart identifying
when each task is to be completed. This team plan should be recorded by the group and
submitted as an appendix to the final report. Minutes of each meeting should also be kept
and submitted in the appendix.
v. Using iii as your guide, investigate and research your allocated topic area. You can make
use of academic literature, grey literature, web resources, and case studies. You can also
speak with industry experts and/or leaders within the field. If you do this, be sure to seek
their permission to be recorded (verbally or written) and make clear that the information
they provide you will only be used within your group report. Your topic might also require
you to analyse, test, and apply different database administration tools – either online or
available from within Swinburne’s ICT suite of hardware and software. When undertaking
these investigations remember you’ll need an approach for assessing the tools and record
your findings.
vi. Synthesize your research findings into a structured report. The report should be no longer
than 3000 words. It should be written in English and make use of correct spelling and
INF30010 Assignment 1
grammar. Include a title page, executive summary and contents page. You may structure the
sections however your group prefers, but, it should be logical and well organized. If
necessary, you may include SQL statements and/or scripts as needed. These should be
added as an appendix. The report should, where necessary, cite the relevant literature used
to make arguments and arrive at conclusions. A reference section (or bibliography) should
be provided at the back of the report: be sure to use a standard and consistent approach to
referencing. Likewise, if you used interviews with industry contacts, you should disclose and
provide citations in the appropriate places within the report. The backend of the report
should include sections covering discussion, recommendations (if any), and conclusions.
Each group member should make a contribution to the report. The report should be
submitted in hardcopy at the end of Week 8. The group report is marked out of 20 (or 20%
of the final unit grade).
vii. Your group should also convert the report into presentation format. Your group will
present your topic during Week 7 or 8 of the course. Your group can choose the format of
the presentation, however, it should run for 20 minutes and allow for 10 minutes of
questions. You can make use of MS Powerpoint or other presentation software and tools.
Ambitious groups might like to include (and even create) videos, animations and other form
of multimedia. Each group member should be available to answers questions during
question time, although, not all group members necessarily need to present during the
presentation. The group presentation is marked out of 10 (or 10% of the final unit grade).
Combined the presentation and report are marked out of 30 (or 30% of the final unit grade).
INF30010 Assignment 1
3. Topics
Below is the list of topics. You and your group will be assigned one of these topics. For each of the
topics, your report and presentation should cover the general questions (see Section 2, part iii) and
any specific questions raised in the topic descriptions below.
a) DBAs in the Cloud
Over the last 5-10years, cloud service offerings have grown exponentially in uptake. Organizations
have been quick (and sometimes slow) to incorporate cloud services to store data and manage data.
What is driving this uptake? Can you provide examples and/or compare common cloud data storage
and management service providers? What technologies do they make use of? How should DBAs
evaluate cloud services? What challenges does storing data off premises in the cloud create for
DBAs? Does the DBA remain ultimately responsible when data and database services are put into
the cloud? What advice can we give to DBAs when managing data in the cloud?
b) Big Data, NoSQL – the end of DBA?
Big data is a hype. Big data is a reality. Whilst structured data dominated the world of databases for
decades, since the 2000s, solutions for creating and storing unstructured data (think NoSQL) have
gained in prominence. What is big data? What is driving big data? How is big data different to
conventional data? What has driven the rise of unstructured data management solutions? What are
some of the key contemporary tools available for managing unstructured data? Compare different
offerings. What is driving the trend to integrate SQL and NoSQL solutions? Can you provide
examples? How do they work? What is the role of databases and database administrators in the age
of big data? Does NoSQL mean no DBA? Is there any difference for a DBA working in a NoSQL
environment?
c) Open Source DBMS vs. Commercial DBMS
Open Source DBMS have rapidly gained in popularity over the last decade. What is the difference
between an Open Source and Commercial DBMS? What are some of the most popular Open Source
DBMS? Are they technically different to some of the more common Commercial DBMS? If yes, in
what ways (perhaps provide some comparisons)? Is database administration any different with an
Open Source Solution? If yes, explain. Why have Open Source gained in popularity? Provide some
examples of organizations that have commenced using Open Source DBMS (perhaps alongside a
Commercial DBMS). What does the rise of Open Source mean for DBAs?
d) Database Diversity 4 DBAs
DBAs are increasingly being asked to be responsible for multiple databases running on multiple
platforms. In modern contexts, a DBA might be responsible for administering dozens of databases
at any one time. What is driving this proliferation in diversity? Is this trend likely to continue? Is there
a limit? What are some of the most common vendor technologies that a DBA needs to be across?
What are the key differences between them – and what challenges does that create for the DBA?
What are some of the good practices DBAs can put in place to help manage this increasingly
complex and demanding environment.
e) Database Performance, DBAs, and the Age of the App
We’re living in the age of the app. Databases lie at the heart of most apps. The challenge for DBAs is
that database performance is now, more than ever, more closely linked to application performance
– and vice versa. What has driven business to focus more applications? Is this trend likely to
INF30010 Assignment 1
continue into the future? In these contexts, what should database performance be measured on?
What can DBAs do at the organizational level to respond to the focus on applications (hint: think
about DevOps)? What are some of the technical tools and options available to DBAs to improve
performance - of both app and database?
f) Automation of DBAs
Automation of administrative and maintenance tasks is a hot topic across many industry sectors –
database administration included. Is automation impacting on database administration? What might
be driving the trend? What are some of the example technologies and tools that can be used to
automate DBA tasks? How do they work? What do they enable? Does automation eliminate the need
for DBAs? How might automation change the roles and tasks of DBAs? What tasks can be
automated? Which tasks cannot? How is automation going to impact on the field of DBA in the next
5 to 10 years.
g) DBA Offshoring
In developed economies, IT offshoring has been an increasing trend over the last decade –
particularly in highly repetitive tasks, perhaps including DBA? What is offshoring? What do you think,
are the tasks associated with DBAs the kind that can be offshored? Which tasks can? Which cannot?
What might be some example technical set ups in terms of backup and recovery, when it comes to
offshoring DBA activities? What are some of the benefits of DBA offshoring? What are some of the
risks and problems? Can you identify success stories or case examples? What about failures? What
can a DBA expert do to respond to offshoring?
h) DBAs 4 Data Warehousing and BI
As early as the 1970s, Data Warehouses emerged in response to the opportunity to leverage of
transactional data held in operations databases. What is a data warehouse? What are some of the
common performance issues that Data Warehouse DBAs must deal with? What technical tools and
approaches are available to DBA Data Warehouse specialists? How do they work? What future
trends are evident in the domain of Data Warehousing? How will this impact on the DBA? Does the
DBA need to upskill? Will the Data Warehousing DBAs role change or further specialize within an
organization?
i) Database Security and DBAs
Security has always been a key focus of the DBA toolkit, but, its importance has been emphasized in
recent times. What is driving the increased focus on database security? What are some of the most
common attacks? Can you identify case examples and identify at what level a security breach
occurred – did it relate to weaknesses in the database administration? What is the role of the DBA
when it comes to data security? What tools does a DBA have to help maintain data and database
security? Are there newly emerging data security tools? How do these differ from conventional
tools? How can a DBA contribute to IT security more generally across an organization? How should
DBAs work with IT security teams?
INF30010 Assignment 1
4. Submission and Marking Rubric
The group report is submitted in Week 8 (Friday 29 th September @ 17:00 AEST), once all
presentations have been completed. The report should be submitted online, by one group member,
using the submission instructions provided on Blackboard. The report will be assessed for
plagiarism.
The group presentation is completed at an allocated slot during the lecture sessions in Week 7 or
Week 8. The lecturer will allocate your group a time prior to those weeks. The presentation slides (or
files) should be submitted online on Blackboard, following the instructions provided, by one group
member, by Friday 29 th September @ 17:00 AEST.
A single mark out of 30 (30% of total unit grade) is provided for the whole assignment, however, it is
made up of two main components: the presentation and the report. The marking rubric for these
components is provided below. All criteria carry equal weighting for both the report and
presentation components.
INF30010 Assignment 1
Criteria Fail Pass Credit Distinction High Distinction
Report
Context: Appreciation of
organizational or societal
contexts within which
DBAs operate
None provided Superficial or little
shown or articulated
Several issues
identified and
impact on DBAs
explained
Clear articulation of
key issues -
explained and
justified
Excellent
organization,
articulation and
explanation
Technical: Identification
and explanation of
technical aspects in DBA
development
No technical DBA
aspects covered
Limited to no
covered of DBA
technical aspects
Key technologies
and tools
explained
Good breadth of
relevant technical
aspects
Excellent breadth
of relevant
technical aspects
Analysis:
Evidence of critical
examination and fusion of
contextual and technical
DBA issues
No analysis or fusion
evident
Analysis is
superficial, siloed,
and/or includes
minimal synthesis
Good effort to
synthesize
technical and
contextual aspects
Excellent coverage
and fusion of
technical and
contextual aspects
Evidence of
contribution to
knowledge in the
specific topic area
Communication:
Approach to conveying
written message to target
audience
Report is incomplete
or several elements
are unsatisfactory
All required
elements of the
report are provided.
Some structure.
Good structure. All
required elements.
Easy to read.
Professionally
presented and
structured. Well
written. Good use of
aids.
INF30010 / 80037 Database Administration 代写
INF30010 / 80037 Database Administration 代写
Industry standard
report – all
elements excellent
Teamwork:
Level of organization,
comradery, and shared
vision across group
No evidence Evidence provided.
Some coherence in
report
Evidence provided.
Report is coherent.
Detailed evidence
provided – backed by
professional report
Industry level
evidence of
teamwork +
reporting
20 marks
INF30010 Assignment 1
Presentation
Context Appreciation of
organizational or societal
contexts within which
DBAs operate
None provided Superficial or little
shown or articulated
Several issues
identified and
impact on DBAs
explained
Clear articulation of
key issues -
explained and
justified
Excellent
organization,
articulation and
explanation
Technical Identification
and explanation of
technical aspects in DBA
development
No technical DBA
aspects covered
Limited to no
covered of DBA
technical aspects
Key technologies
and tools
explained
Good breadth of
relevant technical
aspects
Excellent breadth
of relevant
technical aspects
Analysis
Evidence of critical
examination and fusion of
contextual and technical
DBA issues
No analysis or fusion
evident
Analysis is
superficial, siloed,
and/or includes
minimal synthesis
Good effort to
synthesize
technical and
contextual aspects
Excellent coverage
and fusion of
technical and
contextual aspects
Evidence of
contribution to
knowledge in the
specific topic area
Communication
Approach to conveying
written message to target
audience
Presentation is
incomplete or
several elements are
unsatisfactory
All required
elements of the
presentation are
provided. Some
structure.
Good structure. All
required elements.
Easy to follow.
Professionally
presented and
structured. Good use
of aids.
Industry standard
presentation – all
elements excellent
Teamwork
Level of organization,
comradery, and shared
vision across group
No evidence Evidence of
coherence and
comradery in
presentation
Presentation is
highly cohesive
and consistent
Professional
transitions and
interactions amongst
group
Industry level
teamwork
10 marks
Total 30 marks
INF30010 / 80037 Database Administration 代写
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