If you are a Database Administrator, do you think that your role has changed since you started that career path? If so, in what way?

http://stwnsh.com/dbaq

Seems like companies are becoming more concerned with data security and the seperation of duties.  DBA's are no longer being allowed access to data and are less involved in production data fixes.     Which I think is a good thing making the end user responsible for their own data. 

Awareness of the other database software, Oracle, SQL Server, etc.   XXX database software can do this and how does that equate to what DB2 can do.  We get users who want access to table data and do that thru Informatica datamaps which we support. 

Seems more like you are a jack of all trades and master of nothing.  Just yesterday a user came and asked me why they were getting a -420 on their query with this in it CAST(STRIP(RVCT_TXT,BOTH) AS DECIMAL).  It worked sometimes depending on what rows were selected based on their WHERE but not always.   It's beginning to be hard to know everything so you have to research more and expand your knowledge and be able to answer questions posed by developers wanting to use Data Studio.

Too at times I think winning the lottery would put me on my next career path.     

Jeez, Marcus, open-ended questions much?

From: Marcus Davage [mailto:[login to unmask email]
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2012 5:53 AM
To: [login to unmask email]
Subject: [DB2-L] - DBAs - how has your career changed?


If you are a Database Administrator, do you think that your role has changed since you started that career path? If so, in what way?

http://stwnsh.com/dbaq

-----End Original Message-----

It's an evil, twisted, jagged road....that actually leads paste a lovely
rock garden...but beyond that, evil!
Cheers,
Dan

On Fri, 3 Aug 2012 14:45:59 -0400, "Sevetson, Phil"
<[login to unmask email]> wrote:
> Jeez, Marcus, open-ended questions much?
>
> From: Marcus Davage [mailto:[login to unmask email]
> Sent: Friday, August 03, 2012 5:53 AM
> To: [login to unmask email]
> Subject: [DB2-L] - DBAs - how has your career changed?
>
>
> If you are a Database Administrator, do you think that your role has
> changed since you started that career path? If so, in what way?
>
> http://stwnsh.com/dbaq
>
> -----End Original Message-----
>
> -----End Original Message-----

Beyond the rock garden were many lovely bars and empty beer bottles.

Carol Sutfin
Corporate DBA
Regions Bank
(205)261-5214
[login to unmask email]



From: Daniel Luksetich <[login to unmask email]>
To: [login to unmask email]
Date: 08/03/2012 02:03 PM
Subject: [DB2-L] - RE: DBAs - how has your career changed?



It's an evil, twisted, jagged road....that actually leads paste a lovely
rock garden...but beyond that, evil!
Cheers,
Dan

On Fri, 3 Aug 2012 14:45:59 -0400, "Sevetson, Phil"
<[login to unmask email]> wrote:
> Jeez, Marcus, open-ended questions much?
>
> From: Marcus Davage [mailto:[login to unmask email]
> Sent: Friday, August 03, 2012 5:53 AM
> To: [login to unmask email]
> Subject: [DB2-L] - DBAs - how has your career changed?
>
>
> If you are a Database Administrator, do you think that your role has
> changed since you started that career path? If so, in what way?
>
> http://stwnsh.com/dbaq
>
> -----End Original Message-----
>
> -----End Original Message-----

-----End Original Message-----

Not beyond, leading up to.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: Carol Anne Sutfin [mailto:[login to unmask email]
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2012 3:06 PM
To: [login to unmask email]
Subject: [DB2-L] - RE: DBAs - how has your career changed?

Beyond the rock garden were many lovely bars and empty beer bottles.

Carol Sutfin
Corporate DBA
Regions Bank
(205)261-5214
[login to unmask email]



From: Daniel Luksetich <[login to unmask email]>
To: [login to unmask email]
Date: 08/03/2012 02:03 PM
Subject: [DB2-L] - RE: DBAs - how has your career changed?



It's an evil, twisted, jagged road....that actually leads paste a lovely
rock garden...but beyond that, evil!
Cheers,
Dan

On Fri, 3 Aug 2012 14:45:59 -0400, "Sevetson, Phil"
<[login to unmask email]> wrote:
> Jeez, Marcus, open-ended questions much?
>
> From: Marcus Davage [mailto:[login to unmask email]
> Sent: Friday, August 03, 2012 5:53 AM
> To: [login to unmask email]
> Subject: [DB2-L] - DBAs - how has your career changed?
>
>
> If you are a Database Administrator, do you think that your role has
> changed since you started that career path? If so, in what way?
>
> http://stwnsh.com/dbaq
>
> -----End Original Message-----
>
> -----End Original Message-----

-----End Original Message-----



-----End Original Message-----

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[ST:XCL]

I remember when I started my career in IBM Argentina in 1971 as a programmer. At that time I was the "Ohhhh and Ahhhh... THE GUY THAT WORKS WITH COMPUTERS! and IN IBM!!!" And at that time I hardly know where the parity bit was located.

Now, I am "ah... in IT huh? (and here comes the customary question about a problem with Windows)" knowing 10,000 things more and working with people who does not know what a parity bit is.

Jorge Martelanz

I remember when I started my career in IBM Argentina in 1971 as a programmer. At that time I was the "Ohhhh and Ahhhh... THE GUY THAT WORKS WITH COMPUTERS! and IN IBM!!!" And at that time I hardly know where the parity bit was located.

Now, I am "ah... in IT huh? (and here comes the customary question about a problem with Windows)" knowing 10,000 things more and working with people who does not know what a parity bit is.

Jorge Martelanz

Sufffice to say I don't miss

1) Punch card

2) driving to work when on-call to fix problems

3) Having to wait for CICS to come down at the end of the day to process VSAM data

I thought this thread had died already, but since you caught me in the mood to rant, here goes...

I have been what this List group would call a "System DBA" for a number of years now, that is, I handle the core DB2 for z/OS engine, installation/configuration/upgrade/maintenance, and ensuring the system can be recovered at the DR site. The "Application DBA's" here are responsible for the client's data content, and tuning the application code, creating the objects, etc. I have been with this same organization for over 30 years, which in the world of IT is a rarity, I know. I have worked as both an Application DBA and as a COBOL programmer before moving to the systems or infrastructure team.
I am a member of the "condensed" z/OS infrastructure team, meaning I support a little of z/OS itself, and a lot of the "Application Enablement" products, CICS, IMS database, MQSeries, and DB2. There does not seem to be this equivalent on the non-mainframe platforms, if you are a Unix System Admin, then anything not part of the Unix Operating System is considered an application, and is someone else's problem.

On the positive side, I would echo Jack's sentiments, technology has certainly made parts of the job infinitely better. I can now do System Administration on our multiple z/OS systems via VPN from anywhere in the world that I can get to the Internet.
On the other hand, the trend has been for the System Administration team to become a punching bag for Application Development. If we dare to question any insane idea of theirs, we are then accused of holding up progress on what is viewed as the most important project in the company's history, and the fate of the world as we know it hinges on implementing whatever hare-brained idea they have come up with. My take on it is there has been a huge loss of respect for my role in the IT organization. When I was a young COBOL programmer, we knew how to match up our program to the dump when there was an abend, and find the cause of it. And it was only when we had exhausted all of our abilities that we would go and ask the systems people for assistance. Now, the programmers for the most part cannot read a dump, without help from a vendor tool such as Abend-Aid or Fault Analyzer which basically tells them which filed in the record has the bad data in it. And now, every time a job fails or any existing code malfunctions, the very first question is "what did the infrastructure team change last night ?". It can never be the fault of a flaw in the program, because "this code has been running in production for many months without an incident". It's like there is no concept that a different data value can come along in a transaction and there may not be a path in the program to handle that value.


J Kirk Hampton
Sr. Specialist - Mainframe
HCL Technologies America
Mesquite Data Center
972-216-3119

From: Jack Campbell [mailto:[login to unmask email]
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 9:46 AM
To: [login to unmask email]<mailto:[login to unmask email]>
Subject: [DB2-L] - RE: DBAs - how has your career changed?


Sufffice to say I don't miss

1) Punch card

2) driving to work when on-call to fix problems

3) Having to wait for CICS to come down at the end of the day to process VSAM data


________________________________
From: Marcus Davage [mailto:[login to unmask email]
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2012 4:53 AM
To: [login to unmask email]<mailto:[login to unmask email]>
Subject: [DB2-L] - DBAs - how has your career changed?


If you are a Database Administrator, do you think that your role has changed since you started that career path? If so, in what way?

http://stwnsh.com/dbaq

-----End Original Message-----


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Thanks to all who replied. It made very interesting reading.

Marcus