DBMS criteria and functionality
BATALLER
Basically we are trying to evaluate UNIX based DBMS's and we are having
trouble deciphering between all the reviews and company
claims about the DBMS's. I believe I have realized that my
expectations were a bit high for the current array of
products. For instance: I was hoping that we could limit
access to fields of a DB based on group rights; I was
hoping that we could use the OS user groups to identify db
user groups; I was hoping that they would have load-
balancing facilities in the event a server was too full
it would route them to one less busy; I was hoping that
there would be extensive central administration facilities
for distributed systems(i.e. adding a user at one place
could add them to all necessary systems); etc...
I was wondering if anyone could try and give me their
understanding, opinion, or experiences with any of the
topics I list below, I am particularly interested in Sybase, Oracle
Informix, DB/2, and Ingres...
I am curions about how well these things are addressed or
implemented, are they important? etc...
Thanks for you time and consideration.
+ Security
- What are c2 and b1 security levels..
- What is role based security
- Audit trails...
- How are they stored?
- Can one get reports?
+ Functions
- Can scheduling be done? That is, can a
stored procedure or trigger go off according
to date and time?
+ Data Integrity
- Declarative
- Referential
+ Access
- Can one limit read and write access according to:
- group
- user
- field
- table
- database
+ DBA Administrative Tools
- Centralizaton of Administration for multiple
distributed servers
+ Support
+ Connectivity
- routing in the event that a particular
server or network is down could seemlessly
give access to other duplicate databases
Capacity
- load balancing
- Maximum number of concurrent users
Standards
- Ansi level 1
- Ansi level 2
- Ansi level 3
Judy Ko -- Consultant
required different license.
> - What is role based security
Traditionally, there are 5 different sets of privileges, DBA, resources,
connect, export/import and 1 more (forgot!). Since V6 you can further
grant and revoke privileges within the set.
> - Audit trails...
> - How are they stored?
> - Can one get reports?
Audit information is stored in tables and you can build your own reports
using SQLPLUS or Sql-reportwriter or whatever tools you like.
> + Functions
> - Can scheduling be done? That is, can a
> stored procedure or trigger go off according
> to date and time?
There is no event scheduler. The only function that is available with
automatic refresh capability is "snapshot" in V7.
> + Data Integrity
> - Declarative
> - Referential
V7 supports full set of data integrity rules both on column and table
levels. Primary Key, Foreign Key, check, NULL/NOT NULL, Unique keys ....
> + Access
> - Can one limit read and write access according to:
> - group
> - user
> - field
> - table
> - database
Sort of. You can use veiw to get around read access but write access
requires programming effort.
> + DBA Administrative Tools
> - Centralizaton of Administration for multiple
> distributed servers
DBA monitor only monitor a particalar instance of database, not multiple
instances.
> + Support
Support is average. I subscribe standard support and was given a non 800
number to call. They just started the dial-in bulletin board service. But
still pretty costly to dial long distant.
> + Connectivity
> - routing in the event that a particular
> server or network is down could seemlessly
> give access to other duplicate databases
You can bring up different the mirror database instances. It not
effortless but it's not difficult.
> Capacity
> - load balancing
> - Maximum number of concurrent users
> Standards
> - Ansi level 1
> - Ansi level 2
> - Ansi level 3
Cheers,
Judy Ko