Software vendors - please set the database up properly

In my return to blogging pedestal I am going to start with a bit of a moan; fixing other people’s bad practices.

I have been providing consultancy to a site where an Oracle database was set up to provide a repository for graphical information. Now the data involved is not massive (around 40GB) but the initial configuration of the database meant that the system has stopped working on two separate occasions. Bear in mind that, whilst reading this, the site has no Oracle DBA and relies on support from the vendor who also install and configure all parts of the software.

The configuration appears to be mostly the default settings so here are some of the issues:

All data in the users tablespace - not that great really makes performance as the system gets larger a big problem. It will also create one very large file with all the data in it. Oracle uses multiple files for a reason so it makes a lot of sense to use it.

The users tablespace was set with a maxsize - now if your going to put all of your data into one tablespace then not allowing it grow will cause a problem later on!

Account’s set to expire password after 90 days - This is the default security setting and is a good one if you have a DBA to change passwords. If you have no-one then the accounts lock out and you cannot access your data…

No backups set - Often some form of backup strategy is used such as; nightly full export, shutting down the database and copying the files off or archive logging. None of these were set and it is unlikely that a consistent backup was being taken.

Without some DBA knowledge many of these issues would have been quite difficult to fix.

So the original request still stands; Software Vendors - please set up your database properly :(