Database Administrator: One of the main reasons behind using DBMS is to have central control on both data and the applications access those data. The person who has such central control over the data is called a database administrator (DBA). Some of the functions of DBA are given below,
- Schema Definition: The DBA creates the original database schema using data definition statements in DDL.
- Storage Structure and Access Method Definition.
- Schema and Physical-Organization Modification: The DBA brings changes in schema and physical-organization when require or to improve performance.
- Granting of Authorization for Data Access: The DBA can regulate the access to data by granting authorization. The authorization information is kept under special structure which will be consulted whenever someone attempts to access the data in the system.
- Routine Maintenance: Periodically backing up the database, checking disk space to ensure that enough disk space is available for normal operation and upgrading disk if required, monitoring jobs running on the database and ensuring that performance is not degraded by someone’s requested task etc are some routine maintenance of DBA.