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Managed ServicesSoftware / Digital Platforms

One in-house DBA, plus a named remote team for nights, leave and the work that never gets done

SaaS Platform Team

A typical engagement where a lean platform team adds remote Oracle DBA cover: on-call, restore testing, patch windows and a monthly review, without hiring a second DBA.

Overview

This is a typical engagement for a software company with one Oracle DBA who also handles other duties, running a small number of production Oracle databases on virtual machines in a public cloud account the company owns. AceMQ and a partner Oracle DBA add on-call and a scheduled maintenance routine under an AceMQ contract.

Challenge

A single DBA cannot take leave without risk, cannot be on call every night, and rarely has time for the work that prevents incidents: timed restores, Release Update planning and reviewing the slowest SQL. The company has backups that report success, a patch level that lags and a runbook that lives in one person's head.

Environment

Oracle Database 19c Standard Edition 2 on Linux virtual machines in the customer's cloud account, RMAN backups to object storage, Prometheus monitoring, and applications that cannot tolerate long unplanned outages.

Approach

AceMQ starts with a fixed-scope health check, then onboards to cover: alert routing, access arrangements that the customer's security team controls, runbooks for the failures found, and a named AceMQ engineer and partner DBA on the account. From then on the work runs on a schedule.

Solution

  1. Runs a health check of backup and restore, archive handling, patch level and the slowest recurring SQL
  2. Times a full restore to a separate host and compares it with the recovery target
  3. Routes database alerts to the AceMQ on-call rota with a 15-minute P1 response
  4. Plans each Release Update window with a rollback and tests it first on a copy
  5. Reviews the top SQL and plan changes each month using tools the Standard Edition 2 license allows
  6. Writes the runbooks the in-house DBA keeps in their head and reviews them after each incident

Outcome

The engagement delivers a written health check report, a timed and documented restore, runbooks for the failures it found, an on-call rota that covers nights and leave, a Release Update plan and a monthly written review. The company's DBA gets cover and time for the work only they can do.

Technologies

Oracle DatabaseRMANPrometheusLinux
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