CHAPTER 6
Automatic Storage Management

Managing storage is one of the most complex and time-consuming tasks of a DBA. Data growth occurs at an exponential pace due to consolidation of databases and high-velocity business growth. Business requirements demand the continuous availability of database storage systems, and the maintenance window for storage is shrinking from hours to minutes. Legal requirements add even more baggage because data has to be retained for an extended period of time. (I know some sites that store hundreds of terabytes of active data for seven years or more!) The average storage size managed by a DBA has grown from a few terabytes (TB) to close to a petabyte (PB).

Figure 6-1 shows the management gap between disk capacities to management capacity per DBA.