Overview

Get started with Relational Database Administration and Database Management in this self-paced course! This course begins with an introduction to database management; you will learn about things like the Database Management Lifecycle, the roles of a Database Administrator (DBA) as well as database storage. You will then discover some of the activities, techniques, and best practices for managing a database. You will also learn about database optimization, including updating statistics, slow queries, types of indexes, and index creation and usage. You will learn about configuring and upgrading database server software and related products. You’ll also learn about database security; how to implement user authentication, assign roles, and assign object-level permissions. And gain an understanding of how to perform backup and restore procedures in case of system failures. You will learn how to optimize databases for performance, monitor databases, collect diagnostic data, and access error information to help you resolve issues that may occur. Many of these tasks are repetitive, so you will learn how to schedule maintenance activities and regular diagnostic tests and send automated messages of the success or failure of a task. The course includes both video-based lectures as well as hands-on labs to practice and apply what you learn. This course ends with a final project where you will assume the role of a database administrator and complete a number of database administration tasks across many different databases.

Syllabus

Introduction to Database Management

Welcome to your first module on database administration. During this module, you’ll be introduced to a wide variety of information, including an overview of the types of tasks involved in database management and what a typical workday may look like. You will see that many tasks revolve around activities ranging from designing databases to planning and troubleshooting errors. At the end of the module, there will be several labs where you will gain hands-on experience learning about server objects, configurations, and database objects, including schemas, tables, triggers, and events.

Managing Databases

During this module, you will learn how to back up and restore databases. These processes are essential aspects of any organization's health and its ability to respond quickly to changes in the system. Through hands-on labs, you will learn why it is vital to create backups and define policies and procedures. In this module, you’ll also learn about database security and user management, including creating and resetting user passwords, creating groups, and more!

Monitoring and Optimization

In this module, you will learn how to create and keep baselines, performance metrics, standards, and finally, monitor RAM and disk usage, connections, and cache stats. You will also learn about database optimization, including updating statistics, slow queries, types of indexes, and index creation and usage.

Troubleshooting & Automation

In this module you will learn about some basic troubleshooting processes that help data engineers find frequently occurring issues such as connectivity, login, configuration, and whether the instance is running. You'll also learn how to automate many database functions, from managing alerts to generating and sending reports using standard Linux and Unix shell commands or cron jobs.

Final Assignment and Final Exam

In this module, you’ll complete your final course project, which brings together concepts and practices you previously learned in the first four modules. In this three part assignment, you will perform database administration tasks across different databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, DB2 and SQLITE. You will start by installing and configuring a database, managing users and performing a backup. You will move on to recovery, indexing, optimization and automation of routine tasks. Finally you will restore a database, create an index, create a view and connect to a database from the command line.