Reply To: Datacenter – Database Hosting SLA

Q – I see a few asterisks at the end of sentences that suggest there is a footnote or disclaimer, but I can’t find what they are referencing.
A – The * “answer” is at the bottom of section 2.1.2. I see where the confusion is, especially for the asterisks outside that section. I will modify.
Q – Under 2.1, would it make sense to include storage and tablespace monitoring? What about performance monitoring?
A – Storage monitoring is covered in 2.1 as “capacity monitoring”. On the Oracle enterprise databases supported by UNM IT, tablespace monitoring is done currently. It is not done on departmental/non-enterprise databases at this time. Performance monitoring for this service is currently covered under “capacity monitoring” and is limited to Database availability, CPU, RAM and Storage utilization. I think clarification on the definition of “capacity monitoring” is appropriate. I will do that.
Q – 2.1.2 – is migration of data from production to integration or some other from of data refresh on integration systems part of “Data recovery” portion of the service, or should that be spelled out separately?
A – Data recoveries are in response to an incident. Data refreshes are mentioned separately in Section 2.1 – “And consulting services for database tuning, major upgrade planning and execution, data refreshes, assisting with application triage, and special service monitoring needs.”
Q – Is application of special configuration changes for the database(s) limited to vendor-recommended changes, or are other departmentally determined specialized configurations covered? e.g. a peer or industry recommendation not specifically endorsed by the vendor?
A – We are happy to apply special configuration changes requested by a department. The language in the SLA is to encourage departments to get configuration recommendations and those often start with the application software vendors. I will add the clarification to 2.1.2
Q – I’m assuming more tuning is possible as a paid consultation?
A – Correct
Q – 2.2.2 – When recommending the amount of CPU, RAM, storage etc. needed to right size a database, is there a process for resolving that or evidence collection practices that would help departments analyze the need?
A – Our standard recommendation when we work with departments is to encourage them to contact the application vendor(s) directly for sizing recommendations. Many vendors provide explicit resource minimums with their installation guides. Part of the IT Database Hosting service is to configure the database, including initial tuning.
Q – 3.1 – add bullet “Plan database upgrades with the contracting department” ?
A – Yes, I will add that
Q – Would it be good to add in there somewhere that database availability and hosting can be purchased to comply with any of the data center tiers defined in the Data Center standard?
A – Not at this time. We do not currently provide Database hosting in every data center tier.