Desktop DBA 4.0

Support for multiple platforms, multipleRDBMSs, and multiple releases of each RDBMS

Platinum Technology's Desktop DBA 4.0is 32-bit database administration software that runs on Windows 95 and WindowsNT platforms. Because prices start at $995, you might be reluctant to purchase aproduct that appears to offer little more than the built-in databaseadministrator (DBA) utilities that ship with database products from Oracle,Sybase, Microsoft, Informix, and IBM. However, this product's advantages arethat it supports multiple releases of these relational database managementsystems (RDBMSs), it supports forward and backward migration viadrag-and-drop operations, and it provides a fast DBCompare utility.

The Role of the DBA
DBAs used to be responsible for the physical well-being of a productiondatabase system such as order entry, inventory, and accounting. Largeorganizations had many DBAs, such as the "Oracle DBA" or the "orderprocessing DBA." DBAs created the database; handled user access andprivileges; were responsible for backups, reorganizations, and disaster recoveryplans; monitored their system's performance; and kept the database well tuned.

In the past few years, however, we've started to see decentralized,departmental RDBMSs. Usually, the driving force behind this development has beenspeed: Without corporate IS involved in the process, departments can createtheir own client/server or data mart applications with relatively inexpensive NTversions of the major RDBMSs. Often, the person who installed and set up theRDBMS also wrote the application. But most applications had both client andserver components, so specialists emerged. The back-end administrators performedtraditional DBA tasks and wrote (created, tested, and tuned) server-based SQLstored procedures. Front-end administrators typically used tools such as VisualBasic (VB) or PowerBuilder and didn't know much about RDBMSs.

DBA and SQL programmer utilities began appearing to cater to these diversemarkets. In 1992, Datura shipped Desktop DBA, an easy-to-use Windows tool foradministering either Sybase or Microsoft/Ashton-Tate SQL Servers and performingroutine DBA tasks--tasks that the DBA otherwise had to perform from a commandline. Pointing and clicking in Desktop DBA is much easier than invoking storedprocedures--with all the right parameters--from the operating system commandline, and the product included graphics to illustrate remaining space in yourdatabase and log devices.

With five years and 50,000 DBAs of experience and a new, deep-pocketed owner(Platinum Technology), Desktop DBA now offers support for multiple platforms,multiple RDBMSs, and multiple releases of each RDBMS. The Windows 95 and NTversions of Desktop DBA 4.0 shipped in February, and the Motif versions shouldbe available by the time you read this article. Platinum will continue tosupport and upgrade the current 16-bit Windows version, Desktop DBA 3.4.4, andmight port the software to Win32 environments to support new interface featuressuch as the DBMS Explorer.

Why Desktop DBA?
Desktop DBA faces its strongest competition from the RDBMS vendors.Microsoft, for example, ships different (incompatible) versions of graphical DBAtools with different versions of SQL Server (4.21, 6.0, and 6.5). AlthoughSybase bundles a 32-bit SQL Server Manager with System 11, you'll pay extra foradvanced utilities such as Sybase's SQL Enterprise Manager, Sybase IQ, andReplication Manager (Desktop DBA supports both Sybase IQ and replication).Oracle began shipping Oracle Enterprise Manager with Oracle 7.2 (for adescription of Oracle Enterprise Manager, see "Exploring Oracle7 Server forWindows NT," December 1996), and IBM and Informix bundle GUI DBA tools withtheir products.

Why bother with Desktop DBA when you can get DBA tools for free from thevendors? First, as far as I know, the newest DBA tools from Sybase, IBM, Oracle,and Informix run on only Windows, not Motif. Second, Desktop DBA offers betterbackward compatibility than any of the vendors' tools.

For example, with Desktop DBA 4.0 for SQL Server, you can administer anySybase or Microsoft SQL Server on the network: Sybase SQL Server 4.9,.10, and .11, and Microsoft SQL Server 4.2, 6.0, and 6.5. You can move data orobjects among the versions and upgrade or retrograde--Desktop DBA takes care oftricky details such as data type mapping.

If you're a multi-RDBMS, multiplatform shop, Desktop DBA offers acentralized console for managing multiple servers and their databases, includingOracle, Sybase and Microsoft SQL Servers, XDB, DB2 Common Server (AIX, OS/2, NT,HP-UX, Solaris), and both Informix SE and Online servers. Desktop DBA includesbetter data import tools than the RDBMS (SQL Server users are united inmaligning SQL Server's crude bcp utility, and Oracle's import tool doesn't winany ease-of-use contests, either).

With Desktop DBA, you can import or export not only entire databases ortheir structures, but also single or multiple tables. The software automaticallycreates target tables during import if the table doesn't exist. When importinglegacy data, you can customize both field and row delimiters.

Even if you don't need the support for diverse databases, Desktop DBA'sfeatures are bound to touch a nerve. The product's DBMS Explorer makes seeingtable names, column names, and data types easy and even lets you edit, delete,or rearrange them, as shown in Screen 1. You can examine table structures andadd, delete, or reorder columns (using drag-and-drop operations). You can manageusers, including cloning them and dropping all nonsystem objects associated witha given user; compare databases, based on their system catalogs; use DesktopDBA's SQL Scripts editor to write or edit SQL associated with Data DefinitionLanguage (DDL), stored procedures, triggers, and so on; and view the results inanother pane.

Installation
Installing Desktop DBA 4.0 is straightforward. You can install the mainprogram files on a local or network work-
station, but you need sa/SYS/DBAprivileges to install the server components.

Once you supply a SQL Server name, logon, and password, for example,Desktop DBA installs several stored procedures on each server administered. Whenyou run Desktop DBA the first time, you'll see an icon for each server you'veinstalled. If you need more servers, you can add them from Desktop DBA's Servermenu. To its credit, Desktop DBA also has a complete uninstall routine.

Beginning with Desktop DBA 4.0, Platinum includes a viewer copy ofPlatinum's InfoReports and some starter reports, hoping to entice you topurchase Platinum's InfoReports Server. Desktop DBA 4.0 also ships a CD-ROM withdocumentation in Adobe Acrobat Portable Data Format (PDF) format, but the samedocumentation is also available as online Help.

SQL Scripts
Desktop DBA simplifies managing SQL Scripts, whether they're DDL or scriptsassociated with stored procedures. When you choose Scripts from the main menu(an option that you can disable from Options, Preferences), you see the SQLScripts window. From this window, you can open and edit an existing script orstored procedure (as shown in Screen 2), or create a new script. You can runscripts directly from the SQL Scripts window; the results window displays "Working"until the scripts return your results. Desktop DBA comes with a handful ofuseful SQL starter templates, or you can create templates.

Desktop DBA shines as a DBA tool and the product provides adequate supportfor SQL programming. Although other multi-DBMS packages exist, you can't gowrong if you invest in Desktop DBA.