Understanding DBA Solution Offerings

The DBA Service solution is a tiered offering with two levels:

  • Proactive Database Management
  • Advanced Database Tuning

The following sections provide information about selecting the right DBA solution level for your business.


Understanding Proactive Database Management

Proactive Database Management (PDM) is the core offering for the DBA solution. We developed PDM for stable environments that require minimal support and anticipated changes, such as those used for testing and development. PDM provides the following services:

  • Support: The Rackspace Technology team of certified DBAs actively monitors your database, responds to alerts, and provides limited troubleshooting.
  • Monitoring: Rackspace Technology monitors the metrics and events that are relevant to your database. Rackspace Technology addresses any detected issues or, if necessary, notifies you about what steps to take.
  • Backup: Rackspace Technology ensures that your backups execute as expected and assists with restoring from a backup if necessary.
  • User and Security management: Rackspace Technology helps you securely manage access to your environment, employing best practices to help maintain security.
  • General Troubleshooting and support: The Rackspace technology support team provides limited 24-hour support.

Understanding Advanced Database Tuning

Advanced Database Tuning (ADT) is an additional service that you can purchase along with PDM. The ADT service level is ideal for databases that might require performance analysis as well as in-depth troubleshooting and research. Choose ADT if your database is critical to your application and optimal performance is essential. This service includes the following features:

  • Lead Database Administrator (DBA): Work with dedicated Lead DBA who conducts regular health checks to identify potential issues in your environment.
  • Performance analysis and optimization: Receive an analysis of database issues and tuning suggestions to ensure maximum performance.
  • Advanced Troubleshooting: Work with our experts to diagnose complex database issues and receive prescriptive guidance on how to best use the database from within your application.
  • Best Practice consultation: Leverage the expertise of our DBAs to answer complex questions about your database.
  • Long-term database planning: Receive expert guidance to plan for the long-term evolution of your database implementation.

Understanding Sample Scenarios for PDM and ADT

The following table shows some sample scenarios and the service tiers with which they are typically associated:

Sample scenarioPDMADT
Simple Oracle connectivity issuesIncluded
MySQL startup issuesIncluded
PostgreSQL installation and configurationIncluded
MongoDB backup and recoveryIncluded
Oracle RAC eviction issuesIncluded
Performance tuning with recommendationsIncluded
MSSQL change data collection (CDC)Included
Deploy third-party engines and plug-insIncluded
RDS instance performance issuesIncluded

Understanding Supported Database Types

The following table shows the database technologies currently supported by Rackspace Technology DBA services:

RelationalNo-SQLCloud-native
OracleCockroachDBMariaDB
Microsoft SQL ServerMongoDBAmazon Aurora
MySQL ServerElasticsearchAmazon RDS - all database engines
PostgreSQLRedisAzure SQL
CouchbaseAzure database for MySQL
Azure database for PostgreSQL
Azure Cache for Redis
Azure database for MariaDB

Rackspace Technology DBA services can also accommodate databases that are not listed here. Contact customer support for more information.