Describe five main functions of a database administrator.
Ans: A database administrator (DBA) is a person who is accountable for the environmental aspects of a database. Generally, these include:
a) Recoverability - Creating and testing Backups
b) Integrity - Verifying or helping to verify data integrity
c) Security - Defining and/or implementing access controls to the data
d) Availability - Ensuring maximum uptime
e) Performance - Ensuring maximum performance
f) Development and testing support - Helping programmers and engineers to efficiently utilize the database.