I have the great opportunity to work with several Db2 z/OS users across the US. Certainly, I hear and see Db2 databases getting larger and the availability requirements longer; however, the size of the DBA group is shrinking. One group I work with went from 15 DBAs to 5 in only a couple of years, but with the same number of Db2 applications.

What can I take from that? IBM and Db2 are becoming easier to administer, there is less going on in the Db2 environment, and the mainframe has become self-maintaining.

I am sure the folks reading this blog are saying all of that is not true. Yes, IBM has issued release after release to make Db2 easier, but with that Db2 success came the pressure to keep the data available, and with more and more critical data being stored on the mainframe server. The DBAs say it is actually more complex to administer, there are more moving pieces to learn, and performance is ever more critical—with fewer DBAs to do the work.

Let’s address this issue by answering two questions. Why are DBAs vanishing? If we do the math, Db2 has been around over 30 years – there are DBA that are reaching retirement age, leaving the workforce, or maybe moving to management or business/data scientist roles. The recent BMC Mainframe Survey shows more and more younger IT personnel are joining the MF ranks. Are they filling the positions the DBAs are leaving? I suggest the answer is no –the traditional DBA role is being distributed across the organization: some in development, some in systems/performance groups, some by the Db2 engine, and some functions are just not being done at all anymore.

On to the second question: are the Db2 applications being affected by the vanishing Db2 DBA expert? This is a critical time. Many companies’ Db2 organizations still have the technical experts along with their knowledge of the business applications. Yeah, I know the plan, share all that knowledge from these professionals. Many times that sounds good on paper but never happens. At one company I work with, the system programmer retired without much warning. His procedures were documented, but now when an upgrade is needed or maintenance is applied, it takes 3–4 times longer. The combination of extended deployment and the higher availability requirements leads to delays. That is why vendors like IBM and BMC are trying to implement continuous delivery—no more installs, just maintenance. However, many of us realize that this just moves the burden to applying maintenance more often to keep up with problems and new features.

Who is going to implement these new features and functions? Eventually, these resources vanish – what can we do? I know vendors like BMC have been putting in capabilities in software to alert when things are not performing as usual, automate processes using the expert’s knowledge of the systems, and allow non-experts to act like experts with self-service tools. BMC is continuing to provide new products to the marketplace to address the vanishing DBA, System Programmer, and Capacity Planner – BMC AMI DevOps for Db2, BMC AMI for Systems, BMC AMI for Cost. The goal of these new solutions has a few purposes: self-service to all IT professionals, providing the remaining DBAs specific advice using deep understanding of Db2, and building the new generation of experts.

Are we really going to see the Db2 z/OS DBA ride off into the sunset? My belief is no, but as it has over the years, the role will continue to change. At BMC, we are committed to assisting all Db2 z/OS professionals to support, enhance, and advance their Db2 environment.

When someone brings up DevOps … I immediately think about a military operation that I am preparing for.

If you search on DevOps, you will find lots of similar links to navigate. Many of the links will tell you just what DevOps is, putting a spin to what they are selling, writing about, or their successful implementation story. There are many opportunities to take classes, buy software, and understand how to monitor.  To get down to brass tacks, DevOps combines different techniques to increase your company’s ability to deliver applications and services faster to your customers or end users. It’s all about developing a better way to build, test, and eventually release software.

DevOps and Database Administration

As I apply camouflage and get ready to attack how mainframe database maintenance fits into DevOps. I want to take a broader look at DevOps data base administration.

Database administration combined with DevOps is just an extension of what we have been doing for a long time on the mainframe. In the first thirty years BMC administration tools were targeted at production – how we got application driven changes and data conversions into production safely, automated, and with high availability. “Time to market” was the value statement for customers moving forward with the BMC Administration products. And over those thirty years BMC achieved that success via product enhancements that we could hang our combat helmets on.

Now the emphasis has moved to the Development life cycle and how we can provide the same administration service in the app/dev environments. To put it in perspective, it is more work, more process, and more environments than production – adding a level of risk that was not there in the past (always there for production). Database maintenance and administration is now a key component of what DevOps is attempting to address. If we need to get changes into the many testing environments to support the agile development with operational discipline, a Db2 administration tool like BMC Db2 Change Manager has to determine those changes, implement, and provide fallback each and every time it is called upon to do so.

In the BMC database administration arena, the products are built to scale to those development environments. One customer I work with has 130 separate Db2 testing environments for one application. Getting changes through those environments is a challenge but BMC can support that via its advanced features. This customer has written their own customer application on top of the BMC code to manage the process. There are many examples of how customers have used the BMC products to address business agility by starting with BMC Change Manager that can customize a solution to meet their needs.

Like many times in IT, I would say database administration support for DevOps is not new. Database administration tools were the DevOps of the past. BMC had the vision to put the flexibility and support in their tools to march into any DevOps situation and conquer it. The day is here where I can go back to those DBAs and tell them all the complexity in the BMC tools might not have been needed 25 years ago, but it is certainly needed today.

Moving forward with DevOps

BMC continues to move forward with database maintenance and administration. As responsibilities shift because of the required application continuous delivery, BMC is providing software to allow more self-service opportunities for companies. BMC Db2 Workbench brings the mainframe to IT professionals, so database administration can be a collaborative mission and the common interface that supports better understanding and success.

I’m just glad I can add DevOps to my resume … but I guess I should have done that years ago.