Is DBA responsible for ETL operations and cube creation in DW design project?

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Is DBA responsible for ETL operations and cube creation in DW design project?

elea.grig

Ten Centuries

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July 15, 2019 at 12:01 pm

#3662942
If a company wants to build a DW from sketch, is DBA responsible for schema design, ETL extraction and transformation process, loading physical data from different sources into a DW database? Or DBA is responsible only for physical design, and tools like SSIS or SSAS should be used by developers.

Thanks
- This topic was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by elea.grig.

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John Mitchell-245523 SSC Guru Points: 148809 More actions · Answer 1

I suppose it depends what the DBA's job description is. But usually I'd say that designing a data warehouse would be the responsibility of a developer or data architect. A DBA should certainly know his or her way round SSIS, though.

John

GRE (Gethyn Ellis) SSCrazy Eights Points: 9602 More actions · Answer 2

I think I agree with John. Its an "it depends" answer. A DBA may or may not get involved with schema design of data warehouse might fall to a data architect or data warehouse developer. And whilst Devs will use SSIS and SSAS a DBA would need to know how to manage and administer those technologies.

Gethyn Elliswww.gethynellis.com

Matt Miller (4) SSC Guru Points: 124210 More actions · Answer 3

While it does depend, in general I'd think that while the DBA might be not responsible for those design items, they likely will be held accountable for them.

In short while you might not actually put the design together, as the DBA you will likely shoulder some of the blame if it somehow blows up. Even if not blame you will definitely get to share in whatever cleanup might be needed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1003863 More actions · Answer 4

Matt Miller (4) wrote:

While it does depend, in general I'd think that while the DBA might be not responsible for those design items, they likely will be held accountable for them. In short while you might not actually put the design together, as the DBA you will likely shoulder some of the blame if it somehow blows up. Even if not blame you will definitely get to share in whatever cleanup might be needed.

The poem of the "Train Conductor" is also very appropriate for DBAs and folks working in the area of infrastructure...

It's not my job to drive the train
Nor even ring the bell
But let the damned thing jump the track
And watch who catches hell!

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

RonKyle SSC-Dedicated Points: 31537 More actions · Answer 5

That can be a lot to ask of a DBA. It's not inherent in the job description. On the other hand, I began a journey from being a DBA to doing data warehouse design by taking on a BI project that a consultant produced but had data errors. At the time the ETL was done by DTS. I had to learn SSIS when SQL Server 2005 came out. It's been very rewarding. Get a copy of Ralph Kimball's "The Data Warehouse Toolkit."

Neil Burton SSC-Insane Points: 22918 More actions · Answer 6

Jeff Moden wrote:

Matt Miller (4) wrote:
While it does depend, in general I'd think that while the DBA might be not responsible for those design items, they likely will be held accountable for them. In short while you might not actually put the design together, as the DBA you will likely shoulder some of the blame if it somehow blows up. Even if not blame you will definitely get to share in whatever cleanup might be needed.
The poem of the "Train Conductor" is also very appropriate for DBAs and folks working in the area of infrastructure...
It's not my job to drive the train Nor even ring the bell But let the damned thing jump the track And watch who catches hell!

We DBA's are currently in the firing line for not noticing that our distribution cluster had been deleted from Active Directory. It's been working fine for eighteen months, and still is, but apparently it's something we should have noticed.

On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" ... I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
—Charles Babbage, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher

How to post a question to get the most help http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1003863 More actions · Answer 7

Neil Burton wrote:

Jeff Moden wrote:
Matt Miller (4) wrote:
While it does depend, in general I'd think that while the DBA might be not responsible for those design items, they likely will be held accountable for them. In short while you might not actually put the design together, as the DBA you will likely shoulder some of the blame if it somehow blows up. Even if not blame you will definitely get to share in whatever cleanup might be needed.
The poem of the "Train Conductor" is also very appropriate for DBAs and folks working in the area of infrastructure...
It's not my job to drive the train Nor even ring the bell But let the damned thing jump the track And watch who catches hell!
We DBA's are currently in the firing line for not noticing that our distribution cluster had been deleted from Active Directory. It's been working fine for eighteen months, and still is, but apparently it's something we should have noticed.

Heh... When such things happen to me, I remind them that, although I'm the "cleaning lady" for SQL Server, "I DON'T DO WINDOWS!" 😀 😀 😀

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

RonKyle SSC-Dedicated Points: 31537 More actions · Answer 8

By the way, the time required to acquire these skills is not insignificant. The design rules are very different. It would be a big mistake to apply the normal forms to the design, for one. If you don't have the skills in house and are pressed for time, it may be better to find a consultant.