There is no denying that administrating and managing a database can be a complex, challenging and continuous task. But what many enterprises, especially those just jumping on the Oracle journey, may not realize is that making a data environment work well doesn't always require fulltime hands-on, labor-intensive attention.

It just requires a knowledgeable DBA that undertands the beauty of automation and that there are many approaches to administration beyond putting someone on the payroll.

Consider the scenario in which one database system actually ran for a year and a half without needing any hands-on tweaking. The reason? The DBA not only automated every and any aspect but implemented add-on technologies for system monitoring and recovery needs.

The system, as one database guru explained, in effect became a self-tuning machine.
"That's how you know you have a good DBA involved," Don Burleson, owner of Burleson Consulting, which provides Oracle consulting and training services. His site offers up some other great tips and insight. One recent topic is how to make delayed block cleanouts as efficient as possible.

So what to do if your team just brought in some entry level DBAs who don't know the ins and outs around automation and getting some self-tuning aspects in place? Burleson said bringing in some additional experience, for a short time, could avoid alot of headache and management stumbles likely to come as beginning DBAs can tend to 'overdo', such as indexing on every column, which likely isn't necessary or useful.

What's been your experience with DBAs hired in or on for consulting purposes? Have you found the best to be the ones who do such a good job you don't need them very often?