Norma Jean,
I have DBAs working for me who support all four of the major databases
(Oracle, Sybase, MSSQL, UDB) on open systems, plus M/F. No Informix.
Both Oracle and UDB have really strong on-line support networks. You
open a critical problem, you get a call back. Both are very similar.
Sybase too, but I use it less frequently.
We have Aliance support with Sybase, so we go to a specific person
with all our problems, or his backup ot manager. In a local office. I
can't really talk about MSSQL support, I'm not on the coverage letters,
so I have to go through an interal person who is.
I recently dealt with critical system outage problems in Oracle and
UDB. We had issues getting Oracle to escalate to the duty manager to
get a level two person onto the problem. It was our communications
failure in the TAR, not using the correct words. IBM seemed to get us
to level two (that was the call back person for out ticket) more
quickly when we put the PMR in as a SEV1. No wording issues. With IBM
we can get to level three people too. I have never seen that happen
with Oracle. But it might be that we have a bigger relationship with
IBM than we have with Oracle.
Patches come out way to frequently. We are behind before we start,
with all of the DBMSes. Try patching 30 Oracle or 50 UDB instances.
Just the application testing alone can take a patch cycle. You never
catch up. Just doing the Security ones is hard.
All three, Sybase, Oracle, UDB, have issues with fixing problems when
they are difficult. Wait for the next EBF, they say. In reality you don't
want special builds either, but you do want the vendors to commit to
fixing a bug in the version you are on (91) rather than wait for the next
version (10g). Their fix lists are impossible to understand. Lots of
words, but you never know if your problem is fixed unless you can reproduce
it and test it. I have generally waited longer for Sybase and Oracle to
fix something than UDB. Most stuff in UDB gets turned around to the
next or the follow on fixpack (depends on the fix pack generation cycle).
Sybase fixes it in one spot but not others, Oracle says to wait for a new
version and then in stealth mode fixes it at the next point release.
NV> Please enlighten me on the quality of DB2 UDB support, the frequency of
NV> database patches needed, the frequency of maintenance outages (DBA
NV> housekeeping and what housekeeping items are needed).
NV> Same goes for Oracle...
NV> I feel my bottom line decision will not be based on features/functionality,
NV> but rather on quality of support.
Edward Lipson via Relaynet.org Moondog
ed***********@moondog.com el*****@bankofny.com
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