Planning a new database
Planning a new database can be a daunting task. It's easy to get overwhelmed by it, so here we will present some planning ideas. It's also easy to charge headlong at the task, thinking that whatever you know is all you'll ever need to consider.
Getting ready
You are ready. Don't wait to be told what to do. If you haven't been told what the requirements are, then write down what you think they are, clearly labeling them as assumptions rather than requirements; you must not confuse the two.
Iterate until you get some agreement, and then build a prototype.
How to do it…
Write a document that covers the following items:
- Database design—plan your database design.
- Calculate the initial database sizing.
- Transaction analysis—how will we access the database?
- Look at the most frequent access paths (for example, queries).
- What are the requirements for the response times?
- Hardware configuration.
- Initial performance thoughts—will all of the data fit into the available RAM?
- Choose the operating...
