Who's in charge here: Oracle or Unix?

[Craig Campbell]

In article <635 at uswnvg.UUCP> gbarnet at uswnvg.UUCP (Gary Barnette) writes:
>
>Request for open discussion:
>
>There has been a battle going on around here on administrating
>some of the system flat files associated with Unix. The file of concern
>are /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/hosts, and some configuration files 
>used by a menuing system. On one side is the system administration staff 
>and on the other is the Oracle dba staff and other Oracle developers. 
>The Oracle people want their database to contain the "seat of truth" 
>when it comes to Unix system files. They want Oracle applications written 
>(some are in development as I write this) that will accept input of what 
>would normally be put directly into the flat files mentioned above. Then, 
>Oracle would execute a SUID program with PRO-C calls to extract the 
>information from from its tables and modify the system files. System 
>administration is fighting to have this approach stopped and wonder why 
>there is even a hassle about it. 
>
>Database people contend:
>   The master of all data (even system) is Oracle. This data is needed 
>   for a variety of things and, because of company policy, if it is in the
>   database that should be the master copy. More check can be made on
>   the integrity of the data and that means a more dependable system.

Are you kidding?

Oracle is not part of the O/S.  It's an add-on.  How well
would Oracle work in single user mode with only the root file system mounted?
What is there to enforce Oracle (or any DB system) as the data 'God'?

Why would you want to add layers of complexity to a relatively simple task?

Have the Database people ever heard of the K.I.S.S. methodology?  (Keep It
Simple Stupid)  Hmm, "simple", "Database",.....oxymoron.  Silly question.

The database people are "Users".  Period. 

The system administrators are the "System Administrators".  Period.

The system administrators are responsible for the systems.  How well would the
excuse, "Well, you see, the data base is corrupted and we can't recover..."
go over?   That's what I thought.

It sounds to me like the Oracle people need more work to do, and are trying
to generate some for silly reasons.  You as system administrator may use
or develop any tools you like.  It is also YOUR A*S on the line.

I would tell the users to do their own job and let me do mine.  I would
be very hesitant to surrender control of critical functions to a User written
application (Unless I wrote it, of course. :-)).  (You just can't TRUST a 
user...:-))

(If that hasn't set me up as the main course for a "Users feeding frenzy", then
 I don't know what would.... Do users read the net? :-))

craig