Beginning Oracle Database 11g Administration From Novice to Professional

CHAPTER 15 THE BIG PICTURE AND THE TEN DELIVERABLES 341
for ensuring that the risks of the changes are understood and that conflicts are detected.
For example, a change to the database may conflict with business tasks.
Configuration Management
A Configuration is “a generic term, used to describe a group of Configuration Items that work
together to deliver an IT Service, or a recognisable part of an IT Service. Configuration is also
used to describe the parameter settings for one or more CIs.” Configuration Management is
“the Process responsible for maintaining information about Configuration Items required to
deliver an IT Service, including their Relationships. This information is managed throughout
the Lifecycle of the CI. The primary objective of Configuration Management is to underpin
the delivery of IT Services by providing accurate data to all IT Service Management Processes
when and where it is needed.”
In the terminology of Configuration Management, a database is a “configuration
item.” The configuration management process is responsible for creating a repository
of information about each configuration item and recording changes made to each configuration
item. Systematic Configuration Management improves the effectiveness of
the other branches of IT Service Management. For example, ready access to configuration
information can help in resolving incidents (Incident Management) and diagnosing
chronic problems (Problem Management).
In Chapter 9, we saw how Remote Diagnostic Assistant (RDA) could be used to assemble
information about a database into an HTML framework. In the terminology of Configuration
Management, the information collected by RDA is called a “configuration record” and
should be stored in a Configuration Management Database (CMDB). You can create a simple
Configuration Management Database of sorts by linking your RDA collections into
an Excel spreadsheet. RDA collections can be run at regular intervals and linked into the
spreadsheet. This is an easy way to create and organize a historical record of changes to
database configurations.
Note An RDA collection is the simplest and quickest way of documenting a database environment.
Release Management
A Release is “a collection of hardware, software, documentation, Processes or other Components
required to implement one or more approved Changes to IT Services. The contents of
each Release are managed, tested, and deployed as a single entity.” Release Management is
“the Process responsible for Planning, scheduling and controlling the movement of Releases
to Test and Live Environments. The primary objective of Release Management is to ensure
that the integrity of the Live Environment is protected and that the correct Components are