Database administrators use specialized tools to manage and maintain databases, which act as a central repository of information for authorized programs or web services. These tools allow administrators to add or remove credentials, databases, tables, modify layouts and data entries. The tools can have a graphical user interface or be text-based, and also include software for remote login to update database software.
Databases act as a central repository of information that authorized programs or Web services can access, add to, or modify. Professionals called database administrators are responsible for setting up and maintaining these specialized software servers. Database administrator tools are specialized programs that allow you to access, modify, and update database software and settings.
In the world of computer programming, a server is a program whose purpose is to provide information to other pieces of software called clients. A server can run on its own machine, which clients access over the Internet or a local network. A server can also run as a background program on the same machine as its client programs. The database software runs as a server that listens on a specific port for incoming connections from client programs that want to access the information it has.
The database administrator tools that professionals use to keep databases running are separate programs and not part of the database software itself. Database administrators use these tools to issue commands that a specific piece of database software is programmed to recognize and respond with a corresponding action. Although the exact syntax of these commands varies between different database software, actions that can be performed using them include:
add and remove credentials that programs can use to log in to a specific database
add databases or remove databases from the server
add or remove individual tables in a database
modify the layout of a table
modify individual data entries
These utility programs can have full graphical user interfaces or be text-based terminal programs. Database administrator tools that use a text-based interface require the user to enter full syntax for each maintenance command. Programs that have a full GUI allow users to configure commands by clicking on buttons and selecting different options; they then convert the action into the necessary syntax for a command in the database.
Database administrator tools also include software that allows you to remotely log on to a computer and run system commands. This is needed when the administrator needs to update database software that runs on a machine with no computer monitor or GUI. Before an administrator can apply an update, he or she needs to stop the database server, such as exiting a running application. Remote login software allows a database administrator to access the computer on which the database is running to stop the database server, update the software and restart the database software.
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