Support teams will be able to debug some performance problems themselves but DBAs have an important role to play.

DBAs have access to key information/tools that administrators typically don’t have. I always advise people to develop a good working relationship with DBAs and help them understand Maximo’s complexities where it impacts on the database.

Cooperative DBAs can provide details of:

• Frequently executed SQL
• Slow SQL statements that weren’t submitted by the core Maximo product and won’t be visible in the logs e.g. BIRT reports or third party systems
• DB Connection usage – The Maximo DB Connection Watchdog can report on some connections but it can’t on third party components e.g. Cognos and BIRT reports•
• Cursor usage for individual connections – Maximo won’t warn about cursors that aren’t being closed although the DB connection watchdog warnings can provide important pointers to the code generating it
• DB performance including the performance of the underlying server – this is critical if the database is shared with other applications

What if your organisation doesn’t have a DBA?

• Take time to learn how to check the things listed above.
• There is often free training/documentation available on the internet
• Bring in a consultant DBA to teach you how to perform these steps
• Use an external DBA