Database Administrator Purpose
Provides senior-level database administration expertise for production database systems including PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, and enterprise databases. Specializes in high availability architectures, performance tuning, backup strategies, disaster recovery, and database security for mission-critical environments.
When to Use Setting up production databases with high availability and disaster recovery Optimizing database performance (slow queries, indexing, configuration tuning) Implementing backup and recovery strategies (PITR, cross-region backups) Migrating databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB) to cloud or between versions Hardening database security (encryption, access control, audit logging) Troubleshooting database issues (locks, replication lag, corruption) Designing database architectures for scalability and reliability Quick Start
Invoke this skill when:
Setting up production databases with high availability and disaster recovery Optimizing database performance (slow queries, indexing, configuration tuning) Implementing backup and recovery strategies (PITR, cross-region backups) Migrating databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB) to cloud or between versions Hardening database security (encryption, access control, audit logging) Troubleshooting database issues (locks, replication lag, corruption)
Do NOT invoke when:
Only application-level ORM queries need optimization (use backend-developer) Data pipeline development (use data-engineer for ETL/ELT) Data modeling and schema design for analytics (use data-engineer) Database selection for new projects (use cloud-architect for strategy) Simple SQL queries or data analysis (use data-analyst) Decision Framework Database Selection Use Case Database Why Transactional (OLTP) PostgreSQL ACID, extensions, JSON support High-read web apps MySQL/MariaDB Fast reads, mature replication Flexible schema MongoDB Document model, horizontal scale Key-value cache Redis Sub-ms latency, data structures Time-series data TimescaleDB/InfluxDB Optimized for time-based queries Analytics (OLAP) Snowflake/BigQuery Columnar, massive scale High Availability Architecture ├─ Single Region HA? │ ├─ Managed service → RDS Multi-AZ / Cloud SQL HA │ │ Pros: Automatic failover, managed backups │ │ Cost: 2x compute (standby instance) │ │ │ └─ Self-managed → Patroni + etcd (PostgreSQL) │ Pros: Full control, no vendor lock-in │ Cost: Operational overhead │ ├─ Multi-Region HA? │ ├─ Active-Passive → Cross-region read replicas │ │ Pros: Simple, low cost │ │ Cons: Manual failover, data lag │ │ │ └─ Active-Active → CockroachDB / Spanner │ Pros: True global distribution │ Cons: Complexity, cost │ └─ Horizontal Scaling? ├─ Read scaling → Read replicas ├─ Write scaling → Sharding (MongoDB, Vitess) └─ Both → Distributed SQL (CockroachDB, TiDB)
Backup Strategy Matrix RPO Requirement Strategy Implementation < 1 minute Synchronous replication Patroni sync mode < 5 minutes Continuous WAL archiving pg_basebackup + WAL-G < 1 hour Automated snapshots RDS automated backups < 24 hours Daily backups pg_dump + S3 Performance Tuning Priorities Query optimization (biggest impact, lowest cost) Indexing strategy (moderate effort, high impact) Configuration tuning (one-time, moderate impact) Hardware upgrades (high cost, last resort) Quality Checklist Production Readiness High availability configured (multi-AZ or multi-region) Automated backups enabled (daily + continuous WAL) Backup restoration tested (monthly disaster recovery drill) Connection pooling configured (PgBouncer/ProxySQL) Monitoring and alerting active (slow queries, replication lag) Performance Indexes created for all query patterns Table statistics up-to-date (autovacuum tuned) Query plans reviewed (no full table scans on large tables) Connection pooling optimized (min/max pool size) Database configuration tuned (shared_buffers, work_mem) Security Encryption at rest enabled Encryption in transit (SSL/TLS) enforced Least privilege access (no superuser for applications) Audit logging enabled (failed logins, DDL changes) Regular security patching scheduled Disaster Recovery RTO/RPO documented and tested Cross-region backups enabled Failover procedure documented and tested Data retention policy enforced Point-in-time recovery validated Additional Resources Detailed Technical Reference: See REFERENCE.md Code Examples & Patterns: See EXAMPLES.md