Database Hosting

MNIT’s shared database hosting service offerings provide a lower cost option for agency applications in a multi-tenant environment. Databases in the shared hosting environment should fit all these criteria: small, simple, and low volume workloads.

This service offering includes the following:  

Hardware

• Hosting on mainframe/server/virtual machines. The cost of hosting hardware is included in the Shared Database Hosting rate. 
• Database platforms are hosted in the MNIT Enterprise Data Center and the Offsite Disaster Recovery site, which are physically secure with appropriate environmental components such as conditioned power, emergency power, fire detection and suppression, and temperature control.

Basic Database System Administration 

• Database availability monitoring.
• Database specific performance tuning and troubleshooting.
• Work with agency support teams to troubleshoot database performance issues.
• Database job scheduling.
• Database data exports.

Database System Level Configuration

• Coordinate with MNIT storage teams to allocate storage for initial database installation based on MNIT database storage best practices. 
• Work with the agency application data owners to determine future storage needs. 
• Create the database, database instance, tablespaces, database files and schema owners.
• Grant database system privileges to agency application owners. 
• Manage the database instance configuration settings, including the amount of server memory and how it is allocated. 
• Control and monitor the number of concurrent user connections.
• Work with MNIT server system administrators to configure server operating system parameters and apply relevant operating system patches.

Database Systems Maintenance

• Administration and maintenance of databases to ensure that they are available and performing optimally during the defined target availability hours.
• Document major changes to database servers.

Database Systems Support and Monitoring

• Ensure databases are sized properly.
• Increase or add storage for database files as required.
• Configure new storage space for database files as required.
• Execute the necessary parameter adjustments to the system configuration settings for performance optimization.
• Proactive monitoring of database with monitoring tools. 
• Troubleshoot and resolve unscheduled service outages. 
• Escalate database system software problems to the vendor for resolution. 
• 24/7 support through the MNIT Enterprise Service Desk.

The IBM DB2 service offering includes the following:

• High availability if needed based on customer requirements.
• Backups configured based on customer requirements. 
• Incidents related to production databases may be escalated to a Severity 1.
• Support is available during normal business hours. After hours support is provided on an hourly basis at professional services rates.

The IBM DB2 service offering does not include the following:

• Hosting on mainframe/server/virtual machines is charged separately through the Hosting Service. 
• Database license and software purchase is charged separately.
• Annual software maintenance costs are charged separately.

Databases on distributed platforms are hosted on dedicated servers/virtual machines (VMs). This service offering is suitable for databases that are large, complex, have high volume workloads or compliance requirements which mandate database segregation.

Agencies may choose to have dedicated hosts for databases based solely on a preference for a segregated database environment for their application.

This service offering includes everything listed under Shared Database Hosting above except:

• Hosting on mainframe/server/virtual machines is charged separately through the Hosting Service. 
• Database license and software purchase is charged separately.
• Annual software maintenance costs are charged separately.

Choice of Service Tier: 

• Production Databases: This tier is for databases with production data.
  • Includes high availability, with backups performed every two hours. The agency may choose to not use the high availability feature. 
  • Incidents for Tier 1 databases may be escalated to a Severity 1 if justified, resulting in the fastest incident resolution target available. 
  • Support is available during normal business hours. After hours support is provided on a best-efforts basis.
• Non-Production Databases: This tier is for development databases. 
  • High availability is not offered in this tier. Backups are performed once per day. 
  • Incidents may not be escalated to Severity 1. 
  • Support is available during normal business hours. 

This service offering includes the following:

Software Purchase and Licenses

• Database license and software purchase. Actual costs for licenses are charged to the agency. 
• Annual software maintenance costs. Actual costs for software maintenance are charged to the agency.

Database Software Installation and Upgrade

• Install and upgrade of database management software.
• Apply functional patches, service packs, security patches, and bug fixes to database management and utility software.

MNIT may provide support charged separately at hourly professional services rates when the work effort required is beyond the normal service support due to the size, scope, timing, or complexity of the requirements. Potential professional services include database architecture, database design, database migration, performance analysis, database tuning, and interfacing with customer or vendor applications.

The incident resolution service levels defined in MNIT’s Service Level Matrix apply to Database Platform Services with the following exceptions:  

• Support for Oracle and MS SQL is provided during normal business hours.
• Support for IBM DB2 is provided during normal business hours. After hours support is provided on a professional services hourly basis.
• Normal business hours are 7 a.m. - 4 p.m. CST Monday through Friday (excluding state holidays).

Database storage and backup is not included. They are available through the MNIT Storage and Backup Service. 

Comparison Table

þ = Database Hosting Service Offering          NA = No service offering available

• Participate in a design process with MNIT staff to ensure agency needs are met while adhering to MNIT Hosting design requirements.
• Provide Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) scripts to perform data loads into information structures.
• Provide resources to perform systems testing as needed.