As computing systems continue to grow in size and complexity, the need for self-management is becoming more prevalent. The difficulty and cost associated with the maintenance of large scale systems means that there needs to be a paradigm shift towards systems that manage themselves according to high-level policies. Furthermore, these complex large-scale systems typically require intensive data management and this has led to database management systems that incorporate features such as self-configuration, self-optimization, self-protection, and self-healing. This paper proposes criteria for evaluating self-management features in database management systems and uses those criteria to evaluate the self-management features in popular databases such as DB2, SQL Server, Oracle 10g, Teradata and Sybase ASE.
