Describe five main functions of a database administrator.

Ans: A database administrator (DBA) is a person who is accountable for the environmental aspects of a database. Generally, these include:

a) Recoverability - Creating and testing Backups

b) Integrity - Verifying or helping to verify data integrity 

c) Security - Defining and/or implementing access controls to the data 

d) Availability - Ensuring maximum uptime   

e) Performance - Ensuring maximum performance 

f) Development and testing support - Helping programmers and engineers to efficiently utilize the database.