What is meant by 'House Keeping' in context of a database?

Question

One of my clients has mentioned the term 'Database House Keeping' in his tender specs. I am not sure about the term, please help.

Answer 1

It should be:

• Index rebuild or reorgansise
• Statistics update
• DBCC CHECKDB (check integrity etc) -etc

Other stuff:

• Check backups on tape/offline
• Check backups can be restored
• Monitor size changes
• etc

In this context, I guess:

• Managing older data (I've worked with systems with defined archive processes)

The 1st and 2nd list should be done anyway, regardless of what some vendor says.