Planning a new database can be a daunting task. It's easy to get overwhelmed by it, so here, we present some planning ideas. It's also easy to charge headlong at the task as well, thinking that whatever you know is all you'll ever need to consider.
You are ready. Don't wait to be told what to do. If you haven't been told what the requirements are, then write down what you think they are, clearly labeling them as "assumptions" rather than "requirements"—we mustn't confuse the two things.
Iterate until you get some agreement, and then build a prototype.
Write a document that covers the following items:
Database design—plan your database design
Calculate the initial database sizing
Transaction analysis—how will we access the database?
Look at the most frequent access paths
What are the requirements for response times?
Hardware configuration
Initial performance thoughts—will all of the data fit into RAM?
Choose the operating system and filesystem type
How...