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If you're a database novice, then give yourself plenty of time to learn your way around. PostgreSQL is a great database for beginners because it's well documented and aims to adhere to standards. Even better, everything is discoverable -- nothing is hidden, not even the source code, so you can develop as complete an understanding of it as you want.

The most important part of administering any database is preparation, in planning and design, and in learning best practices. A good requirements analysis will help you decide what data to store, how to organize it, and what business rules to incorporate. You'll need to figure out where your business logic goes -- in the database, in middleware, or applications? You may not have the luxury of a clean, fresh new installation, but must instead grapple with a migration from a different database. These are giant topics for another day; fortunately there are plenty of good resources online, starting with the excellent and .