sudo/access to the postres OS user

9.2 on Red Hat 6

Our OS Sys Admin have decided to withdraw my (DBA) access to the OS postgres account - so instead of
ssh/logging in to a DB host I I have to login in as 'myself' and then gain access to psql etc. via sudo
such as by doing
PSQL access as the postgres user
sudo -u postgres /usr/bin/psql <command line options>
which I have been granted permissions to do.

I have the following questions regarding this:

1. Is this standard/best practise?

2. In simple terms what is justification for dong this - looking at it from a DBA point of view?

3. As myself I current have no permissions on the ..../psql/data directory and its sub-directories including the log files, which IMHO I need in order to be able to function as a DBA - is there a preferred way in which I can be granted/gain this access other than by granting rights on files at an individual level?

Happy to (try to) explain further if none of this makes much sense.

Thanks in advance as always

Austen

Austen Birchall  Senior Database Administrator
Met Office