First Day as a DBA

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First Day as a DBA

Tejwant Kaur

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Points: 1
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April 26, 2006 at 12:56 am

#113075

Could someone please tell me what duties should one start with where there has never been a SQL DBA before.
Also, are there any special processes (other than backups) that one should run on a nightly/weekly basis?
Is there a website that could help me with as a new DBA?
Thanks heaps in advance.

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colin.Leversuch-Roberts SSC Guru Points: 52643 More actions · Answer 1

I'd recommend the training courses that make up the mcdba.

The ms pocket admin is avaialble on-line

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/library/en-us/startsql/portal_7ap1.asp?frame=true

[font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/

Vladan SSC-Insane Points: 22072 More actions · Answer 2

Hello,

Of course the best would be to take proper training beforehand, but supposing you need to start your job right now and can get to the training only after some time - it shouldn't happen, but I know very well that it happens in reality - then you should probably start with these things:

1) Backups - depending on activity in the DB and data importance, choose the backup model and schedule. E.g., you can have full backup every night + transaction log backup every 15 minutes during working hours and every 60 minutes during the night/weekends on main production DB, but only weekly full backup and twice a day Tlog backup on "auxiliary" databases.

2) Index defragmentation - in DB with high activity, daily defragmentation of some indexes may increase performance rapidly. In other databases, once in a week or month is enough. See DBCC INDEXDEFRAG in BOL.

3) Database optimization, integrity check - read about the possibilities of maintenance plans, but I don't think you should do this before you have been properly trained.

There are lots of other things, like monitoring performance, setting up/checking users and their privileges, etc. etc... but the question was where to start.

Vladan

Ryan-209402 Hall of Fame Points: 3707 More actions · Answer 3

Here is a good intro article from MS:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/maintain/sqlops4.mspx

See the sections on daily, weekly, and monthly tasks...

Luke L SSC-Dedicated Points: 35547 More actions · Answer 4

you could also have a look at the following articles and thier discussions on this site...

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/jyao/howtobeagooddbastrategyandtactics.asp

and http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/whatsadbaanoverview.asp

To help us help you read this[/url]For better help with performance problems please read this[/url]

Jeff Gray SSChampion Points: 10667 More actions · Answer 5

The very first step is to sign up on sqlservercentral.com, which you already did.

jg

Colin Betteley Hall of Fame Points: 3095 More actions · Answer 6

Back ups! Your job could depend on it! Make sure you do some test restores from tape. DO NOT rely on others saying that the back ups worked OK, sometimes it does not.

Then buy yourself the Administratoors pocket handbook and start reading.

Good luck!

abeljda Say Hey Kid Points: 675 More actions · Answer 7

Colin, which Administrators Pocket Handbook are you referring to??