January 21, 2010 at 1:05 pm
I have been a Jr. DBA for about 6 months. Before this I had no prior experience with SQL Server other than reading a couple of books. My current role is to back up the Senior DBA. The thing is, the company does not have a set plan as far how to go about it. My question to you is, if you had to train someone like me, what would you want them to know by the end of their first year? Thank you in advance.
January 21, 2010 at 1:14 pm
I think it is less about the company having a set plan, than the Sr DBA having a set plan.
There will be critical information that must be learned, that behooves the company. For instance, you should learn very quickly the policies, processes, and systems. You will need to learn common issues that may arise and how to fix them.
There is also the need to write and tune stored procedures, perform maintenance, backup databases, test the restores, test the DR plan, indexing, and performance tuning.
A good understanding of installing SQL Server and knowing your hardware is also essential. And of course - client connectivity.
In addition to those technical skills comes the people skills.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
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January 21, 2010 at 1:39 pm
I agree with Cirq. To add to Cirq's post, sometimes you may not be able to get a plan from your Sr. DBA. Take your own initiative. I found it useful to prioritize your plan by what the company needs now and go learn it. There is always a need to know how to backup and restore. In fact, this is likely your first and most important priority. To emphasize Cirq's point about testing restores. Always test restores with T-SQL and through Management Studio.
January 21, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Thanks so far for the advice. My initiative starts now by asking for help because this is new to me and I don't have a set plan other than to learn what is needed to do/keep my job. What info I receive will be what I will learn on my own or ask the Sr. DBA to teach me.
January 21, 2010 at 2:36 pm
You're welcome.
You might also approach the Sr. and tell him that you would like to discuss with him a list of things he thinks is imperative to learn. Tell him you would like to schedule training time. See if he is cool with that.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events
January 21, 2010 at 2:43 pm
You are welcome. Oh, I forgot to mention, spend some time on SQL Server Centeral at least a couple of times a week, every day if you can. 😉
January 21, 2010 at 2:44 pm
C3C1L (1/21/2010)
Thanks so far for the advice. My initiative starts now by asking for help because this is new to me and I don't have a set plan other than to learn what is needed to do/keep my job. What info I receive will be what I will learn on my own or ask the Sr. DBA to teach me.
That's basically the way to go. I also got my first junior DBA job with absolutely no prior experience (not even reading a few books). For my first 6 - 8 months I shadowed one of the senior guys and was slowly handed small tasks that I could perform. I was also given simple scripts used by the senior guys for immediate troubleshooting (nothing that could actively hurt the dbs or the servers) and when I wasn't shadowing or performing tasks I was either breaking down the scripts to understand what each did and how or I was reading whatever books the senior guys had recommended.
Cirque and Jon are both right with their suggestions. I personally found it very helpful to learn common issues that arise in our environment and the standard solutions for them. That allowed me to take small issues off the hands of the senior guys so they could work. One additional thing that you can do is ask if there is any project that the senior DBA needs to have worked on/completed that isn't urgent and won't be too badly impacted by letting you tinker away at it until you get it right. If you have a local college or university that's teaching some SQL courses ask the senior guy to look over the descriptions when he has a minute and see if you would benefit from any of them. At the very worst, a SQL class can just reinforce in you the knowledge that your self-studying is paying off.
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