January 18, 2010 at 11:22 am
Just looking for a bit of advice. I'm a dba in a pretty large organization, there is one other dba who has been her quite a while. I've only been with my current employer for 6 months. I feel like I've done good work in my time here, however I am still learning the environment. My partner gave his 2 weeks notice this morning.....saying, the next two weeks are yours, if there is anything you need to know, now is the time.
So how do we begin? Anybody gone through this and can provide some strategies that worked....or were a total failure?
January 18, 2010 at 11:40 am
I'd ask to shadow him/her for a day or two. I'd also go through servers, look at all jobs, and packages, and ask for turnover about what each does, even verbally. Make notes, or record some of the xfer.
The biggest things that will bite you are likely "favors" or side projects that the DBA has done for others. I'd ask about who he/she mostly hears from in the company, and what types of things they need. That will likely clue you in.
January 18, 2010 at 1:25 pm
presuming production dba role?
You want -
documentation, documentation and documentation, in particular info on server setups, installation and upgrade procedures, backup\restore strategies, and DR procedures. What he does not have, ask him to write
contacts - internal and external
change management procedures
any outstanding changes, most common change types
problem management
incident raising procedures, any outstanding incidents, most common problems
SLAs
On call arrangements
What monitoring and capacity planning is in place
access methods and passwords
If the size of the environment allows it, go through each instance, ask him to point out any little anomalies on each, concentrate on most problematic servers
Get a contact number for him at his new place!
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January 18, 2010 at 1:36 pm
And buy him a few lunches. That will go a long way when you call later.
January 18, 2010 at 1:57 pm
You've been there for 6months, so you know your role/part.
Ask him how is day looks like, what he does when he comes to the office,
- what are/were his main concerns.
- What are the typical problems he looks for
- What are the troubleshooting procedures he walks trough.
- all security related settings (e.g. if each of soly you managed instances)
- all installation procedures
- exceptions he knows certain instances are using
- power uses he granted more than usual (and why)
- optimisations he always dreamed of and never got to
- contacts and contracts you should know of
- server / database inventory and what their main usage is
- products he uses/used you didn't have access to
- PITA uses he knows and how he handles them. (because they WILL be nagging you as from the first ever second he's gone)
- SLA and implemented backup scenarios for the servers he managed
- his phone number and/or email address
You know the role he played for the company.
Ask your boss for him/her covering your back for at least the next half year if you have any doubts to be able to cope with the new situation.
If you didn't have any SQLServer courses yet, know is the time to get some!
Johan
Learn to play, play to learn !
Dont drive faster than your guardian angel can fly ...
but keeping both feet on the ground wont get you anywhere :w00t:
- How to post Performance Problems
- How to post data/code to get the best help[/url]
- How to prevent a sore throat after hours of presenting ppt
press F1 for solution, press shift+F1 for urgent solution 😀
Need a bit of Powershell? How about this
Who am I ? Sometimes this is me but most of the time this is me
January 19, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Thanks for all of the suggestions.
I'm not a SQL Server newbie, so I'm not too concerned with the day-to-day SQL side of things. As was already mentioned....the favours are gonna turn around and bite me. I've asked our manager to get involved in the knowledge transfer as I'm still new enough to not know all the systems.
This is quite a large environment, in the 6 months I've been here I've slowly been taking over some areas, being the primary dba on them and new implementations. He's kept some as the primary dba. We've tried to keep each other in the loop as best we can, but you know how that goes.
We're off to a great start....this is the day after giving notice and he's called in sick 😉
January 19, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Steve Jones - Editor (1/18/2010)
And buy him a few lunches. That will go a long way when you call later.
If (s)he is a person who likes to occasionally imbibe, a "hydraulic" lunch here and there would certainly go a long way. I believe I've met exactly one DBA who doesn't like a good beer. 😛
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
January 19, 2010 at 8:43 pm
george sibbald (1/18/2010)
access methods and passwords
Allow me to emphasize what George said above... make darned sure you have ALL the SA and DBA passwords! If this person leaving also had privs on the Windows Servers, make sure you get those logings and passwords, as well!
If this short-timer has the nads to call in sick the day after giving notice, then forget the "hydraulic" lunches I mentioned... (s)he doesn't deserve them. High velocity pork chop dinners may be in order but not until after (s)he leaves for good.
Also, ask management when you can hire a "Jr. DBA" to train so you can actually take a sick day or go on vacation some day in the future. Being "indispensable" is a double-edged sword. 😉
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
January 21, 2010 at 1:41 am
Tony Savoie (1/19/2010)
...We're off to a great start....this is the day after giving notice and he's called in sick 😉
That's very promissing towards the near future (post exit goodwill)
Off course you know the situation .... you'll have a better picture of how things have evolved .....
- Ask one of your windows domain admin admins to produce an authorisation chart for all db servers for the account of your departing colleque.
- service account passwords
- sa passwords
- sysadminusers passwords
- sysadmin auth (copy his windows group membership and have your user account added !)
Johan
Learn to play, play to learn !
Dont drive faster than your guardian angel can fly ...
but keeping both feet on the ground wont get you anywhere :w00t:
- How to post Performance Problems
- How to post data/code to get the best help[/url]
- How to prevent a sore throat after hours of presenting ppt
press F1 for solution, press shift+F1 for urgent solution 😀
Need a bit of Powershell? How about this
Who am I ? Sometimes this is me but most of the time this is me
January 22, 2010 at 1:59 am
Alcohol - its not just for helping ugly people get laid.
Buy him a beer and ask him a few questions regarding major issues. Don't exactly suck up to the guy, but he will most likely be under pressure to leave things in an orderly fashion. Try and smooth out his departure.
You should have already documented the servers.
Make sure everything is documented before he leaves.
When he speaks take notes.
February 21, 2010 at 11:19 pm
You could let them kinow that you'd like to bring your long lost older brother in to shadow him for a coupple weeks. 🙂
Brian Savoie
How is the rest of the family back in whereever? 😀
.
February 22, 2010 at 4:24 pm
One other thing, if you can get him to talk, ask about once a year, or rare processes that come up after certain events, like the end of the year,
April 11, 2010 at 7:14 pm
First I would ask if wouldn’t mind passing on any documents or example work that he has that would help you get a better understanding of how your projects would work in the long run.
I would also ask him if he would allow me to work beside him for a couple of days just so I would be able to take down valuable notes that I felt would benefit me.
I’d ask a lot of questions about how management works, if he knows the best ways to approach them about promotions and raises.
Another important thing I would ask him is if he could pass on any contacts that may also benefit me.
I would definitely make sure to get his personal email address and contact information so that we could keep in touch. He would be a major factor in networking with the right people in the company.
I would basically get all the information I needed to know about the company itself and how they do things that way I would already have the heads up if anything came about.
April 12, 2010 at 2:48 am
You'll probably get asked to change all the sa passwords when he's gone but beware as there are many bought in apps relying on the sa password being set inside their application or even hard coded :crazy:
Also beware of objects owned by his windows login and that de-activating his login may break things if they aren't set up well, usually dts/ssis and jobs with an "execute as" tucked away deep inside or as a credential on the server.
April 12, 2010 at 8:46 pm
a "hydraulic" lunch here and there would certainly go a long way.
hmm...beware of these "hydraulic lunches" they can lead to pneumatic afternoons :w00t:
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