April 22, 2011 at 8:40 am
Being an "accidental DBA," I'm working on becoming a "non-accidental DBA." While my employer put in SQL about 6-7 years ago, as the back-end for a time and attendance application, I've been mostly a "bad" DBA of the "it's working, it's out of mind."
While we / I set up backups in the Maintenance Plan (using wizards, still learning T-SQL,) they've never really been tested. My employer has since added in an accounting package, also SQL back end. While the (originally I think just a consultant, now an employee) was more of an SQL person then myself, I think he's fairly narrowly focused on the accounting package. So, again, I set up the backups (but still a lack of testing said backups.)
Fast forward a couple years.
The other day, I submitted a request to my boss to set up a VM with SQL to test our backups, and for future testing of backups of the application my employer writes, which is going to use SQL (used to be a Foxpro app.)
Haven't heard back, but I think even if he doesn't reply, I'm going to go forward with setting it up and testing. After all, I'm not only the unofficial / official office DBA, I'm also the server admin / network admin / virtualization admin / domain admin. It's not like I'll get stopped needing someone else to help...
😉
Jason
April 22, 2011 at 9:34 am
Jason,
It's crucial to test those backups. Without that, there's no way to know whether or not they're actually good. We've been battling some drive issues where I work and some of the backups wouldn't restore even after pulling them off tape to a different location. If there's enough space you can just restore them along side the current DBs, just make sure you don't restore over the current one.
Chris
April 22, 2011 at 12:07 pm
I am certainly looking forward to this series as I am about to take a course in SQL SERVER 2008 DATABASE ADMINISTRATION so this tutorial should be very informative.
April 23, 2011 at 3:40 am
Hi Jason,
Thanks for your comments.
Great work on taking the initiative, it's one of the key character traits required to be successful as a Data Professional in my view. In your situation I would even go so far as to say that you should not waste any more time and immediately proceed ahead on your desired course of action unless you are told explicitly to do otherwise.
I use this manner of working all the time. Folks are often so distracted focusing on their own immediate priorities that it can be difficult sometimes to get things done. Rather than requiring your management to make the decision for you, I say go ahead and make it yourself by informing them of what you are doing. They will let you know quick enough if they don't agree with your decision, trust me. As a Data Professional it is you who is the expert on the subject and your managers look to you for guidance and insight. Take the initiative and lead the way.
Now go get those backups tested!
April 24, 2011 at 7:10 am
Martin:
As you point out, the important part is not the backup - it's the ability to restore the data.
May 4, 2011 at 8:04 am
Well John, I didn't realize you were a Brit until you wrote "...a formidible defence" instead of "defense"!
"Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand." -- Martin Fowler
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