Query

i have this saved in my snippets; not interview questions, but dba responsibilities that you should be intimitely familiar with to make it thru an interview unscathed:

I especially like some of the stuff from Jeff Moden at the bottom 😀

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Administration/dbaroles/517/
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Administering/thevalueofadba/1806/
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/State+of+the+Business/deathoftheproductiondba/432/
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Certifications/3176/
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Miscellaneous/2989/
Daily Tasks
The following tasks should be completed on a daily basis:
Check to make sure the SQL Server is still online and that you still have connectivity.
Check the NT and SQL Server logs for any errors or problems.
Ensure that no SQL Server job has failed.
Resolve any problem tickets.
Close any outstanding change tickets.
Perform the necessary backups, whether transactional or complete.
Check the general health of the server (space, CPU utilization, memory) to confirm there are no issues.
Track locking issues, including deadlocks, blocking, and lock timeouts.
Weekly Tasks
The following tasks should be completed on a weekly basis:
Perform necessary database backups.
Remove any unneeded space from the transaction log and data files.
Perform any necessary index tuning, including defragmenting the indexes.
Execute UPDATE STATISTICS if auto-update statistics has been turned off.
Monthly Tasks
The following tasks should be completed on a monthly basis:
Perform necessary database backups (including a complete backup of the OS and supporting third-party application files).
Apply any patches or service packs for SQL Server.
Run System Monitor to confirm that your server is operating close to its baseline. Update your baseline documentation to reflect this month’s numbers.
Perform a complete system restore of the server’s database onto a new server from a random day. Check the health of the restored database afterward by running DBCC CHECKDB.
Run sqldiag.exe on your server and document the results into a central repository.
Test your alerts to confirm that they still work.
Protect the data, at all costs.
Protect the server the data is on, at all costs.
Help most developers tune queries while teaching them what good set based SQL actually is and why it's important to an RDBMS.
Answer the bloody phone.
Conduct code reviews before promoting code.
Promote code.
Find queries hogging the CPU/Disk.
Find the developer responsible for the above.
Find the manager for the above.
Pummel them both until they agree to rewrite the code today!
Answer the bloody phone.
Answer 10,000 dumb questions per day because lots of folks really have no clue how to write SQL correctly.
Tell managers why the code they want to go in, isn't (dangerous to the data or the system).
Attend project meetings where the users usually think they know more about correct database design than you.
Document the "system" because the users were wrong.
Answer the bloody phone.
Help repair totally undocumented code that broke in the face of scalability.
Help repair totally undocumented code that broke because someone wanted it real bad and that's the way they got it.
Help developers figure out what the undocumented SQL does.
Answer the bloody phone.
Find out which undocumented code is causing the deadlocks even if it's embedded in Jave or C#.
Write reports on the deadlocks and why the server "seemed sluggish" today and every day.
Write "Code Guidelines" to prevent undocumented code in the future.
Buy a new bat with a nail in it to help you enforce the new "Code Guidelines".
Answer the bloody phone.
Explain to migration experts why PL/SQL and T-SQL cannot be run in SQL Server and Oracle, respectively.
Answer the bloody phone.
Explain to everyone from the President of the Company down to the Janitor why no one can have "SA Privs" and why they can't use xp_CmdShell without going through a proxy.
Attend 10 hours of "Sensitivity Training" each week because people think you're too mean just because you made 2 developers cry and 1 leave the country.
Drink too much beer because deep in your heart, you know you're not mean enough.
Answer the bloody phone.
Interview more *&*&&$%$# Developers that you're gonna have to train all over again.
Answer the bloody phone.
What the heck, it's a living 😉
--Jeff Moden
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Lowell

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