SQL Server 2005

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SQL Server 2005

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shamshudheen SSCrazy Points: 2390 More actions · Answer 1

hi steve

i am using sql 2000. how can i answer this question?

Better seperate questions for sql 2000 and 2005, since i could not answer well.

hope you do the needfull

Anipaul SSC-Insane Points: 24681 More actions · Answer 2

Resource is a very much a system database.

Read these:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178028.aspx: System Databases

http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp/archive/2007/03/12/60132.aspx :MsSqlSystemResource - SQL Server 2005's 5th system database

Jamie-2229 SSCrazy Eights Points: 8156 More actions · Answer 3

When I was attending school [nearly a million years ago], I never appreciated trick questions and at this stage in my life I cannot recall any of those questions. On the other hand, there were good questions my teachers and professors asked that still remain in my head in my the same way a good joke remains easy to recall. I'm not convinced that trick questions teach people anything other than humility.

Jamie

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 4

Jamie Longstreet (5/9/2008)
When I was attending school [nearly a million years ago], I never appreciated trick questions and at this stage in my life I cannot recall any of those questions. On the other hand, there were good questions my teachers and professors asked that still remain in my head in my the same way a good joke remains easy to recall. I'm not convinced that trick questions teach people anything other than humility.

Are you calling this question a trick question? I think it was a very good question, it is in fact a question someone I know asks potential employees in an interview for DBA positions.

😎

Jamie-2229 SSCrazy Eights Points: 8156 More actions · Answer 5

Lynn,

I think it has the possibility of being a better question. Like everything that gets put out here on the web, I expect a good deal of thought should be required before it goes out.

Speaking of Interviews:

I get lots of weird questions at interviews. Here are a couple of examples (which incidentally, were interviews that did not hire me and were during the last year):

When you open up the Visual Studio 2005 interface, what do you do?

then later in the interview:

When you open SQL manager, what do you do?

And frankly, what I did, was bit my tongue because I wasn't sure if it was a joke or not, then went home, told my wife and had a few laughs.

Jamie

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 6

So, would you improve the question, or the answers provided? To take this into an interview environment, I would be looking to see if someone knew that there were 5 system databases: master, model, msdb, tempdb and resource. It wouldn't matter as much to me if they could provide me with the logical or physical names. You can look that up in BOL or in the file system.

😎

Jamie-2229 SSCrazy Eights Points: 8156 More actions · Answer 7

I would certainly try to improve the question. Question can trip someone up when they are shot as a curve ball - it doesn't mean the person answering the question isn't qualified to hit the ball. It means the experience of that person is different from that of the pitcher.

For example, post a question on line that is important for everyone to understand, but posted it in a way that the person reading the question can't understand, the answer won't come easily. Now post in a way that everyone understands... wow, the hits just keep on coming...

Jamie

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 8

Lynn Pettis

SSC Guru

Points: 442467

May 9, 2008 at 10:15 am

#813209

So how would you have written this question?

Tom Garth SSCertifiable Points: 6193 More actions · Answer 9

Lynn Pettis (5/9/2008)
So, would you improve the question, or the answers provided? To take this into an interview environment, I would be looking to see if someone knew that there were 5 system databases: master, model, msdb, tempdb and resource. It wouldn't matter as much to me if they could provide me with the logical or physical names. You can look that up in BOL or in the file system.
😎

So I'm reading all of this feedback intently because I've never heard of the Resource database (I've been using 2k5 since beta), and now I find out I would fail your job interview question.:crying:

I guess I want to know what is there that is worthwhile about knowing about it's existence? When you setup a Maintenance plan for the System databases, does it include the Resource database? Has anyone in this discussion ever gotten any use from the Resource database, or from knowing of it's existence?:ermm:

Tom Garth
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"There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves." -- Will Rogers

Jamie-2229 SSCrazy Eights Points: 8156 More actions · Answer 10

I suspect there would be numerous ways to pose the question... maybe

more inadvertantly, like "Have you ever heard of a Resource database?"

I'm not poking fun at the question... all questions are good questions in a sense... mostly, all questions are better than no questions, but there are also some "better" questions. I'm here reading and answering them.

But it seems important to remember it isn't a contest. For the sake of an interview, it's a chance to get to know what the person on the other end of the table is like and whether they are skilled enough to do the job more than whether they are MENSA qualified.

I'm getting deep here... no offense intended for MENSA folks!

Jamie

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 11

Also depends on the position you are being interviewed for:Database Developer vs Database Administrator as well as level Junior, Mid, or Senior. That would also impact the correctness of the answer. I would hope a senior DBA would be more likely to answer regarding the system databases correctly than a junior DBA.

Back to this question, though, I did not see it as a trick question. In fact, for me, it reinforced the fact that there are 5 system databases, reminding me about the little known Resource database.

😎

GSquared SSC Guru Points: 260824 More actions · Answer 12

I would consider a question about the Resource database valid in an interview (or QotD). In the interview environment, if asked "What are the system databases in SQL 2005?", if someone answered with the usual suspects, but missed "Resource", I would certainly hope that wasn't enough to fail the interview outright, but it would be something to consider.

On the other hand, last summer, in an interview, the company I was interviewing at placed a tremendous amount of importance on the fact that I don't have all the DBCC commands memorized. So, you never know what an interviewer is going to consider important vs trivial. (I thought it was odd that their DBAs couldn't read estimated execution plans, and didn't know about compile locks on procs. They thought it was deficient that I couldn't recite a list of DBCC commands. Different folks, different priorities. I hope whomever they did hire filled in some of their skill-gaps.)

- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
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"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon

Tom Garth SSCertifiable Points: 6193 More actions · Answer 13

GSquared (5/9/2008)
I would consider a question about the Resource database valid in an interview (or QotD). In the interview environment, if asked "What are the system databases in SQL 2005?", if someone answered with the usual suspects, but missed "Resource", I would certainly hope that wasn't enough to pass on the person, but it would be something to consider.
On the other hand, last summer, in an interview, the company I was interviewing at placed a tremendous amount of importance on the fact that I don't have all the DBCC commands memorized. So, you never know what an interviewer is going to consider important vs trivial.

I think it would be rare to find an interviewer who would ask a question if they didn't already know the answer. So to answer your question about 'might consider important', turn that statement around.

Tom Garth
Vertical Solutions[/url]

"There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves." -- Will Rogers

Q -631159 Ten Centuries Points: 1077 More actions · Answer 14

If you had asked me about the resource database prior to this question I would have failed miserably. I would not have stated it as a sytem database. It simply was a datbase I had forgotten about; however, if I had to move the master database, I would have not forgotten it and now because of this question, I will not forget it again.

I really appreciated this QOTD and the discussion.

Q

Please take a number. Now serving emergency 1,203,894

brewmanz SSCommitted Points: 1575 More actions · Answer 15

** Somewhat OT **

I get lots of weird questions at interviews.

At interviews I wish people would state the pass/fail criteria rather than having hidden parameters. I was going for a C++ programming job and was asked (via email) to write a C++ program that would count the number of '1' bits in a buffer IN THE SHORTEST POSSIBLE TIME (capitalisation theirs). As an assembler programmer of over 10 years experience, I knew how to do these things.

I asked the guy if my program was the fastest he'd ever come across (humility isn't my strong suit as reading my posts will show). He said he didn't know as he didn't run it. "Why not?" "Because I didn't understand it."

I didn't bother pursuing the position.