Ten Ways To Lose Your DBA Job

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Ten Ways To Lose Your DBA Job

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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November 29, 2006 at 8:46 pm

#61986

Comments posted here are about the content posted at temp

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ChiragNS One Orange Chip Points: 26137 More actions · Answer 1

hi

where is this article? clicking on temp does not take me anywhere

"Keep Trying"

Robert Davis One Orange Chip Points: 28027 More actions · Answer 2

The article is here: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/2744.asp

I think you're having a Null math problem of your own. You had 11 items in the article. Or did you intend for "Forgetting about tape" to be part of Restores?

Excellent article!!! I'm looking into Password Safe right now!!

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Derek Wallace Ten Centuries Points: 1079 More actions · Answer 3

Excellent article. I must admit I'd be pretty OK and on top of things. However I am still printing you article and pinning it to my wall as a 'little reminder' not to be complacent. We use SecureWord for passwords and Foglight and Spotlight for monitoring. These tools can make you lazy though. When I inherited the DBA role, I found every single connection used sa with a blank password. We are now fully SOX compliant with database roles in place etc. Having said all that I sat the 70-228 exam and failed. No score for section 1 and around 75% correct on all other sections. The exam crashed after 20 minutes into it. Another story. Got no resit and all that. Even though I failed the exam, I personally rate myself as a very proactive and technically strong DBA. Thanks again. Derek

colin.Leversuch-Roberts SSC Guru Points: 52643 More actions · Answer 4

Nice article Steve, I actually fail to be amazed now on how many ( interviewed ) dba's wouldn't get past some of your points - I won't go into what I've found in my travels either!!!

It was a good slant to look at DBA skills in this manner.

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John Langston SSCommitted Points: 1977 More actions · Answer 5

Good article. Social and communication skills are necessary, such as being able to explain to an executive "why anyone cared about the objects in the database".

Datagod-309892 SSC-Addicted Points: 434 More actions · Answer 6

I worked at a company that prided itself in being the world leader in "communications interception" technology (i.e. wire taps++)

They routinely configured systems to backup the database to the local drive.

No tape backups.

Insane.

Derek Wallace Ten Centuries Points: 1079 More actions · Answer 7

I agree. No tape backups is nuts ! We backup remotely to disk and then to tape. Tapes are stored off site. We also log ship to a DR site. And I don't think we are paranoid !!! You know this article really go me thinking on my own day to day activities and could I work under pressure ! I have worked in the past under extreme pressure, ie migrating to JDE, server migrations etc. But do I actually analyse dbcc reindex correctly and regularly etc. Anyway thanks again. Derek

Loner SSC-Insane Points: 21279 More actions · Answer 8

Nice article. However I never see any DBA get fired who had made the mistake on your list.

In my last job, the junior DBA actually called herself 'GOD' because she said she was in charge of everything.

Ninja's_RGR'us SSC Guru Points: 294069 More actions · Answer 9

Ninja's_RGR'us

SSC Guru

Points: 294069

November 30, 2006 at 7:14 am

#674907

Everything being coffee and pizza ?

Auri Rahimzadeh Newbie Points: 1 More actions · Answer 10

Patch Tuesday is on the SECOND Tuesday of the month, not the first... just FYI. Great article!

Best,

Auri Rahimzadeh

Author

Hacking the PSP

http://www.hackingpsp.com

kingram-15027 Ten Centuries Points: 1074 More actions · Answer 11

well. maybe not fired right away.. BUT.. come perfomance review time, you got issues..

Jambu Krishnamurthy SSCrazy Points: 2054 More actions · Answer 12

Nice analysis Steve!

Whether someone gets fired or not, the list is definitely a chance to test oneself and make amends if necessary before the d-day arrives.

Thankz for keeping us reminded like this.

Jambu

Tim Mitchell SSCoach Points: 15681 More actions · Answer 13

Good article. Some of this stuff is generally not in the forefront of a DBA's mind, so it can be easily missed. Thanks for a quick reminder.

Now I've got a proc to go check to make sure I'm compensating for NULLs in my math....

Tim Mitchell, Microsoft Data Platform MVP
Data Warehouse and ETL Consultant
TimMitchell.net | @Tim_Mitchell | Tyleris.com
ETL Best Practices

ribst Grasshopper Points: 17 More actions · Answer 14

Very nice article, I think a lot of what you said can be summed up as the devil is in the details.

For example:

You stated...

"I know one thing: if you by hardware and performance doesn't improve, you'll not be getting much of a raise this year. "

when it should actually be:

"I know one thing: if you buy hardware and performance doesn't improve, you'll not be getting much of a raise this year."

Great point about the math. I think that I need to check a few spots for math errors.