Tips for New DBAs
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aprasy (1/6/2009)
Hi everyone,I am sql developer. I studied ur article which is very nice but i would like to know the basics things to become a DBA. I have a chance to attend the interview next week but i dont have much knowledge about DBA side. What should i know before i could attend the interview. If anyone suggest its appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Prasanna
The fact that you're even asking means that you shouldn't go to the interview. You don't know how to use Google well enough and there's certainly no way to cram several years of experience into a couple of days. I applaud your tenacity but you're applying to be a surgeon and don't even know what a bandaid is.
--Jeff Moden
RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally) -
Jeff Moden (1/7/2009)
aprasy (1/6/2009)
Hi everyone,I am sql developer. I studied ur article which is very nice but i would like to know the basics things to become a DBA. I have a chance to attend the interview next week but i dont have much knowledge about DBA side. What should i know before i could attend the interview. If anyone suggest its appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Prasanna
The fact that you're even asking means that you shouldn't go to the interview. You don't know how to use Google well enough and there's certainly no way to cram several years of experience into a couple of days. I applaud your tenacity but you're applying to be a surgeon and don't even know what a bandaid is.
I agree with you M8. I could never apply for a job, unless i can do the things required.
A DBA role and a DB developer Role are like towo diffrent specialities working in the same environmant.
Like a vehicle mechanic that works on mostly engines, gearboxes drive shatfs and general mainenance, vs. a Auto electrician, who works on the same vehicle has a diffrent skill set.
From expereince, develpers hate doing DBA work, as it is time consuming, and the would rather work with their code.
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blandry (11/18/2008)
I apologize in advance for my comments (a little bit), and mean no insult directly at any DBA but...Do you ever take a moment and think about how many DBA's go to work every day and work with the most mundane data? Are you aware that not everyone is going to work at the CIA every day? Have ever thought about men and women who are DBAs or workers using SQL Server who count widgets day-in and day-out? This is something that just drives me nuts about some DBAs and some of the authors who and pretend that every byte of data in the world is somehow 'vital' and at risk.
Consider: I have a buddy who is a DBA for a convenience store company. As he likes to say, he counts Milkbones and the over-blown price for them that you pay when you forget to pick them up during your normal shopping. ...
Every job I've done database work in did not require a security clearance. Yet every one of those jobs required data confidentiality. I never directly worked with criminal data while at the police department (it was on a very secure mainframe), but I have worked on databases that tracked drug use for every pregnant woman in a state's medicare/medicade system; police internal investigations; non-emergency medical transport; juvenile citations; utility billing; along with more mundane things like mailing lists.
Your bud's employer would not be happy if the data in the inventory system were released to a competitor. It would be worse if the payroll system got leaked, as you're looking at a very real possibility of identity theft and other problems. What about PCI credit card security compliance?
At a superficial level systems may seem trivial, but when you scratch a little deeper perspectives can change radically. I may not work for the CIA (nor would I want to), but I still have to take information security seriously.
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[font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font] -
Here's a link to the plagiarized version
enjoy.
Craig Outcalt
Tips for new DBAs: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Career/64632
My other articles: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Authors/Articles/Craig_Outcalt/560258 -
Craig,
Apologies for that. The copy has been removed.
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No worries. I think it was handled very well and have to admit I had a good laugh about it.
What a strange, strange... strange thing to do. :laugh:
Thanks to freshprinceoflb, I can now tick 'be plagiarized' off my bucket list.
Thanks to you, Steve, for the great job you do every day.
Hope nobody minded the rerun.
~BOT
Craig Outcalt
Tips for new DBAs: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Career/64632
My other articles: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Authors/Articles/Craig_Outcalt/560258 -
When is the next edition coming???:)
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Hey Bot. Maybe the article was copied from another site where someone else had already posted a plagiarized version so they thought it was safe?
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Nice article. It was an interesting read. I have been the "Hero DBA" and as a result, I was still getting calls or e-mails six months after I left - At one point, I even went into the office in my spare time to help them out of some difficulties.
I'm still working on making sure I don't fall back into that kind of role!
A couple of comments to the post did bug me though:
Do you ever take a moment and think about how many DBA's go to work every day and work with the most mundane data?
While you may think the data is mundane, it is important to the company and I doubt that management or sales would see the data as mundane.
Many do great work, pay good attention to the tenets of confidentiality and security, and yet process some of the most boring, unsensitive and useless data - like counting widgets. Lord help us if some terror group every finds out that Acme company produced 1,000 extra widgets this month!!! Let alone that they should discover that this month's widget production run included a new 1 millimeter change in the diameter of the widget.
While, I agree this information may not be that crucial to a terror group, you would not want a competitor in the widget market to see your data.
I do agree that DBAs can be looked at as full of themselves, but to be honest, if a colleague wants to think that of me because I want a secure environment protecting the data & logic from the outside world as well as inside the organization, then that's fine. I'm not going to lose sleep over that. However, I would lose sleep and more than likely my job if my system was a playground for all to use and abuse.
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arunyadav007 (1/26/2009)
When is the next edition coming???:)Two weeks ago:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/career+growth/65356/[/url]
Craig Outcalt
Tips for new DBAs: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Career/64632
My other articles: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Authors/Articles/Craig_Outcalt/560258 -
Even mundane systems need the best security so they aren't the weakest link of the Internet armor. I would really *not* love if some dill-schnicken somehow obtained my credit card information or knew that I drank a 12 pack of my favorite beers this weekend or somehow managed to associate a roll of platic with my invoice that happened to be used to wrap up a body somewhere... BECAUSE of crumby security practices that led to computer networks attacking other computer networks or such data misuse.
In an ideal world, we wouldn't have to worry so much and people would just respect the world wide community. Unfortunately, increases in misuse of consumer data undermine user's trust in the system, which devalues and cheapens technology.
Setting up a great system as the author suggests, has very real challenges and most CEO's are looking to the bottom line.
In regards to the Hero mentality, yes documentation is the key in my experience, however, I could easily work 80hrs a week at my job and never be done. If company's can't recognize that documentation doesn't satisfy day to day activity or don't even support a help desk/ trouble ticket system, they should not confuse such a technology employee as supporting the hero mentality. Many companies don't care to see themselves out of emergency or urgent status because they are busy cheapening those departments - they aren't trimming fat, they are shooting themselves in the foot.
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I'll be waiting for the next 3 tips
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Great article!
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Excellent article. Well written. Good advice. Practical and straight forward. Keep it coming.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning -
blandry (11/18/2008)
I apologize in advance for my comments (a little bit), and mean no insult directly at any DBA but...Do you ever take a moment and think about how many DBA's go to work every day and work with the most mundane data? Are you aware that not everyone is going to work at the CIA every day? Have ever thought about men and women who are DBAs or workers using SQL Server who count widgets day-in and day-out? This is something that just drives me nuts about some DBAs and some of the authors who and pretend that every byte of data in the world is somehow 'vital' and at risk.
Consider: I have a buddy who is a DBA for a convenience store company. As he likes to say, he counts Milkbones and the over-blown price for them that you pay when you forget to pick them up during your normal shopping. Yes, instead of 2 dollars at the supermarket, you are going to pay 5 dollars for forgetting them in your weekly shopping. God forbid that Al-Queda ever discover that you, a witless servant of democracy, are getting ripped-off royally should you forget these treats for your dog. My God, the whole great American/European society might come to a stand-still!!!
I am all for prudence and good habits when it comes to data confidentiality. It should be a given for any DBA. But do we have to keep pretending that every DBA working in the world is somehow working with vital and sensitive data? Hello!!! Guess what - many are not. Many do great work, pay good attention to the tenets of confidentiality and security, and yet process some of the most boring, unsensitive and useless data - like counting widgets. Lord help us if some terror group every finds out that Acme company produced 1,000 extra widgets this month!!! Let alone that they should discover that this month's widget production run included a new 1 millimeter change in the diameter of the widget.
This is why many DBAs are looked at as overly full of themselves by their co-workers. They puff up their chests in front of the boss, go on for hours about some new security thingy they just implemented, while people in the room scratch their heads wondering what evil force in the world is trying to crack into their systems to figure out how many widgets, or donuts, or Milkbones they are selling each month.
Sheesh!!! Ever wonder why the world is paranoid?
...again, sorry for the rant - but this has to be said in respect for hard working DBAs who are not working with James Bond and MI6 or the CIA.
Lighten up Francis.
But seriously, I'd say that the widget count is every bit as important to the tiny company and it's tiny database as an entire day's worth of trades are to the largest trading company. If the widget count is off because you've got a crappy database that's not storing the data appropriately, Matt Helm or not, your company is in dire straights and it's your fault as the DBA. So yeah, I think DBA's should behave, to a reasonable degree, like Flint most of the time.
I'm just wondering when the babes show up?
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
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