Things to be well aware to become a DBA

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Things to be well aware to become a DBA

Santhoshkumar KB

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Points: 5066
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December 4, 2008 at 6:54 am

#154982

I want to become a SQL DBA.
How to proceed towards this from scratch?
Please guide me on going what I have to know well to become a DBA.
In the articles I read that there are 2 types of DBA's, Production and Developer.
Which one to choose?
(Also I read that we have to be both kind of DBA).
Also I read that, go through the below
1. Inside SQL series books (Books Name please)
2. MS White Papers (Link please)
3. Books Online (Any pdf or chm file available on this?)
4. Travel through the SQL blogs like this
Any additional information?
Thanks
Thanks,
Santhosh
Human Knowledge Belongs To The World !!

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

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Jonathan Kehayias One Orange Chip Points: 26778 More actions · Answer 1

That is a big question and one open to alot of opinion. I'd recommend that your read the following articles on this site:

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Administration/61680/

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Administration/61681/

https://qa.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/aloha_dba/archive/2008/10/01/a-focus-on-novice-dbas-my-upcoming-pass-presentations.aspx

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Career/61535/

https://qa.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/brian_kelley/archive/2007/10/29/3075.aspx

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/62696/

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/62928/

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/62865/

Also look at Kimberly Tripps post on "The Accidental DBA"

http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/kimberly/post/Catching-up-on-resources-the-Accidental-DBA-workshops!.aspx

Don't expect to become a "Good" DBA overnight. I have 2 1/2 yrs as a DBA with almost 2 1/2 years as a developer before that and I learn something new every day. If you can find a local mentor, in your local PASS User Group that would be a big help. Make sure that it is someone who knows what they are talking about at least 95% of the time.

Santhoshkumar KB SSCertifiable Points: 5066 More actions · Answer 2

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Yes it takes a lot of time to become a DBA.

Let my day 1 start from today....

and

What is this PASS?

Thanks

Thanks,
Santhosh

Human Knowledge Belongs To The World !!

Jonathan Kehayias One Orange Chip Points: 26778 More actions · Answer 3

PASS = Professional Association for SQL Server

http://www.sqlpass.org

It is a organization for SQL Server Professionals that is worldwide and membership is free. They do the PASS Summit every year which is one of the larger SQL Server Events for the year. Microsoft is heavily involved in PASS Summit, and it is a great place to learn about upcoming changes and new features.

Jerry Hung SSChampion Points: 12908 More actions · Answer 4

It's a never ending journey, but you being here curious on SSC is a good start!

Keep working hard at it and enjoy it

SQLServerNewbieMCITP: Database Administrator SQL Server 2005

Chris Harshman SSC-Forever Points: 42179 More actions · Answer 5

Deciding on being a production DBA or development DBA will probably depend on your personal preference and what type of person you are. Yes they both have simmilar responsibilities and require nearly the same knowledgebase, but will typically apply them differently. At a number of small to medium sized companies, the same person will fill both roles.

A DBA who's strictly production person will typically be an organized and structured person and be more focused on the mechanics of ensuring the server itself is operational and efficiently working, including the following responsibilities and more:

- backup / recover strategy

- disk layout, filegroup structures

- memory management, file growth management, session resource management

- DB maintenance

- failover capacity such as clustering / mirroring / log shipping

- disaster recovery

- overall security strategy

- systems integration between applications

- monitor error logs and scheduled processes (if no operator position)

A DBA who's strictly a development person will need to be more creative and be more focused on building efficient applications and more:

- understanding how to use different SQL objects and commands properly

- understanding the effects of different development methodologies on the database

- fitting application security strategy into overall security strategy

- ensure set based approaches used wherever possible

- understand when and how to build indexes on tables

- find poor performing queries in applications and optimize them

As I mentioned before, many DBA positions are a combination of all or parts of these two roles, some of these responsibilities may fall to other people in IS depending on how the company is structured.

Santhoshkumar KB SSCertifiable Points: 5066 More actions · Answer 6

Jerry Hung (12/4/2008)
It's a never ending journey, but you being here curious on SSC is a good start!
Keep working hard at it and enjoy it

Thanks Jerry,

I will try my best...NO...I will do my best...

Thanks,
Santhosh

Human Knowledge Belongs To The World !!

Cath Trimble SSCarpal Tunnel Points: 4201 More actions · Answer 7

On my first day as a dba my manager told me that the better a dba a person is, the fewer people know their name. I know what he meant - if you're any good, clients/users won't need to know your name because they never need to complain to/about you. However, nothing beats the personal touch (and I know it's difficult in large, multi-site environments - I work in one too), so communicate with your users whenever you can. I run simple performance/usage reports for my users. They never asked for them and might never read them, but it means they know I'm concerned about their data and their experience of it - and they know my name when times are good. It pays dividends for me - any time there's a problem they know already that I'm 'on their side' and cut me some slack while I'm putting things right.

Brandie Tarvin SSC Guru Points: 172918 More actions · Answer 8

Personally, I think it is easier to start off as a Production DBA and move into the development. At least, that's how it was with me and I started off in an entirely different field from IT.

You can get junior DBA jobs knowing how to do backups, run jobs, administer security and do minor things with T-SQL, then grow into the more senior stuff such as developing SSIS packages, etc.

The problem is, if you don't know the "production stuff", you can be a good developer, but you'll never really be a GREAT developer. All the SQL developer tools require a basic grounded knowledge of how SQL works in a production environment. And when I run into developers who don't understand that content, 9 times out of 10 it's because I'm fixing problems they built into their systems.

Of course, I'm still learning development, so I can't say I'm a great developer. However, I can recognize very quickly when I've done something fantastically stupid and I usually catch it before the testers get ahold of my project. @=)

Brandie Tarvin, MCITP Database AdministratorLiveJournal Blog: http://brandietarvin.livejournal.com/[/url]On LinkedIn!, Google+, and Twitter.Freelance Writer: ShadowrunLatchkeys: Nevermore, Latchkeys: The Bootleg War, and Latchkeys: Roscoes in the Night are now available on Nook and Kindle.

SQLSandwiches SSCrazy Points: 2143 More actions · Answer 9

I recently became a DBA and the one thing I learned very quickly is to use forums (like this wonderful one). I spend a lot of my day reading, researching, and learning. It's never ending but fun and exciting for the inquiring mind.

There are some tasks that become second nature (like reporting, moving databases, etc.) but then again there are those awesome errors that pop up like "job failed, see log" that take time to dig into.

I've read a good way to start a career in database administration is to volunteer.

Overall, my favorite thing about being a DBA is the community and how willing EVERYONE is to helping each other out.

Brandie Tarvin SSC Guru Points: 172918 More actions · Answer 10

Here's an article that might help with the decision process:

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Career/61543/

Brandie Tarvin, MCITP Database AdministratorLiveJournal Blog: http://brandietarvin.livejournal.com/[/url]On LinkedIn!, Google+, and Twitter.Freelance Writer: ShadowrunLatchkeys: Nevermore, Latchkeys: The Bootleg War, and Latchkeys: Roscoes in the Night are now available on Nook and Kindle.