Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
organisation ?
2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How does
the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The DBAs job is
keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being available to
support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will eventually get
to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?
Hi
1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own group,
having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database servers (from the
big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty at any one time.
2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a desk
swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the standards,
tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS platforms and
requirements) is the logical place for them to go after production DBA, and
possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track is a paper pushing (sorry
management) track and then the DBA throws his technical knowledge away.
Regards
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
> 1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
> right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
> organisation ?
> 2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How
> does the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The DBAs
> job is keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being
> available to support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will
> eventually get to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
> 3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?
>
|||3000 DB Servers Mike ? WoW.. Is this all the db servers within your company
? Does the same DBA team look after development, test,Staging,etc in
addition to production ? Or are there different teams for those
environments, such as OLTP vs Data Warehouse vs BackOffice Applications,etc
?
Who runs data changes on a day to day basis ? Assuming some changes are not
part of the tools and need to be executed using QA.. Do DBAs do that or do
you have some data change analysts doing that ?
"Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
news:OIYh6X28FHA.1148@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> 1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own group,
> having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database servers (from
> the big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty at any one time.
> 2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a
> desk swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
> 3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the standards,
> tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS platforms and
> requirements) is the logical place for them to go after production DBA,
> and possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track is a paper pushing
> (sorry management) track and then the DBA throws his technical knowledge
> away.
> Regards
> --
> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
> Zurich, Switzerland
> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>
|||Hi
All changes have to be in the form of scripts, with documentation, that can
be run by the DBA's. OSQL for SQL Server. No script, no update to the
servers. No change control ticket, no change. No backout procedure, no
change.
They look after all the DB servers, be they Dev, Test, Prod or Disaster
Recovery.
The platforms are standard, each install is identical to the next, and the
rules are the rules. Projects can not have something that was not engineered
by Engineering and approved by Security.
Nobody but the DBA team have sa privileges. If the application needs it, it
does not go onto the servers. dbo needs approval from security.
24x7x365, follow the sun, in 4 locations around the world.
Regards
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:exJoFe48FHA.1032@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> 3000 DB Servers Mike ? WoW.. Is this all the db servers within your
> company ? Does the same DBA team look after development, test,Staging,etc
> in addition to production ? Or are there different teams for those
> environments, such as OLTP vs Data Warehouse vs BackOffice
> Applications,etc ?
> Who runs data changes on a day to day basis ? Assuming some changes are
> not part of the tools and need to be executed using QA.. Do DBAs do that
> or do you have some data change analysts doing that ?
> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
> news:OIYh6X28FHA.1148@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>
|||Mike,
I had a few more questions and would like to get in touch with you directly
.. How can I do so?
"Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
news:O4QkSC58FHA.2264@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> All changes have to be in the form of scripts, with documentation, that
> can be run by the DBA's. OSQL for SQL Server. No script, no update to the
> servers. No change control ticket, no change. No backout procedure, no
> change.
> They look after all the DB servers, be they Dev, Test, Prod or Disaster
> Recovery.
> The platforms are standard, each install is identical to the next, and the
> rules are the rules. Projects can not have something that was not
> engineered by Engineering and approved by Security.
> Nobody but the DBA team have sa privileges. If the application needs it,
> it does not go onto the servers. dbo needs approval from security.
> 24x7x365, follow the sun, in 4 locations around the world.
> Regards
> --
> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
> Zurich, Switzerland
> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:exJoFe48FHA.1032@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>
|||Hi
Look at my posting address and my IM address below.
Regards
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eWPWmZ58FHA.3952@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Mike,
> I had a few more questions and would like to get in touch with you
> directly . How can I do so?
> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
> news:O4QkSC58FHA.2264@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>
|||On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 00:21:00 -0800, "Anonymous"
<anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote:
>2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ?
Always more backup procedures to create, performance to tune. But
look for something new to do as a background task. New
certifications, if nothing else.
> How does
>the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ?
The book on this says keep techies happy by offering them new tech,
keeping skills up to date, and like that.
>The DBAs job is
>keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being available to
>support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will eventually get
>to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
I'm always more on the development side anyway, but just profiling the
data, the better to manage performance, is always something I like to
spend time on. What are the most common names in your database? How
does that correspond to address? Who are the top 10 customers in your
major product areas? Usually there are meaningful reports on these
kinds of things done by marketing in your organization, but that's
sort of top-down, and as a DBA you can sometimes suggest some
bottom-up views that are interesting - possibly getting you involved
with marketing, or special projects, and the like.
That is, if it doesn't violate policy or protocol for you to run those
kinds of queries as a DBA. It probably should, yet nobody ever seems
to yell at me when I show up with some curious report I just ran for
no reason. But if I wasn't easily amused by such things, I suppose I
wouldn't like being a DBA, or data architect, or whatever it is I'm
supposed to be these days.
Josh
Showing posts with label dbas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dbas. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Career move for DBAs
Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
organisation ?
2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How does
the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The DBAs job is
keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being available to
support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will eventually get
to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?Hi
1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own group,
having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database servers (from the
big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty at any one time.
2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a desk
swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the standards,
tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS platforms and
requirements) is the logical place for them to go after production DBA, and
possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track is a paper pushing (sorry
management) track and then the DBA throws his technical knowledge away.
Regards
--
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
> 1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
> right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
> organisation ?
> 2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How
> does the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The DBAs
> job is keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being
> available to support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will
> eventually get to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
> 3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?
>|||3000 DB Servers Mike ? WoW.. Is this all the db servers within your company
? Does the same DBA team look after development, test,Staging,etc in
addition to production ? Or are there different teams for those
environments, such as OLTP vs Data Warehouse vs BackOffice Applications,etc
?
Who runs data changes on a day to day basis ? Assuming some changes are not
part of the tools and need to be executed using QA.. Do DBAs do that or do
you have some data change analysts doing that ?
"Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
news:OIYh6X28FHA.1148@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> 1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own group,
> having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database servers (from
> the big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty at any one time.
> 2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a
> desk swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
> 3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the standards,
> tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS platforms and
> requirements) is the logical place for them to go after production DBA,
> and possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track is a paper pushing
> (sorry management) track and then the DBA throws his technical knowledge
> away.
> Regards
> --
> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
> Zurich, Switzerland
> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>|||Hi
All changes have to be in the form of scripts, with documentation, that can
be run by the DBA's. OSQL for SQL Server. No script, no update to the
servers. No change control ticket, no change. No backout procedure, no
change.
They look after all the DB servers, be they Dev, Test, Prod or Disaster
Recovery.
The platforms are standard, each install is identical to the next, and the
rules are the rules. Projects can not have something that was not engineered
by Engineering and approved by Security.
Nobody but the DBA team have sa privileges. If the application needs it, it
does not go onto the servers. dbo needs approval from security.
24x7x365, follow the sun, in 4 locations around the world.
Regards
--
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:exJoFe48FHA.1032@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> 3000 DB Servers Mike ? WoW.. Is this all the db servers within your
> company ? Does the same DBA team look after development, test,Staging,etc
> in addition to production ? Or are there different teams for those
> environments, such as OLTP vs Data Warehouse vs BackOffice
> Applications,etc ?
> Who runs data changes on a day to day basis ? Assuming some changes are
> not part of the tools and need to be executed using QA.. Do DBAs do that
> or do you have some data change analysts doing that ?
> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
> news:OIYh6X28FHA.1148@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>|||Mike,
I had a few more questions and would like to get in touch with you directly
. How can I do so?
"Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
news:O4QkSC58FHA.2264@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> All changes have to be in the form of scripts, with documentation, that
> can be run by the DBA's. OSQL for SQL Server. No script, no update to the
> servers. No change control ticket, no change. No backout procedure, no
> change.
> They look after all the DB servers, be they Dev, Test, Prod or Disaster
> Recovery.
> The platforms are standard, each install is identical to the next, and the
> rules are the rules. Projects can not have something that was not
> engineered by Engineering and approved by Security.
> Nobody but the DBA team have sa privileges. If the application needs it,
> it does not go onto the servers. dbo needs approval from security.
> 24x7x365, follow the sun, in 4 locations around the world.
> Regards
> --
> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
> Zurich, Switzerland
> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:exJoFe48FHA.1032@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>|||Hi
Look at my posting address and my IM address below.
Regards
--
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eWPWmZ58FHA.3952@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Mike,
> I had a few more questions and would like to get in touch with you
> directly . How can I do so?
> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
> news:O4QkSC58FHA.2264@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>|||On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 00:21:00 -0800, "Anonymous"
<anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote:
>2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ?
Always more backup procedures to create, performance to tune. But
look for something new to do as a background task. New
certifications, if nothing else.
> How does
>the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ?
The book on this says keep techies happy by offering them new tech,
keeping skills up to date, and like that.
>The DBAs job is
>keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being available to
>support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will eventually get
>to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
I'm always more on the development side anyway, but just profiling the
data, the better to manage performance, is always something I like to
spend time on. What are the most common names in your database? How
does that correspond to address? Who are the top 10 customers in your
major product areas? Usually there are meaningful reports on these
kinds of things done by marketing in your organization, but that's
sort of top-down, and as a DBA you can sometimes suggest some
bottom-up views that are interesting - possibly getting you involved
with marketing, or special projects, and the like.
That is, if it doesn't violate policy or protocol for you to run those
kinds of queries as a DBA. It probably should, yet nobody ever seems
to yell at me when I show up with some curious report I just ran for
no reason. But if I wasn't easily amused by such things, I suppose I
wouldn't like being a DBA, or data architect, or whatever it is I'm
supposed to be these days.
Josh
1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
organisation ?
2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How does
the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The DBAs job is
keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being available to
support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will eventually get
to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?Hi
1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own group,
having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database servers (from the
big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty at any one time.
2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a desk
swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the standards,
tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS platforms and
requirements) is the logical place for them to go after production DBA, and
possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track is a paper pushing (sorry
management) track and then the DBA throws his technical knowledge away.
Regards
--
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
> 1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
> right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
> organisation ?
> 2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How
> does the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The DBAs
> job is keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being
> available to support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will
> eventually get to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
> 3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?
>|||3000 DB Servers Mike ? WoW.. Is this all the db servers within your company
? Does the same DBA team look after development, test,Staging,etc in
addition to production ? Or are there different teams for those
environments, such as OLTP vs Data Warehouse vs BackOffice Applications,etc
?
Who runs data changes on a day to day basis ? Assuming some changes are not
part of the tools and need to be executed using QA.. Do DBAs do that or do
you have some data change analysts doing that ?
"Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
news:OIYh6X28FHA.1148@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> 1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own group,
> having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database servers (from
> the big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty at any one time.
> 2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a
> desk swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
> 3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the standards,
> tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS platforms and
> requirements) is the logical place for them to go after production DBA,
> and possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track is a paper pushing
> (sorry management) track and then the DBA throws his technical knowledge
> away.
> Regards
> --
> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
> Zurich, Switzerland
> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>|||Hi
All changes have to be in the form of scripts, with documentation, that can
be run by the DBA's. OSQL for SQL Server. No script, no update to the
servers. No change control ticket, no change. No backout procedure, no
change.
They look after all the DB servers, be they Dev, Test, Prod or Disaster
Recovery.
The platforms are standard, each install is identical to the next, and the
rules are the rules. Projects can not have something that was not engineered
by Engineering and approved by Security.
Nobody but the DBA team have sa privileges. If the application needs it, it
does not go onto the servers. dbo needs approval from security.
24x7x365, follow the sun, in 4 locations around the world.
Regards
--
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:exJoFe48FHA.1032@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> 3000 DB Servers Mike ? WoW.. Is this all the db servers within your
> company ? Does the same DBA team look after development, test,Staging,etc
> in addition to production ? Or are there different teams for those
> environments, such as OLTP vs Data Warehouse vs BackOffice
> Applications,etc ?
> Who runs data changes on a day to day basis ? Assuming some changes are
> not part of the tools and need to be executed using QA.. Do DBAs do that
> or do you have some data change analysts doing that ?
> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
> news:OIYh6X28FHA.1148@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>|||Mike,
I had a few more questions and would like to get in touch with you directly
. How can I do so?
"Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
news:O4QkSC58FHA.2264@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> All changes have to be in the form of scripts, with documentation, that
> can be run by the DBA's. OSQL for SQL Server. No script, no update to the
> servers. No change control ticket, no change. No backout procedure, no
> change.
> They look after all the DB servers, be they Dev, Test, Prod or Disaster
> Recovery.
> The platforms are standard, each install is identical to the next, and the
> rules are the rules. Projects can not have something that was not
> engineered by Engineering and approved by Security.
> Nobody but the DBA team have sa privileges. If the application needs it,
> it does not go onto the servers. dbo needs approval from security.
> 24x7x365, follow the sun, in 4 locations around the world.
> Regards
> --
> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
> Zurich, Switzerland
> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:exJoFe48FHA.1032@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>|||Hi
Look at my posting address and my IM address below.
Regards
--
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eWPWmZ58FHA.3952@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Mike,
> I had a few more questions and would like to get in touch with you
> directly . How can I do so?
> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
> news:O4QkSC58FHA.2264@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>|||On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 00:21:00 -0800, "Anonymous"
<anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote:
>2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ?
Always more backup procedures to create, performance to tune. But
look for something new to do as a background task. New
certifications, if nothing else.
> How does
>the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ?
The book on this says keep techies happy by offering them new tech,
keeping skills up to date, and like that.
>The DBAs job is
>keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being available to
>support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will eventually get
>to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
I'm always more on the development side anyway, but just profiling the
data, the better to manage performance, is always something I like to
spend time on. What are the most common names in your database? How
does that correspond to address? Who are the top 10 customers in your
major product areas? Usually there are meaningful reports on these
kinds of things done by marketing in your organization, but that's
sort of top-down, and as a DBA you can sometimes suggest some
bottom-up views that are interesting - possibly getting you involved
with marketing, or special projects, and the like.
That is, if it doesn't violate policy or protocol for you to run those
kinds of queries as a DBA. It probably should, yet nobody ever seems
to yell at me when I show up with some curious report I just ran for
no reason. But if I wasn't easily amused by such things, I suppose I
wouldn't like being a DBA, or data architect, or whatever it is I'm
supposed to be these days.
Josh
Career move for DBAs
Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
organisation ?
2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How does
the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The DBAs job is
keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being available to
support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will eventually get
to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?Hi
1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own group,
having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database servers (from the
big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty at any one time.
2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a desk
swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the standards,
tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS platforms and
requirements) is the logical place for them to go after production DBA, and
possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track is a paper pushing (sorry
management) track and then the DBA throws his technical knowledge away.
Regards
--
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
> 1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
> right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
> organisation ?
> 2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How
> does the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The DBAs
> job is keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being
> available to support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will
> eventually get to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
> 3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?
>|||3000 DB Servers Mike ? WoW.. Is this all the db servers within your company
? Does the same DBA team look after development, test,Staging,etc in
addition to production ? Or are there different teams for those
environments, such as OLTP vs Data Warehouse vs BackOffice Applications,etc
?
Who runs data changes on a day to day basis ? Assuming some changes are not
part of the tools and need to be executed using QA.. Do DBAs do that or do
you have some data change analysts doing that ?
"Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
news:OIYh6X28FHA.1148@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> 1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own group,
> having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database servers (from
> the big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty at any one time.
> 2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a
> desk swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
> 3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the standards,
> tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS platforms and
> requirements) is the logical place for them to go after production DBA,
> and possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track is a paper pushing
> (sorry management) track and then the DBA throws his technical knowledge
> away.
> Regards
> --
> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
> Zurich, Switzerland
> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
>> 1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
>> right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
>> organisation ?
>> 2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How
>> does the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The DBAs
>> job is keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being
>> available to support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will
>> eventually get to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
>> 3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?
>|||Hi
All changes have to be in the form of scripts, with documentation, that can
be run by the DBA's. OSQL for SQL Server. No script, no update to the
servers. No change control ticket, no change. No backout procedure, no
change.
They look after all the DB servers, be they Dev, Test, Prod or Disaster
Recovery.
The platforms are standard, each install is identical to the next, and the
rules are the rules. Projects can not have something that was not engineered
by Engineering and approved by Security.
Nobody but the DBA team have sa privileges. If the application needs it, it
does not go onto the servers. dbo needs approval from security.
24x7x365, follow the sun, in 4 locations around the world.
Regards
--
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:exJoFe48FHA.1032@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> 3000 DB Servers Mike ? WoW.. Is this all the db servers within your
> company ? Does the same DBA team look after development, test,Staging,etc
> in addition to production ? Or are there different teams for those
> environments, such as OLTP vs Data Warehouse vs BackOffice
> Applications,etc ?
> Who runs data changes on a day to day basis ? Assuming some changes are
> not part of the tools and need to be executed using QA.. Do DBAs do that
> or do you have some data change analysts doing that ?
> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
> news:OIYh6X28FHA.1148@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> Hi
>> 1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own group,
>> having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database servers (from
>> the big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty at any one time.
>> 2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a
>> desk swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
>> 3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the standards,
>> tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS platforms and
>> requirements) is the logical place for them to go after production DBA,
>> and possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track is a paper pushing
>> (sorry management) track and then the DBA throws his technical knowledge
>> away.
>> Regards
>> --
>> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
>> Zurich, Switzerland
>> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
>> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
>> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
>> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
>> 1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
>> right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
>> organisation ?
>> 2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How
>> does the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The DBAs
>> job is keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being
>> available to support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out
>> will eventually get to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
>> 3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?
>>
>|||Mike,
I had a few more questions and would like to get in touch with you directly
. How can I do so?
"Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
news:O4QkSC58FHA.2264@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> All changes have to be in the form of scripts, with documentation, that
> can be run by the DBA's. OSQL for SQL Server. No script, no update to the
> servers. No change control ticket, no change. No backout procedure, no
> change.
> They look after all the DB servers, be they Dev, Test, Prod or Disaster
> Recovery.
> The platforms are standard, each install is identical to the next, and the
> rules are the rules. Projects can not have something that was not
> engineered by Engineering and approved by Security.
> Nobody but the DBA team have sa privileges. If the application needs it,
> it does not go onto the servers. dbo needs approval from security.
> 24x7x365, follow the sun, in 4 locations around the world.
> Regards
> --
> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
> Zurich, Switzerland
> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:exJoFe48FHA.1032@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>> 3000 DB Servers Mike ? WoW.. Is this all the db servers within your
>> company ? Does the same DBA team look after development, test,Staging,etc
>> in addition to production ? Or are there different teams for those
>> environments, such as OLTP vs Data Warehouse vs BackOffice
>> Applications,etc ?
>> Who runs data changes on a day to day basis ? Assuming some changes are
>> not part of the tools and need to be executed using QA.. Do DBAs do that
>> or do you have some data change analysts doing that ?
>> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
>> news:OIYh6X28FHA.1148@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> Hi
>> 1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own group,
>> having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database servers (from
>> the big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty at any one
>> time.
>> 2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a
>> desk swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
>> 3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the
>> standards, tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS
>> platforms and requirements) is the logical place for them to go after
>> production DBA, and possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track is
>> a paper pushing (sorry management) track and then the DBA throws his
>> technical knowledge away.
>> Regards
>> --
>> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
>> Zurich, Switzerland
>> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
>> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
>> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
>> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
>> 1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
>> right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
>> organisation ?
>> 2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How
>> does the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The
>> DBAs job is keeping systems up and running and securing the data and
>> being available to support the organisation. Doing that day in and day
>> out will eventually get to you and want to make sure theres exciting
>> work
>> 3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?
>>
>>
>|||Hi
Look at my posting address and my IM address below.
Regards
--
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eWPWmZ58FHA.3952@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Mike,
> I had a few more questions and would like to get in touch with you
> directly . How can I do so?
> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
> news:O4QkSC58FHA.2264@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> Hi
>> All changes have to be in the form of scripts, with documentation, that
>> can be run by the DBA's. OSQL for SQL Server. No script, no update to the
>> servers. No change control ticket, no change. No backout procedure, no
>> change.
>> They look after all the DB servers, be they Dev, Test, Prod or Disaster
>> Recovery.
>> The platforms are standard, each install is identical to the next, and
>> the rules are the rules. Projects can not have something that was not
>> engineered by Engineering and approved by Security.
>> Nobody but the DBA team have sa privileges. If the application needs it,
>> it does not go onto the servers. dbo needs approval from security.
>> 24x7x365, follow the sun, in 4 locations around the world.
>> Regards
>> --
>> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
>> Zurich, Switzerland
>> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
>> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
>> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
>> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:exJoFe48FHA.1032@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>> 3000 DB Servers Mike ? WoW.. Is this all the db servers within your
>> company ? Does the same DBA team look after development,
>> test,Staging,etc in addition to production ? Or are there different
>> teams for those environments, such as OLTP vs Data Warehouse vs
>> BackOffice Applications,etc ?
>> Who runs data changes on a day to day basis ? Assuming some changes are
>> not part of the tools and need to be executed using QA.. Do DBAs do that
>> or do you have some data change analysts doing that ?
>> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
>> news:OIYh6X28FHA.1148@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> Hi
>> 1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own
>> group, having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database
>> servers (from the big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty
>> at any one time.
>> 2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a
>> desk swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
>> 3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the
>> standards, tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS
>> platforms and requirements) is the logical place for them to go after
>> production DBA, and possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track
>> is a paper pushing (sorry management) track and then the DBA throws his
>> technical knowledge away.
>> Regards
>> --
>> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
>> Zurich, Switzerland
>> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
>> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
>> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
>> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
>> 1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that
>> the right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to
>> in an organisation ?
>> 2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How
>> does the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The
>> DBAs job is keeping systems up and running and securing the data and
>> being available to support the organisation. Doing that day in and day
>> out will eventually get to you and want to make sure theres exciting
>> work
>> 3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?
>>
>>
>>
>|||On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 00:21:00 -0800, "Anonymous"
<anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote:
>2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ?
Always more backup procedures to create, performance to tune. But
look for something new to do as a background task. New
certifications, if nothing else.
> How does
>the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ?
The book on this says keep techies happy by offering them new tech,
keeping skills up to date, and like that.
>The DBAs job is
>keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being available to
>support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will eventually get
>to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
I'm always more on the development side anyway, but just profiling the
data, the better to manage performance, is always something I like to
spend time on. What are the most common names in your database? How
does that correspond to address? Who are the top 10 customers in your
major product areas? Usually there are meaningful reports on these
kinds of things done by marketing in your organization, but that's
sort of top-down, and as a DBA you can sometimes suggest some
bottom-up views that are interesting - possibly getting you involved
with marketing, or special projects, and the like.
That is, if it doesn't violate policy or protocol for you to run those
kinds of queries as a DBA. It probably should, yet nobody ever seems
to yell at me when I show up with some curious report I just ran for
no reason. But if I wasn't easily amused by such things, I suppose I
wouldn't like being a DBA, or data architect, or whatever it is I'm
supposed to be these days.
Josh
1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
organisation ?
2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How does
the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The DBAs job is
keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being available to
support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will eventually get
to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?Hi
1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own group,
having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database servers (from the
big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty at any one time.
2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a desk
swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the standards,
tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS platforms and
requirements) is the logical place for them to go after production DBA, and
possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track is a paper pushing (sorry
management) track and then the DBA throws his technical knowledge away.
Regards
--
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
> 1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
> right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
> organisation ?
> 2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How
> does the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The DBAs
> job is keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being
> available to support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will
> eventually get to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
> 3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?
>|||3000 DB Servers Mike ? WoW.. Is this all the db servers within your company
? Does the same DBA team look after development, test,Staging,etc in
addition to production ? Or are there different teams for those
environments, such as OLTP vs Data Warehouse vs BackOffice Applications,etc
?
Who runs data changes on a day to day basis ? Assuming some changes are not
part of the tools and need to be executed using QA.. Do DBAs do that or do
you have some data change analysts doing that ?
"Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
news:OIYh6X28FHA.1148@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> 1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own group,
> having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database servers (from
> the big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty at any one time.
> 2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a
> desk swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
> 3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the standards,
> tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS platforms and
> requirements) is the logical place for them to go after production DBA,
> and possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track is a paper pushing
> (sorry management) track and then the DBA throws his technical knowledge
> away.
> Regards
> --
> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
> Zurich, Switzerland
> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
>> 1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
>> right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
>> organisation ?
>> 2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How
>> does the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The DBAs
>> job is keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being
>> available to support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will
>> eventually get to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
>> 3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?
>|||Hi
All changes have to be in the form of scripts, with documentation, that can
be run by the DBA's. OSQL for SQL Server. No script, no update to the
servers. No change control ticket, no change. No backout procedure, no
change.
They look after all the DB servers, be they Dev, Test, Prod or Disaster
Recovery.
The platforms are standard, each install is identical to the next, and the
rules are the rules. Projects can not have something that was not engineered
by Engineering and approved by Security.
Nobody but the DBA team have sa privileges. If the application needs it, it
does not go onto the servers. dbo needs approval from security.
24x7x365, follow the sun, in 4 locations around the world.
Regards
--
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:exJoFe48FHA.1032@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> 3000 DB Servers Mike ? WoW.. Is this all the db servers within your
> company ? Does the same DBA team look after development, test,Staging,etc
> in addition to production ? Or are there different teams for those
> environments, such as OLTP vs Data Warehouse vs BackOffice
> Applications,etc ?
> Who runs data changes on a day to day basis ? Assuming some changes are
> not part of the tools and need to be executed using QA.. Do DBAs do that
> or do you have some data change analysts doing that ?
> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
> news:OIYh6X28FHA.1148@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> Hi
>> 1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own group,
>> having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database servers (from
>> the big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty at any one time.
>> 2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a
>> desk swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
>> 3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the standards,
>> tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS platforms and
>> requirements) is the logical place for them to go after production DBA,
>> and possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track is a paper pushing
>> (sorry management) track and then the DBA throws his technical knowledge
>> away.
>> Regards
>> --
>> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
>> Zurich, Switzerland
>> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
>> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
>> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
>> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
>> 1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
>> right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
>> organisation ?
>> 2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How
>> does the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The DBAs
>> job is keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being
>> available to support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out
>> will eventually get to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
>> 3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?
>>
>|||Mike,
I had a few more questions and would like to get in touch with you directly
. How can I do so?
"Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
news:O4QkSC58FHA.2264@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> All changes have to be in the form of scripts, with documentation, that
> can be run by the DBA's. OSQL for SQL Server. No script, no update to the
> servers. No change control ticket, no change. No backout procedure, no
> change.
> They look after all the DB servers, be they Dev, Test, Prod or Disaster
> Recovery.
> The platforms are standard, each install is identical to the next, and the
> rules are the rules. Projects can not have something that was not
> engineered by Engineering and approved by Security.
> Nobody but the DBA team have sa privileges. If the application needs it,
> it does not go onto the servers. dbo needs approval from security.
> 24x7x365, follow the sun, in 4 locations around the world.
> Regards
> --
> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
> Zurich, Switzerland
> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:exJoFe48FHA.1032@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>> 3000 DB Servers Mike ? WoW.. Is this all the db servers within your
>> company ? Does the same DBA team look after development, test,Staging,etc
>> in addition to production ? Or are there different teams for those
>> environments, such as OLTP vs Data Warehouse vs BackOffice
>> Applications,etc ?
>> Who runs data changes on a day to day basis ? Assuming some changes are
>> not part of the tools and need to be executed using QA.. Do DBAs do that
>> or do you have some data change analysts doing that ?
>> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
>> news:OIYh6X28FHA.1148@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> Hi
>> 1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own group,
>> having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database servers (from
>> the big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty at any one
>> time.
>> 2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a
>> desk swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
>> 3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the
>> standards, tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS
>> platforms and requirements) is the logical place for them to go after
>> production DBA, and possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track is
>> a paper pushing (sorry management) track and then the DBA throws his
>> technical knowledge away.
>> Regards
>> --
>> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
>> Zurich, Switzerland
>> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
>> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
>> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
>> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
>> 1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that the
>> right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to in an
>> organisation ?
>> 2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How
>> does the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The
>> DBAs job is keeping systems up and running and securing the data and
>> being available to support the organisation. Doing that day in and day
>> out will eventually get to you and want to make sure theres exciting
>> work
>> 3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?
>>
>>
>|||Hi
Look at my posting address and my IM address below.
Regards
--
Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Zurich, Switzerland
IM: mike@.epprecht.net
MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
"Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eWPWmZ58FHA.3952@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Mike,
> I had a few more questions and would like to get in touch with you
> directly . How can I do so?
> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
> news:O4QkSC58FHA.2264@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> Hi
>> All changes have to be in the form of scripts, with documentation, that
>> can be run by the DBA's. OSQL for SQL Server. No script, no update to the
>> servers. No change control ticket, no change. No backout procedure, no
>> change.
>> They look after all the DB servers, be they Dev, Test, Prod or Disaster
>> Recovery.
>> The platforms are standard, each install is identical to the next, and
>> the rules are the rules. Projects can not have something that was not
>> engineered by Engineering and approved by Security.
>> Nobody but the DBA team have sa privileges. If the application needs it,
>> it does not go onto the servers. dbo needs approval from security.
>> 24x7x365, follow the sun, in 4 locations around the world.
>> Regards
>> --
>> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
>> Zurich, Switzerland
>> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
>> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
>> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
>> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:exJoFe48FHA.1032@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>> 3000 DB Servers Mike ? WoW.. Is this all the db servers within your
>> company ? Does the same DBA team look after development,
>> test,Staging,etc in addition to production ? Or are there different
>> teams for those environments, such as OLTP vs Data Warehouse vs
>> BackOffice Applications,etc ?
>> Who runs data changes on a day to day basis ? Assuming some changes are
>> not part of the tools and need to be executed using QA.. Do DBAs do that
>> or do you have some data change analysts doing that ?
>> "Mike Epprecht (SQL MVP)" <mike@.epprecht.net> wrote in message
>> news:OIYh6X28FHA.1148@.tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> Hi
>> 1. If you have more than a few DBA's, they should be in their own
>> group, having their own line manager. We have over 3000 database
>> servers (from the big 3 vendors), and there are multiple teams on duty
>> at any one time.
>> 2. Job rotation within the teams, continuous training. Maybe a bit of a
>> desk swap with a development DBA if he is capable.
>> 3. Database Engineering (the guys who architect and design the
>> standards, tools and database product setups, based on your runtime OS
>> platforms and requirements) is the logical place for them to go after
>> production DBA, and possibly, up to Lead DB Engineer. Any other track
>> is a paper pushing (sorry management) track and then the DBA throws his
>> technical knowledge away.
>> Regards
>> --
>> Mike Epprecht, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
>> Zurich, Switzerland
>> IM: mike@.epprecht.net
>> MVP Program: http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
>> Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/epprecht/
>> "Anonymous" <anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:uOIdBuy8FHA.476@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Had some questions with regards to a career path for DBAs.
>> 1) Do DBAs within Operations report to a Database Manager ? Is that
>> the right title ? If not, curious to know who else do DBAs report to
>> in an organisation ?
>> 2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ? How
>> does the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ? The
>> DBAs job is keeping systems up and running and securing the data and
>> being available to support the organisation. Doing that day in and day
>> out will eventually get to you and want to make sure theres exciting
>> work
>> 3) What can DBAs do to move up in their career ?
>>
>>
>>
>|||On Sun, 27 Nov 2005 00:21:00 -0800, "Anonymous"
<anonymous@.hotmail.com> wrote:
>2) How do DBAs keep their jobs challenging on a day to day basis ?
Always more backup procedures to create, performance to tune. But
look for something new to do as a background task. New
certifications, if nothing else.
> How does
>the manager keep the DBAs happy besides the money factor ?
The book on this says keep techies happy by offering them new tech,
keeping skills up to date, and like that.
>The DBAs job is
>keeping systems up and running and securing the data and being available to
>support the organisation. Doing that day in and day out will eventually get
>to you and want to make sure theres exciting work
I'm always more on the development side anyway, but just profiling the
data, the better to manage performance, is always something I like to
spend time on. What are the most common names in your database? How
does that correspond to address? Who are the top 10 customers in your
major product areas? Usually there are meaningful reports on these
kinds of things done by marketing in your organization, but that's
sort of top-down, and as a DBA you can sometimes suggest some
bottom-up views that are interesting - possibly getting you involved
with marketing, or special projects, and the like.
That is, if it doesn't violate policy or protocol for you to run those
kinds of queries as a DBA. It probably should, yet nobody ever seems
to yell at me when I show up with some curious report I just ran for
no reason. But if I wasn't easily amused by such things, I suppose I
wouldn't like being a DBA, or data architect, or whatever it is I'm
supposed to be these days.
Josh
Friday, February 24, 2012
Capturing database size on a schedule and graphing?
I'm wondering if there are any other programmers/DBA's out there that have
lots of databases that they need to routinely monitor its file growth over
time. I'm looking for any VB code or scripts that accomplish this.
We have about 500 SQL Server databases on one of our servers and they extend
daily.
I would like to capture their size and save the data so it can be graphed in
Excel or something to show the growth rate of each database.
If anyone has any sample code or idea how I can do some of this -- I would
appreciate it greatly.
There are multiple ways you could do this.
One would be a scheduled job in SQL Server, which uses either the
undocumented sp_MSForEachDB or a cursor, loops through the databases, and
logs the result of sp_helpfile. This can be useful if you want to leave out
irrelevant databases using the where clause for the cursor or an if
conditional.
Another way would be a windows scheduled task that calls a VBS script, using
FileSystemObject to loop through all the MDF/NDF files and logs their size
property. This can be useful if all of your relevant databases are in a
specific location, separate from the system databases and/or other databases
you are not interested in logging.
If you can wait a day or two, I will whip something up that should be a bit
more concrete than the above... in the meantime, you could take a crack at
it, and post here if you have specific issues.
Let's narrow the discussion groups down though, okay?
http://www.aspfaq.com/
(Reverse address to reply.)
"DavidM" <spam@.spam.net> wrote in message
news:uBE#1Bb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> I'm wondering if there are any other programmers/DBA's out there that have
> lots of databases that they need to routinely monitor its file growth over
> time. I'm looking for any VB code or scripts that accomplish this.
> We have about 500 SQL Server databases on one of our servers and they
extend
> daily.
> I would like to capture their size and save the data so it can be graphed
in
> Excel or something to show the growth rate of each database.
> If anyone has any sample code or idea how I can do some of this -- I would
> appreciate it greatly.
>
>
|||Hi
You may want to check out the code in sp_spaceused and adapt it to suit your
purposes.
John
"DavidM" <spam@.spam.net> wrote in message
news:uBE%231Bb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> I'm wondering if there are any other programmers/DBA's out there that have
> lots of databases that they need to routinely monitor its file growth over
> time. I'm looking for any VB code or scripts that accomplish this.
> We have about 500 SQL Server databases on one of our servers and they
> extend daily.
> I would like to capture their size and save the data so it can be graphed
> in Excel or something to show the growth rate of each database.
> If anyone has any sample code or idea how I can do some of this -- I would
> appreciate it greatly.
>
>
|||...also sp_databases would probably do this if you don't want to split up
log and data files.
John
"John Bell" <jbellnewsposts@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eR1GFfb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> You may want to check out the code in sp_spaceused and adapt it to suit
> your purposes.
> John
> "DavidM" <spam@.spam.net> wrote in message
> news:uBE%231Bb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>
|||There are some code can be used on this web site:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/scri...butions/31.asp
I tried it, seems very nice.
Good luck
"DavidM" <spam@.spam.net> wrote in message
news:uBE%231Bb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> I'm wondering if there are any other programmers/DBA's out there that have
> lots of databases that they need to routinely monitor its file growth over
> time. I'm looking for any VB code or scripts that accomplish this.
> We have about 500 SQL Server databases on one of our servers and they
extend
> daily.
> I would like to capture their size and save the data so it can be graphed
in
> Excel or something to show the growth rate of each database.
> If anyone has any sample code or idea how I can do some of this -- I would
> appreciate it greatly.
>
>
|||If I run a query on the .sysfiles table, the size column shows 1704. Is
this in pages? How do I convert to bytes or megabytes?
"John Bell" <jbellnewsposts@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eR1GFfb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> You may want to check out the code in sp_spaceused and adapt it to suit
> your purposes.
> John
> "DavidM" <spam@.spam.net> wrote in message
> news:uBE%231Bb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>
|||> If I run a query on the .sysfiles table, the size column shows 1704. Is
> this in pages? How do I convert to bytes or megabytes?
SELECT
[Filename],
[SIZE IN KB] = size*8
FROM sysfiles
|||Thanks for the reply. I was able to find
http://www.databasejournal.com/featu...le.php/3339681 which
looks promising.
I got this to work but its a bit kludgy. Since I have a VB application that
we run daily, I'd like to incorporate the collection of stats within this
program.
Next question is, what is the best way to graph this data using Excel? Can
I have Excel read the database/table directory from SQL? If so, that is
what I want to do rather than create a .CSV file from SQL.
Opinions?
"Aaron [SQL Server MVP]" <ten.xoc@.dnartreb.noraa> wrote in message
news:OG7fWJb7EHA.1408@.TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> There are multiple ways you could do this.
> One would be a scheduled job in SQL Server, which uses either the
> undocumented sp_MSForEachDB or a cursor, loops through the databases, and
> logs the result of sp_helpfile. This can be useful if you want to leave
> out
> irrelevant databases using the where clause for the cursor or an if
> conditional.
> Another way would be a windows scheduled task that calls a VBS script,
> using
> FileSystemObject to loop through all the MDF/NDF files and logs their size
> property. This can be useful if all of your relevant databases are in a
> specific location, separate from the system databases and/or other
> databases
> you are not interested in logging.
> If you can wait a day or two, I will whip something up that should be a
> bit
> more concrete than the above... in the meantime, you could take a crack at
> it, and post here if you have specific issues.
> Let's narrow the discussion groups down though, okay?
> --
> http://www.aspfaq.com/
> (Reverse address to reply.)
>
>
> "DavidM" <spam@.spam.net> wrote in message
> news:uBE#1Bb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> extend
> in
>
|||> Next question is, what is the best way to graph this data using Excel?
Have you considered using Reporting Services?
|||or you might wish to setup a sql agent job to run at the end of each business
day to collect the information and popuate a base table
-- try the simple but useful approach below
/** the following can be quite useful **/
select instance_name,cntr_value 'Size in (Kb)' from
master..sysperfinfo(nolock)
where object_name like '%databases%'
and counter_name = 'Data File(s) size (Kb)'
and instance_name not in ('_total') -- can include total to get a server
based overview
"DavidM" wrote:
> I'm wondering if there are any other programmers/DBA's out there that have
> lots of databases that they need to routinely monitor its file growth over
> time. I'm looking for any VB code or scripts that accomplish this.
> We have about 500 SQL Server databases on one of our servers and they extend
> daily.
> I would like to capture their size and save the data so it can be graphed in
> Excel or something to show the growth rate of each database.
> If anyone has any sample code or idea how I can do some of this -- I would
> appreciate it greatly.
>
>
lots of databases that they need to routinely monitor its file growth over
time. I'm looking for any VB code or scripts that accomplish this.
We have about 500 SQL Server databases on one of our servers and they extend
daily.
I would like to capture their size and save the data so it can be graphed in
Excel or something to show the growth rate of each database.
If anyone has any sample code or idea how I can do some of this -- I would
appreciate it greatly.
There are multiple ways you could do this.
One would be a scheduled job in SQL Server, which uses either the
undocumented sp_MSForEachDB or a cursor, loops through the databases, and
logs the result of sp_helpfile. This can be useful if you want to leave out
irrelevant databases using the where clause for the cursor or an if
conditional.
Another way would be a windows scheduled task that calls a VBS script, using
FileSystemObject to loop through all the MDF/NDF files and logs their size
property. This can be useful if all of your relevant databases are in a
specific location, separate from the system databases and/or other databases
you are not interested in logging.
If you can wait a day or two, I will whip something up that should be a bit
more concrete than the above... in the meantime, you could take a crack at
it, and post here if you have specific issues.
Let's narrow the discussion groups down though, okay?
http://www.aspfaq.com/
(Reverse address to reply.)
"DavidM" <spam@.spam.net> wrote in message
news:uBE#1Bb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> I'm wondering if there are any other programmers/DBA's out there that have
> lots of databases that they need to routinely monitor its file growth over
> time. I'm looking for any VB code or scripts that accomplish this.
> We have about 500 SQL Server databases on one of our servers and they
extend
> daily.
> I would like to capture their size and save the data so it can be graphed
in
> Excel or something to show the growth rate of each database.
> If anyone has any sample code or idea how I can do some of this -- I would
> appreciate it greatly.
>
>
|||Hi
You may want to check out the code in sp_spaceused and adapt it to suit your
purposes.
John
"DavidM" <spam@.spam.net> wrote in message
news:uBE%231Bb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> I'm wondering if there are any other programmers/DBA's out there that have
> lots of databases that they need to routinely monitor its file growth over
> time. I'm looking for any VB code or scripts that accomplish this.
> We have about 500 SQL Server databases on one of our servers and they
> extend daily.
> I would like to capture their size and save the data so it can be graphed
> in Excel or something to show the growth rate of each database.
> If anyone has any sample code or idea how I can do some of this -- I would
> appreciate it greatly.
>
>
|||...also sp_databases would probably do this if you don't want to split up
log and data files.
John
"John Bell" <jbellnewsposts@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eR1GFfb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> You may want to check out the code in sp_spaceused and adapt it to suit
> your purposes.
> John
> "DavidM" <spam@.spam.net> wrote in message
> news:uBE%231Bb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>
|||There are some code can be used on this web site:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/scri...butions/31.asp
I tried it, seems very nice.
Good luck
"DavidM" <spam@.spam.net> wrote in message
news:uBE%231Bb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> I'm wondering if there are any other programmers/DBA's out there that have
> lots of databases that they need to routinely monitor its file growth over
> time. I'm looking for any VB code or scripts that accomplish this.
> We have about 500 SQL Server databases on one of our servers and they
extend
> daily.
> I would like to capture their size and save the data so it can be graphed
in
> Excel or something to show the growth rate of each database.
> If anyone has any sample code or idea how I can do some of this -- I would
> appreciate it greatly.
>
>
|||If I run a query on the .sysfiles table, the size column shows 1704. Is
this in pages? How do I convert to bytes or megabytes?
"John Bell" <jbellnewsposts@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eR1GFfb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> You may want to check out the code in sp_spaceused and adapt it to suit
> your purposes.
> John
> "DavidM" <spam@.spam.net> wrote in message
> news:uBE%231Bb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>
|||> If I run a query on the .sysfiles table, the size column shows 1704. Is
> this in pages? How do I convert to bytes or megabytes?
SELECT
[Filename],
[SIZE IN KB] = size*8
FROM sysfiles
|||Thanks for the reply. I was able to find
http://www.databasejournal.com/featu...le.php/3339681 which
looks promising.
I got this to work but its a bit kludgy. Since I have a VB application that
we run daily, I'd like to incorporate the collection of stats within this
program.
Next question is, what is the best way to graph this data using Excel? Can
I have Excel read the database/table directory from SQL? If so, that is
what I want to do rather than create a .CSV file from SQL.
Opinions?
"Aaron [SQL Server MVP]" <ten.xoc@.dnartreb.noraa> wrote in message
news:OG7fWJb7EHA.1408@.TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> There are multiple ways you could do this.
> One would be a scheduled job in SQL Server, which uses either the
> undocumented sp_MSForEachDB or a cursor, loops through the databases, and
> logs the result of sp_helpfile. This can be useful if you want to leave
> out
> irrelevant databases using the where clause for the cursor or an if
> conditional.
> Another way would be a windows scheduled task that calls a VBS script,
> using
> FileSystemObject to loop through all the MDF/NDF files and logs their size
> property. This can be useful if all of your relevant databases are in a
> specific location, separate from the system databases and/or other
> databases
> you are not interested in logging.
> If you can wait a day or two, I will whip something up that should be a
> bit
> more concrete than the above... in the meantime, you could take a crack at
> it, and post here if you have specific issues.
> Let's narrow the discussion groups down though, okay?
> --
> http://www.aspfaq.com/
> (Reverse address to reply.)
>
>
> "DavidM" <spam@.spam.net> wrote in message
> news:uBE#1Bb7EHA.2804@.TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> extend
> in
>
|||> Next question is, what is the best way to graph this data using Excel?
Have you considered using Reporting Services?
|||or you might wish to setup a sql agent job to run at the end of each business
day to collect the information and popuate a base table
-- try the simple but useful approach below
/** the following can be quite useful **/
select instance_name,cntr_value 'Size in (Kb)' from
master..sysperfinfo(nolock)
where object_name like '%databases%'
and counter_name = 'Data File(s) size (Kb)'
and instance_name not in ('_total') -- can include total to get a server
based overview
"DavidM" wrote:
> I'm wondering if there are any other programmers/DBA's out there that have
> lots of databases that they need to routinely monitor its file growth over
> time. I'm looking for any VB code or scripts that accomplish this.
> We have about 500 SQL Server databases on one of our servers and they extend
> daily.
> I would like to capture their size and save the data so it can be graphed in
> Excel or something to show the growth rate of each database.
> If anyone has any sample code or idea how I can do some of this -- I would
> appreciate it greatly.
>
>
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