What do checklists, recipes or algorithms have to do with Database Administration? A lot… If we study a few career paths we can see how a checklist or process flow makes their lives easier. I love stealing ideas from everyday life, working them into something useful for my DBA career and I think we have … Read more
As a SQL Server DBA, where do I start? So you are a new DBA. Maybe you are someplace that hasn’t had a DBA, maybe you are someplace that didn’t have a great DBA. Requests are piling up, your head is spinning with the instances you are discovering and people are getting excited that there … Read more
Find All SQL Server Instances On Your Network! It’s been awhile since a tool has given me that giddy, starstruck feeling but it’s happened this week… If you ever struggle with instance discovery and management, I hope you get excited and try this tool out as well. Bear with me as I walk through it. … Read more
When I posted about Empirical Evidence and finding a Troubleshooting Methodology, I talked about implementing a solution just because it seemed to work. This can manifest itself in different ways. Some are alright and harmless (what your shotgun hit happened to be the right fix) and some can be dangerous and hide the real problem. … Read more
I just got back from a New England SQL Server Users Group meeting. Andy Leonard (twitter: @AndyLeonard, blog) gave a great presentation on Change Data Capture and SSIS 2008. At the beginning of this week, I posted about things I wish I knew when I started. I tagged a couple people asking them the question … Read more
When I wrote about empirical evidence and learning through trying (instead of asking only), I got thinking about things I wish I knew when I was a Junior DBA that I know now. Rather than just keep those thoughts to myself, I figured I would write about them here and tag a couple folks to … Read more
When I started blogging, my first posts were on shrinking. That’s still a popular search. Why?